I attended Big Bad Con 2017 in Walnut Creek, CA on a scholarship from the con. This is post two! Find post one here. —
I got room service to make sure I finished my homework. >.<
I woke up after like, real sleep for the first time in a while, and wrote a paper for school before messing about hanging around with people until my next panel. I was brought a handy towel by Dante so I didn’t ruin the hotel towels and, tbh, I couldn’t find the towel before I left Monday morning, so no idea what happened there.
The next panel I was on was Gaming and Emotional Safety, with Mickey and Misha. Everyone knows I’m a pretty woobie heart person so I get emotional a lot, and I also have had some trauma in my life that I struggle with and that can (sometimes nonsensically) come up in game. We reviewed many of the various safety tools (though not all), noting that they’re not one size fits all and that people should use what works for them.
We discussed the importance of pregame discussion of content and tone, debriefs, and emotional safety as a whole. Games might not be everyone’s standard definition of “fun” but we aren’t there for abuse. It’s important to be on the same page, respect each other, and check in. I reminded people that even if they’ve had the same group for decades, they may make their games more fun for everyone by talking to their friends about their preferences. This included discussing racism, sexism, homophobia, mental illness, and so on.
more here>>>>
Games here that have risks in them: Misspent Youth, Lovecraftesque, Night Witches, Dread… that’s just a few. They are awesome games, but we gotta be safe. This is taken when I realized that games I worked on were for sale (Lovecraftesque), but handy for demonstrating games with inherent issues – like the racism and mental illness stigma in Lovecraft.
I also noted the difference between a squick and a trigger. Squicks are things that gross you out, make you a little uncomfortable, etc. They can stick with you, but are unlikely to have long term mental health impact. Treat these with respect – make sure people are okay with them, ensure they’re tonally appropriate, and be willing to alter content if it needs to be done. Triggers are typically tied directly to trauma and can result in panic attacks, nightmares, and activation of things like paranoia and mania (in my case). Don’t approach people’s triggers without checking in and getting their permission! And if you know about common triggers, ask your group before including them, but don’t require details. There’s also phobias, which I suggest treating much like triggers. Always check in.
There are some people comfortable with approaching their triggers and phobias on purpose, which Mickey and Misha discussed a bit. It’s not something I normally venture into, but they talked about how it can be helpful to work in that abstracted environment. Really loved that part of the panel!
Finally, we talked about inclusion, exclusion, and bad actors. The key points were 1) it is always okay to leave a game for any reason and especially if you don’t feel safe; 2) if you include people who hurt others with the content included in their play, you are excluding those who will be hurt, including excluding people of color in favor of racists, excluding women in favor of rapey men, etc.; and 3) you can always eject someone from the group. Always. If someone is hurtful, if they’re unsafe, don’t give them a space to be that way.
I was reminded later in the weekend how vile in-game violation of consent is. If you force a player or a character to do ANYTHING they don’t consent to, including ignoring at-the-moment objections, you are behaving inappropriately and you’re hurting people. Reconsider your role until you learn how to play games without hurting people.
I was lucky enough after the panel to meet up with Brian Vo, who made me a cocktail! It was nice to meet him and the drink was great. 😀
My nerding out in clothes for fandoms I’m not in.
The final panel I participated in was Adult Themes in Gaming: Adult versus “Adult” with Mickey Schulz, Clint “Ogre” Whiteside, and Jason Morningstar. It was a really great panel and I was excited for it because this is a topic that’s meaningful to me, specifically: what content is really mature content, how to present it, the tools we have to manage it, and adult content that isn’t just sex.
(It’s always funny when I run into Jason because we’re both typically busy, and we have these mini conferences like “what are you doing?” “what are YOU doing?” “I’m doing THIS!” “OMG tell me more about this!” and it sounds silly maybe but running into him like that is always awesome.)
We talked about the content we include in games – Mickey and Ogre include pretty much everything that their table is safe with, which is a lot (sex, romance, violence, and other stuff that needs to be approached with caution); I tend towards having lighter content, emotional interaction, some tougher topics, and I don’t approach sex very much; and while Jason covers a lot of more complicated stuff like grief and war, he doesn’t really touch the subject of sex at all in his games, though he discussed a recent experience playing a happy, healthy married couple and how transgressive it felt. It was so cool to see a variety of experiences at the table.
One note: Mickey commented on this and is making changes for future panels, but everyone at the table was white. This is something that is actually common to happen, but it wasn’t intended and it’s not a good trend, so more effort going forward will happen.
We talked about the difference between having content exist and be played out (which some people might consider more pornographic in regards to sex), and having content that fades to black or is glossed over. This is something I think really needs to be discussed in detail with players and GMs at the table, making sure everyone is comfortable.
Some people might want to push their own boundaries, too, which is dependent on a lot of factors. Specifically, I might be willing to address sexual content at a table full of close friends, but at a table with strangers it might not be okay. Likewise, there are non-sex topics that are challenging and mature. Violence is one of them! We use violence freely, but that’s not necessarily because it’s appropriate. We should be more considerate of this – Jason even said he’d like to explore more ways to resolve conflict without violence (my mini pacifist high fives this idea). Grief is another subject.
Before this con, and before last year’s Metatopia, I had a grandparent pass away (my grandmother first, then grandfather). I still went to the cons, and played in games where grief was relevant. At a lot of tables I might have stepped away or asked not to cover it, but both of these times I had people I trusted (last year was Jason, Amanda Valentine, and Roe Nix playing Storybox and this year was Hakan Seyalioglu, Kristine Hassell, Vera Vartanian, and Vivian Paul playing Dialect), and who I knew wouldn’t treat me badly if I cried a little or if I needed a break.
Honestly, the newest addition to Script Change, frame-by-frame, is here so that when people want to explore topics that are challenging, they can do so. It’s not always easy, but making a safe environment matters. Safety tools, discussion among players, developing a social contract – these things matter.
Useful tool (yes I’m reusing this picture) even at its base mechanics – using more of them can make games better.
One of the things we discussed was about deciding not to play or leaving groups. Just like in previous panels, we talked about ejecting harmful people and bad actors, but we also talked about self-selecting your group. Stepping away if the space isn’t safe, tapping out, or leaving groups: these are all okay. It’s okay to say no.We need to make it normal to leave games, to step away, and to take care of ourselves. That’s part of handling adult content.
After the panel, I had a bit of a breakdown. I was still processing grief (I still am!), I had done three panels without a panic attack which is amazing, and I’d been traveling and surrounded with people and writing a paper… I was exhausted. I burst into tears when I was alone by the elevator, fell to the floor, and just sobbed until Stephanie Bryant found me. Angel that she is, she made sure I was okay, took me up to my room, and reassured me it was okay to be upset. I’m so grateful for that!
I spent some time talking with Tanya and some Twitch and gaming friends of hers, & one of them who had attended the panel said the work I was doing was “so important, so valuable” and it really felt amazing to hear. I don’t often think of anything I do making a difference, but hearing other people say it is super awesome. It matters a lot to me. Thank you to anyone who thinks well of my work – I appreciate it so much.
I’ll have one more post covering Sunday with my games of Who Made Me Smile? and Dialect. Thanks for reading!
SNEAK PREVIEW! Dialect table!
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Frame-by-Frame is a mechanic that lets players express that they want to take it slow moving through the next scene. When a player calls “frame-by-frame,” they are indicating that the upcoming scene may be new, sensitive, or even just a topic they’re unsure about, and they want to let the group know that they want to move carefully through the scene. The player who originated it should say “play” when they want to indicate that regular play can be resumed.
This can be used when players are purposefully encountering content that they’re sensitive about, or when they experience new topics or content in game. The group should be considerate of the player’s needs. Continue introducing the topics or content that was originally planned, but pause occasionally to check in with the player who called frame-by-frame and ensure they are still okay with continuing. This allows the opportunity for that player to feel safe using other Script Change tools without feeling like they’re interrupting the game.
Frame-by-frame may also be announced at the start of a game or session so that when these subjects are encountered, the group can take it slow. Consider making notes of these topics on index cards for the GM.
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Tell me about By the Author of Lady Windermere’s Fan. What excites you about it?
By the Author of Lady Windermere’s Fan is a game about putting on an Oscar Wilde play.
More specifically, it’s a story game about a group of actors who, through a spectacular level of mismanagement by their producer and director alike, have reached opening night without having held a single rehearsal. Or picking up a script. They don’t even know what they’re supposed to be putting on… all the marquee out front tells them is that it’s a lesser-known play by the master of the Victorian farce, Oscar Wilde. And with that to go on, they’ll just have to wing it.
Which means that players are doing two things at once. On the one hand, it’s a story game made for telling narratives in the vein of The Importance of Being Earnest or An Ideal Husband: self-important people who tell big lies about petty things, and then fall over themselves trying to keep their deception from being discovered. Everyone looks foolish, everyone embarrasses themselves, but in the end everyone gets a happy ending whether they deserve it or not, because that’s how these things go.
But on the other hand, and this is the part of it that I’m the most excited about, it’s very much a game about putting on a live performance. Windermere is inspired by my experiences in school and community theater; it’s a game about being thrust on stage, underprepared, and doing your best to keep things moving by any means necessary. If you’re on-stage, you’re in character, and you’re responsible for keeping up the pace. As games go, it’s kind of exhausting, because you don’t really get time to think once an act starts. You need to keep the chaos in control. When you make mistakes, and you will make mistakes, you have to run with them.
But that also makes it exhilarating! It’s frenetic, and unpredictable, and even though the stakes are low it still feels very rewarding to survive to the final curtain. Whether the play you put on ends up being a really admirable Wilde pastiche or just a complete trainwreck, you still overcame all odds and put on a dang show. You can take a bow, because you’ve earned it. That’s the moment that I was really trying to capture with this game. That is what I’m most excited about.
I have a lot of interest in learning of interactivity in games. During play, are all players interacting at once? Are there different levels of involvement?
Once the game starts, everyone is interacting. There are a couple different levels of involvement, but players will be shifting between them over the course of an act. Players might be onstage or offstage, for instance, and each has its own limits and responsibilities. Most of your time playing will be onstage, when you have to be in character and move the plot along. If you’re offstage, you have some more breathing room… you don’t have to react as quickly, and can watch the action without participating it. You can also do off-stage specific things like calling out sound effects or changing costume (which allows you to come back onstage as an NPC). Players will switch between being on and offstage often, and just like in real theater, even when you’re not onstage you are still part of the play.
The other variable in players’ levels of involvement is the spotlight. At any given moment, one player’s character is the Spotlight Character, which just means that they are currently the focus of the action. Specifically, that’s when characters get confronted about the lies they have been telling, and respond by telling a bigger and harder-to-defend lie. When the spotlight is on you, you’re stuck onstage, and can’t leave until you’ve dug a bigger hole for yourself. But once you’ve done so, you pass the spotlight on to another player, and now THEY become the focus of the action. Everyone takes their turn in the spotlight.
What materials are part of the game? What is tactile, and what is supposed to be all in the minds of players?
For the most part, it’s little index cards. You are limited in the number of props you have access to, so before the play starts the players brainstorm a bunch of useful items and write each down on a card. Once the play starts, these become a tactile element: if you want your character to be holding an item, you need to be holding up the appropriate card. That way, you can’t just make up items, and if there’s an object you want to use, you have to track where it actually is. Costumes work similarly; you all come up with costumes for NPCs during setup, and while you’re playing you change costumes by physically taking that NPC’s card and plopping it over your own character sheet.
There’s also a spotlight token; this is just some visible object to indicate which player’s character is the focus for the moment. I usually use a hand fan. When you as the spotlight character have told your lie, you pass the token to the player you want to see take the spotlight next, and the action seamlessly shifts to being about them.
Finally, there are audience favor tokens; beads or coins or similar small objects, used to indicate how much the audience likes you. Players start with three tokens, and there’s a pile in easy reach. When you break character on stage, you toss one of your tokens in the pile. When you think another player said something especially funny, you take a token from the pile and give it to that player.
Both the spotlight and audience favor tokens are using tactile interaction to communicate, without breaking the action of the play.
Where did you pull inspiration for the development and structure of play?
As far as development goes, this started as an entry for the Game Chef design competition back in 2014. The theme of the year was “There is no book,” and one of the optional ingredients was “wild.” A little willful misspelling later, and the idea of performing an Oscar Wilde play when you didn’t have the script was born.
By the Author of Lady Windermere’s Fan owes a lot to story games like Fiasco and Kingdom. Games in which you set up a scene, then dive into the action, letting characters bounce off one another however they see fit without a lot of rules or guidance. Windermere pushes that same structure a little farther; instead of short scenes frequently punctuated by breaks to control the overall flow of the story, there are huge and endurance-testing acts, making it easy for players to lose control of the overall flow of the story.
Beyond that, obviously Wilde’s plays were an inspiration, especially The Importance of Being Earnest, but I also got inspiration from other sources, like Noises Off, a comedy about putting on a play that you aren’t prepared to perform, and even Frasier, a show that really codified the structure of a farce.
Was everyone in this era judgy? Sweet monocle tho.
Do you have any controls in place for the game if a player needs to pause or they want to back up and reconsider something that was introduced? How much content control do the players have when other players act?
On the one hand, when it comes to the safety and comfort of the players, I take that seriously. I outline a simple “safety valve” mechanism, and am explicit that groups who have another they prefer (X-card, Lines and Veils, whatever) can and should be using it. It’s important to me than having all the players be able to feel secure that they are playing in a safe space.
But when it comes to more minor matters of how the plot is developing, there you’re a bit out of luck. A lot of the tension in the game comes out of having to roll with unexpected developments that come both from the other players and from yourself; what’s said stays said, even if you didn’t quite mean to say it. What you do have are intermissions; between each act, all the players get the chance to stop, and breathe, and talk about where the play’s going. Think of it as an opportunity for course-correction; you can choose to drop a plot thread, or change the trajectory your character is on, or even express concerns about where you think another character’s story is headed.
Finally, what do you want people to feel at the end of play? What memories do you want them to carry on, and what have you seen players who have experienced the game so far take forth?
At the end of the play, I want everyone to be tired but proud. Usually, they are; there’s a definite sense of accomplishment that comes from surviving the play in most of the games I’ve been a part of. Mostly, I want them to be smiling; ultimately, the players are putting on a comedy, so the memories I want them to take with them are the funny moments. The really good one-liners, the delightful twists of the plot, and even the collapses, when for whatever reason the play totally fell apart. Like a Wilde play, the overall plot is pretty incidental… it’s a structure on which you can hang beautiful moments.
Tell me a little about New World Magischola House Rivalry. What excites you about it?
New World Magischola House Rivalry is our first foray into board/card games design and publishing. That’s both awesome and scary! When we decided two years ago to open a wizard school live roleplay experience in the United States, we realized that to do it the way we wanted to required us to write a whole new magical world that was specific to North America and its history. We wanted to be both respectful and inclusive of the many peoples and cultures — and magical traditions — of North America, and to also honor and engage thoughtfully with our fraught history of Colonialism. While we originally set out to design a larp, we ended up writing a world, and now we have an intellectual property that exists beyond the larp, with stories that can be told in many media, including board/card games, RPGs, books, and more.
So for me, I’m excited because we are opening up the world of the Magimundi and the experience of going to wizard school in it to a lot more people than those who are able to attend our 4-day signature wizard school events. They get to experience at the table some of the fun, whimsy, and magical mayhem of Magischola by taking courses, joining clubs, and using conjures to improve their progress or hinder a rival’s. They get a feel of navigating school because you have to pass your courses with a B or better to get credit, and you earn more points for completion the higher your grade is. It’s definitely a competitive game, since only one House can take the Trophy, but there are lots of opportunities for roleplay and fun engagement with your friends around the table.
There are two other things I’m pretty excited about regarding House Rivalry:
1. The deliberate design choices to be inclusive in the playable characters. Of the original 6 PCs, 2 are people of color and also have Hispanic names: Martín Spinoza and Soledad Reyes. We also designed Jax Slager to be deliberately agender or nonbinary, and we ensured our art showed different ages and body types or sizes. It is very important to us to not fall into the same sorts of fantasy art that we often see in posters, games, and comics. This is a diverse and inclusive world, and we want everyone to imagine themselves as being part of it. We have to do that through the fiction and the artwork. Of the five House founders of New World Magischola, there are two women of color (Tituba and Marie Laveau), one white male (Étienne Brûle), one white female (Virginia Dare) and one indigenous nonbinary (Calisaylá). We paid homage to the diverse peoples who form the history of North America: indigenous peoples, people from Africa & West Indies, British, French, and Spanish. All too often people have a tendency to over-simplify our history and our fictions, rather than showing the tensions and the multiplicities within it, and we wanted to embrace that instead. The Magimundi is for everyone, even though it’s not a utopia.
2. I’m excited because this game is designed for mixed groups of gamers. All-too-often we can get into conflicts by identifying as *either* a “gamer” or a “hard-core gamer” or a “casual gamer” or a “non-gamer.” We, as a gaming community, can gatekeep in these ways, subtly asking “are you one of us?” One of the ways we do this is by designing games that are more complex and have a lot of rules to master, or that take a long time to learn. Some gamers look down on casual games as not being challenging enough, and even make fun of these games and the people who play them. It can be difficult to prove your credibility as a gamer, and some gamers don’t want to take the time to include newer gamers to their gaming groups. House Rivalry is designed as a bridge game. It’s complex enough that the more hard-core gamers have something they can do and enjoy. There are multiple strategies and different tactics to manage your resources, choose your actions, and use the variable player powers of your character and House. However, the game is easy-to-learn, and there are lots of party game elements, especially in the Clubs. What this makes House Rivalry really good for are mixed groups of gamers: the hard core and the casual and the in-between. It’s a great game to get people together and to play when you don’t have the time to teach a complicated new system, but you want some strategy. It blends luck and strategy in a way that feels satisfying to all levels of gamers. For me, getting different groups of gamers of varying abilities and credibilities around the table is a great aspect of the game, and one I’m most proud of and excited about.
MORE MAGICAL GOODNESS AFTER THE CUT:
Tasty tasty board game bits.
What were the greatest challenges mechanically for making a themed game that is appealing for mixed groups?
The greatest challenge was finding the balance between being easy-to-learn, but also having depth and strategies that are not necessarily apparent to the casual gamer. We know that frequent gamers prefer strategy and meaningful choices, which should mean that if you play well, you will win. Casual gamers are more tolerant of luck and randomness in a game; too much “swing” and a hardcore gamer will not want to play. One of the things that our developer, Mike Young, did so well was apply math to the game, figuring out the “worth” of each action, and balancing the effects of cards so that when you took a calculated risk, you got a calculated reward. Another thing is the balance of the familiar and the unfamiliar. Everyone has been to school in their lives, so they have some idea of how it works. You take classes (only so many at a time) and you study to improve your grade, or do extra work to finish the course faster. So the actions of Enroll and Study are pretty intuitive, and easy to pick up even for young players. The third action, Conjure, is when you use some resources in your hand to your advantage. This is where the hardcore gamers love to evaluate the different resources they have, and calculate the effects of them based on their turns and time. More casual gamers might choose a Conjure just because they like the art, or because they want to say “take that” to a rival. Either way, because the game is carefully balanced, the effects are going to be similar. A good player will be able to prioritize and stack these resources to greater effect, but a new player can just throw some spells and make things happen.
We also designed the game with some party mechanics that each player has choice over playing. This is done with our Clubs, which were a new addition to Dylan’s game idea. About one-third of the Clubs include roleplaying party mechanics to earn (or lose!) House Points for the RP. These include singing while in Kokopelli’s Choir, whispering while in the secret society Obsidian Circle, and starting every utterance with “Wrong!” while you’re in Debate Club. Those who love this sort of thing enroll in those clubs and have a great time with it! Others have to catch them messing up, which is fun. If these active, party mechanics are not your jam, you’re not required to enroll in those clubs, and can instead get your club requirement through another club, such as Crossed Wands Club, where you manage your time and resources in a more traditional manner.
What we wanted was to hit the “sweet spot” where the casual gamers could learn to play quickly and have fun, and the hardcore gamers could see the layers and strategize toward victory at the same time. That means the game has to be seemingly simple and surprisingly complex, accessible as you learn, and then a later epiphany of “oh! I see how this works!” after playing a few times. The game introduces casual gamers to the concept of resource management and variable player powers, but moves along quickly with a series of rounds that include chance-based mechanics such as the Magischola deck, which keeps the hardcore strategists from necessarily running away with it in a mixed group. Definitely a tough balance, but our playtesting shows that we’ve done a pretty good job! (there’s a quote on our Father Geek review that sums this up rather nicely).
The school crest. They’ve got turtles, y’all.
How did you integrate the fiction and themes into the mechanics? Did you leave anything specific out that might feature in other formats?
Ha! Yes, the Magimundi is really deep, and there was no way to include all the elements into this game. One thing we had to leave out that I wish could have had more play is the presence of the House Founders of New World Magischola. It’s one of my favorite parts of the lore, and where the inclusive nature of the world and its engagement with North America’s Colonial past comes through. Otherwise, the game is 2-5 players because there are 5 houses of New World Magischola, and you play by House. We had to name the actions taken by the players to feel like something they would do in magic school. Enroll and Study are definitely school actions, but they’re also rather mundane. The third action was originally called “Dominate” but that didn’t feel very magical, and it also felt too punitive or hyper-competitive for the feel of the game. It took us a while to come up with Conjure, but that has the magical feel of casting spells or using the magical artifacts at your disposal, which either help you along magically, or hex your rivals. There are definitely some easter eggs on the cards for those who are more familiar with the world or the larp. Things like the Wendignado card, which is a reference to the tornado that hit our location during the inaugural larp — while students were in the woods casting elemental wind spells against a wendigo. Rather than call one of the cards “Sugar Rush,” it’s called “Hot Fudge in the Dining Hall,” which was a refrain in our third run as participants discovered the chocolatey goodness was available at every meal, and began to top everything with it. We had created a lot of creatures and lore, so the wizard courses are the actual NWM curriculum, as well as the clubs. The creatures expansion are all from our book, the Compendium of North American Cryptids & Magical Creatures.
A photo from the New World Magischola larp, the inspiration behind the board game.
What motivated designing a board/card game for Magischola – why move away from roleplaying?
We realized that a lot of people loved the world we created, the lore we had built, and the creatures we’d imagined. We own this work as an intellectual property, so leveraging it into multiple media makes sense. We’re already at work on a collaborative storytelling board game, also set in the Magimundi, but with completely different play. We definitely aren’t moving away from roleplaying as a company! This game has a roleplaying element, the next one does to an even greater extent, and we have two (maybe three!) RPG scenarios coming out in 2018! The world is rich with opportunity so we wanted to have the chance to tell stories within it in a variety of ways. We also realized that we have a lot of fans who can’t attend the premium larp experiences, but want to interact with the world. It’s definitely been a challenge! We’re newcomers to the board game industry and trying to gain a foothold. But it’s a huge market, if we can successfully break in! We want others to know about the Magimundi!
Larpers at a Magischola event repping their house. 🙂
Tell me about the role of competitiveness in New World Magischola: House Rivalry. What made you choose to make a competitive game? How does it further the goals that you have for the game, and the stories you want to tell?
This is a tough one! I consulted with Ben to answer this one, to talk through my feelings about it, because it’s complicated. One of the things people wanted from their magic school experience at New World Magischola larps, was the kind of fierce competition for House Points that they had seen in the Harry Potter books and films. While neither I nor my partner Ben Morrow are very competitive people (and our larp design is based around consent, cooperation, and relationships), our players were motivated by the competitive aspect of the First House Trophy. It drove a great deal of enthusiasm, creating an external motivation for taking an interest in their magic school classes and engaging in plot that could lead to a points reward. Also, getting recognition feels good, and the adrenaline rush that can come from healthy competition also feels good.
Dylan’s initial idea for the game, long before he met Ben and me, was to capture the feel of being at magic school, and helping your House win the day. When he made his pitch to us, we knew that the competitive play for points was a motivating force for many of our players, and we thought that offering that kind of feeling through a board game would make the game feel like the magic school experience that they had read about, and had been waiting to experience for quite some time. Since the object of the game is to win the First House Trophy, this game is not the most ideal generator of stories, but it does share our world. Players can look at Jax Slager’s card and wonder about their story, and Jax does have a fairly big story waiting to be discovered in some of the other media that’s forecoming. Similarly, our magical creatures book can give players more info about the Ghost Helicoprion when they see its tooth whorl on a Conjure card. Ultimately, we wanted to entertain, and we’re hoping that our game’s content and artwork invites the curious to find out more about our magical world, and the stories within it. The *next* game, already in development, is very collaborative and storytelling-based, akin to Mice & Mystics.
What is your house, what’s your favorite spell, and why? 🙂
Now, I’m the organizer and designer! I can’t have a favorite House! But I will say that I test into Calisaylá, with Laveau close behind. Favorite spell? Hmmm. A young person at Gen Con created and cast a “Fair Wages” spell. I think that one is pretty awesome. If I could cast “Fair Wages” and “Universal Health Care” on everyone, I would. Otherwise, I really like Pàgakwàn (PAH-guh-kwahn), which is from the Algonquin, and creates a protective shield against physical attacks.
Thank you SO much to Maury for this fantastic(al) interview! I’m excited to see more from Magischola, and hope you’ll all check out the Kickstarter today! Share this interview with your friends, too, so more people can read and enjoy. <3
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Hello! Today I have an interview with Ross Cowman and Mo Golden on Night Forest, which is currently on Kickstarter. The game looks fascinating and I’ve heard really cool stories about it, so I hope you enjoy what they have to say!
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Tell me a little about Night Forest. What excites you about it?
Ross: Night Forest is a ritual game where we play wandering memories. It is a practice in self reflection, embodiment, and deep witnessing.
Mo: As for what is exciting, one thing for me is our collaboration and the meeting of our two disciplines and perspectives. I think it is a jumping off point for more interdisciplinary collaboration.
Ross: Yeah! Totally. I feel like watching your work in expressive arts has really inspired me to pay more attention to transitions and the process of immersion. This had a big impact on my work Fall of Magic and it is great to be able to now design something together.
What inspired you to make a game about memories, especially ones that can be forgotten?
Mo: There’s so much that happens in our lives that we forget. By working with embodiment and evocative images, we can often retrieve what has been forgotten, which is really powerful and inspiring to me. Night Forest offers an opportunity to look at what we remember and what is lost.
Ross: We wanted to create a space where people could share things about themselves that they don’t normally have cause to share. There is something precious about these rarely visited memories.
Why do players use a candle to signify their lasting memory? Is their physical presence otherwise important? (Along that, do you think this could play remotely?)
Ross: The candle does a lot of work in Night Forest, it creates an intimate space, it constrains your movement, it requires care and is actually kind of a burden. Becoming forgotten is a relief of that responsibility and also of the responsibility of having to share and explore your memories. Now you just listen.
Mo: The flame is alive and has to be cared for. It slows us down and focuses us. I wonder if it could be played remotely… My concern with that has less to do with the candle and more to do with moving around. Movement and having a physical experience are central to this game. I would be curious to see how that could work virtually.
How do you see players interact with each other when they share their memories, and do you see much variety in the memories they share?
Mo: There’s a ton of variety, which is cool to watch. Even with the same card, there are infinite possibilities. It’s a very personal and intimate experience, yet somehow really accessible. There’s a tenderness I see in people while they’re sharing.
Ross: There is a lot of listening and smiling and serious looks. For me it has been a reminder of how much we can still communicate without our voices. How much we can connect with just our faces and our energy.
How did you design the content of the cards, as well as the appearance, and make them seem coherent and consistent?
Ross: The cards and images are designed to pull at each other. Contrast is a source of energy in nature, and it is the same with our imaginations.
Mo: I loved illustrating the cards. It was like swimming through a dream, making associations and letting myself be surprised by my pen. The choice to use black paper and metallic ink was so that the image would shine in candle light. The over all aesthetic takes players into a dark, wooded, magical place… even if they’re looking at the cards in an office building in the middle of the day.
Tell me a little about Dungeon Dome! What excites you about it?
The Dungeon Dome is a new actual play project that I’m hoping to produce through Kickstarter. The basic Idea is D&D meets professional wrestling. Players take on the role of fantasy gladiators fighting for wealth and glory in an arena full of deadly traps.
There is a lot that excites me about this project. Actual Play is rapidly becoming a major part of the RPG landscape. Shows like The Adventure Zone, Critical Role, and to a lesser extent my own ONE SHOT have shown that you can indeed export the experience of RPGs to a mass audience. So far, actual play games have been traditional, just putting a mic or camera in front of a normal game. I’ve reached a point with my audience where I feel comfortable messing with the formula.
The Dungeon Dome is the type of campaign that wouldn’t really work without an audience. The players are disconnected, the story is primarily moved through one type of play, PVP is usually only fun for the winning parties, and the only person playing who experiences the whole thing is the DM. With an audience, these disconnected stories play out in a way that other people can experience. Having people observe play heightens the drama inherent to combat. The PVP element is fun win or lose because in wrestling a lose can be as beneficial to a character as a win. I can also use competitive challenges that would feel out of place in a traditional game.
I’m also folding in mechanics that allow the audience to actively participate in the game. By cheering on the team they support that can grant that team special abilities to use in the game. This is a chance for me to experiment with the form of observed play, a style I think we will see more of in design over the next few years.
Also, on a more personal note, if The Dungeon Dome funds, it will allow me to pursue game design and performance gaming full time. That would be rad!
How have you developed the initial project – setting, concept, and so on?
I drew inspiration from a few places. Primarily the WWE and Yuri on Ice.
For the past few years I have been lightly getting back into wrestling. I watched a little when I was 10, but I wasn’t a die hard fan, eventually I grew out of it. However, a lot of the podcasters I listen to are huge wrestling fans, and there are a surprising number of wrestling fans in nerdy spaces. More accurately it surprised me initially. Now the parallels between wrestling, superhero comics, LARP, and improv are glaringly obvious to me. I guess I was pretty mired in the perception of wrestling as “low art” which is really stupid.
Anyway, after watching some matches I saw a lot of things that I could appreciate, and a lot of things that frustrated me. There is still a lot of old fashioned misogyny and toxic masculinity in big company wrestling. To the point that I can’t really watch it regularly. I see that it has merit, and understand what people enjoy, but there is a lot that grates on me. I also don’t see enough of the kind of theatrical experimentation in televised wrestling. Like, Lucha Underground comes really close but I want really wild storytelling. I want to see Shakespeare plays told through wrestling matches. Mainstream wrestling, understandably, was not going to do that.
Competition is one of the main levers in traditional games. Crunch games really show off the wargaming DNA in RPGs, and war gaming is really competitive. People who know my work know I don’t feature a ton of tactical, crunchy games. I think ONE SHOT, for the most part, doesn’t lend itself to those games. Yuri on Ice, among other things, is a really good sports story. You love almost everyone in it, they are all driven and fierce, and in the end only one of them can win. Even as a written thing it had beautiful, surprising highs and lows. It was so good it made me long for competition drama at the table.
The Dungeon Dome became a way for me to explore competitive games, sports narratives, and the things I like in wrestling.
One final note, after I started work on this I discovered X Crawl through the podcast. It was another attempt at arena Dungeon Punk competition. It was neat there there were similar ideas in game design. We’re in slightly different places but I want to give them a nod.
What tech will you be using to bring Dungeon Dome to the people in accessible ways?
ONE SHOT has a production studio in Chicago outfitted with a four camera setup, good audio equipment, and decent lighting. I think we have one of the best-looking setups on twitch, at least for the space we can afford. I really wanted to have solid audio quality be cause it was important to me that folks be able to hear us clearly. We’re exporting all of our episodes to backers as podcasts as well, so folk how prefer/need to listen don’t need to bother with video files.
Ideally, I want to have some sort of replay transcript, but this might have to be a down the road priority. It bothers me that hearing impaired listeners don’t have access to so much of what we do. Stuff like subtitles and transcripts are a priority if we go far enough over our funding.
Elaborate a little on your reasons for liking actual play. What are your personal reasons for liking it, and your reasons as a creator? How do you think it’s influencing the heart of games?
Actual play excites me for so many reasons. The best way to grow the roleplaying hobby has always been to show people how much fun it is. The problem has always been that the experience of an RPG is difficult to show off. Games usually serve smaller groups, and explaining them has a “you had to be there” element for a lot of people. With actual play, people can actually be there. It’s experiencing RPGs second hand, but you still get to experience them. It completely changes the way the hobby grows.
On a personal and somewhat selfish level, games are the form of artistic expression that works best for me. I have Dyslexia and ADD as a result, I write very slowly. On top of that, just about everything I produce takes a lot of editing. I love storytelling, but writing has a major prohibitive barrier for me. A ton of traditional storytelling mediums require heavy writing: novels, films, TV, plays, ect. For someone in my position, that sucks.
Stories in games flow naturally for me. The improvisational nature of gaming drops all of those barriers. The performance aspect plays to one of my other strengths. At the table I feel confident and excited, it feels effortless. At times it feels like my ADD is an asset more than a liability. Actual play means that a games are viable performance space. Thanks to actual play my creative outlet is a career. I cannot express how huge that is.
How do you handle tone and support players when it comes to content in a game that’s effectively live? What happens when there is a “no”?
This is something that Kat (my best friend and business partner) and I have talked about this. Right now the plan is to just have an X Card. So far we haven’t run into X Card issues. TheDungeon Dome falls into a much more cartoony depiction of violence and triggering subjects. However you never know. Like, if a player has a phobia and a monster exhibits qualities of that phobia we’ll be in a tough spot. Especially if the monster is audience submitted. Thankfully games are flexible, so you can make changes on the fly.
For those who are curious, if an X Card shows up, we will say we have an X Card and explain what it means to the stream. Normally, you don’t do this. You don’t call attention to that sort of thing to protect the player. ONE SHOT is in a different position than normal games though. People look up to the network as community leaders. So If we get an X Card I want to show the audience how it is used. I want players advocating for X Card at their tables to be able to point to us and say “ONE SHOT does it.” We won’t force people to tell us why we need to change what we are changing, just show of that it is happening and the method we’re using to organize it.
Last thing – tell me about these audience participation mechanics. How do they work? Just how much can one person influence the game?
Boy howdy this is a good question! The Dungeon Dome is part performance, part live playtest. I fully expect The way The Dungeon Dome operates episode 1 of season one to be different than the way it works episode 15. We will testing out, adding, and changing audience participation mechanics throughout Season 1 if we fund.
Right now we have a few ways we know the audience can influence the story:
Backers can buy the right to directly collaborate with me on monsters, traps, items, and NPCs that will show up in The Dungeon Dome and directly affect matches, the overall story, and the game’s world.
During streams the audience can grant the team or performer they support Inspiration (a D&D 5e mechanic.) Normally inspiration is something the DM awards, but I have taken it completely out of my hands. I won’t be able to do it even if I want to.
In The Dungeon Dome games I ran before the Kickstarter, folks did this by spamming the chat with team hashtags. Now we are Twitch Affiliates, so we have access to Bits and Cheer. These are a gamified currency Twitch uses to allow a viewing audience to tip streamers. For The Dungeon Dome it could be a more effective and noticeable way for folks to influence the stream live.
Also in the pre-KS Dungeon Dome if a character dropped below 0 HP the audience could vote whether that character succeeded or failed on their Death Save. 3 failures would kill a character permanently. The audience still has this power and I think it’s pretty buck wild how much this could change the story.
That’s what we know. I fully expect to create more avenues for interaction but I need to experiment in order to find them.
Hi all, I had the chance to speak to Danielle Lauzon about her work at John Wick Presents, and wanted to share with you what she had to say. Danielle is a staff developer and design lead for the 7th Sea live-action roleplaying game, which is at Gen Con this year and should have a few spots left!. Danielle shared with me some of her background, too, so get to know her below!
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Danielle Lauzon
Tell me a little about yourself! What is your background in games, non-game work, and what do you love about what you do?
I’ve been playing RPGs since I was a kid. First trying to get my older brother to let me play AD&D or Magic: The Gathering with him, and then playing Nintendo with my mom. I finally got someone to play a tabletop with me in high school, which is also where I was introduced to Vampire: The Masquerade. When I got to college, I played in my first larp, and well, I’ve been playing pretty much whatever I can get my hands on ever since. I have played in, run, and organized games on every level from small table-tops to large larp events.
I have a Master’s degree in Animal Nutrition and worked as a neuroscientist for the past eight years, until I slowly transitioned to writing for games full time. I had originally wanted to go to Veterinary School, but when faced with a decision between Graduate School and Vet School, I jumped at research. I loved it, except no one told me that if I wanted to really practice my degree, I’d have to move to the Midwest. Let’s talk about how when I lived in Dallas, the place was too cold and dry for me. Anyway, I made due and put my research capabilities to work anyway. The rest I learned as I went. Now I use my degree to tell my friends why the new fad diet they are on is probably no good for them.
To say that I love what I do now is pretty much an understatement. My hobby has become my life, and it’s pretty damned cool. I get into high level game design discussions with people, and they actually take what I say with gravity. I get to go to larps all across the country as research for my job. I mean, other than the isolation of working from home as a fully fledged extrovert, it’s pretty cool.
It isn’t all fun and games though. Deadlines cause a lot of stress, and anyone who has ever written can tell you that writing every day is really a job.
What is happening with the 7th Sea larp? You have a broad plan for it, and I’d love to hear more.
Oh man, I’m so excited about the 7th Sea larp. We’re looking to create a multi-chapter Chronicle that can run for several years. Our goal is to create a meta-plot that incorporates the actions of individuals in different cities to steer it and give it life through over-arcing Stories. These Stories will be high level decisions that generally take place between games, something like inviting an important character into town, or directing troop movements. This isn’t something the characters do immediately, but their immediate support will go towards influencing the outcome of the Story. Some Stories will only be locally focused, but many will tie into that overarching meta-plot.
For the basic gameplay, we’re marrying some American Freeform/Nordic styles with some of 7th Sea Second Edition’s player facing action. I.E. the players mediate actions between themselves as much as they can. And when it comes to characters taking actions against Game Master threats or characters, they simply do, just like in the tabletop. The indecision comes from how the other players may react to what you do, or how your actions push the story forward, and not from whether or not you can do a thing. Of course you can do the thing, you’re a Hero!
As far as setting, I’ll have to refrain from saying too much, other than it’s going to be set mostly in Theah. Though, characters from other areas of Terra may be allowed in the future.
What exactly does a staff developer do in a games company? What is rewarding about it?
You ever wonder how a game book goes from a seed of thought in someone’s head to that beautiful 208 page, full-color supplement sitting in your hands? Well, that’s what I do. Developers in general take the seed of an idea, figure out how it looks in book form, outline the book including giving direction on themes, moods, and overarching story. Then I hire writers to take my ideas and direction and make them into chapters. Then I work with an editor to polish that writing. Then I work with the layout artist to make sure that stuff looks good on the physical page. I work with the art director to make sure the art they ask for fits the themes and mood of the book. Mostly, I’m like a project manager, I take the book from project to project and work with the person doing the work to make sure it fits the vision. If there’s a hole that needs filling, I write it. If there’s a question about the project, I answer it. If there’s feedback from the thousands of Kickstarter backers, I go through and incorporate it into the book, or cry about how I can’t rewrite the whole book to accommodate it.
As a staff developer, I do this for multiple books at a time. I also get to wear the unofficial hat of “Theah expert” here at John Wick Presents. Which really just means that I know where to find that piece of information about what year Eisen tried to invade Ussura and failed miserably.
What’s rewarding about it? Well, these books are like my babies. I get to see them out in the world, and people exclaiming over parts they love, and lamenting on how I cut out their sacred cows from the First Edition. (Something I’ll admit gives me great joy.) But really? I get to work with so many talented people each time I develop one of these books. I get an insight into so many different people’s writing styles and thought processes, and then I get to take the best parts of that and teach them to everyone else. Everyone learns, grows, and as I do more and work with these same people, I get to see them grow as professionals. That is by far the most rewarding part of my job.
What challenges do you encounter working over multiple projects and just keeping it all together?
Oh man, there are all sorts of challenges associated with it. The first being that it’s really hard to switch gears in a single day. I try to schedule stuff so that I can work on something different each day, but sometimes a lot of things come up in one day. I have two methods. The first is bullet journaling, where I make a monthly and daily task list and try to keep up with it as best I can. The other is spreadsheets. I keep project deadlines and schedules in spreadsheets so I don’t lose track. Between that and google calendar, which sends reminders for me (yay!), I am keeping it together. For the most part. Though sometimes things slip through the cracks. :/
Are there specific techniques, software, habits, and/or methods you use to go through the larp design process and separately, the development process?
Google Docs is a great invention that lets me share working projects with other people to get input. Larp writing is a collaborative process, no matter what anyone says. And beyond just converting rules into something larpable, I’m always coming up with scenarios for running the actual larps. And that need collaboration. The same is true with development. I use Dropbox and Google Drive the most for collaborative work, and word or excel files for stuff I keep locally.
As far as habits? Man, that one’s harder. I try to work when I can. Some days I get really distracted, or I can’t concentrate. On those days I make lists of stuff that need to get done to help me organize myself. I may make shopping list for larp props, and I might crowdsource questions I’m having problems solving on my own. Other days, I put my nose to the grindstone and write, edit, and create.
Have you ever had your background education and experience lead to a “whoa, this does not work!” moment when doing development work?
Never directly. I’ve had some moments where I think “science doesn’t work like this” and I might correct something small. For the most part, working with 7th Sea, I don’t have to worry about that. They weren’t known for their scientific genius so much during the Renaissance. Especially not in the fields of nutrition or neuroscience.
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Thanks so much to Danielle for answering questions and sharing so much about her work with me. Remember to check Gen Con schedules for the 7th Sea larp and watch for more from John Wick Presents!
This post was supported by the community on patreon.com/briecs. Tell your friends!
I had a chance to talk with Sean Nittner on the subject of Big Bad Con, which is currently Kickstarting, and we got his whole crew in one big Google Doc to answer questions about the con.
This is a VERY LONG interview, so it’s behind a cut after the introductions.
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Tell me a little about yourself and how you’re involved with Big Bad Con. What’s your role? What’s important to you?
SL: I’m Sophie Lagacé and I’m the Event Coordinator. That means working with other staff organizing specific event tracks like tabletop and live-action role-playing (RPGs and LARPs), Games on Demand, workshops and panels, and this year board games as well. I’m there to bridge the gaps and make sure the convention events come together as one big well-timed volley of fireworks.
What’s important to me is to help support and improve our community, whether we mean by that the gaming community or the local Bay Area community. I want more new people to feel welcome, to try and enjoy our hobby; and I want gamers to have an exceptional experience — as I do every time — at Big Bad Con.
I started gaming as a teen and I have the hobby to thank for some of the best things in my life, starting with my friends and family but also extending to practical skills as a facilitator, speaker, project manager, writer, and so forth. I want others to reap the same joys and benefits I have.
KT: I’m Karen Twelves, editor and marketing assistant. I review most of the communications that Big Bad Con puts out on the blog, emails, and through Kickstarter. I also do a lot of work on the convention programs–editing the game descriptions down to size, cross-checking the schedule. Con-wise what’s important to me is making sure that people get all the information they need, clearly and concisely.
I’ve been gaming since high school and love that BBC makes it so easy to play a variety of games and meet new people. Everyone’s just really excited to be there and committed to having a good time.
ED: I’m Ezra Denney, I am helping coordinate boardgames at BBC. I’m thrilled to be involved with my favorite con, and psyched to be giving back to a con that has given me so much. I really want to put boardgames on people’s calendar at BBC, and share my love of all games with the attendees.
Table at Big Bad Con 2016
YK: I am Yann Kherian, simple volunteer at BBC. I have been attending since the first year. I now give a hand on the event, move tables, help people, smooth the games-on-demand dispatching, make the participants feel good. I love BBC as it has a different vibe than other cons, more indies games, and a very friendly community.
SN: Sean Nittner here. I wear a few hats for Big Bad Con. Last year we incorporated as a non-profit organization and I became the president of the board, which means I get cool moves like opening a board meeting and calling for votes (yes, our board meetings are powered by the apocalypse as well). The boards primary concern once the convention is underway, is the growth of our programs outside the con, specifically our outreach program to run games in schools. At the con itself, I work with all our coordinators to ensure we have a great list of games and events, and a hotel to play them all in.
I started running one-day conventions for Good Omens over a decade ago. I remember the first one felt like it was my birthday, Christmas, and Thanksgiving all rolled up into one day. I love watching people game and enjoy their time together. Over the years though, my focus has shifted from creating a place where we play great games to creating a place where everyone feels welcome and safe playing great games.
BH: I’m Bryanna Hitchcock and I help run the Big Bad Gauntlet. BBG is a flagship event with an interesting history. It started as a competitive event and has turned into a multi-table, shared RPG experience. In addition to the gauntlet, BBC always has an amazing schedule of excellent indie games run by designers and great local GMs.
But beyond the games there is another layer to BBC. It’s also a place where queerness and gender variance are accepted and even welcomed. I love that the community code of conduct is posted around the con. I feel safe there. I’m a trans woman and the BBC community has given me a place where both my hobby and identity feel welcome.
RO: My name is Ryan Ossum, and I am your Reigning, Defending, and Undisputed Champion of the Tell Me About Your Character Booth. Oh, I also run some games here, and maybe play in some, and stuff. My role is… Honestly, insignificant. I (for one shift or so a year since I learned of the Booth) stick myself in it and raise money for Doctors Without Borders by being that ear that wishes to hear your tales. The tales your friends are TIRED OF HEARING ABOUT. I haven’t heard them! I may… repurpose them… for nefarious plans later in games I’ll run elsewhere, but I want to know about it, and you. I want you to want to tell me more, because it’s $5 for 5 minutes of my therapy. Let me hear those tales of your gaming, for good and for justice!
AM: I’m Adrienne Mueller, Data Editor. For BBC 2016 I proofed and cross-referenced data from BackerKit, the BBC website and other sources to make sure all the information was accurate.
I offered to help out with BBC because I wanted to relieve some of the overhead for my friends, who were already devoting a ton of time and effort to make the con happen. It’s important to me that the good people who organize the con have support!
KS: I’m Kristin Sullivan and I am Present at the convention. I’d like to think I’m the back-up jack of all trades to the powerhouse that is Sean Nittner, but that’s giving myself way too much credit. Beforehand I bake for Little Red’s Basket. During the convention you can find me loitering behind or near the reg desk, heading up Games on Demand, or bopping between game rooms. I’m the person who can solve your problem and if I’m not, I’ll know just who can help us.
I love what Big Bad has become without sacrificing what it set out to do. From the beginning, we’ve been home to primarily indie and small press games, those games we collect and fall in love with but can’t get the damn home group to play. There’s no lack of confidence when I say Big Bad offers the best spread of RPGs on the west coast. Couple that with the welcoming atmosphere the con provides, arms outstretched to welcome every flavor of participant, and it’s a premiere convention, unmatched by any other I’ve attended.
Also, see Ryan in the booth. He truly is legendary. Is it even braggadocio if it’s so damn true?
NB: Hello, I’m Nathan Black. I’m the Community Coordinator for Big Bad Con. I wrote the Community Standards under Sean’s careful supervision. Big Bad Con 2015 was my first trip to BBC, and I fell in love immediately. Everyone was kind and welcoming and playing weird and interesting games. My role on site is more of a support role, checking with people and making sure that everyone is doing ok.
It is very important to me to protect and nurture our community. We have a great cross section of people at Big Bad. Our diversity and inclusiveness is our strength.
Ryan may be the champion of the booth, but Nathan sure as heck makes it look good.
SM: I am Shantih Moriarty, the chick who wanted board games. I harassed Sean earlier this year about having a proper board game track, and he said that would be great if someone would organise it.. And I grabbed Ezra :D.
CF: I’m Colin Fahrion, a graphic designer, gamer, immersive performance artist, experience designer, and royal portrait photographer for Prince Wrinkles Nonesuch (my cat who has way more my Instagram followers than I do). I have since I was young loved games, art, and design, and I am fascinated by those places where they all intersect.
I’ve been going to Big Bad Con for five years both as a player and a GM running games. Last year, I joined on as the head of marketing and the website — bringing my design, front-end web, and communications skills to the team. I decided to join on as I really love the Big Bad Con community, the staff, and all that they do to create a welcoming event that encourages creative play!
What are you most looking forward to about Big Bad Con? Is there anything that’s happened before or that’s new that’s really piqued your enthusiasm?
SL: Big Bad Con is my favourite weekend of the year, it’s my Christmas. I have been there since the first edition in 2011. Some of the best memories I have over its six years of existence include exciting adventures with excellent people — in the Asteroid Belt, near Loch Ness, in the ‘Verse, in Aldea, on Coruscant, or above Stalingrad — and shared meals and drinks, peppered with gaming tales. The player caliber is amazing. The people who come to Big Bad Con are there to try new things and they are so enthusiastic about jumping into the story!
KT: I love seeing what larps are going on; there’s always something cool and fun that I’ve never heard of before. It’s really exciting to try out new RPGs—sometimes run by the designers!—or see a well-loved classic get some attention.
Editing the schedule can be so hard sometimes because after reading each and every game description, I have such a hard time deciding what to sign up for!
ED: I think the renewed focus on boardgames at BBC is pretty exciting. We have more gaming space than ever before, great games that you can play to win, and 2 staff people focused on making your time in the boardgame room awesome.
YK: With the time we know the participants and shared many adventures. Nowadays at each table there is always someone I played with in the past. I also love the public here, they are very eager to try new stuff, I use BBC to bring strange games, and run some europeans game RPG gems. Maybe one day will I wake up early to run with the wolf.
SN: This year we’re moving Games on Demand and improving our staffing level there. I’m also encouraging more GMs to submit games and I hope to have a really robust track. We’re adding board games as well. I have so many good friends who love their Thurn & Taxis more than their Dungeons & Dragons, so I’m really happy to be adding that to! But most excited…seeing old friends and welcoming new peeps to the con, it’s the best part every year!
BH: I’m always really excited for the Big Bad Gauntlet. I love playing and running games, especially Fate and Monster of the Week. At BBC I get to do that with a bunch of brilliant, open-minded people.
An off-kilter table at Big Bad Con 2016. 😉
RO: What am I most looking forward to? Honestly, it’s two things equally. First is the Tell Me About Your Character Booth, because I bought myself a championship belt I plan on wearing during my shift to hopefully draw more attention to the booth and what it’s there for in general. Second, and again, equally important to me, is that I’m running three games this year at Big Bad Con. Each of these games I am planning on running have the same THEME, but do not have the same setting. I want to see just how differently my groups of players play the same scenario (which can be explained upon request) but in three wildly different settings. Those settings are 1) A Sailor Moon-esque high school, 2) A Star Wars Padawan Training Facility, and 3) Xavier’s School For The Gifted from the X-Men universe. Those two sets of activities combined are what I’m more excited about.
AM: Playing new games and meeting new people! BBC always offers a huge range of games, and I love getting to try out new systems and settings. Also, BBC has been expanding a lot and I think it will have even higher attendance in 2017. I love gaming with friends I seldom get to see, but I also love getting to play with amazing strangers. The caliber of BBC attendees is really high, and some of my favourite games have been one-shots with people I’ve never met before.
Games on Demand is being expanded! The first BBC I attended I hadn’t signed up for any games and GoD games were the only games I got to play. They’re one of my favourite parts of gaming conventions and I’m really happy that BBC’s GoD is getting even bigger and better.
KS: Seriously, Ryan bought a championship belt? I’ve deleted all my answers to just say I’m looking forward to that.
Honestly, I love the people. Now, if you know me, you’ll cough obscene words behind your hand when I say that, mostly referencing the waste of a male bovine, but it’s still true. Big Bad provides my favorite injection of beautiful humanity every single year. I find it invigorating. The vast majority of these attendees I only see once a year, in October, at the convention, and the truth of that is that it’s a shame. But if that’s what I can get, I’ll take it.
I think that’s why I love being at or near the reg desk. I love watching everybody come through, being the first to greet return attendees and meet newcomers. It’s like keeping two fingers on the pulse of the con and finding comfort in the steady flow.
This year, I think I’d like to actually sign up for a game. That’d be a first…ha!
NB: Of course Ryan has a championship belt. HE IS A CHAMPION.
I’m looking forward to seeing friends old and new.
Last year we introduced a convention-wide game reinforcing our shared values called Big Bad World. Everyone gets to pick a playbook when they get to the convention and gets experience points for doing nice things for each other. It’s a fun way to remind people that we are all together in this and playing to make a better community. I am really proud of what we are doing at BBC and it is totally a highlight of the year.
SM: BBC is so fun because you get an INCREDIBLE amount of systems, and people who are excited about them. They invite you into their worlds, and you get to play in them. I am also a HUGE fan of the sign up system, and am excited about some of the possible changes to make it better this year. I am also looking forward to having the snot beat out of me in terraforming Mars.
CF: My staff role with Big Bad Con is mostly all pre-con, so once the con starts it’s time to get my game on! Every year, I look forward to seeing what unique and interesting games people run. And every year, I look forward to running games myself because there are so many amazing creative people bringing their all to the table!
Last year, I co-produced and co-ran a “wide-con” game of the Warren with Jason Morningstar, Steve Segey, and Jeese Coombs — 4 GMs, 4 tables, 4 players per table all “playing to see what happens” in their Grand Warren rabbit society. I was thrilled see all the individual stories at each table of each rabbit clan and I was riveted by the larger Grand Warren story that was shaped as the action spilled out to the other tables! It was certainly an intense game with so much going on and honestly afterwards I was exhausted, but happily so! Unique play experiences such as this are what makes me keep coming back to Big Bad Con.
tiny kitties!
For coordinators:
What challenges do you encounter arranging the games, events, and overall setup of the con, and what do you find exciting about making them happen?
SL: I work with GMs to schedule solid events which we hope will interest players, and with event coordinators to arrange this into a coherent whole. I love the feeling I get when I can help find effective solutions for problems (I usually exclaim to myself: “Zoidberg helped!”), when I have a good idea for a special event, and when I manage to make someone’s job easier.
KT: We always have a badge-stuffing party with some of the volunteers (and people who got into town early and are crashing at our place) the night before the con. We order a ton of yummy food and put badges into badge-holders, fold and staple programs, and tackle any other last-minute tasks that might need doing. It can be a little hectic but with friends there it’s so much fun.
SN: Getting everyone into as many games as they want is always the great tetris game we play. First it’s a matter of making sure we have the games available. We do a lot of GM recruiting up front and then when a game fills up quickly we’ll often ask the GM if they want to run another session, or find other GMs who are known for running the same system. We also have the Games on Demand Track that’s specifically meant for folks who don’t want to plan out their games before the con, or who have an open slot they want to fill when they arrive.
The other side of making our games run smoothly is addressing cancellations. When game cancellations happen, especially last minute, we look for replacement options for the players. Either other games they can get into, or replacement GMs to run the game (or something similar). We’re so fortunate to have a host of great GMs, many of which have stepped up in the last minute to run a game. And when players aren’t able to make a game, we post the opening to try and find another person to take their place. In the past that has been through a manual sign up sheet on the wall, but we’ve always found those sheets hard to navigate. Too many games, too small font, and no way to guarantee that if someone cancelled a game online, we’d update the sheets in time for someone else to see the opening. This year we’re going to keep open our digital sign ups throughout the con so players can see what’s open real time and sign up for games either from their mobile devices or from Kiosks at the registration desk.
For marketing:
How do you market a con that’s got so much energy, so much going on, and capture it all – both word of mouth and official communication?
KT: We do a lot of word of mouth marketing for sure. We’ve got a lot of supporters who volunteer to promote it while at other conventions, or pass out fliers where appropriate. What’s very touching for me is the praise for the con I see on social media that’s completely unsolicited–people really love Big Bad Con and want to spread the word!
CF: The plethora of games themselves do a lot to promote the con. Big Bad Con attracts a lot of really creative people running great games. As a result, a lot of our promotion of the con is actually promotion of the game masters and designers themselves. The list of games for Big Bad Con has just started to fill in as people submit their games. But already it is filled with some really unique and interesting games including some playtests. Once the games list fills up there with be something for everybody. Actually, one of the common “complaints” from people is that there are so many great games that they wish they had a clone so that they can play all the games they want to play. It’s a good problem to have!
Specifically for those coordinating games:
How do you filter or choose what games get scheduled? Do you have criteria, and if so, what?
SL: Because Big Bad Con places its priorities on creating an amazing, welcoming experience at the individual level rather than based on number of attendees, it requires tasks that resemble more a game day event than a typical game convention. In particular, we actively recruit GMs who we know are particularly good, and we work with them individually to present their game in the most attractive fashion we can. Since we’ve been inviting attendee feedback since year one, we now have a pretty solid roster of people who return to run excellent games that receive player acclaim.
As far as criteria, we mostly leave it to what GMs feel like running; however, we also create our own wish list of hot new games and perennial favourite titles, and if people ask us for suggestions, we draw from it. If there is something that really seems to be missing by the time we’re approaching online game signups, we recruit among a pool of GMs who are often willing to pitch in to run something new.
SN: Sophie has it all!
Fall of Magic in action.
For anyone:
What excites you about Big Bad Teens and Outreach? How do you get involved?
KT: When promoting Big Bad Teens for its first run 2016, we reached out to a lot of gaming clubs at local middle schools and high schools to let them know about the con. I enjoyed connecting with Bay Area teachers and am really excited about our plans to bring more games to young players outside of the convention weekend.
SN: Outreach is our chance to introduce locals both to Big Bad Con and to tabletop gaming! We’re still developing the curriculum, but I’m very excited about running games for teens in the Bay Area, and hopefully having some of them out at Big Bad Con after that!
How does the scholarship program work?
KT: The Scholarship Fund supports women, people of color, and disabled or lgbtqia+ individuals in need of a little extra assistance to attend the con. It goes towards travel, hotel, and badge fees, for as many applicants as we have the funds for. The application for the Scholarship Fund is over on our website (http://www.bigbadcon.com/big-bad-con-scholarship-fund/) and people can contribute to the Fund through the Kickstarter!
What are bonus things — rewards, recognition — that people can take away from the con?
SL: On the tangible side, there are the various pins you can collect for the various to pitch in — GMing, volunteering, chipping in on the Kickstarter campaign, donating to the food bank or to Doctors Without Borders, and so forth. You can also collect playbooks for our meta-game, Big Bad World. Some game companies also provide prizes for those who try their games at the convention.
But to me the real reward that stays with me the rest of the year is playing and hanging out with great people and, the next time I see them, thinking “Oh, I know them, they’re so great to play with!” I keep relationships online, at game day events, at other conventions, and in regular campaigns.
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Thanks so much to everyone for participating in the interview! It was great to hear about the con and everything involved. The Big Bad Con Kickstarter still has a little longer to go – don’t miss out on backing if it sounds like a good time to you! Note: I don’t currently have notes for who took these photos, but I will check with Sean to see if I can update this with those names!
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