I got back from Gen Con
Indy 2013 over a week ago. Once again, I came back with a number of takeaways.
With the actual rules done, I find that most of them will, for the first time,
actually go into the Director’s Handbook rather than the Player’s Guide as
directing techniques rather than rules changes.
Since several of my
takeaways from this year were related to those from last year, I will post
these takeaways in two installments. This first installment will primarily be a
review of the 2011 takeaways. My next post will be all new 2013 takeaways. So
on we go…
2011 Takeaway
1: The Initiative System
In 2011, I made a
change to the initiative that felt like the right thing to do by simply giving
the bad guys one number and breaking the round into 3+1 phases: Surprise,
Faster, Even With, and Slower than the bad guys. My original fear was that
players would lament the loss of the old school feel of individual initiative.
But, like most fears, they were irrational and unfounded. Instead, it created
fast-paced action for the players and allowed me and Matt, my Second Unit
director, to really control the pace of the action scenes. Even with 12 players
(see Takeaway 2 below).
2011 Takeaway 2: Game Session Player Limits
(Hereafter to be referred to as The Art of Scheduling moving forward)
In 2011, I had considered changing scheduling from 4 games of 12 players to 5 games of 8 players, with game times at 0800 and 1400. This was to accommodate low player turnout at lunch times, the overall din of the gaming rooms, and to try to tap the evening gaming phenomenon where people want something to do at night.
Instead, I mixed the old scheduling with the new proposed scheduling. I kept the 0800 time schedule, but shifted the evening game to 1800. Instead of limiting table size to 8 however, I kept it at 12, but still increased the number of sessions to 5. The new scheduling scheme filled over 80% of the slots, with no sessions of fewer than 6 players. Moving forward, this will be how we will schedule all games in the future.
2011 Takeaway 3: Single Genre Events
(Hereafter to be referred to as Pre-generated Characters moving forward)
The desire to play movie action heroes is stronger than I thought. Per last year’s takeaway, I continued to only run scenarios in the Action genre. This year, however, though I added a number of the eighties characters I had mentioned in 2011 (Patrick Swayze, Mr. T.), I went ahead and added the few from the Nineties characters I had mused on as well. (Jason Statham, Samuel L Jackson and Vin Diesel).
After directing and
playing in the resulting games, it would seem that the decade of the film
really didn’t seem to matter; the Genre of “Action Film” and overall mood of
the players overruled any differences. As a result, I will continue to stay
true to the Action Film genre moving forward with disregard for decade.
I also deviated from
the 2011 takeaway, in that I did not add Michael Biehn, Christian Slater, John
Travolta, or Nicholas Cage. Instead, I added a Hulk Hogan/Rowdy Roddy Piper mix,
and Wesley Snipes. I was not disappointed; though no one chose Patrick Swayze,
all of the sessions had at least three or more of the new characters! I also
added Johnny Parkour as a character, reserved for the directors as and embedded
character (more on that in my next post Part Two: 2013 Takeaways)
We had requests for William
Shatner (not within Genre), as well as more female characters.
While I know everyone
wants to play William Shatner, he is a one-trick pony and not really keeping
with the spirit of the pregens, which is that they are amalgams of multiple
characters AND the actor himself. I have no intention at this time…regardless
of the fact he was in T. J. Hooker...of adding him. Another veteran in a similar vein is Sean
Connery, but given the current outline of the 2015 scenario, he might fit into that event quite nicely...
As for female
characters, the only three I feel I can add would be Pam Grier, Angela Mao, and
Cynthia Rothrock. The problems with these actresses is that they are so sub-genre
specific that they might be difficult to generalize. One female character requested was Ripley from Aliens, but again, she
is kind of a one trick pony. I think an amalgam of Ripley, Sarah Conner, and
the main character in the lame movie Prometheus (Google two bald guys in Mokena
for a rundown of this horrible movie that was a waste of ATP and life
experience) might work, but my concern is the specificity with the Science
Fiction Genre that will not translate to Eighties Action heroes…Now Michael
Biehn, on the other hand…
So, in the end, I am currently looking at
adding Michael Biehn, Black Dynamite, Embittered Female Badass, Sean "Veteran Spec Op" Connery, and Dwayne Johnson. Dawyne Johnson may
not make the cut however, as his role is filled by Arnold and Vin, and he is
only required in movies when a franchise needs to be saved…and Cinema20, I am
sure many of you will agree, is far from needing saving…
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