Intercon N con report, part II

[breakinglight11]

Saturday of Intercon started out with Bernie and I helping usernamenumber prepare for lunch in consuite. We hadn't planned on it, but we like Brad and we like Intercon and we like helping, so we jumped in when we learned we could be useful. It was actually a lot of fun, so we're likely to sign on to help in a more official capacity next year. I typically don't do morning games despite being a morning person-- they are prone to drops --so that worked out nicely.

My afternoon game was The Bloody Harvest of Pomona, an Ancient Roman Cthulhu game. I like Ancient Rome even if I'm a bit burnt out on Cthulhu right now, and I've been mulling ideas for writing an Ancient Roman game myself, so I thought I might see how other people approach it and signed up.

I was extremely happy with how my costuming turned out. I found a modern gown in a cadet blue that had stola-like details, wore my beloved strappy wedge sandals, and found this awesome forensic hairstylist who does Youtube videos demonstrating how Roman women did their hair. I did a version of the one she does representing that of Empress Sabina, only simplified without the needle and thread and the need for a slave to help you. ;-) I glued together two headbands with spikey-looking detail on them such that they looked kind of like the points of a crown, separated the top layer of my hair from the bottom layer, and put my new circlet on so that it lay between the two layers in the back. Then I braided the layers and coiled them into a bun on the back of my neck. I looked very regal and Roman, so I was extremely pleased, especially since I usually suck so much at doing hair and usually give up on it. My makeup was also modeled after actual Roman preferences, with heavy winged eyeliner, bold cool tones and metallics around the eyes, and deep red lips. So I looked really good. This doesn't quite do it justice, but here's an idea:

Sadly I was not impressed with the game. My character sheet was exceptionally bland and full of "woman things" like make sure everyone enjoys the party and find a lover and glare at my husband. There was an intro into the cultist plot, at least, but the design was such that everybody knew who was part of their faction and who wasn't, so keeping secrets from the right people was easy, and there was no good way to get information about people who you were competing with. So everybody just cast their rituals and all the gods they summoned just showed up. I also have a theory that there was an effort to some semblance of "historical accuracy" with regard to gender roles-- a lot not including women in plots they "wouldn't have been involved in back then" --so the ladies' characters ended up pretty boring. Of course, I'd have to read the whole game to be certain, but I did see a lot of bored women in that game. I had some good conversations, and got to interact with a couple of cool lapers I've only ever met at Intercon, but overall the game was pretty weak. Not recommended.