I'm barely awake again, and already Steve's posted a detailed analysis. I'll have to step up my game.
Since I had the good fortune to play in those games you missed, I'm throwing in my comments:
- The Saga of the Lost - a very promising game of Vikings, bloodshed, sagas and mythology. It felt like a nice (and easily playable) new take on a familiar style of storytelling. Would love to see run.
- Burning Orchid - a beautiful game about intimacy. I've rarely felt so immersed in character's internal lives, and never seen a workshop game so immediately ready to run as-is. (Special thanks to Roger, for all those little bits of character interaction and body language that made my game click so well.)
Organising the games is always tricky, especially where player numbers are concerned - it's easy to design games that exceed the available playtesters. And it's essentially impossible to guarantee that groups write games that playtest well opposite each other.
I'm not sure there *is* any good solution to this problem; every year is going to be different. I'd love to hear some ideas about how to handle player shortfall - I'd suggest that any writing team that's going over 12 should be expressly warned to prepare the playtest, if not the final game, to be missing some characters.
- Daniel
P.S. Foodle was *great* fun to GM. As was that entire game; my thanks again to all players.