Dreamation 2025: Day 1 (Thursday, 2/20/25)
So this weekend, I'm at a local TTRPG convention called Dreamation. I'm attending and running some games. I figured I'd make some blog posts about my experience, day by day! This is Day 1, Thursday. I'm writing these with Ellipsus btw!
The only events today were in the evening. I got to the hotel where the con takes place early, so I had time to look at the layout of the hotel and the rooms the games take place in. I specifically wanted to know where the rooms I'm hosting my game is are. I found them easily, thank goodness!
After that, I grabbed some dinner nearby (QDOBA, it sucked), and afterwards, I met up with someone to purchase the game So, You've Been Eaten. Here's a picture of the game! I'm getting a few board/TTRPG games this weekend, and this is the first.
After that, I basically just drew on my tablet until it was time for the game I signed up for to start. I'm participating in an Artfight in a little art Discord I'm in, and I was drawing stuff for that. Pictures below! The 2nd one I started at this time, and completed Friday morning.
The game I played tonight was CHAINSAW HUMANS, which is a Lasers & Feelings hack. It's basically a TTRPG where you play as a Devil Hunter from Chainsaw Man. Here's a picture of the character sheet I made, of a cold & stoic Loneliness Devil:
I'll put a transcription of its contents here for those who need it:
Name: Aito Carmine | Species: Devil | Number: 3 | Demeanor/Flaw: Cold Demeanor | Profession: Freelance writer | Goal: Find a friend despite being a creature of loneliness | Distinguishing Look: Hoodie under suit, hood on at all times | Contracts/Powers/Abilities: Fear = loneliness/solitary—gives person a vision of being in an isolated world, with no one around.
Let me explain some things about the character sheet:
Lasers & Feelings games are about 2 contrasting traits—in this case, Chainsaws (being brutal, bloody, aggressive) & Humans (being subtle, manipulative, controlled.
My number is 3, which means I lean more towards Human traits than Chainsaws traits.
L&F games are based around the d6 (a dice with 6 sides). When I roll the dice, I want to get under my number if I'm doing something more Chainsaws-like, and over it if I'm doing something more Human-like. If I roll exactly my number, that counts as 2 successes.
In this game, fears are basically the powers you have or wield. Whether you have powers from devils or wield them as a devil yourself depends on your species (basically your class in this game).
Overall, it was a positive experience, even if the GM was a bit disorganized. He made the game into TV "episodes", with players improving commercial breaks (the theme & tagline of the commercial was decided by a d20 [a 20-sided die]). It was some goofy, silly fun, and I loved it for the most part! My character even got 4 successes at one point, totally incapacitating the big boss monster. It was awesome!
The only thing is that one of the players assumed I was female, and thus assumed my character was female, and misgendered them a few times. That made me angry and threw me into a spiral of whether I pass or not, which isn't fun. I called him out on it, saying that (1) my pronouns are literally on a pin on my chest, and (2) if you don't know my character's pronouns, JUST ASK! I was the only AFAB person at the table, and those moments made me feel like I didn't belong there. It sucked.
So yeah, that was my first day. I really liked my Aito Carmine character, and I think I wanna explore them more in the other games. Hopefully I can do that well!
I'll blog more about Day 2 soon. See ya!
