OK, Carnage is in the past, and TotalCon is coming very soon. In fact, I’ve just noticed that their deadline for GM game submissions is this weekend. Oh geez, time to slap some stuff together.
So, I recently created a spreadsheet of all the convention games I’ve run in the past and have notes ready at hand to run at the drop of a hat. I cross referenced this against what conventions I’ve already run them at, so I can try and not repeat myself, at least on a convention by convention basis. Though Carnage and TotalCon do present the interesting problem of having a lot of the same people, and people I really enjoy playing with such that I’d like to bring new material so we can play together again. Looking over that data I see exactly one game I have in the bag that I could run at TotalCon. It’s a pretty straight forward D&D adventure I wrote for HelgaCon a while back and I think it will play well with the TotalCon crowd, so it’s on the list. However, that’s not nearly enough.
Of course, attending a convention is always an immediate boost to the creative juices. In fact, that’s one of the things I love about attending these things. I always come away with a million ideas of things I want to try. The key is to grab onto that energy and make something happen soon, lest it slip through my fingers. So, here are the ideas currently percolating in my head:
Paranoia
I haven’t run a game of Paranoia in a very long time. I was talking to Adam about the last game I ran which has prompted me to go dig through my old notes, and I was amazed at how much gold is in there. That game was run for a bunch of co-workers back at 38, most of which (all of which?) I don’t really see regularly any more. Which makes me think, maybe I should just dust this thing off and run it again. The only question is, what rules do I use? I originally ran it with Paranoia XP, which was fine. Adam also sent me some custom rules he uses for Paranoia, which seem interesting. Finally, there’s the current Kickstarter edition which I did back and do have the early beta rules for. And there’s always the hope they ship before my next convention. Anyway, I can certainly start getting my material together for this and delay choosing a rules set. The only downside is that I recall that game being particularly exhausting to run. Am I really prepared to run that kind of game at a convention setting, where already sleep is in very short supply and the energy may be difficult to raise?
Cthulhu
OK, I’ve never really run any official version of Cthulhu nor am I like to now. But I did recently formulate what I think is a rather clever system for dealing with sanity and I’d love to test it out. I’m sure I can dig up some system to give me a simple skill-based platform to layer this over, and then it’s just a matter of coming up with content. Actually, I have a couple ideas on that too. This one needs more time and some note taking, but feels like it wouldn’t be too hard to bring to fruition. Somehow that makes it both the most vague and most promising item on this list for me.
Warhammer
I love the Warhammer fantasy setting, but I’m really not terribly pleased with the crop of rules systems for it. I prefer 2nd to 3rd, but even then it’s still not my favorite thing to run. That said, I’ve had an idea in the back of my head for some time now that Warhammer Quest could be expanded out into a fuller RPG system, and I’m pretty curious to experiment with this. I mean, the Roleplay book that comes with WHQ basically reaches this, but can I take it a step further and eliminate the minis entirely? Is there enough non-combat stuff in there to make it into a satisfying RPG? I would also have to layer in some more grimness I think – perhaps the sanity system mentioned above that I have ear-marked for Cthulhu would do well. I’d also like something for magic mis-haps, which I think is lacking in WHQ. All interesting stuff and I’m sure it could be done, again it’s just a matter of finding the time to sit down and flesh it out. And even if I do that just leaves me with a system — I’d still have to write some kind of adventure to test it out.
Short-Span D&D
The final idea is to make some standard D&D content that fits a shorter time limit – specifically 2 hours. In the past at TotalCon I’ve really enjoyed when a DM I know ran quickie games in the 10-12 time slot. I’m not getting up for an 8 AM game, but having something light and quick to do from 10-12 is really nice. The challenge of finding something that fits in that is actually a rather fascinating problem to try and solve. My current idea is to take some of the more exciting scenes from recent campaign play, things that involve an elaborate fight over interesting terrain, and just play that. Shoves the players in media-res, and let them play through a single action-packed combat. It would minimize the exploration, but provided there’s enough scenery to bounce off of and enemies with unusual combat strategies I think it could be quite fun. It would certainly be very rail-roady, but perhaps the short time-span format would make players more forgiving of that.
OK, so, clearly lots of ideas, and several cons coming up to run them. I’ve got TotalCon in February, HelgaCon in April, and then we’re off to Origins in June. The only problem is that game registration for these is frighteningly soon, especially in the case of TotalCon where I’ve only got a couple of days to get my stuff in. Which honestly probably means writing a quick description for a game that doesn’t exist, and then I’m really under the gun to flesh it out before the convention rolls around. Plus there’s the risk that as I start to flesh out one of these ideas I lose interest or it just doesn’t come together as I’m hoping it will. But there’s nothing for it. I’ve really just got to pick what feels most promising and run with it. Gulp…
