Kapcon 30

This weekend I attended Kapcon 30, an annual, local, roleplaying convention (currently New Zealand does not have any restrictions on mass-gathering events). I've written about previous Kapcon thoughts and reflections here. For this 'con I offered to facilitate 3 sessions of Soaring Lions, my new professional wrestling game.

Promotional posters were tastefully exhibited

I think professional wrestling games work well in a one-shot 'con setting, as they encourage players to really unleash their creativity in a medium known for larger-than-life drama where no wrestler's concept is too wild or strange.  The format of a wrestling show provides a natural canvas for characters to ally, betray, smack-talk and throw-down with one another.

In the past I've run games like this using Joe J Prince's Piledrivers and Powerbombs, chokeslam of darkness edition which is an excellent game. For my own wrestling adventure I wanted to make the simplest possible system that would allow the players to focus on trying to compete both inside and outside the ring (if you're interested, I expand more about my design intent on the excellent Diceratalks podcast).   

Setup included a special ring-table for matches

For Kapcon 30 I offered space for up to 8 players per session and I wasn't disappointed by the response.  I had a great time, and I also was able to make a few minor refinements to the game document, to reflect some of the questions and comments made around the table (if you've already purchased Soaring Lions, a new version has automatically been added to your library).

Some of my highlights from the day included:

• The Soaring Leviathan and the (Bald) Eagle squaring off in a match while a player waves a sign reading "I'm here for the air show"
• Creepy jester Punchinelly faces off with soft-hearted brawler Polar Bear on a floating ice floe, surrounded by a ring of fire. 
• The Velvet Volcano, a character usually full of rage discovers scientology and patiently explains it to a bewildered audience.
• Powerball, a wrestler sent from the future to save the present is immortalised with a Powerball Memorial Title. Additional titles are added as the show proceeds including the Mega-Powerball Title and Ultra-Powerball Title.
• Code 14, a child abandoned at a wrestling match and raised by the performers struggles to learn whether the villainous Professional is his real father (the paternity test results are suspended above the ring as part of a ladder match).
• Crowd favourite Tractor Trent blows the production budget on a ring entrance that involves corn-stalks exploding into popcorn and a children's choir.
• The hapless Hurricane fails to win a single glory point, despite a range of inventive uses of static electricity in ring entrances and a match at a mountain-top weather station.
• The Opulent Boomer manages to convince his previous arch-nemesis the Invercargill Hipster that while he may have already ruined his future, there's still much he can teach.
• Unrelated to Soaring Lions: being asked by a new player whether I've tried Wicked Lies & Alibis before?

Where legends were made...

The only downsides to the day were that I was completely exhausted afterwards, and i didn't really get much of a chance to catch up with old friends.  Perhaps I can do better next time...  roll on Kapcon 31!

Running great convention games

With Kapcon around the corner, I've been pondering what makes a good tabletop roleplaying convention game (from either side of the table).  I've had some hits and misses in my time running games at conventions and spent a fair bit of time discussing and de-briefing with others. 

In the following section I outline 5 common challenges that often undermine convention games, then propose a solution you can employ to account for such obstacles and allow your convention scenario to achieve its full potential.

1. Insufficient character agency
The time constraint of convention games often leads GMs to construct scenarios where there are limited choices.  This can be fine, so long as the characters can genuinely make some important decisions, and those decisions are the focus of the game. 

Consider the first 20 minutes of  any contemporary horror movie - there will almost always be some constraint that limits the characters options and separates them from wider society when the horror strikes.  That's not a problem necessarily, so long as the choices the characters then make have real meaning for them and their story (in game terms this means that the story of the characters should be the meat of the action).    

Another common type of 'con game with limited agency is the high-concept scenario, where a GM has a vivid and detailed idea about a setting (usually inspired by fiction) but only a rough idea of how the characters will interact with the setting (beyond exploring it) and no backup plan to adapt the story to the characters if they reject some or all of the premise, or simply find it dull.

2. Too little structure
The flip-side of a low-agency game is a game where there is simply too much scope for unstructured character interaction.  Consider most investigative scenarios: usually the characters must follow a sequence of clues to solve the mystery.    The problem with such scenarios in a 'con environment is that people (and their characters) are likely to have very different approaches to what may seem (to the GM) like a very linear set of clues, and could easily spend the better part of an hour discussing one particular clue and its implications, or following false lead.  

Equally scenarios which invite the characters to form plans can fall into an endless planning cycle as characters consider every possible eventuality.  This is often not the intent or focus of the game, but an inevitable outcome of a particular set of elements.

3. Assumed character cooperation
Irrespective of whether the players are strangers or not, if the characters are not known to one another, most players will want to 'ease into' character relationships and shared decision making.  Some will not want to participate collectively at all, and prefer a 'lone wolf' approach if they feel this fits their character.

That means that most con games need to allow characters space and time to meet and interact, and not count on character cooperation unless this is clearly and explicitly stated from the outset.

4. Poor system fit
Unless a convention game is intended to teach a system it needs to be very light touch, and focussed on only the core activity that will occur for the characters during the few hours of the scenario.  Many traditional systems have rules that cover far more ground than that, and this can confuse and bog-down play.

There are many, many different systems out there, and it's well worth shopping around to find one that is well suited for the needs of the scenario.  Ideally a discussion of rules is a very short part of the game establishment phase, and players have quick reference sheets handy (or incorporated into their character sheets) to refresh themselves of the key points.

5. Doesn't cater for player styles
People approach games in a lot of different ways.  Some are particularly extraverted and likely to enjoy and proactively engage in almost any style of game.  Others are less likely to try and grab the spotlight.  For some folks having something structured, like an initiative sequence with clear specified actions that are weighted to be equal to those performed by other characters, provides assurance that they'll get an equal level of involvement to their more glib companions.

Irrespective of the system and setting, some players will try and win, or defy the odds, others will try and participate indirectly, playing their characters more as spectators than protagonists.  How a GM responds to such approaches will be noticed and reflected upon by the other players, who may change their own approach if they perceive there is a more favourable option. 

Creating a scenario sideboard
All of this may seem a little overwhelming, especially for a GM who feels that the players should simply be grateful that they've offered to run a game at all.  All too often the temptation is to blame the players if a game doesn't go well, or live up to the expectations of the GM.


But you can do more to ensure that you run the best version of your game possible. When I played Magic: The Gathering, many years ago, decks had a thing called a sideboard, which was an extension to the deck that had a series of additional cards that you could add to your deck to better optimise it once you knew what you were up against.

I suggest that a good convention scenario can have something similar.  A series of ideas and options that you can port into your scenario to better adapt it to your players.  What options are there for the characters to interact and get on the same page and how can you facilitate this if it doesn't happen organically?  What time pressure can be added if the characters seem to want to spend ages planning something?  How can you ensure that everyone is involved at the table, and what option might you employ to park a noisy player for a few minutes, to allow quieter players time to be heard?

Because you won't necessarily know what challenges you'll face, the unsurprising advice behind all of this is to playtest your game if at all possible.  If you can playtest it with strangers, or people you don't normally game with, so much the better.  But a robust playtest should highlight some of the things you need to include in a scenario sideboard.

Kapcon 24

Over the weekend I attended Kapcon 24, a local roleplaying convention. This year I was only at Kapcon for Sunday (Rounds 5 and 6) but despite my short tenure I had a great time playing in one game and facilitating my new game 'Wicked Lies & Alibis'.

Round 5: Heroes of New Haven!
I've run my fair share of superhero games at Kapcon, so I was interested to see how Robert Vincent would balance securing player buy-in for superheroes created at the table, maintain realism while supporting an open story for the characters.  Robert didn't disappoint.  He used the 'Ladykillers' system to provide a really interesting moral overlay to the game, making it feel almost like a game of Dread, where each impulse to act had to be measured for it's moral value, and against potentially severe consequences.  On top of that the system generated a simple random resolution mechanic through the use of playing cards and the accumulation of power and pain points.

It was a very solid game, and we quickly developed characters from several templates and began balancing life as heroes (on probation) with the drama of being a teenager, in a world where the process of becoming a superhero is sufficiently traumatic to ensure a steady supply of villains.  My own character 'The Confessor' who had shapeshifting powers soon got the rest of the crew into trouble and ultimately had to be rescued -  an epic scene where the actions of the characters had such severe consequences that few of the heroes had a happy ending.  It was a gritty superhero experience, very well executed.

Round 6: Wicked Lies & Alibis
This was the third playtest of my new game; a whodunit murder mystery set in the era of art deco.  It went brilliantly.  The players created a cast of suspects and the wove a story of intrigue and murder focussed on a missing manuscript involving criminal family connections, ghost writing, the mysterious disappearance of a husband, professional rivalries and the simmering dissatisfaction of a butler.

Things came to a head in a memorable fashion when Ivan's character, the butler Seeples was unmasked as the murderer.  Seeple's confession was a thing of beauty, when his mask of professional disdain finally slipped and the rage poured out.  I suspect people in the adjoining rooms will speak in hushed tones of Ivan's bellowing for year's to come...

I had a fantastic time, so thanks to all the players for making a great game and putting up with my poor Poirot accent with good grace.

Kapcon 23 - Part Two

I arrived on Sunday morning ready for day 2 of Kapcon, refreshed and ready for more!

Round 5: Silent Night
The Kapcon organisers had scheduled me to run a session of EPOCH in Round 5 on Sunday morning using the blurb for Road Trip, but when the players arrived I found that one of them had played in Road Trip during round 1 on Saturday, so I hastily suggested we play Silent Night instead.

As Silent Night is a Christmas scenario I suggested it might be nice for the characters to

play a family group.  In short order the characters created a memorable, if highly dysfunctional, modern family.  Conflicts swiftly resolved around Frank (played by Tigger), owner of an organic food store, who had recently married Molly (played by Sam). 

Unfortunately, Frank’s enthusiasm for healthy living wasn’t shared by the family and both his daughter Evie (played by Maggie) and step-son Darrian (played by Nicholas) thought Frank disingenuous.  This was exacerbated by Frank's insistence they use their 'Journey Journals' and formal family meetings to resolve conflict.  The inter-family conflict was so intense that nobody had much time for family-friend, poor asthmatic Victor (played by Nick C) who had been sent away for a Christmas break because his mother was dying of cancer.

My favourite scene in this game was when the family decided to ram a police barricade.  As bullets flew all around them, teenage Darrian who had been arguing with Frank for the whole scenario wrapped his arms around his step-father and shielded his body from harm, whispering a plea for Frank to look after his mother.

Round 6: Quintessence
You may recall that I had previously registered to play Incident at Talos in round 6. However, the GM facilitating that game was away and the game had been cancelled.  Casting around for another option in the break between rounds, there were few games with any player spaces to pick from, and none that appealed to me. 

I also saw that Home Front, Andy’s EPOCH scenario of Dad’s Army meets the Twilight Zone, did not have enough sign-ups and had also been cancelled.  But during the break I observed several people approach the desk and asked if they could play Home Front.  The organisers had cancelled the game, and were not accepting sign-ups for it, so as a work-around they suggested that it be offered in the Games on Demand room.

I was pretty keen to help people play some EPOCH if they wanted to, and Andrew agreed to pitch the game in G.O.D. to see if there was any interest.  I volunteered to play in order to help with the numbers, and we were able to round up 4 others, including the venerable Sophie.  As both Sophie and I had played Home Front, Andy offered Quintessence (published in Frontier of Fear), his sci-fi scenario about corporate marines intercepting a spaceship that has been missing for 100 years.

Having both playtested and edited this scenario, I was fairly familiar with the plot, so I determined to create a character that would take no part in leading the action or in making any decisions.  I had been dealt the cards War Scarred, Cautious and the traits of Idealistic and Romantic.  So I created Neil, a marine who had suffered hideous injuries when he accidentally dropped a grenade amongst his fellow marines, killing several of them.  Clearly traumatised by this error, Neil lacked confidence and was extremely accident prone, to the point where he was almost a liability to the other marines.  This allowed the other characters to unite in their disdain of Neil’s professional abilities, while ensuring that he was not consulted on major decisions, which fulfilled my objectives in not spoiling the scenario.

Sophie had established during the initial scenes that her character was a doctor, and that her father was a General.  I decided it would be neat to use this detail as part of Neil’s story, so over several tension phases I used flashbacks to show how Neil had been imprisoned following his grenade accident, and then been summoned by the general and ordered to protect his daughter and follow her like a shadow.  In preparing for the mission, Neil had been given to the General’s files concerning his daughter and watched hours of home movies until he had fallen in love with the General's daughter, although this was a secret he hadn’t revealed (I had noted it on my secret card at the beginning of the game). 

In the tense scenes of the final climax, I revealed that the General had turned Neil into a human bomb, placing explosives in his cybernetic replacement organs which were detonated when his daughters life was in jeopardy.  I was, however, denied an attempt to actually play a second Hero card, as Neil was Zeroed, and thus eliminated without further heroism.

I enjoyed the game and I think Quintessence generated some really interesting characters, whose end scenes were poignant.

Prize Giving
Before the main Kapcon prize giving I gave out a couple of EPOCH awards [you can read the details here] to recognise some of the excellent character play over the weekend, and thank everyone who had played in an EPOCH scenario.

Reflections
Reflecting on the weekend; player numbers in each round seemed to be considerably more volatile than in past years.  My evidence for this is limited to the games for which I collected stats (the EPOCH scenarios of which 2 were cancelled due to lack of numbers and 2 were run at short notice – several ran with just 4 players, but the majority had 5 or 6 players). This effect may be due to an over-saturation of EPOCH, or it may have been a more ‘con-wide phenomenon.  In either event, it’s unlikely I will be offering EPOCH to the same extent in the future.

No mention was made of Con-fusion or Day of Games one-day-conventions, leading me to conclude that the NZ tabletop convention calendar has shrunk as the LARP calendar has expanded.

Increasingly Kapcon feels to me like 2 or 3 separate ‘cons held at the same venue (if you include Games on Demand) with some level of interaction, but not a lot.  This isn’t new – a similar thing used to happen with D&D and the Harn folk.  Now, as then, Kapcon organisers have made it clear that they are happy to let things evolve holistically, and often say that “people will vote with their feet”.

I agree that it is important to let people do the things that they enjoy most, but I also think that failing to take a more strategic or proactive perspective may also lead to unintended consequences which are extremely difficult to reverse.

However, I also accept that change is inevitable – Kapcon already bears little resemblance to what it was 10 years ago and it’s likely that in the future it will be greatly different to the current event.

Reports of Kapcon's Past
Kapcon 22 - Part One and Part Two
Kapcon 21 - Part One and Part Two
Kapcon 20 - Part One and Part Two

Kapcon 23 - Part One

This Kapcon I had coordinated with several other GMs to ensure that a game of EPOCH was offered in each round.  I liked the idea that players might be able to play EPOCH for the whole ‘con if they so desired, and I also thought it was a good chance to showcase the diversity of scenarios published over the last 12 months.

Family commitments meant that night games were out for me this year.  Accordingly I planned to run 3 sessions of EPOCH on Saturday and play 2 other games on Sunday.  At the time I registered few of the blurbs for games on offer captured my interest, but I pre-registered to play in 'Flyover Country' (a Laundry game) and 'Incident at Talos' (an Ashen Stars game) on the strength of their blurbs. 

However, as it turned out I was to have even more involvement in EPOCH than I planned…

Round 1: Road Trip
Road Trip is a favourite EPOCH scenario of mine because in the later phases, the threat to the characters is generated by the characters themselves which provides a neat pay-out for the work of establishing relationships and linked back-stories between the characters.

Road Trip focuses on a group of people who travel to an isolated cabin to spend some quality time together, and get a lot more than they bargained for.  The players created a group of school friends reunited after the graduation of one of their number.  A good and diverse range of characters were created, from high achievers and budding politicians, to jocks, activists and loners.

My favourite scene played out in the final phase.  Two of the characters were suspected of being infected by the horror and posing a threat to the world.  The others armed themselves and resolved to settle the matter once and for all.  They all drove out together into the wood at nightfall, but only two returned…

Round 2: Mass Destruction
Mass Destruction (published in War Stories) is both easy and tricky to facilitate.  The opening scenes place a fairly high descriptive load on the GM, but the setting and the role of the characters in that setting (reporters covering the 2003 invasion of Iraq) are familiar enough that there are usually strong characters created to experience the harrowing events.

In this run there were some memorable characters – Penny Prescott with Time Magazine (played by Hamish A.) had a terminal brain tumour and evoked plenty of audience sympathy with tearful conversations with her daughter living in the USA, while Lachlan Loader, blogger and founder of blog ‘Lock-n-Load’ (played by Ciaran) was unrelentingly patriotic, occasionally ridiculous, and ultimately heroic.

My favourite scene in this scenario featured the ruthless Edward Thompson of the BBC (played by Ruth) who had already used one of the characters as a human shield.  As the horror overwhelmed the military, desperate soldiers tried to climb into the helicopter the characters were escaping in, and Edward was pushing them off to ensure the helicopter got enough lift.  A few moments later the helicopter climbed into the sky, Edward tumbled out and plunged to his death – shoved out by one of the other characters.

Round 3: Red Gold
I was scheduled to run Shadows of Yesterday in round 3, but I was a little surprised to learn that there wasn’t enough interest to go ahead with the game.

As a result I was actually planning on heading home early when Igor confessed that he had to depart soon after the round 3 began and he was scheduled to run Red Gold with a full schedule of players.  I had edited Red Gold so I proposed that we co-run Red Gold.  Igor would do the initial description, opening scenes and run the first tension phase, and I’d take over and finish facilitating the game.

This actually worked fairly well, as Igor was able to return in time to facilitate the final tension phases and end scenes.  This was a fairly memorable game and many scenes were stolen by Mike Foster’s character Rhineheart, the body-builder with the Austrian accent and penchant for one-liners.

My favourite scene in this game occurred when Cyrus (played by Damon) revealed through a series of flashbacks that he had been a host for aliens all along, and killed his character in an attempt to pass the alien into the body of Todd (played by Theo).  In a final effort to deny the aliens a host, Todd shot himself in the head.

To be continued…

Run A Game At Kapcon

Kapcon needs more games!   If you're thinking of trying out a new game, or published scenario, or even something of your own creation, Kapcon will supply you with a dedicated room, players and promotion for your offering.  Just sign up here.  If you are interested in offering a session of EPOCH please drop me a line, as I'm offering some additional support for folks who run my game.

Kapcon has been a staple of the Wellington, and the New Zealand convention gaming scene for a fair while now, and seems to grow larger with each passing year.  I've attended Kapcon for many years and had a great time - you can read about my past experiences here.  I hope to see you there in a couple of weeks time...

Kapcon 22 - Part Two

Continued from Part One

Round Four -The Shadow Over Kafiristan

This was my first experience with the Laundry and the work of Charlie Stross.  Some of the characters seemed to have a lot of information to absorb – not me.  According to the briefing my character thought the entire mission to Afghanistan was a bad idea and wanted to get the team home safely.  To accomplish this he had some good interpersonal skills and a sidearm.  Okay, seems challenging, but perhaps this is the kind of challenging you might expect a fictional character in the Laundry to be able to accomplish.

I was a little concerned at having an agenda which was opposed to the entire mission.  I assumed to balance my opposition, either the initial mission would rapidly be changed, or other characters would have opposite agendas, setting the scene for character conflict.  The setting became a major element of the game, the same characters on their home turf would have been a different experience entirely, but in the backwoods of Afghanistan the language difficulties, cultural considerations and constant threat did work to fixate the players less on what their characters should know, and more on what they could know. 

There was a good and interesting story behind the game and Malcolm did a fine job of running it.   He did comment after the game he had made a major error by not starting the game in-media-res and I can see what he meant.  When things started to go wrong, my character doggedly tried to extract as many of the team as he could, as per his motivations, and ignored the major final encounter – something that might not have happened had the scenario begun as Malcolm originally intended.   As I had no authority over the other characters, fortunately most of them ignored me and continued to explore, and so the full plot was revealed. 

I enjoyed the game, and thought my fellow players did an excellent job with their characters.  There was nothing in my experience of this scenario that seemed like it wouldn’t have been perfectly at home in a Delta Green setting, but then I don’t know what access the other characters had to magic and whatnot.  A fun time overall, but I felt like I probably should have ignored my character brief in order to enjoy it to get the most out of it.

Round 5 - Price Slash

Price Slash can be a tricky scenario - Mash has dubbed it the weakest EPOCH scenario to date.  It’s certainly as detailed as Fever Pitch is simple.  Because I wrote it, I have obvious trouble being objective.  However, I believe that If run properly it should deliver you a movie experience reminiscent of elements found in movies like Saw, Devil, Hunger or Unknown.  What I learned at Kapcon, however, is that it’s not a good first-time EPOCH scenario. 

I had 6 players, one of whom had experienced EPOCH previously.  Their characters were great, but only 4 of them really interacted with each other in any significant way.  Part of the conceit of a locked box scenario is that the characters are forced together to an extent (rather than having a pre-established relationship), and ideally use this opportunity interact with one another to create interesting stories and flashbacks.  
 

Price Slash allows for individual development before bringing the characters together, and I think that this weaving of stories forces the characters to choose between engaging with each other, or largely ignoring each other.  Regrettably half my group chose the latter course, which naturally had a consequence in the ballot and play of cards. There are tools in the scenario which should provoke some engagement, precisely because of this risk, but these proved largely ineffective.

The characters that did weave their stories together were particularly memorable.  A young man cursed with Lycanthropy was responsible for the death of several of the other characters loved ones, a killer of serial killers calmly navigated the horror bumping off other characters while chatting happily with a valley girl, while Ruth had the distinction of creating Simon-Paul Christian, the most despicable character that I’ve yet facilitated in EPOCH.  These dark twists provoked a number of player initiated challenges – which were actually pretty great

Unfortunately, I feel like I didn’t do a great job for the other characters, who fell by the wayside, more from story neglect, then being claimed as victims of the horror.  It could just be that I wasn’t in top form facilitating this game.  Either way, I think I’ll be editing Price Slash to recommend it for experienced EPOCH players. 

Round 6 - Kapcon Summer Slam II

This game continued my tradition of running a Piledrivers and Powerbombs scenario in the informal sixth round of Kapcon.  I love the system – it’s very simple and free flowing, and allows for total hilarity.  There’s nothing quite like mocking professional wrestling, which itself, mocks the mainstream media.  Unfortunately I hadn’t actually re-read the rules since last Kapcon, so there was a bit of stopping and starting as  I checked a couple of elementary things.

I had thought of taking 6, 8 or 10 players and setting the wrestlers up to be each others nemesis.  However, despite having 8 players, the consensus in the room seemed to be that everyone wanted to create both a hero and a nemesis – leaving me with 16 professional wrestling characters to wrangle!

Sure enough, the game delivered the entertaining and hilarious experience I’d hoped.  The nemesis characters despicably used a training montage while the star characters connected with each other, meaning that there was a slight power imbalance which left a villain ultimately victorious – but the play of cards was tense and entertaining affair.  I think each year I learn a few more tricks for running this game better, so hopefully next year it will be better again.

 

Conclusion

So that was Kapcon 22.  I had a great time, and the organisation was first rate.  Every round ran on time, and I had no problems with player (or GM) wrangling.  I wasn’t called on for surge protection, possibly because numbers were down a little this year, and all the GMs showed up.  I heard a lot of great feedback about EPOCH and most people seemed to have a great time playing the EPOCH games on offer.  I was particularly pleased to see Igor voted the first-equal highest scoring GM in a single round with Red Gold.

Kapcon 22 - Part One

Last weekend I attended Kapcon 22, which features a wide array of tabletop, on demand and LARP games.  This year I had agreed to run EPOCH for 3 rounds, including the informal late-night round, as well as running my light hearted professional wrestling game in the final round, and participating in a panel discussion on game publishing.  That left me with 2 rounds to play games, if I wasn’t needed for surge protection.

Several other GM’s had brought EPOCH scenarios to run at Kapcon (all of which I hope to publish in due course).  To try and help generate some player interest Grant and I had made sure there were a large number of posters spread around the ‘con.  I also added the infamous EPOCH bodycount score, to track character eliminations round-by-round and I brought a few other materials like dark tablecloths and system overview sheets. 

Round 1 - Precinct ‘77 
This was the second installment in Marcus’ 70’s cop TV show game.  The premise is simple – you are police detectives in Empire City with the characters representing era stereotypes and being partnered up.  The game is a sandbox, with the PC’s supplied a large list of informants and then determining how they will investigate several linked crimes.  I had fun playing this game, and thought the freedom of the setup was great. 

There was, probably, too much information for me to easily absorb up-front, which meant the start was a little slow.  I think that this game would benefit from a pre-credits action start (a car-chase or similar) where the characters learn the system and start defining their characters a little, before commencing the investigation phase and consulting their files. 

With only 4 players, and a sandbox setup, I also think that there is a risk that energy levels across the game might be a little uneven.  More players means less screen time for each, but also should also help even out the energy across the game.   I think Precinct ’77 is a solid game, and I hope to see another instalment at future ‘cons. 

Round 2 - Fever Pitch 

Fever Pitch is a very simple and flexible EPOCH scenario, but the strength of the scenario really depends on working to build the characters and their relationships in the first tension phase.  I had a full allotment of 6 players for this game, only one of whom had played EPOCH before.  I used the Colleagues relationship group as I think it’s a good fit for Fever Pitch, and the characters invariably ended up resembling a more extreme cast of the Office – which was awesome. 

We spent nearly 1.5 hours on the first tension phase, and I was very pleased with the office dynamic, which was suitably dysfunctional.  All of the characters were memorable, from Jan-Yves panicked office manager to Andy Mac’s closet survivalist, to Jonathan’s mellow hippie to Steph’s peppy girl who was sleeping with the CEO.

The highlight for me came when it was revealed that Anna’s up-and-coming saleswoman was actually an undercover government agent who had abandoned her assignment out of love for the dweeby office support worker, played by Ants.  Unfortunately Ants’ character suffered terrible deep fryer burns to the face, and was run over and killed soon thereafter, making it a tragic love story.  Jonathan’s final twist that his unbelievably laid-back character was actual a member of a doomsday cult added a nice final touch to the game.  Great fun! 

Round 3 - Getting Your Game Published Panel Discussion 
This was a useful and enjoyable discussion on the subject.  Attendance was light with panellists outnumbering  audience, and so it moved into more of a round table discussion covering issues from motivations, writing, editing, illustrating and promoting your game, scenario  or LARP.  I did my best to highlight my experiences to date, although at one point I was accused of being a shill for DriveThruRPG, so perhaps using a single channel for sales has coloured my perceptions somewhat. 

There was a general feeling that NZ games and game writers should be more active in supporting one another, but it was not clear what vehicle might be suitable, or what value this would add.  While I did feel that it was a good use of time, I doubt I’d give up an entire round of gaming to participate in such a discussion again.  To that end I’ve suggested that there be some shorter panel discussions between the gaming rounds in future to increase attendance. 

Round 3.5 - EPOCH After Dark 
There were initially some concerns about scheduling for this round, as it seems that many people didn’t bother filling in a selection form on the basis that the previous 3.5 rounds have been fairly informal.  It is a hard balance to strike as it’s important not to draw people out of the Flagship LARP, but it would be nice to be  a bit more organised so the GM’s can be prepared.

As it turned out there were 5 folks who were keen to play EPOCH, some old hands at the game, like Mash, Liam and Marcus, plus recent EPOCH converts including James and Theo.  At the last minute Freya was also convinced to join the game, and so we embarked on the first playtest of my EPOCH Sci-Fi scenario Hard Time.

The scenario casts the characters as prisoners sharing living arrangements on the new, high-tech prison facility the Albert Reiss which currently orbits Phobos, a moon of Mars.  The paint was still wet on the scenario as I’d only completed the first draft on Friday and so some of the scenes revealed the need for a little more thought to establish detail and logic.

As I’d hoped the players created a wide range of criminals, from Liam’s very scary cannibal (so scary he was zeroed twice in the first challenge round) to art thieves, con-men and the victims of far worse crimes.  The scenario seemed to have the right level of tension, distrust and drama.  Things came to a head in a final player-initiated conflict which led to the abrupt and shocking murder of Marcus’ character who was only a few feet from freedom.  A great ending, and a very fun game.

 To be continued... 

Previous Kapcon Reports:

Kapcon 21 Part One

Kapcon 21 Part Two

Kapcon 20 Part One

Kapcon 20 Part Two

Beating Me At My Own Game

Over the last two nights I helped playtest two scenarios for Kapcon, both using the EPOCH system.   The scenarios were about as different as you can imagine, Death on the Streets was set in 1920’s Boston, while Space Station Icarus was set on a research station orbiting the Sun in the year 2093.  Yet they both were similar experiences due to the intensity of the character stories and the continuous threat leveled by the source of the horror.

As the first time playing EPOCH I was a little nervous about the experience because I know that the players do much of the heavy lifting in this game.  I have facilitated EPOCH a fair bit, and in that role many of the mechanical considerations, which tend to occupy my time in other more traditional games, are abstracted allowing me to focus on the characters and descriptions.  I find it a much less stressful and demanding experience than running a traditional tabletop game. 

From the players chair, however, decisions need to be made immediately and this is quite an intense process of thinking about the elements you have been dealt and how these fit into a character.  While it can feel daunting, almost immediately my head was flooded with memories of movie characters which might fit the bill.  My plan was to use these as an initial crutch, then create an original back-story which would hopefully be compelling enough to win at least one ballot. 

For Mash’s “Death on the Streets” I was dealt ‘debts’, ‘cautious’ and had the role within the gang of ‘enforcer’.  Turning over these options in my mind I settled on playing Rick ‘the stare’ a big, older gangster with one eye, based loosely on Carl Fogarty from A History of Violence.  Because I didn’t see a cautious man having incurred debts in the traditional way, I decided that Ricky’s wife was sick and needed an operation which he couldn’t afford.  Ricky, against his better judgement, accepted a ‘loan’ from a rival crime family to pay for the operation which led to Ricky effectively selling out his crew.  This was the secret that I wrote down at the start of the game.  Because I also thought that simply paying for an operation for his wife shouldn’t mean that Ricky is actually a good man, I used my opening scene to hint that Ricky was no stranger to domestic violence.  This workup gave me material for at least 3 flashbacks, with the final flashback revealing that Ricky had sold out the crew. 

In Liam’s “Space Station Icarus” I was dealt “stubborn”, “creative” “secretly in-love/hates another crew member” and had the role in the mission of “mission commander/pilot”.  Considering the blurb, that we had been stationed on an orbiting research station for a year, I decided that it was unlikely that this would be a mission given to a high quality commander.  I also noted that there were 2 scientists and a medical doctor on board, out of 5 characters, meaning that there would be a fair amount of resistance to a hard military style command style.  I briefly considered playing a character along the lines of Janek from Prometheus, who hated one of the scientists, but instead decided to play an Australian military pilot wannabe, Scott Leighton.  Feeling somewhat mischievous I decided Scott’s secret would be that he’d had his name tattooed on the ass of all the characters soon after they entered cryo-sleep.  It wasn’t until the first challenge round I also decided that Scott secretly loved ‘Bear’ aka Bernstein, the gruff mission engineer, and revealed through flashbacks that Bear resembled Scotts abusive father, and that the secret love was tied up with an unfulfilled need for paternal approval.  This also allowed me to piggyback a flashback to one of Bear’s.

In both scenarios I also used my Hero card to save the life of another character quite early on, taking a hit and reducing my own character’s chances of survival.  In Mash’s scenario, I felt this was appropriate because Ricky was consumed with guilt over his betrayal, and he later tried to (unsuccessfully) help one of the younger gang members to escape a life of crime.  In the latter it was to save Bear, for the reasons I’ve already set out.

My strategies were partially successful.  In both scenarios I did win the ballot in an early challenge round, although probably more for the heroic act, then the flashback and associated story – although you can never really tell what tips the vote.  In both scenarios I was also the target of a Hero card, which allowed both characters to survive until the second-to-last challenge round, before their luck finally ran out. 

I had an absolutely fantastic time in both games.  The other characters, and their stories, were amazing.   There was a difference in the experience levels of the groups, which mostly manifested through the early play of flashbacks – the group which had played more EPOCH understood the importance of using a flashback to increase the interest in your character, and played many more of these in the early tension phases, although the other group caught on fairly quickly as the game progressed.  In both cases we secured a Hollow Victory, although obviously neither of my characters were alive to enjoy it.  Playing your own game is pretty amazing – I look forward to hearing how both these scenario go at Kapcon.

Fear is Contagious

I am extremely pleased to note that Liam has added another EPOCH scenario to the Kapcon lineup.  This means that scenarios using EPOCH now number around 10% of the unique ‘con games at Kapcon 22 and account for roughly 8% of the total sessions run at the ‘con (excluding Day of Games).  It’s now possible to play an EPOCH scenario in every session of the ‘con except round 6.  That’s a pretty decent effort all things considered, and I think it shows how much fun folks have had playing EPOCH in recent months.

In fairness, EPOCH is specifically designed for ‘con outings, so if there was anywhere that the game would get play - this would be patient zero.  The game works to shape player expectations and allow for cooperative play between players and GM while preserving a largely traditional format.  However, I think it’s fair to say that it’s hard to visualise the way the game works just by reading the rules.    

There are lots of moving parts (Audience Ballots, Flashbacks Outcome and Hero/Zero cards etc.) in EPOCH which mean, I think, that it’s hard to get a sense of the overall picture of game-play.  I guess what I really need is a sound recording or a you-tube video of an actual play, or something similar… is this a good idea?

In either event, the Kapcon EPOCH line-up looks like this: 

Round 1: Red Gold 
Round 2: Fever Pitch, Pleasures of the Flesh 
Round 3: Space Station Icarus 
Round 3.5: EPOCH After Dark 
Round 4: Death in the Streets 
Round 5: Price Slash, Red Gold, Space Station Icarus

 
I hope you’ll come along and play a session.

Leaving Nothing To Chance

As I prepare for Kapcon this year, I’ve noticed something different.  No dice.  That is to say, for the first time I can remember, none of the games I’m running use dice of any kind.  Thinking about the absence of this gaming staple, led me to reflect a little on the role of chance in a ‘con scenario.

Chance features in two main ways in old-school convention games.  The first is through investigation, with the GM offering information to characters via a successful skill roll – everything from “can I track the orcs through the forest?” to “can I tell if he’s lying?”

The problem with employing chance to investigation in a convention game is that the GM almost always wants the players to get the information they are seeking.  In 3-4 hours there is precious little time for false leads, or stonewalling.  It kills time, frustrates the players, and, at worst alienates them from the scenario.  

Of course, there are ways around this.  One is to skew character skills so they are very likely to succeed in critical areas – although this begs the inevitable question of, what happens if they should fail against the odds?  Another is to frame it differently, by changing the question from a binary information/no-information response, entirely dependent on luck, to providing degrees of success or levelling a time cost or similar for failure depending on the roll.  This tends to work best when the stakes are explained before the dice are rolled, and often involves a degree of impovisation by the GM.

The GM can also make the dice roll a fiction, and simple provide the information either way, which, if the players catch on, may lead to the perception that the system is little more than a camouflage for GM fiat.   

The second manifestation is in combat or action scenes.  These raise the stakes, as the result of a failed roll is more likely to be transparent to the players.  Theoretically a character may be killed, or suffer a catastrophic injury through a series of rolls.  As few GM’s are willing to allow characters to be eliminated early during a scenario, this often leads to similar responses to those I outlined previously.

In addition, the GM screen provides a way for the GM to disguise, or change results ‘in the interests of the story’.  In addition to potentially eroding player trust, this also has the disadvantage of camouflaging the role of luck in the game, which can really add to the flow of a game, and is often a leading source of stories told by players about the game afterwards.

Some games, like the Gumshoe system, have tried to separate these areas, guaranteeing players the clues in the investigative phase of the game while keeping an element of chance in action or combat.  Other, more modern games encourage more negotiation or narration from the players, to get at the essence of what lies behind a roll, and bring the outcome back to a broader context of characters and story.

I’ve used pretty much every technique I’ve described at one point or other over the years, including trying Gumshoe to split out the uncertainty of investigation.  This Kapcon I’m running almost exclusively EPOCH scenarios, where the players collectively make all the key choices.  Investigation is optional and as GM I have considerably less say on which characters are eliminated, and when, then any of the players due to the role of the Hero/Zero cards.  My only special power comes in breaking any potential ties in an audience ballot.  And I don’t think I’d have it any other way.  Chance can add a lot of spice to a convention game, but like any seasoning too much or too little has the potential to spoil the overall effect.