So somebody who shall remain nameless* comes up to me on Thursday and is all like, "I got this guy over here wants a kill puppies for satan demo" and I'm like, "well, I've un-disavowed the game, so I guess I better demo it," so I'm like, "okay, introduce me."

It's a kid and his father. The kid's maybe 15, 16? Something like that. His father's older. They look like a father and a kid trying out this GenCon thing they've heard about, like they live nearby anyway, might as well get a Thursday badge and see what's what.

I didn't realize at first it was his father. We're in the midst of making characters when it comes out. It's like I'm like, "yeah, write 'i kill puppies for satan' on your character sheet, you have four stats, cold fucked up mean and relentless, divvy 11 points," and I'm like, "okay, so do you know each other?" and the kid's like, "yeah, he's my dad," and I'm like, "that's awesome, so you kill puppies too, like father like son? That's fuckin' fucked up is what that is." And the kid's like, "no, I meant that he [pointing] is my [pointing] dad." And I'm like, "uh. I see. oh."

I ran an EXTREMELY SHORT demo, you can bet.

After the demo I'm like, "so, uh, that's how the game goes," and the dad's like, "hm." And I'm like, okay, gotta not totally let this suck all the suck there is to suck, so I'm like, "what kinds of games do you usually play?"

Kid: I don't really know how to describe them...
Dad: They aren't really as open-ended as most of these.
Kid: Yeah, they have more of a set path.
Me: [genuinely curious] Oh yeah? Like how? [I'm thinking, some kind of formalistic map- or module-driven homebrew or something? How cool would that be!]
Dad: It's hard to explain.
Kid: [moves his hands fruitlessly]
Dad: Not like these games, anyway.
Me: Like, well, I mean, what games? Like can you name one?
Dad: Risk.

I saw them come back to the booth. The dad had all the money; he had to approve what the kid would buy. All the kid wanted was kill puppies for satan and F*ck This. Doomed from the get-go, that kid.

-Vincent

* Because I don't remember who it was.

lumpley wrote:
I saw them come back to the booth. The dad had all the money; he had to approve what the kid would buy. All the kid wanted was kill puppies for satan and F*ck This. Doomed from the get-go, that kid.

I would be curious to hear how the two of them were directed to KPfS. I mean, did whoever handed them off to you realize the father-son thing? Even if the kid is all, "Ooh, puppies and Satan!" KPfS isn't a particularly family-friendly game on any level whatsoever...

Vincent, you attract them, I swear you do. You get all the just-a-hair-off customers, and they seem to want to stay around you, and stick to you, and interact with you. The rest of us are kind of relieved; it's like having a bug-zapper or something.

Best,
Ron

This reminds me of another funny story (and sorry for interjecting if "you don't do that").

At the last BIGOR (Israel's largest yearly RPG convention) they came up with the idea of introductory games for parents. We've been doing introductory games for new players for a while, of course, so they thought this might be a neat addition - get the parents (specifically the parents) to jump in and see what their kids are doing without putting the stress on the children.

I was already running KPfS at the con (among others), so when the Director of Games came up to me and asked if I wanted to run a parents intro game, I said "yeah, sure, I'll run KPfS to the parents. That'll show them what their kids are doing! I'll even give the short lecture on how RPGs encourage creativity, teamwork and empathy!".

She didn't let me run KPfS to the parents, but she did ask me out. I call it a win.