random incoherence and infantile meanderings

Saturday morning @lordwardious and I went up to Greenfield for our first JiffyCon. Being the shy and reticent types that we are, we left really early so we could get there before the crowds. This allowed us to be the lobster in the boiling pot.

Well, that’s the fiction of it. We just misunderestimatatorized how long it would take to get there and ended up arriving a half hour early. That was cool because it did allow us to be the lobster. And we got to help set up the tables and chairs.

I like pretending that I’m useful, on occasion.

Another nice side effect of getting there before the rest of the crowd (perhaps 50 men, women, and children) was that when I saw a young man applying his name tag and I shockingly recognized his name, it was still quiet enough for me to actually talk to @tresi. I’d just run into him the other day because @stingray02 was trying to find some oddly particular information and while I failed to find what he needed, Tresi got it. So, speaking to him was very cool.

After we registered, Ward and I tried to decide what table we wanted to sit in on and I was leaning towards the paranoia game, but there was only one seat left and I would have felt bad if I ditched Ward, so I tried to push it on him. He was having none of my conniving ways. There were plenty of seats for Tales of the Fisherman’s Wife, but that one scares me. I’d want to sit far away and watch it carefully, to see if it bites, before attempting to participate. We ended up going with Mist-Robed Gate. Why? Well, because it sounded interesting and non-threatening.

That’s a good start, right?

Then I saw the Brilliant Gameologists and did my best impression of not staring. And not going “Hey I know you, I listened to all of the shows that you did months ago and I’m sorry about your dog and when are you coming back and I love what opinionated assholes you three are please don’t ever change that I said that first on your blog posting when someone made Josh say he was sorry for being an asshole and …” Yeah, I didn’t do that.

Ward pointed out that guy setting up milk crates of RP goodness was Jim, from the FLCBS Modern Myths. Considering the extensive selection of local/indie/story/small press games he had out, I am now interested in going to check out the shop. I know, I know, support the locals.

But see, they don’t support me. I’m a very proud third shifter. I work and live at night. I want to go to the comic book store and select comics and games and dice on MY schedule. And I do. At SciFiGenre.com. Not at any of the local FLCBSs. Because they all keep insane hours like 11am to 7pm. Also known as “when I am in bed!”

I think that deserves a second exclamation mark.  !! There, I feel (like, totally) vindicated now.

In an interesting turn of events it turned out that Jim was going to be the one presenting our game of Mist-Robed Gate. At our table were Matt, Chris, Elizabeth, Ward, the game’s creator Shreyas Sampat, and I. Wow! I’m not going to go into a full on blow by blow of the game (yet) but I do want to say that I had a lot of fun even though it wasn’t until yesterday that I finally realized why I (really) had a hard time playing MRG. And it wasn’t the reason I thought while sitting at the table, which is to say that I thought my problem was that I was having a hard time “controlling” the other peoples characters. I mean, that was a part of it, but not really.

Sadly, I am pretty sure I drug the game down a bit of the other players, just be being so stiff and uncomfortable. I really had a great time watching the others interact and invent, but kept freezing up on when I tried to interact. Of course, the third shift thing was kicking my butt too. Hard to be wildly fun while also trying not to nod off onto the table top.

We ended up leaving after the morning session, primarily because there is no way I could have handled making it past the 1pm ending of morning session.

All in all, it was pretty much everything that I had hoped for and my nervous “oh-my-god-real-physical-human-peoples” was laid to rest very early on. I hope that we can make it out the next time there is a JiffyCon in Western Mass.

Oh, and Robert Bohl was there. I had been intending to check out either shock or his Misspent Youth (I think I got that title right) but both were on the afternoon schedule. Next time! (Rob is scary looking. I didn’t say hi to him either. Hi Rob!)

I love the theory of crafting good role-playing games, but the stories that come out of a good RPG campaign are even greater. ChattyDM has a bit to say about both in a recent posting.

Still, when he grasped his sword, a foul looking evil piece of death-dealing, he realized that he was reconnecting with a lost part of his soul.

I really enjoyed reading about the adventure his players had gone through. I got quite a thrill reading about it.

Even better, practically speaking, is how he dissects the session afterwards. I think the one that I most need to keep in the back of my mind is this ::

Never isolate a player, even if the story calls for it. Give them atrocious choices, screw around with their background and belief, but don’t make them the enemy of the rest of your world just because ‘the story logically needs to go there.