Camp Nerdly 3
I’m back from the fourth Camp Nerdly, and being back feels good, like a corner has been turned. It was wonderful to reconnect with my scattered friends and feel the Nerdly vibe again. It was especially good to hang out with folks from far afield, like Dave Younce and Ryan Macklin. I’d stepped back from organization this year and it was a pleasure to just do my chore and forget about it, knowing there would be food on the table and a clean bathroom. Thank Clinton and the organizers if you had a trouble-free, fun event! Those guys worked their asses off. The weather was great on Saturday, best ever. The food was good and plentiful and the bacon was a big hit. The games were also good, although I didn’t have any great sessions this year. A Taste For Murder was a fun playtest, but a playtest nonetheless. How We Came To Live Here, which I had been greatly looking forward to, sort of got dominated by one participant and wasn’t as fun as I’d hoped it would be. I think it seriously suffered form the compressed con game format. Fiasco went well, but was very subdued – everybody chose the more mellow options in the suburban playset, so it ended up being a family relationship drama rather than unfettered chaos. Because of this, the aftermath didn’t really click well for me and I need to think about that. Montsegur 1244 was solid, but we started at a leisurely pace and then had to play catch-up, and Emily Boss had to leave early for her chore, which sucked. And the Freeform playtest/sampler event didn’t live up to my very high expectations – the playtest part was good and informative, and the full game just wasn’t that fun for me. I think I am alone in that assessment, though, and people were using the techniques we’d just taught, so that’s a good thing. I had a lot of good conversations, made some new friends, spent really pleasant hours with people I love and respect, and came home fired up to do some new things.
