Forge Midwest Love

[Blankshield]

Man, that was magnificent.  I would totally do it again.  It was like Gencon without the soul-crushing exhaustion, crowds of strangers and time demands. 

I ran me some Dogs, guided a round of Death's Door, and killed the Mountain Witch.  I learned the crack which is Jungle Speed, and spent many many hours just yakking about games and gaming and other shit too.

Favorite gaming moments:  Seeing Death's Door played for what may well be the first time "in the field" barring short demos, and having it work exactly like the playtests, except meaner.  Man, we had us some soul-crushing antagonists.  Well played by all.  And in Dogs, saying to Raven "You read the Communist Manifesto, and basically it's totally against the faith" and having him back up and override me "No, I'm thinking this is a conflict."  SWEET.  The manifesto totally owned his ass.  And the other players looked at each other and one said "I'm thinkin' we might need to put a bullet in Brother Seth."

Snapshots of beauty: Dogs: "No, this is something you have to do." Death's Door: "I walk with him." Mountain Witch: "Bring [his eyes] to me.  I want you to put them in my hand."

Least favorite: the smoking in bars thing.  What's up with that?  Also that I was the first guy to leave on Sunday.  Man, did I ever not want to go.

James

[Jared A. Sorensen]

Why did you come again?

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

If I want to experience pain and humilation, it's either that or go to a dominatrix. Jungle Speed is cheaper.

I would go again...maybe...but I'd probably do more Chicago stuff and less hanging out at the hotel stuff. I'd also cock-punch Luke so hard that his eyepatch flies off his head.

[Iskander]

Did you enjoy yourself? Hugely. Awesome fun, great people, great gaming, great hanging-out.

Would you come back again? In a heartbeat.

What did you play? Paul's newer new project (Extemporal I think?), then Donjon and The Mountain Witch with Tim who is a sweet kind of laid-back evil, HeroQuest with Mike Holmes, playtested my game White Dragon with some very generous victims. Also, Jungle Speed (3 out of 4 mighty victories with a 10-pint hangover, die bitches, die, die, die!), Memoir 44 and Bait the Fauxlack.

Highlights: being a snotty little blowhard bitch to Julie's Sierra Club granola-boy in Paul's game, having Jason put my eyes out in the Mountain Witch, breaking Victor's doomed little heart in Heroquest, playtesting WD at all, yapping with Luke, Thor, John and Paul about Paul's TROS game and gaming in general, tag-team snoring with Thor.

Lowlights: not getting to play <game> with <everyone>, teh stinXzor of cigarrette smoke. Not playing a game on Friday night (except Jungle Speed), not gaming more on Sunday... i.e.: more, please!

[John Harper]

I enjoyed myself immensely. It was so good to meet everyone face to face and find out that yes, you really are wonderful people.

I will definitely be back.

I played Dust Devils, Nine Worlds, Freebooters, Stranger Things, and Galactic. Each game rocked.

Highlights:

• Hangin' with Matt Wilson and The Deuce! I miss you guys.
• Lots of booze and good chatting with the Matts, Andy, Ron, and everyone else.
• No hangover on Saturday!
• Cock-punch adopted as a general term.
• Playing in three games with Paul Tevis (and his killer Jayne impersonation).
• Hearing, "Are you making that game with the city tiles? That looks cool," many times.
• Luke's new project, which is swanky
• Andy K. He was a walking highlight reel. With hazel eyes.

Lowlights:

• Fucking Schaumburg. But it was cheap.
• Smoking bars. Gah.
• Not enough time to play everything and chat with everyone. A full day on Sunday would have been awesome.

Big, big thanks to Matt Snyder for putting this together. I think it was a huge success.

[Larry L.]

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...")

This sounds hilarious. I love seeing this sort of convention-group interaction. So did you actually interact with them?

[greyorm]

I love seeing this sort of convention-group interaction. So did you actually interact with them?

Related to that, there was a wedding party there the same time we were, and Juli was telling us that she talked to a couple of the women(?) who had passed by the rooms. They told her that "It looked like we were having lots of fun."

[Paul Czege]

Did you enjoy yourself?

Yes.

Would you come back again?

The drive around Lake Michigan is certainly dreadful, longer than the commute to GenCon by 20%, and through worse traffic. But, yes.

What did you play?

I ran Extemporal (an experimental game that I need to be better about back-burnering in favor of writing Acts of Evil), and Acts of Evil. I played Dust Devils, Nine Worlds, and a couple of scenes of the The Shab-al-Hiri Roach.

What was your favorite game/moment?

Nine Worlds was really fun (a surprising order of magnitude more fun than Dust Devils, when I'd been expecting the two games to deliver roughly equivalent fun) but I have to go with running Acts of Evil on Saturday for Chris Moore, Clyde L. Rhoer, Tom Fitch, and Kelli (whose last name I never got). I've been running a local playtest, and making incremental mechanical adjustments between sessions, but this was my first time for my revised chargen scheme, rethought scene framing, and the incremental mechanical adjustments as a complete package. And the players were great and everything hung together so well that it's clear I'm totally over the hump system-wise. Not many things can top that particular feeling.

Least favorite?

How nervous I was while Paul Tevis was interviewing me on Sunday afternoon. I should not have asked him beforehand how many listeners he has.

Paul

[Judd]

How nervous I was while Paul Tevis was interviewing me on Sunday afternoon. I should not have asked him beforehand how many listeners he has.

Um...how many?

[tylure]

I had a fantastic time, though my voice still hasn't completely recovered yet (combination of cigarette smoke in the air, and talking more and louder than I normally do).  I'd definately come back again, even if it were in a different location.  There were many things I hear about and watched in play that I didn't get a chance to play myself.

I played It Was a Mutual Decision on Friday night, which was a rather humorous and fun way to meet a whole lot of people.  It really was a good time.  On Saturday, I started out with Dogs in the Vinyard, which was the game I most wanted to play last weekend.  Thoroughly enjoyed that one, too, and the Seth versus The Communist Manifesto conflict was quite amusing.  Shannon's character (I can't remember the name...stared with a D I think) going up against the town constable was also a highlight.  I found out I really, really suck at Martian Chess and I should trim my fingernails before playing Jungle Speed.  Also played a quick game of Paths in there.  Then it was Heroquest, which was interesting.  After that, I just watched games (mostly Mountain Witch) and talked to people.  Sunday was Orx, which was also really cool, and I can see how it could evolve into all sorts of games ranging from amusing to total bloodbaths.  And then Universalis, which I really liked.  I don't know that I was all that good at thinking of creative things by that point in the weekend...but it was a lot of fun anyway.

I think that was everything...

I also really enjoyed the opportunity to meet a whole bunch of really cool people.  I think the people were actually the best part of the whole weekend.  Intelligent, funny, interesting, creative.  Most awesome.

Amusing yet non-gaming moments:  Being asked by someone first thing Saturday morning what career track I was hoping for, as he thought I was there to take the civil service exam and explaining I was there to play games not to be tested.  Being asked in the hallway by a lady attending a wedding there what our group published and trying to explain it.  Then she wished me luck with whatever game I was working on.  Which I'm not...I fall under the catagory of 'guinea pig' not 'mad scientist.'

I really can't think of any bad points to the weekend, outside of almost losing my voice which isn't anyone's fault but my own, really.  The hotel was really disorganzed, but it didn't have a huge imact on things.  Just some minor dents here and there.  And there were games I wanted to try (My Life With Master comes to mind) but didn't get the chance to.  There will be other opportunities on that front, I am sure.

- Juli

[Paul Czege]

Um...how many?

Over 800. How does Sons of Kryos compare?

Paul

[Judd]

Um...how many?

Over 800. How does Sons of Kryos compare?

Paul

Huh, we haven't checked in ages.  I'll ask Jeff.

[ivan23]

Did you enjoy yourself? Yeah, absolutely. As the evening went on I was wishing I'd decided to stick around for one more game, since I didn't get to sample a few I'd really been interested in (Polaris, Mountain Witch, and Nine Worlds. And on a personal level, met a lot of folks who were both great gamers and people, which is always a nice bit o' duality.

Would you come back again? Oh yes, in a heartbeat. So long as we had sufficient warning I'm totally in – it would've been worth it even at a higher price.

What did you play? Death's Door and My Life With Master, both of which were great experiences. Kesher's an excellent Master, and I hope his hand heals quickly ; ) James' Death's Door system has had me thinking for quite a long time since playing.

What was your favorite game/moment? Buh. I think for me it was locking the village weaver in another minion's secret garden, knowing it would destroy the garden and infuriate the master; and watching helplessly as she was dragged away to spark the endgame.

Least favorite Moment? Probably the pre-event "hang around and pretend you know each other" bit, but I'm to blame there for showing up so damn early. Bad habit on my part.

[ptevis]

Least favorite?

How nervous I was while Paul Tevis was interviewing me on Sunday afternoon. I should not have asked him beforehand how many listeners he has.

You did fine. You were a little nervous at the beginning (which I was able to fix in the edit) but once you got rolling, it was nice and smooth. I screwed up by not asking leading enough questions (and by messing up something on technical side so that my microphone essentially wasn't on) but I'm reasonably happy with the way it turned out. Thanks for sitting down with me; it should go out today.

--Paul

[ptevis]

Did you enjoy yourself?

How could I not?

Would you come back again?

Perhaps. It was awesome, but it required a lot of time on a plane relative to the amount of time I got to spend with folks. If there was more happening on Friday or Sunday, that'd sway my opinion.

What did you play?

Jungle Speed (obviously)
Villainy with Jason and Jared
The "Seven Deadly Sins"/"The Wild Bunch" Dust Devils game
John Harper's TSOY pirate game
Nine Worlds

Other people have talked about these, so I don't too much of a need to unless prodded.

What was your favorite game/moment?

Luke, Thor, and Alexander showing me what exactly I was unhappy with about my ongoing Riddle of Steel game and how to fix it.

Least favorite?

Screwing up the technical side of the interviews I did, resulting in usable content but less than pleasant sound quality. You live, you learn.

--Paul

[Matt Snyder]

Where to begin? Easy. This was an amazingly fun weekend. Just superb.

So, obviously I enjoyed myself, and I can't wait to come back for next year.

My favorite moment of the weekend was getting to hang out with friends old and new. My isolated soul needed that more than you can know.

My leasrt favorite moment of the weekend was realizing that I spent way too little time talking with friends as I fluttered about being your friendly cruise director. Sorry guys. You know who you are.

My favorite game moment (and there were many) was playing Dust Devils again and again (and again) and falling in love all over again with the game. I see Wilson's already got at least one actual play post. There were some awesome Western moments. (Favorite Moments Runners-Up: Playing out the propoganda war on Mercury in the Sunday Nine Worlds game. Having my cut-throat Freebooters character fall in love with the witch ... that he just murdered. Watching everyone die in a literal Mexican stand-off in the Unmagnificient Seven Saturday Dust Devils game.)

My least favorite game moment was ... probably peering over the shoulders of an awesome looking game and not getting in on the thing. I played (rather than GM'd) only one game all weekend.