In Case of Fire
...Break GMs.
No, no; I kid. Fortunately, no GMs were harmed during the production of this motion picture game.
I just got back from the Athenian Friendly's after game. People seemed to have enjoyed themselves, from what I could tell. There were a few snags (we didn't have actual room-spaces in the CFA, because the people who run the art/music/theater/dance departments at Wes are big jerks), so having places to sit and/or eat was a bit problematic. Then the PCs decided to vault ahead of our late-afternoon gameplay plans and try to hit the after-dinner portions of the game at around 3:30 in the afternoon. ladybird97 was unable to make it to game, so I went from having "just barely enough Sturian translations, maybe, if we're lucky" to "way too much Sturian crap dear god why do you make us do this?!" Ladybird, you would have loved the column puzzle. Then, as a result of an unfortunate confluence of slight overcalibration and reasonable-seeming-at-the-time decisions on the PCs' part, the PC horde got a bit hosed at what we thought was going to be the final battle -- after which they retreated and regrouped, after losing five of their number, and with some clever strategizing managed to win the day after all. Also, the nifty sugar-glass prop I'd tried to make absolutely failed to work, so I had to fudge a replacement with paper and markers), and an NPC (inevitably) dropped out at the last minute, but violet_shade's friend A was super-awesome and volunteered to replace him. However, there were no major disasters, and having a director-GM to handle on-site surprises and decisions (thank you so incredibly much, kenjari!) kept the brain-leaking-out-of-ears to a minimum, and I think things appeared to go more smoothly than they did. We managed to run a two-day game with a dozen NPCs plus kitchen staff (whose LJ names I'm not certain of, but thank you so very much, J&J G-Z!), and get the story I had in my head to survive the transfer to the PCs largely intact. I got to run a game where I gave out a major magic item! And I got to run a game in which elementals actually made a significant and meaningful appearance! So, overall, I'm happy with the way the game went -- of course, I'm also happy that it's over, and that a two-day game's worth of props are no longer piled in Angelus7988's room. Thank you, everyone who NPCed, attended, or otherwise contributed to making this game happen.
No, no; I kid. Fortunately, no GMs were harmed during the production of this motion picture game.
I just got back from the Athenian Friendly's after game. People seemed to have enjoyed themselves, from what I could tell. There were a few snags (we didn't have actual room-spaces in the CFA, because the people who run the art/music/theater/dance departments at Wes are big jerks), so having places to sit and/or eat was a bit problematic. Then the PCs decided to vault ahead of our late-afternoon gameplay plans and try to hit the after-dinner portions of the game at around 3:30 in the afternoon. ladybird97 was unable to make it to game, so I went from having "just barely enough Sturian translations, maybe, if we're lucky" to "way too much Sturian crap dear god why do you make us do this?!" Ladybird, you would have loved the column puzzle. Then, as a result of an unfortunate confluence of slight overcalibration and reasonable-seeming-at-the-time decisions on the PCs' part, the PC horde got a bit hosed at what we thought was going to be the final battle -- after which they retreated and regrouped, after losing five of their number, and with some clever strategizing managed to win the day after all. Also, the nifty sugar-glass prop I'd tried to make absolutely failed to work, so I had to fudge a replacement with paper and markers), and an NPC (inevitably) dropped out at the last minute, but violet_shade's friend A was super-awesome and volunteered to replace him. However, there were no major disasters, and having a director-GM to handle on-site surprises and decisions (thank you so incredibly much, kenjari!) kept the brain-leaking-out-of-ears to a minimum, and I think things appeared to go more smoothly than they did. We managed to run a two-day game with a dozen NPCs plus kitchen staff (whose LJ names I'm not certain of, but thank you so very much, J&J G-Z!), and get the story I had in my head to survive the transfer to the PCs largely intact. I got to run a game where I gave out a major magic item! And I got to run a game in which elementals actually made a significant and meaningful appearance! So, overall, I'm happy with the way the game went -- of course, I'm also happy that it's over, and that a two-day game's worth of props are no longer piled in Angelus7988's room. Thank you, everyone who NPCed, attended, or otherwise contributed to making this game happen.