Because I have a bit to say about the LARP, I think I’ll leave that to the next post. So, continuing my Kapcon adventures on Sunday:
Round 4
I was running ‘The Thursday Crisis’ the fourth instalment of my ‘Council of Champions’ superhero games. This series is one of my all-time favourite things to run, and I knew that I had 3 strong players (Norm, Jenni and Nick) to reprise their respective roles from previous adventures, so I was confident that it would be a lot of fun. However, round 4 can be difficult. Many people are sleepy or tired from the LARP, and my third instalment of the series hadn’t been a smash-hit (I call it my ‘Batman and Robin’ installment) so there was a little anxiety. I also hadn’t had quite enough time to prep, so I had to swap out systems at the last minute and re-use old character sheets (as the LARP ate my last ream of paper). To cap matters off one player was sick, but I wasn’t told that until I went looking for them at the admin desk.
I needn’t have worried. I ‘borrowed’ Nasia from the desk to make up the numbers and got my players jumping around (literally) before hitting them with a Jerry Springer style talk show opening. It was great fun, and had me in fits of laughter as per usual, and was the highlight of the ’con for me (outside the LARP). All the players did a terrific job, and I really felt that the game brought it – for everyone. Oddly, when this series of games go well the players applaud at the end (it happened when I ran the first instalment in Canberra last year as well) so you know that people had a good time. Awesome fun
Round 5
Due to a scheduling error not only did I not get my first or second round choices, I wasn’t allocated to any game for round 5. It turned out I wasn’t the only one, and so I took the opportunity to jump into the game I would have signed up for in round 1 if I wasn’t otherwise busy, Purgatory 13 – Descent to Abraxus. I’ve co-Gm’ed with Zak before and I know how he rolls, so I was fairly sure it’d be a good time. I also managed to form a posse with some other good folks with mad skillz to come and join the fun; Sophie, Luke and Morgue.
Three words sum up this game: Old School Mayhem.
The GM’s challenged us at the beginning. They had killed 44 PC’s and were aiming to achieve 100 kills for the ‘con. Then they made me a team captain. Awesome. I picked an elite squad and we got down to business. It took a while for my first character to die, as I really played up her humility trait, but after that it was time to buckle up and enjoy the ride. There were so many insane, and memorable moments – The soccer hooligans, the cannibals, Danny my nailgun killer, having lots of characters get shot in the head by Sophie’s characters with the same gun. It was a great time and it really helped blow the cobwebs out.
I burnt through a lot of characters, trying to put a unique spin on each where possible (it wasn’t always possible) but still, the character sheets flowed. After we were done, and the dust had settled, we’d accounted for a total of 81 character deaths (Danny took out 10 all by himself until Zak dropped a lift on him) giving them a total of 125 character deaths for the ‘con. It was like a roller coaster ride, and if I’d had the energy, I’d have gone again!
Round 6
After that, I was pretty tapped for energy, but I managed to get down and help with the LARP pack-up. Once again, big thanks are due to the folks who helped out. That wiped me out and after a few last snatched conversations, I headed home, satisfied that Kapcon had delivered another great instalment.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
As I just wrote in my own con-write up. I would love to reprise that role if I could possibly play with Norm, Jenni and Nick again in future.
ReplyDeleteI guess if I hadn't been playing a character with such a shorter history, and such a jump from their last played age, I didn't feel like I had any chance of destroying someones play. And that session was really one of my best fun playing of all time experiences.
It's made me start thinking about revisiting my oft discarded ideas for running a supers game as well.
Man, I was all set for some light fun with Thursday Crisis and then you damn near made me cry again. Good work Dale!
ReplyDeleteor maybe it was Norm that *really* nearly made me cry...and then I had to face the rest of them...
ReplyDelete*sniff*
@Jenni: I think my ending wailing on Captain Hope was about 40% "YOU SLEPT WITH MY GIRLFRIEND? THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?" and 40% "YOU MADE MUM CRY. I HATE YOU" and 20% every little thing that had ever gone wrong in his life being expressed by the medium of fists.
ReplyDeleteI did feel a bit bad about that Jenni - but I also knew I wanted you to play Eternity and that you could bring it.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I also knew what you'd been through in the LARP, and how much drama that had involved. I knew that you could work with the material, but I also suspected that you'd have more invested with Eternity because of living her history, so while the setup was at one level it was hillarious, on another it was actually very sad and hard, and I had moments of really feeling the pain these character might be feeling beneath the surface.
Like I said at the end, I was glad we kept the humour rolling, because I think you could have done the same game a whole lot darker - which would have been a different kind of fun.
So when you said to me before the game you were ready to bring it - you were right and it was brung.
confusiontempst: I thought you did a really great job, especially given you hadn't played a champions game before. Again, you were targeted for some emotional hits, and again I thought there was a great balance of humour and actual hurt.
When I run the Champions games usually different characters stand out each time, depending on how much the players involved are willing to make the characters their own, but I'm always left wondering, why didn't I run this game more?