Friday Night Game - Cadillacs and Dinosaurs!
As mentioned yesterday, the Friday night gaming group met to game, but I wasn't going to be running the game as the Friday night gamers had a surprise for me.
So, I ate supper last night, and then waited for the players to show up for the evening's gaming, and to find out what was going on for the night. It was my goddaughter, Ellie, who announced that she would be running the game for the night. While I wasn't surprised at that, since Kathy had hinted on Monday that something along these lines might be in the works, the real surprise was what she was going to be running - Cadillacs and Dinosaurs!
For those who don't know, the Cadillacs and Dinosaurs roleplaying game is based on the magnificent Xenozoic Tales comics written by Mark Schultz and published by Kitchen Sink Press. See the Xenozoic Tales wikipedia entry for more details about the basic premise of the comics. I have loved the comics and the game, though I've only run the game a few times since it first came out, though I've often thought since the Primeval RPG came out from Cubicle 7 that it would make a lovely system to use for running a Xenozoic Tales/Cadillacs and Dinosaurs-based game.
Anyway, once everyone settled down at the table, Ellie got us set up for character generation after going over the game world with some of the newbies to the game, and it was a good, relatively short, 45-minute process overall. I created an old blood mechanic for the game named Daniel "Bloody Wrench" Featherstone, the nickname coming from an incident when he used the wrench as a weapon to prevent several low lives from stealing one of the priceless cadillacs that the tribe had found in an old vault. (For those interested, I may post up the character at some point down the line if there's enough interest.) The rest of the players created a group of characters equally as colourful and interesting as my own, and then after showing the newbies to the game a couple of examples of how combat works in the game, Ellie started us off on our first adventure>
The basic plot had us escorting a group of new recruits to the Calhoun Mines, having a few encounters with wildlife and some natural obstacles along the way, all the time having my old enemy, Growler Thompson, trying to hinder us and kill my character along the way. We realised along the way that there was something odd about a couple of the miners, so there was another little sub-plot running through the adventure.
The game had good energy, Ellie seemed to have an excellent understanding of the rules, and my goddaughter did a good job of running the game. We reached a point in the scenario where it was time to wrap up for the night, and Ellie announced that she would be continuing the adventure the week after GenCon wrapped up, so as to give me "a bit of a break after the convention" and just enjoy myself playing for a bit. She talked to me afterwards, asking what I thought of her first stint as a GM, and she asked a few questions about "technique" and some of the business about railroading players, and then Kathy decided enough was enough for the night, and the gaming group players said goodnight and headed out for home.
I have to say that it was a pleasant surprise, and that I had a good night of gaming and enjoyed myself tremendously. My goddaughter rocked it!
So, I ate supper last night, and then waited for the players to show up for the evening's gaming, and to find out what was going on for the night. It was my goddaughter, Ellie, who announced that she would be running the game for the night. While I wasn't surprised at that, since Kathy had hinted on Monday that something along these lines might be in the works, the real surprise was what she was going to be running - Cadillacs and Dinosaurs!
For those who don't know, the Cadillacs and Dinosaurs roleplaying game is based on the magnificent Xenozoic Tales comics written by Mark Schultz and published by Kitchen Sink Press. See the Xenozoic Tales wikipedia entry for more details about the basic premise of the comics. I have loved the comics and the game, though I've only run the game a few times since it first came out, though I've often thought since the Primeval RPG came out from Cubicle 7 that it would make a lovely system to use for running a Xenozoic Tales/Cadillacs and Dinosaurs-based game.
Anyway, once everyone settled down at the table, Ellie got us set up for character generation after going over the game world with some of the newbies to the game, and it was a good, relatively short, 45-minute process overall. I created an old blood mechanic for the game named Daniel "Bloody Wrench" Featherstone, the nickname coming from an incident when he used the wrench as a weapon to prevent several low lives from stealing one of the priceless cadillacs that the tribe had found in an old vault. (For those interested, I may post up the character at some point down the line if there's enough interest.) The rest of the players created a group of characters equally as colourful and interesting as my own, and then after showing the newbies to the game a couple of examples of how combat works in the game, Ellie started us off on our first adventure>
The basic plot had us escorting a group of new recruits to the Calhoun Mines, having a few encounters with wildlife and some natural obstacles along the way, all the time having my old enemy, Growler Thompson, trying to hinder us and kill my character along the way. We realised along the way that there was something odd about a couple of the miners, so there was another little sub-plot running through the adventure.
The game had good energy, Ellie seemed to have an excellent understanding of the rules, and my goddaughter did a good job of running the game. We reached a point in the scenario where it was time to wrap up for the night, and Ellie announced that she would be continuing the adventure the week after GenCon wrapped up, so as to give me "a bit of a break after the convention" and just enjoy myself playing for a bit. She talked to me afterwards, asking what I thought of her first stint as a GM, and she asked a few questions about "technique" and some of the business about railroading players, and then Kathy decided enough was enough for the night, and the gaming group players said goodnight and headed out for home.
I have to say that it was a pleasant surprise, and that I had a good night of gaming and enjoyed myself tremendously. My goddaughter rocked it!