Dragonmeet...

[ffutures]

...was a BIG success - sold several things and made some money for me and raised £6.40 for Cancer Research UK from my game table, and the stuff I put in the charity auction raised £74 for children's charities. That was small beer compared to e.g. £200 each for an advance copy of Cubicle 7's Dr. Who RPG (delayed in customs so it wasn't available at the con) and a boxed set of GW's Rogue Trader Warhammer RPG, £150 (I think) for a Planescape belt buckle, etc. etc.

Both games I ran were maxed out on players. The team for A Ceres of Unfortunate Events managed to get through it, do the things I'd planned, and survive more or less intact. And Earth Girls Aren't Easy went really well considering that it's mainly a player-driven scenario and I was running it from about fifty words of notes; basically all I did was provide several characters with some back story and things to hide etc., then sit there, stirring things a little occasionally, and providing clues etc. if things slowed down. The players managed to screw themselves comprehensively through a mixture of greed, a few really bad dice rolls, and very good role playing. It's definitely going into the book.

And amazingly both games were played with virtually no violence - three characters were punched in Earth Girls... at different points, that was it. Just shows that it can be done.

Comments

[johnreiher.livejournal.com]

Here here! I know people who preach the old dictum of having at least one fight scene for every two non-fight scenes. I don't believe in that dictum, since I played in a couple of games where we never even once pulled a gun or did any violence to anyone, but there was a ton of tension in each of those games.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

One of the reasons why I've written several adventures with children as the characters is to get away from that mindset.

[ggreig]

The sum total of violence in my last two sessions is that someone got hit with a walking stick and bundled into a cab - but the player characters have prevented the bombing of Parliament.

Admittedly there may be a bit more physical action next time when they intend to try to round up those responsible.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Most of my gaming time these days is one-off convention demo games, which makes it a bit difficult to be subtle. I think I'm occasionally guilty of going too far the other way, and running games that demand combat as the only means of solving the problem. Yesterday was a nice change.