From: langsl@hhcs.gov.au
Newsgroups: aus.games.roleplay
Subject: Re: CanCon
Date: 27 Jan 93 09:17:00 +1100
Organization: Aust. Dept. Health, Housing and Community Services

In article <1993Jan26.130357.7343@monu6.cc.monash.edu.au>, mooner@yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au (Melissa Rogerson) writes:
> 
> But anyway I would love to hear how CanCon was and so, I am sure would
> lots of people.

As requested, a Cancon review.
=============================

Overall...
----------
I liked it.

Admin...
--------
When I arrived on friday night I picked up my printed timetable and went to
find the organisers for my comps.  Those I didn't find on Friday I found on
Saturday, so I had no problems with the administration/organisation of the Con.
If any organisers read this - thanks -.  As I was an individual entrant I
expected to have problems finding my teams much before the comps were run, but
I had a few successes so I was happy.  All the other teams I was put in were OK
people, ie no SSS or BFS, so I think I did well.


The Comps...
------------

It's worse than that...(Star Trek) Rating: 4 out of 5.
----------------------------------

This ended up being 2 sessions, not the 1 session advertised.  I found it
enjoyable, a bit stressful - I was playing McCoy, and got to watch Kirk crack
up under the strain, Spock look confused, have a heart attack, go mad and
assault Uhura ( and fight off Spock for the privilege - having hypo sprays of
anasthetic can be handy sometimes), have a heart attack, and utter some really
corny lines: " He's dead Jim...", and "Jim, Its worse than that....".

No dice rolling, and having 2 refs + up to 3 helpers catering to a team of 6
was a pleasant experience.  Craig Walker as the Starfleet Admiral
and Tony Guyot as the Klingon, both in uniform, were very good and I think this
really helped to establish the ST mood.  I had some knowledge of Trek - seen
all the movies, and some of the original series, so I didn't find it too hard
to relate to anything.  If you didn't have much Trek knowledge it probably
would have been harder to work out what was happening, and less enjoyable.

While I know some other players didn't like it I think my team did, and I
certainly did.  Since we never exchanged real names when we met, but got right
into character, I'll probably always know them as Jim, Spock, Scotty, Chekhov,
and Uhura.  Especially the Blond White Anglo Saxon Male Uhura.

Biloxi the Blackmailer...(RQ2) Rating: 2.5
------------------------------

OK.  We were supposed to recover some incriminating documents for someone from
the home of Biloxi.  Our session bogged down when 2 characters attended an X
rated party at Biloxi's('casing the joint'), with the rest waiting for them .
This took too long to resolve so we ran out of time - basically our fault,
though the REF seemed keen on going into a lot of detail and prolonging the
experience.  However I did hear from others that the X-rated party was
basically -the- opportunity to get into Biloxi's, and it just went on and on
and on - ie they had difficulty fast forwarding through the ref's
pre-occupation with the party.

Checkmate...(Gurps Cyberpunk) Rating: 3.0
-----------------------------

OK.  We had to kidnap the president of a Sth American Country.  We didn't have
any gear when we arrived - and when we did get the necessary gear we didn't
weapon up before we drove away: a common mistake we were told by the ref.  We
got ambushed and a stray round blew up our car, gear, and 2 team members.  So
we didn't do real brilliantly - I hear someone might have succeeded without
firing a shot, so if they're on the net I'd like to hear how.

All in all I enjoyed it.  Characters seemed reasonable and the players I was
with, except for one, had a go roleplaying

Whispering Woods...(Cthulhu Now): Rating 3.0
--------------------------------

OK.  I've not played Cthulhu before except for a session 5 years + ago.  I
don't think I'm really a fan of the genre, but I've no complaints about the
module. Royal Marines get done by the Mythos is basically what happened to us.

We went into an area on the Finnish border where unusual activity had been
reported.  A suspected border violation or provocation exercise by the Russians
to provoke an incident which they could use to invade Finland under the terms
of a treaty they had with Finland - to restore order and such like rubbish.

Of course it wasn't the Russians - though there were some there, whose last
survivor in an armoured vehicle got taken out not by the Mythos but our kill
crazy Scotsman+grenade.

And of course we all either died or went insane.

Rule Brittania...(Space 1889) Rating: 4.0
-----------------------------

Only 3 die rolls in the entire session.  Great over the top characters and role
playing from 2 of the other players - it didn't seem quite what the other 2 were
expecting and they were fairly quiet.  Melodramatic and silly, I had a lot of
fun, even though hamming it up was a strain for that long.  I don't remember
anyone's real name from this either.  I was Gunther, the gentleman's gentleman
for stupid German gentleman (Franz)  whose reputation and life I had to save,
plus come up with a plan on how to accomplish the mission he had been given.

We were totally incompetent, but succeeded anyway.  So much for the renowned
Scotland Yard and British Intelligence. Directly after the Cthulhu
it was a great way to finish off before going to the CanCON dinner.

Jeconiah's Retreat...(AD&D 2nd Edition) Rating:3.5
---------------------------------------

Pretty simple straightforward module.  Help a mage find some lost castle which
once belonged to the great mage Jeconiah.  We all had fun - up until we got
trashed.  I played Aeryk the naive fighter who couldn't quite work out why
people thought that having horns and fangs scared people.

A mix of roleplaying and dungeon crawl (well, castle crawl really) with some
hack and slash.  Our first ref asked if we wanted roleplaying or hack and slash
- and the other 4 wanted hack and slash.  However things went ok - plenty of
room for doing both were provided, so I was happy.


Cancon Dinner...(at Panda's Restaurant). Rating: 3.25
----------------------------------------

Food - OK, but quantity rather than quality.

Costumes - some good, some bad.  Repartee from the audience and the Smurf were
among the highlights.

Music - way too loud.

Generally an ok event.

Tip for Canberrans - its probably cheaper to get a Canberra Taxi home from
Queanbeyan (where I ended up) than a Queanbeyan taxi.  Also faster - at 1 am
only 2 taxis service Queanbeyan, and I had to wait 45 minutes.


And thats it.

Alistair.







                                         

-- 
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! Alistair Langsford        langsl@hhcs.gov.au                    !
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Newsgroups: aus.games.roleplay