Aftermath
I picked up a number of interesting games: Kult, from Europe, is a RP game of dark horror, suited for reproducing any number of physical or psychological horror situations: I think it would make an interesting setting for a campaign based on the Friday the 13th TV series. On the lighter side is Pandemonium, the RP game of supermarket tabloids. I also had to replace my copy of Over the Edge, having given my original copy to a friend as a Christmas gift last year.
Not yet available in quantity was a card game named Once Upon a Time, published by Atlas Games in Britain, a fairy tale card game where everyone has a hand of standard fairy tale cliches and occurrences (like “castle” or “princess” or “wish”) and a secret card describing a classic fairy tale ending. The game is played out by someone telling a story while playing cards that appear in the story; “There once was a princess (Princess) who lived in a castle (Castle)…” Any other player can break in and play their own cards and take over the storyline at any time; “who loved a handsome prince (Prince) from a far-away land.” To win you have to play the last card of your hand and the secret ending card in such a way that makes sense. It looks like a lot of fun; I hope to get a copy soon. The printer had defaulted on the contract and only used 18-pound weight cardboard when they were supposed to use 32-pound weight for the box; the resulting box is very flimsy, and Atlas is using a new publisher.
Not quite a game, but certainly helpful in Champions, is the Heromaker software; this computerizes the Hero character creation, reducing the need to keep track of points and powers. It does have a (very) few bugs and limitations, which may be fixed in the further releases, but the result is very striking: I would have like to have used it to create the characters for my event this year, and certainly will for next year.
The game with the biggest expectant audience was Mage: The Ascension, from White Wolf. It looks very interesting, with its differing schools of Mages and its tenuous ties back to Ars Magica, and it does appear to fit in to the Vampire/Werewolf universe; it is very interesting to see their side of the issues and see how they interact with the other creatures of the night: it helps to remember that people see themselves quite differently than their opponents. It doesn’t have the doom and gloom of Vampire or Werewolf, but it does have its own dangers and joys; its a (relatively) brighter world, one that I wouldn’t mind playing in.
I did have some small complaints about GenCon this year. For one, moving events across the street to the auditorium and arena meant spending time searching for them. The program book included a map with locations, but it was difficult if not impossible to find in the beginning of the book. TSR, next year put the maps in the center of the program book please?
The Japanese animation was welcome, but the location on the walkway over the street was atrocious. Isn’t there sufficient rooms to find them a place of their own?
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