Big Bad Con 2023 Games and More Cons
Big Bad Con 2023 Wrap-Up Part 2
TL;DR This post is a summary of the games I played at Big Bad Con and thoughts on two other conventions: Gamehole Con and Go Play NW.
This is part two of my Big Bad Con 2023 wrap-up. You can find part one, which summarizes the panel notes that Taylor Navarro and I took, below:
There is also a podcast version of the Big Bad Con wrap-up on the Dollars and Dragons feed here.
Big Bad Con Games
The funny thing about turning a hobby into a freelancing hustle is that it's changed how I attend conventions. I spend less time playing games and more time meeting folks and promoting my own work (like handing out copies of SETLIST, the promotional mini-game I made for Jukebox). Regardless, I made sure to catch a few games at Big Bad Con.
Zhenya's Wonder Tales
On Friday I playtested Zhenya's Wonder Tales, a short scene-based game by Jason Morningstar where you inhabit characters in dark Slavic-inspired fairy tales. It uses a nifty mechanic with a small set of custom cards for each story: Each card states an event that must happen during play. Whenever the event occurs, you flip the card to reveal a choice or further background for the story. My table ended up telling a story involving a love triangle (love square?) with a selkie, some conveniently timed memory loss, and a dramatic finale where the two most villainous characters fused into a giant carp.
What Is It That Lies Beyond the Immenseness of the Dark
On Saturday, I played What Is It That Lies Beyond the Immenseness of the Dark by Tomas Gimenez Rioja. During the game, you create an urban legend based on a photo you take in your hometown. We used a photo from Tomas's hometown and spent an hour coming up with lore for a monstrous tree spirit that traps victims in an endless forest if they pass through a particular park gate. The game involves a deck of question cards that you can buy below:
Working the Case
On Sunday I joined an hour-long playtest of Randy Lubin's Working the Case, which you can play right now online. It's a short game that leads you through developing the clues and plot points of a murder mystery. It really felt like Randy successfully broke down the structure and tropes of a murder mystery and made a streamlined process to collaboratively generate one. Our story was a bit meta: it took place at a gaming convention on a space station, where the victim was killed during a LARP, and the culprit was an ambassador who tricked war gamers into unwittingly fighting a proxy war.
Jukebox: The Karaoke Musical TTRPG
And then there was my Jukebox playtest. Big Bad Con AV support was top-notch: They not only got us a projector but also karaoke mics. The playtest features "playsets", a new concept I'm hoping to loop into the game where players can choose a playset that provides them with plot, music, and character tropes to speed up the world-building process of Jukebox. My excellent playtesters chose the Twisted Fairytales playset and told a story about a curse involving wolves, two witches secretly in love, an out-of-place giant, and a shy fairy who became the town's mayor.
Want to roleplay your own musical story? This is your obligatory reminder to sign up for the Jukebox Kickstarter:
Around Big Bad Con
Without getting too much into it, Big Bad Con was beautiful, overwhelming, and filled with folks I admire in the industry. Convention-goers were legitimately excited about Jukebox and I'm now hoping to put together one or more actual plays for the game.
Part of me wants to write about every interaction, but I'll spare you. The two things I'll mention are this moment where the Storytelling Collective Creative Laurates of past and present came together:
And a shout out to Tony at Plus One Experience, who kindly shared a bunch of helpful advice on Kickstarter, media kits, and fulfillment. One tip you can also use: make a press kit. Plus One has a video about how and an example press kit template. This is next on my Jukebox to-do and might end up as a future Jukebox devlog post:
Gamehole Con
I spent this last weekend at Gamehole Con, which holds the title of being "the largest majority RPG gaming convention in the world". I attended in part because I wrote one of the official Adventurers League adventures for the con. Gamehole Con sets its adventures in or around a region of the Forgotten Realms called the Border Kingdoms, and every year they produce a new "season" of Border Kingdom adventures. You can think of each season a bit like a television series season, with adventure “episodes”. The episodes can be played independently, or attendees can go through the whole 10-episode adventure arc during the weekend. The climactic finale is an event called The Epic, where multiple tables of D&D players all work together in a collaborative, massive boss battle fight.
One of the highlights was getting to see Trouble Brewing, my coffee espionage adventure (technically a “kaeth” espionage adventure), being played on the con floor.
Other highlights include playing Sign by Thorny Games, which is a touching LARP where you invent your own sign language, and Never Going Home by Wet Ink Games, which is a dark, Lovecraftian WW1 game involving a deck of cards. I was also graciously invited to join a few industry panels. One, Making a Career in Tabletop Games, was streamed and you can watch it now on Twitch:
Over in the vendor hall, it was incredibly inspiring to see my friend Ethan’s newly printed game zine, Fetch My Blade, sell out at the Indie Press Revolution booth. Fetch My Blade is a solo journaling RPG designed by Ethan Yen and Kelly Tran where you are the dog of a retired sword master going on a literal fetch quest. You can check it out on IPR:
Finally, Gamehole Con makes a custom D&D plushie each year. I’m sure this is old news BUT THEY HAD A DISPACER BEAST! Look at this magnificent creature!
Go Play NW Online
I’ve got one more con to talk about and it is both ONLINE and BEGINS TODAY (10/27/2023). That’s right, Go Play NW 2023 Online starts this evening and you can buy tickets throughout the weekend:
Go Play NW is a lovely little indie con that I went to in person in 2019. There’s no need to sign up for games in advance. They have a concept called 🍩 The Donut 🍩 which ensures you get into a game, even if you’re just dropping by.
If you do want to sign up for a game in advance, I’ll be running Candela Obscura’s spooky quickstart adventure on Saturday. You can sign up here (after registering for the con):
Alright, that’s enough about cons and I have a game to prep! Thank you for reading and don’t forget to subscribe:
Over and out,
🫙 👁️ 👁️
Just got to read this! Thank you so much for coming to play What Is It That Lies Beyond The Immenseness of the Dark? with us, and taking a copy of it home with you! It was a blast!
Now, I'll definitely be checking out the other games you mention, because they look amazing 👀
Just wanted to let you know that the link to the Making a Career in Tabletop Games twitch stream led to an empty page, but I managed to find the video here instead - https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1955082700