Overall, I had a great experience at the convention. I met some really interesting people and had a great time getting to know them better over meals. :) All the sessions were in my book a success. Below is a brief overview...

FRI-01: Monsterhearts

This was a really fun game. Skins in play were The Ghoul, The Fae, The Werewolf, The Angel, and The Hollow. Since we'd all played before, our MC was able to speed up the set up which let us get to playing pretty quickly. As with previous experiences, it's awesome having everyone on the same page about the kind of story this system is designed to tell. I've never played with five people but it went well. Our MC (a certain Morgan Stinson) was great at cutting scenes at opportune moments. This game was really messy, literally and metaphorically and I mean that in a good way!

SAT-01: Sagas of the Icelanders

I enjoy this AW hack! I am not expert on Icelandic culture or mythology but it seems to fit in with what little I DO know. I enjoy the gendered aspects. Playbooks used were The Man, The Wanderer, The Shieldmaiden, and The Seidkona. Since this was my first time with it, I wasn't sure about the moves and probably didn't use roll as much as I could have. I liked the "love letters" too. The story involved legal disputes, raiding, and of course magic. Our MC never let things stall and did a good job of giving everyone a chance to shine. Now that I have a better idea of how it works, I'd love to give this another try sometime.

SAT-02: The Lottery (Microscope)

I did The Lottery on SAT-02 and was pretty nervous but it turned out great. The four of us ended up playing Microscope. At least two of us that I remember had never played before. We told the tale of an empire in decline, which had a lot to do with the extinction of a very important plant, magic, and conflict between noble houses. It was a great introduction to the system. There were some cool Events and Scenes that painted a clear picture of what was happening.

SAT-03: We Can't Go Back (playtest)

I had the chance to playtest a game about normal people dealing with abnormal circumstances. Set-up was extensive but that is not a bad thing. It's rather like Fiasco where everyone rolls dice and assigns them to different aspects of their character. I really love the Anchor mechanic! It was a fun game with interesting characters and some chilling moments. The horror involved a painting and creepy children. I think the system would really shine in a muti-session arc. There weren't any major mechanical issues. A very smooth session.

SUN-01 AND SUN-02: Apocalypse World

I had never played Apocalypse World itself. Turns out I really enjoy it! We all had a great time with this and chose to continue the game in the second session and went almost to the beginning of the third. We had The Brainer, The Battlebabe, The Operator, The Hocus, and The Gunlugger in play. The tale involved deals gone bad and a disembodied power that had once been human (that's the simplest way to put it) who identified itself as The Ending of All. The PCs were all really interesting! I liked The Hocus especially. A balance of humor and horror and each character got a chance to strut their stuff. Even when my character wasn't in a scene (and our GM did a fabulous job of keeping screen-time balanced) I enjoyed seeing what the others were up to. It was great getting to continue with the same characters.

SUN-03: My Daughter the Queen of France

Another game I'd never had a chance to play before. The other players were Story Game Seattle's very own Marc, Caroline, Martin, and Jamie who so I was pretty nervous about trying a new system with players I knew were great at the end of a long convention. It was a fun session. All the actors were members of Shakespeare's family which made it intense. The estrangement took place after the daughter was kicked out of college for academic reasons. The game ended in a ragequit by Shakespeare. It was challenging dealing with the different restrictions on each scene and fascinating to see the different interpretations of scenes and characters. Can't wait to try this again, maybe as Shakespeare.

I thought the convention was awesome. Perhaps its only flaw was that it was about a quarter as long as it should have been. It is amazing how fast a weekend can pass by. In addition to the games, it was also (like Dani already mentioned) a great experience on a social level, with connections taking place that I personally found invaluable.

FRI-01: At home...very sad choice in retrospect.

SAT-01: Beyond the Wall and Other Adventures

The character creation for this game is fantastic. While the players create their backstories...theoretically randomly, but with everything important being filled in by the player, they also almost organically create the village they live in and the major NPCs that inhabit it with them. By the time character creation was over, I had a solid feeling of the friendship and history between myself and the other players' characters. By the time we started the actual adventure, there was only a little over an hour left, but somehow we finished it all the same. And I definitely want to give Willhelm credit for managing to use our backstories to form the basis for the events that took place. I very much enjoyed this game.

SAT-02: The Lottery (Durance)

Durance was an interesting game. Our world had an interesting dynamic in that, due to extremely unpleasant climatic conditions, all of the free citizens lived underground, while the prisoners lived on the surface. While I personally felt that I didn't contribute as much to this session as I would have liked, the story flowed to a good natural climax resulting in the Governor breaking her oath, so Jess got to lead us out with an epilogue. A good game, which I would consider playing again if the opportunity arises.

SAT-03: At home again. This one I don't regret. This silly organic body I inhabit needs sleep.

SUN-01: (Pocket) Danger Quest

A GM-less Danger Quest hack by our facilitator, Seth (also owner of the con's copy of Escape, which was a hella fun way to spend 10 minutes). This game was fun, but felt a little disjointed. A lot of that feeling almost definitely came from my choosing a really laid-back game when it turned out I truly didn't want a really laid-back game. Absolutely just a case of my misreading my own desires. Either way, it was still fun, and I got to beat a stone golem to death with the power of music. So yes, in case you were wondering, a minstrel can, in point of fact, save the world (or at least contribute to said world salvation).

SUN-02: Serpent's Tooth (Finally)

I had been wanting to play this for a while. We ended up choosing the A.I. King. I had this preconceived notion that it was going to be a very "serious" game, so when our king started breaking out the humor, it threw me for a bit of a loop, but it was definitely an interesting game. And I got to have a crazed rant, and a massive crisis/collapse of faith, so I really can't complain. I absolutely want to play Serpent's Tooth again.

SUN-03: The Dreaming Crucible

The only thing I will say about this session is that it was absolutely wonderful. Thank you to Lisa and Pat for going there with me. To anyone who hasn't played this, if you are willing to emotionally invest in a game, please play it.

I had a great time as well, despite a couple of scheduling snafus. It was an interesting experience playing with entirely new people, I don't think I played with a single other Seattleite!

I enjoyed playing the Quiet Year twice, had never played it before; a very interesting story-creation procedure :) I helped out with a playtest of In the Hands of an Angry God, and also got to playtest Collaborative Cthulhu and my Game Chef game, Finding Haven. Both worked out even better than I had hoped! A very encouraging weekend.

Best Wishes, Manu