Morgan's BigBadCon 2023 Adventures

I had a good time except one of the games I signed up for, I got gatekeepered by the GM and was strongly asked to give up my seat. That pissed me off because I used one of my rare signups to get into that game and by the time I got kicked out of the game, all the other games I was interested in were filled up. 

BigBadCon required proof of vaccination (you flashed your card, but they didn't verify who I said I was), negative Covid test (honor system), and masks. I did appreciate that there were free KN-95 masks and free Covid test kits. I haven't caught Covid yet and don't want to. I had avoided gaming conventions for the last several years. I do know that due to a vocal few who protested conventions that required vaccinations and masks that some upcoming conventions had decided to remove all restrictions and only rely on fed, state, and local restrictions. I wore a mask most of the time (3 days in a row) except when I was drinking and eating either alone or a distance from people. Wearing a mask and playing and running games wasn't much of a problem. Now I wonder why it is such an issue. It wasn't much of a burden. I'd rather wear a mask all day vs catching Covid. BTW, a new strain of Covid was spiking in the Bay Area.

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9/29 Fri 9am-1pm (4 hrs)

Galadriel's Fellowship

System: Savage Worlds

GM: Hanju Kim

5 Players (3 of 5): David J (Dusan-buri-Ghân), Toby S (Peregrin Took), Morgan Hua (Amrothos)

Attendee/Player Age: 18+

Safety Tools: Open Door Policy

Characters: Provided

From across the free lands of Middle Earth, you have gathered to Lothlórien. There, it is said, a fellowship is being formed to resist the Dark Lord whose forces threaten the land. Lady Galadriel needs those with pure heart and gallant spirit for the task.

This game is an alternate history of Middle Earth - one where the fellowship formed at Rivendell was broken as it left the Mines of Moria. After Merry was struck by an orcish arrow while leaving, they struggled vainly to save his life and were overtaken by orcs at night. Those who survived came through wounded and grief-stricken. In sympathy, Galadriel steps up and gathers heroes from across the land.

This is an action-filled and dramatic game about a new set of characters trying to bring the One Ring into Mordor, distinct from the originals. It mixes cinematic action and soulful drama.

See the player doc here with character overviews:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ilP3zn8AY2LeqclJKjHmaG8OyTMMs4sFJlKtsNMN4F0/edit

Basically, it is what it is. This is the LotR alternate history edition. I think I was the least knowledgeable at the gaming table. I've only read The Hobbit and The LotR trilogy and seen the movies, including the extended editions. Toby was able to distinguish between book and movie differences and asked what was true in this world.

We were short 2 players and our group lacked in fire power, so most of the time we did a lot of fleeing and hiding. But in the end, we did drop that ring into the volcano.

Unfortunately, most of the beats were predictable, but afterwards, the GM said that the path we could take to Mordor and through Mordor depended on which PCs we picked, based on their local knowledge. Our group stuck too closely to the movies. So, we didn't get enough surprises nor new wonders.

I'm not sure running the B-Team into Mordor was the best scenario idea. I think a totally different mission would have been more interesting.

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So, we took an Elven boat/canoe down the river, hiding from Orcs, using branches as camouflage to hide us and make the boat look like floating refuse. At one point, we realized we were being followed, we saw a specific tree trunk several times. So, we unmoored it the next morning before heading on our way. At one point, we captured Gollum and made him lead our way into Mordor. Once reformed, we called him Smeagol.

The only surprising and fun bit was when our ring bearer, Peregrin, went AWOL to look at the Oliphants when we were outside the gates of Mordor.

We took the Stairs of Cirith Ungol, where Peregrin accidentally put on the ring at the top and alerted a Ring Wraith. We fled into tunnels and ran into Shelob. Ran some more and we disguised ourselves as Orcs and entered lava tubes to get into the heart of Mount Doom.

Dusan-buri-Ghân did a last stand against some trolls as Amrothos grabbed Peregrin and carried him toward the lava. Peregrin refused to destroy the ring and wanted to go back and save Dusan. Amrothos grabbed the ring and tried to destroy it. Peregrin and Smeagol tackled Amrothos and after an extended fight, Amrothos was able to crawl to the lava and shove his hand into it.

Peregrin and Smeagol dragged Amrothos' badly burned, but still alive body, out and Eagles came to medivac the surviving heroes to safety.

Eventually Peregrin and Smeagol went across the Western Sea as previous ring bearers.

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9/29 Fri 2-6pm (4 hrs)

Sorrow in Tsavo

System: Call of Cthulhu 7e

GM: Bridgett Jeffries

6 Players: Isaac C, Laura B, Matt C, Ryshili, Zack H, Morgan Hua.

Attendee/Player Age: 18+

Safety Tools: X-card, Other

Characters: Provided

Tsavo translates to "a place of slaughter." Welcome to 1898 Kenya. The British are building a railway bridge over the River Tsavo to solidify their position of trade and wealth in the region. The Investigators serve as leaders to the project. In addition to social dissonance and illness within the camp, a pair of man-eating lions known as "The Ghost" and "The Darkness" are stalking and brutally killing members of the construction crew. Gold Bestselling Scenario on the Miskatonic Repository.

Content Advisory! Slavery, torture, body horror, gore

I played Bridgett's Project P.A.W. in 2021 and had a fun time. So I wanted to try out her version of The Ghost and the Darkness and meet her in person.

Bridgett has loads of enthusiasm and is a great cheerleader for the Players. In this scenario, I thought the PCs and NPCs were well designed and the scenario serviceable. I had fun and was not disappointed. 

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The PCs are a variety of leaders on the railroad bridge project: Project Leader, Engineer, Doctor, Police Chief, Head of Labor, Big Game Hunter.

The game starts with a staff meeting and malaria and morale issues due to the lion attacks are brought up and action items are approved. I was Police Chief and one of my chief concerns was the low morale and defections of workers fleeing the worksite.

I recommend that the Big Game Hunter make a demonstration to show her prowess. We call an all hands meeting. We placed a can of tomatoes at 300 feet and she blows it away with her elephant gun. After that impressive demonstration, morale was boosted.

Investigations reveal where the malaria is coming from. Also the lions are of incredible size. That something is firing giant poison quills en masse that somehow make those hit hallucinate and become docile.

Following the missing workers leads us to an oasis and a creepy-otherworldly boab tree. The lions with poison quills are there too. The PCs who see this barely escape.

Back at the camp, a wealthy white slaver shows up, trying to sell a body. After a confrontation, we learn that beneath the boab tree is a cavern where the missing people are feeding the boab tree with their essence.

That evening, the two lions attack the camp. We get lucky and the Hunter one-shots one of the lions with an elephant gun. I one-shot the other lion with a Winchester rifle.

PCs enter the boab tree and plant explosives inside and out. I was able to save 4 prisoners from beneath the tree. We blew it up.

The plot is fairly straightforward.

I think the best parts of the game are PC interactions. Friction between the PCs and conflicting agendas made the game interesting.

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9/29 Fri 8pm-Midnight (4 hrs)

Green Knight: Quest for Honor

System: Green Knight

GM: Robert G. Reeve

5 Players: Alandra H, Arthur G, Brian V, Gabriel F, Morgan Hua

Attendee/Player Age: 13+

Safety Tools: X-card,Lines/Veils,Cut/Brake,Open Door Policy, Script Change

Characters: Created at the table

The official RPG of the A24 film, where occult folklore and uncanny forces become more real the farther you stray from the castle. A knight, sorcerer, hunter, bard, and noble must decide between virtue and vice, between honor and dishonor.

I had never heard of this game, so I googled it and decided I really wanted to give this a try.

One funny thing, one of the reviews complained about how in each scene, the result of choices didn't make any sense and you'd get punished for things or rewarded in a very unfair or caprice way. Others mentioned it was worth playing, but it was like a murder mystery, there's no replayability.

I've played King Arthur Pendragon, read Mallory, am versed in Fairy Tales and Fables. I figured, I had a better chance of puzzling out the given scenes. I was right.

What's interesting about the system is it's sort of a pick your own adventure, but round robins through the PCs via an initiative roll. So, if the first PC decides a course of action, the whole party is taken down that path. The action is resolved and story text is read. Then the next PC determines what to do next. So, the first PC to act completely sets the tone and thrust of the encounter.

I really enjoyed the game and it was worth staying up past my bedtime to play (and an unexpected freeway shutdown and detour on my way home that night).

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I think the issue is that old stories are episodic and there is no throughline through the stories. In the game, you run into 3 set pieces and then the final encounter with The Green Knight. Each set piece is a test of a person's honor. For my character, the Knight, I did what I thought was right and actually, almost everything turned out as I expected.

The only scene where I thought I screwed up was when a whole bunch of ghosts showed up, but in the end, my choice was correct. 

Those that approached the set pieces as D&D where you kill things and take their stuff, you get punished. What else do you expect? So, I think that's were some reviewers were confused, they didn't understand the genre.

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9/30 Sat 9am-1pm (4 hrs)

An Amaranthine Desire

System: Call of Cthulhu 7e

GM: Morgan Hua

5 Players: Anne H, Heath B, Jason M, James T, Steven K

Attendee/Player Age: 13+

Safety Tools: Lines/Veils, Open Door Policy

Characters: Provided

It is 1895, and on the English Suffolk coast a smuggling ship approaches the shore. Assisted by locals from the nearby village of Dunwich, the crew begins unloading its cargo as a storm grows around them. Dunwich used to be a thriving port, but much of the city was claimed by the sea hundreds of years ago. Now, all that remains is a shadow of its former self. In the darkness beneath the waves, a powerful force remains, keeping a shard of the past very much alive. The investigators, as the smugglers, find themselves entering an echo of the night that sealed the fate of the city. Pre-gens provided. Warning: The setting is actually pre-1895, so do not expect this to be Cthulhu Gaslight nor Cthulhu Regency.

I had a really good investigation table and had a good time. They uncovered every clue and aspect of the mystery. They solved this pretty well using a good combination of skills.

=== SPOILER SECTION START ===

This group and the two GenCon Online 2023 games I ran, took 3 iterations before solving the mystery. When I play tested it to make sure it fit in a 4 hour time slot that group also took 3 iterations.

I had a table with mostly veteran CoC Players and knew you had to ask NPC questions to get answers. And once you got an NPC to talk to you, you keep on asking questions until you're satisfied.

They used new iterations to inspect locations before they were burned and found that all trails led to Levett.

This group was very clever, they never met the Priestly Ghost and convinced all interested parties to leave Dunwich without the crown.

The first time anyone got hurt was when they jumped out of Levett's Manor's second story window and a PC fumbled and broke his ankle, causing all of the PCs to suffer the same fate. Oops. That iteration ended quickly as the city guards easily chased them down.

The next iteration, they put Levett's horse cart outside the window and used it to escape with Sarah.

2 PCs were lost to the void. 3 PCs survived.

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10/1 Sun 9am-1pm (4 hrs)

The Expanse RPG Intro

System: AGE System

GM: OnlyPlayWizards, John Bultena

5 Players: Eric D, Jason T, Peter P, Tezra R, Morgan Hua

Attendee/Player Age: 18+

Safety Tools: X-card, Lines/Veils

Characters: Provided

Based on the sci-fi novel series by James S.A. Corey, The Expanse is an extrapolation of humanity's progress towards the stars with a hard science twist. The Expanse Roleplaying Game utilizes Green Ronin Publishing's Adventure Game Engine (AGE) utilizing just 3D6.

This game will introduce players to the AGE system and the political intrigue as Earth, Mars, and the Belt strive to carve a place out in the Solar System and beyond. No experience necessary!

Shannon played in The Expanse in 2018 and told me he had a horrible time and had issues with the system. I love the TV series and because of that, I read all the books. I was actually able to get a ding-n-dent copy of the game for only $10, but haven't read it nor played it, so I was excited to try this out and see if it was as bad as Shannon said.

Well, I actually had a great time.

The GM has actual plays with guest stars from the actual TV series. But instead of reprising their TV characters, he wanted them to pick any character they wanted to play instead. His YouTube channel is here.

Years ago, Shannon ran Dragon Age for us which was the first AGE system. The Stunt die and lists of stunts were interesting at first because there were Social stunts in addition to combat stunts, but then we found out they were pretty limited and you generally use the same stunts over and over again. And when we reached 5th level, we got too powerful for the written scenarios and we easily defeated every encounter. At that point we put the game away.

For The Expanse, there were several pages of Stunts, but I saw the same issues. There's only a few Stunts per tier. The GM told us, he can take care of the Stunts for us. He basically interpreted and picked the Stunts for us and this sped up die rolls immensely and kept the flow of the game at a good pace. I think if we had to pause, ask the GM about each Stunt, and pick multiple things from the Stunt table, it would have killed the flow.

The Expanse has a Churn Tracker. It's reminiscent of 7th Sea's Death Spiral, except it's for the whole party. Each scene increments the tracker and every Fortune spend increments the tracker. At various points, a GM intrusion/twist happens. So, this Churn Tracker serves the same purpose as Mödipius's Momentum and Doom in their 2d20 system.

I mentioned Shannon's experience years ago and the GM said that he was told of bad experiences by other Players during an earlier game at BigBadCon. He did say that he doesn't really run The Expanse RAW (Rules As Written) and that AGE shouldn't be run RAW.

The scenario was from the core book. The GM had 9 pregens, a variety of Earthers, Martians, and Belters.

My verdict? The Expanse works fine, but you need an experienced GM.

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The setting is Tyco Station years before the proto-molecule is discovered. Several people have disappeared from Tyco Station. The PCs are hired to find and retrieve them.

We wound up with: 1 Earther Executive (played by me), 2 Martians (1 security expert, 1 sciences), 2 Belters (1 laborer, 1 OPA fixer).

The PCs snooped around the station and hit their contacts for info. This of course drew the eyes of various factions. Coverups were uncovered and the PCs had to do various illegal things to accomplish their mission.

We wound up stealing a ship and assaulting an asteroid.

My PC had no combat skills. I was the Face character. At one point, the other PCs got in a bind, and I had to pick up a discarded rifle from the floor. I rolled a 16 (3d6) and blew one of the bad guys away. "Sweeet! This is so easy to use, you just point and shoot. I should invest money in this company!"

In the end, we brought back the two we were hired to find, one voluntarily (by me), the other not (by a Belter). Brought back various prisoners and other hostages, murdered some scientists (those Belters are murderhobos), and blew up the asteroid (Belters again).

My Executive got rewarded and bumped up his Income from 8 to 9. Sweet! (The other PCs had Incomes of 2 which were bumped up by one also 😊).

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10/1 2-6pm (4 hrs)

An Amaranthine Desire

System: Call of Cthulhu 7e

GM: Morgan Hua

5 Players: Chelsea, Ennio, Grace N, Matt C, Rachael G

Attendee/Player Age: 13+

Safety Tools: Lines/Veils, Open Door Policy

Characters: Provided

It is 1895, and on the English Suffolk coast a smuggling ship approaches the shore. Assisted by locals from the nearby village of Dunwich, the crew begins unloading its cargo as a storm grows around them. Dunwich used to be a thriving port, but much of the city was claimed by the sea hundreds of years ago. Now, all that remains is a shadow of its former self. In the darkness beneath the waves, a powerful force remains, keeping a shard of the past very much alive. The investigators, as the smugglers, find themselves entering an echo of the night that sealed the fate of the city. Pre-gens provided. Warning: The setting is actually pre-1895, so do not expect this to be Cthulhu Gaslight nor Cthulhu Regency.

I had a great group of role players, but a number were new to CoC. This group took longer to figure out the mystery, but brought up a lot of surprises for me and due to the roleplaying and banter, a humongous amount of fun. 

=== SPOILER SECTION START ===

This table only one veteran CoC Player, Matt, the rest were fairly new. I think the Players didn't know that if you got an NPC to talk, you should keep on asking questions until you run out of them. Several times, they would overhear an NPC, then ask one question, get their answer, and then just leave. And I'm sitting there with more clues. That's pretty funny.

They also did some unexpected things that the Players in the 4 other runs never did.

They panicked the village of Dunwich by accidentally making them think the French were attacking. They arrived at fairly late at the burned out windmill and when the communication problem hadn't been resolved yet, the French character tried French. The villagers fled back into the walled town and raised the alarm. This started a whole string of French invasion jokes.

They got a lucky break when they were fighting Hawkins who missed every attack and jumped out of the windmill's second story window to land in a handcart filled with twigs and hay, and escaped. So, the next time, they decided to move the handcart and then sneak up on him, but Hawkins wound up killing his attacker instead. So, then they moved the handcart and did exactly the same thing in the previous iteration, and he landed badly and broke his ankle, then they were able to capture and question him.

They never met the Coven of Witches. They never met the Ghostly Priest. In the end, they let Sarah take the crown.

This group took 4 iterations.

1 PC was lost to the void. 1 PC drowned. 3 survived.

After running this 5 times, I have a few suggestions for GMs running this in the future.
1. I looked up the kings and queens for 1287, 1895, 1753 and got pictures of period coins. The PCs coins should be accepted, but the locals would note their foreign make, but saying, "Silver is always welcome here." I always have an NPC, a gate guard or local, feel someone's shirt sleeve and ask if it's silk, mistaking the unknown fine weave for the foreign fabric which they have never seen before.
2. I got various pictures of The Three Crowns of East Anglia on buildings and stained glass windows. It should be commonly seen, so I never show them the pictures until they hear about The Three Crowns. Then I show them the pictures and tell them that you've heard the stories before, but never thought about them that much. Then I tell them the story.
3. Arson in 1287 requires pots of animal fat (tallow?) and dried rushes, twigs, or hay. Hawkins would require a handcart to bring all this material to the windmill.
4. I always mention the homespun quality of the local's clothing. The PCs clothing are mistaken for higher class foreign make. 
5. I don't do all the tests at the beginning of the scenario. I always just ask for one pilot boat roll to see if the rowboat over turns. Then a single swim roll, those that fail start drowning and must make a CON roll to avoid 1d4 damage. Then a rogue wave hits the shore and slam into the two PCs on the shore (I don't bother having them join the rowboats) and they have to make swim rolls also. Once everyone has done their rolls, I do the underwater bell ringing, then I drop them in the forest, dry and unhurt.
6. The Edge of the World tests are a cumbersome. I do a POW test and DEX test on failure to see if they let go, but didn't bother charging the MP cost (the first time I did, it didn't matter and there was excessive die rolling). I also limit the tries to save themselves by making the DEX test increasingly harder (regular, hard, extreme, impossible) each round they are untethered. If you do the increasing difficulty, then you probably don't even need to charge them MP. If you want to charge them MP, I'd go with 1d4/1d6 instead of the odd 1d4/1d4+1/1d4+2. Once through the void bubble, I drop them back into the sea. This time even further from the shore due to the additional erosion of the shore. I make them all make swim checks. If they fail their swim check, they must make a CON check or start drowning (1d4 damage). Once they start drowning, they continue to automatically take 1d4 damage until they succeed in a swim check. They just need to make one swim check to make it to shore.
7. As a kicker, once they get onshore, wet and cold, with a storm raging throwing lightning and thunder all over, they see some steady lights, more steady than gas light. And I describe the modern Ship's Inn with modern signage, plate glass, and materials. When they enter, the barkeep always says some pleasantry about it being nasty outside, "Hello, Come in out of that nasty weather," then turns to someone inside and comments, "Marge, I didn't know the Dickens Festival was here." And I tell them the year they've arrived in. "Welcome to 19xx."
8. I assume Dunwich's city walls were gone by 1895, either washed away or repurposed by the locals as stones for other buildings. I always bring up the gates and walls as unusual when the PCs see the burning windmill. I don't tell the PCs about the burning windmill directly, I always mention the glow in the sky as if there's a giant bonfire in the distance. Only when they want to detour to the fire do I show them the windmill picture and depending on their distance, the description of the villager's clothing.
9. During character selection, I always warn that the French PC would face a fair amount of discrimination. If the Player was ok with that, then they can pick the PC.

When I review all of Nameless Horrors, after I've run all the scenarios, I'll move the notes out of this section into that book review.

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