Game Storm

[lemming]

March 14-16, 2003, at the Doubletree Hotel Columbia River in Portland, Oregon

PDX Games

And despite the lack of Hero on the Schedule there's at least two Hero games scheduled.

Steve Long's and I'll be running something as well.

Depending on what's going on, maybe a pickup game or two can be squezed in.

[lemming]

Originally posted by lemming
Steve Long's and I'll be running something as well.

My game is listed finally. With cheesy description as well!

[Steve Long]

I will be running at least one game of Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth, a simple, relatively combat-oriented VIPER adventure that I often run at conventions. Those who play will get a sneak peek at some of the villains from the forthcoming VIPER book.

[Polaris]

Hiya,

How does someone join in one of the games?

Polaris

[Polaris]

I have not been to a gaming convention before. Is Hero games going to have a table, or is Steve going to be speaking about Hero games during the convention?

Polaris

[Cosmic Man]

Will "Sharper than a serpents tooth" be done with stock characters? Or are there parameters for people to build with hero designer?

[Steve Long]

Hero won't have a booth at GameStorm. I'm just there as a guest to participate in panels, run a game, and interact with the fans.

I'm sure that I could, if there's interest, set up a "Hero Dinner" or something where fans and I could hang out for a while and just talk Hero. Right now I'm scheduled to do a game Saturday morning (IIRC) and the following panels:

Fri 8 PM: New Editions Of Popular Games
Fri 9 PM: Modern and SciFi Games
Sat Noon: Working In The RPG Industry; Getting Published
Sat 2 PM: Game Design and Starting A Game Company
Sat 3 PM: Worldbuilding
Sat 4 PM: New Directions In Fantasy, Games, Literature

So, Saturday night might work well for a Hero get-together, if there's any interest.

[Steve Long]

Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth has pre-gens -- the Champions, to be specific. If there's one thing I've learned over the years, it's not to take time at a convention game for character gen, or to allow people to bring their own. It just doesn't work out.

[Derek Hiemforth]

Originally posted by Steve Long
If there's one thing I've learned over the years, it's not to take time at a convention game for character gen, or to allow people to bring their own. It just doesn't work out.

Amen, brother! Testify!

Heck, I not only want the characters pre-built, I'd prefer them to be characters that the players already know (from comics, or movies, or cartoons, or whatever) if at all possible.

And before you all think I'm just some grumpy control-freak GM, I should point out that I prefer this setup when I'm playing in convention games, too. I've had some really bad experiences where half the players brought reasonable, well-made characters that neatly fit the type of game being run... and spent the whole evening being shown up and run over by other players' wormy munchkinized Cheez Whiz characters that didn't fit the game at all.

[Cosmic Man]

*quietly shuffles his munchkinized processed cheeze food character to the bottom of the clipboard*

How could my life get more complicated?

Mom's birthday that weekend, LAN party, AND Gamestorm?

I'm going to be one tired critter on Monday.

[lemming]

Hmm, I'm of two minds when it comes to pregen characters. I'm fine with people bringing their own to my games as long as I do a quick review before hand. I'm seen lots of cheesy shticks so I got a pretty good detect. I also tend to have a supply of pregens available for those that need one or prefer to run one.

And I've run those characters that could run rampant over others, but unless someone is annoying me, I try not to run over the other player.

Oh, and I think they reshuffled my game to Friday as opposed to Saturday. Fine with me.

Steve, what type of dinner were you thinking?

Basic, foreign, etc... Gee, we could go to Waddles! Actual decent diner food, but the name cracks me up. There's a variety of good food in Portland except for Chinese. I'd suggest one of the Beer Pubs since the food is pretty good and the beer is very good in Portland.

[Derek Hiemforth]

Originally posted by lemming
I'm fine with people bringing their own to my games as long as I do a quick review before hand.

My concern is not for myself as a GM. I have no problem dealing with things that are a little out of line from what would truly fit, and I'm assertive enough to Just Say No and have them play a pregen if they're too far off the mark.

My concern is for the other players. Lemme give you a personal example... (This isn't aimed at you, lemming, 'cause I know you understand what I'm talking about since you make pregens available. I'm just illustrating what the situation can be like without pregens.

At DunDraCon a few years ago, I signed up for a Champions game set in Gotham City. The call was out for Caped Crusaders, in the mold of Silver Age Batman and Robin, to handle some problems in their absence. The power levels listed clearly marked it as a street-level Champions game... exceptional humans the order of the day.

I bring my character The Musketeer, an Elizabethan-English-spouting, rapier-wielding, masked hero of derring-do. His attacks and defenses were definitely on the low end of the range called for, which should have been fine, because his DEX and SPD were 26 and 6... quite good for a "street-level" character, and clearly on the high end of the range called for. Being quick and nimble is essentially his signature power, going first is essentially his offense (since his attacks are weak), and not being hit is essentially his defense (since his defenses are low).

There were 8 characters total. Of the other 7, 4 had the same SPD I did or higher, and I was going 5th out of 8 in the combat order with a 26 DEX. Every single character whose DEX and SPD were the same as mine or higher had clearly higher attacks and defenses than I did... in some cases obviously far beyond the power level guidelines the GM had specified in the program write-up.

In his defense, the GM did make some effort to encourage some of these folks to bring less powerful characters. However, the players of the two most powerful characters both replied, "This is the weakest character I have." So the GM let them play them, with a couple of modifications (which these players complained loudly about). I really have to wonder what he cut, because even after the modifications, they were clearly more powerful than any other characters in the group... vastly so in comparison to those who actually fit the guidelines (like The Musketeer and a couple of other players' heroes).

The two "problem" players also played together in the same gaming group outside the con, and during the game would literally scream over those of us trying to roleplay our characters with dialog and personalities, as they high-fived each other and boasted crudely about how they were "kicking ass" on everything. As anyone who's been in one of my Challenge of the Superfriends games knows, I don't have anything against a boisterous game. But It has its place, and there need to be chances for people to roleplay too.

Frankly, I was quite annoyed with the whole situation. Those are six hours of my life I'll never get back. These yahoos were so attached to their little pet monstrosities that they didn't care that they were ruining the game for the rest of us. And the GM didn't have pregens ready, and couldn't just refuse to let them play (they'd paid their admission to the con like everyone else), so these obviously powerful and obnoxious superhumans were allowed to run roughshod over our good little Caped Crusader-style characters that were supposedly what the story was all about.

Do I sound like I was angry? Good. I was.

And this isn't the only bad experience I've had with homemade characters in convention games. It's just the most recent.

Okay, I guess I've ranted enough. I just find -- whether as a player or a GM -- that it works better overall to be assured of the fact that all the characters' power levels will be well-matched against each other and the opposition, that the character backgrounds make sense with the story, etc. I solve the issue of players not being able to "get into" a character that someone else created by using characters whose personalities and powers are well-known already. But even in games where the pregens are original characters, I still think it makes everything go much more smoothly.

I'll go take my medicine now.

[Steve Long]

Steve, what type of dinner were you thinking?

Well, that really depends on two things:

1. How many people are interested and what they want to do. If there are lots of people, it might be best to stay near the hotel, or just eat there, to cut down on logistical problems and maximize chatting time. If we wanted to go somewheres, we might need to think about making reservations in advance, too, esp. for a large group -- and we'd need cars.

2. Convention events Saturday night. I wouldn't want to take people away from the charity auction (which in my experience is often held on Saturday nights at cons) or any other major event. That might impact scheduling, as well as peoples' desire to be involved. So, spread the word in the hopes we can make the dinner the Hero fans' event of choice for Saturday night (at least early Saturday night)!

Overall, I'd be fine with just getting a nice burger and a drink somewhere, or a pizza. If we went ethnic, my favorite is Mexican, but I'm fairly flexible. Just no sushi!

[lemming]

Originally posted by Derek Hiemforth
I'll go take my medicine now.

I think I've seen that behaviour before. Though to be truthful, I've run this one character in games where she was 300+ points higher than some others. Hopefully you were never inflicted with Ice Pirate. For a while I was just seeing how many games she could get into. She would be fine for a game at 700 points, while a character at 350 would be rejected. Though once in the game, I would try not to derail things too far. (As much as a goofy acting alien with no concept of property would...)

Actually, there's a decent chance of have been in games together at DunDraCon.

[lemming]

Originally posted by Steve Long
Well, that really depends on...

I don't know. There are a few places nearby in Jatzen Beach that could be walked to.

I don't know if there's going to be a charity auction or not, but it would be new since last year.

Looks like the schedule is more defined now as well. You're at Sunday 9am. Looks like no names are mentioned to protect the innocent.