Saturday was Concrete Cow, a one-day RPG con in Milton Keynes, UK.
In the evening I ran a low-prep session of Blades in the Dark for four players. When I played it at Games on Demand at Dragonmeet, we did chargen at the table and that seemed to work well; I thought I’d do the same for my session. On reflection, I don’t think it added much to the game: when I offer it again, I’ll come prepared with mostly-generated characters, leaving the players to allocate a few dots here and there.
I cribbed mercilessly from pre-published materials and used the War in Crow’s Foot situation. I introduced the situation before the PCs generated characters: I don’t know if that worked for the players or not. The players quickly decided that they’d attempt to double-cross both the Lampblacks and the Red Sashes, stealing the Lampblacks’ strongbox for the Red Sashes, but hiding the arcane bomb (given to them by the Lampblacks) inside it for the handover. Which the PCs also decided they’d let the Lampblacks know about, hoping to kill two birds with one stone.
We managed to get two scores into the three hour session, which was quite fun. Things went well at the table, but rather less well for the PC crew: we ended the session with one PC dead, two mortally wounded, and one running for her life. That’s about what you’d expect for a small gang attempting to double-cross two larger ones. But the players seemed to enjoy it, so I’ll take that as another win.
I think greater risks are taken at con games because the players are less attached to the characters, or their ongoing survivability 🙂 Plus it’s a good time to be overly dramatic.
Well, to me, it sounds like it went spectacularly
In my experience, pregens are a must at conventions, but I am glad it worked out anyways. How long did character creation take?
Mark Cleveland Massengale Blades chargen is really quick, which is why I tried it. About 20 minutes?