My adventures at Origins…Or - why Cthulhu should be called Coolthulhu - 3
Friday
Game One - Rogue Cthulhu/”Echoes” (otherwise known as Substitute Clue Cthulhu)
So you thought I’d never get to why Cthulhu is cool? Ha!
Day 3 found me showing up for a game at 9 a.m. in this cool room with black lights, black tablecloths with glow-in-dark symbols painted on them, a cool rack of lights to add atmosphere, and a giant Cthonian in the corner with glow in the dark eyes and arms that moved slightly as air was pumped into it (someone made it out of an old army parachute - too cool). This was the Rogue Cthulhu room and where I spent the majority of the next 2 days.
The GM for the 1st game I signed up for didn’t show but there were these 2 people at my table - a younger woman and an older man - who said “well, we have a game we can run”. Yes, so very 1950s “let’s put on a show”.
Ends up they were Rogue Cthulhu judges but hadn’t been sure they’d be there for the con so they hadn’t signed up to run any games but they had brought a large number with them.
They pull out this Clue board - Yes, Clue and tons of ‘props’. What ensued was a thoroughly delightful Cthulhu Clue game that I would personally love to run for people as a one-off. Clue Cthulhu is PERFECT for a 4 hour session!
The only slight negative - that bossy guy from the FIRST game on Thursday is in this but everyone was so personable that he was incapable of grabbing control.
The father and daughter (which I learned later - at this point I was careful because, yeah, sometimes Older Men do date Younger Woman and that requires delicacy (Yes, I AM capable of that :p )) were fantastic - the daughter GMd and the Dad played Mrs. Peacock.
Oh and Rogue Cthulhu gives you “Rogue Points” for being cool - points you can later spend at this table to cool stuff. It’s very much like a carnival and I found out at the end - yay! - you can keep them from year to year to earn Fabulous Prizes.
Game Two - “The Festival” by Shoggoth.net (otherwise known as Substitute “Snowblind”
I trot off to my next game in the next room (Cthulhu is all in the same area). This is a HUGE bare room with bare tables - total let down after the Rogue Cthulhu room. I sit at my table (#4, I think) only to find out that it will be cancelled because we don’t have enough players. Were enough signed up? Why, yes, but Shuggoth told some of them they couldn’t play because they’d already played Festival at another Con. Yay - Shuggoth. One of the ones turned away… the “boss” from Thursday’s game and the Clue game.
Anyhow, I got shuffled away and told that there were 2 tables with not enough players - would I like to try one of those. Sure, whatever, I am flexible (when it comes to game playing!). I end up sitting at a table and lo-and-behold who are there as players? The father and daughter from the Clue game. We play a game run by Cthulhu Bob (yes, he is credited as that in the program and that is what his nametag said called Snowblind where we play people from just outside of Kittyhawk trapped in a little diner when a horrific cold rolls into the town. First weird thing is a near frozen guy shuffles in - now KIM is yelling ZOMBIE!, but my character can’t (damn suspending disbelief) so we let the ZOMBIE in to the diner. Then comes the town derelict who says “Oh, hey you found my guy (ZOMBIE!)” and then proceeds to spout all this stuff about worshipping an elder god and how the cold came because the ZOMBIE knocked over an obelisk with his car and how the derelict/crazy man needs us to help him right his obelisk.
At first it’s a whole no go. Then eventually (the father) whose character has an eighteen wheeler, agrees to help. Time passes with me (the diner owner), the Sheriff, and this punk kid trapped with us stare at each other and start to get concerned. So we load up in the sheriff’s car and roll out to the obelisk. Combat ensues. We win. Yay us! Take that Zombies.
Oh, and I get voted as the coolest kid at the table… Okay, I get voted best roleplayer or something but I will interpret for the readers. Coolest kid at the table!
The only draw back - when CthulhuBob was playing the ZOMBIE he shuffled over all scary (and it was pretty unnerving how well he played a ZOMBIE), then like 1 minute later he’s Gming, walks behind me, and touches my shoulder. SHUUUUUUDDDER.
At the end of this the father and daughter ask if I have any games in the morning as they are planning to run something. I do have something but I walk out debating cashing that sucker in to play with them again.
Interlude
Rob and I eat - at the North Market AGAIN. I haven’t mentioned this yet but Rob discovered the North Market last year (two days after I TOLD HIM ABOUT IT, but whatever… I don’t need to say told you so ;) ) and he loves it there so we ate basically every meal there except when it was closed (after 7 on weekdays, 5 on weekends).
Rob tells me he’d far rather go to some historical seminars than play Kobolds Midnight Massacre - which we were supposed to play together. Okay, I am disappointed but I am trying on this thing called adulthood so I say “It’s your vacation. Go do what is fun for you.”
Before you can say “scamper” he has done just that.
I the sad, lonely, did I mention sad? Adult go off to Kobolds ALONE.
Third Game - “Kobolds Midnight Massacre”
I get to Kobolds and one of the 2 women who were turned away from Festival is there and says hi. We talk about how CthulhuBob touched me and the woman is like, “yeah, he’s known to do that.”
Good to know. Noted.
I invite myself to sit with her group for Kobolds. Wow, big step for me :)
The game was really, eely fun and Rob better have thoroughly enjoyed his seminars because he really, eely missed out.Uh… yeah… me=adult
The first thing we do - it’s a Star Trek theme - is pick an away team to go down to this water planet to catch a big fish for King Torg - ALL HAIL KING TORG!
I as the Medical Officer and 2 others are picked. The guy running the Teleporter says “stand on the bullseye.” Should have known better right then… He picks the option to send us “All the Way to Hell”. My first death of the night - on my very first action.
I think we catch the people in the Horrible Transporter Accident area unaware because we only have to listen to the guy sing “The Love Boat” and tell us we’ve been sucked into Hell like in the movie “Event Horizon”. Yay us!
We go back and our positions have changed - I am now bottom of the batting lineup - as the teleporting officer. I’m told there are 9 sources of food on the planet - how many do I want to ‘beam up’. I’m a Kobold… D’uh. NINE! I yell. And end up transporting all of us at the table into space where we die. Horribly. Another trip to the department of Horrible Teleporter Accidents. This time 5 of us have to play Twister. It is, apparently, nowhere near as funny as they want it to be because we get to leave after 3 spins each. We are told the 5 of us that played are the top of the batting order and to fight that out amongst us. I take off at a tear and yoink the Captain’s seat (Rank #1!) - I am able to hold that place for the rest of the time.
When we blow up our ship two more times the GM doesn’t even make us go back to the department of Horrible Transporter Accidents… I think he was getting tired of sitting at an empty table.
The 2nd time the ENTIRE crew died was the very next away mission. I asked for volunteers but after that whole “Directly to Hell” thing and the transported into space to die thing no one trusted the teleporter tech. So, I as the Captain had to choose. In hindsight it wasn’t wise to select the person with their finger on the Self-Destruct button. 10 rounds later… uh, no 9 as he rolled on one of his turns to speed up the process… our ship blew up and turned one of the 9 sectors of space into a Blazing Hell Vortex. And so came the good Ship the Hindenbaby 2 (we were originally “The Ship whose name must not be spoken” but as soon as I became captain I changed that!)
The best adventure we had involved a mission to get our Science Officer “Some”. Seems he was a virgin or something. The goal was for him to go to his homeplanet, kill someone or thing so he could be proven worthy, and then get with the girl his parents had picked for him. NO big right? We send down an away team - which in retrospect sending the entire command deck except for the captain MAY have been a bad idea - down. They are too late and are given the ultimatum “you must kill your captain to succeed.” Well, uh, no captain. But the Security Officer is wily - he turns to the Medical Officer - next up the chain of command from him and says “Sorry, Captain” or some such and wrassles him to the ground. The First mate has decided to take out the threat from the planet-side folk, but the Science officer seems to like the Security Officer’s plan because he starts laying into the Medical officer too. Meanwhile on-board the ship we’ve decided the First Mate should just grab the girl, grab a random other person and be beamed up with the rest of the crew. We’ll hold down the random victim, let the Science Officer kill them, and then consummate the relationship with the girl. But, before that can work out, the other two crew members manage to kill the “captain”. Yet, do we know that? So we start on the beaming. Once more teleporting is not our friend - the girl and the First officer are melded together and drop dead instantly.
By now everyone has moved through the ranks do to the death of the First Officer and the Medical Officer. The Science Officer is now the First Officer - and no longer has to “complete the mission” and the Security Officer is now the Science Officer. He feels he must still “complete the mission” and it is only logical to do so with the still warm melded body of his ‘love’. Because, yes, moving from Secuirity Officer with his only goal to Fire and Fire Harder he has become a logical being with his new position.
Finally. We have succeeded. Yay us!
It will be the ONLY mission we complete. The next one we manage to blow up some kind of atoll or something and create yet another vortex in space - oops.
Another one we found a ship of Kluckons. When one of our folk scanned it for life there was none so the entire crew became convinced we were dealing with ChickenBorg. In the end it was, instead, CyclonChickens. Which is worse, I ask you? Anyhow, freaked out, we decided to play “chicken with them” and their ship - going at them at ramming speed and shooting our torpedoes as we went. Need I say more…? Wait, I do - we beat them and DIDN’T die THAT time!
The game ends with a massive battle against the Kluckons where all the captains from each table got together over the star map - in the middle of which was a giant giant stuffed chicken representing the kluckons. Were we to defeat them? Who knows - we ran out of time…
All in all a lot of Fun. I had a great table of people and I really hope we didn’t scare the bahoobies out of the 2 newbies.
On my way back from Kobolds I ran into Carl Z in the hallway leading to my hotel. Carl Z has become a Shway Important Individual for The Gathering and his “vacation” was really running a ludicrous amount of Living Greyhawk games for the convention. We’d planned to get together at some point but his schedule was insane. I felt very lucky to have found him in the hall.
Game One - Rogue Cthulhu/”Echoes” (otherwise known as Substitute Clue Cthulhu)
So you thought I’d never get to why Cthulhu is cool? Ha!
Day 3 found me showing up for a game at 9 a.m. in this cool room with black lights, black tablecloths with glow-in-dark symbols painted on them, a cool rack of lights to add atmosphere, and a giant Cthonian in the corner with glow in the dark eyes and arms that moved slightly as air was pumped into it (someone made it out of an old army parachute - too cool). This was the Rogue Cthulhu room and where I spent the majority of the next 2 days.
The GM for the 1st game I signed up for didn’t show but there were these 2 people at my table - a younger woman and an older man - who said “well, we have a game we can run”. Yes, so very 1950s “let’s put on a show”.
Ends up they were Rogue Cthulhu judges but hadn’t been sure they’d be there for the con so they hadn’t signed up to run any games but they had brought a large number with them.
They pull out this Clue board - Yes, Clue
The only slight negative - that bossy guy from the FIRST game on Thursday is in this but everyone was so personable that he was incapable of grabbing control.
The father and daughter (which I learned later - at this point I was careful because, yeah, sometimes Older Men do date Younger Woman and that requires delicacy (Yes, I AM capable of that :p )) were fantastic - the daughter GMd and the Dad played Mrs. Peacock.
Oh and Rogue Cthulhu gives you “Rogue Points” for being cool - points you can later spend at this table to cool stuff. It’s very much like a carnival and I found out at the end - yay! - you can keep them from year to year to earn Fabulous Prizes.
Game Two - “The Festival” by Shoggoth.net (otherwise known as Substitute “Snowblind”
I trot off to my next game in the next room (Cthulhu is all in the same area). This is a HUGE bare room with bare tables - total let down after the Rogue Cthulhu room. I sit at my table (#4, I think) only to find out that it will be cancelled because we don’t have enough players. Were enough signed up? Why, yes, but Shuggoth told some of them they couldn’t play because they’d already played Festival at another Con. Yay - Shuggoth. One of the ones turned away… the “boss” from Thursday’s game and the Clue game.
Anyhow, I got shuffled away and told that there were 2 tables with not enough players - would I like to try one of those. Sure, whatever, I am flexible (when it comes to game playing!). I end up sitting at a table and lo-and-behold who are there as players? The father and daughter from the Clue game. We play a game run by Cthulhu Bob (yes, he is credited as that in the program and that is what his nametag said called Snowblind where we play people from just outside of Kittyhawk trapped in a little diner when a horrific cold rolls into the town. First weird thing is a near frozen guy shuffles in - now KIM is yelling ZOMBIE!, but my character can’t (damn suspending disbelief) so we let the ZOMBIE in to the diner. Then comes the town derelict who says “Oh, hey you found my guy (ZOMBIE!)” and then proceeds to spout all this stuff about worshipping an elder god and how the cold came because the ZOMBIE knocked over an obelisk with his car and how the derelict/crazy man needs us to help him right his obelisk.
At first it’s a whole no go. Then eventually (the father) whose character has an eighteen wheeler, agrees to help. Time passes with me (the diner owner), the Sheriff, and this punk kid trapped with us stare at each other and start to get concerned. So we load up in the sheriff’s car and roll out to the obelisk. Combat ensues. We win. Yay us! Take that Zombies.
Oh, and I get voted as the coolest kid at the table… Okay, I get voted best roleplayer or something but I will interpret for the readers. Coolest kid at the table!
The only draw back - when CthulhuBob was playing the ZOMBIE he shuffled over all scary (and it was pretty unnerving how well he played a ZOMBIE), then like 1 minute later he’s Gming, walks behind me, and touches my shoulder. SHUUUUUUDDDER.
At the end of this the father and daughter ask if I have any games in the morning as they are planning to run something. I do have something but I walk out debating cashing that sucker in to play with them again.
Interlude
Rob and I eat - at the North Market AGAIN. I haven’t mentioned this yet but Rob discovered the North Market last year (two days after I TOLD HIM ABOUT IT, but whatever… I don’t need to say told you so ;) ) and he loves it there so we ate basically every meal there except when it was closed (after 7 on weekdays, 5 on weekends).
Rob tells me he’d far rather go to some historical seminars than play Kobolds Midnight Massacre - which we were supposed to play together. Okay, I am disappointed but I am trying on this thing called adulthood so I say “It’s your vacation. Go do what is fun for you.”
Before you can say “scamper” he has done just that.
I the sad, lonely, did I mention sad? Adult go off to Kobolds ALONE.
Third Game - “Kobolds Midnight Massacre”
I get to Kobolds and one of the 2 women who were turned away from Festival is there and says hi. We talk about how CthulhuBob touched me and the woman is like, “yeah, he’s known to do that.”
Good to know. Noted.
I invite myself to sit with her group for Kobolds. Wow, big step for me :)
The game was really, eely fun and Rob better have thoroughly enjoyed his seminars because he really, eely missed out.Uh… yeah… me=adult
The first thing we do - it’s a Star Trek theme - is pick an away team to go down to this water planet to catch a big fish for King Torg - ALL HAIL KING TORG!
I as the Medical Officer and 2 others are picked. The guy running the Teleporter says “stand on the bullseye.” Should have known better right then… He picks the option to send us “All the Way to Hell”. My first death of the night - on my very first action.
I think we catch the people in the Horrible Transporter Accident area unaware because we only have to listen to the guy sing “The Love Boat” and tell us we’ve been sucked into Hell like in the movie “Event Horizon”. Yay us!
We go back and our positions have changed - I am now bottom of the batting lineup - as the teleporting officer. I’m told there are 9 sources of food on the planet - how many do I want to ‘beam up’. I’m a Kobold… D’uh. NINE! I yell. And end up transporting all of us at the table into space where we die. Horribly. Another trip to the department of Horrible Teleporter Accidents. This time 5 of us have to play Twister. It is, apparently, nowhere near as funny as they want it to be because we get to leave after 3 spins each. We are told the 5 of us that played are the top of the batting order and to fight that out amongst us. I take off at a tear and yoink the Captain’s seat (Rank #1!) - I am able to hold that place for the rest of the time.
When we blow up our ship two more times the GM doesn’t even make us go back to the department of Horrible Transporter Accidents… I think he was getting tired of sitting at an empty table.
The 2nd time the ENTIRE crew died was the very next away mission. I asked for volunteers but after that whole “Directly to Hell” thing and the transported into space to die thing no one trusted the teleporter tech. So, I as the Captain had to choose. In hindsight it wasn’t wise to select the person with their finger on the Self-Destruct button. 10 rounds later… uh, no 9 as he rolled on one of his turns to speed up the process… our ship blew up and turned one of the 9 sectors of space into a Blazing Hell Vortex. And so came the good Ship the Hindenbaby 2 (we were originally “The Ship whose name must not be spoken” but as soon as I became captain I changed that!)
The best adventure we had involved a mission to get our Science Officer “Some”. Seems he was a virgin or something. The goal was for him to go to his homeplanet, kill someone or thing so he could be proven worthy, and then get with the girl his parents had picked for him. NO big right? We send down an away team - which in retrospect sending the entire command deck except for the captain MAY have been a bad idea - down. They are too late and are given the ultimatum “you must kill your captain to succeed.” Well, uh, no captain. But the Security Officer is wily - he turns to the Medical Officer - next up the chain of command from him and says “Sorry, Captain” or some such and wrassles him to the ground. The First mate has decided to take out the threat from the planet-side folk, but the Science officer seems to like the Security Officer’s plan because he starts laying into the Medical officer too. Meanwhile on-board the ship we’ve decided the First Mate should just grab the girl, grab a random other person and be beamed up with the rest of the crew. We’ll hold down the random victim, let the Science Officer kill them, and then consummate the relationship with the girl. But, before that can work out, the other two crew members manage to kill the “captain”. Yet, do we know that? So we start on the beaming. Once more teleporting is not our friend - the girl and the First officer are melded together and drop dead instantly.
By now everyone has moved through the ranks do to the death of the First Officer and the Medical Officer. The Science Officer is now the First Officer - and no longer has to “complete the mission” and the Security Officer is now the Science Officer. He feels he must still “complete the mission” and it is only logical to do so with the still warm melded body of his ‘love’. Because, yes, moving from Secuirity Officer with his only goal to Fire and Fire Harder he has become a logical being with his new position.
Finally. We have succeeded. Yay us!
It will be the ONLY mission we complete. The next one we manage to blow up some kind of atoll or something and create yet another vortex in space - oops.
Another one we found a ship of Kluckons. When one of our folk scanned it for life there was none so the entire crew became convinced we were dealing with ChickenBorg. In the end it was, instead, CyclonChickens. Which is worse, I ask you? Anyhow, freaked out, we decided to play “chicken with them” and their ship - going at them at ramming speed and shooting our torpedoes as we went. Need I say more…? Wait, I do - we beat them and DIDN’T die THAT time!
The game ends with a massive battle against the Kluckons where all the captains from each table got together over the star map - in the middle of which was a giant giant stuffed chicken representing the kluckons. Were we to defeat them? Who knows - we ran out of time…
All in all a lot of Fun. I had a great table of people and I really hope we didn’t scare the bahoobies out of the 2 newbies.
On my way back from Kobolds I ran into Carl Z in the hallway leading to my hotel. Carl Z has become a Shway Important Individual for The Gathering and his “vacation” was really running a ludicrous amount of Living Greyhawk games for the convention. We’d planned to get together at some point but his schedule was insane. I felt very lucky to have found him in the hall.