Friday, July 2, 2010

Origins 2010, Day 3

Friday was designed so that I'd have a good spate of free time in the middle of the day to shop, and to sell the remaining Magic cards. I only scheduled two events, in fact.

From 9AM to 1PM, I attended 'Learn to Hack', an introductory session for the latest edition of the Hackmaster game. This is an RPG I own, but have never played. The previous edition of Hackmaster was a parody of the original editions of Dungeons and Dragons - and it was nigh-unplayable with hilarious complexity. Kenzer Co. lost the license to do the parody game, and had to come up with a new product that wasn't dependent on the old D&D rules, and thus, Hackmaster Basic was born.

It's an improvement in terms of playability. And it actually manages to keep the feel of the old-style Dungeons and Dragons games, despite the change in system. They've gone for a less zany feel, though, so a lot of the fun in reading the books that came from the humor is gone. I could actually see myself running this, though, which is a good sign.

From 1PM to 7PM, I prowled the exhibit hall, selling and buying. Also, I managed to fit two meals in there, somehow.

Then at 7PM, it was time for one of my other Origins traditions - the Smithee Awards. It's sort of like an Oscar ceremony, but for bad movies. Hilariously awful clips and a crowd ready to laugh at them. I try to make it to the Smithees every year - it'd been something I'd long wanted to attend at Origins, but it was only five or six years ago that I actually finally made the time to do so - and I have not regretted that.

The Smithees ran till just past Midnight, and then I headed back to the hotel room to peruse some purchases and catch up on things. And as I pondered, I looked at my schedule for the next morning, and decided to skip my 9AM event so I could sleep in.

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