WynterCon 2017 day two

WynterCon 2017 - Day Two.

TLDR: 6 more games, three of the The Cthulhu Hack. Another great day.

I caught a taxi up to the event. On the way I passed two of my fellow referees walking up and had the taxi stop to pick them up. Wearing a distinctive refereeing hat makes you easy to spot! Then I felt guilty because we passed the two RPG organisers also  walking up and we had no space left to pick them up as well.

Apparently the Steam Punk standup had been very good, but the venue had run out of beer. (Where have I heard THAT before?)

Then it was the same as Saturday. Running games almost from the get-go. I started off running a game for an old mate and his family. This was my The Black Hack Intro again. Though he was trying to hold back and encourage his kids to take the lead, he couldn't help rushing in to save the kidnapped children. All went well apart from the halfling thief being horrendously disfigured by a bugbear mace.

Then a game of The Cthulhu Hack. The same scenario as yesterday - as written the game's designer. Again I think I ran the investigation phase with the Smokes and Flashlights alright. However, they arrived at the warehouse just as the boat which had delivered the artefact was departing. To my surprise two of the characters ran and leapt to try and board the thing. One made it - and spent the entire scenario on that damned boat - whilst the other disappeared into the water. A three way party split and we'd barely started.

As often happens the investigation into the warehouse eventually foundered and there was some gunplay. The fleeing characters returned with a fuel truck to ram the place. This isn't the first time this has happened when I've run the scenario. However, it is the first time that a character has spent the entire game on a boat and turned it around to come back and ram the warehouse from the dockside.

No sooner had I finished THAT than I had three players completely new to RPGs asking to try TCH. I dunno you wait months to run a game and then you run several sessions of it on the trot!

As new players, they seemed to struggle with the investigation phase. And when they got into the warehouse they were quickly captured. But then something magic happened as the Professor (the female version played by a young lady, this time) turned the tables by convincing the cult leader that his Artefact was a fake. Ritual abandoned. No tentacles. Clever! I love RPGs. The same scenario. Two totally different stories.

Then another group of young players new to RPGs. The Black Hack intro game again. This went well until they cleverly combined their attacks to take out the Bugbear. The remaining goblins tried to use the captured children as human shields. The players got frustrated and shot both of the children themselves. I explained how the game is usually played as a campaign and the likely effects of elven arrows being found in the corpses of young children. But they enjoyed the game and I gave their leader details of how to get his hands on the D&D rules.

Then the RPG organiser brought me three really young girls who wanted to try a Superhero game. They tried to corral their fourth mate but she demurred and actually  dragged one away, leaving me with two, who seemed happy to continue to play.

This was their first RPG. Giving them a game where rolling a double gives you narrative control proved a heady mix for them. The first double they rolled, rather than taking my recommendation of a reserved reroll, they caused the Supervillain to fall in love with the Superheroinne. Then it was just a case of new plot element after new plot element. Their parents turned up but said they were too busy to join in. However, the wife prevailed upon the dad - an old time roleplayer - to sit down so we had three players for the finale with the three heroes, riding dinosaurs by this time (another double), and a detachment of soldiers versus some Daleks in the Cretaceous era.

The last game was another The Cthulhu Hack. The third one today and the fourth across the weekend. This time there were tentacles with the characters escaping by the skin of their teeth and being forced to call in the army to take on the brute.

Then it was heading off on my long long journey home.

So how was WynterCon 2017? I ran TWELVE games in two days, running virtually non stop. Yes these were one hour demos and many of them were repeats of games I've run before but they were still all intense and enjoyable experiences. I loved playing in the big top. Yes the roof leaked a bit on the Saturday and the humidity wasn't good for books (and Pokemon cards, apparently) but I loved playing on grass. It was my first experience with modern "Gig Loos" and I was impressed. I loved the whole experience. Other general conventions would do well to adopt the WynterCon model for RPGs.

I've now got a problem. If it clashes with Furnace again next year. What do I do? Furnace is like fine dining. WynterCon is the instant gratification of a "pudding club."
Choices, choices.