Orccon 2016 Self Review!
Feb 15, 2016 12:56:05 GMT -8
Post by Probie Tim on Feb 15, 2016 12:56:05 GMT -8
So, I ran "The Company of Several Dwarves", a Deluxe Tunnels & Trolls game, at 9:00AM on Saturday. It was teased thusly on the Strategicon site:
The adventure took place in one of the many kingdoms comprising the Land of Fairy Tale. The players took on the roles of MacFearg (Grumpy), MacLeigh (Doc), MacBalbh (Dopey), and MacCuth (Bashful). MacLeamh (Sleepy), MacTinn (Sneezy), and MacSasta (Happy) were all home sick. Incidentally, I got their names using Gaelic Irish translations of the original Disney dwarf names (shown in parenthesis) or an aspect of the Disney dwarf's character. I did not tell the players this.
Anyway, the Company took a job from an old, disheveled man named Marvolo. Marvolo claimed to have once been the prince of a powerful guild, until his rival kidnapped his daughter to insure Marvolo would step out of his way. Marvolo's rival put Marvolo's daughter into a magical sleep and secreted her in a far-away tower. According to Marvolo, his rival died before he could release Marvolo's daughter, and he's been searching for her every since. Recently, he finally found the tower. Thus, his hiring of the Company.
Marvolo informed the Company that the tower sat in the center of a magical forest. In the magical forest, the Company would have to get several fragments of the Princess Key from their guardians who live in the forest. When all the fragments were assembled, they'd be able to unlock Marvolo's daughter's cage and reunite Marvolo and his daughter. Marvolo decided to travel with the Company, but was too old to deal with the guardians.
So, off they went. The first guardian was an old, bizarre tinker lady with a huge backpack and tons of junk named Grummle; picture a cross between the Dark Crystal's Aughra, the similar creature from Labyrinth, and the grummies in World of Warcraft's Pandaria. The second was the big, bad wolf, styled after the worgen (also from World of Warcraft; say what you may, that game has great character designs). The third was a knight in shining armor, and the fourth was a dumb giant that yelled "FE FI FO FUM" a lot... all fairly typical fairy tale tropes. The guardians knew that they had the fragments, but they did not know what they were for or why they were there. They also would not ever willingly give the fragments away.
The twist of the game was that the princess was not actually Marvolo's daughter, and Marvolo was not actually her father. Marvolo was actually an insane cultist devoted to a Cthulhoid great old one/thing man was not meant to know, and the princess was that great old one/thing man was not meant to know. The "princess" had been imprisoned in the tower ages ago, to keep the Land of Fairy Tale safe. Anyone who knew the truth would not be able to use (or even touch) the fragments, and the guardians would recognize someone who knew the truth. Marvolo's plan was to go along with the Company to keep an eye on them and insure they didn't discover the truth, all the while hiding during the encounters with the guardians, claiming that he didn't want to be in the way and that someone had to be ready to go for help just in case.
With that out of the way, let's take a look at the system. Deluxe Tunnels & Trolls did not play as smoothly as I would have liked. For such a lightweight system it wound up being math-heavy (granted, basic math, but heavy none the less). The main non-combat mechanic was "subtract your attribute from 20 or 25 and roll greater than that on 2d6 with doubles adding and rolling over" which sounds easy, but is more cumbersome in practice. The main combat mechanic is "everyone rolls some number of d6's and adds in their characters modifiers, then everyone's rolls are totaled up and compared against the GM's rolls + modifiers, with the difference being applied to the side who had the smaller total as damage", which wound up taking more time than I would have preferred. While I really like dT&T, I doubt I'll be running it much any more. It was definitely a case of looking back at something through rose-tinted glasses.
Now let's look at the play and the players. I had Dave, Kurt, a kid whose name I don't remember, and Anna. They were... great. Very much in character, and a great time was had by all because they're such good players. They threw me for a loop first off by not convincing (by word or weapon) Grummle to hand over the fragment, but by asking her to come with them so that it never leaves her possession. I *had* to "yes, and" that because it was amazing. But that meant that Marvolo could never come out of hiding lest he blow his cover, and the players could not start suspecting that neither Marvolo nor the quest in-and-of-itself were up to snuff. So when the big "princess is actually a demon" reveal came at the end, it was nowhere near as impactful as I had hoped it would be. In retrospect, I probably should have had Marvolo following along from the shadows, trying to get the Company to take possession of the fragments and "dismiss" the guardians, but I didn't think that until earlier today.
They wound up convincing both Grummle and the knight in shining armor to join the Company, and killing off the big, bad wolf and the giant.
While most all convention games are usually on some amount of rails, I felt that this game was a bit more on rails than others. I don't know how I could have done it with smaller rails, though, since it really was a "go from one encounter to the next until the end" kind-of game.
All told, I give myself a 6/10 for system, a 7/10 for idea, an 8/10 for roleplaying (I really got into the NPCs, they were all super fun) and a 9/10 for players (which really has nothing to do with me in any way, heh.)
Anyone else want to do a self review of their game(s)?
Join the Company of Several Dwarves as they take part in the actual events from which the popular fairy tales "Snow White" and "Sleeping Beauty" originated. The Company is hired by a one-time prince of a powerful merchant guild who has finally located the tower in which his rival has kept his daughter in a magical sleep after kidnapping her several years ago. Will the Company reunite the old man and his daughter?
The adventure took place in one of the many kingdoms comprising the Land of Fairy Tale. The players took on the roles of MacFearg (Grumpy), MacLeigh (Doc), MacBalbh (Dopey), and MacCuth (Bashful). MacLeamh (Sleepy), MacTinn (Sneezy), and MacSasta (Happy) were all home sick. Incidentally, I got their names using Gaelic Irish translations of the original Disney dwarf names (shown in parenthesis) or an aspect of the Disney dwarf's character. I did not tell the players this.
Anyway, the Company took a job from an old, disheveled man named Marvolo. Marvolo claimed to have once been the prince of a powerful guild, until his rival kidnapped his daughter to insure Marvolo would step out of his way. Marvolo's rival put Marvolo's daughter into a magical sleep and secreted her in a far-away tower. According to Marvolo, his rival died before he could release Marvolo's daughter, and he's been searching for her every since. Recently, he finally found the tower. Thus, his hiring of the Company.
Marvolo informed the Company that the tower sat in the center of a magical forest. In the magical forest, the Company would have to get several fragments of the Princess Key from their guardians who live in the forest. When all the fragments were assembled, they'd be able to unlock Marvolo's daughter's cage and reunite Marvolo and his daughter. Marvolo decided to travel with the Company, but was too old to deal with the guardians.
So, off they went. The first guardian was an old, bizarre tinker lady with a huge backpack and tons of junk named Grummle; picture a cross between the Dark Crystal's Aughra, the similar creature from Labyrinth, and the grummies in World of Warcraft's Pandaria. The second was the big, bad wolf, styled after the worgen (also from World of Warcraft; say what you may, that game has great character designs). The third was a knight in shining armor, and the fourth was a dumb giant that yelled "FE FI FO FUM" a lot... all fairly typical fairy tale tropes. The guardians knew that they had the fragments, but they did not know what they were for or why they were there. They also would not ever willingly give the fragments away.
The twist of the game was that the princess was not actually Marvolo's daughter, and Marvolo was not actually her father. Marvolo was actually an insane cultist devoted to a Cthulhoid great old one/thing man was not meant to know, and the princess was that great old one/thing man was not meant to know. The "princess" had been imprisoned in the tower ages ago, to keep the Land of Fairy Tale safe. Anyone who knew the truth would not be able to use (or even touch) the fragments, and the guardians would recognize someone who knew the truth. Marvolo's plan was to go along with the Company to keep an eye on them and insure they didn't discover the truth, all the while hiding during the encounters with the guardians, claiming that he didn't want to be in the way and that someone had to be ready to go for help just in case.
With that out of the way, let's take a look at the system. Deluxe Tunnels & Trolls did not play as smoothly as I would have liked. For such a lightweight system it wound up being math-heavy (granted, basic math, but heavy none the less). The main non-combat mechanic was "subtract your attribute from 20 or 25 and roll greater than that on 2d6 with doubles adding and rolling over" which sounds easy, but is more cumbersome in practice. The main combat mechanic is "everyone rolls some number of d6's and adds in their characters modifiers, then everyone's rolls are totaled up and compared against the GM's rolls + modifiers, with the difference being applied to the side who had the smaller total as damage", which wound up taking more time than I would have preferred. While I really like dT&T, I doubt I'll be running it much any more. It was definitely a case of looking back at something through rose-tinted glasses.
Now let's look at the play and the players. I had Dave, Kurt, a kid whose name I don't remember, and Anna. They were... great. Very much in character, and a great time was had by all because they're such good players. They threw me for a loop first off by not convincing (by word or weapon) Grummle to hand over the fragment, but by asking her to come with them so that it never leaves her possession. I *had* to "yes, and" that because it was amazing. But that meant that Marvolo could never come out of hiding lest he blow his cover, and the players could not start suspecting that neither Marvolo nor the quest in-and-of-itself were up to snuff. So when the big "princess is actually a demon" reveal came at the end, it was nowhere near as impactful as I had hoped it would be. In retrospect, I probably should have had Marvolo following along from the shadows, trying to get the Company to take possession of the fragments and "dismiss" the guardians, but I didn't think that until earlier today.
They wound up convincing both Grummle and the knight in shining armor to join the Company, and killing off the big, bad wolf and the giant.
While most all convention games are usually on some amount of rails, I felt that this game was a bit more on rails than others. I don't know how I could have done it with smaller rails, though, since it really was a "go from one encounter to the next until the end" kind-of game.
All told, I give myself a 6/10 for system, a 7/10 for idea, an 8/10 for roleplaying (I really got into the NPCs, they were all super fun) and a 9/10 for players (which really has nothing to do with me in any way, heh.)
Anyone else want to do a self review of their game(s)?