by Damien Moore
7am on a Sunday is a time that most people who roleplay normally only see because they've had a late night, but thats when we had to get up to make it to BigCon.
Never having been there before, it seemed a hell of a sacrifice, but in the end it was worthwhile.
We only went for the Sunday, only having found 3 games that we really were interested in. Early Sunday morning, the organisers were there and were organised and awake.
Each game and each GM had their own schedule, so information could be found easily for players and GMs alike. Even so, the normal lag at session changeovers hit a few people.
Food and drink was plentiful, and relatively cheap, which is always important...
The games? We played 3 - "We are now not that strength" (Cthulhu), "The White God's Death" (Vampire) and "Villains, Villains, Villains" (sort of Pendragon).
"We Are Now Not That Strength" started in 1920's Turkey, on an archeological dig into an ancient Hittite city. Each of the character's was well thought out, with a lovely amount of paranoia for each, which makes for a good Cthulhu.
The plot was fun, and seemed to manage the difficult trick of being non-linear while still managing to be directed (keeping the balance between directing the characters too much, and boring the players is a difficult task, but one that has to be mastered to be a good convention GM).
Unfortunately it ended with the standard "someone summons something big that will destroy civilisation, so you have to stop them" ending that plagues Cthulhu, but even then it managed to be unusual.
"The White God's Death" boded well for a Vampire scenario. It was in an unusual setting for Kindred, pre-European Africa, and it didn't mention the word 'Sabbat' anywhere in the blurb.
The ST fully admitted that this was an undirected game, consisting of one event, then consequences of that event directed by the players.
Did this work? You bet. The characters were of such quality that it was simple to take on their actions, and the GM of such quality that the scenario really came alive.
One of the unusual things was that we knew nothing of Kindred society, so the usual fight over who gets to Diablerise the annoying PC didn't break out at all (although one brief squabble fairly much emphasized the benefits of Celerity).
If you see another Vampire session written at a Con by Marc Rudley(sp?), and Vampire is your thing - do it. This was a really good scenario.
"Villains, Villains, Villains". In the words of Dark Helmet "Evil will always win over good, because good is dumb." And that's the premise of this scenario. Have you always wondered why Evil loses when Good is outclassed, out-numbered and out-styled?
Well, this scenario gave you the chance to play Evil, and to finally nail one against your foes. Or nail them to each other, as the case may be.
Of the 8 or so PCs you could choose, our group consisted of Captain Hook, Edmund Blackadder (1st series), Ming the Merciless (the Queen-soundtracked movie one) and the Sheriff of Nottingham (from the Prince of Thieves movie).
As you can probably tell, this is not a very serious game. We had a ball, as did everyone else who played it. The most amusing group we heard of ended up with Blackadder running off and settling down with a very attractive male NPC, but everyone hammed it up all the way through.
In the end, I'd definitely recommend BigCon to anyone who was thinking of going. The first Con of the year, it sets the tone beautifully for ConQuest, Arcanacon and Capricon.