MEPACon was a mixed bag this past weekend, though I had a good time overall.

On the downside, only three of my five offered events ran. My two GURPS events drew no players at all, though I was approached later about running my Friday afternoon event on Sunday, for some people who were interested but hadn't arrived until after that time slot. Unfortunately, I was already committed to running something else at that time and couldn't accomodate them.

The dealers' room had few dealers, but I found a couple of bargains there, including some books for the new edition of Paranoia at half price. I'd planned to write some Paranoia again soon, and while I don't really need those books to do it, they're helpful for inspiration and to add details I might not have come up with myself.

On the upside, my events that ran went well. My Friday night Call of Cthulhu event ("Fuel of the Gods") ran with four players, with my favorite moment being when the guy who'd failed a Sanity roll decided that all inanimate objects had wills of their own, and threw away his cell phone because he was tired of it always calling him.

My In Nomine event ("Rumspringa") filled, and tensions ran high in another of my "angel PCs vs. demon PCs" scenarios. The demons had the edge going into the climactic scene, but the angels reached the relic everyone was searching for first and used it as a power source to turn the tide. The ending ran longer than it should've, which I think I could've avoided by doubling the damage done in the fight at the end when I realized it was going to go on beyond the end of the time slot. I'll have to file that one away under lessons learned, so it doesn't happen again.

I ended the convention with a Dungeons & Dragons scenario called "Searching High and Low". I'd lost interest in D&D sometime in the late '80's, but had agreed to run it this time in an attempt to help attendance for the RPGs at the convention. Nobody twisted my arm; I just decided to do it. All in all, it was a good session, with a full house playing including two of my regulars and four true D&D fans. It went well enough to merit a sequel, and the main villains interest me enough to do one, but running it reminded me enough of all of the things I dislike about the d20 system to keep me from doing it, whether it helped con attendance or not. John suggested that I run the sequel in another system, but it'd change the characters so much that it's not really worth the work. I might just recycle the main villains into a better system and use them in something else entirely.

I also had the opportunity to try some new games, which is one of the main reasons I enjoy conventions. I played a test version of the forthcoming Munchkin Cthulhu with some of my fellow Men In Black, and thoroughly enjoyed myself. I hadn't been sure that the style of Munchkin would mesh well with the mythos, but it worked surprising well. Some of us moved on to a game of Epic Munchkin in a Blender, which went on for hours, culminating in a flurry of cards from all participants with totals in the eighties or nineties determining the outcome. For those not familiar with the game, over 20 would be considered high powered. You get the picture.

John introduced me to Kenzer & Company's The Great Space Race early Sunday. For those who will recognize the reference, it's essentially Robo Rally in space. We had some room to manuever with a three player game, but managed to run into one another a few times even so. Collisions would probably be a fairly common occurrence in a six player game, but that might only add to the fun and unpredictability. Call it 7 on a 1-10 scale of entertainment value.

I'd been curious about the relatively new game Dreamblade, from Wizards of the Coast, and they had someone at this con doing demos in the dealers' room. I didn't personally play it, but watched others play long enough to get the feel of the game, and even anticipate some strategy. The miniatures are cool in a surreal way, but frankly, you wouldn't need minis to play this sort of game. I can imagine the conversation in the Wizards' offices, in which someone tells someone else that what they need is a new collectible game because Heroclix made a lot of money. They'd want something distinct from Heroclix, but would still want it to involve collectible miniatures, and this is what they invented accordingly. I know collectible games make a lot of money because some people feel they have to keep buying to stay competitive, but personally, I'm actively avoiding collectible games for exactly that reason. I might've bought Dreamblade if it was something like Heroscape, where you can buy exactly what you want, but I won't touch it as it is.

I already know I'm skipping the MEPACon Spring 2007 in order to afford GenCon. I enjoyed myself enough this time that I'm considering MEPACon Fall 2007 a possibility at this point, when I'd been ready to close the book on it. I'll see how I'm feeling by the summer of 2007 and decide what I want to do from there.