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Having a great time at the Con! The first public con-run game of Cryptworld was a fast, frenetic, frightening adventure for four intrepid players! Without giving too much away, they arrived at Vinton Hills Metropolitan Hospital, a rural clinic purchased 10 years ago by Dr. Howard Eastman -- a brilliant oncology researcher and surgeon who was ostracized from the medical community. Seems the good doctor is a "ends justifies the means" person, and he was suspected of unethical human testing. Years later, the doctor was to make a big announcement of a medical breakthrough, ensuring his re-acceptance by the medical community. However, the clinic seemed strangely empty -- no doctor, no support staff, no patients. The players felt they were being watched...or stalked. One of them was hit from behind, yet nothing was there. Then they found the video logs of the doctor's first few failures causing one reporter to nearly get sick. An identified tentacle nearly dragged another away to his doom. Then they discovered a patient begging for the sweet release of death. "It's eating me..." he hissed. They pulled back the blankets and found...

Well, let's just say that there are interesting medical application for Liquid Drano that never would have occurred to me.

Great game with a great gang of players! Picture time!



Speaking of Cryptworld, I ran into Brian Thomas who did many of the illustrations for the rulebook, and he not only signed the troglodyte illustration he did, he also sold the original drawing to me as well as the mummy! Going up on the wall when I get home!



I must admit, of all the games I ran, the Cryptworld one was the best of the lot. And this is coming from "The Mutant Future Guy," so that's high praise indeed!

Sounds like a lot of fun. Good image of the game in progress - the Cryptworld one page tables look nifty. I assume they came in handy.

Did the players have familiarity with Cryptworld? How long did it take for you to run them through the basics? Pregens?

Bisikoff wrote:Sounds like a lot of fun. Good image of the game in progress - the Cryptworld one page tables look nifty. I assume they came in handy.

Did the players have familiarity with Cryptworld? How long did it take for you to run them through the basics? Pregens?

Two of the players had the Cryptworld books on hand, and three had some familiarity with the old Chill game. One was a noobie, but he picked everything up fast. I'm an "old hat" at running Pacesetter games since the '80s, so I have "Here's how the Action Table works" down to a three-minute spiel. So 3 minutes of "How to play", and 3 hours, 57 minutes of "Play."

You gotta have pregens when you run a convention game, otherwise you waste a half-hour or more having everyone roll stats, pick equipment, choose skills and background, etc. (I personally avoid playing in "roll up your character" games at conventions. I wanna sit down and get going, not fritter around creating a character I'm gonna abandon when the game ends.) I always bring more pregens than I have players so everyone at least gets a choice as we begin. ("You can play either an undercover CIA agent who's a crackshot, or an intrepid reporter with access to a lot of secret info.")

sniderman wrote:Two of the players had the Cryptworld books on hand, and three had some familiarity with the old Chill game. One was a noobie, but he picked everything up fast. I'm an "old hat" at running Pacesetter games since the '80s, so I have "Here's how the Action Table works" down to a three-minute spiel. So 3 minutes of "How to play", and 3 hours, 57 minutes of "Play."

Nice!

You gotta have pregens when you run a convention game, otherwise you waste a half-hour or more having everyone roll stats, pick equipment, choose skills and background, etc. (I personally avoid playing in "roll up your character" games at conventions. I wanna sit down and get going, not fritter around creating a character I'm gonna abandon when the game ends.) I always bring more pregens than I have players so everyone at least gets a choice as we begin. ("You can play either an undercover CIA agent who's a crackshot, or an intrepid reporter with access to a lot of secret info.")

Agreed in general, and highly recommended as a general practice for demos.

I was there and it was so much fun! Even though it was modern day, I kept visualizing everything as if it was an early 70s b-horror movie. Loved every minute of it. Thanks Tim!

It was nice meeting you, Tim! I was happy to sign your book for you and am super glad you got the art pieces from Cryptworld that you wanted.

How did the Action Table cards work out in play?

I lament the fact I did not get to play in a demo...maybe next year.

Goblinoid Games wrote:How did the Action Table cards work out in play?

Perfect at-hand references. Nice to have at the table.