Well, the debut was of the new ACTA cards I'm going to make for the Armageddon release. The players all were VERY enthusiastic about the cards, some had played warmachine and liked them very much.
They take up far less space on the table than any record sheet will, which is good.
Well, lets see, a minor report...OK. I did a lot of RPGing so if you're not interested in that too bad :wink:
for me, Day 1, Friday, started with a 140 mile drive down to Burlingame, CA, south of SF, for the convention - after stopping for snacks at the local grocery store; food at conventions is pretty insanely priced. I stocked up heavy on the Granola bars.
Friday I paid a quick visit to the Chessex booth in the Dealer room, bought my required convention dice (hard to attend a game convention without buying a new set of dice...we all have our addictions), and then settled in for 8 hours of Living Greyhawk RPGA. I wa scheduled for 2 slots, playing "Long Cold Watches of the Night, a Pale Into adventure using my 1st level Centaur from the Bright Sands. Interesting but tough adventure, and as a result of one option I'll be boning up on my survival skills. Next was a pair of Mini-Missions, which are half-length games that basically count as one. One was just silly, the other had a stupid trap that very nearly resulted in a TPK (total party kill). Arr.
Day 2, Saturday, I demoed ACTA in the morming for 4 hours and had 2 4-hour RPGA games later. The Demo went very well. I set up early to claim a proper number of tables (which always seem to be in short supply) and set up all the books and minis along one table edge for a sort of display. As it drew interest, I was able to get 4 players, which I set up in 2 teams of 2. Each player was given 4 raid points. 3 were EA and 1 was 4 white stars. They set up basically opposite one another, but then they decided to gang up on 1 player of the team, so the white stars went to help out his buddy, and not much combat happened on their side of the board. Due to various distractions, and the number of players, the combat ended without much resolution, but they all learned the basics of maneuvering, combat, beams and interceptors, and a few special actions. I took a few pictures this day (I'll post later, they're still on my camera.) After the Demo, I barely had time to grab lunch from the quick buffet line (deli sandwiches, chips, and such) before I had to run downstairs to the RPGA room. I played Heart of Winter, a regional aventure set in the Pale with my level 5 Rogue (who leveled!), and later The Mad Baron of Pikemaster, a meta-regional adventure, with my level 2 fighter (Who also leveled!). Heart of winter was a fun game, but Mad Baron had the most non-sensical plot. You had no idea where the adventure was going until the last encounter. Just silly.
Day 3, Sunday, started with another ACTA Demo, this time to just one player, who was only there for one day. I was pleased he wanted to spend his limited time learning ACTA. I got to play also in this game instead of sitting on the sidelines so that was fun for me. I got to play 4 white stars (which I've never used) against his Omega, Chronos, and 2 Artemis. It was a close fight, for a beginner he learned quickly (its so much easier to demo to one player when you don't have to compete for someones attention) but my inexperience with the white stars showed. I almost never got to CAF and several times I missed opportunites to shoot because of bad maneuvers. The Nials did quite well though, dispatching all the enemy fighters with only 1 loss. Having fighters fire first was hard to remember :lol: This day I also saw one of my players from the previous day walking around with a brand new Revised Editon box so that's one new convert! After the demo I played another pair of RPGA Mini Missions, and followed that with "Beneath the Bright Sands" which was very enjoyable.
Day 4, Monday, was a slow day, just one RPGA game in the morning, "Pits of Azak-Zil" in which my rogue died. fortunately, We had enough gold to pay for a raise dead spell, so he wound up just losing the level he gained the previous day.
The ACTA demos were all using the cards (Big hit) with tourney stats, so you can see them on my website's multimedia page.
Chernobyl