2MG drafting

content/posts/too-many-games-2024/index.md

@@ -54,17 +54,40 @@ They closed out the panel with a short discussion on ways to get in tune with yo
 The Q&A was funny, two of the three questions I heard were just monologues about personal experiences with bad roleplay which does legitimately suck but also isn't really a question. All in all, excellent panel.
 
 #### Saturday
-woke up at 7am. saw a white tail buck grazing near the stream.
+My agenda for Saturday was pretty light: the character writing panel was the only talk that really set my heart on fire, I wasn't going to compete in any tournaments, and I *absolutely* did not want to spend more time in the merch hall than necessary.
 
+I woke up early and saw a white-tail buck grazing down by the stream on the edge of the property. I kept myself busy until around 10 when I left for the Audobon Museum.
 
-I only signed up for a Saturday game of Ten Candles.
+##### The Audobon Museum
+I did a bit of shopping for museums and the bummer was that most of the big museums are in the city center proper, meaning that parking and ticket prices were exorbitant. To my absolute delight, I saw that the Aubudon museum and estate were closer to the lodgings than even the convention center, had free parking, and a $7 dollar admission. Sold.
 
-- [ ] 1300: Gaming through Generations - Emerald stage
+The museum was relatively small but really well done. The exhibits were not overloaded with jargon, the artwork on display was incredible, and the estate was lovely to visit and walk around. I only took one picture of this gorgeous pink/fuschia flower I didn't recognize:
-- [ ] 1300: Warhammer 40k
+#### Ten Candles
-- [ ] 1400: Wandering Towers Demo ( game )
+Ten Candles is an improvised horror storytelling game with some really interesting mechanics. A full reproduction would be in bad form, so I'll stick to the highlights:
-- [ ] 1400: Cosplay pro wrestling
+- everybody dies at the end
-- [ ] 1430: Alternative tabletop wargaming - Hall C
+- fully improvised
-- [ ] 2200: Convention closes
+- lots of dice!
+##### Character Creation
+What I loved most about character creation was Vice, Virtue, and Brink. Each player writes one virtue and one vice on separate index cards. Virtue is handed to the player to the left, Vice to the right. Brink describes an action taken by a character (based on their vice), and is handed to the same player who received the Vice you wrote.
 
+You also write down a brief character bio and a Moment which describes a moment that gives your character Hope, capitalized because it becomes a mechanic when the Moment is activated. All your cards are stacked in front of you in one pile. Their order cannot be changed once the game begins.
+##### Gameplay
+Gameplay revolves around two systems: the dice pool and the candles. The dice pool is equal to the number of lit candles and you start with ten.
+
+When a character takes an action, they roll the dice pool. The presence of any number of sixes indicates that the player who rolled may narrate the results of their action. It does not signify that the action *must* succeed or turn out positively for the character, just who narrates.
+
+The presence of a one is significantly more serious; all ones are removed from the dice pool *unless* the roller sacrifices one of their four cards: Vice, Virtue, Character, or Brink. If a card is sacrificed, you can reroll the ones. If you get any ones, the sacrifice was in vain and the dice are not returned to the pool. If you get at least one six, the dice are returned to the pool.
+
+Moment is unique in that it can be activated at will if it's at the top of your stack. You activate your Moment, describe an action you take to express the Moment, and roll the dice pool. If you succeed, you earn a Hope die. Hope die are per-player. Your Hope die counts as a success on 5 and 6, and is never removed from your personal pool.
+
+If your roll has no sixes and you do not reroll, you fail. A candle is extinguished.
+
+The core gameplay loops boils down to this:
+- A character takes an action
+- They roll the dice pool
+- The dice pool either shrinks ( ones were not rerolled by a card sacrifice ) or remains the same ( no ones were rolled to begin with)
+- The action succeeds or fails, in which case a candle is extinguished.
+
+There's more details, like a process after a candle is extinguished by which players take turns making new, true statements about the world and its occupants, but I think the important parts are here.
 #### Sunday
 Checkout from the BnB is 1100, so I made the command decision to just leave straight for home.