DDC-41, 2017 The Big Game
My wife had this crazy idea for a RPG con game. She floated the idea last year and kept adding details about the game she was saying I should run. Multiple tables, 3 GMs and 18 players, and three genres. The genres were Fantasy, Modern Horror and Space Opera. Me being the supportive husband I said yea, we could do this.
As the months and cons passed we started getting serious about running this monster game. The system we decided on was D&D 5th edition, it is relatively new, and is in high demand. We figured everyone knew it in some form or another. I had just acquired a PDF of a modern/sci-fi rules set for 5th edition. The stars aligned and Dundracon in San Ramon over the Presidents day weekend was the next big local con coming up.
I ran the idea past the Mark, the RPG coordinator and he thought it was a viable game for his convention. With that we started working on the game. Writing up the description for the game to go into the con booklet and to Mark to decide if he really wanted the game.
Here are the character booklets and the portraits for each character. Blue was Space Opera, green were for the Fantasy and red were the Modern Horror.
Here are the character booklets and the portraits for each character. Blue was Space Opera, green were for the Fantasy and red were the Modern Horror.
We decided to use the pcv pipe frames that we use for our Aliens L.A.B. game at Kublacon.(See previous blog about that game) We used those frames to put up canvas sheets between tables to better immerse the players in the genre at their table. Our friend busted her ass getting these things painted and she did a bang up job.
Here are her Modern/horror setting backgrounds:
The game was accepted and we began making the characters, we started with the D&D fantasy setting since they were the easiest to make. Making the characters using the Ultramodern5 rules add on to D&D was a longer process, and we used that rules set to make 12 characters. That done we had several meeting with the other GMs, Felipe Morales and Steve May.
Steve had been playing for many years but didn't have a lot of time behind the GM screen and this would be his first Con GM'ing gig. Felipe and me had spent many years playing and GM'ing, we started RPGing in 1978. I have GM'ed many Con games since the mid 1990s.
I figured 3 "encounters" then a big battle at the end where all three tables would fight together. What I mean by encounters doesn't mean a battle, though it could be. I put the players in a situation and they are the ones that figure out how to deal with it, so it doesn't need to be a fight.
The main problem we saw was timing. We needed to be at a certain point where we would ring a gong, a real one in the room and an event would happen that impacted all three tables at the same time. It would be fantastic if there were not in the middle of combat or a high stress situation since we were going to add stress to the game.
Jolene my wife was the GM wrangler and we ran into trouble before the 1st Gong. Steve wanted another half hour when we were already 30 minutes over our timeline. She told him he had 10 minutes. What I failed to realize was that Steve was really, really nervous. I get nerves before any game I run. For me its sort of stage fright or performance anxiety. After all I am responsible for the game and questions like, will people show up, will my game be fun, will the players be happy with the game.
Steve was really, really fighting anxiety. It did impact his game and I think that he didn't want to rush his players, or go off his script. Also his table for some reason got the real Min/Max players that questioned some of his decisions. Still he toughed it out and ran his game. I gotta give a lot of props to Steve for doing a good job with all the pressure he was feeling.
Jolene called working with us "herding cats." Which I assume is not easy or maybe impossible? Still she kept us to our own prescribed time line more or less. And she kept our game going in a timely fashion. Jolene really did a great job working with the three GMs.
We clocked in at 6 hours and 15 minutes. The game was supposed to be a 6 hour game, it really could have been 8 hours. We started a half hour late due to Convention scheduling problems so our game ended at 12:45 and it took us a half hour to clean up our stuff.
The end of the game was met with applause and many of the players thanked us for running the game. Again I failed to make a quick feedback sheet to get solid feedback about our game. We had a couple people stick around ask us questions and gave us verbal feedback.
There were some rough spots but overall the event was fun and exciting event. We were asked by a staff member of KublaCon, the next local Con to run the game there so I guess the word was it went well. In my book that is a Good Con game. On to KublaCon!!!
Here are her Modern/horror setting backgrounds:
This is her Sci-fi setting background:
The game was accepted and we began making the characters, we started with the D&D fantasy setting since they were the easiest to make. Making the characters using the Ultramodern5 rules add on to D&D was a longer process, and we used that rules set to make 12 characters. That done we had several meeting with the other GMs, Felipe Morales and Steve May.
Steve had been playing for many years but didn't have a lot of time behind the GM screen and this would be his first Con GM'ing gig. Felipe and me had spent many years playing and GM'ing, we started RPGing in 1978. I have GM'ed many Con games since the mid 1990s.
I figured 3 "encounters" then a big battle at the end where all three tables would fight together. What I mean by encounters doesn't mean a battle, though it could be. I put the players in a situation and they are the ones that figure out how to deal with it, so it doesn't need to be a fight.
The main problem we saw was timing. We needed to be at a certain point where we would ring a gong, a real one in the room and an event would happen that impacted all three tables at the same time. It would be fantastic if there were not in the middle of combat or a high stress situation since we were going to add stress to the game.
Jolene my wife was the GM wrangler and we ran into trouble before the 1st Gong. Steve wanted another half hour when we were already 30 minutes over our timeline. She told him he had 10 minutes. What I failed to realize was that Steve was really, really nervous. I get nerves before any game I run. For me its sort of stage fright or performance anxiety. After all I am responsible for the game and questions like, will people show up, will my game be fun, will the players be happy with the game.
Steve was really, really fighting anxiety. It did impact his game and I think that he didn't want to rush his players, or go off his script. Also his table for some reason got the real Min/Max players that questioned some of his decisions. Still he toughed it out and ran his game. I gotta give a lot of props to Steve for doing a good job with all the pressure he was feeling.
Jolene called working with us "herding cats." Which I assume is not easy or maybe impossible? Still she kept us to our own prescribed time line more or less. And she kept our game going in a timely fashion. Jolene really did a great job working with the three GMs.
We clocked in at 6 hours and 15 minutes. The game was supposed to be a 6 hour game, it really could have been 8 hours. We started a half hour late due to Convention scheduling problems so our game ended at 12:45 and it took us a half hour to clean up our stuff.
The end of the game was met with applause and many of the players thanked us for running the game. Again I failed to make a quick feedback sheet to get solid feedback about our game. We had a couple people stick around ask us questions and gave us verbal feedback.
There were some rough spots but overall the event was fun and exciting event. We were asked by a staff member of KublaCon, the next local Con to run the game there so I guess the word was it went well. In my book that is a Good Con game. On to KublaCon!!!
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