Ozymandias Games at EggCon III
Blog post description.
7/22/20263 min read
Hi everyone,
Sorry for the long hiatus. My day job is especially busy this summer, but things are going really well for the library! I just got back from EggCon, and I’ll share all the fun I had there as well as give an update on The Last Voyage of the Charon.
Overall, EggCon was immensely awesome. It’s always great to go to conventions in Wisconsin and see old friends you’ve met in the years prior and make new ones. I got to network with some very talented people in the industry, which is always nice. This definitely seems like a good time for independent game designers, and connecting with up-and-coming creators is a great way to not only know who’s out there, but to get inspiration from fellow creative folks!
I played in two excellent games: Daggerheart: Beast Feast Tournament and SuperDark! Both tables had enthusiastic players and had great DMs.
The Daggerheart game was my first experience with that system, and I had an absolute blast. The back-and-forth between the players and DM gave a sense of ownership to the game, and made the individual rolls feel significant, as a Fear roll (a higher roll on one of two dice) gave the DM the ability to throw in complications to the story, and a Hope roll (a higher roll on the other dice) gave players the ability to activate their powers and get out of dangerous situations. I played a rogue who was also the tavern chef, and it was refreshing to play that character archetype without falling into the typical “raised on the street” type of backstory, and I got to turn some monsters into delicious food à la Delicious in Dungeon.
SuperDark was absolutely unhinged in the best way: we played ultra-violent superheroes in a world that, frankly, would probably be better off if we weren’t helping! I played Gunshow (yes, I used the obvious catchphrase), a gunfighting superhero whose growled dialogue was heavily inspired by action movies, and never missed an opportunity to reload his gun unnecessarily. Let’s just say we were technically successful at beating the bad guys, and we weren’t exactly careful about who got caught in the crossfire.
I had a great playtest of Charon, and got some valuable feedback from the players. I feel like the manuscript is pretty solid, barring a few (well, let’s be honest, several) grammatical errors. Every time I playtest it, I learn a little bit more about what the players respond to, what they’re most excited about and interested in, and what ultimately needs to be cut from the manuscript.
Overall, having a solid map to go off for the adventure helped quite a bit, as well as keeping the number of rooms aboard the Charon to a minimum. Almost the entire adventure takes place aboard the doomed ship Charon, so in a way, it’s the “dungeon” that the players explore. The hints and clues as to what happened to the ship were of great interest to the players, but it’s kind of neat that none of the groups were able to fully explore the ship. I initially overwrote the adventure and included way too many places for the players to explore, but it’s okay that they didn’t get to see everything: it means there’s an element of replayability, and I feel like even parties that got totally different clues were still able to piece together the plot.
I also gave my first charitable donation to the E. Gary Gygax Memorial Scholarship: a large blanket with the iconic D&D Red Box cover art, originally painted by Larry Elmore! It earned $140 for the auction, so not bad at all. That will definitely be something I contribute to next year, and it’s exciting to see how high the prices go for some of the items. Maybe next year I’ll save up enough to actually buy something!
So overall, Egg Con was a great time. I’m looking forward to my next convention this weekend: Con of the Lakes!
- Tanner