Kapcon 2011 (Part Two)

Day two of Kapcon rolled around and I was again up early. With my supplies restocked and a headache taken care of, it was back down to Wellington High and pretty much straight into session four.

This meant 'Big Trouble in Little Freesboro' for Gamma World run by Luke, which I thought would be something light and zany to ease back into the day. Turns out I wasn't wrong. It was my first experience with the D&D4E/Gamma World system and Luke made it painless, even if the early morning start for my brain meant I was a little slow off the bat with the mechanics. Character creation itself was a sort of mini-game, and I ended up with a speedster/electrokinetic called 'Sparky', who also rode a motor cycle and owned a canoe. As you do! There was a nice mix of combat and roleplaying, and I glad we didn't push on to a third big combat. As a result, I would be keen to play some more in the future.

We finished pretty much right on time so, after some lunch and an involved chat about gaming with Igor, it was on to session five where I re-ran 'The Lesser Evil or the Greater Good'. Again the game went well and the players performed admirably. Everyone was starting to fade a little energy wise, but this meant the game had more of a subtle, 'noir' feel to it, with repeated spying and backstabbing going on amongst the team. The ending was also a thing of cinematic beauty.

After the break it was time for prize giving and a general giving of the thanks before session six. I opted for Liam's 'The Matter Involving the Moon' for Cathulhu (Call of Cthulhu for cats), as I had played in the preceding scenario to this one last year and was interested to see what happened in the squeal. I ended up playing Mr Wobbles, the overweight and narcoleptic, but extremely cute and wise housecat. 

Since everyone was feeling a little tired and we had some first timers who were looking a little confused about the whole 'roleplaying a cat' thing, I channelled the spirt of Winston Churchill and started chewing the scenery a little to get things going. Thankfully this put everyone in the right frame of mind and we were soon off on our zany cat adventures, which led us to many strange a exotic places. Liam ran a good game keeping the momentum of the story going, but also allow us enough roleplaying opportunities to channel our inner felines.

The evening saw Liam, myself and a couple of the Auckland guys head to Norm's after party which turned out to be a whole lot of fun. A late finish saw me fall into bed exhausted but happy for another year.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to Kapcon whether through playing, GMing or organsing. I had a great time, achieved what I set out to do and got to meet some awesome people.

Kapcon 2011 (Part One)

Well the high energy madness that is Kapcon is over for another year and, as usual, I had a great time. Not only was it an immensely satisfying weekend of roleplaying, it was also a great chance to talk games with people and generally bath in the reflected geek glory of New Zealand RPG scene.

Things kicked off on Friday night with the pre-con drinks at JJ Murphy’s on Cuba Street. The venue was well selected and it provided a chance for people to catch up with friends before the Con started. I joined in an interesting discussion involving Marcus, Dale and others about the nature of horror roleplaying before heading home to finish cutting out handouts and packing my kit for the morning.

I was up bright and early the next day and heading down to Wellington High School slightly optimistically in shorts and jandals. Round one saw me play in Idiot's Going down to Dunwich scenario for the Laundry Files RPG; a sort of Dilbert meets Lovecraft with a sprinkling of the IT crowd in the mix. Idiot ran a solid game with well constructed characters which proved a great introduction to the world of the Laundry Files. I've always found round one to be a bit of a hard slot for GMs as players are still warming up to the con, so Idiot did a great job of keeping the plot flowing and leading it on to satisfying conclusion.

Since we finished a little over time in round one, the break before round two saw me gobble up my lunch and set up for my first running of The Lesser Evil or the Greater Good, my Cold City scenario. I was a little unsure how it will all sit together after the playtest changes, but I shouldn't have worried as the players really came to the party and produced a great game. Special thanks need to go to one of the Auckland guys - Malcolm I think - for his great portrayal of Captain Bloom, which was possibly the toughest role. However everyone involved totally gave their all and the game really popped, leaving me a relieved GM.

Round three saw me back up Cold City with running The Herald of the Yellow Sign for Call of Cthulhu. Now this one I was worried about as I had offered to run it a couple of weeks before the con and only had time to read through it twice briefly before running it. My energy levels were also a little low. However I needn't have worried as the enthusiasm and willingness of the players to follow the story really lifted and re-energised me. It was especially nice to have a bunch of the Auckland LARPers in the group as they brought an additional level of characerisation and physicality that helped everyone get into character with ease. Special mention must also be made of the zombies groans coming from Siege Mentality II on the same floor as it provided a nice creepy backdrop to the story of dread Carcosa come to medieval Britain.

As most people started preparing for the LARP, I headed off into town with Dave, an old Hamilton buddy, and some of his friends for a well deserved curry and a couple of beers. It was great fun catching up with him and chatting to Liz and Russell, though after a full belly we were all feeling the need for a rest, so I headed home to bed with thoughts of what day two of Kapcon held in store.

Long time, no post

Well is has been a long drink between posts, that's for sure. That has been mainly due to the inevitable Christmas and holiday shenanigans, but also because things have been a little quiet of the gaming front, with only the odd game here and there to keep me occupied.

However I haven't been totally inactive. I have been busy beavering away on my Cold City scenario for Kapcon, which is only in a few days time. I was hoping to keep a more detailed account/analysis of its progress, but once I overcame my block in completing it, it was all go.

I am very happy with how the story turned out. The feedback from my playtest was good and provided some useful advice on tweaks, but the real test will come on the weekend. Since I'm relatively new to the system (which I'm not very good at), so that gives me a little cause for concern, but it is a pretty forgiving system so should work out.

I am slightly bummed that after months and months of having the session full that someone has pulled out in the 11th hour, meaning I might have to run with only three players or with a walk up. Neither of these are big deals, but I guess I want to walk in with the status of having a full game. It's a bit of an ego thing.

Also, because the organisers were short, I offered to run a Call of Cthulhu scenario in the third session last week. I have only read it once before and haven't playtested it, so I'm running it a little raw, but it should come together OK.

All in all I'm really excited about Kapcon. I need to go now and keep working on my preparation, but I'll have plenty to say after the weekend. 

Fright Night 2010

On Saturday night I was treated to a wonderful evening of horror themed role playing at the fourth annual Fright Night, held at the suitably atmospheric Turnbull House here in Wellington. It consisted on two session of fine gaming that ran the gambit from spooky to strange to horrific.

It was also a good chance to catch up with the various Wellington role playing locals and game with some new people. I had a great time and the whole night seemed to go very smoothly (at least from my end).

Below are more detailed reviews of the games I played in. There not too spoilerific, but probably best to avert your eyes if you're keen to play them in the future.

After a brief welcome and pre-amble, it was off to the first round game, which for me was 'Splinter of Corruption' run by Doug. I signed up for this one because I was keen to see how Dark Heresy plays as I've always thought that the Warhammer 40,000 universe would be a great backdrop for a role playing game. Doug didn't disappoint and ran an atmospheric and richly textured game, in which our novice inquisitor team sought information on the dark fate of Commissar Nihilius and his squad. It had a nice '80's sci-fi movie feel to it and I could feel the spirit of Aliens coursing through it.

I played a Novice Cleric called Castus who did his best to support his brothers and encourage them to follow the one truth path of the Emperor (he also proved more than a little handy with a hammer). I think our team was a little out of its depth in terms of leadership and adopted a very direct approach to the investigation, but this only added to the game's dramatic finale. We were a little pushed for time, though I understand that Doug intends to run this at Kapcon, so with a few minor tweaks this game will really do the business.

As we finished the first round game a little behind schedule, there was only time for a very brief break before I was into round two. In this round played 'Rivers of Gold', a Trail of Cthulhu based scenario run by Mike. I was really interested to be a player in a Trail game again as it has been a while since I had been in that position thanks to my GMing duties. The game was set in the Otago gold fields during the gold rush, with my fellow players and I taking on the role of a group of gold prospectors, who uncovered more than they expected in a previously uncharted part of the country.

I played Alex Masters, a young half-Maori, half-Scot who, against his better judgement, loyally followed his mate Bill into an increasingly bizarre world. I gather there may have been some mix-up with the character allocation as Alex was a quite a different man to the answers I provided to Mike's pre-game questionnaire. Nevertheless he was a lot of fun to play and for a while there I hoped he might make it through 'unchanged'.

Mike ran a very tight and polished game, which achieved its aim of producing more chills than frights, while teasing out the final mystery to the very end. Indeed it is a sign of the scenario's strength that despite being quite a linear and constrained scenario, those features didn't distract from the overall experience. For me it channelled the better aspects of Lovecraft's more science fiction orientated works, and some elements wouldn't have seemed out of place in The Colour out of Space. The other players too all really worked their characters well and proceed some genuinely creepy moments. We perhaps could have used a little more time to round things off at the end as it felt a little rushed, but that is only a very minor blemish.

So overall Fright Night more than delivered. A big thanks to Dale and co. for organising the event, and both Doug and Mike for running excellent scenarios. This has certainly set the bar for Kapcon and the mind is whirring already on what I can organise for Fright Night 2011. Hopefully I'll see some more of you there as it really was a great night.