Re: Dr. Manhatten goes to Origins
Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2020 9:12 am
Thursday Mornings... a lot of years this is my downtime to browse the dealer hall. One year, i end up on the elevator with Ken St. Andre. I don't know how the conversation started but it quickly morphed into a bizarre and rambling 2 person improvisation of speculative fiction involving elevators moving in 6 dimensions. I end up walking with Ken all the way down to the exhibit hall and the next thing i know, i am standing in the area of the Flying Buffalo booth because security knew Ken was clear to enter and assumed i was too. It also gives me a greater understanding of where the concepts behind a lot of the early games came from.
Different year, same walk but with Duke Seifried. Mostly the conversation is about his awesome display of scale pirate ships for a game the year before. By the time we reach the regustration area amd part ways, his offhand advice on painting tricks teaches me more about mini painting than i ever knew. That would end up being his next to last trip to Origins.
There are people in the dealer room and there are legends, known and unsung. Lou Zocchi is in his booth. We would have very different gaming without Lou. He is the original dice guy and he will tell you all about it. I have seen people abandon their closts friends to escape a Lou story. They are long, they ramble but it is a fun lecture.
Bob Kindel is over at Koplow's booth. I need to say hi. Bob and i met at a different con in 1988. He gave me a student discount that day because i had a Miskatonic U. Student ID on me. He also ran what may have been the most entertaining 1st ed. D&D themed adventures. If you like anything about the way I run games, it starts with what i learned playing in Bob's convention events. (He was also a medic in Vietnam and a Postal worker)
I walk past a booth selling a new boardgame. The display looks good, the layout for demos looks inviting and easy. It is in an orange box. I have seen it in the hands of 5 people in the dealer room which has only been open 26 minutes. I ask them to give me their quick pitch and it sounds enticing. Bearenpark will be a huge seller this con. 4 hours proves i am right...everybody is toting this thing around.
Different year. I am in a Big Eyes Small Mouth game with Akira running. 3 players are RPG.bet regulars. His campaign is an anime elementary school full of trope characters and a poster sized flowchart to show how they interact. It is silly fun except for the poor guy that picked a member of a 5 man giant robot team because nobody else went along with that plan.
It is right around the time we were starting HoA. I am at a table in Franklin B with Charlie. This is in the running for worst hame I ever played at Origins. It is Hollow Earth Expedition. The guy running has copied all the pregen templates...ok, this is really a demo the system session for me. Then he proceeds to go into an over detailed fescription of the mechanics. As we start, i try to introduce myself to Charlie and the one other player at the table. The GM stops me and does not let me name the character. I make the assumption we have names already and he says no, you don't need names, you are the adventurer and he is the scholar and he is the pilot just call each other that.
Charlie gives me the look across the table. The "is this guy serious look". We are both thinking about walking away. I decide i will let him at least set the scene. Immediate fight scene opener...sure, it is an action game. As is my nature, i try lateral thinking responses and the GM directly refuses to allow them. Charlie gives me the "this game is a wash" look. He is right, i should walk away but the third player was really eager to play this and this GM needs some on hands training.
None of it works. Everytime Charlie or I try to talk to a NPC or socially interact, he initiates combat. At the end of the game, i do something i have never done before or since. I tell the guy straight up he should never run a game again.
Ed Rollins will run a Hollow Earth Game an hour after that debacle that gives both myself and Charlie the adventure we wanted. That is my first meeting with Ed and was totally rollicking fun.
Different year...second larp year. I am meeting Floyd face to face for the first time. We bond so fast it is ridiculous. And i mean that word in every sense. The next 4 days would best be described as a pair of 8 year old boys trapped in the bodies of 30+ year old men turned loose at the amusement park or summer camp. I have had good Origins, Great Origins and Amazing Origins but that year was probably my favorite and at that moment i had no idea what was coming over the next 4 days.
It is 2002. I am sitting at a table for Cthulhu. This is the first year i am strictly enacting the Dave picks last rule. If you are not aware, as a gaming challenge i insist on having the last pick of pregens so i have to make something out of the character nobody else at the table wanted. The GM hands me the last option, a female rich kid that exactly describes my ex-girlfriend right down to the eye color. I channel the most annoying and problematic version my bitter soul can fathom. 3 players take voluntary sanity loss to research dark magiks to make me stop. I win the best player award for the session.
For you newer gamers, cons used to do best player votes. In the earliest days, Gygax and the boys thought you NEEDED to have a winner at the table. It was still a rated factor with the RPGA in the 90's. By 2000, it had mostly become a thing some GMs would do and maybe you got a certificate or Bob Kindel would give you some dice for his game. In 2002, Origins got their hands on multiple milk crates full of remaindered gaming materials. Every RPG session that year had a best player award that let you select a book from the crates. I was signed up for 7 events. I won 7 books. The selection was so bad, i think i only collected 3 and gave the rest to other people.
Different year, same walk but with Duke Seifried. Mostly the conversation is about his awesome display of scale pirate ships for a game the year before. By the time we reach the regustration area amd part ways, his offhand advice on painting tricks teaches me more about mini painting than i ever knew. That would end up being his next to last trip to Origins.
There are people in the dealer room and there are legends, known and unsung. Lou Zocchi is in his booth. We would have very different gaming without Lou. He is the original dice guy and he will tell you all about it. I have seen people abandon their closts friends to escape a Lou story. They are long, they ramble but it is a fun lecture.
Bob Kindel is over at Koplow's booth. I need to say hi. Bob and i met at a different con in 1988. He gave me a student discount that day because i had a Miskatonic U. Student ID on me. He also ran what may have been the most entertaining 1st ed. D&D themed adventures. If you like anything about the way I run games, it starts with what i learned playing in Bob's convention events. (He was also a medic in Vietnam and a Postal worker)
I walk past a booth selling a new boardgame. The display looks good, the layout for demos looks inviting and easy. It is in an orange box. I have seen it in the hands of 5 people in the dealer room which has only been open 26 minutes. I ask them to give me their quick pitch and it sounds enticing. Bearenpark will be a huge seller this con. 4 hours proves i am right...everybody is toting this thing around.
Different year. I am in a Big Eyes Small Mouth game with Akira running. 3 players are RPG.bet regulars. His campaign is an anime elementary school full of trope characters and a poster sized flowchart to show how they interact. It is silly fun except for the poor guy that picked a member of a 5 man giant robot team because nobody else went along with that plan.
It is right around the time we were starting HoA. I am at a table in Franklin B with Charlie. This is in the running for worst hame I ever played at Origins. It is Hollow Earth Expedition. The guy running has copied all the pregen templates...ok, this is really a demo the system session for me. Then he proceeds to go into an over detailed fescription of the mechanics. As we start, i try to introduce myself to Charlie and the one other player at the table. The GM stops me and does not let me name the character. I make the assumption we have names already and he says no, you don't need names, you are the adventurer and he is the scholar and he is the pilot just call each other that.
Charlie gives me the look across the table. The "is this guy serious look". We are both thinking about walking away. I decide i will let him at least set the scene. Immediate fight scene opener...sure, it is an action game. As is my nature, i try lateral thinking responses and the GM directly refuses to allow them. Charlie gives me the "this game is a wash" look. He is right, i should walk away but the third player was really eager to play this and this GM needs some on hands training.
None of it works. Everytime Charlie or I try to talk to a NPC or socially interact, he initiates combat. At the end of the game, i do something i have never done before or since. I tell the guy straight up he should never run a game again.
Ed Rollins will run a Hollow Earth Game an hour after that debacle that gives both myself and Charlie the adventure we wanted. That is my first meeting with Ed and was totally rollicking fun.
Different year...second larp year. I am meeting Floyd face to face for the first time. We bond so fast it is ridiculous. And i mean that word in every sense. The next 4 days would best be described as a pair of 8 year old boys trapped in the bodies of 30+ year old men turned loose at the amusement park or summer camp. I have had good Origins, Great Origins and Amazing Origins but that year was probably my favorite and at that moment i had no idea what was coming over the next 4 days.
It is 2002. I am sitting at a table for Cthulhu. This is the first year i am strictly enacting the Dave picks last rule. If you are not aware, as a gaming challenge i insist on having the last pick of pregens so i have to make something out of the character nobody else at the table wanted. The GM hands me the last option, a female rich kid that exactly describes my ex-girlfriend right down to the eye color. I channel the most annoying and problematic version my bitter soul can fathom. 3 players take voluntary sanity loss to research dark magiks to make me stop. I win the best player award for the session.
For you newer gamers, cons used to do best player votes. In the earliest days, Gygax and the boys thought you NEEDED to have a winner at the table. It was still a rated factor with the RPGA in the 90's. By 2000, it had mostly become a thing some GMs would do and maybe you got a certificate or Bob Kindel would give you some dice for his game. In 2002, Origins got their hands on multiple milk crates full of remaindered gaming materials. Every RPG session that year had a best player award that let you select a book from the crates. I was signed up for 7 events. I won 7 books. The selection was so bad, i think i only collected 3 and gave the rest to other people.