Hullo, folks,

Since I ran one of the scenarios for the folks from GMD at GenCon Indy last month, I figured that I would post up the scenario report here.

SPOILER WARNING!!
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You have been warned!!!

When I arrived at Union Station and the Illinois Central room to run the DESOLATION scenario, "The Price of Admission", there were a total of six players, including my friends, SteveR and Tammy, for the game. Naturally, one of the player characters - the noble sorceress, Esther LaVore, was not played. She seemed to get the short end of the stick in a lot of demos that I've run with her in them, and this game was no exception. All I am going to say about the plot of "The Price of Admission" is to provide an overview... The player characters arrive at a settlement, but when they request entry, are told that there is a small price of admission - all they have to do is go and bring back the village's cows that have wandered off. And they are told that the bull cow, Gus, can be a handful.

Suffice it to say, I thought the players had a terrific time of it playing this adventure. The male player in the role of Lem Ollender, the ex-Legionnaire, did a really good job given what he had to work with. Since the character of Esther LaVore, the sorceress who is the one who got Lem wandering around in the first place and whom he had vowed to protect, wasn't being played, that limited his roleplaying opportunities, but he played it to the hilt. Lem came across as very old school, and the player did a good job of trying to live up to the ideals of the Empire that no longer is. He shone during the fight with the skeletons, and was in his element, but other than that, played things rather quietly. The fellow playing Denner Khent, the scavenging dwarf, did a pretty good job overall. Denner is somewhat rough around the edges, and has a few fears that can be played up, notably one of the Night of Fire reoccurring, and this was brought out to the fore during the attack of the skeletons when the elf elementalist cast a fire spell at the undead creatures, thus causing Denner to suffer from his phobia. During the final conflict with the troll, the player tried to have Denner sneak up behind the beast, but it smashed him into the nearest cave wall, rendering him unconscious for most of the battle. It was quite entertaining to watch the other player characters protect him during the fight. A female player took on the role of Menelaris, the defiant elf Elementalist, and played the character as superior to the others and everyone around her to the extent that the rest of the player characters became seriously annoyed with the character. At one point, SteveR had his character, Sasha Veng (see below) give the Menelaris character extra Style points for his Magic skill roll in order to make him suffer from Burn damage! (A bit outside of the rules, but I had seen Matt do something very similar in one of the other DESOLATION games during the weekend, so let it go...and it was really funny!). Needless to say, the player did Menelaris proud, playing him arrogantly and slightly over the top, willing to risk all with his magic. Lots of fun. SteveR took on the role of Sasha Veng, the Rover performer. I thought SteveR did a pretty good job of things here, as he played her in such a way that she tried to keep the attention of others on her all the time, and this came across well. During the final battle with the troll, he had Sasha distract the troll by dancing, and this worked temporarily, until the other characters and the goblins started attacking it. In one of the funniest moments of the game, Sasha tried to jump onto the back of Gus (the cow), but to quote Maxwell Smart, "missed it by thaaaaaat much!" Sasha found herself literally on the ground on her rump, her...pride sorely wounded! The player taking on Krek of Kharhut, the outcast forester, also did a very good job of things. He played the character very much in a practical manner, and Krek was one of the first to suspect that there was more to the villagers' request about retrieving the cows than met the eye. During the skeleton attack, when Menelaris used the fire spell on the undead creatures, Krek fled due to his phobia of fire, climbed a tree, and had an encounter with a Weave-warped raccoon. I threw that in as an unexpected kind of encounter, and it turned out to be lots of fun; the player commented to me afterwards that he rather enjoyed that bit. My friend, Tammy Powers, played Tarl Ishrak, the farmer with faith, and she did an adequate job of it, playing up his religious bent. She played the negotiator and the one advocating peaceful solutions quite well, and did a good job bringing a more human element to the role and to the game overall.

Suffice it to say that the players all had a really good time over the course of the two hours of the demo, and rather enjoyed the whole twist on the plot (which I can't reveal here!). For reasons that I can't discuss, there were a whole lot of cow, bull, and cow insemination jokes, and this was something that Jamie told me the next day had occurred quite a bit in the running of that scenario. Price of admission, indeed!

I'm glad it went well for you!

I ran it on Sunday morning and will henceforth refer to it as "the hangover session".

Everyone had a good time, but the normal level of energy was missing. My new rule is to never run anything before 10 am on the weekend.

Hullo, Matt,



"TPoA" was a blast to run, to be honest, and it was one of the funniest scenarios I've run in a long time. It was one of these scenarios where, every time I read the adventure, I couldn't help but laugh at certain points!



Well, you know the first rule of gaming, Matt, "Don't drink and GM"! I have learned never to run any game before 10:00 am, and it's a policy that I follow avidly. I was just glad that none of my games for GenCon were set to run before 10:00 am.

I could not agree more. I still have memories of when an acquaintance had the bright idea of me running a game of D&D on New Year's Eve.

Never. Again.

Hullo, Ars,



I'll bet. On the other hand, I don't drink and haven't since I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, but I never really drank when I gamed even before that. It dulls the senses, and doesn't make for an enjoyable time on my part as a GM.

Yes! I was in that game.

Hungover and most certainly lacking energy.

My highlight was your Goblin(?) Shaman voice. *grin* Loved it!