Phantasm: My Local RPG Con

Phantasm is my local convention. It’s a great get together: a small convention in one room, focused on roleplaying games. There are other games there, but RPGs, rather than being the sideshow, are the main dish. I’m not a big fan of game conventions, but I’ve warmed up to them mostly because I get to see (and sometimes game with) good folks I know, creating the progressive vibe I value in the hobby. I also meet new people, observe other folks game and try to stretch myself by doing something challenging.

This year I ran a 4 hour modified World of Darkness game with pretty much no preparation. This wasn’t an intentional challenge; I’d just been really busy and didn’t have a chance to throw a scenario together. But as a challenge it worked remarkably well. It helped that I took some systems from the Mage Chronicler’s Guide that allow fast character creation, some mods from World of Darkness: Mirrors to tune the action ad made up a few systems on the spot. The players (five of them, all younger than me — the WoD fan demographic was teens and twenties compared to 30 to 40+ for everything else) had fun. They all played psychics fleeing the Cheiron Group, who were planning to harvest their central nervous systems to make implants and drugs and things.

I played Knights of the Hidden Sun, which was awesome. Yeah, I’m biased, but getting a full adventure in with Chris Challice helped reinforce some of the charms of the game, since I’ve been getting a bit of writer/developer fatigue lately. The game was positively rejuvenating. Chris will start posting about the game here himself, and I hope to get more of Jenny’s art up for everyone to see.

Ed Greenwood is a tradition at the convention. He runs a game and busts out a short lecture over dinner. This time around he did something very interesting. You may remember the “20 minutes of fun in four hours of play” design problem, where doing stuff just takes too damn long. Ed turned it around into something that wasn’t a design issue, but a demographic one, since he argued that this slow pace of older games versus the sorta-faster pace of them now really reflects upbringings that evolved from a more relaxed, self-directed pace to instant, externally-driven entertainment. Ed gave examples from wargaming when he was young: a hobby where 70s RPGs’ 20 in four pace was considered far, far too hasty.

It was a shy crowd this year, so I think, looking for something to say when nobody asked questions, Ed managed to really open himself up with some of his more considered thoughts about the hobby. It was refreshing too, because if you think the Realms is getting long in the tooth in your neck of the woods, try it living in the region the Dales are actually modeled on, from the drumlin-festooned terrain to the bizarre mix of promiscuity and rustic grumpiness. All respect to Ed and the Realms, though.

I asked Ed what he thought could be common ground between different eras and styles, suggesting it was the narrative. He agreed and elaborated that he thought meaningful narrative experiences (victories, turning points) in the moment of play did it, creating memories worth holding on to (and he said that this memory made in the moment is why hearing about somebody else’s character is pretty boring). This fits pretty closely with my thoughts on what RPGs are really good at. Plus, regardless of pace, it seems that those big memory-generating moments don’t come any faster if you tweak the game — not even for “narrative” games that try to hit that stuff hard. It really does throw things back at player skill.

I met a number of great people, but I wanted to keep this post focused. I think Ed really hit a home run talking this time around, and it was a pity I was so exhausted I didn’t have a chance to talk to him later.

Great convention. You should all go next year.

Tags: RPG Culture, RPG design