Convention Material Generation

On Saturday I received an e-mail notifying me that a few people have signed up for a game of Hostargo during my local gaming convention: GrandCon! This is both exciting and nerve-wracking news. I've run plenty of games of Hostargo before, including at GrandCon last year, but my stomach always twists when I know I'm up against a completely random stranger - worse yet one that has paid actual money to play this game (no event ticket price, but the price for time at the con anyway).

So that means I need to shift gears a bit in my work. I have been focusing on content generation - artwork, maps, and the core abilities & items in the game. But now I have to focus on getting prepped for the things I'll need to run a convention game. My list so far:

* Updated character sheet

* New playbooks for character archetypes

* 3 more minis

* Finish painting 5 minis

* Flesh out new adventure

An updated character sheet will solidify new rules into place and ensure that, at the bare minimum, we can actually play a game. Last year I had pre-generated characters, but this year I want to test out the character creation system. It should be fairly quick given a few random rolls. In order to support the players learning quickly about their characters, however, I'll need new playbooks that spell out each item and special ability they'll have access to during the game.

Miniatures are the stretch goal. They're unfortunately almost always on the back-burner, but I've managed to get 1.9 done already, and the idea would be to have 6 total to choose from, one for each main archtype. While it would be great to have custom minis eventually, right now I'm just using standard wild-west Reaper Bones minis with custom painting.

I have one really standard, short adventure that I've been using to play test ideas and generally run the game up until this point. However, it's almost too short to really dig in, and this year I've schedule a couple of late-night games so that it can stretch on if need be. So, I need an updated adventure, one with both action and intrigue, so that the players will leave feeling like they've accomplished a game, rather than play-tested a scenario. 

So much has changed in the last year, it's almost like I have to everything for the first time. But that's great - it means progress!