Got my three events in for UBCon XXI. One Lost, one Buffy, one Chez Geek.

In other gaming news, Scion is ever so much fun - my character got to kill a Cyclops last session! Woo-hoo!

I have a new player for my Buffy game - a fellow who's played in (and apparently really enjoyed) my previous BtVS games at con. His character worked out well, and we all seemed to really hit it off, so that's good.

Session summaries for both games have been posted - go me.

Off to feed kitties and then feed me and the hubby....

...to tarbis!

ICON is returning to SUNY Stony Brook for ICON 29!

*hopes to see ramius_rathorne, taithbedwenwyn and the Nauga March 26-28, 2010!*

So, character creation for my & lostsatyr's Scion game is tomorrow.

I spent most of the afternoon putting together handouts and printing them out. Lots of system and character creation stuff. I love my PDFs from DriveThruRPG. :)

I'm actually eager to see what our players come up with...this should be fun.

...to lostsatyr and blackgryphon!

Decided on the way home from Maryland Faire that the WitchCraft game was just not working for me. Maybe it was a result of me getting sick when it started (stupid middle ear infection), or not being into the strictly "mission-based" (as opposed to "personal-based") adventure thing, but in any case, I decided to shelve it.

In its place, lostsatyr and I are going to be running Scion. I have a good feeling about this game - I'm more excited about it than the previous one, and we have a good (and larger) group of players. And I have a number of fun-to-play, readily-available supporting characters (both allies and enemies), which is always a plus for me (and something I think was missing from the WitchCraft game). The players seem to be excited about this game, too, which is all to the good.

Also working on a (short) Buffy the Vampire Slayer game for the evening session. Last night, I got the story arc plotted out. So now all I have to do is expand those synopses as need be, and I'm set. A good feeling.

So, things are looking up....

I'm going to the Maryland Renn Faire this weekend!

Will catch up on Ell-Jay after I get back.

How about the other attendees acting in a mature fashion?

( Long post about stupid people cut for your convenience )

...to spirehouse!

Hope it's great!

...to delayra! Hope it's a great one!

I had a lot of fun, even when you factor in the extremely hot and muggy drive down, lostsatyr getting us lost on the way to the hotel, and the bellowing jerk right behind us in the line to get badges. Come to think of it, that all happened before the con, so I guess I had even more fun at the con itself. =)

I went to a number of interesting panels, including some on Japanese history and culture. I was only vaguely acquainted with some of the subject material before (like the Shinsengumi), but noiw I know quite a bit more. Kudos should go to the people who did those panels - they were very good and knowledgeable.

The "Beyond D & D" panel that the hubby and I went to was wonderful - the two fellows giving it knew their stuff, and were funny as well. I really liked the visuals - they even had some scenes from the Bayeaux (sp?) Tapestry to illustrate player versus NPC, player versus GM, and player versus player conflicts. Very clever.

On the other hand, the "Using Anime With Your Games" workshop was a big disappointment. When people make a special effort to get to the con early to see your workshop, the least you can do is start ON TIME, instead of spending almost twenty minutes lollygagging and chitchatting with one of the attendees while you frelling ignore everyone else. After twenty minutes of that rubbish, I slipped out and went to a panel on "The Evolution of Anime" which was far more interesting - even when you consider that it got cut off by the fire alarm. :)

I also picked up some very cool stuff in the dealers' room and artists alley (like that surprises anyone). I came home with the box set of Basilisk (Romeo & Juliet with ninja and a heaping helping of action); the first box set of Romeo x Juliet (a re-imagining of Romeo & Juliet with Juliet as a Scarlet Pimpernel figure called the Red Cyclone); Iczer Reborn (female super-android and schoolgirl fight Lovecraft-esque aliens); some lovely prints and buttons from the artists alley; and a My HiME artbook (I went a little over budget for that one, but I couldn't resist). I also got some artwork commissioned - it should arrive in a few weeks, if the artists' estimates are correct.

As always, there were some wonderful cosplays - photos are coming, as soon as I download them off the camera.

All in all, a very good con - I'm looking forward to next year!

And so another Otakon comes to an end.

I had a wonderful time, by and large - I went to a number of interesting panels, saw lots of cool things (pictures to come when I get them off the camera), and picked up some nice loot. :)

Tomorrow, lostsatyr and I return home.

I'm kind of sorry it's over....

At the library, taking advantage of the free wireless and my netbook.

lostsatyr and I are getting ready to head to Baltimore for Otakon 16 this weekend. I can hardly wait, because I had so much fun last year and found so many nice things to bring home! And this year, lostsatyr is going to cosplay, too! Must remember to get pics of both of us in our Persona 4 get-ups.

Summer is going by way too fast. I'd also like some warmer weather here - thunderstorms and highs in the low 70s? Bleah.

We've been watching an anime called Now and Then, Here and There - rather gloomy and depressing; I'm glad it's over with.

Made tables for figuring out Life & Endurance points in CJ Carella's WitchCraft - that should help even the most arithmetically challenged players. :)

Work on the hypothetical Scion tabletop game is proceeding slowly, but it is proceeding. Go us. We've got the skeleton of a metaplot and the basic idea for a first adventure. We'll let people know when we're ready to go ahead with it.

Reading some of the newer collections of Wonder Woman here at the library makes me nostalgic for the George Perez era of the late eighties and early nineties. The new take on Diana (agent for the Department of Metahuman Affairs? Sounds far too like the seasons of the old WW TV show set in the 1970s to me) isn't really my amphora of Themysciran wine. I think I'll stick to the earlier stuff.

*looks at battery gauge* Whoops, time to shut down....

Inspired by innocent_man's postings over in wod_changeling....

I post the stories of what goes on in my regular tabletop game over in greengamersglen. Just follow the "session summaries" tag when you get there.

Right now, I have summaries for all of the sessions of my Werewolf: The Apocalypse game (which ran from February 2007 until March 2009), and I've started posting ones for my CJ Carella's WitchCraft game (which began in May 2009).

Because they will not leave my brain, I started talking about some of my ideas for a Scion cycle with lostsatyr sometime last week.

We'd been going back and forth on ideas for a while now, but none of them really "clicked."

Yesterday, though, we came up with a location that both of us are happy with, and that can be used for the plot we had planned with an earlier setting (which was just not really "singing" for us).

We've got the skeleton of the metaplot, a location and some NPCs. And right now, that's it.

A caveat - it'll probably be quite some time before this is ready for public consumption. When it is, we'll let people know.

Why do I always get ideas for a new game when I'm already running something else?

Last night, I completed Arcade Mode in Soulcalibur IV.

I can't believe I actually beat The Apprentice!

Woohoo!

lostsatyr picked up Soulcalibur IV for the Xbox 360 (after we played through the demo a while back), and I thoroughly love it.

I've made up a couple custom characters (creating them was great fun in itself - sort of like playing with paper dolls when I was little, but with weapons and armor). Right now I have three females ones - one with Seong Mi-Na's style (the halberd), one with Hilde's (the lance and sword), and one with Ivy's (because I love the visual of the snake sword). I've also made up a male character with the Zweihander (Siegfried style) and one with the rapier (a'la Raphael).

I'm quite good with the rapier style, it seems - I beat lostsatyr a number of times in our custom character-versus-custom character bouts. It's fun to have something where I (the console novice) can be on equal footing with the hubby, who's a long-time console game player. And the story mode in SC 4 is exciting without being frustrating (the Naruto fighters I have for the Wii fall a little too much into that category).

I like this game a whole lot - I think I'll get quite a lot of play out of it, both by myself and with the hubby. Now we have another thing to share! :)

...I'm already thinking about what to run next year.

I've got the bare bones of a plot for a Lost adventure. I'm also adding a few new pregenerated characters to the stable, both to keep things fresh and so that people will have more of a choice if the event fills up (given the popularity of Lost in these parts, that seems likely).

While I love Werewolf, I think I'm going to give DA: Werewolf a rest for a year or three. I've got an idea for a Buffy the Vampire Slayer adventure (and for some new pre-gens to add to the ones I already have), though, so I think I'll run with that.

And then there's always my Chez Geek event on Sunday....:)