July 2023 Newsletter
The Past
It already feels like a lifetime ago that we ran Gods of the Ancient World in Louisville. In fact, when I was starting to write this newsletter, I’d forgotten that I hadn’t mentioned the run in an email previously - so much has happened!
The game went really well. I was really pleased with the way it turned out. Post-game survey was very positive. There will always be a couple of players for whom megagames are not their cup-of-tea. As this was the first run of the game, I specifically asked for feedback on rules changes for the future, and boy did the players deliver. I also hosted a couple of post-game discord chats with the control team to get their feedback and when all was said and done, I ended up with a giant list of about 70 things I wanted to change. And then I spent the next couple of weeks rewriting rules, rebalancing and creating new components to meet the demands of the game. Speaking of the demands of the game, now that I’ve run it, it was very ambitious. Good ambitious, but still a lot.
If you’re interested in learning more about how the event went, I’ve written about it on my blog as an “After-Action-Report” which you can find here.
And that is supplemented by a bunch of pictures which you can find here.
The Present
Now I’m in full-on Gencon mode. I’ve been working with the Megagame Coalition to organize our megagame presence at Gencon. It’s a different animal compared with local, non-con events. I think I’ve talked about the differences before so I wont go into that here. Suffice to say a lot of the details are out of my hands and the control freak in me has to relinquish control sometimes.
Housing is an element of Gencon planning that is very different from anything else. We have to coordinate ~40 volunteers and half of them want help with housing. In fact, we offer the organization of housing as a perk for helping us run along with financial assistance with accommodation costs. Luckily I get to work with a great team on the MGC council who have done this before. But there’s still a lot to think through as Gencon changes its policies all the time.
As far as my games are concerned, I’ve been doing the usual pre-game stuff like sending out players preferences survey and using that information to assign players to roles. The most annoying part of this process is that Gencon didn’t let me contact my players until 3 weeks before it begins. And I don’t get to contact player individually either. This leads to random emails from players who are concerned when we’re not communicating with them and want details on the game and want to make sure they’re going to play with their friends. It is what it is.
If you are going to be at Gencon I would love for you to say hello. All the MGC megagames are being run in the Hyatt Regency 2: B-D so there will be megagame people there for 5 days. I’ll personally be there for a while on Wednesday evening, Thursday morning (for Gods of the Ancient World), Saturday afternoon (for Deephaven) and Sunday morning (for Den of Wolves), so swing by and say hey.
The Future
I’ve got some feelers out for other games we’re going to run in the future. There’s a chance we’ll run at a local con here in Louisville later this year. And another chance we’ll expand to other cities next year too. Some of my regulars are from Michigan and so I might get up there and run Den of Wolves for them next year. Who knows?
If you want me to run in your city and are within a reasonable drive from Louisville (<6 hours), I’d be happy to talk logistics through with you. My barriers are location and marketing but if you can help me with that, it makes it MUCH more likely I’ll come to your city.
In design news, I’ve already started designing my next game. I’m calling it a Mega-RPG rather than a “traditional” megagame because it doesn’t fit some of the megagame boxes. Its working title is “The Blackwater Curse” and it’s going to be a Lovecraftian-inspired mystery paying homage to the roll playing game Call of Cthulhu. It’s an interesting design challenge. I’ve already ran 1 playtest that didn’t go so well so I’m having another rethink before I put pen to paper again. My current plan is to run it locally here in Louisville next spring as my first game of the year and then run it again at next years Gencon but it’s still early days so anything can change.
Later on in the year also, my gaming group is having our annual retreat where we rent a cabin and play for 3 days straight, consuming lots of food and alcohol. That’s always a good chance to unwind and get to see some new games and ideas for future megagames.
That’s about it for this months newsletter. As always, stay safe out there and don’t let the bugger bite you (very obscure reference, mega-bonus points if you get it).
Tony