I don't know if anyone out there on Dumpshock has ever been to MARCON. Probably not, since I get the impression that to most gamers outside of Columbus, it's just the Columbus convention that's not Origins. Anyway, I volunteered to run some Shadowrun this year so I could get in for free.

Yes, that's opportunistic, and what I should have done was come up with a solid idea, THEN volunteered, and let the free convention pass come as a nice little extra. As it was, I was freaking out 2 days before the game about what I was going to run. Then it hit me: I'll steal the premise of "Reservoir Dogs."

Surprisingly, there were a bunch of people that signed up for it. I hear that some people even got turned away (which is unfortunate, because I was willing and able to exceed the arbitrary number of players I'd put on the form). The first thing I did was make everyone dice off to determine if they were the one that started the game with a bullet in their gut. I informed them that I'd be houseruling the damage system on that so there'd be a danger of them bleeding to death (other than the seconds-long time frame you get under the normal rules when your condition monitor fills up). I like the SR4 rules, but they don't simulate a conscious person going through the process of dying horrifically like the guy in the movie did.

Then I explained that they had been on a run, and it went down perfectly. But when they met Mr. Johnson, he handed them a bag with 20 million (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) in cash, which they all saw. Then the pigs raided the place, and Mr. Johnson took a bullet to the thinker, and half the team got wiped out. The PCs were the half of the team that escaped. When they got to their safehouse, a warehouse by the shore, they looked in the bag and noticed that there was only 10 million (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) . I drew names out of a hat to determine who was the undercover that had sold them out. I did the same to see who had stolen the other 10 million (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) .

Long story short: the undercover and the guy with the gunshot wound just happened to end up being the same guy. The guy that stole the money used a pressure cannon to launch it at the Lone Star mobile command center as a distraction, but since I thought he was just trying to get it off himself before the rest of the group found it, I ruled that since it was a bundle, the rubber band holding it together held, and it just went in the hole they'd already made in the windshield, without anyone noticing (the command center was filled with smoke from a smoke grenade that had punched the hole in the windshield). One character stealthed his way away, while everyone else was drawing fire by running to a police boat that they'd emptied with MG fire. From there, they headed out to Puget Sound in a totally bitching boat chase scene, where the rigger made all sorts of awesome rolls, despite wound modifiers. That's right, it was the undercover, and he was delivering the runners to the cops. The runners didn't find this out until he used the police boat's water cannon to knock them all overboard, where they got to enjoy heavy stun modifiers. Only one of them had a swimming skill, and 2 of them were allergic to the water.

I was nervous GMing for outsiders. I mean, I GM all the time with my group, but they're my tribe, you know? If I was being a bad GM, I don't think they'd necessarily tell me unless it was really horrible, because they're my friends (and they know they probably couldn't do any better). They keep telling me I'm a great GM, but I've never been sure they weren't just trying not to hurt my feelings. So I was wondering if anyone at MARCON would be pissed that I was using some house rules (well, "me rules," since we weren't at anyone's house), and glossing over matrix stuff since I'm not so great at it yet in 4ed, etc. And one of the guys that got totally screwed when I let the rigger/cop blast everyone with the water cannon turns out to be an Origins GM (before this even happened, I was making an Origins character with cybergills, so it's going to look like I'm prepared for retribution). But I think everyone had a good time. They at least said they did, and this isn't a very friendly city, so if I messed up, I think they'd all let me know about it. I even had people that had been watching us play come up to me during the rest of the convention and get my contact info. So, while it was quite possibly the least original thing I've ever GM'd in Shadowrun, I think it did a good job of being different than your stereotypical "go here, get this" run, yet was still accessible for new players at a convention, and satisfied the SR veterans at the table as well.

There's not much of a point to this post other than bragging, though.

Sounds like it went well. Congratz.

Only issue I've ever had with Columbus area gamers is how freakin' cliquish everyone is. And opinionated. My god, we're and opinionated lot...

I'm going to see how Origins goes. If its relatively painless, I may sign up to GM next year. Maybe Marcon...

-paws

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/sarcastic.gif) Not to mention being infantile, closed minded mouth-breathers sadly in need of some personal hygiene...maybe that's just the old days of working gaming retail in this town though coloring my perceptions. Except for the perception of smell, that was definately a bitter reality. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sleepy.gif) I'll take cliquishness to preserve my nostrils though, thank you.


That being said, I can honestly say that pretty much all of my con gaming experiences have been local Columbus cons, and barring one exception that I can remember they were all enjoyable games. Glad to hear it went over well for you CBB.



I have no idea what you are trying to insinuate sir, I assure you.... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

Columbus is definitely cliquish with it's gamers. When I moved here about a year and a half ago, the one person I knew in town brought me to his gaming group (they were playing that other game), and it took me about a year to really feel like any of them were my friends. Now we're a tight-knit crew, which is good because I have friends, but I met some people at MARCON, and I'm not sure it would fly with the group if I let them in. I might have to set up a second Shadowrun group.

But I've lived elsewhere, and gaming seemed cliquish there, too. I remember going to college in Washington, DC, and finding multiple gaming groups my freshman year, including SR, and nobody would let me join. I had to start my own, and then WE felt cliquish, because we had to kick a girl out for playing with knives on my bed. Unfortunately, we were short on manpower, so trying to be that exclusive led to us just folding.

It certainly doesn't help that the Columbus area has an absurd number of dedicated indy gaming stores (6 off the top of my head, probably one or two more). And that's not counting chains like Hobby Land.

For the most part, people go to the one they like and never stray to the others unless they're looking for a niche product.

There used to be an rather large gaming group at OSU, but I'm not sure whatever happened to that. And there are the LARPers... that's something else we seem to have a lot of.

-paws

EDIT: Did you really kick out a girl because she was playing with knives? Was she damaging your bed or something?

EDIT the Second: Check Meetup.com - there's a group of SR players here in town that has been trying to meet once a month. I'm going to check it out, I think, assuming my schedule and my wife's schedule synch up. Next meeting is the weekend before Origins.

Actually, she was getting a little overty sexual with this other guy, and it just sort of involved knives, which meant it was uncomfortable to watch. I tried to be tactful about telling the internet, but....

6 gaming stores? What is there besides the Soldiery and the Guard Tower?

In a SR game that can only end badly.

Erm, okay. Knife-play... eww.


Okay... now you're making me think.

Guardtower
Soldiery
Alley Cat Games & Comics
Ravenstone Games
Armoury Games (Pickerington)
Shadow Dragon Games (might be out of business, actually.)
And there have been several other fly-by-night stores over the years. (Including the so-called Soldiery East... :rofl:)

So, okay, let's assume 5 indy stores within a short drive, plus the chain stores. I have no idea how they all stay afloat, especialy when the economy is this shitty.

-paws

I am so totally checking those out. I was only aware of the two. At MARCON, people kept coming up to me saying how hard it was to find a SR group here. Which was weird, because like I said, there were so many people signing up for the game I ran, they had to turn people away, even though there was another game going on at the same time (those guys, by the way, wouldn't talk to me). In high school, there were MULTIPLE Shadowrun groups at my high school, which was only 1,200 people total, and off in hilljack Ross County. If anyone's read the book "Knockemstiff," that's the county I grew up in. Not your stereotypical gamer-friendly community.

PS, the knife-play was not in an SR group. We were playing a different system. But the "ewww" reaction is very appropriate.

Wow... Oops, wrong thread (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) But what follows relates:

I've actually only just recently discovered gaming cliques. We were always so hard up for players that we'd take just about anyone on. This is the first time I've actually had more players than I'm absolutely comfortable with. One of my players actually does "auditions" for people to play in his games... a concept that baffles my very democratic view of gaming groups.


Of course knife play is creepy... and it was your bed damnit! If there is going to be ANY knife play on my bed it better damn well involve me!

That's word-for-word what I said!

Double post!

This of course makes me think of knife play in the sixth world and how it's about 100 times creepier given how blood magic works.

1. Willing Participant: Check
2. Symbolic/Actual Damage Inflicted: Check

I'd also imagine that creepy blood-magic sex rituals could go hand in hand with certain non-Aztlan traditions.

Tantric Sex Ritual Casting? FTW!

Back in high school (SR1 era) we had a SR club of about 20 players, give or take. It worked out to 3 teams worth, plus GMs. We were pretty open to anyone who wanted to play SR. Most of us had cut our teeth on some version of D&D (or Palladium or HERO) and wanted a change.

Anyway...


Oh dear. Now we know where the Orgasm and Orgy spells originated. Ritually cast Orgy FTW!

-paws

I'm not too sure something is a clique, because you turn people away from a group that no one wants to deal with. Sometimes it's nice to keep games small and on the dl. I mean if sexual mic knifey lady makes your group uncomfortable and you have to boot her, it is somewhat easier to kick her out or screen her before all of that happens.

If you want to talk about democratic, our group takes a vote on if we want someone to join our group or not. It's been really helpful when deciding who joins our group.