Per usual with all Metatopia recaps, everything presented here is based on playtest material and not final published versions.
Day 2, continued
Rapscallion by Evanleigh Davis
Presented by Evanleigh Davis
This was both my luckiest game of the convention (to find; my rolls were terrible!) and the most fun session I played in. I say luckiest because I wasn't previously familiar with the designer, but let's be real; it's rare indeed that I ever have a bad time at a game at this con. Besides just being immediately taken with the name "Rapscallion," I was also attracted to the description of swashbuckling adventure pirates. The game definitely delivered on that and more!
This one is another Powered by the Apocalypse game, and the playbooks and moves all fell within that familiar structure. A standout for me was that the crew's ship gets its own sheet, as well, with one of a selection of different types available at chargen. There's a small amount of worldbuilding in the pregame, but it's mostly just deciding broadly on a setting (which is tied to choosing a ship). The playbooks were all exciting and evocative, and players immediately get a good idea of what this game is about.
And it's about a lot! There's a base of high-adventure seafaring, for sure, but it also includes a slew of fantastical elements like weird magic. For our own session, we chose an airship-based option for the setting, and we wound up sailing the skies basically in a gondola supported by a gigantic floating jellyfish-like creature. There was a ship chase, boarding, swordfights, dark magic, cyclops romance, hat-stealing...just an overall fun time.
This is definitely a game to watch out for. There's more info to be found on the Rapscallion RPG Facebook page, and you can see some of Evanleigh's illustration work here. Latest word is that this game got picked up for publication by Magpie Games, so keep an eye out for it!