Posted by Marc
“Big Bad Con. A convention that never sleeps, especially when the fire alarm goes off at one in the morning. Backroom deals on RPGs, on-demand gaming, and the eyes of the titular wolf watching over it all. Nobody makes a move without the Big Bad getting a sniff. If you’re smart and savvy you can make a name for yourself, but one misstep and you’ll find out what sharp teeth he has.”
I had the pleasure of attending Big Bad Con a while back (October 27th-30th, 2022), and as part of my time I got to play two back-to-back Fedora Noir games with people I’d never met. I’ll admit I felt rusty–I hadn’t run a pickup game in person with strangers since… what, 2019? But I didn’t need to worry: Fedora Noir was ready to guide me.
The game handles like a dream. I literally opened the box, pulled the top instructional card, and was playing instantly. No struggle whatsoever. And did I mention the fun? We had fun. Lots of fun. There were laughs, dramatic moments, tense encounters, and everything else I love about story gaming. My players enjoyed the Hat/Detective banter and the way the Partner and Flame push the Detective in different directions. The first session–a classic New Hudson frame job–ended with the Detective utterly failing to exonerate anyone, including themselves. And in the second game, we played Atlantea City. Fish puns ahoy! My favorite moment was the evil monologue delivered by crime boss Maura Fishsimmons. Like any good villain, she revealed her true plans as she stroked the fluffy cat giant crab in her lap.
I knew going in that Fedora Noir was a brilliantly engineered experience, but now I know it packs a lot of fun into a short window. Our games clocked in at just over an hour and a half from start to finish. Perfect for a two-hour convention slot.
Thank you to all the players who gamed with me: Kat, Richie, Shervyn, Charles, Jill, and Maria. You brought the heat that fueled the fire, and with a game as combustible as Fedora Noir, it’s no wonder we had an awesome time. Grab a copy for yourself and find out what I mean!