So to my mother, dog, and clowns, I went to VengerCon. Apparently I not only supported it, I became a sponsor. Sadly, there were no goosestepping parades and burning of books by Tranny authors for me to wring my hands over and clutch my pearls. JerryTel, one of my token conservative friends, showed up as we like to do micro-cons every now and then. I had a great time.
On Friday, I was a little drunk by the time I started hanging out. This was more from doing pre-gen Characters for my scheduled events than needing liquid courage-- still, it was helpful. After a dinner with Venger Satanis (Darrick Dishaw) and Jerry, we jumped into the host's Friday night session of Cha'alt. I recognized the setup from the first book, I think, as we were inside a giant worm. For all the players that were there (like 11 or 12), it wasn't hard to jump in and participate in the action. I found myself sitting next to a fellow that struck me as awfully familiar. I just couldn't say where.
Afterwards, I stuck around to imbibe more drink and partake in my once-a-week-smoke with company. I met fellow gamers named Greg, Phillip, Collin, and Matt. We had a rollicking debate party, I couldn't tell you the details but it was fun.
As there were only like thirty participants, on Saturday there was no one to play in my Gangbusters scenario. Yes, the one where I worked so hard to create PCs the day before. So Jerry and I brainstormed on his unnamed game (J.U.G.) for a bit before we jumped into Ivan Richmond's Dream of the Dragon scenario. Greg and Phillip, buds from the night before, joined in. I really enjoyed how Ivan's (Eye-Man for fun) game had classic fairy-tale elements while being a hardcore dungeon crawl. As an added benefit, I loved watching the traditional D&D players, including Jerry, get frustrated over Charm spells that broke the rules so to speak.
At dinner, I invited Oakes Spalding, a fellow I'd been chatting with on Friday night as well, to jump in my Crawlspace premier of "Florida Man" . That means test run from incomplete notes by the way. JerryTel and Ivan showed up as well and we did a quick take. Worked nicely and the players felt the roleplaying drug hit their bloodstreams, my game generally does. Though it only lasted about three hours, I had a chance to sit back as a GM and watch the players move things along for almost twenty minutes. GM popcorn time, as I call these instances. I do need to work on the transitions, ties, and clues of the scenario though.
Sunday, at breakfast I finally figured out that the fellow I kept thinking I knew was James Jeffers, whom I had gamed with at North Texas Con in 2021. Our breakfasting area would turn into a gaggle of folks attending VengerCon and the restaurant staff would have to lecture us about putting chairs in their aisles. It was a fun brunch. I left early as no one was going to attending my T&T session. JerryTel left around the same time. There were though sixteen people staying to play up until the six PM closing time to the convention. It was a good time overall.
To my mother, dog, and clowns... that means to all gay, commie-ish, tranny, Christian, BLM-identifying, feministic, and pinko players that I have gamed with for years, I am especially tired of watching the RPG market just get juvenile. I am sick of gamers ostracizing people that they don't like. I am tired of the corporate type of folks doing dickish things to the creatives they work with politics being the excuse. This does not mean that I am turning conservative the older I get. I still want single-pay healthcare, less police authority, and a decent USMNT in the World Cup one day.
I noticed, by being the open-minded liberal that I am, that Dishaw does work that is worth reading, even if it might offend you. His game-mastering is practiced. He is something of a GMs' GM. He's funny when he's being a gadfly with his "social commentary" scenarios provoking One Bookshelf. His personal politics as with a lot of his gaming colleagues which get a little delusional about some sort of day of retribution on the Cultural Marxists that tried to ban their games, gets kind of scary. Hey, though, I've watched the cottage industry veer from one pointless controversy to another, and they're actually never the same. The day of reckoning of Right V. Left isn't going to happen, sorry to both sides of the schism here. Nope no civil war, just a changing market. I am for more indy games, so I don't people who think they know better than me, telling me who to game with and who not to.
To paraphrase myself (the original quote is, "If you don't watch Santa Claus Versus the Martians the Communists win"), if I didn't support Venger, the corporates win.
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