It's Day 30, the penultimate day of #RPGaDay ! And we should show a little "Pride" that we've made it this far.
We'll even go so far and used the Alternate Question: A game event that you are still proud of?
Now, I always go down the convention game rabbit hole, and I don't anticipate too much deviation, but Let's try a non-con game
"It's a Wonderful Reunion" Circa 1999 With the spring semester of college looming, I had split the group into gamers and non-gamers for the summer. About half the group got teleported to, and adventured in Talislanta for the summer, while a few of them still were stuck with some pretty horrible things back in town. And after a few sessions for the "homebodies" who survived everything, only to have the armed threat of foreclosure on their base of operations, the "Chateau" on the first day of Yule.
We met on the evening of move in day on campus, staffing with the dorm basement like improv theatre, some of the PCs with murder plots for the moneylender coming, while villagers, townsfolk, and their lost fellow adventurers made big reveals... only for the next person to make an appearance to prevent tying up loose ends. One of the least likely characters shows up with the gold to pay off the loan and save the Chateau, and there was artwork displaying a kobold Mariachi band.
That out of the way, let's cover my prideful moments after 35 years of running convention games.
"Scavenger Hunt" Circa 1996 A GURPS-IOU game at CoveCon, Blue Valley Farm Show Building, Bangor, Pennsylvania. This was the first con I ever helped run, and we.... broke even, to the penny!
The characters I put together were fantastic, my players were simply top-notch, and the looks on my friends faces as they ran their own games, watching the chaos descend, but all knew the students were close to obtaining the disco ball from the 1977 IOU Winter Social, only to face off against the Village People and their Disco Zombie minions.... culminating to when I played a Village People Greatest hits cassette as background music for the final combat.
It holds a dear place in my heart, but I kept no notes from the game, and every years, the memories get vaguer and vaguer.
Monster of the Week - Mepacon 41 - November 2021 - A game I actually PLAYED in! That weekend I had spent Friday and Saturday at Historicon in King of Prussia, playing and running wargames for the masses willing to leave their homes. I came home Saturday night so I could take my daughter to Mepacon, a mixed-game convention, since it was 20 minutes away. Mandatory masking AND proof of vaccination were annoying to hear other players on an active table, but otherwise understandable and tolerable.
I let Maja choose her game, and the only words I remember her describing it were "mature audience", "mystery", and "children's teeth." I thought the worst, but was relieved to find out it was Monster of the Week, and we were saving children from corrupted tooth fairies.
The game itself isn't too important, it's that, despite masking and other inconveniences, this was the first time we played together in a game as equals, rather than one of us as sidekicks. That itself warms a burnt out portion of this old man's heart.
My Little Pony - Mepacon 34-ish - November 2017 - COVID screwed up the numbering for the bi-annual convention, but there's a full write-up of the weekend here. With my daughters 8 and 6, my search for a good RPG for them was always in full effect. I had found a great game, My Little Pony: Tails of Equestria Storytelling Game and would run it every two hours when I could make it the Mepacon. Better yet, I allowed the kids to keep the pony they made at the table, and "level them up" each time they played at my table, be it that con, or a future one.
While most of my players were always kids, their parents, and two tolerable Bronies, things didn't escalate into awesomeness until the bro-nies showed up.
Brandon and Anthony were two college-age guys who had two open hours and signed up for the game, partly for fun, partly for the challenge.
Everyone was having a good time, but as the game progressed, it was obvious the young girl playing the pony Harmony was heading for direct show-down with the captain of the gnome legion. When that showdown took place, I expected her father on his feet, cheering her own, I expected the other kids, but the bros were the ones on their feet, standing on chairs, tossing Tokens of Friendship (think Savage World super-bennies) to improve her rolls every time she falter, cheering raucously with each success until the gnome legion was vanquished.
Kids get excited when they can play a game with their parents.
Parents are excited to play with their kids.
These two guys took that energy and ran with it.
Alternate Question: A game event that you are still proud of?
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