Protagonist Industries

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PAX West, Day 1

Hey gang!

I have been swamped since coming back from PAX West, but I promised to post about the awesome sessions of Home by Dark that I was able to facilitate!

I was only able to get one game in on the first day, but it was a great way to introduce the game to the public. It was completely filled and I'd heard that there was a lot of buzz about the game. It seems that the themes of the game really struck a cord with people.

Full House!

Considering this was our rather quiet debut, I was ecstatic to hear that people were so excited! The first group was excited to play and I was excited to see if the rules would survive "first contact."

Our brave playtesters!

The game was a blast! The game took place in modern Lawrence, Kansas. A mysterious tech corporation was searching for the Blue Lady, a computer AI that was inhabiting a Barbie doll that wore a blue dress. She had the ability to control all technology. Need the TVs to show a face? No prob. Need the lights to go out? No prob. This lady can do it all! Her one great fear was being alone.

As the mysterious corporation sought out the Blue Lady, the Singularity was happening! Oh, by the by, I discovered a new interesting wrinkle in the system. CLARIFY THE DANGER. Some people thought that the Singularity in our game was when we became digital. Others thought that the Singularity in our game was when all AI achieved full sentience. This wasn't realized until later in the game as people started to manifest scenes. One of the scenes involved people disappearing in a blip of light. When this happened, it caused a minor derailing of the scene as we attempted to understand what the Danger truly was in our game. :)

In the end, the Singularity was stopped (for now) and the Blue Lady was saved! I also learned a valuable lesson for future iterations!

AI vs mega corp vs Singularity. The AI won and the Singularity was postponed. Mission accomplished!

All in all, it was a great session! It was awesome to see so much enthusiasm for the game! After that session, I decided to shift my plans from only running one session per day to running 2 per day. For the first time in my PAX-going history, I decided to pretty much forego the Expo in exchange for quality playtesting time!

And it was totally worth it.

This Friday, I'll post PAX West, Day 2! You'll get to see more of the games that happened and learn a bit more about each adventure! If you were in the game and have a good memory from the game, post it below in the comments!

See ya Friday!

- Jason