So, although we were too busy/crazy/burned out to post for two weeks (actually, we’ve been working on the Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath Kickstarter over at Kickstarter.com), we had an awesome time at Kumoricon! We got to hang out with the awesome Kumoricon staff (Koop, Kate, Dawn and everyone else), hung out with Deb Aoki and Gia Manry, met Adam Sheehan, and generally had a good time. The lovely Jay helped man the Exhibit Hall, while I wandered around mostly getting coffee, preparing for panels and signing books.

One of the panels that I ran was something I’ve been wanting to do for awhile: MANGAKA: THE RPG. Designed by a friend, this is, of course, a roleplaying game where you play a manga artist. The game mechanics, such as they are, involve actual drawing; the mangaka split into “circles” and then must work together on a manga in a limited amount of time. Complicating this is a variety of factors, including roleplaying complications, their editors, and the Obsessions that each mangaka must put in their work… or suffer the consequences.

There were 11 players, plus or minus a few audience members and assistants who came and went. The game, which lasted for an hour and a half, began with our heroes getting a shot at the big time doing a series for the Seasonal Special Edition of Weekly Shonen Beat. After the first ’round’, two circles were eliminated and had a second shot at mangaka career success by writing for a yaoi magazine and a mahjongg manga magazine. (Two different magazines, not a single combination yaoi-mahjongg magazine.) The four circles consisted of:

* a group of delinquent high school friends
* a group of friends who met at a manga cafe, including a high school girl, a freeter and a construction worker
* a young boy and his rich single salaryman drawing partner, who used the salaryman’s high-priced high-rise apartment as their studio
* a group of weirdos who met when they were shipwrecked together on a jungle island

The manga they drew consisted of: a tournament manga of ferocious sci-fi battles and fanservice, a mystery-suspense manga about a salaryman who goes undercover in a bunny-girl cosplay hostess club, a manga about drugs and cyberspace, and several others. (Unfortunately, I can’t find my notes from the game, so I don’t remember everyone’s manga! Forgive me!) The battle manga (named “The Four Horsemen”) became the hit manga of the group, and the other less successful mangaka met various fates, with some of them suffering permanent mental and physical damage from their mangaka lifestyle, such as Obesity, High Blood Pressure (appropriately, the salaryman got that one), an annoying Nose-Picking Habit, and Compulsive Masturbation. Altogether, it went pretty well, and I hope to run it at another convention again!