Thursday, January 6, 2011

What Should I Run At Orccon? Four Possible Scenarios.

Orccon -  one of the biggest gaming conventions in Southern California - is coming up next month in Los Angeles. I’d like to run a game or two, but I’m being indecisive about what to go with. Below I briefly describe four scenarios that tickle my fancy. What do you all think sounds most fun? I’m interested in everyone’s opinions, but I’ll pay special attention to people who might actually attend the con and play in a session. I’d probably run a morning or afternoon session on Saturday or Sunday.

Here are my favorite possibilities. They are all originals except for #1:

1. First Fantasy Campaign’s Blackmoor Dungeon – Original D&D: Go for the gold and glory in the very first dungeon adventure ever created! Travel in the footsteps of the original fantasy roleplayers while spelunking in Dave Arneson’s original Blackmoor dungeon. This game will be based on the original maps and room descriptions generated by Arneson himself. This is where it all started.

2. Mutants of Metal Meet Ratt Punx - Gamma World (First Edition): Your traveling band of mutated metalheads has set up shop in an idyllic island village. One day a mysterious conglomeration of rickety boats bearing a clan of Ratt Punx appears at the harbor. You soon discover that, for unknown reasons, the Punx are systematically getting the local island kids addicted to radioactive cough medicine. Can your band join forces with the angry moms of the island to free the children from the Punx scourge, and to send the children down the righteous metal path?

3. Asteroid Crypts of the Xylbocx Starcult - Classic D&D + Spelljammer: Your group has uncovered a lost text originating from the ancient Xylbocx Starcult. This document contains remarkable instructions for constructing a spacefaring wizardship and for navigating it to a bizarre orbiting asteroid. Can further secrets pertaining to spacefaring and the fate of the starcult be found on - or within - this silent orbiting mass?

4. Horror in the Cloud Mines – Classic D&D: There is a vale, secret and narrow, where trapped and aged clouds live and breath as if they were alive. A century ago these clouds were quietly mined for precious and otherworldly minerals until a mysterious disaster occurred and the vale was sealed by command of the old king. Your party has learned of the location of this vale and senses a chance to achieve extreme wealth. When you enter the cloud mines will you find forgotten deposits of polychromatic cumulonimbical crystals, or will you find madness and death?

20 comments:

  1. I'm feeling the first one, but then I've always wanted to run around in Blackmoor.

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  2. I think number two and four sound very fun however I will not be able to attend a con in cali this year so take my advice for what it is worth. Great originals!

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  3. I think #1 will catch a lot of people's attention and might get a decent turnout.

    If I were attending, I'd want to play in #3, since I've never experienced the wonder of Spelljammer and I think you could do it justice.

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  4. Radio active cold medicine, or where it all started? Well, that's a tough one. Being a newb, I'd have to go with the first one. Although, if I were more experienced, I'd go with number 4. Those clouds intrigue me, the most.

    Thanks for coming by my blog and joining. Great to meet you. Happy Gaming and of course ... Happy Eating.

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  5. I am on the other side of the world, but for what it's worth, my vote is unquestionably Spelljammer.

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  6. 3,2,4,1, and they are all full of so much WIN that it's actually depressing to read/know that I'm thousands of miles away from something this awesome.

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  7. If I were a conference-goer I'd jump all over #1, but #3 sounds really neat too.

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  8. Too many good ideas. I'm torn on the cloud mines and the spacefaring wizardship to orbiting asteroid.

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  9. I would say 2 and 3 because I´m quite interested for strange scenarios that I have never played, but the 1 and 4 are a very nice options if you are into classics I would like to give a chance to than.
    I will not go to the convention, sad but I am from Brazil and tha would be hard for me. :D

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  10. If #2 is a continuation of that utterly, wonderfully, mad Gamma World game you ran (http://cyclopeatron.blogspot.com/2010/08/heavy-metalocalypse-in-gamma-world.html) (the one in the favorite post section in case I mistyped the link), then I'd vote for it. On the other hand all of them sound good, so...

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  11. I might be there, Cyclo. There is a good possibility. If I could play, I'd love to be in on #3, or also #1.

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  12. Bob, I'd come to play whatever. As DM and player, you know I'm rock solid despite my infamous bad experiences going outside my own group locally. Pen me in for the game and I'll have a reason to go to this con.

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  13. Shoots and Ladders, man! Run shoots and Ladders! Why doesn't anyone ever run Shoots and Ladders anymore? It's a great game.

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  14. Oh, by the way, I won't be there, so I'm not sure if you still want to count that vote or not.

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  15. #3: Spelljammer is never the wrong answer.

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  16. Wow! Thanks for the comments everyone!

    A quick count of votes (counting the top two choices if people gave ordered preferences) is:

    Blackmoor: 4
    Gamma Metal: 5
    Xylbocx Starcult: 10
    Cloud Mines: 3

    I'll definitely run the Spelljammer session, then. (I'm also signed up to run Xylbocx Starcult at the North Texas RPG Con this summer, by the way.) I'll try to make a few posts in the near future covering the scenario and also describing how I am adapting Spelljammer to classic D&D.

    I'm not sure yet if I want to try to run a second session at Orccon. If you run TWO games you get a full pass for free. If I ran a second game I'd probably go for the Blackmoor Dungeon. I've run Gamma World at the last couple cons, and I'm keen to run a classic OD&D scenario.

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