Indeed, the 'Wang was awesome, though I feel like a bit of a fink for not running any games. But with such a swathe of designing talent present, well, what more could I have added?

Gregor ran 3:16, which really was for me just an exercise in how big a gun I could get before I died - a perfectly reasonable motivation in a slick, sleek and soon to be gloriously shiny game.

Joe Prince ran Contenders, which as we all know always goes down a storm with the fight club crowd; Iain McAllister ran D&D which, as Malcolm says, was very popular - though I'll argue that most of us were just curious to see it in practice.

Gregor and Stu also started something... special, after a successful game of that 3 dates game. Name, anyone? Dang, should have looked at the book.

And of course the man himself, Mr Craig, was much in evidence - not just cooking, cleaning and tidying for us (also known as protecting his house from the ravening hordes), but also running a stonking game of My Life With Master (fun, then dark, then disturbing) and yes, for the first time that I've experienced it in full, Hot War. Which was grand, lots of enthusiasm, creepy disembodied hands motif, huge amounts of character development in the one session and a story which turned out to be about the monster that resides in the hearts of Men! I'm talking about cruelty and obsession here, not some kind of chest burster. In case you were wondering.

Good weekend, awesome burgers and spare ribs on the barbecue, oh, and my team won the quiz 'cause I got the music questions. Go Me!

Shevaun

Gamewang was a fantastic event! I'd like to extend my warmest thanks to everyone who was there, I had for a wonderful time and I hope everyone else did too. Personal highlights for me were:

• Meeting a whole bunch of people I'd never met before, all of whom were great!

• Getting to see a bunch of people I don't get to see nearly often enough.

• Realising at one point that I was the only non-Scot at the table and also the only person not drinking Irn Bru.

• Playing Dave, The dragon-headed Paladin and vomiting lightning over my enemies, killing 3 Matadors in the process. That's pretty metal.

• Watching Malcolm pounding his meat into shape and then sliding it between soft, white baps.

• Playing 3:16 and finding that my heavy machinegun was much more effective against alien scum when used as a golf club than when it was firing bullets.

• The hilarious* revolving door jail in BANG!

• Mayhem Force rolling a sumo wrestler up a slope covered in custard on Japanese TV in Umlaut.

• Convincing Malcolm that The Great Depression couldn't have been *that* bad, because it was called *Great*. I mean, if it was that bad it'd be called The Horrible Depression, right?

• Winning the quiz with Brian and Shevaun. Go Quizwang!

• Getting completely Pwnd by a Generic Ninja in L&L. Poor show. Still, we kicked Nakedling butt in the Cave Of Unpleasantness, so it all balanced.
  

Like I said, I had a fantastic time!

EDIT: Also - World's Shittest Gazebo

* not actually hilarious.

I got to play lots of games:

Saturday:
Breaking The Ice, with Stu. A fun rom/com about a peacenik and her Colin Firth-style copper boyfriend. They ended up in Milan with her in the fashion industry and him enjoying an easier lifestyle.

Dungeons & Dragons. I enjoyed murdering things with my halfling rogue but part of me wondered why I was this machine of death, quite unlike the hobbits in LOTR. I really was like Hill from Game Night, when I guess I'd rather have been Draag. It was fun and easy to pick up, but reminded me more of Advanced HeroQuest from GW than the Red Box of my youth.

Sunday:
Ran 3:16 and we got through two missions. Goya and Holbein, Dinosaurs and Giant Sandworms, Impair and Lasting Wounds. It would have really helped if we'd been using printed books, but that will have to wait for August 1.

Played Labyrinths & Lycanthropes, which I love. As Rich noted it could do with a range map like 3:16. I realised that it was L&L's ranges, along with Agon and my chat at last year's GenCon that had influenced my map. Anyway, I think it could do with that to remind us of the ranges. I got to save some Furlings by killing a Nakedling! Yay!

Throw in some tasty Steakwang, a Dodgeball-style Frisbeewangeganza on Saturday and Quizwang, it was great fun and very tiring.

Ralph Mazza's e-mail about the order of 3:16 kept me busy on Saturday night, and after flicking through the book during the game on Sunday I found he was right. So, the order of the sections was greatly improved by the Wangers. Thank you!

Sounds like it was a lot of fun

http://www.solipsist-rpg.com/ - http://cubicle-7.com/starblazer/

Oh yes, I completely forgot to talk about the games I actually played in!

There was My Life With Master, with Doug, John and Shevy. I think I'm right in thinking that this was the first time taking part in MLWM for everyone apart from me. We opted for the traditional Mitteleuropa, creepy-mansion-in-a-backward-part-of-the-Carpathian-Alps setup and it was great fun, with some genuinely creepy minions and a quite disturbing mission that the Master was on. AP to folow as soon as I can get it written up.

The mighty Umlaut strode on stage amidst pyrotechnics and drum solos, with me, Rich, John Fifer Stu taking part. Has-been 1980s British metal bands on a comeback tour of Japan, with predictably hilarious and awful results.

Contenders with the two Stus was great fun as well. Set in a prison somewhere in the US, bareknuckle fights were arranged for the entertainment of guards and prisoners. Some quite brutal stuff, but also with moments of drama as the contenders tried to better themselves and save their connections. Again, AP to come as soon as I get it written up.

Hot War was played and it was the first time I've run the game since playtesting was finished. Great fun all round, lots of drama and character development packed into only a handful of hours. It's already been fairly heavily discussed in this AP thread. More good fun.

Cheers
Malc

Contested Ground Studios

Myself and Cath thoroughly enjoyed our time at Gamewang and I would like to thank everyone for making her feel welcome.

I had a blast running D&D. I really like the new version of the game and the character names that people came up with were.....stellar....dave....yes, anyway.

Lets see, what else did I play. Oh yes, apples to apples was fun, but reminded what I don't like about the game which is that it goes on forever. Really needs a big group to play quickly I feel.

On Sunday morning Lucy, Doug, Cath and I played 'Agricola' which was fantastic once we actually got to the game. Planning to pick that up and see about getting another game or two with them

All in all a fantastic time was had, and I look forward to more Wang in the future. Hehe...wang is fun to say.

Iain

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