con jobbing
May. 5th, 2026 09:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grinninfooleFor the final weekend of April, I went to Rising Phoenix gaming con in Milford MA. I signed up a bit late, so I didn't get into all the stuff that caught my eye, and I didn't go there until Friday night after Civil Politics (thus missing the first two days of gaming), but I still had a good time.
I let NK stay in my room with me, since JEL and TJ from our little gaming group were also there. JEL has been getting chemo, so she's feeling poorly, but happily it seems to be working very well for her.
I slept in and caught Pokeys all afternoon, so I played in a pleasant but forgettable supers game on Saturday, and then I finally got to try Numenera, because TJ knew the GM and got him to add a seat for me. I don't know if the game is meant to be hilarious and campy, or if that was just this GM's vibe, but it certainly worked perfectly for it to have a kind of Thundarr The Barbarian vibe.
The mechanics worked well: roll to see if you can do what you want. GM sets a Difficulty, and you have to roll three times that number with a d20. If you Exert yourself, you can spend points from one of your three abilities to then drop the difficulty by 1 (thus making it three easier). There's ways to get your points back, leveling up lets you reduce costs, XP can also be spent on re-rolls, and there are always Cyphers–weird one-use gadgets from bygone eras with crazy random powers–that can really mix things up. It was great fun, and worth the price of admission.
I also enjoyed really getting to chat with NK, who I have known for years, but never had long term talks with Mano a Mano. She's a good egg.
I let NK stay in my room with me, since JEL and TJ from our little gaming group were also there. JEL has been getting chemo, so she's feeling poorly, but happily it seems to be working very well for her.
I slept in and caught Pokeys all afternoon, so I played in a pleasant but forgettable supers game on Saturday, and then I finally got to try Numenera, because TJ knew the GM and got him to add a seat for me. I don't know if the game is meant to be hilarious and campy, or if that was just this GM's vibe, but it certainly worked perfectly for it to have a kind of Thundarr The Barbarian vibe.
The mechanics worked well: roll to see if you can do what you want. GM sets a Difficulty, and you have to roll three times that number with a d20. If you Exert yourself, you can spend points from one of your three abilities to then drop the difficulty by 1 (thus making it three easier). There's ways to get your points back, leveling up lets you reduce costs, XP can also be spent on re-rolls, and there are always Cyphers–weird one-use gadgets from bygone eras with crazy random powers–that can really mix things up. It was great fun, and worth the price of admission.
I also enjoyed really getting to chat with NK, who I have known for years, but never had long term talks with Mano a Mano. She's a good egg.
