[Actual Play] Do you Remember . . .?
Players: Bill Miller, Kevan Forbes, Kevin Beagle, Michael Ripley, Mike McFarland, Nik Gervae
System: New World of Darkness (and, Changeling: the Lost - see below)
Storyteller: Me
This game was probably the second biggest risk I've ever taken as a Convention GM. I'll explain why below, but let it be known that as I was working on this scenario, I frequently consulted other GM/Players (people who do both) to ask "Would this make you leave a convention game?" "Would this game still be fun?"
For Convention games, I'm not much of a risk-taker. As a GM, I'm not much of a planner.
So for this game, for probably the first time ever, I had props. Kind of. I had character namecards that folded up in front of the player, with the name of their character and the picture of the celebrity who would play them in the movie. (In this case, we had Johnny Depp as a horror author, Naomi Watts as a children's book author, Emma Stone as Depp's oldest (bastard) daughter, David Morse as the only police detective in town, Khandi Alexander as the town's Medical Examiner, and Patrick Warburton as a retired Marine who is now a school teacher.) For me, these are props. I suck at props. Mostly because I don't plan that far ahead.
I did the quickest run down of game mechanics that I could, which still took about half an hour. I had one brand new role-player. (Well, newish. He had played a few games before, but he had that new player smell and shine to him.) Another player played in the old World of Darkness, but not the new one.
I then set up the background of their small town, and of a television show they all watched as children, called Candle Cove. (Yes, I will steal things from the internet. Actually, I'll steal from anywhere - the news, movies, tv shows, books, other GMs, MMOs, video games, old LSD trips . . .) I gave them a very general rundown, and each had a card of 'true things' they recalled about the show that the others wouldn't until they were shared.
And then I explained that they were all (but one) single parents, with young children, who began to get together to watch "Candle Cove," which was being rebroadcast on some local channel. They would all gather at someone's house after school for a half-hour, and then come home. (Which house it was would change from day to day.)
And on the first night of the game, the children didn't come home. When the parents went to look for them, they found the host house locked up, covered in sea-water. After getting in, they found the host parents dead, the first floor covered in sea-water, and a teapot on the stove whistling out calliope music.
(They did a lot of investigation - which is good - and apparently I creeped them out during this phase and with random 'facts' about the show.)
I let the players run with this scene. They investigated the house up and down. The ME went over the bodies. They tore through the crawlspace. They looked things up online.
In a twist that I didn't expect, the ME and the cop went to the local institution to talk to her (the MEs) husband, who had been institutionalized about a year ago after cutting his abdomen open while shrieking "You. Have. To. Go. Deeper." (That was the catch-phrase I used instead of "You. Have. To. Go. Inside.") Anyway, this visit forced me to improvise word-salad style speaking. I also had him hitting the table, frequently, to emphasize his points - which weren't alwasy easy to understand.
Around the half-way point, a character tried really hard to open the television screen from the house. And open it did.
I took each player's name-card, and gave them a new one. The new cards had the same names, with photoshopped versions of the characters - the police detective looked very dog like and furry; the ME had gray skin and HUGE jet black eyes, the male author had bushier eyebrows and odd letters and sigils all over his skin, the female author had pointy ears and almost all-white skin and hair; the male author's daughter had blue hair and eyes (like, aqua blue); and the retired marine was large, red, and had fangs protruding from his lower lip.
They all learned that in truth, they were Changelings. And that Candle Cove wasn't a TV show, but an Arcadian realm they had all once been abducted into.
After that, and some further examination now that they had some supernatural abilities, they headed into the TV/Door and into the Hedge (which I kind of hand-waved for sake of brevity), and into Candle Cove itself. There, they encountered two other Changelings who they had left behind from their initial escape, and eventually they caught up to their old Keeper.
Seems he made an oath with them once - he would send them back to reality and erase all the pain and misery he had caused from their minds, and one of the characters slipped in "And our descendants." The Keeper didn't think that last part would count, so he took the kids, and that's how it all happened.
Anyway, the PCs realized that with him having broken the Pledge with him, they had a chance to do him in. So they did, in a battle that turned pretty much one-sided in a matter of turns.
After that, they found a way home, and that was the end.
What Rocked
1. I always get a perverse thrill when I unknowingly creep players out.
2. No one left the game after the bait & switch section.
What Could Have Been Better
1. Hotel food got me sick to my stomach - which did cost the game a little bit.
2. I think I lost two players after the bait & switch. They seemed to be unsure what to do or how to do it.
System: New World of Darkness (and, Changeling: the Lost - see below)
Storyteller: Me
This game was probably the second biggest risk I've ever taken as a Convention GM. I'll explain why below, but let it be known that as I was working on this scenario, I frequently consulted other GM/Players (people who do both) to ask "Would this make you leave a convention game?" "Would this game still be fun?"
For Convention games, I'm not much of a risk-taker. As a GM, I'm not much of a planner.
So for this game, for probably the first time ever, I had props. Kind of. I had character namecards that folded up in front of the player, with the name of their character and the picture of the celebrity who would play them in the movie. (In this case, we had Johnny Depp as a horror author, Naomi Watts as a children's book author, Emma Stone as Depp's oldest (bastard) daughter, David Morse as the only police detective in town, Khandi Alexander as the town's Medical Examiner, and Patrick Warburton as a retired Marine who is now a school teacher.) For me, these are props. I suck at props. Mostly because I don't plan that far ahead.
I did the quickest run down of game mechanics that I could, which still took about half an hour. I had one brand new role-player. (Well, newish. He had played a few games before, but he had that new player smell and shine to him.) Another player played in the old World of Darkness, but not the new one.
I then set up the background of their small town, and of a television show they all watched as children, called Candle Cove. (Yes, I will steal things from the internet. Actually, I'll steal from anywhere - the news, movies, tv shows, books, other GMs, MMOs, video games, old LSD trips . . .) I gave them a very general rundown, and each had a card of 'true things' they recalled about the show that the others wouldn't until they were shared.
And then I explained that they were all (but one) single parents, with young children, who began to get together to watch "Candle Cove," which was being rebroadcast on some local channel. They would all gather at someone's house after school for a half-hour, and then come home. (Which house it was would change from day to day.)
And on the first night of the game, the children didn't come home. When the parents went to look for them, they found the host house locked up, covered in sea-water. After getting in, they found the host parents dead, the first floor covered in sea-water, and a teapot on the stove whistling out calliope music.
(They did a lot of investigation - which is good - and apparently I creeped them out during this phase and with random 'facts' about the show.)
I let the players run with this scene. They investigated the house up and down. The ME went over the bodies. They tore through the crawlspace. They looked things up online.
In a twist that I didn't expect, the ME and the cop went to the local institution to talk to her (the MEs) husband, who had been institutionalized about a year ago after cutting his abdomen open while shrieking "You. Have. To. Go. Deeper." (That was the catch-phrase I used instead of "You. Have. To. Go. Inside.") Anyway, this visit forced me to improvise word-salad style speaking. I also had him hitting the table, frequently, to emphasize his points - which weren't alwasy easy to understand.
Around the half-way point, a character tried really hard to open the television screen from the house. And open it did.
I took each player's name-card, and gave them a new one. The new cards had the same names, with photoshopped versions of the characters - the police detective looked very dog like and furry; the ME had gray skin and HUGE jet black eyes, the male author had bushier eyebrows and odd letters and sigils all over his skin, the female author had pointy ears and almost all-white skin and hair; the male author's daughter had blue hair and eyes (like, aqua blue); and the retired marine was large, red, and had fangs protruding from his lower lip.
They all learned that in truth, they were Changelings. And that Candle Cove wasn't a TV show, but an Arcadian realm they had all once been abducted into.
After that, and some further examination now that they had some supernatural abilities, they headed into the TV/Door and into the Hedge (which I kind of hand-waved for sake of brevity), and into Candle Cove itself. There, they encountered two other Changelings who they had left behind from their initial escape, and eventually they caught up to their old Keeper.
Seems he made an oath with them once - he would send them back to reality and erase all the pain and misery he had caused from their minds, and one of the characters slipped in "And our descendants." The Keeper didn't think that last part would count, so he took the kids, and that's how it all happened.
Anyway, the PCs realized that with him having broken the Pledge with him, they had a chance to do him in. So they did, in a battle that turned pretty much one-sided in a matter of turns.
After that, they found a way home, and that was the end.
What Rocked
1. I always get a perverse thrill when I unknowingly creep players out.
2. No one left the game after the bait & switch section.
What Could Have Been Better
1. Hotel food got me sick to my stomach - which did cost the game a little bit.
2. I think I lost two players after the bait & switch. They seemed to be unsure what to do or how to do it.