tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83636620347342916502024-03-08T14:32:26.101-08:00Matt SteeleGame Master At LargeBehind the Screenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10779453901282215032noreply@blogger.comBlogger28125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8363662034734291650.post-7130781827432138072009-06-19T15:50:00.000-07:002009-06-19T16:46:16.654-07:00Kubkanoia<span style="font-family:arial;">No Problemo running Paranoia on little sleep. No one knows anything anyway. Knowing the rules is treasonous. Disagreeing with the GM is treasonous. No wonder I love this game!<br /><br />OK, ya gotta have <span style="font-style: italic;">some</span> sleep. Todd had to catch a 8AM flight for some work thang. He took off around 6AM. I'd actually gotten to bed around 2:30. Tossed & turned as I was trying to work out an unresolved detail in the Paranoia game. About 3:30 it came to me to have the mission briefing on a roller coaster and be presented by an inspirational speaker type. 2.5 hrs later, woke up long enough to wish Todd good travels. Back to sleep...or not. Toss, turn, punch pillow, rinse, repeat... Not so much with the sleeping.<br /><br />Arrived at the Paranoia game with a slack 2.5 hrs of sleep. Awesome! 5 Players for 6 slots. 2 of them had never played Paranoia. Awesome! They were both crashers. Awesome! Three Players had played with me before, Tom & Patrick Idleman & Mike Garcia. One registered Player came in & told me she was bailing as her husband had gotten into another game & they wanted to be together. Not so awesome. I told her I understood. (It's a game con. I don't really understand, unless she's a gamer girlfriend/wife. Hmmmm). After letting the con staff know that I had an opening, I assigned characters. In Paranoia, I've quit having Players pick characters. Instead I hand out the best combo of characters and have them pre-organized based on where they happen to sit down. Welcome to Alpha Complex.<br /><br />I launched into the description of life in Alpha Complex. Ya gotta lay a lot of pipe to get folks to understand the world of Paranoia. But... launch isn't the right word. I stumbled, stammered, stuttered and struggled through the intro. Way less than awesome. Then a miracle occurred. I mentioned above that knowing the rules of Paranoia is treasonous. Experienced Paranoia Players know this - or <span style="font-style: italic;">should</span>. I tried a trick which I try every time I run Paranoia. I paused to 'look something up' and asked young Patrick to explain how the die rolling works in Paranoia. He was kind enough to launch into it. After which I thanked him and then told him that he'd lost his 1st clone because he displayed knowledge of the rules. He looked shocked for a second, then pumped the air with both fists, shouted "awesome!" and marked the clone off on his character sheet. Now we were rolling!<br /><br />I got the characters to the briefing room with minimal clone loss, but lots of whacky FunBot fun, when one of he Players got my attention. "Friend GM?" he asked. "Yes, friend Player?" He took a breath, "I don't think I'll have fun playing this game." Awkward silence... It was difficult for my sleep deprived brain to grasp the idea that anyone might not have fun playing Paranoia. Even later, I find it difficult. After what seemed to me like black hours of awkwardness, I recalled that there are some games that I'm not interested in playing. More importantly, I was glad to have someone realize that they weren't going to have fun early on rather than sit through hours of misery and make it less fun for everyone else. I thanked him. I really meant it.<br /><br />The remaining Players had a great time. I had a great time. Patrick was stoked at having lost all of his clones even though one was lost in time. Afterward, I pitched the Dead of Winter event to them and the new Player pitched an idea to me. Sounded cool. I hope he submits it.<br /><br />During check-out I lost the 3/4 case of energy drinks. Easy come. Easy go. I don't drink 'em anyway. I hope they weren't wasted. Wrapped Kubla by having an early dinner with Shannon McNamara. He's stoked on Dead of Winter. It was a great way to finish up. Can't wait til next year!<br /></span>Behind the Screenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10779453901282215032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8363662034734291650.post-33216632693912287352009-06-18T15:36:00.000-07:002009-06-18T16:27:35.806-07:00Kubla Crasher<span style="font-family:arial;">Sunday - Lazy day - unless you stay up 'til 4AM the night before and organize a pick-up game at noon. While some folks think it odd, I bring a 3-gallon water jug, an electric teapot, tea, trail mix and food bars to every con. This was breakfast Sunday AM in the room. Up at 10AM. Ready to go by 11. No game to run that day, so the day was wiiiiide open.<br /><br />Jack Young's pick-up game was a continuation of a game that a bunch of us had started a few weeks prior. Jack guessed that it would take about 4 hours. Heck, he'd run the game Friday night, so he had a good handle on it. Ya know where this is goin doncha? I didn't get into a 3:30 horror game that I wanted, so no problem until 5:30 - Gil Trevizo's Cthulhu game. Jack's game went to the wire (totally worth it - I almost pulled off a brilliant finale, but the final die roll went against me) and I had to dash off to make it to Gil's. Since I didn't officially get in, I wanted a shot at crashing. Didn't think I had much of a chance as I'd had 8 people waiting to crash my game.<br /><br />Gil uses a great system for dealing with crashers. I'm totally gonna use it for my games. He puts out a sign-in sheet for both 'registered' Players and crashers. I got lucky and signed as the 1st crasher. Luckier still, 3 registered Players didn't show. Half of the Players! Not quite as surprising as it sounds - there was a mix-up in the time of the game. One time in the program - 6PM. One on the eratta sheet - 8PM. A promise from the staff to fix it for 8PM. Didn't happen & it was set for 6PM.<br /><br />At 6:10 Gil dispersed characters and seated everyone. He wanted specific seating based on the character relationships. Funny thing is, I'd done the same thing with my game the night before and Todd the same Friday night. Great minds thinkin alike? Well, maybe those two. He'd actually assigned seats and we were doin the musical chairs thing when two of the registered Players arrived. Awkward! One was the GM who had just run the horror game I'd failed to get in. The other was her hubby. Tough choice for Gil. I don't envy him. At first he was inclined to shuck the decision onto the crashers, but he finally GM'd up and told crashers #2 & #3 that they had to give up their seats. Brutal. I spent the next 15 minutes in fear that the Player I'd supplanted would show. He eventually did, but a coupla hours into the game. Whew!<br /><br />The game rocked and in the end my character gave his life to rescue everyone else. He also got to do in the evil woman that got us into the horrible mess we got into. Very satisfying. Now, Gil scheduled the game for 6 hours. With delays caused by musical chairs +, and Players doin what they do, we wrapped at about 2AM. Hmmmm. I'm scheduled to run Paranoia, Monday at 9AM. Curse me for not trying to get a 10AM slot. No problem on 6 hours of sleep. Make that 5.5 hours. I gotta check out of the hotel Monday AM, so I needed to pack & be ready to do that during a break from the Paranoia. No problemo...<br /></span>Behind the Screenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10779453901282215032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8363662034734291650.post-46991490179225444602009-06-17T15:31:00.000-07:002009-06-17T16:38:52.762-07:00More Kubla<span style="font-family:arial;">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!<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /></span>Behind the Screenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10779453901282215032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8363662034734291650.post-74550084389229608102009-06-16T11:41:00.000-07:002009-06-17T16:39:31.414-07:00Kubla +<span style="font-family:arial;">Such a long time since I posted. Where to start...Oh yeah - Kuuuuubla! KublaCon was last month and as usual it was a stellar time. Friday I was able to arrive at exactly the starting bell. I picked up my badge etc. and immediately began connecting with people. Sheesh I know a ton of people at Kubla! Saturday I ran into more folks and it struck me how many SF Bay gamers I know. I spent quite awhile with Justin Means. Great guy, who I've only recently met and it was great to get to know him better.<br /><br />I didn't officially get into a game, but I was able to crash Todd Furler's Hollow Earth Expedition game. As always, top-notch.<br /><br />At the end of the game I handed out postcards to an even I'm hosting in December - The Dead of Winter Horror Invitational. It's a weekend of horror RPG's at the haunted Brookdale Lodge in the Santa Cruz Mountains - just up the road from my house. Had a teriffic response. Got the website up for it last weekend. 2 Freakin weeks after Kubla, but at least it's up and folks I've invited are checking it out. A coupla guys on the GM Forum have indicated that they'll come and Gil Trevizo's already sent me ideas for two games. I wanna get games lined up as quickly as possible. Finally got details ironed out with the Brookdale Lodge last week, so now everything's current on the website.<br /></span>Behind the Screenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10779453901282215032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8363662034734291650.post-35123075091772885632009-04-17T22:00:00.000-07:002009-04-17T22:07:41.560-07:00Stoked!<span style="font-family: arial;">Last night I rec'd a pckage from Chaosium. In it was a copy of BRP Adventures. It's a collection of adventures for the new BRP system. They held a contest for adventures. I wrote one of the adventures in the collection. I'm now a published game writer. I'm stoked!<br /><br />My adventure is Terror At 6666 Feet. It's a B-movie adventure I've run a few times. I've since run another B-movie game. Now I'm now inspired to submit a collection of 13 B-movie adventures to Chaosium as a monograph. I figure I can write up my new B-movie game and convert several CoC adventures. Gotta figure out all 13 and submit a proposal to Chaosium. Fingers crossed...<br /></span>Behind the Screenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10779453901282215032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8363662034734291650.post-74977384382468721952009-04-08T16:32:00.000-07:002009-04-08T16:57:59.971-07:00An A+!<span style="font-family: arial;">The first session of C-Punk with <span style="font-family: arial;">Player generated characters went off rather well. The run-up to the event was interesting. I asked everyone to write up their character background based on their original idea and any input from the Lifepath portion of character creation. Gotta say that this has produced some veeeery interesting characters. I also had them do 2 things. The first borrowed from Don't Rest Your head.<br />1. What Just Happened? Tell me what happened to the character within the last 24 hours that's bringing them to the Forlorn Hope (bar) where the game's gonna kick off.<br />2. What/who connects you to the Hope?<br /><br />This combo of things made me feel like a teacher. Some Players sent me their bio within a couple of days, complete with photos. I use photos to create 4X6 'standees' in acrylic stands, which the Players put on the table to remind the other Players how cool they look. Others sent them on the last day w/o pics. Lastly, some phoned it in, giving me an hour or so to wedge them into the opening scene. So, some people got A's, some B's and a coupla D-'s. The D-'s had 'reasons' of course. It was fun to get the bio's but kinda weird as people were asking for approval and making sure they didn't need to make any changes. I got to have interesting dialogue with those who turned in early. Mostly the bio's were very cool with only minor tweaks needed.<br /><br />Once we sat down, (everyone brought food and we had quite a spread) I asked them what time they arrived at the bar - a spread from 8PM -1:30AM. Everyone got a little time in the spotlight when they came into the bar. I played some music to set the atmosphere for the bar. There was a little crossover and then their various connections hooked them up. The next day, I got the following Emails from the Players:<br />Just wanted to thank Matt for a great 1st Cyberpunk 2020 session with our own characters! I had fun and thought everyone did a grand job getting into character. I can't wait to go play in the Colombian consulate next week. :)<br />Indeed, thanks.<br /><br />Kickin' good start. The grand job of getting into character was totally due to the backgrounds. Awesome! The rest of the backgrounds should come in this week. Overall, the opening session gets an A+! (if I do say so myself)<br /></span></span>Behind the Screenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10779453901282215032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8363662034734291650.post-91723664761641445932009-04-01T23:03:00.000-07:002009-04-01T23:20:25.572-07:00The Plan Comes Together<span style="font-family: arial;">Spent Monday evening working on the Cyberpunk characters. Everyone picked roles they like and it looks like a team will emerge. The plan of running a sample game to prep people for this process worked like a charm. Folks came with ideas and them tweaked them easily during the process. + it was fun! Character generation can be a drag, but we had a good time.<br /><br />I asked for them to work up bios based on the Lifepath process. I've already had several Email exchanges on this. Everyone's going to have a connection to the Forlorn Hope, a bar from an supplement. I Emailed everyone the background on the bar. I also 'borrowed' from the game DON'T REST YOUR HEAD. The character generation process includes a series of questions. One of these questions is, "What just happened?" For the C-Punk game, this will tell me why the characters are going to the bar at this time.<br /><br />It goes against my grain to start the game in a bar. It's so old school D&D. But then we're playing C-punk 2020. It's now a retro 80's game. Weird. One has to go with the tech as imagined then, as opposed to where it's actually gone. It's like original Traveller where ship's computers were figured in tons. Funky. Next week's the kickoff...<br /></span>Behind the Screenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10779453901282215032noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8363662034734291650.post-35784140889167341982009-03-24T14:54:00.000-07:002009-03-24T15:53:00.868-07:00...And The Winner Is...<span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Big news - My BRP adventure TERROR AT 6666 FEET was selected as a winner of Chaosium's BRP Adventure contest. The pdf version of the 13 part adventure compilation became available 3/13. My lucky day. I'm now a published writer. Sweeeeet! The bound version should be available early April.<br /><br />Attended ConQuest Sacramento last weekend. Didn't expect much as I was told not to. The con isn't much to speak of, but I did get to play 3 games I've never had a chance to try, 7th Sea, Buffy and Alternity. Average adventures all, but it was cool to try new games. I was barely able to find enough people to run my Cthulhu game. Daaaaang! My Paranoia game didn't go as only 1 person signed up for it. Double daaaaang! I'm used to turning people away. Seems that 6-8 hour games with 6 Players are not the norm. More like 4.5 hour games with 4-5 Players. Weird. I did get to hang with my friend Matt DeHayes & his girl, Nicole. That was cool. We live nearly 3 hrs apart, so don't get much hang time. We gamed together most of the weekend & he let me crash at his place, which made the adventure affordable.<br /><br />I did a fair amount of networking at ConQuest + met some new people. I also bumped into folks who attend KublaCon and DunDraCon. 2 of them had played in my games and said nice things about them. One even mentioned that he was talking about my game on his way to the convention. I'm honored and glad that I was able to entertain.<br /><br />The weekly group finally finished the 'sample' C-punk game I've been running for them. Now onto creating new characters for an ongoing game. Gonna start with TALES FROM THE FORLORN HOPE adventure pack. I good central location to start with, though I can't believe I'm gonna start a game in a bar. We'll spend one evening creating characters which will give me a week to get good hooks for them. We'll see what the LifePath generates.<br /><br />I'm in negotiations with the <a href="http://www.hauntedbay.com/features/BrookdaleLodge.shtml">Brookdale Lodge</a>, a local haunted hotel in the Santa Cruz mountains, to run a gaming event of my own. It's the DEAD OF WINTER HORROR INVITATIONAL. It'll take place December 11,12,13, 2009. I'll host a mixer at the hotel lounge on Friday night as folks arrive. It will be an all horror RPG weekend. Games will start Saturday at 10AM. 1st session will run for 6 hours. 2nd session will run 6PM to midnight or so. Repeat on Sunday. Hoping to get 28ish people. That would make 4 groups of 7 (6-Players, 1-GM) I'm renting the 19th Century Log Cabin, part of the original hotel, built in 1870. A big log room with giant fireplace, it should be a great place for horror. I'll have to figure out how to keep the noise down. No 'open gaming room' for this event. Once a vacation destination for movie stars and gangsters, the lodge has seen better days but is currently being renovated and will emerge as the Brookdale Inn & Spa. Most of the rooms will be finished by December, so there'll be an excellent combination of rustic and modern. So far everyone I've pitched the idea to, likes it. More here as it evolves.<br /></span></span>Behind the Screenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10779453901282215032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8363662034734291650.post-60465226868363748952009-02-03T22:20:00.000-08:002009-02-03T22:45:12.947-08:00MiniMax Weekend Part II<span style="font-family: arial;">A new SF Shadowrun game was in the offing the day after the MiniCon. I'm not a fan of the setting or system, but the SF group's just too much fun to hang with. Tired after MiniCon, & with allergies kicking my ass, I went up anyway.<br /><br />Sad to say this was not the best SF game. Kim made it, so that was totally cool. She brought her new hubby which was fun except that he's a bit rusty and couldn't quite come up to our level of gaming. He gave it a helluva try though, so props to him. They had rearranged their 6-month anniversary to attend, so 2 thumbs way up.<br /><br />The GM gave me a mage. A complicated character to play, though with some interesting background stuff. Alas, I wasn't up to the task and didn't really grasp the role & best methods of utilizing the character. </span><span style="font-family: arial;">The GM had turned the tables on the C-Punk game I'd run and that was interesting.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> The group kept it fun until about 3/4 of the way through. The GM killed off Gil's character (a helluva surprise, I'll give him that) and then handed Gil the NPC that had killed his other character. Gil was having his usual fun with the 1st character and got handed an aggressive authority type character - one we'd all come to hate and fear. Turns out Gil doesn't like to play this kind of character, so he wasn't able to make the transition. From there the game kinda fizzled. It ended with a whimper and early as well. Good for sleep-deprived me. Home at a decent hour.<br /><br />Monday saw a new chapter in the C-Punk game. Yesterday we finally got out of the initial combat. Now to decide if we want to press on or move to new characters and adventures. I'll send out a group Email and we'll figure it out from there.<br /><br />Running the same Paranoia game at DunDra, so I've already reset everything. Thanks to Lisa, I made multiples of all the material. Sweet! I need to reset TERROR AT 6666 FEET. With luck I'll be ready for a Con a full week ahead of schedule (weird). Hopefully the resets for ConQuest Sac will go just as quickly.<br /><br />Final news - I had to call Chaosium 'cause the PDF I wanted wasn't on the Monograph page. I asked about the BRP momograph contest. I submitted TERROR to the contest. No answer at that time but got an Email a few days later letting me know that they were about done with it. Winners & prizes to be announced shortly. Fingers crossed...<br /></span>Behind the Screenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10779453901282215032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8363662034734291650.post-82535170107155487022009-02-03T21:34:00.000-08:002009-02-03T22:19:51.080-08:00MiniMax<span style="font-family:arial;">The MiniCon has come and gone. No chance to post since then as I lost internet contact @ home. Some hardware fixes later & I'm up & running. Thanks James! Soonish a new laptop & more coolness. Yeah!<br /><br />I was able to put the B-Movie game together and even find images for each of the characters. Rather than have players pick their own images, I pre-picked which meant that I could put the character names on the picture stands. I did this for the weekly C-Punk game as well, after they picked their image. The game was full (5 Players) though they didn't all arrive on time. Gil Trevizo played and took the requisite blonde college student. Thanks Gil!<br /><br />There was an interesting player named Erik who is only able to be 'home' a couple of days a month. As he goes to other towns to work, he tries to hook up with local gamers. Very interesting. Some time it would be cool to chat about his experiences.<br /><br />4 hours just wasn't enough time and I had to rush the ending. Good horror requires time to set up. Also, more & more I like to get the character interaction going before the badness begins. It seems to be a good technique. Even rushed, it seemed like everyone had a good time. One character almost escaped from the house. I was able to purchase & donwload This Old Haunted House PDF from Chaosium a couple of days before. It really helped. A tool I've needed for a long time. I got a couple of nice compliments.<br />1. Part way through the game, as we were walking to get our cars out of the soon-to-close parking garage, Erik told me that it was clear I ran a lot of horror. The characters were learning more and more and getting progressively freaked out. Perfect!<br />2. Gil mentioned that he'd like to play the scenario again with the SF group. High praise from Gil. He's a great Player & I will run it for the SF group. I can take my time with them and really get the freak out.<br /><br />The Paranoia game didn't fill up, but had 4 of 6 Players. I should have looked a little closer at which characters I handed out as one of the elements (R&D vs Armed Forces) couldn't play out because I didn't hand out any of the R&D characters. That'll change for DunDraCon. I had 3 new Players and Noam who I've played with before. He's a cool guy and didn't fall for my 1st Paranoia GM trick (rats!). Another Player, Shannon, used one of my house rules against me. It was a great move and earned him some Perversity Points. I ain't tellin' what he did... Anyways, we chatted afterward and we've been in Email contact since. He's a fellow GM and that's made for some interesting discussions. The game went off well except that I had to keep reminding the Players <span style="font-style: italic;">not</span> to cooperate. I only killed off about half of their clones, but heck I only had 4 hours! Again, a good time had by all and I'm always pleased to introduce new people to my favorite games. Turns out Shannon has been trying to get into my games for awhile.<br /><br />I'd been battling a cold prior to the MiniCon and so decided to skip the AM games. Good call. One of the 2 games I was intered in was cancelled. It turns out I could have gotten into Brian Isikoff's game (bummer). Ah well, getting some sleep was better for me anyway. I still got to chat with Brian for a few minutes and hang with the Endgame crew. Those guys rock.<br /><br />Jack Young ran a C-O-C game while I ran BRP B-Movie. Drag. It would be fun to be in a game of his. Don't know that I'll be able to at DunDraCon. I'm probably gonna hit new horror GM's<br /><br />I picked up some discount products for Etherscope and finally ordered the game itself. Looking forward to diving into it. So, even for an abbreviated MiniCon I was able to maximize the fun. I left exhausted but fulfilled. Next day - the SF game - it was like I had a MiniCon weekend.<br /></span>Behind the Screenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10779453901282215032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8363662034734291650.post-10893957567263080652009-01-13T21:38:00.000-08:002009-01-13T21:51:31.110-08:00Fear and...well, more Fear<span style="font-family:arial;">Just under 2 weeks from the MiniCon and I'm almost ready with Paranoia. One last character background to finish. Anyone who hasn't run Paranoia before has got to try it. You just set up fear, suspicion and give the characters reasons to shoot at each other and lots of weapons to cause mayhem, throw in a hint of plot and Bang! hours of entertainment, mostly generated by the Players. It's so much fun to prep. I just sit there creating the character backgrounds, giving them impossible conflicting goals and chuckling over what might happen. No doubt it will be more entertaining than whatever I think of.<br /><br />Finally have a story for the haunted house game. Whew! Gotta work out the details, but I'm mixing stuff from a screenplay idea, the character background system from Fear Itself and using BRP to make it all work.<br /><br />The weekly game went off without a couple of Players and those who regularly attend are starting to grasp the C-Punk system. I'm playing with my own rules for Cyberpsycosis and it seems to be working well. Odd thing is that most people want to try going Cyberpsyco - weird. I guess I shouldn't be surprised as I'm running it like a convention game. There's just not the investment in the characters as there is in an ongoing game.<br /></span>Behind the Screenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10779453901282215032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8363662034734291650.post-87687188189672724382009-01-06T19:44:00.000-08:002009-01-06T19:54:19.641-08:00So Little Time<span style="font-family: arial;">I've got an event coming up. Endgame in Oakland CA runs MiniCons. 1-day events from 10AM-Midnite. 3 game slots with an hour break. I've signed up to run Paranoia and BRP B-Movie horror. Got the characters for Paranoia done. Working on their backgrounds, etc. Plan to do more tonite. Barely started on the BRP characters. It's a haunted house thing, but I don't have a story yet. MiniCon's less than 2 weeks away... Gulp! I might buy my 1st .pdf thing online. Yeah, I'm slow, alright! Chaosium has a monograph called This Old House by R.J. Christensen. Just the thing for a haunted house game.</span><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />The weekly group was missing a couple of members this week. One's in Japan and one's a workaholic with a new job. Made progress in the game anyway. Fewer people = fewer decisions. No need to get anyone in line yet. This might work after all...<br /></span>Behind the Screenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10779453901282215032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8363662034734291650.post-80181671731222345432009-01-01T22:49:00.000-08:002009-01-01T23:11:10.067-08:00NOT a New Year's Resolutiion<span style="font-family: arial;">Well, here it is 2009. I've decided to write every day and am starting here. Gonna shoot for regular posts on Tuesdays. Not a resolution, I just want to get back into the swing and need to give myself a schedule to do all the computer-centric stuff I'm wrapped up in. Here goes...<br /><br />It's lining up to be quite a year. I've got the monthly SF game, and a gaming event (convention, minicon, etc) already lined up in January, February and March. There might be an event in April and the end of May Is Kubla! Labor Day weekend is PacifiCon and likely another event a month or so later. During all of this I'm going to push my own event in December.<br /><br />I'm looking to do something I'm calling the Dead of Winter Horror RPG Invitational. This would be two days of gaming at the Brookdale Inn & Spa, just up HWY 9 from my house. It would be all horror RPG's. There would also be a Friday meet & greet. The Brookdale Inn (formerly Brookdale Lodge) is a haunted location. It's in the process of being renovated and should be totaly done by the time Dead of Winter happens (December 12-13). I'm hoping to have about 20 people attend. Pitched it to the SF group and they liked the idea. I'll require that everyone stay Fri & Sat nights. We'll see how it goes. Gonna need to get the Terror Rabbit website up & running for it. Should be interesting to go online with that.<br /><br />Of course the weekly game continues. I'm now running CyberPunk. I'm doing a scenario I already ran for the SF group, which is mostly a published adventure (The Osiris Chip - with my own flair, natch). This is to get everyone used to the system. We'll then generate new characters and go from scratch. The Players have agreed to run straight with this (no foolin' around). It should be interesting. Already looks like I'm gonna need to have a talk with one of the Players about keeping with the tone of the game. More as this progresses.<br /><br />Lots happening and I'll do my best to keep regular posts. From here on out I'll be up front, honest and likely brutal.<br /></span>Behind the Screenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10779453901282215032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8363662034734291650.post-29654478470149392432008-04-22T21:36:00.000-07:002008-04-22T22:01:51.776-07:00T.M.I.<span style="font-family:arial;">So I was at the SF game this weekend. We played the in-book scenario from Ken Hite's ink-still-wet new Trail of Cthulhu. This is C-O-C using Robin Laws' Gumshoe System. I recently bought Fear Itself, and have been having some difficulty with the system. Thought perhaps it was just reading 20 minutes at a time, days apart. Doesn't help, but the GM running T-O-C had a bit of struggle also and he'd been in a playtest of it. The Player's review at the end didn't give the system very high marks. It <span style="font-style: italic;">does </span>work to eliminate possible missed clues, which is one of the primary goals of the system, but the mechanics remained a bit unclear. But this ain't a review of Gumshoe. I'll do that once I've had a 4-hr block to read Fear Itself.<br /><br />This is about character backgrounds. In SF we run monthly 1-shots where the GM hands out characters w/backgrounds, like a convention game. We've had some great character interaction because of many of these. In this game, one of the character's background involved them in action outside of the central plot of the game. This meant that he and the GM had to run off sometimes and do things on the side. At one point I even joked about whether or not this character was going to join us in the investigation.<br /><br />Ultimately it all came together, but it put that Player and his character at a distance from everyone else. The drag is that the character was an Army buddy of 2 of the other characters. This could have led to a number of interesting moments, but since he wasn't always around...<br /><br />In the post game analysis (what is this, freakin' sports!?) the GM revealed that he'd put that stuff into the character background to make things more interesting. They were, but also very distracting. Note to self: design 1-shot character backgrounds to feed into the central storyline, or to add color. Beware of possible character sidetracking. 'Character Sidetracking' have I just invented a term?<br /></span>Behind the Screenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10779453901282215032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8363662034734291650.post-8201860420821932982008-04-05T10:47:00.000-07:002008-04-05T13:39:25.409-07:00Are we Relating?<span style="font-family:arial;">At the March Endgame MiniCon I played in games of Spirit of the Century and Don't Rest Your Head. Each of these games started with character creation. I did the same thing in my InSpectres game earlier, but got lessons from these games about how to do it much better.<br /><br />I usually avoid any Convention game that has the following in the description, "</span>Characters created together at start". <span style="font-family:arial;">I don't want to waste valuable game time creating characters. I spend hours and hours preparing interesting characters for convention games. At DunDraCon one of the bad games I played in was a D20 Modern game in which we all had to create characters at the beginning. This took 1.5 hrs! Now the game <span style="font-style: italic;">was</span> scheduled for 8 hours. We ended up 'playing' for 9. Hmmm... InSpectres characters can be created in about 15 minutes and it's part of the fun. I gave the Players a brief description of some cases their characters had worked and moved ahead. It worked, but the following method worked better.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">Both GM's used a Q&A process to create the characters and more importantly - establish the <span style="font-style: italic;">relationships</span> between the characters. These are only 4-hr long games, so tick-tock on the session from the get. The 1st game was Shadowrun (using Spirit of the Century) and the GM (Brian Isikoff) flat out told us it was a revenge story. Our group had been hosed on a job 10 years earlier and now that the last of us was getting out of jail, we were after some payback - if we could figure out who screwed us.<br /><br />Brian asked which one of us was the one getting out of jail. Someone volunteered. Brian asked their position in the group. They picked a job.<br /><br />Who had been the leader of the group? Someone volunteered. Brian asked how he felt about the job going south. The group leader decided that he felt personally responsible for it going wrong.<br /><br />Brian nodded and asked who had set up the job. I found myself volunteering. It came to me that it was a contact provided by someone I'd worked with before. I'd brought the job to the crew. How did I feel about setting up a hose job? I needed to regain respect from the crew. What was my job? Driver and repair tech, I decided.<br /><br />More nodding from Brian. He asked if anyone distrusted my character for setting up the job. Someone volunteered...<br /><br />And so it went until we'd established the characters and how they all felt about the incident 10 years back. We even decided if the mistrust was likely to break out into an internal gunfight, or if people were just leery of each other. </span><span style="font-family:arial;">The characters were loosely created in a few minutes and we were off.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />With that, a simple revenge story turned into a great roleplaying experience. It was more about the character relationships than the story and everyone got into it because we understood how our characters felt about the 'situation' and each other. Brian incorporated some of the aspects of our characters into the story and the resolution had not just guns-ablazin' payback, but emotional impact. Dang!<br /><br />Ryan Macklin started the Don't Rest Your Head game in a similar manner. We played 1st grade kids in the same class (I don't like games in which adults play kids). The game uses 5 questions as the primary tool in character creation. Ryan expanded this to 10, adding questions specific to the adventure. Questions like "What do the kids in your class think of you?" and "What is home life <span style="font-style: italic;">really</span> like?" got us into the characters and their relationships. He encouraged us to start with stereotypes, the Smart Kid, the Cute Kid, the New Kid, the Fat Kid, etc. and build on that base.<br /><br />We bounced around the table from Player to Player getting an idea of the what the characters thought of each other and Ryan encouraged us to twist the character concepts as far as we liked. One of the SF group, Freak Master Gil Travizo, was also in this game. He played New Kid, who seemed to have a call girl for a mom. I played Wealthy Stuck-up Kid who had no home life, a completely controlled schedule and wished his parents saw him as a person. Military Kid had a 'more loved' brother serving in Iraq. Cute Kid had a mother who always called him a fat pig and put him on a new wierd diet every few weeks. He just reeeealy wanted to eat a pizza, like other kids.<br /><br />What did we think of these other kids? We got down and dirty, like only kids can. Their lunch smelled funny, they had cheap toys, they didn't have a personal chef, their clothes didn't fit right, but at least they talked to New Kid, they know all about guns - which is kinda cool.<br /><br />In short order we had not only created interesting characters, but as in Brian's game established the <span style="font-style: italic;">relationships</span> between them. When we got into the game it was a breeze to drop into character and play off of each other.<br /><br />Ryan did another cool thing which was to allow us to create the villain we faced. We drew from our characters' worst nightmares and it didn't take long until we had a truly creeping bad-guy. In fact, I described the villain to someone (a non-horror fan). It actually gave them nightmares!!!<br /><br />I play tested my Terror at 6666 Feet game with the SF group. The characters are on a group vacation together and the tour guide asks them all to "tell us a bit about yourself". I wasn't sure about this and I think that it added extra time to the game. I'd planned to cut it for the convention session, but since the MiniCon experiences, have decided to keep it as it sets up relationships between the characters.<br /><br />Now I'm looking at using this tool for other games as well. This would be very interesting in a Call of Cthulhu Game. It so won't work in Paranoia though... Thanks Brian & Ryan!!!<br /></span>Behind the Screenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10779453901282215032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8363662034734291650.post-46337281353479248492008-04-01T20:04:00.000-07:002008-04-05T10:47:33.569-07:00Whatcha Been Up To?<span style="font-family:arial;">I've been up to no good and proud to say so. Best news is I haven't been caught.<br /><br />OK - the reality is that I've been up to quite a bit on the game front, but not made the time to sit down & write about it. Went to the first Endgame MiniCon of '08 a couple of weeks ago and ended up having dinner with fellow GM Brian Isikoff. He has a gaming podcast '2d6 In A Random Direction' with Endgame co-owner Chris Hanrahan. Cool stuff. We talked about blogging a bit. A couple of days after the MiniCon, Chris sends out a note that he's back on his blog. A few days after that, my archaeologist & gamer friend Matt Armstrong http://www.anthroslug.blogspot.com/ e-mailed his fellow gamers to let us know that he'd re-started his blog. Sooooo, I'm back on mine.<br /><br />What's been happening since June of '07? The San Francisco game group has been going strong. Almost everyone in the group has run something. Without exception, they've been great games. We only missed one month and that was a last-minute break-down. I've run Paranoia, Unknown Armies and my own Blood Brothers style game using BRP (Chaosium) rules. B-Movie Horror mayhem with influences from the Grindhouse films. I'll run it as a single 8 hour 2-part session at KublaCon '08. Anyway, it's a kick-ass group and I'm glad it's come together.<br /><br />At the home game, I concluded Feng Shui, then ran InSpectres for awhile and moved on to Serenity using BRP rules. Chaosium is supposed to publish BRP as a stand-alone system and I keep hoping it will come out. Still waiting guys...since October guys... Anyway, the Serenity game just wrapped. We called it Metamorphosis as we were using BRP (though I did buy the Serenity RPG for ref material). The captain named the ship Metamorphosis and we went with it. The game started well, but drug on and got a bit out of control. Gonna have to do some damage control, have a chat with someone. It was fun to create character sheets from scratch and start from the basics adapting BRP. Gotta say I was actually glad to be done with it. Unlikely I'll go back to it, but ya never know. At least 1/3 of the players expressed some dislike for the game - something that's never happened to me before. Others had a really great time! Go figure.<br /><br />So I'm taking a break from GM'ing the weekly group. More time to get to my writing projects - like this blog. I also need time to prep my games for KublaCon. It's still months away, but I want to be completely ready beforehand as I'm running 4 games, most of which run 8 hours and don't start until 8PM (don't get me started on that - maybe later).<br /><br />I haven't been doing anything on the screenwriting front. OK, not quite true. I went to the screenwriting Expo in Oct 2007. Great event as always and I came back deciding to stay in touch with people and work on making my own horror film. Have an idea for a re-write of one of my scripts and an original zombie idea. Exchanged e-mails with several people for a time and then faded, as usual. Got people excited about the project and then pfffff, I couldn't maintain. All I've really managed to do is put games together and attend several good games. Can't read a novel, can't get much writing done, haven't made it to the movies, have had the same Netflix selection since December. I did get most of the interior of my house painted. I also got a ton done at my dayjob - even got a raise. Also got hooked on Pandora online radio. Soooo coooool...<br /><br />Actually went to DunDraCon this year. Didn't get it together to actually run. Went for Sat-Sun. Was in 4 games. 2 rocked. 2 bit. Took fellow gamer/friend James. His 1st convention. Now he's talking about going to Kubla!!! Good lessons from the one's that blew. Got to play Dunwich Horror boardgame. I now own 2 new boardgames - Redneck Life & Zombies!!!. Have been able to play them both with the weekly group as the Metamorphosis game failed to wrap. Big time fun with both. Anyway, I got to hang with the Chaosium folks and talk about products with them - like BRP...<br /><br />Most recently there's been the EndGame MiniCon. I ran InSpectres in the 10AM slot with only 3 people. The 4th person didn't show. Still, we had a great time and one of the players bought a copy of the game. Cool!! He'd been playing Prime Time Adventures and wasn't having as good of a time. Was supposed to run BRP Horror for the second session, but player flakage caused cancellation. Got into Brian Isikoff's game instead. Good to meet and hang with Brian, who also runs Paranoia. Also got to try out the Spirit of the Century system. Very cool system. Next post I'll discuss some elements of the 2 games I played in that I'll look to incorporate into other games.<br /><br />Really wanted to get into the Don't Rest Your Head game in the last slot, but initially it was full. Then Brian Isikoff's girlfriend had to cancel and I got her slot. Thanks Jenna! (I think it's Jenna) Anyway, Ryan Macklin ran this most excellent game. I gotta get me a copy - maybe when I go up for GoCon #2. Meanwhile I've been trying to read the rules for Fear Itself. As with other Robin D Laws stuff, I love the essence, but have a difficult time with the writing. That plus I only have a few minutes at a time to read. Gotta find a block of 4 hours to read the whole thing. It's now a freakin' jumble in my head.<br /><br />That's it. Waaaaay to much for a new post, but I mostly just wanna more foward from here. If you've read this far, you must be very bored indeed. Thanks!<br /></span>Behind the Screenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10779453901282215032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8363662034734291650.post-31057940085401825482007-08-15T20:39:00.000-07:002007-08-15T21:34:44.985-07:00Extremes in Gaming<span style="font-family:arial;">June 23rd, 2007 (boy am I behind in my posts!Thanks to Todd for prodding me) Endgame in Oakland sponsored Good Omens Productions very own Good Omens Con (GoCon!). I'm not a member of this fab group of GM's but they tend to run fine games. They run more toward the indie direction. Fine by me. They're dedicated to bringing more interesting games to conventions. More power to 'em. The entry fee to GoCon was a can of food which they then donated to charity. Way to go guys & gals!<br /><br />Sean Nittner ran a Wilderness of Mirrors game. This is an unpublished Superspy game written by John Wick. A superb game, with simple mechanics. It's also a collaborative storytelling game. Since I'm going to be running InSpectres for my home group, I jumped into this game. Sean and I played in Todd Furler's Unknown Armies game at KublaCon. Cool to see him again. The game just flat-out rocked! It has a fabulous opening concept: The players put their characters through the exposition portion of most Superspy movies - y'know, that scene where the agent is briefed on the bad-guy [click! goes the slide show] and their minions as well as their secret lair [blueprints appear on a computer screen] and the obligatory hot chick [click! click!! click!!!]. In this game we created that scene ourselves and made up all of our own obstacles (and hot chicks. oh yeah and Tibetan Female Ninjas). The GM took notes and after we had enough to fill the 6 hour slot, he (as the commander of our top-secret unit) sent us out on the mission.<br /><br />Collaborative Story Games rely heavily on good players (who aren't afraid to complicate things for themselves) and a nimble GM who mostly backs out, but throws in twists when needed. We had both and the game just flowed from one groovy moment to the next. The Superspys were cool and backstabbing. The villains were rotten and 1.5 dimensional. Perfect for the genre. We won, of course, and blew up the evil volcanic lair.<br /><br />Dinner with my friends Basil and Gil (Gil played in the supersy game with me) and then back to Endgame. GoCon had 2 time-slots with 6-hour games. Endgame's mini-cons have 3, 4-hour slots. I gotta say that the 6-hour slots work better. Unless, of course, the game isn't up to snuff...<br /><br />Gil, Basil and myself all signed up for a different collaborative story game after the dinner break. This was the opposite experience of Wilderness of Mirrors. The system was difficult to grasp and I gotta say, wasn't explained very well. Veteran players all and 2 hours into the game, the system still wasn't clear. I finally gave up and let the GM tell me what was up. Good players again and we managed to pull a story together, but it was a struggle. The GM kept asking us what we wanted to do next, or suggesting the kinds of scenes we should try. There just wasn't enough guidance for us to create the kickin' story that we'd experienced in the AM. It was a tough 5.5 hours. Yep, we actually wrapped early.<br /><br />Enough whining. I was in a great game, and a not so good game. This gave me the extremes of what I might expect when I ran my own collaborative story game, InSpectres. Now I'm afraid - very afraid. But first, I had to get through the next Mini-con.<br /><br />Bonus! Basil, Gil and I (along with some other KublaCon gamers) had planned on getting together for a monthly game. Some trick since we live 60+ miles apart. 2 of the players live 90+ miles from The City. Basil and I were able to strong-arm Gil into running a Call of Cthulhu game.<br /></span>Behind the Screenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10779453901282215032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8363662034734291650.post-54341090774189731862007-08-13T19:55:00.000-07:002007-08-13T21:04:03.667-07:00Paranoid when Tired<span style="font-family:arial;">I love to run Paranoia. I usually run Monday AM because everyone is sleep deprived and Paranoia works well when you can't quite get all of your thoughts together. However, 9AM is just too freakin' early. Next year, 10AM. I realized almost immediately that I was so tired that I couldn't actually remember the rules. Seriously! Turns out that it didn't really matter. Did I mention I love running Paranoia!?<br /><br />OK, even with a 9AM start, the game filled with players (again no-show slots filled by crashers). I had a few new twists, such as people starting off on their 3rd or 4th clone and then progressing past the original 6, each clone less and less perfect (copy of a copy of a copy, ya know). I started the game with the characters finishing a de-briefing from a previous mission and getting sent out on a new mission immediately. I also had the corridor outside of the de-briefing room repainted while they were being de-briefed, insuring that they'd commit treason just by stepping out of the room. Several clones were lost before they ever got out of the room. We were off to a fine start.<br /><br />I introduced a new Bot. The TrackBot. It's supposed to track an item and lead the Troubleshooters to it. Their mission: To recover this item (which is above their security clearance) and return it to the Briefing Room. Unknown to them, this is a treasonous item, dumped into the Underplex by an Ultraviolet citizen. Worse, the entry port into the Underplex is located in the floor of a transtube and the TrackBot is too big to fit through the opening. Countless clones were lost trying to get into the Underplex. Finally, some well-placed explosives got the team into the Underplex. Some complications with a ScrubBot and some Experimental Weapons in a metal access tube and the party was completely wiped out. There endeth the tale. I warn new Paranoia Players that they should not be surprised if they never get to the adventure. Sure enough, they barely did and our 6 hours was up. (OK, it went 6.5 hours, but no one complained)<br /><br />2 new Players for Paranoia (including one crasher from the previous day's Cthulhu game). I'm spreading the happiness. Hail The Computer! It was a really fun game with good Players.<br /><br />I cleaned up the room and began the dismal task of hauling my gaming stuff and luggage to my car. Then I set off to find anyone remaining that I might bid 'farewell' to. I found Japji (who runs KublaCon) and thanked him for another great con. This is a difficult and somewhat depressing time for me. The convention is over, I'm tired, coming down off of adrenaline and I just don't want it to end. Well, this time it didn't.<br /><br />I found Todd Furler, Matt DeHayes, Kim Hill, and Matt & Kim's friend Dwayne as they were starting a new round of 'Shadows over Camalot'. I don't do much boardgaming, and I was tired, but... I didn't want the Con to end and here are my friends inviting me to play, so...<br /><br />I fear that Camalot was lost to the darkness due to my lack of concentration. 'Shadows' turned out to be a fun game (I'd play again) and I got to hang for awhile longer. The convention staff came and told us that the convention was technically over and if the hotel staff wanted us out of the meeting room, we'd have to clear out. Even as tired as they were, they had this much courtesy remaining. Have I mentioned how much KublaCon rocks!?<br /><br />We wrapped up the game without the need for the hotel staff to shoo us away. That's when Matt & Co invited me to dinner. Now, Todd was taking a red-eye out and the rest had to drive a few hours, but there were 3 of them to share the driving. As much as I wanted to, I needed to get home before my Other Half thought I was dead in a ditch somewhere in the mountain pass I still needed to cross. Difficult as it was to tear myself away, I headed home. Still not willing to completely let go, I called my friend Jay Button in Colorado and blathered all the way home about how great KublaCon was and how I wished he'd been there. Finally, home safe and sound, I ate something and fell into bed, needing some sleep for re-entry.<br /><br />How was KublaCon 2007? Nearly perfect. I can't wait for next year...<br /></span>Behind the Screenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10779453901282215032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8363662034734291650.post-69521153503144155562007-07-24T23:48:00.000-07:002007-08-13T19:55:42.537-07:00River Dance - Of DeathKublaCon 2007. Sunday. Slept until 11AM. Post shower I got to work on the last of my Paranoia details. Final touches on the character sheets.<br /><br />Hung out in the Chaosium booth for awhile in the early afternoon. I was encouraged to submit a game to them via their Monograph series. I'm tempted, but I've just never submitted. Gotta do some soul searching and figure out why.<br /><br />Running Call of Cthulhu at 3:30 , a 4 hour game. A River Runs Through it. Short, but I ran it at Endgame's Minicon and it worked. Another mad scientist game. This nut case finds a series of gateways that lead to 'Lost Cities' all over the world (and on other worlds). Sorta 'Stargate meets Endymion'. But these are lost cities of the Cthulhu mythos, soooo not very healthy to go there. The nice thing about this approach is that it can be a long game or a short one. I have several cities lined up, each more horrible than the last. I can run the players through as many as I need to. If they're fast, add another city. If they're slow, cut some out and get to the last city, then back home (if they survive).<br /><br />It was interesting to run an adventure for a second time. I rarely do and I found that my GM'ing was improved and the game was as well. As with every game at this year's KublaCon, my game was full with people wanting to crash. Half the registered Players didn't show. I just don't understand this. Gamers constantly whine that they don't get into games at conventions. Then they do and they don't bother to show up? One friend of mine has nearly given up registering for games. They go to crash any game they want and almost always get in. Strange.<br /><br />One of the Players who did show up asked if her 12-year-old daughter could play. Needing to fill the last spot, I agreed with the stipulation that this was a horror game and the mom had to be OK with this. She was and the two characters they chose were boyfriend/girlfriend. OK, that's a bit weird, but the cool thing is that I got to introduce a young player to Call of Cthulhu. There was also another new player, so I'm gaining more minions for the Elder Gods.<br /><br />The game went well with everyone dying except one character that managed to make it back home. I take that back, the 12-year-old's character was lost in a non-euclidian city going slowly insane. I managed to get the game in at exactly 4 hours and everyone seemed to have a good time.<br /><br />I trucked to the hotel sportsbar to grab some dinner and ended up next to the Justice Radio folks. These whacked-out people run an internet radio station for online gamers. They're super-fun people. I may run an event for them next year. They hang in City of heroes. Find 'em online at www.justiceradio.net<br /><br />I meandered to Todd's Thy Will game to find my friend Matt DeHayes playing the same character I had. I hung for awhile, then back to the room to get some sleep before Paranoia on Monday AM.Behind the Screenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10779453901282215032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8363662034734291650.post-38756038127031972062007-06-11T20:27:00.000-07:002007-07-18T23:20:24.048-07:00The Big Show<span style="font-family:arial;">Saturday at KublaCon 2007:<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br />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.<br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">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.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />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!<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /></span>Behind the Screenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10779453901282215032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8363662034734291650.post-61879186598035984332007-06-08T18:54:00.000-07:002007-06-11T20:16:46.211-07:00Gettin' Some Religion<span style="font-family:arial;"> 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.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">If <span style="font-style: italic;">I</span> 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:<br /><br />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 <span style="font-style: italic;">clean</span> 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 <span style="font-style: italic;">early</span>.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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. </span><span style="font-family:arial;">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 </span><span style="font-family:arial;">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.<br /><br />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!<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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'.<br /></span>Behind the Screenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10779453901282215032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8363662034734291650.post-71092950407463691212007-05-16T21:33:00.000-07:002007-06-11T19:45:08.774-07:00Survivor - Game Convention<span style="font-family:arial;">I sat down at the table. Monday 9:AM. Some sorta Super-Hero game. I'd arrived at the convention Friday afternoon after working an early A.M. shift to get to the convention early. I gamed all the way through Friday night. Then I played all day Saturday and clean through Saturday night. Hold on. I then used liquid caffeine (tea and soda - not No-Doze which was very popular at the time) and highly sugared snackage to pull me through Sunday AND Sunday night.<br /><br />So when I sat down to be Super, I'd been awake for something like 75 hours. Gotta tell ya, I felt a little greyish-green and not entirely on this planet, but I was really getting the most out of the convention - really!<br /><br />As the game went on, I began to slump in my chair. An hour into it my eyes were even with the table top. The GM was using Cardboard Cutout Heroes - full color 2D miniatures. I was listening to the GM describe some new villain who had come to mash us when the drawing on my Cardboard Cutout moved. That's right. He freakin' MOVED. He actually took a couple of steps and looked at me. I responded by blinking and looking around to see if anyone else had noticed this break with reality. No one had. In fact they were continuing on, but they seemed to be sorta far away - their voices muffled.<br /><br />I sat up straight, bumped the table and knocked over several of the cardboard heroes. With a bit of trepidation I reached out and set my figure upright. He didn't move. I apologized and quickly drained another (now warm) caffeinated beverage. It did - exactly nothin'. Within minutes I was back to slumpin'. And then the cardboard feak moved AGAIN. He turned and looked at me in a hands-on-hips disapproving way. Okay, sleep deprived, it took only two visits from the cardboard gods of hallucination for me to get the message. Go get some sleep. Damn. This was going to be the last game of the convention and I was going to sleep through it.<br /><br />I made my apologies to the GM, told him I'd been up all night and staggered to the hotel room my friends and I were using as gamer command central. Once there, I passed out like a drunken sailor, or pirate, or some other colorful character. I awoke when housekeeping showed up and booted me out for being there past checkout time.<br /><br />I remember all of about 10 seconds of the drive home. I recall leaving the hotel. I recollect lurching awake as my car left the freeway bearing down on a pair of sturdy trees and an even sturdier boulder. I swerved back on the road, convinced that the adrenaline would keep me awake for the 1/2 hour remaining of my drive. I don't remember a minute of it, but somehow I got home.<br /><br />Lucky me. I got home. Stupid me. I pushed too far for the fun and bragging rights. These days I stay at the hotel and get sleep every night. I remember games and more important, I come back year after year instead of slamming into unforgiving boulders. Be safe y'all.<br /></span>Behind the Screenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10779453901282215032noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8363662034734291650.post-87937315076909293392007-05-11T18:34:00.000-07:002007-05-12T16:19:29.279-07:00Know thy CharactersThey come rushing out of the jungle like a bloody wave. They look something like undead inside out chihuahuas with bigger teeth. There's hundreds of them, with saliva spilling out between their needle-sharp gnashing teeth. What do you do?<br />[insert gales of laughter here for 5 minutes - 10 minutes - 15 minutes]<br />Seriously, there's thousands of tiny teeth about to rip you slowly into bit-sized morsels.<br />Chase: (gasps for breath) I pick up my Thompson submachine gun.<br />Margot: (through clenched teeth) I break out my double-barrel shotgun.<br />Terence: (holds his aching stomach) I draw my Mauser pistol and click it over to full-auto.<br />Scott: (stiffles a coughing fit) I whip out my twin .45 automatics, the ones with the extended clips.<br />Anzo: (clears his throat) I kick open the box to the Lewis Gun and shoulder it.<br />The things leap at you...<br />Rat-atat-tat, Boom-Boom, Pow:Pow:Pow:Pow, Blam.Blam., Braaaaaaap.<br /><br />Thus was born the "Wall of Lead". Not a single undead-killer-chihuahua so much as nicked one of the characters with their nasty tiny sharp pointy teeth. There was just red spray and jungle mulch. And worse, none of the characters, or Players, was in any way terrified. They just blew the smoke from the barrels of their arsenal, reloaded and went to sleep for the night (the characters, not the Players). They did leave a guard. (one freakin' guard)<br /><br />My first reaction was anger. How can they not be frightened? I think inside out chihuahuas are really disgusting. The Players should have at least been disgusted. I was furious. Furious! Years later, after faaaaaar to many reminders of this incident, I figured out the problems:<br />1. Chihuahuas aren't scary. Ugly, maybe, but not at all frightening. Bad choice for my description.<br />2. Hundreds of not-scary little monsters doesn't suddenly make them frightening. It makes them hilarious.<br />3. I shouldn't have been angry. I should have been as amused as the Players were. It was an awesome display of firepower.<br />4. I didn't think about the CHARACTERS. I'd spent several game sessions making them afraid of everything that moved. Unearthly horrors had plagued them for adventure after adventure and their sanity was slipping. They were more than a little unstable and were making up for it with firepower - firepower they planned to use on much more dangerous adversaries later in the adventure.<br /><br />The Wall of Lead was not an over-reaction. It was a response I should have expected. They'd acquired every piece of their armory during the course of play and I should have known they'd bust it out at the first sign of trouble. After all, I'd pushed them to that level of paranoia. Heck, they didn't even break out the grenades or dynamite.<br /><br />These days, I keep copies of every Player's character sheets, so that I know what their characters brings to the party and I can create encounters that fit their experience. I've also learned to applaud the characters when they create a novel situation. And I've come up with BIG scary monsters. Really. They're VERY scary.Behind the Screenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10779453901282215032noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8363662034734291650.post-23419068813901121802007-05-08T22:49:00.000-07:002007-05-08T23:22:48.074-07:00What's YOUR story, Pal?<span style="font-family:arial;">You drive around the corner and through the trees you see a house. The mansion seems to have been built by a madman. None of the angles of it seem quite right. As you pull up the driveway, you're not even sure what the building is made of. It looks like some material that is both metal and stone. You stop and get out of the car. As you walk up, you see a few gentlemen gathered on the massive front porch. You recognize some of them and begin to wonder what you're doing here. This rabble consists of every crackpot scientist in North America. You think about heading back to the car. The other "Doctors" look like they might be having the same idea. Then the front doors swing open...<br /><br />Okay, so I've got this idea about a convention of mad scientists. Sounds fun, lots of absent-minded professors getting themselves into trouble. Interesting setup, but what's the story?<br /><br />I'm prepping for KublaCon game convention and this is the opening scene for my 6 hour Call of Cthulhu game. I have some other elements in mind, but they're not coming together as a story yet. What's a Keeper of Arcane Lore to do? I've only got 2.5 weeks! I reach for a book, of course. C-O-C investigators are always getting their answers out of musty-dusty old books and I'm no different.<br /><br />I use the ENCYCLOPEDIA CTHULHIANA. I own a 1st Edition and there's been a 2nd Ed. I start with a connection I already know: The Great Race of Yith were big technology users. They also mastered time travel. They fled their doomed planet of Yith and came to inhabit the bodies of creatures on earth millions of years ago. Okay, scientists like technology and mad scientists are always messing with time travel. At the end of the entry on the Great Race, there are cross references: Brothers of the Yellow Sign (could be bad guys) The Eltdown Shards (ancient pottery shards that could save the investigators) flying polys (the Yithians ancient enemies, maybe sanity loss causing bad guys), etc. As I turn to each reference, I find others and eventually I find a way of tying several of them together. I make up a few elements of my own and Bingo! I've got a story.<br /><br />If you run C-O-C this is a really good source for creating adventures. Only bad news is that it isn't currently (5/8/2007) in print. I'll check with the folks at Chaosium at the convention and find out if they're planning a reprint. If you can find a copy, get it and ask Chaosium to do a reprint. My copy's getting tired.<br /></span>Behind the Screenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10779453901282215032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8363662034734291650.post-4813688545907724272007-05-01T18:20:00.000-07:002007-05-01T19:04:01.645-07:00Telegraph HellYou walk into the lounge at the asylum. Your footsteps echo off of the tile. The TV lights the room with a blue flicker. Roll a Spot Hidden.<br />Creep Finder #1: I blow it.<br />Creep Finder #2: Can I make a Spot Hidden Roll?<br />Creep Finder #3: Can I make one to?<br />Creep Finder #4: Yeah, me to.<br /><br />Well, eventually someone's gonna make the freakin' roll and notice the nurse cocooned to the ceiling. Where's the suspense? Where's the fear? Where's the surprise? All of the Players know there's something hidden, or about to jump out, or there's a dead body behind the sofa, or...something. The GM's telegraphed it by asking for the roll and ruined the whole thing.<br /><br />Horror games are my fave. But they're less fun when the Players know when things are creeping up on them or hiding behind the door, or dangling overhead. To prevent Telegraph Hell, I record the Listen and Notice skills of the characters before each session. I then have the Players roll 25 of these rolls in advance. That way, I can figure out if they notice the zombie behind the water heater, or if it jumps out at them after they slink past. I just go down the list and check off the rolls as they happen. That way I can work the result into the narrative.<br /><br />Prerolling also eliminates the following:<br />As you make your way down the alley, a vampire leaps out of a darkened doorway and slams you into the opposite wall.<br />Creep Finder #2: Don't I get a Notice Roll?<br />Um, oh yeah.<br />Creep Finder #2: I make it.<br />Okay, rewind the interesting, cool, shocking drama and now you notice the vampire lurking in the doorway as you approach.<br />Creep Finder #3: Can I make a Notice Roll?<br />And so it goes. The preroll lets you work the results seamlessly into the story. It also heightens the suspense level of the Players. They don't know if you're about to use a good roll or a bad one. It's a surprise, the way good horror and drama should be.<br /><br />Don't forget that this doesn't eliminate the ability for the Players to make a Notice Roll whenever they want. But if they don't choose to roll it on their own, it's already done.Behind the Screenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10779453901282215032noreply@blogger.com0