Hey Man, well this is Babylon

This past Gamestorm, Jake Richmond and I won second place in a design contest. The contest was a “Junk Drawer Design War” – the organizer brought six identical bins filled with identical parts, most of which were salvaged from other board games. Each team of contestants had an hour (or two? i don’t remember) to create a game based on some or all of the included parts. Teams could trade with other teams for more parts.

Our game was called Laser Mummies.

The following rules are those we came up with on the fly during the design contest. So, without Further ado… Read more

I’m running three games at this weekend’s Gamestorm convention. If you’re interested in signing up, click here.

(cue the slow bass drum and Mr. movie Guy)
Wisconsin. 2009. Early Summer…

A boy who struggles to quell his inner sins and reach a more glorious light…

A girl who bears his child, born from a love that can never be…

An athlete who cannot deny the truth of his Self…

An outcast who torments herself as punishment for not fitting in…

A boy whose imagination would be his greatest undoing…

A martyr who would defy the world and stand up for her beliefs – and her love of another…

The chaos of fate threw these teenagers together, to claw their way out of The Jesus Camp Massacre.

This past Gamestorm (GS11) was host to many wonderful moments of gaming, and I am proud and delighted to say that one particular game rises above all others of my recent memory in sheer awesomeness. That session was the Jesus Camp Massacre, a demo game I ran of Cannibal Contagion.

This post has taken me a long time to get up for a variety of reasons, one of which is that I keep coming back and re-editing and re-writing it. It has to be perfect – the session was just that awesome. So now, several months later, I’ve decided to re-write it one last time, and come hell or high water I will be posting this AP review today. I’ll warn you all now: This review will likely offend some people. Read at your own risk. Read more

One of the most unexpected joys of this past GameStorm was a pick-up game of Quad on Saturday night. Started initially as a way to pass the time while waiting for rides home, this game turned out to be one of the several comically hilarious moments of the con.

It all got started after the fabulous-amazing Jesus Camp Massacre session of Cannibal Contagion. After leaving the scheduled gaming room, I ran into Nick and Gilbert, and we all three had about an hour to kill. I blurted out “let’s play Quad” without thinking, and a few moments later we had started on in. After a few minutes of deliberation over what number-generator to use – for some reason they were both hardcore against using dice right then – we settled on a deck of cards. The built-in random scenario generator quickly laid out the basics:

• Setting: Ancient Earth (we decided Egypt)
• Location: An Institution (we decided a Temple of Training)
• What starts it all off: A natural disaster (we decided on an Earthquake) kills all the priests in the temple leaving only two survivors

The characters were created quickly enough, each being only a small list of good and bad Merits. One was a fairly inept acolyte conman, the other was a Pariah being beaten for the crimes of heaven or some such. I like to call them Harold and Kumar, as their dynamic was equally hilarious.

Once the core scenario’s conflict was established and the characters introduced, we quickly went to town. Nick and Gilbert were both experienced story-gamers, and thus took to the game’s mechanical concepts quickly. Within a few minutes, the mechanics were in play and more conflicts were introduced. I think for the purposes of the Pick-Up style of game play, the simple mechanics worked very well to move the game quickly along.

The temple guards took both the characters into protective custody, and one of them quickly managed to convince the guards that he was the Chosen One and the other character was his faithful Companion. A series of Sacred Rites of Testing were then undergone, which included eating (and stomaching) terrible foods, surfing the back of alligators while blindfolded, an epic game of Madden BC-199, and more. My favorite of the trials was definitely the game of Five-Card Draw, played with giant stone slab cards carried on the backs of teams of slaves. Each time a card was discarded, the stone was smashed to bits and the slaves carrying it were thrown to the crocodiles.

And there was much death by crocodile in this game. From Nick’s character’s lost arm to the gobs of sacred virgins they fed to them post-coitus, the crocodiles played an unexpectedly crucial part in the session. In fact, at the very end, when Gilbert’s character castrated himself to prove that he was in fact the REAL Chosen One (claiming the title by default, as he prevented Nick from winning), he was then fed to the crocodiles to appease the angry gods.

Within the span of an hour, we had run a pretty damn awesome game session, consisting of at least a dozen hilarious conflicts and a large handful of scenes. For me, the hardest part was actually coming up with the Seven Sacred Rites, but once the game started moving along, those came pretty easily too.

All in all, a damn fantastic session, one which all three of us have laughed about many times since.

Now that I’ve had more time to reflect on the past weekend, I’ve made a short list of regrets from the convention.

First off, I forgot to pick up several things that I wanted: the Yeld whitebook, the Crossroads 2nd edition whitebook, the Spectre of the Beast document, and Dine n Dash.

Second, I didn’t actually get to play anything at all. I ran four games, but was a player in none. I think next year I’ll split my time more evenly. I really badly look forward to this Friday Night’s game, so I can roll some dice and take some names, ryargh!

Finally, I didn’t get to shake Jonathan Tweet’s hand and thank him for creating the wonderful game that is Everway. Ah well, maybe next time!

That’s it, really. It really was an otherwise fabulous weekend.

WOW IT’S OVER. *sleeeeeeeeeeep*

Okay, now that that’s done with, I’m here to talk about GameStorm 2009, and how it was awesome. I spent the entire recently-past weekend at this local game con – some call it “Portland’s Best Game Con in Vancouver.” This was my third year in a row going, and my first year actually attending for the majority of the weekend.

My initial forecast at the beginning of the weekend: “I’m going to be fucking tired of gaming by the end of Saturday night.” I am plum-tuckered thrilled to state that I was absolutely, horribly wrong in that prediction. When it was all over, I wanted to game even more than I already had. The weekend was fabulous, in every way. I met great folks, played great games, and have some gaming memories to last a lifetime.

Rather than go step-by-step walking through the events of the weekend, I decided that this time, I’d make it a visual piece, a detailed collage of swag and memories.

click for a bigger image

Read more

In less than one week’s time, I’ll be debuting three new scenarios for Cannibal Contagion at the local GameStorm convention. If you’ve been looking to try it out for yourself, then sign up for the con and register for one of the seats at the table. Each session is slated for a maximum of seven player slots, and some of them are filling up quickly. Current status of the games:




Name: Cannibal Contagion: the Unitologist Gambit
Time: Fri 5 PM to 9 PM
Description: This session: A game of horror, madness, and violent survival on a distant space mining colony. This game is based on the dark futuristic setting of the recent hit video game “Dead Space.” Familiarity with the franchise might be useful, but is not at all necessary, and there will be no spoilers of the events of the actual video game.
Status: 4 Slots left to be filled




Name: Cannibal Contagion: Occupant Necrodanger
Time: Sat 12 PM to 4 PM
Description: The sinister Parasol Collective has developed a new virus, codenamed “The Z-Contagion,” and they’ve decided to use the remote Possum Town as their first major testing experiment. Your characters are stylish-yet-clueless members of the local R.A.T.S (Rural Assault Team-Squad) Special Forces country militia unit, and must find a way to stop the contagion from destroying your way of life… and taking your jobs!
Status: 6 slots left to be filled




Name: Cannibal Contagion: The Jesus Camp Massacre
Time: Sat 6 PM to 10 PM
Description: It’s summertime, and you’re a plucky teenager who just wants to raise a ruckus and party on until the next school sessions begin. However, this summer, you just don’t get to. Your parents sent you away to Youthpastor Cody’s Righteous-Awesome XTREEM Revival Camp. Now instead of partying, your only hope is just to survive the weekend with your sanity intact!
Status: Only 1 slot left to be filled!

As some of you may know, coming up next March (the 26th through the 29th) is Gamestorm 11, AKA “Portland’s Premier Gaming Convention in Vancouver.” I’ll be there running games, and I believe I’m even getting a special guest badge. Sweet! Anyway, after some initial consideration, I’ve put together the very first tentative schedule of the games I’ll be running:

“[Indie Hurricane] Cannibal Contagion: The Unitologist Gambit”
What: A game of horror, madness, and violent survival. This game is based on the dark futuristic setting of the recent hit video game “Dead Space.” Familiarity with the franchise might be useful, but is not at all necessary, and there will be no spoilers of the events of the actual video game.
When: Friday Evening (6-ish?)

“Fallout: T Minus Ten…”
What: An action-packed romp through the setting of the Fallout games, using the Savage Worlds rules for Fast, Furious Fun.
When: Saturday Afternoon (noon-ish?)

“[Indie Hurricane] Cannibal Contagion: The Jesus Camp Massacre”
What: Your parents sent you away to Youthpastor Cody’s Righteous-Awesome Revival Camp. Now you just have to survive the weekend…
When: Saturday Evening (6-ish?)

“[Indie Hurricane] Classroom Deathmatch”
What: Classroom Deathmatch, by the book.
When: Sunday Evening (6-ish?)

I’ll likely spend most of the rest of the time chilling out at the Indie Hurricane booth, pimping a variety of awesome games to passers-by. Maybe I’ll have some one-buck prints of QUAD and a few ashcans of Cannibal Contagion as well. I’d also be up for facilitating a Cold City game some time if there’s interest, but I don’t plan on scheduling one officially. But who knows – I’m currently starting to read a very much Cold City-inspirational book by Tim Powers, so by the time I’m finished with it I will quite likely be all “OMG I HAVE THE BEST IDEA EVAR” and sign up for another slot.