OVA fantasy group run at another convention

[Jandar]

Good news for Clay.

Last weekend I game-mastered two more sessions at a con in the town of Dreieich, Germany (www.dreieichcon.de). The second session was for OVA, a fantasy adventure this time, one that I had to completely improvise.

It's amazing what you can do with only the rulebook, character sheets, pencils, dice, and the right people around you. While I couldn't find enough players to actually get a game session together at the last couple of cons I attended (in September), this time my game table was full. I got six players for OVA alone, two guys and four women, anime lovers and others among them, and the game really ROCKED this time. This was what a con SHOULD be like, and I so wanna go back next year. Everybody had a good time. I hardly saw people laugh so hard during a game in a long time.

The game I ran was a light-hearted medieval fantasy experiment in the style of The Slayers or even Sorcerer Hunters. It went really, really, really well. I mean I just loved it, and it was so great to see all my players happy.

The one problem we realized at some point in the game was with Time Freeze. I had told my players that they could pick and combine pretty much anything from the OVA rulebook that made sense in a fantasy world with magic, and one player-character just happened to have the Time Freeze ability at +5. I think I am probably going to disallow that in future games. A character with Time Freeze 5 can constantly interrupt the flow of the story, since they can stop *EVERYTHING* for six seconds, do that indefinitely in non-combat situations and not even pay a lot of Endurance for it.

You have to imagine that I, as the group's GM, was right in the middle of describing a frenetic action scene, describing every move and step that characters used to stop a thief from getting away, for example. Then the Time Freezer guy came in and said, "No, he never even made it to the door because I stopped time for six seconds before that and placed my staff under his feet, so he will stumble." It basically comes down to a situation where the GM wants to do something, and the player with Time Freeze can veto it. Either Time Freeze should be harder to do, with rock-hard limitations placed on it, or not allowed altogether.

Other than that, the session was wonderful. Several players basically begged me to continue the game at another con, and stay in touch with them through e-mail so they could update their character sheets and re-use those characters.

I'll try to post a detailed summary of our adventure later. Fantasy OVA-style made us very happy, and I wouldn't be surprised if many of my con players bought the rulebook and the fantasy book after that.

[JuddG]

The one problem we realized at some point in the game was with Time Freeze...<snipped>It basically comes down to a situation where the GM wants to do something, and the player with Time Freeze can veto it. Either Time Freeze should be harder to do, with rock-hard limitations placed on it, or not allowed altogether.

Anything bought at +5 deserves to have a major say in how situations get resolved. That being said, my suggestion for this situation is to not allow beginning characters to sneak anything up beyond +3 or so. +5 is one of those rarefied airs of power levels and should be fairly rare. A guy with Time Stop of +5 is Dio from JoJo's Bizarre Adventures - a guy used to winning using time stop (Vrrrry!! )

Also, part of a GM's zen is to let go of what you want to happen. The player with the Time Stop wanted a chance or to to be the badass by stopping time and then stopping the enemy - let them revel in that as much as the guy with Martial Arts +5 gets to revel in beating the stuffing out of mooks - it's what they paid for.

Now, that is not to say that you shouldn't have someone get wise to this. Say a wizard sees his minion downed this way, now he knows that the player has Time Freeze. He summons a creature who also have Time Freeze and a cool one-on-one battle in frozen time shows the PC that sometimes leaving your friends as statues frozen about you means you are all alone...

All in all, just watch the PC sheets for anything above a 3 (or disallow anything from that high). As long as you are cool with someone being world class in the ability (+5 Hobby: Cooking is less of a problem than +5 Martial Arts, in a game about Ninja Schools - but it can lead to some cool "Battle Chef" moments, too.)

Just my two.

On the subject of cozy Cons that just plain feel good, I would have to agree with you. Cons that have that magical camaraderie are excellent and cannot be beaten. Glad you found one!

[Jandar]

Anything bought at +5 deserves to have a major say in how situations get resolved. That being said, my suggestion for this situation is to not allow beginning characters to sneak anything up beyond +3 or so. +5 is one of those rarefied airs of power levels and should be fairly rare. A guy with Time Stop of +5 is Dio from JoJo's Bizarre Adventures - a guy used to winning using time stop (Vrrrry!! )

Hmm, yes, I understand that, JuddG.

Several characters had one ability at +5 in my group last Sunday.

I don't know Dio from the anime you mentioned, but I can tell you that the player-character in question was actually based on a character in a Terry Pratchett novel known as "The Sweeper". He was a mystic monk with a broom, always pretending to sweep, sweep, sweep wherever he went, while still having an uncanny ability to pay attention to his surroundings. Almost kind of Zatoichi (the blind masseur), if you know what I mean.

Also, part of a GM's zen is to let go of what you want to happen. The player with the Time Stop wanted a chance or to to be the badass by stopping time and then stopping the enemy - let them revel in that as much as the guy with Martial Arts +5 gets to revel in beating the stuffing out of mooks - it's what they paid for.

It was not a big problem to begin with. No yelling and fighting at the game table, you know. It only got a bit difficult when three or four players in the group had defined cool actions for their characters, one after the other, rolled their dice for them, compared results, and then suddenly Mr. Time-Stop would say, "No way. That never happened at all. I stopped time before that."

Criticism came from the other players first and not so much from me.

Now, that is not to say that you shouldn't have someone get wise to this. Say a wizard sees his minion downed this way, now he knows that the player has Time Freeze. He summons a creature who also have Time Freeze and a cool one-on-one battle in frozen time shows the PC that sometimes leaving your friends as statues frozen about you means you are all alone...

All right. That is a possibility.

I think if the game had continued for a couple more hours, or if this had grown into my regular on-going campaign, a situation with another Time-Freezer would have happened sooner or later. Or I could have introduced a monster or a magician that has the ability to negate Time-Freeze or steal the power from the character. Who knows?

[JuddG]

Hmm, yes, I understand that, JuddG.

Sorry if I came off condescending there.

It was not a big problem to begin with. No yelling and fighting at the game table, you know.

OK, I get it now. It was repeated use of the technique, not that he "stepped-on" a required escape etc. Pardon my misunderstanding. I hope my comments make more sense in that flawed perception I had.

Now, to the case in point...

It only got a bit difficult when three or four players in the group had defined cool actions for their characters, one after the other, rolled their dice for them, compared results, and then suddenly Mr. Time-Stop would say, "No way. That never happened at all. I stopped time before that."

This is a textbook initiative issue. If there is ever any question as to who can do something when, make 'em roll for init. Also, a penalty for him due to the fact that he is using his stop power reactively - "I would have stopped time if I knew that was going to happen." "Hmm, yes, but you didn't know it did you? You can stop time now that the action declared has been resolved. Now, this can get to a situation where he is insisting on rolling initiative for everything where he thinks he may have to stop time, more on that later.

Criticism came from the other players first and not so much from me.

This is the part that intrigues me. If the character did not buy a perk to allow him to have his power use be untraceable to him, the players should know he is ...ehem...blocking. Then the characters can turn and give him the razz for being a chump kill-stealer, etc. Sounds like that would have ruined some of the fun, but it seems like this guy was trying to be a game-hog and jerk to a degree anyway.

I like players who can police their own inter-group activities. A GM is just a s much player as anyone else, though so feel free to throw a meta-game penalty flag on the guy. If he is a discworlder, he should have a sense of humor about it, at least.

Or I could have introduced a monster or a magician that has the ability to negate Time-Freeze or steal the power from the character. Who knows?

Whenever you need to do some "police-work" on a unruly character, and metagame techniques are not available (as with a demo with strangers, I am guessing) - use the old standby...OK, not old because OVA is a fairly new game...say it with me - WITCHCRAFT:!:

One NPC with Witchcraft can bring a boatload of hurt to a bad behavior case. Deal him some dread like "Slow", "Phobia: Silence", "Trigger - he can only use his timestop when he is around a timekeeping device", etc.

Witchcraft is, I think, one of the very best chances you have to put the smack-down on a loaded-for-bear opponent. It can be about as bad as the problem, but it does even those odds.

Actually, it sounds like a serious plus that the game was that invigorating with the addition of that kind of thing. Glad it wasn't a show-stopper for the people playing. Thanks for the report and keep flying the demo flag for this great game!

[Jandar]

Sorry if I came off condescending there.

I wouldn't say that you were condescending. Everything's fine.

Witchcraft is, I think, one of the very best chances you have to put the smack-down on a loaded-for-bear opponent. It can be about as bad as the problem, but it does even those odds.

Actually, it sounds like a serious plus that the game was that invigorating with the addition of that kind of thing. Glad it wasn't a show-stopper for the people playing. Thanks for the report and keep flying the demo flag for this great game!

I gotta keep Witchcraft in mind. Interestingly, in that same fantasy game group, another player almost chose Arcane Magic and Witchcraft together, but settled for Arcane only when I had explained to her that Witchcraft was all about "evil spells and curses."

About the demo flag, ... Yeah, I've got great plans for exactly that.

I've got loads of convention appearances planned for the year 2008. I might even get a chance to travel to GenCon (I'd love to!).