More Kubla

Got some much needed sleep on Friday night. Saturday brunch with Todd Furler, Sean Nittner, and the This Modern Death duo. Great way to start the day. Then did some final polishes on the Monday Paranoia game and picked out mini's for Sat nite Cthulhu game. I ran out of time on Friday & just tossed a bunch of figures in a file box. Turns out I had just the right ones. Whew!

Actually got into Todd's Unknown Armies game at 3:30. Great set of Players. Much actual Role-Playing going on as opposed to mechanics operation or plot moving. As always I learned new things about running games, such as how to influence metagaming without pushing it. Was wowed by the way the story unfolded and how character interactions set themselves up by allowing an 'open' role-playing situation at the start of the game.

Now things got tricky. Several situations converged to make the next hour 'interesting'. 1. Todd's game ran until 7:30. My Cthulhu game was scheduled at 8PM & I didn't bring the stuff with me. 2. Our room was on the opposite side of the hotel and 5 floors up. 3. I had to get something to eat. 4. I pimped my Dead of Winter event after Todd's game. Sean Nittner offered to bring it to the Good Omens crew. Thanks Sean! 5. I ran into a well-meaning convention staffer, who runs horror games. He offered me a case of energy drinks to take to my game. Being an overly-helpful and nice guy (a freakin curse for a horror guy) I waited for him to get the case & bring it to the game room.

When I finally got to the room, there were 14 people there. This for a game of 6 Players! Daaaang! Freakin humbling. Good thing I had enough energy drinks for everyone. Typically there are folks who get into games who flake and I can accommodate a coupla crashers. One of the crashers, a teenaged guy, told me he'd arrived 1.5 hours before the game. He seemed cool enough, but this game was intended for 'seasoned' adults and I was, for the 1st time, hoping I wouldn't have to let someone in. Turns out all of the people who got in, showed. Whew! A few people chose to hang out & watch. This can be a drag, but they were respectful & I hardly noticed em.

I tried music for the 1st time. I'd spent weeks fine-tuning a Pandora station. Turns out the hotel charges to get online, so I passed on that. I'd loaded a bunch of dissonant music Thursday night (why I needed sleep Friday). I played it in the background & during a break was complimented on how well it worked with the game. In a conversation with Todd later, he mentioned that he's discovered that people tune into the music when it supports their mood at a given moment. So, for the most part, the music almost always seems perfect.

The scenario was designed for male characters. Turns out that I had two women Players, which I'm always glad to see. It's one reason I like running CoC. They both did great, getting into important aspects of the charcacters. Jill Stapleton was one of the Players. I'd played with her at DunDraCon and she was fun there as well. The other woman made a totally intersting choice with her character, the local outdoor giude. He was the strong silent type. She played the silent aspect to the hilt and created a phenomenal character. I'd scheduled the game for 7 hours, plotted it out at 6 and it came it at 6.5. Now I got going half an hour late, due to situations 1-5 above. So, the game wrapped at exactly the 7 hour mark. Amazing for me as I typically go into overtime.

Tired and satisfied with a game that went well, had great Players and went interesting places that I didn't expect, I stumbled back to the room with 3/4 case of energy drinks and Todd, who had stopped by & fallen asleep. Me running on a post-game high & him newly awake, we stayed up another hour chatting. Finally dropped off around 4AM. Forgot to mention that I had also organized a pick-up game for Sunday noon. Good thing I remembered to set the alarm.