Convention Time

Gencon
I have the great pleasure of residing less than an hour from the Indianapolis Convention Center, current home to Gencon, the largest game hobby convention I know of. The convention experience is one I greatly enjoy especially during years such as this one when I have friends attending and am able to share the experience. Games on my must-play ticket this year include the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG by Goodman Games. Goodman Games is taking their role of keeping Appendix N and the old school feeling alive and thriving very seriously and they have an entire hall devoted to their games which run throughout the con. DCCRPG is not a clone, but rather uses modern mechanics to provide a unique gaming experience that is both deadly (to characters) and fun (for players).
Gencon has become the traditional site of many new releases each year and the biggest RPG release this Gencon promises to be Paizo's Pathfinder 2e. I have played and refereed the 2e playtest rules and I like it. It's a modern game that does not try to be old school and Pathfinder 2e delivers a satisfying game experience even for a self described old school gamer like me. I am especially enamored with the new action economy which allows each character three actions during each combat round. Players may select any combination of movements, attacks and spell casting actions that add up to three. Each attack after the first one receives a penalty to hit, making each successive attack more difficult during a round. Classes have special abilities which allow them to combine two or all three actions into a singe attack or spell with more powerful results. It's a really neat idea and has worked brilliantly in the games I have been a part of.