Gary Con Thoughts – Part II

First of all, let me get this out of the way. The 2nd trailer for Captain America: Civil War.

HOLY AMZEBALLS!!

If you haven’t seen it, do so.

Speaking of Marvel, let me talk about one of the better experiences I had at Gary Con. A friend of mine, Shane Bradley, ran an awesome 2-part game of Marvel Heroic RPG (Margaret Weis Productions), where we were the Avengers fighting Ultron. The plot followed pretty close to the movie, which actually made things a lot easier. It was basically two really big superhero rumbles, and they totally rocked.

When I signed up for it, I told Shane that I was interested in playing Captain America. Because he’s my absolute favorite superhero. He said his nephew had already called dibs at the time, so I opted for Thor instead. I prepared for the game by watching the entire second season of Avengers Assemble. I felt pretty well-prepared to toss Mjolnir and archaic quips around with gusto.

When I got to the table, I dug out the Thor data sheet, but I only found the Jane Foster version of Thor (turned out I had mistaken the real Thor’s sheet for a second part of JF’s). I had just started reading the graphic novel of her first arc, so I was totally cool with it and dug in. The guy next to me at the table was just as new to the game as I was, and he had Cap. He offered to trade, but I declined. I had set my sights on Thor and was committed to him…er, her.

The game itself was very new to me. I had bought the core rule book when if first came out because it was Marvel, and it was pretty. But I couldn’t wrap my head around the mechanics, so I just slid it into my shelf next to my other supers games. Turns out, once I got going with it, the mechanics are pretty sweet. Probably not my favorite system for supers, but I still had a lot of fun with it. And that’s basically the only benchmark I have as to whether a game is “good” or not.

Our team was a pretty eclectic mix of Marvel characters. Half of them (in both sessions) were mutants, and at any given time there were only 2-3 actual Avengers on the team (well, what I consider actual Avengers). But we made it work, and we had a blast beating Ultron and his drones into submission.

All in all, if you like supers games, I highly recommend checking out this game. It could totally be your cup of tea.

My other great experience was actually an unscheduled pick-up game. My wife was playing Firefly Friday night (which, incidentally, uses the same system as the Marvel game I played. At the time, I had nothing scheduled, mainly due to the Adventurer’s League games ending so quickly. However, the guy at the next table over was setting up for an AD&D 1E game of “Baba Yaga’s Hut” and it turned out he had an opening. So, I sat down, pulled out my dice, and away we went.

That was a really fun game. The DM was very animated and enthusiastic, and really made the game come alive. I had a great time playing my dwarf cleric, and laughed out loud when he was able to shrug off the Death Knight’s fireball (Ring of Fire Resistance). The adventure was a good blend of mystery, puzzles, and action. I don’t think anyone walked away unhappy with the adventure.

So, that’s pretty much it for another Gary Con. This was my third, and we will probably go again next year. But for now, I am setting my sights on Gamehole Con here in Madison. I might actually run something!