Well, GameStorm 18 is past and much fun was had. I was a Batman, a Judge in the world of Dredd, a primitive warrior from Harn who met grotesque and wonderful aliens, and many other things besides. One thing I haven't been before at the convention, however, is a Game Master.
I don't have a lot of GM experience. Mostly D&D 4e, which I never clicked with and fought against for 6 months before introducing a poorly thought out mass battle system that ruined a campaign. It was my first run, and I wanted a lot of things to happen that I didn't actually work to bring about. There was no mystery, few callbacks to players backstories. I was emulating Chris Perkins on the Acquisitions Inc. podcasts, but I didn't have the practice and experience to pull off what he does. My only other GM experience is a some scattered games of Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, Fate Core, D&D Next playtest, and some doomed homebrew experiments.
I've been going to GameStorm for about 3 years now, and I've gotten to know a few people there. I see lots of familiar faces that I usually can't name. But everyone's friendly and I feel welcome when I finally sit down to play a game. I tend to wander the halls too much if I don't have a game scheduled, so I try to over-schedule when I can.
My favorites are to play at cons are RPGs. Many GMs run Savage Worlds games frequently, taking over an entire room on Savage Saturday Night. I love the system, it's just crunchy enough that I don't feel it constraining the story we're all there to tell. I've been reading books, listening to podcasts, and looking at blogs about Savage Worlds a ton lately. I think I can run a good game of it, given some practice and thought into my personal prep requirements.
So this is a resolution on my part. I will get experience running RPGs, specifically Savage Worlds, in one-shot and maybe short campaign style, before next year's GameStorm. And then, armed with that experience, I'll sign up next year to run at least one game of Savage Worlds. I'd like to run run 3 games, as that's the minimum to get free membership the next year, but I'll commit to at least one for now.
Stay tuned for my plans, tools, and experiences in this year long quest.
