Game Idea

[orikes]

There’s a small con coming up this October at one of the local colleges. Rudicon 21 at RIT, to be specific. I’ve been debating trying to run a game at a con for the experience if nothing else, and since I’m expecting this one to be pretty small, I figured it’s worth a shot.

I’d like to run something akin to the opening scenario I ran for my M&M campaign. E.G.O. Project: Genesis starts with the characters waking up in a lab. Before they were kidnapped (which is the last thing they remember), they were normal people living normal lives. As the adventure progresses, they begin to realize that they now have super powers.

Half the fun is the players having their characters discover their powers as they go. With my gaming group, it was no big deal for them to know what their powers were ahead of time and just tell them when they ‘discovered’ a new ability. For the con game, though, I’m not sure quite which way I’d like to play it out.

Do I:

a. Hand the players the full character sheet with all the powers listed and just admonish them to not use the powers until it comes up in the course of the game? The pro of this is that it’s less work for me and gives the players an understanding of what they’ve got right up front. The con is that it spoils some of the mystery, and there’s no telling the quality of player I’d get.

b. Hand the players a background description of the character, but no character sheet. During the course of play, tell them some of the strange abilities they’ve suddenly developed. After they’ve discovered the bulk of their powers and before any major battle, provide them with the full character sheet. The pro of this is that it preserves the mystery of what’s going on and helps develop a good dynamic. The con, though, is that some players won’t like not getting a character sheet to start with, and some players may be a bit lost as to their characters abilities.

c. Hand the players a character sheet that represents the character before transformation. During the course of play, start having them experience some of their new abilities, and then before any major battle, give them the full blown character sheet. This is probably the best option, but the con is that it presents the most work for me. I’d essentially have to build these characters twice – once without powers, once with.

Any suggestions or alternatives?

Comments

[jengagne.livejournal.com]

Could you have the powers be a separate add-on thing... like a card full of information that you keep to yourself until the character learns about it? Then hand it to them and it's like a supplement to their character sheet?

You could give them the full sheets up front, but a more experimental "powers appear as you go" approach is more of a novelty!

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

I've thought about that (giving them a partial sheet), but the problem is that certain basic attributes will change with the transformation.

For example, Morgan is a normal eighteen year old girl when she goes into this. When she starts experiencing her powers, her strength will be significantly increased. She basically becomes the group's 'brick'.

[jengagne.livejournal.com]

So why not just have "Str +3" or whatever on the sheet? I don't think it's so complex that the player/GM can't keep the new power in mind for strength rolls... if the power gives a permanent stat change, then just cross out the old stat and write the new one there on the main sheet, if that's easier?

I guess it's a hack but isn't that easier than building X number of separate versions of their sheet?

[cori-chronicles.livejournal.com]

I agree with what jengagne said... I'm a less experienced player, but having the information in front of me is really helpful. I'm assuming when you had AngCon I you gave us the full sheets and we sort of worked things out as we went... I appreciated that a lot, and it made it easier for me to play. I don't really understand how to make all the stuff, but if you give me a sheet, I can mostly figure out what to do with it. :) So maybe that would appease experienced and non-experienced players alike?

[megatonjustice.livejournal.com]

Back in the days when there was such a thing as time enough to game. I used to love to blindside my players at all turns with plot twists and developments. But then again a lot of that had to do with the kind of group I gamed with, so mileages may definately vary on that.

As a player I always liked having things pop up that were completely unexpected, and I had to rapidly figure out how my characters would react to them.

I really like the notion of just handing your players sheets with what their characters were like before they were abducted. Skills stats etc. And having their powers/stat ups on seperate sheets of paper, or cards what have you. I'd only even spring powers on the players as their character's need arose. So there'd be a chance a player might not even discover their entire power set, because they hadn't explored it enough, or a situation didn't arise that would trigger it. That way the better players in the group are rewarded with more flexible characters, and the lesser players are stuck with only what they've earned regardless of the importance of any battle.

But then again I have absolutely no experience running/playing at cons. So that may prove to be an over complicated way of handling the situation. Especially considering there is probably a very limited amount of time to play out the game in.

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

The sessions usually run about four hours. I've never seen one less, but I have seen some longer.

I've played in some pretty experimental games at cons, so I'm not worried too much about making it too complicated. I've found that there's less 'start-up' time for a con game than a normal game. Normal games, you've got to get the chit-chat period out of the way as everyone settles in. At a con game, people show up and are usually ready to go.