MEPACon Fall 2008

MEPACon always seems to involve mixed feelings for me, as I run at least one really good session each time, enjoy playing something new to me, play with some cool new people, and yet my GURPS events draw little or no interest. This time was no exception.

I arrived early enough to join Mike Sarno's first Tales of Peril game as a player. Tales of Peril is a 1930's pulp setting based on Daniel Bayn's Wushu. The mechanics encourage over-the-top action hero behavior. All of the players except for me were members of a high school roleplaying club attending their first convention. Much to my surprise, every one of the young players passed on the main character and chose supporting characters, leaving me playing the star. They were a fine group on the whole, taking advantage of the system's opportunities to add setting details and wild action, and a good time was had by all. It's a pity that they were just there for the day, as they didn't get to do more than get the slightest taste of the convention experience, but based on their reactions, I suspect we haven't seen the last of this bunch.

My scheduled Friday night GURPS Cabal game drew no interest at all, so I pitched in with one of my fellow MIBs to give him enough players to play a session of Munchkin Booty (the pirate iteration of the Munchkin card game). There's nothing special to say about it, other than that the non-MIB player seemed to really enjoy himself and that it was a nice chance to hang out with Steve Edelman and Erik Zane again.

There weren't any appealing Saturday morning events, and I wasn't scheduled to run anything again until Saturday afternoon, so I joined Mike Sarno's midnight session, playing a game involving a prison escape using the Engle Matrix rules. This wasn't a roleplaying game in the sense of the player having control over a particular character. The rules involve each participant focusing to some degree on one particular character, but proposing the occurrence of events in the story advancing that character's interests and choosing another player to serve as a referee regarding how likely it is that those events will occur. Others can counterargue the logic of the events if they like, then a die roll ultimately decides whether or not the proposed event becomes established as an official part of the story. Very rules light and story-oriented. I personally have a strong preference for stepping into the shoes of the character, so the one-step-removed style wouldn't be my preferred mode of play, but it was enjoyable enough, and I'd certainly play it again if the subject matter was interesting enough.

My Saturday afternoon In Nomine session ("Fear Itself") drew a full house of players, most of whom were familiar to me. I took a bit of a risk and allowed a seventh character when the scenario was written for six. The seventh character was originally an NPC, but I really didn't want to turn anybody away if I didn't have to, and the character had spent a lot of time hanging around with the PCs anyway the first time I'd run this one, so I took a chance. It did in fact slow the game down a bit, but not so much that the players minded. It was a lively session with a surprisingly textured finish that gave all of the characters and the Big Bad of the scenario a happy ending!

Saturday night's Sorcerer session ("A Dance of Pairs") was the most brutal I've run since I started running Sorcerer. The final toll for the PCs was one dead passer demon, one imprisoned sorcerer, one imprisoned passer demon (with the ability to feed his Need), one sorcerer confined to an insane asylum, one sorcerer free but spiritually broken, and one relatively happy passer demon (the one attached to the sorcerer confined as insane without actually being so). We were one of those noisy groups that draws attention from other tables due to all of the cheering and occasional yells of phrases that might have caused bystanders to call the police in a different setting. Very memorable session!

Afterward, I joined the traditional MEPACon midnight poker game for my first time. Three hours later I was effectively fifth place out of eight. Not an impressive showing by any means, but respectable enough.

My Sunday GURPS game (fantasy genre this time) again drew no player interest, freeing me to play Mike Sarno's Lovecraftian Engle Matrix session for a couple of hours, but I was seriously dragging from a lack of sleep and still had a two hour drive ahead of me, and so decided to drive home rather than play anything else.

Overall, a good time and a worthy trip. My sessions as a GM were either big successes or drew no players at all, as usual for me for MEPACon. I doubt I'll be back for the spring MEPACon if I'm going to GenCon next year, but there's a fair chance I'll return in the fall.

I think a change in tactics is due for next time, though. If I'm going to offer GURPS, I'm going to have to do it with a media tie-in or some other gimmick to grab player interest. GURPS Dollhouse might be an option by that time. Another alternative would be to run more than one In Nomine session, step up the indie games that have been working for me there, or return to what usually draws well at MEPACon, which is Call of Cthulhu. My roleplaying batteries have been recharged, and I have some fresh ideas that make me want to get back to writing new material for next year.