Customers at the migraine store

Lady Melinda Birthright's Migraine store is packed. Hordes of furtive customers grab one of the glowing lanterns around the shop and head out into the drizzling rain. Others can't wait: they slip into a corner to crack the thing against their forehead as soon as they get it, letting the pain ooze down their face like egg yolk.

Who would be buying headaches at this time of night?

1. This old wizard's brain hold a terrible secret which no-one can know - not even him. He needs to keep it forced down in his mind with ever more powerful migraines.
2. The ninth world's BDSM clubs grow tired of the usual punishments.
3. After a knowledge spell gone wrong, this ambitious young nobleman must keep his brain constantly fed with ever-more difficult tasks and obstacles, lest it grow bored and leap out of his skull.
4. Jimmy two-fingers just wants to get out of work. Anything's better than another day at the Thresher.
5. The Torturer's guild is researching some of the more intricate psychological punishments for a Pain Conference later this year. They hope to impress the other attendees with some new techniques for inducing a Migrainous Infarction.
6. Madame Du Pont is using them to cloud her husbands mind as she drains his finances into several off-shore bank accounts.
7. Tom Tongue buys in bulk to sell as a hallucinatory drug to the Under-Things, which experience pain as pleasure and pleasure as pain.
8. The Order of Saint Tinnitus attempts to divine visions of the future from the spots and auras they see while in the throes of one of Lady Birthright's custom creations.
9. This shriveled magician is pitting headaches against each other in cage matches inside her head. Her eventual goal is to breed the strongest specimens together to make something capable of instantly pulverizing your brain.
10. Most psychics stop by here regularly for a top-up. They isolate the migraine to the outer regions of their brains, using them as a barrier to stop intruders.

What's happening with me

Hey nerds,

So, I finished and ran this Megagame, God Emperor.



You can see the details at http://www.godemperor.net/

It was pretty fucking great. Here's a review from a player, Tony Martin.

I’m still breaking into daydreams about the game on an hourly basis.

This was my third MegaGame. Here is the aspects of God Emperor that stood out to me compared to previous games:

Components: The components were a joy to deal with. Especially the Castles on the War Map and the Titan Masks (and the Emperors Mask). So good. Great job to the person/team who crafted all the components.

Moderators: All the moderators really knew their stuff. The mechanics for GE were complicated and running on tight schedule. Mods did a great job keeping the game turning.

Table Crossover: The other megagames I’ve played had a number of different areas of play. But I’ve never experienced such a clear, dramatic “interruption” of one table by the actions on another table. I loved being in the court when a Military Coup turned the political game upside down in an instant, or at the War Table when a Titan was destroyed by Court card-play, turning the tactical calculation upside down.

Costumes: At other games I’ve played I’d say roughly half the people were dressed up. The percentage was a lot higher at GE. Terrific fun. Thanks to all the players for dressing up.

Mechanics: All the Megagames I’ve played incorporate elements of boardgames, roleplay, and simulation. GE leaned more heavily towards the boardgame aspect, because it had a lot of specific rules for resolving every situation. Not really a criticism. Each style of gameplay has its own pros and cons. I’m more of a roleplay/simulation type player, but I still enjoyed the boardgame style play.

Manual: Related to the above. I found the manual to be intimidating when I first saw it. Clearly a lot of thought was put into communicating the rules clearly, but I was simply intimidated by the sheer volume of mechanics. I ended up reading the manual over 4 days and that made it manageable.

Player Management: When I first read the rulebook, I was super impressed by the idea that players were also resources, and you could focus resources by deciding where to send players. But in hindsight I have mixed feelings about it. The “traditional” megagame system, of giving each player a focused role and their own unique responsibilities, helps me understand my fictional role in the world, and ensures that every player in the team gets a chance to be in the spotlight. Sometimes being the 2nd or 3rd player at a table, you felt less like a player and more like “meeple”, sent to harvest resources.

God Emperor: So good. Not just the God Emperor himself but his entourage of minions, who worked together to impress what a big deal the God Emperor was. I loved the cowering priest when the God Emperor made his entrance. The God Emperors court (while the God Emperor was alive) was my favorite part of the game. I just loved the drama and spectacle of it.

I had a great day. Every player was really getting into the spirit of it. I never felt self-conscious or judged. Every time I tried to inject a bit of roleplay, other players picked it up and had fun with it. Thanks to every player and mod I dealt with on the day.

Right now I'm working on creating a visual novel. It's a breakfast club rom-com about a bunch of kids who are trapped alone in their school overnight. It's exciting for weird reasons I can't talk about. I've almost finished one out of the three paths and I'm hoping to release it late this year.