Origins : Day Three
Jul. 8th, 2008 09:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
candidgameraFriday. Mercifully, Friday was a little more loose.
My first event was at 9AM - Sherlock Holmes Beginner Mystery. It's one of a series of 'competitive fiction' games, by a guy named Engle. They're called 'Engle Matrix' games. The premise was fairly simple - the players take on the roles of Holmes and the suspects, and take turns making 'arguments'. An argument can introduce new facts about the crimes, and the arguing player then picks another player to act as a judge, who assigns the argument a plausibility rating - then the arguer makes a roll to see if it actually happened. In that way, the players construct a murder mystery. That event was a mere hour in length, but fairly fun.
I had free time from 10AM to 1PM, and it was then that I did the bulk of my shopping in the exhibit hall. I make a habit of making sure to look at each and every vendor booth in the hall - lots of RPGs for sale, as well as board games, dice, collectible cards, t-shirts, anime and anime related items, replica weapons, chainmail and leather armor .. lots of stuff. Just about everything that could possibly appeal to gaming nerds. My major purchases this year weren't too huge - I purchased the Campaign Cartographer software suite, for mapmaking, and Bendy Dungeon Walls, which are a fantastic little plastic set of interlocking wall-tiles for use with miniatures. I also picked up a few sundries here and there - and I always buy a t-shirt at Origins. It's tradition! (Tradition!)
All Fiddling aside, my next event was from 1PM to 5PM - The Tick vs. Miss Goosey's Day Care Center. The game used the d6 Adventure System by West End Games (familiar to Star Wars RPG aficionados) and was based on the animated incarnation of the Tick. It was probably the best fun I had the entire convention. Players picked from amongst : The Tick, Arthur, Die Fledermaus, American Maid, Sewer Urchin, and the Caped Chameleon. I ended up with my second choice, (after Die Fledermaus) the Tick. The scenario was, in fact, three smaller scenarios - each opening with the Tick and Arthur on patrol, and closing with one of the Tick's rambling rants that I had to spontaneously invent.
The first scenario was 'The Tick Versus Lot 1-X457', where the heroes took on a gigantic mutant earthworm that had escaped from a gourmet worm farm. (Quoth me, as the Tick : 'This worm has taken a sinister turn!')
The second was the titular scenario, pitting The Tick and Friends against Miss Goosey and her villainous allies. (Quoth me, as the Tick, from the ending rant : 'Proust wrote about man's existential journey through life, Arthur, and it's really hard to understand, even with the little pop-up pictures. But when people are throwing babies, you gotta make sure not to throw out the bathwater too! Or maybe that's supposed to be the other way around.')
I believe the last was entitled 'The Tick vs. Henchman', wherein Charles steals Die Fledermaus's brain and plants it in a giant robot, menacing the city, while the Tick and Arthur are stuck trying to help the City's villainous sidekicks to negotiate better deals with their villainous masters. (Quoth me, as the Tick, from the ending rant : 'When evil negotiates with evil, that's a win-win situation for evil. And that's no good.')
I can barely put into words how much fun it was. The players were great about getting into character, and Sewer Urchin and I were even doing the voices. It honestly felt like living three episodes of the Tick. A++, would play again.
My final event of the day ran from 7PM-11PM, entitled Power Corps : Grand Rapids. This was a Champions scenario about a group of office workers - slash - superheroes charged with protecting Grand Rapids, Michigan. If not for the superlative Tick scenario preceding, it would be in contention for favorite session of the convention. Basically, the characters were based on The Office. I'm not a regular watcher of the show, but the humor of the banality of office life came through loud and clear.
The capper of the evening was our battle with 'The Hate Staff', a bunch of former restaurant employees who'd sold their souls to the devil for super-powers. Each of them had a theme based on a restaurant. Super-Size, for instance, used to work at McDonald's, and was the team's brick. There was TGI McApplegan, Sizzler, and of course - their martial artist - Night Owl. She wears a white shirt and orange shorts. You figure it out. The restaurant puns flowed freely in the banter that ensued.
My first event was at 9AM - Sherlock Holmes Beginner Mystery. It's one of a series of 'competitive fiction' games, by a guy named Engle. They're called 'Engle Matrix' games. The premise was fairly simple - the players take on the roles of Holmes and the suspects, and take turns making 'arguments'. An argument can introduce new facts about the crimes, and the arguing player then picks another player to act as a judge, who assigns the argument a plausibility rating - then the arguer makes a roll to see if it actually happened. In that way, the players construct a murder mystery. That event was a mere hour in length, but fairly fun.
I had free time from 10AM to 1PM, and it was then that I did the bulk of my shopping in the exhibit hall. I make a habit of making sure to look at each and every vendor booth in the hall - lots of RPGs for sale, as well as board games, dice, collectible cards, t-shirts, anime and anime related items, replica weapons, chainmail and leather armor .. lots of stuff. Just about everything that could possibly appeal to gaming nerds. My major purchases this year weren't too huge - I purchased the Campaign Cartographer software suite, for mapmaking, and Bendy Dungeon Walls, which are a fantastic little plastic set of interlocking wall-tiles for use with miniatures. I also picked up a few sundries here and there - and I always buy a t-shirt at Origins. It's tradition! (Tradition!)
All Fiddling aside, my next event was from 1PM to 5PM - The Tick vs. Miss Goosey's Day Care Center. The game used the d6 Adventure System by West End Games (familiar to Star Wars RPG aficionados) and was based on the animated incarnation of the Tick. It was probably the best fun I had the entire convention. Players picked from amongst : The Tick, Arthur, Die Fledermaus, American Maid, Sewer Urchin, and the Caped Chameleon. I ended up with my second choice, (after Die Fledermaus) the Tick. The scenario was, in fact, three smaller scenarios - each opening with the Tick and Arthur on patrol, and closing with one of the Tick's rambling rants that I had to spontaneously invent.
The first scenario was 'The Tick Versus Lot 1-X457', where the heroes took on a gigantic mutant earthworm that had escaped from a gourmet worm farm. (Quoth me, as the Tick : 'This worm has taken a sinister turn!')
The second was the titular scenario, pitting The Tick and Friends against Miss Goosey and her villainous allies. (Quoth me, as the Tick, from the ending rant : 'Proust wrote about man's existential journey through life, Arthur, and it's really hard to understand, even with the little pop-up pictures. But when people are throwing babies, you gotta make sure not to throw out the bathwater too! Or maybe that's supposed to be the other way around.')
I believe the last was entitled 'The Tick vs. Henchman', wherein Charles steals Die Fledermaus's brain and plants it in a giant robot, menacing the city, while the Tick and Arthur are stuck trying to help the City's villainous sidekicks to negotiate better deals with their villainous masters. (Quoth me, as the Tick, from the ending rant : 'When evil negotiates with evil, that's a win-win situation for evil. And that's no good.')
I can barely put into words how much fun it was. The players were great about getting into character, and Sewer Urchin and I were even doing the voices. It honestly felt like living three episodes of the Tick. A++, would play again.
My final event of the day ran from 7PM-11PM, entitled Power Corps : Grand Rapids. This was a Champions scenario about a group of office workers - slash - superheroes charged with protecting Grand Rapids, Michigan. If not for the superlative Tick scenario preceding, it would be in contention for favorite session of the convention. Basically, the characters were based on The Office. I'm not a regular watcher of the show, but the humor of the banality of office life came through loud and clear.
The capper of the evening was our battle with 'The Hate Staff', a bunch of former restaurant employees who'd sold their souls to the devil for super-powers. Each of them had a theme based on a restaurant. Super-Size, for instance, used to work at McDonald's, and was the team's brick. There was TGI McApplegan, Sizzler, and of course - their martial artist - Night Owl. She wears a white shirt and orange shorts. You figure it out. The restaurant puns flowed freely in the banter that ensued.
