(no subject)

[the_rck]

I’m trying to think what game systems I know well enough to use for running a convention game. Scott thinks it doesn’t matter, that I need to think first about the story because that’s my strong suit. He may be right, but the system shapes things, too. Scott also laughed and called me 'old school' as a gamer. I suppose I am. Not having run a game in more than thirteen years has a pretty big impact.

Would potential players know what I mean if I say 'rules lite' in the blurb?

I know Amber diceless pretty much inside and out, and I’ve poked a little at the follow up that’s Amber diceless minus the Amber stuff, Lords of Gossamer and Shadow. I’m not entirely happy with the setting for that, though, because I can’t actually figure out why player characters would even care about any plot I might throw at them unless I restrict the setting massively.

I ran some GURPS years ago, but that was 3rd edition, and I haven’t even played the current edition. I’m not sure how much that would matter given how fast and loose I play with rules, but… Still, one can do absolutely anything at all with GURPS. But how many people would be willing to sign up for a GURPS game? The system has a reputation for being difficult, and I don’t think I’d do well with players who put a lot of emphasis on the rules.

Chaosium’s underlying percentile system is pretty easy to run and extremely flexible in terms of adapting to different settings/genres, but I’d have to work at figuring out how to set things up so that they work properly. Also, I know there have been multiple editions of the different games under that umbrella, and I have no idea what’s current or how it differs from the basics that I remember.

I did a lot of World of Darkness in the 1990s, but I don’t know either the current system or the current setting. I have the impression that things have changed immensely. I’m also not sure we still have all the books I’d want/need in order to try to run the old version.

I’ve played D20 stuff a fair amount recently, but I don’t really completely grok the system. It’s more rigid than I like and may not adapt well if I want to do something weird. But it is pretty widely known.

I’ve played FATE, but I don’t understand how it works at all. Scott thinks it would work really well for how I run games, but I think it would require the exact right group of players.

I’ve played quite a lot of other game systems over the decades, but I don’t remember most of them well enough to do anything with them. I own a lot of obscure games, too, that I’ve not even read. I know, for example, that I bought the Kevin and Kel game, but I never read it through, and I’m not sure where on earth it is now.

Comments

[tamoline]

The vast, vast majority of my con experience has been at Ambercons, which, well, very much has its own limits in play, not the smallest of which is that there's a general assumption that you'll be able to correspond with players weeks ahead on the con to get background and PCs sorted.

That being said, I have had some experience at other cons, and it really depends on the setup. For most cons, unless character creation is *really* simple and can be done on the fly, I'd provide pregens. Maybe pregens with a certain amount of customisation is you're feeling generous.

Amber and LoGaS are perfectly possible to run in a con slot. What's important to remember for both these games - as well as con games as a whole - is that you're providing a focussed experience. This game is about this particular situation. If you have pregens (and you probably can get away without them for these games) give them a reason why they'd care about what's going on so they can't just flit off into infinite worlds. If you don't, be fairly up front about what kind of characters you want for your premise. (Frex, all children of Corwin who grew up on Earth.) Give them something they have to react to, that they have to do something about. And you've only got a few hours, so the quicker you can get to the meat of the game, the better.

If you did want to run Old World of Darkness, the good news is that you could probably say 'I'm basing this just around the second edition rulebook. No metaplot.' or whatever, and then set up a situation about what interests you. If you wanted, you *could* get the Vampire20/Werewolf20/Mage20 editions that have come out recently that are a general compendium of rules and cleanup of the setting that is mostly metaplot agnostic. (Basically, they have sidebars along the lines of 'If you want to introduce this metaplot occurence, this is how you might want to go about it.') Werewolf20 and Vampire20 do have supplements out, but you can pretty much ignore them, especially if you say that in the description.

The New World of Darkness does have some funky games - I'll admit that I do have a fondness for the two games with trans experience themes or subthemes - but it's setting is basically the modern world with weird, often unexplainable, happenings in the shadows. Each game line does focus on a particular aspect of the weirdness, but there's much less in the way of over-arching metaphysics than old Wod. (I mean, you can ask a mage what the hell is going on with Prometheans, but they either won't know or at best have very little idea about how they fit into anything.)

From what you've written, I can see how FATE might suit you - especially aspects - but if you're not comfortable with it, then that'd be poison to your GMing confidence.

[the_rck]

I've run two tabletop games at conventions and helped run a third. The necessary skills are something I want to learn. I've run a lot of LARPs at conventions, but that's a very different skill set that has more to do with balanced design/planning and being able to let go of the story.

I tried running a very, very simple Vampire game at a local convention back in the 1990s some time, but I ended up with a bunch of players who had played my LARPs and were expecting that level of plot complexity which just wasn't there. I said in my game blurb that it was going to be simple; they just didn't believe me.

I would almost certainly want to go with pre-gens because character creation is one area where my LARP writing/running skills actually do cross over in a useful way.

I think that my fundamental problem with trying to run one shot games in a definite window is that I'm used to making everything up as I go along, so I'm prone to adding things, changing things, and encouraging the players to take that left turn at Albuquerque because it might be interesting. It's an approach that works for campaigns with the right group of players (and for writing fiction) but not so much under other circumstances.

I'm pretty sure that I can learn the skills for running a tabletop convention game. I'm not entirely enthusiastic about having to learn while doing without the option of rehearsal and experimentation, but I don't currently have a group of players that I can call on to test stuff out.

But, come to think of it, I might have an Amber scenario that I could make work. Maybe. I have to think about whether or not it's actually contained enough or too open ended. It's a stealth cold case investigation of an assassination in Amber with members of the royal family as the most likely suspects.

I've got a couple of shortish Amber scenarios that I could try to put back together (they're old enough that I only remember fragments. One of them, I have partially documented and can probably still open the files, the other not).

[tamoline]

Investigations are always a favourite to run at cons. They give players a motivation - We have to solve the murder - and definite places they have to go, to stop them wandering too far afield. Given this is a con game, I'd suggest adding a time limit - if they haven't solved it by the end of the slot, the murderer goes free! In this case, maybe the murder is risking the peace with Chaos in a major way - if the killer isn't fingered, or a patsy found, then war with Chaos ensues. Just to keep the pressure on.

You can add a few moving parts - maybe some of the PCs work for different factions, or the situation evolves throughout the timeslot, but I'd be wary about adding more than one or two. Given this is Amber, it might be worth putting in the game description whether there's going to be significant PVP content or not. (As a player, I'm generally not a fan of PVP content, though as a GM I find a certain amount hilarious.)

One thing that might be worth mentioning - if you can find a GM with con experience who you think you can work with, you could always try co-GMing con games. My wife and I regularly co-gm at Ambercons, and it works well for us, but you really have to be on the same page.

[the_rck]

I'm not big on PvP in short games. It can add something to campaigns, more so if it's a sometimes thing or if the characters like each other and end up in opposition anyway. That sort of thing takes a lot of in game time, though.

[tamoline]

i've run a game with fairly specific PvP elements in it that seemed fairly successful. Basically, Amber and House Hendrake were trying to form an alliance after a centuries long war between Amber and Chaos. Factions within the two sides sent diplomats to try and forge this alliance which all sides wanted, but different factions in House Hendrake had different goals regarding some of the specifics of the alliance. Since all sides were represented by PCs, we briefed the players fully, then had to do very little but watch with amusement as the players maneuvred. The advantage of arranging things so that PCs can fruitfully achieve things by interacting with each other is that each player can potentially get a lot more spotlight time without having to wait for the GM. The downsides I'm sure you're aware of from LARPs.

As an aside, I don't know if they'd be of any use to you, but I have written con reports of the past few Ambercons I've been to on my Dreamwidth account here, here and here. (The game with PvP elements is described under Strange Bedfellows in the last link.)

[the_rck]

(on my phone so short comments)

My husband and I have co-GMed more than once, but he's going to be doing a lot at UCon already. He generally handles mechanics while I do story and character stuff.

[the_rck]

Thinking about the specific scenario that occurred to me, I suspect it's too big as I had originally conceived it. A variant, though...

I've got Amber in my head right now because I've been writing fic for it the last couple of weeks, so who knows what will occur to me?