Story Games Day in Denver
Come play Story Games together on Saturday, 14 November, from Noon to 9pm at Total Escape Games! This is the first major Story Games event we’ve held in the Metro Denver area outside of the conventions. Like the S-G Lounge, this will be a day of open Story Gaming where we’ll decide as a group what to play. There should be enough time for at least two “full-length” games and hopefully a handful of shorter ones.
Three different GMs/Facilitators have already volunteered and they’re bringing new games like “InSpectres”, “Zombie Cinema”, and “Dogs in the Vineyard”. Of course, we’ll still have games like “Primetime Adventures”, “In A Wicked Age”, and “Dirty Secrets” available.
I stopped by Total Escape Games this past week and talked to the owner, Steven, about the event. All of the gaming space will be dedicated to the Story Games Day, so we can run about three tables at the same time, maybe four if they are all small groups. They’ve got lots of whiteboards and markers, which is perfect for brainstorming together in games like PTA.
We’ll be using the Colorado Story Games Yahoo Group (see the sidebar) to coordinate. So please let me know there or contact me directly if you want to run something. I’d also like to know if you plan to attend too so I can get a rough idea of what to expect, but there’s no need to sign up for the event.
Social Networking UPDATE: This event is now listed on the Denver RPG Meetup Group and on Facebook!
Tacticon Wrap Up
Here’s a slide show of pictures taken in the lounge along with some explanation and witty comments.
We had a good time in the S-G Lounge at Tacticon 09 last weekend. Saturday afternoon was a bit slow, but other than that we had a games going the whole time. Here’s a list of what we played:
- Midnight Raid; A 1 hour game that I wrote. This was the first playtest and it went pretty well. I’ve got a lot of notes and I’m excited to revise the game and play it again!
- Orcology (15 minute game): This is becoming a favorite among the short-form games. We had a blast and some very…um…interesting things came out of it.
- Primetime Adventures: I wasn’t completely sold on the Steam Punk Scientists Fighting Horrors concept, but the characters worked well together and won me over.
- A Penny For My Thoughts: My first time playing the finished version of the game, which worked quite well. We played a Cthulhu-themed version, but we didn’t get to finish.
- Mundus (15 minute game): I’m starting to think that 15 minutes is too long for this game, but it’s a good warm up for scifi-themed gaming.
- In A Wicked Age: We used the “Heavy Metal: SciFi Wasteland” Oracle. We made a really cool setting and great characters. There were some conceptual problems for the new players and it was kinda late in the day which didn’t help. But we worked through it and it turned out well.
- A Saturday in Hell: This is a less-than-15-minute game that I wrote. I played it too this time. It works well and I think all enjoyed it. I really want to run it with a group of over-aggressive players to see what happens.
- With Great Power…: We played for 7 hours and finished the whole story arc!!! That’s one of the great things about the S-G Lounge concept – you can play what you like as long as you like! We started out with 2 players and a GM and two more players joined half-way through. The first two of us players got to make really detailed characters and that definitely added to the experience for me.
I realize turnout wasn’t great for the con overall and for RPGs in particular, so I’m pretty happy with how we did. I think there will be a lot better promotion and turnout for Genghis Con. I think the plan for Genghis is going to be to run the lounge Friday evening, all day Saturday, and start late on Sunday (the sleeping-in special!). Let me know what you think.
But before that, I plan to run a Story Games Day in Denver! This will be on a Saturday or Sunday in Oct or Nov. Please leave a comment or contact me if you are interested in participating or helping to organize the event.
See you at Tacticon!
Counting down the days now until the S-G Lounge at Tacticon! I’ve finalized the menu selections, but if you bring something you want to cook up, the kitchen is yours.
See you Saturday!
One Month Left!
There’s only one month left to get ready for the S-G Lounge at Tacticon! We need your help making those two days of Story Games bliss as fun and exciting as possible. Please come to the S-G Lounge Forum and tell us when you’re going to be in the lounge and what you want to play or run.
If you don’t know if you are going or you haven’t played Story Games before, that’s okay! Come on by the forum and ask questions about the event, the games, or whatever else you want to know.
GM Rewards for the S-G Lounge
While the term “Game Master” may be misnomer for most Story Games, we can still take advantage of the GM rewards program at Tacticon 09!
S-G Lounge at Taction 09!
Yes, the Story Games (S-G) Lounge is running at Tacticon 09! Here’s a direct link to the event on the pre-reg website.
The cost is $3 for 4 hours. If you come in and play a short game for a couple hours, you can come back and use the rest later! We’ll be operating on the honor system for the most part, but you do need tickets and badges to play (standard convention procedure). We also take generic tickets and tickets from other RPG events! (The program book lists $5 for 5 hours, this was in error, but the website price is correct). Some tickets may list a specific day (Saturday or Sunday), but all tickets are good either day.
If you plan to attend, please visit the coordination forum and talk about what you want to play or run and ask any questions you may have. You can still drop in and play any time the lounge is open, but I’m hoping a little bit of chatting beforehand will add to the experience.
Here’s the menu of games so far. This list is definitely subject to change! If you want to have your game added to the menu, just jump on the forums and let me know.
Back in Business
You may have noticed that this site was down for a bit. Long, dumb story, but the lesson is don’t use GoDaddy to host your site.
But we’re back up now! There has been quite a bit going on in Colorado vis-a-vis Story Games. The S-G Lounge at Heroes & Dragons went very well and I ran “In A Wicked Age” and “Yes, but…PTA” at V3 in early June at Gamers Haven.
And the full S-G Lounge will be running at Tacticon in September on Saturday and Sunday of the convention. Hopefully we’ll get the kind of turnout and great gameplay we had at Genghis Con 09.
S-G Lounge in Colorado Springs
On Saturday, 25 April, we’ll be running an S-G Lounge at Heroes & Dragons in Colorado Springs from 11am to 8pm. The full details are in this meetup notice – but you don’t have to be a member of the meetup group to attend. If you do plan to attend, either tell me on the Yahoo Group or post a comment below so I can keep a rough count.
This is a great opportunity to come out and try Story Games if you haven’t had a chance yet or to play some new ones if you’re an old pro. Here’s a menu of games that will be available in the lounge. We’re always happy to have more games represented, so let us know if you want to run something.
Midnight Raid!
I wrote a short game for the “Little Game Chef” competition on the Story Games Forum. It’s only one page front and back – that was one of the constraints of the contest. Please let me know what you think!
Midnight Raid by Scott Dunphy
Along with the game chef theme of “Immersion” and ingredients of “Burn”, “Horse”, and “Midnight”, I was inspired by the Battlestar Galactica board game, Primetime Adventures, “Are You a Werewolf?”, and bad cop shows.
Hopefully we’ll get to play this at a game day or S-G Lounge soon! I’d really like to try it out with the max number of people (nine).
S-G Lounge Photos
Here is a slide show from the Story Games Lounge (henceforth known as the S-G Lounge at Shannon’s request).
In case you’re interested in higher res and a little more exposition, here’s the slide show on photobucket. I only took pictures of games I wasn’t faciltating and I took the most pictures of the game I wasn’t in at all. If anyone else has pictures from the lounge, please me know and I’ll add them to the photobucket slideshow.
