Nationals 2010 & Roleplay Thoughts

So, my second trip to the Nationals, this time at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh.

Due to the ludicrous cost of student halls accommodation, Himself and I elected to stay with an old friend of his in Broxburn. We lost out on the late night drinking and faffing by being off-campus (also exacerbated by not being allowed to have booze outside the union on campus), but it meant not having to share a single bed (Himself may not have minded, but I'm afraid I need to move in my sleep).

Although I spent this Nationals considerably more sober (though that wouldn't be hard given the state I was in last year), but this Nationals saw me a lot more freaked out. For someone with Asperger's Syndrome, I usually get by alright. I wouldn't say I cope as such with the environments and situations that freak me out, but I can usually feign normality long enough to get to a quiet space and flip out in private. This year, the noise and bright lights and strangers was too much, I was on the brink of meltdown all weekend. Unfortunately Himself had to take the brunt of it, but he mostly kept me safe and helped stop me from tipping over into proper freakout territory. It was just unfortunate that I was having a few bad aspie days that weekend, but I can't really know if I'd have been different any other weekend.

Besides my constant wibbliness, it was quite a fun Nationals. As is customary of my Nationals trips, I spent a sizeable percentage of my wages on wacky, unusual dice. I also got myself a pretty new dice bag, opting for a 2 for slightly cheaper deal and getting one for one of my friends too. In addition to those delights, I acquired a crocheted Cthulhu finger puppet and a shoggoth in the same style. The shoggoth now belongs to my friend with the dice bag and has been named Mr Chuffy.

There were lots of other lovely shiny things there, but I could not afford to partake of them. I had a notion to buy system books, but it occurred to me that I can borrow, from Himself or my friends, pretty much any roleplaying book I could think of.

Now, to the gaming itself. I was in the Paranoia category (of which there were 2 groups). Last year, an attempt had been made at DURPS to run Paranoia, but due to the group being full of new people who didn't understand it, it turned into a bit of a disaster. After over a year of desperately trying to get a proper game of Paranoia, I pretty much got it for the Nationals. There were 2 intensely annoying people in the group that made it hard to get things done, but their bumbling incompetence and outright wankishness allowed me to shine, since I managed to be the hub of several instances of hilarity throughout my 2 games, and also came away from the weekend with a 3rd place prize for my category. Nobody else in my group placed, so in my book, that makes me the best in my group. I didn't get to see the other group, which contained the winners of 1st and 2nd place, they must have been pretty damned good.

So, that is my first ever Nationals win. A few of my fellow DURPS members also came away with awards in their categories, I was so proud of them all. I emphatically believe that we have an awesome society of talented roleplayers, so it was great to see us being acknowledged, and even better to see everyone having tremendous fun.

Next year, when we go to Sheffield (hosting next year's Nationals), I'm tempted to do either Call of Cthulhu or Systemless, for something new and fresh.

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I'm also contemplating my gaming plan for September onwards. September marks the start of the academic year, and therefore the roleplaying year in a sense. It's when we draw in newbies and start our new campaigns. During one-offs week (where we let the new blood in gently to try out roleplaying), I'll be running some Star Wars silliness based on Die Hard. A friend of mine is running the Star Wars campaign next year, so the one-off I'm running will be a good exercise in teaching newcomers to Star Wars roleplay that Stormtroopers aren't bumbling idiots and actually pose a legitimate threat. It'll also be lots of fun if I get it right.

For my campaign following that, I'll be running a game of intrigue, power struggle and fallen empire, using the Reign system in it's classic setting (an awesomely cool fictional continent with wacky gravity and interesting metaphysics). I've been watching the tv series Rome recently, and I'm very much inspired to base my story on the fall of Rome, starting with the defeated insurgents against Ceasar, despondently burning the body of their leader after losing their last stand. Obviously, this will merely be the foundation of the story, it will be in the Reign setting, so it won't bear any strict resemblance to Rome, but I'm thinking it's a period in history that is rich in drama & intrigue, so it'll be fun to place it in the Reign setting. I already have a few friends asking me to reserve places for them in my game, I feel honoured! I have officially announced that I'll be running it on the DURPS forum, so I feel a sense of duty to run it now. I'm scared, as I've never run a game before, but I'm also excited because I think once I find my feet, I'll be a good GM. I'm hoping to run a few one-offs over the summer to help me train up.

I just looked at what I have written so far, and I'm grinning widely at how into rolplaying I am now. This is from someone who until September 2008 had never actually played a roleplaying game proper. Now I can't imagine my life without it.