I've been looking forward to finally trying out some of the cool independent RPG's that I've heard so much about, and I certainly had a great opportunity while at MACE.  I'm going to briefly run through each session that I played here, but if you're interested you can also download the mp3 file I've included for some more in-depth thoughts (if my thoughts can ever really be considered to have "depth", that is).

Role-Playing - 

MACE RPG Review (20.1 MB, 21m58s)

I was scheduled to begin Saturday morning running a game of Dogs in the Vineyard.  But, seeing that I only had one person signed up and didn't even have a place to run it, I ended up jumping ship and trying something else.  I was a little nervous about running a game that I'd never actually played before, and really wanted to try out a game that was opposing mine, so I ended up sliding into a game of...
 
Primetime Adventures - I had heard so many cool things about PTA, and all of it is apparently true.  Jeffrey Collyer, the "producer", had a ton of indie-RPG and storygame experience, and he just made the whole session run as smoothly as could be.  Our pitch ended up being that we were doing a show about a group of reformed super villians trying to find a new path and do "The Right Thing..."  I talk more about some of the details of the game on the mp3, but I just can't get over how cool the whole session was.  There are definitely some new skills to learn in this kind of RPG, but I hope that I can get a chance to develop them a lot more.  I love just how totally free-form PTA is, and I'm actually considering running my next session of my Ravenloft campaign using the PTA system.  Now I just have to sell my players on it...

Burning Empires - In the next time slot, I played in a game of Burning Empires run by the designer himself, Luke Crane.  This is, of course, an apocalyptic space setting for his Burning Wheel RPG that I'd heard a lot about as well.  Since this game was a lot more complicated than most of the others I played through the weekend, I probably understand less about the system itself than I'd like.  What really struck me, however, was the totally different approach it took to combat.  Opposing sides fight as a team, with the leader of each side having to make certain skill checks to see how many opportunities that individual members would get to act.  The side chose different maneuvers in secret which were then compared to see how the conflict was resolved.  This idea of teamwork and helping other characters played a central role in all the aspects of the game, though, not just in combat.  Overall, it was just really cool, and I'd like to learn more about it.  Thankfully, I've already picked up the core Burning Wheel rulebooks, and I plan on studying them more in the near future.

Don't Rest Your Head -  This is another game that I'd heard a lot about from several of the podcasts I listen to.  I had also picked up the rulebook and was quite familiar with the mechanics of the game before we played.  Of all the games I played, I think this has the coolest conflict resolution system, using the different dice pools that still do a great job of stressing story and theme about "character statistics".  John Farish was the GM and did a really great job both with creating a cool scenario and running the game.

The Shab-al-Hiri Roach -  The Roach was definitely the most "out there" game I played all weekend.  After listening to some actual play and a few other reviews of the game, I was pretty familiar with generally how the game was to run.  Lisa Provost was the organizer for this one, but since it is a GM-less game, she participated right along with the rest of us.  This game is so over-the-top in debauchery, mayhem, and self-destruction that it's completely hillarious.  We had a great time playing it, but I couldn't shake a nagging feeling of discomfort the whole time.  I think that my feelings came from a combination of being unfamiliar with the whole scene-framing and stakes-setting skills central to the game, as well as the utter lack of any morally redeeming activities that were taking place in our story.  Yeah, I know that's pretty silly, especially since I knew going in what it was all about.  But it just made me a little uncomfortable, and I'll really have to think some more about whether I want to give this another try sometime in the future.  I won, by the way, when I was able to rid myself of the roach (and my enthusiasm for attaining status) in the last round.

In summary, I was extremely pleased with my first experiences with these indie RPG's.  Like I said a few times, there are some real role-playing and story-building skills that I need to work on, but they are certainly some skills that I would love to incorporate into all of my role-playing in the future.  My favorites were definitely PTA and Don't Rest Your Head, and hopefully I'll find some opportunities in the near future to try them out "at home".