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Conquest SF 2009 was amazing! Fruggin’ amazing. Every session was top-notch, the DM’s and GM’s were all prepped (‘cept the no-show DM), the staff and volunteers attentive and helpful, and I had a blast. Staff was also top-notch–prepared, efficient, outgoing, friendly, helpful, easy to find, worked your issue and got back to you when the issue was resolved. Special shout-out for Bob, the role playing coordinator, who worked issues and coordinated activities like nobody’s business. Also frequent visits from volunteers and the ever-present blue vests ensured smooth and trouble-free gaming. Oh, and being 5 minutes from home is a serious bonus!

If you live in the south bay and you play games, you missed what I think is the best con in the bay area. Not that I played any, but the miniatures room was awesome–so many historical miniatures battles, plus some cool pirates action, big mecha fights, indie war and card games, everything going on. The tables were numerous, huge, and well distributed. The noise level in miniatures and open gaming was quite reasonable, the crowd behaved, and the gamer funk thankfully lacking. Average age was also a bit higher, which is generally good (but I do like to game with kids, as long as I’m not substituting for the babysitter.)

Dealers room was very good, got a good deal on some board games. Flea market was very busy with a nice variety of stuff for sale. Oh, free parking if you went around the back of the hotel (one of the parking lots had the arms “up” the entire weekend.) Hopefully folks not staying at the hotel figgered that one out. $30 for next year was a no-brainer for me too, even though I plan on running a D&D and possibly Car Wars session next year I’m happy to throw in some economic support.

Only minuses, the sign-up sheets were a bit confusing (could have used a time line or some other way to tell when a game was supposed to start AND END) and the selection of games were more limited than usual, but I got into everything I wanted to and had fun in all of the games I played, so how can I complain?

A recap of the games:

Friday

2-7pm – started off with a d6 Star Wars session where a Rodian guns supplier tried to jump us with some hired guns. We debated dumping him on some other planet once the medical droid put him on ice, but ended up giving him over to the rebellion lieutenant who sent us on our next mission. Alas, I had to bow out a little early for another game. (Game was slated for 2-9, more ’bout that later.)

7pm-1am – Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, straight out of the module. We had a lot of fun and things went smoothly. Good to catch up with Craig, a guy I gamed with for 2+ years in a marathon campaign. I was barely holding on at 1am so I bowed out a bit early but didn’t really miss anything.

Saturday

9am-6pm – We were supposed to play D&D 4E but the DM didn’t show (BOO!) but we crashed a “Legion of Superheros Meet The Teen Titans” superhero game using the “BASH!” system, and run by the game’s designer. Amazing session, the rules are dead-simple and well designed and the GM kept us rolling along on a neat-o plot where we were fighting a number of villains in some colossal fights. I particularly enjoyed playing Bouncing Boy, tag-teaming with Superman. I needs to get me a copy of these great rules (new edition due out soon); about as easy as Fudge but I think even better and a good way to practice your multiplication. (Powers are ranked by the multiplier used on your 2d6 roll [with some followup rolls for pairs.] This is perfect for a hero game, as the multiplier amplify the differences between characters.) If you want to play superheros but don’t want to be bogged down in heavy rules (looking at you Champions, Hero, and other systems with books bigger than War and Peace) this is for you. Good community support as well.

7-11pm – Diplomacy – I was wanderin’ the hall and checkin’ out the games and got corralled in. It was part of a tournament but I wasn’t much for multiple sessions; but I had a lot of fun playing Turkey and working with Russia to pound down the overly-ambitious Italy (who kept pushing east, when Spain and Portugal were left open multiple turns.)

Sunday

9am-4pm – A great old-fashioned D&D 2E session, investigating why the wells dried up in a coastal town and finding wiley goblins rolling barrels of oil and unleashing giant rats at us all. Well designed dungeon and nice pacing.

7pm-11pm – Battlestations craziness, the GM was play testing a number of new ideas. Players were divided up into four groups of 3 players each, the groups representing one race. Each group had 1 admiral in charge of a fleet of ships (played on a tactical scale and simplified crew mechanics), 1 messenger (played on a “city map” using the crew-level mechanics) and 1 senator using some basic mechanics. Very quickly broke down into mass chaos, which was a great deal of fun as I was playing a war-loving race who was only happy to add to the chaos. My instructions to the messenger were followed to the letter (whoops!) and my admiral staged a coup against the senate. Woot!

Monday

9am-11am/11:15-4pm – I ran two sessions of “Cuboi’s House of Slime”, apparently the only non-RPGA 4E session the entire con. I really had a lot of fun running both sessions, even with some technical difficulties (I had prepared for the worst.) The second, longer session was perfect, the players got the guard into a frenzy and used diplomacy to escape from the cell and fight through the adventure. I couldn’t have had a better session! I think I may have to make a sequel adventure for next year, perhaps the adventurers escape but end up in Cuboi’s part of the world and they struggle to get home.