Origins 2004

Late, as always, but here it is: my report on this years Origins.

The Trip

As we did last year we made the drive from Maryland to Columbus in two parts. This year we had passengers, however. Philip attended the con with us. Passenger #2 was my son Dylan who was only along for the ride.

This year's trip was rendered much less enjoyable by the fact that Lori and I both had the plague. I'm still not sure what it was -- she brought it back from Chicago the week before -- but it was nasty.

Hotel, etc.

This year we stayed in the Hyatt which is attached to the convention center. Much, much better than last year's stay. I think we'll plan to stay there again next year. It's just too damned convenient. I wish it had in-room internet access, but I survived without it.

One thing I found very useful was that the coffee bar on the ground floor of the convention center is now an Internet Cafe. Meaning that they have a bunch of computers and you can use them to browse the web, etc. Not as good as in-room WiFi access, but it beats not being able to check your email for a week.

The Flock

Lori had to run most of it with me croaking encouragement

Our first event was at noon on Thursday, the first of two sessions of our Buffy scenario, "The Flock." Things went smashingly well, from bad-girl slayer Faith stalking the rest of the Scooby gang to Oz grabbing a sword, running up to the big-bad and yelling "All Out Defense!" Our Giles had incredible skill at glasses polishing, as well.

We ran "The Flock" again on Saturday, by which time I could barely talk. Lori had to run most of it with me croaking encouragement and suggestions as we went. Unlike our first session this group were all fairly new to the BtVS RPG. That didn't stop them from pulling off some pretty amazing stunts including killing the bad guy with a thrown sword.

Death on a Major Scale

demon graffiti, vampire vandalism, and a certain chaos mage causing, well, chaos

This was the first real running of our Buffy LARP. (We previously ran it at a small con with only 12 out of 30 roles filled.) We were a little nervous because a) we only had about 8 people sign up during pre-reg and b) there were loads of other LARPs on Friday night. As it turned out there was no need to fret -- we ended up with over 20 players, more than enough to make things interesting.

Todd's LARPs generally appeal best to people who do table-top RPGs rather than to the traditional LARP crowd. That worked well with our eclectic mix of players, most of whom had some experience with the RPG. We also had a healthy dose of people who just liked Buffy and decided to give this LARP thing a try. I think that almost everyone had a blast. (There was one guy who got talked into the whole thing by some friends; he didn't seem to get into it.)

We had some great moments including some demon graffiti, vampire vandalism, and a certain chaos mage causing, well, chaos.

The Games

My overall convention this year was somewhat disappointing due in large part to the fact that I only manged to get into 4 games. They were all Call of Cthulhu, so that makes it better than Gencon where I'm slotted for 5 events only one of which is CoC.

I played in 3 Rogue Cthulhu games and 1 CoC session by an independent GM.

Born on the Bayou

"But rubbing SPAM in the wounds is just wrong!"

This was the only non-Rogue event I played in this year. It was so much fun I managed to die multiple times! In the first I gave my life (or what was left of it) such that others might live. The others... well, I just died.

I can't tell you WHY someone wanted to rub SPAM in someone else's wounds, but trust that it was hysterical

Mobsters

This Rogue adventure is closely related to another, "MONSTERS: The Other Side of the Mythos" which I did not play. While I had a good time in this game I did feel that there were some weaknesses that need to be corrected.

First, pacing is a problem. Since the game links up with the previously mentioned "MONSTERS" scenario there's some coordination that has to happen. In the early parts of our adventure I felt like there was a lot of filler -- stuff that we were doing that didn't really tie in to the adventure. Towards the end it felt a little rushed -- as if we were going to be late. Finally, our group "arrived" at the "linkage" point early and ended up with time to kill.

Second, I think there are some balance issues between the groups of PCs in the two scenarios. Once we got linked up I felt as if we (the mobsters) were seriously outgunned and overmatched. That's pretty typical in a Call of Cthuhu scenario; the problem here is that our opponents were other players, not just faceless minions of the Mythos. It probably didn't help that when I asked "Can I shoot him now, Mikey?" Mikey said "Do it, Tommy." Things got ugly after that. :)

No Blood for Oil

Why in hell am I always the radio guy?

This scenario followed immediately after my session of "Mobsters" and had many of the same players including the "Mikey" who had told Tommy it was okay to shoot.

This is a military scenario, not surprising given that the author, Dustin Huber, is an active-duty Captain in the US Army. For the beginning of the scenario he marched us all out into the hall, lined us up against the wall, and gave us a quick, crisp, military shouting -- make that briefing -- before handing out characters. I, of course, got the radio guy. Why in hell am I always the radio guy? If there's a military scenario and there's a radio guy in it -- I'm him. Don't know why, that's just how it happens.

We equipped our team then made a HALO (high altitude low opening) parachute jump behind enemy lines in Iraq. If you like high action, high violence CoC then this is your game. Lots of stuff to shoot at and blow up. Lots of ways to die. Good fun.

Mad Butcher

What do you do when you're walking along and your "borrowed" pants start ringing?

This is a split-part adventure and one of the best games I've played in a very long time. Without giving too much away let me say this: 1/2 of the group are law-enforcement types trying to sort out a copycat serial killer. The other half of the group are mental patients.

My character was seriously depraved -- mental patient, not law enforcement. It was a little uncomfortable at first, but I got into it as we went along. After the game, one of the other "patients" came up to me and said "You frighten me. Seriously." I'm not sure quite what she intended, but I took it as a compliment.

Without giving too much away, let me relate something that happened when I escaped. (Any time there are mental patients you just know they're going to escape, right?) Okay -- you're a guy who has never seen or heard of a cellphone. What do you do when you're walking along and your "borrowed" pants start ringing? You take them off, of course. Everyone seemed to be greatly amused by that.

As I said, this was by far the best adventure I've played in for quite some time. Yes, my character was a depraved sex pervert. Yes, he did some atrocious things when he got the opportunity. But man was it fun.