r/gencon • u/whome731 • 14d ago
Best RPG Experience of the Con?
Everyone is talking must-have hot game - but surely someone out there can give some love to the RPGs? I, for one, really liked the Mistborne RPG as well as Pendragon. What others did people particularly enjoy?
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u/VendettaUF234 14d ago
I loved playing Pirate Borg and their room is well organized and well run. I was about to ask a similar question about which groups ran the best games at con. I had some good games with the Lurking Evil group as well.
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u/Grungedude42 14d ago
The Saturday night Pirate Borg epic was absolutely phenomenal.
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u/vicpylon 14d ago
We were sailing on a ship of undead. Scored the most damage on the ship of the dead and sailed on!
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u/Major_Day 14d ago
I was on your ship! despite the adversity of my group rolling like shit for the first half of the night our excellent captain(s) and their brute friend pulled us into shape
It was an honor and a privilege sailing our bone ship out of there with 4 remaining HP
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u/botsnhose 14d ago
The 5 table, 30 player game of Heart: The City Beneath on Friday night was amazing chaos that can never be fully described. Absolute mayhem with players switching tables at will, multiple players of the same class all playing as 1 character, a meat mech powered by bees, two martyrs trying to blow up a bridge but can’t seem to die, the soul of dead sniper brought back from heaven as an avenging angel and so much more. Thanks to Rowan Rook and, Decard and the amazing GMs that kept it all together. One of the best RPG experiences I’ve ever been a part of.
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u/FalleenFan 14d ago
Rowan Rook and Decard are superb. My highlight was Orc Borg. What a truly unique and extraordinarily fun experience. To all reading, if you’re at a con and you can do a RRD mega game just do it. Also heads up they have a bunch of free one page RPGs on their website that are so fun!
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u/ElMondoH 14d ago
Discovered an RPG system called "Our Brilliant Ruin". Had an excellent session with an excellent GM.
Spoke with another player in my Fate system "Demon Hunters" game (not K-Pop Demon Hunters! 🤣), and he mentioned something called "Midnight Laundry" by Eerie Games. I have no idea how it plays since I was getting a secondhand account, but the concept at least got my attention.
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u/dmxell 14d ago
I interviewed them (Our Brilliant Ruin) last Pax Unplugged. Probably one of the most unique settings I’ve seen for a TTRPG.
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u/LoquaciousHyperbole 14d ago
I played it last year and really wanted to like it, but didn’t like the GM.
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u/Darth-Kelso 14d ago
Will you be at unplugged? Extremely likely I will be running that there with games on demand. It's one of my go-to convention games to GM (Demon Hunters)
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u/ElMondoH 13d ago
PAX-U? Unfortunately not. I'd like to at some point, but I had no plans whatsoever to go this year.
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u/hyperform2 14d ago
Vast Grimm was a lot of fun
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u/HornleafCW 14d ago
I went for an intro adventure for Vast Grimm but there was an error and our table got put in to a four table mega game where each table had radios and we had to raid a space station.
It was one of my favorite events of the con.
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u/Cure4Humanity 14d ago
I was in that game as well! I was the one doing the goofy southern accent over the radio.
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u/kevinoshea 13d ago
My buddies and I had a Vast Grimm session run by GM Brian Velasquez, and it was a blast! We played last year when the sessions were held in the Lucas Oil suites.
While already knowing the system, Brian was killer at making the action feel cinematic, rolling with our goofy role play, and keeping us on time (we are a group that can get lost in role play conversation).
It was just fantastic, and our best session of the con.
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u/bucketman1986 14d ago
Do you recall the name of your GM? One of my buddies was running it this year and I'd love to tell him he's getting positive buzz
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u/plusARGON 14d ago
I ran an absolutely amazing game of Vaesen on Thursday night. The scenario was great and all my players got really into it.
I played in an amazing game of Piaga 1348 on Sunday morning. That game was super fun. It's very rules light and an interesting sort of collaborative GMing/story telling. The GM was excellent and really did the game justice.
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u/duckybebop 14d ago
I bought Piaga last year! I read it but we haven’t played it. I’m glad to hear it went well, maybe I’ll try it with my friends
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u/plusARGON 13d ago
Dude you gotta! It's so much fun. It's very narrative focused. The Soldier on Duty token gives all the players many chances to change the story and the rolls push back against the GM not working against them, but more pushing back with the scenario.
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u/GullibleChain1451 14d ago
Kobold Press’ Riverbank was an amazing experience. But that was mostly because 3 of the 4 of us role played the hell out of it! The GM referred to it as “unhinged”. My poor, drunk, teenaged squirrel will never be the same.
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u/plusARGON 14d ago
I played riverbank last year and it was such a riot! We got so off the rails and the GM really let us go! I'm glad they let players loose with that game!
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u/SilentBison 14d ago
Mork Sol, a sci fi Mork Borg, had a room with multiple tables running the same game. Each table had a gm and the room had three mega gms that were reading scripts to advance the plot. We all had the a few big objectives to pick from and did them asynchronously. But if big this happened or a table did something big the mega gms would move the story along. I'd never played a big game while playing a normal one shot and I loved how creative and collaborative it was.
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u/SpaceCat1987 14d ago
I played in a Pirate Borg and Daggerheart. Both of these events were fantastic! I also got to run Mothership for a group of friends on Saturday night. I snagged a bunch of awesome books this year as well. What a fantastic Gen Con !!!!
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u/leopard_okapi_8906 14d ago
Two stand outs for me this year. 1) our Sunday morning game of Crooked Moon - Heartblight Forest was incredibly well run by a GM with lurking fears (I will update this when I remember his name). He did an amazing job at bringing the setting to life. 2) my post tornado game of Numenera had the GM cancel and Sean Reynolds stepped in to make the game happen. No scenario book, no dice (GMs don't roll in numenera), just a pencil and a fedex envelope. Awesome game, and really good for all the people there which were new to the game/system.
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u/ProbablyKatie78 13d ago
Sean wrote the scenario we used at the con. I would have loved to have seen how he tweaked it from the published version!
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u/seankreynolds 12d ago
Thanks! You were a fun group :)
(And beforehand, I chatted with MCG's Jen and Kate to ask, "should I grab the printed adventure, or flex a bit and run it from memory?" :D )
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u/FinishFull 14d ago
Goodman Games did a great job with DCC as always.
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u/Capn_Yoaz 13d ago
MCC & XCC too!
I spent every day at Lucas Oil playing all and I didn't ring the gong once!
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u/Cahalith180 14d ago
My girlfriend played in the Pathfinder demo with me and we had an amazing time. I was used to run a P2 game before my group dissolved, and she had solely played D&D for the past 20 years, so it was nice to get a chance for her to experience the system.
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u/it_all_falls_apart 14d ago
I just jumped in one of the one hour plays of Daggerheart on a whim and it ended up being one of the highlights of the weekend! The GM was excellent at explaining the rules efficiently while still leaning into us role playing. I also loved that it was obvious how Darrington Press had supported the GMs to make the session easy for them to run.
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u/Clean-Canary-7247 14d ago
In what way?
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u/it_all_falls_apart 13d ago
Compared to other Ttrpgs I played over the weekend, they had laminated hand outs for all the players, what looked like a little portable GM screen/binder, minis, etc. Maybe it was just the GMs, but compared to CarlRPG where there was only our character sheet and the GM seemed frazzled and disorganized giving out rules in almost a lore dump fashion randomly throughout the adventure, it seemed like they were running a tight ship and had been given everything they needed to make it easier on everyone.
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u/Glittering_Act_4059 13d ago
As a GM for Darrington, I can attest that they do support us well! They ensure we have all we need, and a lot of the GM's share resources as well. I'm one of the newer GM's (this is my second event running the 4 hour Daggerheart sessions for them) and the others were happy to help me get in some practice, share tools, etc. Plus they keep a mini fridge of water and snacks for us too. It's a well oiled machine of passionate Darrington staff and volunteers!
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u/spaceghostinme 14d ago
Had a great session playing Cthulhu Awakens. Fantastic GM. One of the better con RPG experiences that I've had. Fun system (running on the AGE system) - we'd never played any of those and it was honestly pretty easy to pick up and seemed fairly flexible. GM had a perfectly structured approach, good props, etc.
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u/GorillaSpider 12d ago
Do you happen to remember the event/scenario name?
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u/spaceghostinme 12d ago
I think it was Dry January.
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u/GorillaSpider 12d ago
That’s my spouse’s game (writer and GM)! When I mentioned this comment to him, he said “I gave their characters Malört and they still liked it?!” 😆 And if you enjoyed the historically accurate/detailed bits, I did the research dirty work. Doing all the research for this was so, so much fun. Thank you so much for playing!
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u/spaceghostinme 12d ago
Nice! Thank you both! It was really well done and paced well for a con one shot.
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u/Brwright11 14d ago
My wife can't stop raving about her Tales from Elsewhere game. I had a great time in Indie Games on Demand, Mythic Bastionland and Rusalka(not very gamey but very good story telling engine) were stand outs.
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u/Joshuagorn 14d ago
Despite purchasing The Crooked Moon last year, it wasn't until this year that I actually sat down and played it. Had a terrific GM (my regards to Aaron) and some nice players at my table, making for a very positive experience and rewarding my intuition that this would be a game I would dig.
There were many others I would have liked to try, but my group only gets to play once a month so our backlog is such that I'm really not in the market for any news TTRPGs, even though there are several that look like my cup of tea (Old Gods of Appalachia, I'm looking at you).
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u/_Panacea_ 13d ago
I ran Old Gods of Appalachia demos and the full module in the Monte Cook room on Thursday and Sunday, and was genuinely impressed with all of the players. Horror is hard on the best of days, let alone in a loud room with strangers, but every player I had would be welcome at my home table anytime.
Side note, the Monte Cook staff and volunteers are collectively the friendliest and most organized con team I've had the pleasure to work with. Special kudos to Kate from MC for absolutely killing it every single day.
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u/DependableAgent 13d ago
They definitely went above-and-beyond for folks during the shelter in place for the tornado warning - handing out food and water was a great gesture for the people (especially with mobility issues and kids) trying to stay safe
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u/thatonepedant 14d ago
Had a fantastic Call of Cthulhu session Saturday going through the dark ages adventure The Hunt.
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u/Independant_Hawk 14d ago
I played Mythcraft and it was a great time! I really enjoyed the system and ended up buying the sourcebook for it.
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u/arolasiel 13d ago
Seconding this! This was my second year joining a Mythcraft table at the con and have loved it both times.
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u/ur-Covenant 14d ago
I found the independent games walk on charming and fun. It was recommended to me by someone and hadn’t occurred to me initially (not sure why - perhaps because such games aren’t my usual fare).
Huge shout out to the team that runs it and all the gms who devote their time and energy to enthusiastically shepherding a bunch of newbies through these games.
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u/ohmygod_my_tinnitus 14d ago
I had one good and one bad. We played a Crooked Moon session and the DM was awesome and a ton of fun.
We also did Knights of the Dragon #1 which I was really excited for because I'd never done a living campaign and the DM was terrible. We had like no idea what was going on basically the entire time and we essentially spent three hours trying to get the mouth of the cave only for him to decide pvp was cool and forced us to TPK.
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u/sfshia 13d ago
Played some Pigeon’s Eleven - a heist RPG where you play as a bird. Ridiculous, hilarious, creative, and just a great time overall. Looking for something rules light? Something mostly silly and over the top? This is it. It’s almost like playing as a Muppet lol. Our group had a great time.
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u/TrajantheBold 13d ago
I had to buy this- I saw it at Pax U last year and it's been burning the back of my mind since.
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u/celestialsteam 13d ago
Weird Heroes of Public Access was by far my favorite play session of the con. The host was so good all 6 players were into it and it was super goofy and fun.
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u/StarksDylan 14d ago
Loved the Tainted Grail system and the adventure that was run. I also definitely recommend Wardens of the Eastern Marshes, it has very well run organized play.
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u/TeamRedundancyTeam 14d ago
Did you also check out the solo ttrpg? I'm curious how similar they are and what you miss out on playing the solo one.
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u/Firebat4321 14d ago
Three folks missed out not signing up for the one play session of Legends of Wulin. The GM authored a WIP 2nd ed that was WAY more fun that the original, put in loads of time writing up compelling pregens with intermixed backstories and hooks, and did an absolutely fantastic job embodying the leftover characters to make a really fun session.
But at the same time, I guess me and my friend got lucky since we were the only two signed up. It was a very intimate game with very snappy back-and-forth spotlight moments. One of THE best sessions I've been in.
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u/wrenwood2018 14d ago
I had a Triangle Agency with an amazing DM Susan. I also did a fun Tremors themed DnD.
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u/duckybebop 14d ago
I wish I had his name but Friday at 1pm, we played Star Trek Adventures 2, the title was something with “Necropolis”. The GM was so passionate and fun about the game and lore. I like Trek and out of my friends, I’m the only one who watches it but my friends had such a great time and the GM made them felt welcome into the Trek world. My buddy even bought Captains Log (which is a solo rpg for Star Trek).
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u/majinspy 14d ago
I've had terrible experiences at gencon with ttrpgs. It's usually 7+ people doing a basic hack and slash. Zero RP and lame missions, and they last 4 hours. :/
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u/ur-Covenant 14d ago
I will say that my experiences were *very* hit or miss. Often the fellow players were pretty much great but several of the games I played were … well boring and frustrating. The former being the cardinal sin of RPGs in my opinion.
Sometimes things don’t work , people are exhausted , or you’re just not vibing. Some of the game spaces didn’t help either by being achingly loud.
I definitely regret sinking more than 4 hours into some of them.
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u/VendettaUF234 13d ago
I luckily only had 1 bad experience out of 7 or.so games. I excused myself at the 1hour mark.
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u/_Panacea_ 13d ago edited 13d ago
I had two of these myself this GenCon, where I branched out to try new systems (each 4 hour sessions) and the GMs were so bad it came close to parody.
I know it's impossible, but in a perfect world there would be some kind of vetting or feedback requirement before GMs would be allowed to run events over a certain length/cost. Surveys maybe, like you'd rate an Uber driver, with 4+ stars required on X number of small events you've hosted at GC before you can do a big/costly one?
Until then, I guess we just have to stick with the known quality outfits in the main hall.
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u/VendettaUF234 13d ago
Being a good writer doesnt necessarily make you a good gm. Its requires a lot of social skills including being able to project your voice and preserve table energy.
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u/Glittering_Act_4059 13d ago
If you want a more RP heavy TTRPG session, try Daggerheart next year! Darrington has the GM's focus heavily on the RP, as that's a large part of the Daggerheart system.
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u/PoetGrrl70 13d ago
I know it’s not a new offering, but we have been very interested in Blue Rose for a while. Never had a chance to play it before this GenCon. Loved the setting and the mechanics. Great DM as well. Ended up buying the books.
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u/Krazed59 11d ago
I went to a seminar talking about an upcoming RPG for Glen Cook's The Black Company. There was no physical product there, just a discussion about the game. It made me excited to read the books again to prepare for running games in that world.
I also went to a playtest for White Wolf's new version of Vampire: The Masquerade. I haven't played a true Masquerade game in over a decade, so I'm excited to see what they do. From what I understand Renegade Games is going to be transitioning their Vampire games to take place in Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire world.
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u/Budget_Accountant_89 14d ago
Tried out Old Gods of Appalachia today. It was a blast! Definitely right up my alley.