Saturday at KublaCon 2007:
The Big Day as far as I was concerned. My 6-hr Call of Cthulhu game was scheduled for 8PM - 2AM. Todd Furler's Unknown Armies game was scheduled for 3:30-7:30. Perfecto.
As a GM running 4 games and having slept through the AM games, I knew I'd get into Todd's Unknown Armies game titled 'Thy Will'. It was, as usual, a different sorta game. The characters were all regular, seemingly unrelated people who frequented or worked at a coffee shop/bookstore and right at closing time things began to go bad wrong. The game was laced with heavy duty religious discussions, horrifying realizations and frantic action, sometimes all at the same time. Once again, I lost the roll-off and was saddled with a character that I didn't initially want to play. Don't know that I'll ever forgive Todd for making me play a Republican. We had a good group of players and the game came off brilliantly.
Turns out that the person who play tested this character told Todd that he'd been forced to play "the enemy". Todd ran the game again on Sunday and our friend Matt DeHayes ended up playing the same character. I think Todd's pickin' on us. The only bummer about the game is that I had to dash off to my game without much feedback to Todd. We talked about it later and worked on some fine points. It's so cool to go to conventions and chat with fellow GM's about running games.
Sean Nittner, one of the Players, is a Good Omens GM. Check out his post about the game here: www.goodomensgames.com/index.php/2007/05/30/ Sean let me put the picture he took up here as well. I'm the tall blonde guy. Todd's behind me. Sean's behind the camera.
My C-O-C game titled 'The Foundation' went off quite well. The registration sheet was full and several people were there to crash if possible. To my joy both my gamer friends Basil and Dawson had signed up and gotten in. Dawson's pal Geoff didn't get in and wandered off to crash something else. This was one of two 'Mad Scientist' games that I ran during KublaCon. Kinda a theme this year. In this one, all of the characters play Mad Scientists going to an 'Alternative Science' conference. One of those 'great moments in gaming' occurred during the game. They were all trapped in a house while one of the crazed NPC's tried to change them into monsters. They were all fighting off the change (as I designed the scenario to run). Then it happened. One of the characters lost a bunch of sanity. The Player decided that the character was not just going to accept the change, but actually encourage it. I didn't expect that. Totally cool!
By this time it was past midnight and one of the Players decided to bow out. They had to drive home and wanted to do so safely. A good choice on their part. As luck would have it Geoff had finished his game and came to fill in. He also went full monster. The scenario as planned was supposed to be the return home of any characters who survived. Instead, they turned into monsters and ended up crashing on the Yithian home world. Only one of them survived the crash. There he was, a newly minted monster, arriving on a dead planet abandoned millennia ago. A perfect, dark, Cthulhu ending.
We rapped the game at about 3:30 AM and I was between the sheets by 4. A perfect day (except for the Republican part). Next: Sunday, Sunday, Sunday.
Monday, June 11, 2007
Friday, June 8, 2007
Gettin' Some Religion
My friend Naked Jen (nakedjen.blogs.com) says that if she had a religion it would be the Oregon Country Fair (oregoncountryfair.org) I went with her three years in a row and it's a great time. If I had a religion, it would be KublaCon (kublacon.com). [ain't I Mr. Pluggy] This is the best gaming convention on the west coast. Runs 4 days over Memorial Day weekend. This year I ran 4 games. Friday:
Arrived early and the Hotel staff freaked me out saying "We don't have any rooms. Do you have a preference?" Ummm I'd made a reservation. After a few uncomfortable moments it was revealed that they didn't have any clean rooms ready for me and my stuff. I was rooming with GM extraordinaire Todd Furler (anunlikelystory.com) who had not yet arrived. I got into the registration line 20 minutes before it opened. I was there chatting with convention friends Matt DeHayes, Kim and Dwayne & cheered when registration opened 5 minutes early.
I signed up for a 2PM Serenity game. I'm planning on running it for my regular group and wanted to see how the system worked. I'd played once before and now was ready to study the thing. This is one of the reasons I go to conventions - to try out new games. Buying a new game is about $100+ investment (Game book, GM screen, Sample adventure, maybe a sourcebook) and I want to spend my $ wisely. 15 people signed up for 8 slots playing the original cast. I don't usually like to do play the original cast in games based on movies/TV shows, but I was really there for the system so, whatever.
It looked like it was going to be cool. The GM had a 3D setup for the ship (but forgot the stands to do the 3D thing - ah well, a good idea). When the GM had finally settled who was in the game, we sat down and I noticed there were 10 Players - 10! Uh-oh. Turns out there are 9 cast members and he allowed one Player who reeeeeeaaaly wanted to play, be the ship. I leaned over to the Firefly geek next to me (he'd brought his copy of the game) and asked if I'd forgotten that the ship was intelligent or could interract with the crew. "Nope." Double Uh-Oh. 10 Players is too many for most RPG's and waaay too many for a con game (Ocean's 11-13 aside). Sooo, the guy playing the ship spent the entire game whining about the other Players not helping him out. I wanted to plat Jayne so that I could study the system and minimize my actual role-playing. I ended up losing a roll-off for Jayne and got Zoe instead - maximum role-playing as she has to work the relationships between herself, Mal and Wash. On top of that, I didn't care much for the system. Looks like I'll probably buy the game as source material and use another system. I may just work from Basic Role Playing. I'll let ya know.
During Serenity, Tod arrived, checked us into the hotel and gave me a key. The game took a short dinner break and I hauled my stuff to the room. It worked out nicely. Thanks Todd!
That evening, I ran Feng Shui from 8PM - 2AM. I had a good group of Players, though not all of them had signed up. Some just showed up to 'crash' the game. I'm glad they did because that filled the game up. I had a mix of Players. Some had played several times. Some had played a little (long ago) and one had never played FS. I really enjoy introducing new games to people, so it was fun for me. The Players were creative and worked the fun parts of the game system without abusing it. We finished right on time. I was stoked as this was my first time running FS at a convention and I think it went well.
Hit the sheets at about 2:45 and sleep poorly due to excitement and the alienness of Hotels. Saturday was planned as a big day with what I thought of as my 'premier game'.
Arrived early and the Hotel staff freaked me out saying "We don't have any rooms. Do you have a preference?" Ummm I'd made a reservation. After a few uncomfortable moments it was revealed that they didn't have any clean rooms ready for me and my stuff. I was rooming with GM extraordinaire Todd Furler (anunlikelystory.com) who had not yet arrived. I got into the registration line 20 minutes before it opened. I was there chatting with convention friends Matt DeHayes, Kim and Dwayne & cheered when registration opened 5 minutes early.
I signed up for a 2PM Serenity game. I'm planning on running it for my regular group and wanted to see how the system worked. I'd played once before and now was ready to study the thing. This is one of the reasons I go to conventions - to try out new games. Buying a new game is about $100+ investment (Game book, GM screen, Sample adventure, maybe a sourcebook) and I want to spend my $ wisely. 15 people signed up for 8 slots playing the original cast. I don't usually like to do play the original cast in games based on movies/TV shows, but I was really there for the system so, whatever.
It looked like it was going to be cool. The GM had a 3D setup for the ship (but forgot the stands to do the 3D thing - ah well, a good idea). When the GM had finally settled who was in the game, we sat down and I noticed there were 10 Players - 10! Uh-oh. Turns out there are 9 cast members and he allowed one Player who reeeeeeaaaly wanted to play, be the ship. I leaned over to the Firefly geek next to me (he'd brought his copy of the game) and asked if I'd forgotten that the ship was intelligent or could interract with the crew. "Nope." Double Uh-Oh. 10 Players is too many for most RPG's and waaay too many for a con game (Ocean's 11-13 aside). Sooo, the guy playing the ship spent the entire game whining about the other Players not helping him out. I wanted to plat Jayne so that I could study the system and minimize my actual role-playing. I ended up losing a roll-off for Jayne and got Zoe instead - maximum role-playing as she has to work the relationships between herself, Mal and Wash. On top of that, I didn't care much for the system. Looks like I'll probably buy the game as source material and use another system. I may just work from Basic Role Playing. I'll let ya know.
During Serenity, Tod arrived, checked us into the hotel and gave me a key. The game took a short dinner break and I hauled my stuff to the room. It worked out nicely. Thanks Todd!
That evening, I ran Feng Shui from 8PM - 2AM. I had a good group of Players, though not all of them had signed up. Some just showed up to 'crash' the game. I'm glad they did because that filled the game up. I had a mix of Players. Some had played several times. Some had played a little (long ago) and one had never played FS. I really enjoy introducing new games to people, so it was fun for me. The Players were creative and worked the fun parts of the game system without abusing it. We finished right on time. I was stoked as this was my first time running FS at a convention and I think it went well.
Hit the sheets at about 2:45 and sleep poorly due to excitement and the alienness of Hotels. Saturday was planned as a big day with what I thought of as my 'premier game'.
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