ConStellation
The build up to my holiday started with the usual disorganised faffing that seems to happen. I had hoped to get together a load of bits and pieces for the game I was running, to get packed, and also to get some flat-pack furniture built. This did not all happen, but trying to get there was at least entertaining.
lanfykins was helpfully a little bit late, but not enough for me to have actually finished all the chaotic running around that was required. Eventually we got all my stuff into her car and headed North. The drive up was very nice. The motorway section wasn’t busy, and once we left that and got onto the smaller roads we had much more interesting scenery to look at, with a lot of it covered in snow.
We were staying at Haddon Grove Farm Cottages (http://www.haddongrovefarmcottages.co.uk/) and quite a few people were already there by the time we arrived. That evening was mainly spend bodding around, catching up with people and having a wee drink or two.
First game was Modern Times (http://zandev.org/interestingtimes) where I was a technomage who didn’t really believe in technology.This made for some good characters rubbing up against each other, as I kept insisting one of the other techies was doing things magically, even though he insisted that it was technological.
After the game finished I had some frantic finishing off of game prep for what I was running the next day. I was in good company though, asquisalan was doing exactly the same thing for her game for Monday. We did have H. wander in at one stage whilst we were talking about bits of our plots. Since he was in both of the games we went very quiet whilst he was bodding around the kitchen. I don't think that we were _too_ intimidating (Or I wasn't - Quis is a ninja after all)
My system was minimalist and experimental (Read, I'd only kinda written it, and wasn't sure about how it would work with game balance - I'd see as it went along.) All my players had brought their Teddy Bears (They were playing their own cuddly toys) and they did go on to save the day. We even managed to avoid any overly self-referential time loops in the game.
Monday was a zero prep game run by Mo, The Ghosts of Fulwell Manor. It took me a little while to work out the game dynamic and realise the players had a pretty extensive control of the unfolding of the storyline. Set in the Civil war each player started with two characters, one on each side of the war. It was fast-paced, with a lot of cutting between different short scenes - usually of bad things happening to someones character. As the name suggested it was a ghost story, and it ran along the lines of the old Hammer Horros films.
The game up up on the Undying Kings website if you want to have a look at the materials or have a go at running or playing it.
http://www.ukg.co.uk/free_games/The%20Ghosts%20of%20Fulwell.pdf
By far the most interesting playing experience of the Con was Ug - The Quest for Fire. We were playing cavemen who were sent off to bring back the fire the next village had. It wasn't what we were doing, or how the characters were doing it that was what made this game special. It was the fact we weren't allowed to use English to communicate with each other. We had a vocab sheet, which gave the words of the language skills we had. The first hour of the game was a bit bewildering as well all tried to get to grips with what words we had, but after that initial, rather steep, learning curve, we were off!
The games all broke for lunch when they reached natural break points. Our game was going strong whenlanfykins came back into the cottage to make herself lunch. As she overheard us grunting at one another a look somewhere between fear and amusement came over her face. I'm not entirely sure what she thought when she left...
By the end of the game we had managed to both get the fire, and also make up some new words in the language, write a couple of song, and start to ask for tea and coffee in grunting OOC. It was brilliant.
Vents was run bybateleur and lathany, and was a horror game. As a Chinese delegation, our characters were sent off to investigate a Russian underground base found on a geothermal vent in Chinese waters. Another horror game, this was more leaning towards Sci-fi horror than the traditional horror of Mondays game. Lots of messing around underwater and being chased by aliens.
Upstairs Downstairs had Mo & Rhi running a reverse dungeon crawl game. The characters were the inhabitants of an underground cave system going about our daily business of playing cards, doign pub quizzes and we got attacked by some mysterious thing from another part of the cave system. Cue us going off to investigate. I know that it is going to be replayed soon, so I shan't go into too much detail. It was, however, glorious.
Aside from all the games, I did get to do a (very) little bit of wandering around the nearby scenery. There was at least some rolling around in the snow made all the more special as I was doing that around Easter which seemed ever so wierd. Loads of food and interesting drinks were consumed and many people were talked to (And in some cases, at.) A brilliant holiday. Huge thnaks toleathellin for her brilliant organisation.
lanfykins was helpfully a little bit late, but not enough for me to have actually finished all the chaotic running around that was required. Eventually we got all my stuff into her car and headed North. The drive up was very nice. The motorway section wasn’t busy, and once we left that and got onto the smaller roads we had much more interesting scenery to look at, with a lot of it covered in snow.We were staying at Haddon Grove Farm Cottages (http://www.haddongrovefarmcottages.co.uk/) and quite a few people were already there by the time we arrived. That evening was mainly spend bodding around, catching up with people and having a wee drink or two.
First game was Modern Times (http://zandev.org/interestingtimes) where I was a technomage who didn’t really believe in technology.This made for some good characters rubbing up against each other, as I kept insisting one of the other techies was doing things magically, even though he insisted that it was technological.
After the game finished I had some frantic finishing off of game prep for what I was running the next day. I was in good company though, as
quisalan was doing exactly the same thing for her game for Monday. We did have H. wander in at one stage whilst we were talking about bits of our plots. Since he was in both of the games we went very quiet whilst he was bodding around the kitchen. I don't think that we were _too_ intimidating (Or I wasn't - Quis is a ninja after all) My system was minimalist and experimental (Read, I'd only kinda written it, and wasn't sure about how it would work with game balance - I'd see as it went along.) All my players had brought their Teddy Bears (They were playing their own cuddly toys) and they did go on to save the day. We even managed to avoid any overly self-referential time loops in the game.
Monday was a zero prep game run by Mo, The Ghosts of Fulwell Manor. It took me a little while to work out the game dynamic and realise the players had a pretty extensive control of the unfolding of the storyline. Set in the Civil war each player started with two characters, one on each side of the war. It was fast-paced, with a lot of cutting between different short scenes - usually of bad things happening to someones character. As the name suggested it was a ghost story, and it ran along the lines of the old Hammer Horros films.
The game up up on the Undying Kings website if you want to have a look at the materials or have a go at running or playing it.
http://www.ukg.co.uk/free_games/The%20Ghosts%20of%20Fulwell.pdf
By far the most interesting playing experience of the Con was Ug - The Quest for Fire. We were playing cavemen who were sent off to bring back the fire the next village had. It wasn't what we were doing, or how the characters were doing it that was what made this game special. It was the fact we weren't allowed to use English to communicate with each other. We had a vocab sheet, which gave the words of the language skills we had. The first hour of the game was a bit bewildering as well all tried to get to grips with what words we had, but after that initial, rather steep, learning curve, we were off!
The games all broke for lunch when they reached natural break points. Our game was going strong when
lanfykins came back into the cottage to make herself lunch. As she overheard us grunting at one another a look somewhere between fear and amusement came over her face. I'm not entirely sure what she thought when she left...By the end of the game we had managed to both get the fire, and also make up some new words in the language, write a couple of song, and start to ask for tea and coffee in grunting OOC. It was brilliant.
Vents was run by
bateleur and lathany, and was a horror game. As a Chinese delegation, our characters were sent off to investigate a Russian underground base found on a geothermal vent in Chinese waters. Another horror game, this was more leaning towards Sci-fi horror than the traditional horror of Mondays game. Lots of messing around underwater and being chased by aliens. Upstairs Downstairs had Mo & Rhi running a reverse dungeon crawl game. The characters were the inhabitants of an underground cave system going about our daily business of playing cards, doign pub quizzes and we got attacked by some mysterious thing from another part of the cave system. Cue us going off to investigate. I know that it is going to be replayed soon, so I shan't go into too much detail. It was, however, glorious.
Aside from all the games, I did get to do a (very) little bit of wandering around the nearby scenery. There was at least some rolling around in the snow made all the more special as I was doing that around Easter which seemed ever so wierd. Loads of food and interesting drinks were consumed and many people were talked to (And in some cases, at.) A brilliant holiday. Huge thnaks to
leathellin for her brilliant organisation.