GURPS at a con

[bloftin2]

I posted this on Facebook, but because I enjoyed this con so much, I want to post it here, to encourage anyone who is interested to come next year.


Yesterday I ran my first ever game at a con. I ran GURPS Cyberpunk at the North Texas RPG Con. It was the only GURPS even scheduled. I had 6 people sign up, 3 showed, and had a walk-on named Mike Kelly, from Fort Worth, who apparently is an RPG dude well known in this area. Nice guy. In fact, all my players were really great. Great roleplayers and nice people. I was kind of relieved to have 4 players rather than 6, as 6 is a lot for me to deal with in this particular game setting.

The Con has been really well-run. ALL RPGs. No cosplay, no actors, etc. 100% RPGs. So, so good. I very much recommend that anyone who's interested check it out next year. Here's the link to the Facebook page for the con. https://www.facebook.com/groups/310434204630/ . The convention hotel is very close to DFW Airport, which is a major hub, so getting here isn't very hard. Even flying Southwest to Love Field would be very easy on anyone traveling.

I'll be going back for a last game at the con in the morning, some classic Traveller. I was very happy that the organizers were open to having a GURPS event. My players were all interested in playing a genre that was somewhat unique, which of course is something GURPS excels at.

I really can't wait until next year. It was such a good experience. Next year I'll more GURPS Cyberpunk, and maybe some other genre as well.

[Boomerang]

If you want to play in these things can you generally just turn up on the day?

[Boomerang]

I forgot to say: sounds awesome. I wish I could have been there.

[Gollum]

Yes. It sounds awesome. Thanks to have shared that experience.

[bloftin2]

Originally Posted by Boomerang

If you want to play in these things can you generally just turn up on the day?

The spots in the games are reserved, but in my experience there are usually 1 or 2 no-shows and you can usually take those spots.

[Stripe]

Cool!

You ran Third Edition?

Tell us about the session and scenario. Did you write it and if so, what were your inspirations? Did it have a clear goal and if so what was it? Was there a lot of role playing or a lot of combat? Did you make pre-gen PC's for everyone? How did they pick or did you assign if so? Did you use props/maps/minis? How long was the session? Had the players played GURPS before? If not, how did they like the system?

[bloftin2]

Originally Posted by Stripe

Cool!

You ran Third Edition?

Tell us about the session and scenario. Did you write it and if so, what were your inspirations? Did it have a clear goal and if so what was it? Was there a lot of role playing or a lot of combat? Did you make pre-gen PC's for everyone? How did they pick or did you assign if so? Did you use props/maps/minis? How long was the session? Had the players played GURPS before? If not, how did they like the system?

The game was based on the first 3 sessions of my normal Cyberpunk campaign, with some of the funnest parts condensed of those sessions condensed into a 3.5 hour session. It was mission oriented. A team of local dirtbags in the Dallas megacity of 2067 are brought to together to retrieve a disappeared geneticist. The twist -- he has become compromised by a cyber cult, run by a mystic who believes in Cthulhu, and wants the geneticist to create a corporeal body resembling Cthulhu for his own mind to be transfered into. So it's kind of a surprise CthulhuPunk session. Lots of weirdness. Mostly roleplaying, skill use, clue finding. I don't think this group fired a shot until the end of the game. I used pregens, let the players decide if they were male or female, and gave them a space to tell me what the characters look like, what kind of quirks they have, etc. I think that helped them buy into the characters. I let 'em pick their characters. No miniatures - graph paper and pencil. 2 of the players had played GURPS before, long ago.

I'm using 4e. I used the Cyberpunk book for some things, UltraTEch 4e for other stuff.

One of the players was this guy Mike Kelly, from Fort Worth. Old time RPG guy. They all seemed to dig it, and Mike really liked it a lot, which was nice. He played an ex-pat Japanese sumo.

My game is based in future Texas. CyberTex. Gunsmoke meets Bladerunner with a little Lovecraft and Kolchak the Nightstalker mixed in. Lots of cowboy hats, Tejano, and Vietnamese stuff.

Besides having a good time, I wanted to expose some new people to GURPS. It was really fun.

[Stripe]

Cool, man. Very cool.

Thanks for all the info. Very interesting! Sounds like a good time and that you did a wonderful job!

[Dalin]

Originally Posted by bloftin2

My game is based in future Texas. CyberTex. Gunsmoke meets Bladerunner with a little Lovecraft and Kolchak the Nightstalker mixed in. Lots of cowboy hats, Tejano, and Vietnamese stuff.

Sounds amazing, and better than most con games I've attended. Great work!

[bloftin2]

Originally Posted by Dalin

Sounds amazing, and better than most con games I've attended. Great work!

That is very nice of you to say. I had only played in one game at a con before - in probably 1985. A Champions game at a con in Austin. I had high expectations, and really wanted to not just have a good time but learn something about the system and GMing. I was already pretty well-versed in Champions at that point. The game was horrible. Dude tried real hard - full propz for effort - but it was tough to sit through. I didn't want my players to go through that.

There were a few things I'd change about my game at this con if I could. I didn't get a chance to spring a few of the weird, Lovecraftian, fun things on 'em that I think they would have enjoyed. I tend to underestimate the time each scene will take. I wrote the game in 5 scenes, had to dump 2 of them. It was written to make this possible, and it all made sense, but I'm seeing both at home and at cons, each of my scenes seems to take about an hour to play, once you add in roleplaying, thinking about things, clue finding, etc. My voice was giving out, and I just needed to speed things along. I feel like 3 hours is a good length for a game like this. Anyway. Lessons learned. Next time it will be even better.