Okay, just got back from ShoreCon 2002 in Cherry Hill, NJ. Did some great actual play; met a fellow Forge lurker, John “Whose-Last-Name-I-Cannot-Recall”; promoted FVLMINATA and, surprisingly, had an all-around good time.

Friday night, 8pm, tried to get into a Maelstrom session, but, as I was the only player, the GM and I joined in my wife’s Mage/Technocracy game “ ‘Mage’ is a Four-Letter Word” (which I had playtested) in exchange for the Maelstrom GM running a quick demo for all the Mage players. We created modern-day Story Engine characters, but the character creation went on too long to actually see the system in action. Additionally, it caused the Mage game to become time-crunched and the group to be unfocused (“Was that my Story Engine character that had a crush on your character, or this one?”). In retrospect, I should have remembered the old convention rule: time is your enemy, horde all of it you can manage. On the plus side, Kat (my wife) had great success with allowing the players to narrate their own successes--particularly when the HIT Mark gassed half-a-dozen stranded motorists (and 2 of their dogs) in a single round of leaping aerial acrobats worthy of Jackie Chan. (we were helping them, as the act of witnessing the rampaging Paradox spirits was making those spirits stronger).

I had no one show for my 12:30 AM InSpectres game. I had been looking forward to running it, but I really can’t do the night-owl thing at conventions anymore.

However, while waiting for the game to officially fold, I chatted with some folks who said they had tried to get into my FVLMINATA game to no avail. I resolved to run it in 2 additional slots, to meet popular demand (oh, the hardships we go through to please our pulbic 8-)

Saturday, 10 AM was the regularly-scheduled first run (and effective playtest) of “Weekend at Burnius” and it was a blast! The setup is simple: under Roman law, if a slave is found to have killed his master, all that master’s slaves are put to death, regardless of guilt. You (the Player Characters) are all slaves of M. Postumius Burnius. He’s just been murdered. You all hated him, and thus had a motive. Dinner guests will be here within minutes. What do you do?

The scenario is comic with a deadly edge. I had 6 great players in the first session, and they did everything from using the body as a puppet, impersonating Burnius, and putting laxatives into the dinner, to killing two other would-be assassins, forging Burnius a new will, and shoving all the bodies onto a boat and setting it afire. They were alternately cooperative and sniping at each other--just what one would expect from characters in such a situation.

At 3 PM, I ran “Burnius” again, this time for 4 players. It was still great fun, but the lesser number of players decreased the player-player interplay. Plus, these particular players were less spontaneous and more tightly focused on their goal: Staying alive. There was much humor, including hiding the body in a trunk, quick costume changes, and, again, forging a new will. However, they finished in 2 ½ hours, rather than the scheduled 4. Still, everyone had fun, and no one got thrown to the lions (shucks).

At 8 PM, I ran Donjon, with the above-mentioned John in attendance. We ended up with 6 players, which was probably 2-3 too many--not because of the players themselves, but since Donjon gives everyone so much latitude to shape the story, the greater number of players made for less unity of vision. I started off with a poll (the same thing I do when I run InSpectres). “Okay, on a scale of 1 to 5, how serious do you feel comfortable playing this evening? 1 is Monty Python and the Holy Grail, 5 is Lord of the Rings.” Results varied from 1 to 3, so we agreed to keep it at 2 “silly, but with consequences.” Also, a spontaneous party rule: No Elves.

I walked everyone through character creation--they all enjoyed it, particularly the old-school style “rolling up characters.” I strongly urged everyone to take at least one perception-type skill, and these varied from a few “Danger Sense” and “Find Hidden Doors” to “Detect Cowardice,” which the mercenary “Ah-Nold” used to good effect. I can’t remember everyone’s characters--John might want to detail his--but some noteworthy skills were “Getting in and out of places” and “Mystifying people with cryptic talk.”

5 out of the 6 players took magic skills--4 of them as their primary skill. Magic was running wild and rampant throughout the session. The power of magic tended to be low, as the “Gathering Power” phase didn’t generate too many successes, but as magic is so versatile, certain players liked to use it for everything. Sample spells (magic words in italics) used included “Protection from fungus” “Arrow of the Deepest Winter” “Flaming Sphere of Deep-Frying Shaitake” “Ulraviolet Arrow of Mushroom Destruction and Dispelling Darkness” and, my personal favorite: “It Ain’t None of Your Business Why We’re Down Here”--also known as that “These aren’t the adventurers you’re looking for” spell.

As you may have gathered, I ran a very abbreviated version of “A Fungus Among Us” from the main book. We only did 2 encounters from Chapter 1, and 1 each in Chapters 2 and 3. I’m sure John can fill in more details, especially on the flying toads. I can sense that there’s still a piece or two of the game’s mindset that hasn’t fully taken root (or perhaps even germinated) in my head. My dice were hot during the game — I rolled an 18 or above on nearly all my rolls, so there seemed to be a disappointing whiff factor that set in. I’m pretty sure that had to do with my application of the rules — I’ll have to read them again. And, of course, more practice.

All in all, even with the limitations noted above, Donjon was great fun and I look forward to running it again.

This morning, Sunday, I had no players show up for what would have been my impromptu 3rd rendition of “Burnius.” A touch disappointed, I played in Kat’s Everway game “City of a Thousand Moons.” It is, in my admittedly biased opinion, one of the greatest scenarios ever written for any game. The players make their Everway character at the table, using cards that Kat provides. The only limitation on character is “your character is searching for the fabled City of a Thousand Moons, which appears only once every thousand moons in any given sphere. Tell me why your character is seeking it.” Based on what the players state as their goals and expectations, the City becomes that which they seek. Now you see whay she’s the creative one in the family.

In this rendition (I’ve playes the scenario once before), my character’s True Love had been kidnapped by evil ShapeShifters who were going to sacrifice her in a temple in the City of Thousand Moons. Soulquest and his Sword of Righteousness had to get to the City to save his True Love from these evil beasts. When we got to the City, the guardians outside refused SoulQuest entry--because he sought to bring destruction to their fair City. He snuck in (of course), and saw his Love being hauled inside the Temple as the ShapeShifters fought the priesteses who were trying to keep them out. What SoulQuest didn’t know is that moments before, the temple had been quite peaceful and that the attack materialized only because he expected to see it. The guardians promptly threw him out, restoring peace to the temple (the ShapeShifters melted away because no other guest to the City expected to see them). He returned to the spot he had snuck in through the sewers, but this time, since he had not be able to save his Love, he expected to see her butchered body ... which he did. Filled with sorrow, he returned to the City seeking Death, that he might be reunited with his Love. (the guardians didn’t stop him this time because he no longer sought violence and destruction.) As one of the other characters had come to the City to learn his own identity, he had learned that he was Death. SoulQuest found what he sought.

Gee, you can’t tell I like tragedies, can you?

Anyway, ShoreCon was incredibly more fun than I was expecting and I’m looking forward to Gazebo of Games in February in Piscataway, NJ. Also, next weekend is MepaCon in Wind Gap, PA (in the Poconos) at which I’ll be running Sorcerer using Ron’s “Lincoln High 15th Class Reunion.” Wish me luck.

Michael S. Miller wrote: Okay, just got back from ShoreCon 2002 in Cherry Hill, NJ. Did some great actual play; met a fellow Forge lurker, John “Whose-Last-Name-I-Cannot-Recall”; promoted FVLMINATA and, surprisingly, had an all-around good time.