Three days of ESGS: An Amazing Single Weekend

So I am sitting here at my six-sided desk, wondering how to capture the feels and emotions of the last few days into a single blogpost.  I feel like I am standing here, facing my blank blog page, staring at it and knowing in the end, one of us will have to give up.  And I know it will not be me.

TAG Sessions was invited to be part of the Electronic Sports and Games Summit this 2017!  We were given a booth and the opportunity to reach out and interact with people, both gamers and curious passersby, and share with them information on my various narrative tabletop role-playing games.

The convention ran from Friday to Sunday, and each day was a day filled with lots of wonderful moments. Friday had my awesome bud, Urim, with me. The very guy who asked me to try writing up the game system after way too many game nights where other gamers were absent due to real life priorities.

Saturday and Sunday, however, Rocky was able to help me out and it is thanks to him that we have all these wonderful photos to have on the blog. On the first day, I was able to run two demo games of A Single Moment. The key memorable moment was a game I ran with a young player named Justin.

Justin opted for a story of two Samurai who were at odds because my Samurai (Ichi) was always jealous of Samurai Justin's intelligence. The focus of our argument was this book which held the secrets I wanted to learn. But when I got it, I couldn't read it because it was more like a puzzle book. So we ended up fighting and the fight lead to a spectacular exchange at the mountain edge. My attempts to shove him off the edge failed thanks to his spiked shoes. He then leaps behind me, catching me by surprise, to push me off the edge.

BUT.

Samurai Ichi wakes up. It was just a bad dream. And he realizes he needs to be brave enough to ask Samurai Justin for help if he really wants things to get better.  And so, the story ends. It was A Single Moment of Courage.

Talk about an incredible story, eh? And Justin was behind most of it's creation!  I ran a few more demo games in the other days, but the next most awesome one was the game I ran with Jaoq. We had a story of Mercy with a Samurai mistreating a Clanless Farmer who had once been a Samurai. When my samurai is beaten up by bandits, it is the Clanless Farmer who defeats the bandits and carries my weakened body back to my Daimyo.  There, however, I lie and claim the bandits were weakened before the Farmer came to help out. The Daimyo, however, sees the truth in the Clanless one's words and makes him the bearer of the Clan Sword. 

Years later, when the opposing Clan which the bandits were part of attempt to ambush us during a journey with the Daimyo, the Daimyo is injured by an arrow neither of us notice due to our focus on arguing with each other. This leads to us fighting each other as we BOTH believe we are acting with the demands of Honor in mind.  The Clanless Samurai, however, is handicapped, as he refuses to draw the Clan Sword, which he knows to be a Sword of Peace.  In the end, he manoeuvres skillfully enough to sever one of my Samurai's arms and force me to surrender.  I nearly kill the Daimyo in my rage, but the Clanless Samurai saves him and leaves me to weep in the pouring rain.

And as an Epilogue, the Clanless Samurai leads the march of the Daimyo in the festival. And my one-armed beggar now watches from the alleyway, vowing revenge.

Thankfully, the games were all a success. People enjoyed playing them and more were curious enough to ask about my other games. There was a lot of interest in my drag queen Fiasco game, Sickening Queens, and a few excited responses to That Night Out, my survival horror indie game.

There were a bunch of interviews as well, with Quit Stalling and GMA News being the big ones during the event. I met Pam from Girls Got Game and sadly I was eating when they passed by, so the offered to come back when I was done. I directed them to instead try checking out my awesome neighbors: Project Tadhana, Tala, and Talinhaga.  I hope they all find a chance to get more milage.

In the end, there was a lot of emotions and intense feelings in the air.  Almost like we were friends for years, there was a bittersweet tinge as we said our goodbyes and disassembled our respective booths. There was the immense gratitude for being given a chance to share our works and a sublime joy in knowing we have found new friends.

Thank you to Pen Gwen, James Lo, and to everyone else behind the ESGS for having us and allowing our humble works to be part of the event.

Thank you to our muses and inspirations. To those who gave us that creative spark to make our works. Who gave us the desire to give birth to such creations.

To everyone who wanted to pass by and say hello. To everyone who wanted to try our games.  To all the curious and the excited people who tried our games, or asked for more information about what we loved doing.

To our supporters, friends, and family, who continue to give us the fuel and strength to keep going. Sharing one's creations can be terribly frightening, and you all have given us the courage to keep going and to be proud of what we have achieved. Thank you so much.  Thank you.

So in many ways, the ESGS was our Single Moment.
At least for that month.

See you all again soon, I hope!