Looking For Advice On Longer Con Event

[jburneko]

Hello,

In mid-February I'm running Capes as a scheduled 4 hour event.  Since I have some time to play with, I'm wondering how much I should bring to the table in advance?  Should I already have some heroes and villains and mundanes put together?  Should I already have some conflicts written up to help people get started? 

Any thoughts on this would be much appreciated.

Jesse

[TonyLB]

I recommend some good, solid networks of pre-made characters with Exemplar goals connecting them.  My experience is that the skill that takes the longest for people to pick up on in Capes is the ability to tie their character to another player's issues.  Doing that ahead of time lets people get all the benefit, even before they learn the skill.

Exemplars will mean that you've already added some conflicts into the zeitgeist  of the game ... even if they never get played, these conflicts will help inform the way people think about creating conflicts.  When they see "Assert authority in team," and "Who's the media darling, now, sucker?" as potential conflicts, most people pretty quickly realize that they can go above and beyond "Pummel Doctor Magma" in what they ask for.

[Andrew Morris]

What Tony said. But also realize that people might want to jump right in and create their own characters. Once you sit down to play, you've got the same amount of authority that they do, no more, even though you're coordinating the event. So just be ready to roll with it.

[jburneko]

Okay, so basically start with a set of characters that are connected via Exemplar conflicts and then have a pile of the click-n-lock cards on hand for building up via play itself.  That makes a lot of sense to me.

Does anyone have any experience with having set pieces and props pre-made on hand as non-character characters?  Does that tend to over complicate play or do people learn to latch on to these pretty quick?

Jesse

[Hans]

Okay, so basically start with a set of characters that are connected via Exemplar conflicts and then have a pile of the click-n-lock cards on hand for building up via play itself.  That makes a lot of sense to me.

Does anyone have any experience with having set pieces and props pre-made on hand as non-character characters?  Does that tend to over complicate play or do people learn to latch on to these pretty quick?

Jesse

I have done this 3 times now, and will do it again in February at Pandemonium in Toronto (come on out you Ontarioans!), so I will see if my experience can help you at all.  Since my experience essentially contradicts Tony's take it for what its worth.  Tony has played and demoed a lot more than I have, so it is only through the height of arrogance I write this at all. 

* All of what I am writing here also assumes that you are playing a true pick up game with perfect strangers.  If you know well even one of the other players in the session some collaboration before hand could lead to a much more interesting session for the newbies.  You could plot out several conflicts, characters, etc. to involve in the first scene, and by clever seating arrangement, a second scene as well.  Be prepared to throw your plans out the window, especially since it is likely some new player at the table will come up with something even better on the spur of the moment.

* My experience is that although I always bring a pile of pre-made characters of one sort or another, no one has ever used them, or EVEN BEEN INTERESTED in looking through them.  The minute people see the click-and-locks, and understand their use, they are eager to come up with something on the spot that is their own.  My own pre-made characters are a "yeah, whatever, hand me those blank sheets" kind of thing.  Therefore, I would not put a lot of effort into coming up with characters to hand out, unless you plan on mandating people use stock characters (not recommended). 

* If you want to expose the other players to concepts such as exemplars or non-person characters, plan to bring them into the game yourself, not through others.  If you are going to be throwing out the first scene, make sure that your character for that scene has an exemplar that may tempt someone else, or use the first story token you earn to introduce the exemplar yourself.  If you want to introduce non-person characters, make it your own starting character in the first scene, or use a story token to bring it in.  If all the players are new to Capes, its enough for them to make normal 5 drive heroes or villains using click and locks; more than that could be overload.

* It seems to me that more useful than pre-made characters is some kind of general theme, to give people something to work with, before even the first scene is annouced.  This gives something for the player's imagination to lock on to.  Examples might be "Swinging '60's", "High-school heroes", "Oppressed Mutants", "30's Pulp" or something along those lines.  This allows them to click and lock at will but still have some coherence across the players.  If there is any way to let the players know the theme ahead of time, it helps as well.

* After you have given the theme, and a BRIEF synopsis of the rules, you can say something along the lines of "I have a scene I could introduce, but if someone else has any ideas about a first scene, throw them out!"  Then see what happens.  The most enjoyable time I have had yet was when I did this, and someone said "I want a battle in a candy factory"...

* Here are the items I will be taking to my own 4 hour session at Pandemonium, for your information (based on the assumption of 6 players):
- At least 30 white poker chips, to act as story tokens
- At least 42 red poker chips, to act as debt
- At least 10 little glass beads in each of 6 colours, to allow people to mark their own debt on conflicts, and to show which side of a conflict they are allied with.
- At least 2 pawns in each of 6 colours (same colours as the beads), to allow people to claim conflicts (I will package the beads and the pawns of a colour in ziploc bags by colour)
- A bunch of six sided dice, so that at least 6 conflicts with 3 dice each on a side can be supported simultaneously (the most I have seen yet is 5 conflicts in a game at once, what is the most others have seen?).
- A baton that can be handed around the table (I'm not sure what its physical form will be) to represent who started the page
- A baton (different from above) that can be handed around the table to show whose action it is
- A brand spanking new pack of 3x5 cards, maybe two
- Pencils/pens/etc.
- At least 8 of each of the click-and-lock parts in the PDF found on the Muse of Fire website, precut to look fancy.
- At least 8 copies of the backing sheets with the drives on them that the click and locks get attached to
- Scotch tape to stick the click and locks and backing sheets together.
- My own set of premade characters, mostly for my own use, but just in case someone is actually interested.
- At least two copies of the rules
- At least six copies of a summary of the rules I have made up
- At least one idea for an interesting scene to start with (the fall back is the old "bank robbery" schtick, but this time I think I will do something different)

I hope that helps you in some way.

[Bret Gillan]

The logistics advice (equipment to bring for the game specifically) is really helpful. Thanks Hans.

[Andrew Cooper]

I went to Walmart and bought the following:

A Texas Hold-em poker set with 300 poker chips in 3 different colors.
A bag of assorted color glass beads.
A pack of blank 3x5 cards.
A pack of cheap pens.
A three ring binder.
A pack of white copy paper.
Two different colored Koosh Balls.

From a gaming store I bought:
A dice bag.
Two sets of 36 d6's in blue and white.

I kept 2 tubes of poker chips (1 white, 1 blue) and set the others aside.  I set the cards aside.  I filled the Poker carry case with the cards, pens, dice and Koosh balls.  I made copies of blank character sheets and some pre-mades and I put them in the binder.  Now I have everything I need for a pick up game (or a con game) in an easily portable format: 1 Texas Hold 'em carry case and 1 binder.

I got this idea mostly from Tony at GenCon.  It's cheap and easy.

[ophidian_flux]

Quote from HANS
* After you have given the theme, and a BRIEF synopsis of the rules, you can say something along the lines of "I have a scene I could introduce, but if someone else has any ideas about a first scene, throw them out!"  Then see what happens.  The most enjoyable time I have had yet was when I did this, and someone said "I want a battle in a candy factory"...

I was the second time Caper that came up with that Candy factory ... "Watch out for the CLIC!; a tricycle riding,candy cane wielding Preppy cult dressed in black tophats & tailcoats!"

Thanks Hans glad you enjoyed that game as much as I did!

O'Flux