Last weekend was the Dice + Diversions Convention held in northwest Atlanta. Last year we gave it a shot and had a great time. Considering all the conventions I end up going to for Roleplaying purposes are these huge places with crazy attendance numbers, having a smaller 3-day con in your backyard is a great change of pace. In addition, this year the group won’t be attending Gen Con do to a bigger trip for my wife and I at the end of the year (gotta conserve those PTO days), this was a perfect opportunity to go play some games in a more intimate setting.

Daggerheart

We actually had played an earlier version of Daggerheart a couple of years ago at Gen Con. I remember enjoying the game well enough with its use of the Fear/Hope rolls where there is definitely an additional tension placed on the gameplay as the players begin gaining Hope points – which allow them to use some of their more powerful abilities and help their allies. On the other side is every roll can potentially give the GM a Fear point. These allow him to effectively introduce new complications into the story. However, the biggest place these normally come into play is during combat. Since there isn’t a specifc Initiative or Battle Order, the GM can spend a Fear point to have the Bad Guys jump the line and get an attack or two in on the characters.

This time around we got to play as teenagers who found themselve as new recruits in a joint school among the various powers of the world. Of course, our group were more Outsiders than not which meant that it was only a matter of time that we were going to find ourselves on the other side of some school bullying in the cafeteria. Which means that a food fight is bound to happen!

After navigating that, we got onto the adventure proper which involved traveling to another world/land and trying to find our way home without getting killed in the process!

One thing I did notice this time is with the number of Fear Points the GM has acquired by the end of the session, the combat can end up something like this:

Player A attacks

GM uses a Fear Point – Villain 1 attacks

GM uses a Fear Point – Villain 2 attacks

Player B attacks

GM uses a Fear Point…

While it ramps up the threat level, it can also very quickly lead to a situation where the PC group suddenly is only getting 1 attack vs. 2 or 3 attacks from the Bad Guys. I’d be interested in seeing how various tables handle it.

Cypher System

In some ways I feel like the Cypher System does its best to facilitate just enough to assist the GM in moving the narrative of the game along. Which allows it to be used in a number of settings and adventure styles. Our game had us a Deep Underwater Engineers and Marine Biologists involved in trying to figure out what lay at the bottom of the ocean (somewhere off the coast of New Zealand).

The nice thing about the adventure was that the first part was very mundane, which was nive because it gave us all a chance to get our feet underneath us in regards to not only the game system, but also our characters and how they were going to interact with each other.

However, that slower start led us straight into a more dangerous and horrific reality that not only were we not alone at the bottom of the ocean, something might be looking for way to ensure that we didn’t make it back to the surface… ever.

CBR+PNK

We ended the day with a good old fashion romp into a Cyberpunk Horror game of CBR+PNK! It was definitely my favorite game of the day as the GM really leaned into the gonzo aspects of the setting while allowing us to retain as much character agency as possible. This began with him giving us some choices on what exactly our mission was going to be. We chose a rescue mission.

And then we were in the mix, getting dropped onto the planet via a capsule screaming to the ground at terminal velocity! Then it was a quick cut into the moment where we had rescued our target but now were being chased by his captors. It was one cinematic moment after another where you didn’t know if your character was going to have a chance to catch their breath.

As the session continued, we all got to see that this game was going to potentially have some casulties. But that’s the thing with mercenaries, you go into each job hoping that it is going to be the LAST ONE, but then you get a limb blown off or your back broken, or you have to bribe way too many enemies to possibly have any coin when you get back home. So yeah, you survive… but now you just need One More Job…

While we were only there on Saturday, everyone we talked with/gamed with/interacted with all seemed to be having a great time, and I feel pretty confident that we’ll be back next year!

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One friendly reminder that I have a new comic coming to Kickstarter in a couple of weeks: You Must Be This Tall To Ride (which you can see the Map of the Amusement Park at the beginning of this blog)! The Prelaunch Page is now LIVE (click on the banner below), so go and check it out, hit that “Notify” button to be sure and get your copy on Day 1!

Thanks for reading!

-John McGuire