I've been quiet on this forum due to work and writing commitments elsewhere, however I have been running (or at least trying to run) Dresden at the Cons team 8 support.
The first con was CONQUEST in derby - which is the local con for us. Morning I ran Laundry, afternoon I was down to run Dresden Files. I had prepared a Hangover City adventure : two tribes - a Chest deep level game. However I had only one player come start time, so though we had a really good chat the game did not run.
This was nothing to do with Dresden. Very few of the afternoon games ran at Conquest. Sadly the traders were limited, and the main trader had only brought old stock and none of the new games people wanted to buy. As a result the end of the morning game session saw a mass exodus to the nearest Game shop in Burton, which was over half an hour away. As lunch as only 1 hour there was no way they could get back for the afternoon slot and so there were very few players around
- Not to con organisers. Make sure your traders bring stuff with them that the players want to buy!
Fortunately UK games expo is a much bigger deal and there were no similar problems. Also Expo pre sells slots for the RPG sessions so I knew I had 6 players for the game almost a month before the con. I prepared Hangover city : War - which is a submerged level game.
As it was on the day only 4 of the 6 booked in attended.
which was annoying becasue I knew form conversations with other people that there were players who wanted those seats and could not get a ticket. Also waiting for the 2 missing players threw me a bit and the opening introduction could have been handled better. I use the last step of character generation - the guest star slots an related Aspects- at the table so the players have a chance to personalise their character and get to know each other better. This proved too mentally taxing for 3:30 pm in a room where the air conditioning had failed on the hottest day Birmingham has had this year!
However once they got going the players proved to be remarkably effective. The characters are dragged in because one of the councils minions that does predictive magic has a bad feeling, and there is something going on in clubland that the white court don't know about; which is making Ream uncomfortable. Using an ingenuous combination of magic and foot work the PCs managed to determine 2 locations related to the problem.
The first site they checked out was a disused tower block near Sefton Park. The scouted it and found the place was surprisingly empty - (None of the mortal rough sleepers that would be usual for the city) - and that the upper floors were being prepared for a Rave. They realised that there was nothing going on there yet; but the top floor of a disused tower block is a strange place to hold a rave unless you intend to open a gate to the Never Never where that would be ground level.... The Wizard started getting very worried - especially as the 'notice me not' field around the building that was keeping away the rough sleeper was clearly not 'his type of magic'
On the way to check out the other site identified by the spell they were stopped by one of the breed members who needed their help; he had a fully transformed Ogre fitting on the floor of the student digs. The ogre had been a changeling that had been no where near close to becoming fay only a few hours before. They managed to contain the ogre by the true shape shifter turning himself into a living straight jacket - and then the wizard blew up a near by water main as cover for their escape. They found drugs that the ogre had clearly taken just before he changed, but had to leave all that with Ream to be analysed.
Next stop was the other site - a disused terrace of victorian houses on edge hill. Sneaking in they discovered boxed of the flyers for the rave in one room, and a smell of chemicals coming form the other end. Exploring they found they were ina drugs den creating the drug that had made the ogre transform. (though the didn't know that for definite yet) There were 3 Bootle lads brewing the chemicals and a man with a welsh accent telling them what to do.
They managed to capture the welsh man, but in the struggle Thais was injected with the drug - fortunately being a 'living art work' all it did was make him very very high and he turn into a lava lamp; dissolved and sank into the floor boards.(Taking the compel fate points with him.....) The Wear bear restrained the welshman and the wizard set up a zone of silence. Unfortunately his control roll could have been better and he managed to gag himself. So he was miming the questions so the elf and the wear bear could ask them. (the PC was writing them down - but Thais had stolen his characters pen!)
They were able to determine that the guy had been subject to domination magic - and he was given the formula for the drug by a man he called 'The Black Man' who he met in chester.
It was about at this point that Thais finally worked out that he was meant to be solid and doing something and not floating around as a gas in the interesting chemical fog coming off the drug manufacturing process - resulting in him falling out of thin air in front of the Scousers brewing the drugs. - as 3 guns pointed at him demanding to know where he came from - all he could say was "the sky man!". He managed to use the mazed pen as a projectile to knock cover some retort stands and in the confusion escaped.
The zone of silence came down to the sound of running feet, shouting and off gun shot upstairs so the PC's legged it. Only the way out the wizard set off a fire ball (one of his rotes) and the whole place blew up.
They reported back to Ream, and did briefly check out Chester but but owing to lack of time (and not wanting the car to be locked in the car park over night leaving us no way home!) I had to wrap up there. The Players cunning plans stopped the actual show down I had planed before it started! But the important thing was they had prevented the rave happening - and lots of unwitting 'lost' supernatural who though they were mortal being forcible transformed into their supernatural shape and then kidnapped into the never never.... Sadly the PC's dont know how crucial their actions were in protecting the city so they will never get the praise they should deserve! May be next time...
On the drive back I realised that this was probably part one of "war" with part 2 being tracking down the Black Man. May look at running that at Dragonmeet: provisional title being "Kill the Pain" (Hangover city adventures are named after 'Frankie goes to Hollywood' tracks) especially as the game did not run exactly as planned due to the lower number of players.
I also ran Laundry and Shattered Realities games at expo. They all ran well. Expo is a great con with a lot of players who are really up for something different and are out to have a good time.
