Shorehammer: Saturday and Sunday highlights

After Saturday's missions, I led a discussion on Game Mastering and mission design, and there was a good crowd of interested gamers. I'm not much of a public speaker, but I think I was able to cover some helpful points and it was great to see everyone get into the discussion after I'd wrapped up my presentation. We bounced around with various topics, sharing our experiences and advice regarding topics such as handling unruly players and fudging die rolls to keep the game fun. After my talk, the convention organizer, Scott, led an entertaining and comical discussion about 8^th edition, and though I'm unfamiliar with the Warhammer system, his sense of humor had everyone laughing so often that I wondered if he should consider a career in stand-up comedy. When Sunday arrived, the Armies on Parade entries were judged in various categories (most creative, best painted, etc.) and the now famous “Nutcrusher” tournament was underway. Meanwhile, I ran one last game for the convention with a couple new players and some of the team from Saturday's Void Hunter mission, continuing into the new sequel, Broken Citadel (funny highlight in second paragraph below.) Finally, the convention was wrapped up with a fun awards ceremony, complete with flashing lights, rock music, and a flamboyant costumed host, “Pimpcron,” handing out awards with his tiny son dressed in an oversized blazer. Shorehammer was an awesome convention!

Before I conclude, I wanted to thank TJ, a new player to Solar Echoes, for being a good sport! We were near the last half hour of the game, and though there were many moments worth sharing, the best was regarding TJ's unfortunate Chiraktis: when this insectoid agent left cover and stopped in an open area, he was gunned down by 3 elite Reln focus-firing on him using assault rifles. The others on the team wanted to rescue him but were wise not to leave cover. One of the players had a great idea, and fired his magnetic tether gun to try to attach it to something metal on the Chiraktis's belt to reel him back into cover so they could heal him. Unfortunately, that player rolled badly, so the magnetic tether attached to a thermal grenade on the Chiraktis's belt. The player decided to try reeling him in carefully anyway, but...he heard a small metal “plink” as the grenade pin was accidentally pulled out by the magnet. Poor Chiraktis! We were all laughing when we wondered what would happen to a Chiraktis in a fiery explosion, and imagined it might look something like a popping piece of popcorn. Thanks TJ, for being cool about the accidental demise of your Chiraktis! (We can clone him later, the UG has him on file ;)