Late to the Party

Fan Expo doesn’t hit Toronto until the end of August, but the good people at the Toronto Area Gamers group have started soliciting for RPG sessions and volunteers. I know it ain’t Gencon or Origins, but for a guy like me it is the closest thing to a gaming convention I’m likely to attend in the near future.

So needless to say, I keenly typed up two game pitches within an hour of getting the notification. This will be my third year running games at Fan Expo, and I know they are always happy to have GMs, yet I was still in an excited hurry to get the pitches written up and out.

I re-confirmed with my lovely and pregnant wife that it would be ok for me to disappear for a couple of days soon after Dweezil’s birth and rapidly embraced my inner hack.

The first game I’m planning to run is ‘The Rimward Campaign’ for 3:16: Carnage Amongst the Stars.

I love 3:16.

Tons of fun, simple to run and easy for new players to get into. Plus, I’ve learned that I only have time to adequately prepare for one big adventure session for a Con and 3:16 requires very little prep.

The second game I’m hoping to run is ‘Rotwang’s Heroes’ for FATE. In a

Good Old Rotwang

nutshell I’m thinking: ‘Steampunk Soldiers of Fortune seek a Big Score in a Retro Apocalypse.’

This one is going to be a stretch.

I was hankering for something post-apocalyptic and was bouncing around a couple of random ideas. Then I remembered the TAG organizer’s request that we try to tap into the Steampunk theme running through this year’s Fan Expo. So I had a vague flavor I was going for, but I wasn’t married to a system, setting or set-up. On the face of it: not so great.

And then I had a flash of inspiration! I’m going to lift the set-up of Kelly’s Heroes (coming soon to a ‘Stuff you Should Steal From’ entry) and drop it into a mashed-up ‘war to end all wars’ containing Martian Tripods, Clockwork Giants, hordes of ravenous Nosferatu, French Dirigibles and Prussian Automatons.

I just hope it will be as fun to run as it was to dream-up!