Forge Midwest Love

[Luke]

Where's the love? Is everyone still too exhausted to post?

So, ye who attended, what did you think?

Did you enjoy yourself?

Would you come back again?

What did you play?

What was your favorite game/moment?

Least favorite?

my own answers:
I had a good time. It was nice not to be running demos/selling shit. I'll try to be there next year!

I played a little: Jungle Speed, Memoir 44, Sorcerer and two demos of my new project.

I have three favorite moments: 1) Hearing Keith shriek, "The purplah!" during Jungle Speed on Friday. 2) Ralph getting up from his chair and calmly shaking my hand with a big smile on his face after we playtested my new game. (Best. Feeling. Evar.). 3) Brainstorming with Keith and Thor about Keith's new project.

Least favorite: 1) Having Ron step on the throat of my kicker and say, essentially, "Nah, I don't think you're going to push that enough. We'll go in this direction." (Yes, this still nettle me.)  2) The ugly fact that you can still smoke in bars and restaurants in Illinois.

how about you?

-Luke

EDIT: Forgot that I played Greg Stolze's Dysfunctional Family Reunion. Spewing insults at Keith and telling Dro to pull up his pants was so natural that I forgot it was a game.

[Matt Wilson]

Yeah, baby! I gots teh love! I had a monstrous good time.

A combo of least favorite and most favorite moment was waking up with massive grinding headache on Saturday and then being rescued by Luke and ibuprophen (I think he made a circles test to find it).

It was way way awesome to see people that I don't get to see nearly enough. And also meeting new people.

Funniest moment was probably Andy K on Friday night at dinner re: adopting children from China. "It's like the new SUV."

Favorite gaming moment might have been when my character's so-called mates decided to trade him in exchange for the key in John H's Freebooters scenario. Paul Tevis! You're a scoundrel and a knave!

Played: new Dust Devils, which totally rocks; Stranger Things, which totally rocks; Luke's super-sekrit project, which totally rocks; Freebooters, which totally rocks; Galactic, which was teh b0rked but will totally rock eventually thanks to big help from Daniel, Sarah and John. They'll all get AP reports from me unless someone beats me to the punch.

Matt Snyder did some serious rock and roll putting this thing together. I can't wait for the next one.

[Keith Senkowski]

I did enjoy myself.  Even if I didn't play in any games I would have had a good time.  I want this to be an every year thing.  It's a chance to hang with folks you see maybe twice a year.

I played very little.  Jungle Speed, Memoir 44, Luke's awesome new project (two different aspects of it)* and Greg Stolze's proto game.

Favorite Moments: Pulling Mayuran out of his chair in my bid to have the totem, brainstorming about my new project with Luke and Thor, bullshitting at the bar on Friday with lots of folks, and the firefight with Ralph, Matt, and Oscar was most excellent.

Least Favorite: My only issue was the location.  If we are going on the cheap, which is good for out of towners, we should get a spot in Rosemont next time.  Probably a little more money, but it is right by the blue line, which runs 24 hours and lets folks go into the city easily.

* Both very different experiences in the same game and both rawked making me hungry for the final project.

[chris_moore]

I really enjoyed meeting everyone and playing, playing, playing.

Favorite moments:  - Realizing that the two hesitant guys with the paper and pencils in the lobby were NOT, in fact, Forgites, but civil service test-takers.  ("In the test, they made us pretend to be Mormon cowboys...")
- The ending of My Life with Master with Ivan, Aaron, Cloud, and Jason.  Smothered in the flesh of the Avenging Angel.
- Acts of Evil.  I want to do it again and again.
- Matching names and faces.
Least favorite:  - being banished from one of the gaming rooms.
                     
See you all (and many more, hopefully!) next year!
Chris Moore

[Thor Olavsrud]

I had a blast! I can't wait to do it again. Matt S. you rawk! Also, Keith, you were a mensch for leaving work early to pick us up at the airport.

I played Jungle Speed, Memoir 44, playtested Greg's dysfunctional family reunion game, HeroQuest, and playtested Alexander's White Dragon.

Favorite Moments: Hanging with friends I only get to see a few times a year, meeting some new ones, and pwning Jared at Jungle Speed. Suckah! Watching Ralph and Paul turn into Jungle Speed Junkies. Also, finally getting to gush about the new project to folks and to take some of what we've learned through it to brainstorm some very cool ideas for Keith's new project. Luke pantomiming fellating a shot gun while moaning "Nam! Nam!"

Least Favorite Moments: Missing the chance for a first look around Chicago. It's still on the to-do list.

[Jason L Blair]

I day-tripped there with my buddy Caz on Saturday and tried to get as much gaming action as I could. I was immediately pulled into a few rounds of Jungle Speed and proved, once and for all, that lions are not the kings of the jungle, went on to play VILLAINY with Paul Tevis and Jared Sorensen, Dust Devils with six other players and Matt Snyder, and ended the day with a game of The Mountain Witch run by Tim Kleinert.

I had a blast and would definitely attend again. As I've said elsewhere, it was the best money I'd spent at a convention in a long time.

I loved being at a convention where I wasn't an exhibitor, didn't have to shill or be tied to a booth, and knew a good percentage of the folks there. As I'm missing GenCon Indy this year, it was great to see folks I normally would've missed this year. As always, it was great meeting new folks. I've had a lot of convention meet-ups turn into great friendships, and that's one of the big reasons I like attending them.

I sincerely hope for ForgeCon 2 next year and will do what I can to help bring that about.

[jenskot]

I had a great time. Thanks to everyone involved!

I would come back again.

Possible changes I would like:

- Make Sunday an all day event as well.

- Hotel closer to the city. I would be willing to pay more. Easily $40 more.

- A communal table of random board and card games anybody can use.

- A short question and answer seminar? State of the community kind of affair.

- Maybe add an East and West coast version?

Some people complained about bad hotel service. I personally don't care about that. We got what we paid for. I would even dare say our rooms were too nice! I could have easily dealt with lesser accommodations. It's a minor trade off.

[Jared A. Sorensen]

High point: hanging out with Dav Harnish at a club then getting the abridged version of the "Holy shit...Chicago is fucking weird and cool!" driving tour of Chi-town at 3:30 in the morning. Despite the fact that I was sneezing black gunk (ah, New England anti-smoking laws...how I love thee). Seeing the Tribune building and the Sears Tower was hell of cool.

[Luke]

High point: hanging out with Dav Harnish at a club then getting the abridged version of the "Holy shit...Chicago is fucking weird and cool!" driving tour of Chi-town at 3:30 in the morning. Despite the fact that I was sneezing black gunk (ah, New England anti-smoking laws...how I love thee). Seeing the Tribune building and the Sears Tower was hell of cool.

Why did you come, again?

[Keith Senkowski]

Why did you come again?

To be PWNED in Jungle Speed.  He likes the humiliation.

[greyorm]

Where's the love? Is everyone still too exhausted to post?

Being that I made it home at midnight last night and woke up about ten minutes ago...yeah. FM was GREAT. The weekend was incredibly awesome, and I hope we do another next year.

What did you play? I played, in order: It Was a Mutual Decision, Dogs in the Vineyard, Death's Door, Jungle Speed, The Mountain Witch, Universalis, and Orx. I will reflect on a few of those individually in Actual Play, unless others beat me to it. I had a blast with these.

What was your favorite game/moment? Yes, I played Orx, and that was my almost favorite moment because it does my heart good to see people having a blast with it. There were incredible moments in the play of other games that are going to be fondly recalled, too. But what really jazzed me about the weekend was the people. We had a great group there, and I am glad to have had the chance to meet (and catch up with) and play with people, because, honestly, the games could have rocked, but without the people, it wouldn't have been anything.

Least favorite? Nothing about the convention specifically, though I was surprised and embarassed/aggravated to find myself feeling socially awkward at various times throughout the weekend.

[Clyde L. Rhoer]

I had much more fun than I anticipated. I would definately come back. I played three games I've never played. Dust Devils, Acts of Evil, and Heroquest. I'd play any of them again. I'd especially like to get a chance to play Acts of Evil over multiple sessions. My character totally got beat up by the system, which drove him in a different direction than I intended, but was still totally awesome. My favorite moment was in Acts of Evil, failing to pull out a drunks heart in prison to show my dedication to gaining power before my teacher, and failing. The drunk beat me into unconciousness with the toliet lid. That was a great scene. The TPK in Heroquest was pretty cool too.

I think if there's a next time I will shoot for getting a room on Saturday so I can game well past Midnight, sleep a few hours and start up again on Sunday. Madison is about a 2 hour drive and no one wanted to make the trip back to do it again for the short schelduled time of Sunday. Since drive time would exceed game time.

[jrs]

Most certainly did I enjoy myself.  We have got to do this again.  (I like Keith's idea to change the venue to Rosemont, but I don't know how that might affect cost.)

Let's see, I played Paul's new game the title of which I cannot recall (not Acts of Evil, the other one), Greg's Dysfunctional Family Reunion, Dust Devils, Alexander's White Dragon, and The Shab-al-Hiri Roach.  I played a couple non-rpg's: Beowulf and Jungle Speed.  I also watched a large chunk of Death's Door play, and lurked about while Paul Tevis conducted a couple interviews.

Favorite moments were many, here's a few:
Playing opposite Alexander's portrayal of a bratty 9-year old daughter of the President (Paul's new game);
Playing opposite Ralph's pemberton agent in Dust Devils;
Working out a way to fix the drinking mechanic in White Dragon (I love that stuff, really, I do);
Hanging out with folks I don't see very often and meeting new people.

Least favorite, not much to speak of:
Exhausting my ability to come up with horrible things to say in Dysfunctional Family Reunion;
Lack of sleep.

Julie

[Luke]

some pics from the NY point of view:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/61684657@N00/?saved=1

last pic from the con is on page 5. They stop before the napkin.

-L

[Mike Holmes]

For whatever it's worth, this is my ten-thousandth post to The Forge. I rigged it that way, today, as a way of commemorating the fun I think we all had this weekend. I was only able to be there on Saturday, but it was just as great as I'd always imagined it would be.

Thanks to Matt Snyder for finally making it happen. And thanks to all of you for being such a great bunch of friends.

Raven, I completely understand what you're saying about Orx. That is, my favorite games were the HQ sessions I ran, not because they were the best games ever, but because they were successful, and I had created the scenario. Basically because I contributed to those sessions more than any others, and they turned out well. Nothing more self-actualizing than realizing that your creative efforts are appreciated. Yes, being a player in a game and contributing, that's good stuff too. But validating ones design sweat is the best.

And, hey, any session in which your scenario prompts the players to create a Total Party Kill - that's right, I didn't even have to kill them myself, they all killed themselves and each other - well that warms the heart. Might be a first in the annals of Hero Quest. You guys rock!


What it all comes down to is this. If this little con doesn't happen again next year (or sooner), I'll make somebody pay!

:-)

Mike