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Good GMs Podcast - 6 - Chaosium Con Air
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Did you miss out on the cosmic horror and community vibes at Chaosium Con in Ann Arbor, Michigan? This week on Good GMs, James and Chuckie sit down to recap Chuckie’s weekend at this uniquely intimate tabletop gaming convention. Boasting a comfortable crowd of around 450 attendees, Chaosium Con is the ultimate space to skip the massive stadium crowds of Gen Con and actually rub shoulders with industry legends, swap horror stories with fellow Keepers, and level up your skills as a Game Master.
- Convention Etiquette & Bad GMs: The critical importance of showing up early and knowing your rules. When a neighboring GM flaked out on their players, our friend "Big Stompy Robot" from the Savage Sessions RPG Podcast stepped up to absorb the players and save their hard-earned vacation time.
- Propping Up Your Con Game: Why presentation is everything. Chuckie talks about laminating massive custom maps, while James details packing an entire Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles session inside pizza boxes (complete with colored eye masks and custom dice trays) to turn a regular game into an unforgettable show.
- The Campfire Tales Leak: A look at Chaosium's upcoming Call of Cthulhu book Campfire Tales (focusing on scouting themes) and how modern safety mechanics stop horror GMs from becoming actual "monsters" when running high-terror games involving younger characters.
- A Brush with Chaosium Royalty: Chuckie shares a hilarious story about running The Haunting, navigating a wagon full of oversized props, and unknowingly talking shop with Chaosium's Vice President and Creative Director, Jeff Richard, and his multi-table-running wife!
Resources in This Episode:
- Pick up community-made sourcebooks or publish your own gaming content over on DriveThruRPG.
- Listen to Bridgett Jeffries over at the Miskatonic University Podcast.
- Watch incredible, system-agnostic GM advice from Seth Skorkowsky on YouTube.
- Check out Chuckie's Live Play show, featuring E.E. Morris, our producer, Rainey, and our buddy Big Stompy Robot at the Savage Sessions RPG Podcast
- Organize your TTRPG worlds, NPCs, and hyperlinked lore sheets with Kanka Campaign Manager.
- Download the free Call of Cthulhu starter scenarios mentioned in the show: The Haunting Quickstart and What's in the Cellar?
Join us!
- Support Good GMs on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/GoodGMsPodcast
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61584454320344
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goodgmspod/
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GoodGMsPodcast
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Transcript
00:00:02
Speaker
Good. Good. So good. Good. So very good.
Introduction to the Podcast and Hosts
00:00:25
Speaker
Welcome to the Good GM's Podcast. I'm E.E. Morris, and today's episode is Chaosium Con Air.
00:00:36
Speaker
And now here's Chuck and James. Hello, everybody and everyone else. We are Good GM's podcast. You are here. And so that means you found us. So welcome.
00:00:48
Speaker
um I'm James. And let's do this for practice. I'm James. And I'm Chucky. There you go. See, we get the habit of doing it on time. right Hi, I'm James and... I'm Chucky T. There you go. That was good. We're getting better. um So we are excited today because we have a very special guest on our show. His name is Chucky T. And he's going to tell us he's going to tell us all about his
Insights from Chaosium Con
00:01:10
Speaker
experience. He had a a heck of an experience in Michigan recently, which...
00:01:14
Speaker
sentence you don't hear very often but i'm sure yeah yeah no no um yeah it was it was it was it was excellent yeah for the last five years uh chaosium inc has been hosting in ann arbor michigan the chaosium con right and chaosium chaosium is the creators of call of cthulhu uh uh Can you do it? No, I can't. A Pendragon Elf Quest. No, not Elf Quest. What's it called? Coming soon. Is it? Yes, it is. What's the one? They do have one, though. Or is that not out yet? Rune Quest. Rune Quest. That's the one. Rune Quest. Yeah.
00:01:52
Speaker
ah And and beat BP. Yeah, the basic role-playing. Yeah, BPR. Yeah. bp yeah yeah ah Which my wife and I had an opportunity to sit down with a gentleman that put some stuff together.
00:02:03
Speaker
ah Absolutely fantastic. Very... various I don't want to use the word very small, but you go to Gen Con. Like intimate, right? You feel like you have a chance to meet everybody. That's the word. But intimate.
00:02:18
Speaker
Well, hello. you know No, but exactly. it's it's It's a good size. It's a nice good size. That's what she said. Hell, we're going to cut all that out. I don't know. No, we're not. No, we're not. But yeah, it you go to, I think it was like 450 this year.
00:02:34
Speaker
this year What is that? like the The attendees. Oh, okay. Yes. So so it's it's it's a nice small size. So you're going to see a lot of the same people.
00:02:45
Speaker
So you actually get to know people. You get to actually chit chat with people. You're going to meet the people in the industry. You're going to name drop some people here tonight? Oh, yeah.
00:02:56
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Oh, my gosh. ah Rick Mites is is is usually there. Sadly, um a lot of the people like Mike Mason, Paul Fricka, you know, stuff like that, they weren't there. Seth Skorkowski was there. oh That was awesome. yep Yes. And if you want good GM advice, I mean, he's the man.
00:03:13
Speaker
Just stop listening to us. Yes. Just the man go check it. all Bridget Jeffries. Right. Was also a podcaster of great fame and and yeah value at the ah good. No, sorry. Miskatonic University podcast. Exactly. Right. Yeah. Oh my gosh. oh They had. And she's the community coordinator for Chaosium or something? Yes. Yeah.
00:03:35
Speaker
That's very cool. And so she was, she was there and she was doing and just absolutely fantastic. Cause she like, she, she's like a powder keg of just raw energy.
00:03:46
Speaker
and So it's hard. It's like you go around and she, she's, yeah, she is, she's actually a complete delight. you very good at getting that's awesome people around and just well i remember was it two years ago you sent me a ah video from when you were there and it was her like egging me to watch i listened to the podcast and i hadn't started
Gaming Experiences and Preparation
00:04:05
Speaker
yet and now i'm like caught up so yes and that's like 370 something episodes by now i think they're like oh yeah yeah oh yeah i don't know if i started at zero but i definitely started ah
00:04:17
Speaker
don't think so hundred so we I think it like, no, I went back as far as I could. Here we go. yeah My finger got tired from scrolling. yeah oh okay for For those watching, I will cut this otherwise, but for those watching, this is Sia. And apparently she just wants to be a part of the show. so She is part of the show. She's your mascot. Congratulations.
00:04:36
Speaker
yeah ah But yeah, no. and So for us, because again, we're only a few hours away, like really short trip. So it's for us, it was, it was really good. um We brought one of the co-hosts to my other podcast, Savage.
00:04:54
Speaker
sessions uh rpg uh big stompy robot came with us robot and uh it was his first time running a game at a convention yeah so you know what we should bring him on when we bring rainy rainy on and talk about you know um how to yeah how to run your first game yeah yeah well things things oh yes yeah things are afraid of but he had He had a delight.
00:05:21
Speaker
That's awesome. apps Yeah, it went really well for him. favorite Favorite game you played? Not that you ran. You can tell tell us about that as part of the... I was only in one game. You were only. I was only in one game. Oh, you yeah you ran ah like you played.
00:05:34
Speaker
You played Stompies. Nope. Nope. No. There was another gentleman ah that was ah he was doing BRP. It was a sci fi.
00:05:46
Speaker
And he just basically and it was open about. He's very he was amazing. He truly was. He was like the ice planet. And so he just flat out said, I'm just taking all these stereotypes, all these tropes. And like it was funny because he was actually going through as he was doing the description like into the game. And he would count he was counting the tropes. And as the game was going on, was keeping track of the tropes. I think he got up to like 20. It was really good. I never played BRP. So I was curious to see.
00:06:19
Speaker
what the difference is between basic role-playing and Call of Cthulhu. ah And ah there there were some stuff. I mean, I have the book and i've I've perused to it briefly, but that is something I think I want to go back and just
Technology in Game Prep
00:06:35
Speaker
you know, really start digging through nice nice Yeah. It's really, really cool. So, so this, this GM, this, this good GM that, that ran your game. Oh yeah. He was good too. What was, ah what was something in particular that you thought was like, Oh, I'm going to, going to steal that. Like that was a great way to do something. Or was there something in particular that you would be like, you know, as a gosh, you know, as a GM, this is something I, I do, but it's worth learning from.
00:07:01
Speaker
I'm a stickler when I go to conventions, especially this. I'm paying to go to the convention. I might not be paying you run a game, but I'm paying to be at this convention. Of course. So I have standards. Oh, I see. I see. No, because I do. I'm sorry. I do. No, so not. If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all. Yeah, I'm just like, yeah. And I really do. And this guy hit the standards. He was there early.
00:07:28
Speaker
He was Uh, you know, um, even that is a good tip. That's a good GM tip. Be there, be there early and be set up. Oh yeah. Uh, Stompy had a table and the, the, where he was set up and the table next to his, the guy, the player showed up, the GM never showed up.
00:07:50
Speaker
He flaked out. Come on. Yeah. And so a couple of those players actually came to Stompy's table. Good. And he was able to accommodate. See, that's yeah great. oh yeah That's awesome. See, that's and that's the thing, right? like Like you said, you're paying to be there. You're not necessarily paying that GM to be there, but you expect like Like this this is their time. like you You have only so much yeah like you go to these things. Maybe you have a crappy job every other day of the the year and you take your time off and this is your big vacation. You've you've you've spent money on a hotel. You spent money on the the convention. And the one one of your four hour chunks is yeah just stolen from you. you're You're not you're not playing. You're not playing with your friends.
00:08:31
Speaker
no You know, I, cause like this guy, I am a complete stranger to this guy. You know, I'm not, I'm not one of your friends. I'm not something like this, you know, show up, please show up, know the material.
00:08:44
Speaker
Not, not just the rules. Yeah. Know the rules, know the story. oh Don't spend half the session looking up the the name of the character youre cut you forgot. Nope. You better be winging that.
00:08:55
Speaker
Yeah. Because nine times out ten, I'm not going to know anyway. Well, and as a good GM, let's be fair. As a good GM, it's okay to use your reference sheets and say, hold on, guys, I need to look something up. But this is a different thing. This is a show. This is the show. Okay, because you brought that up.
00:09:09
Speaker
So this guy
Community and Networking at Chaosium Con
00:09:10
Speaker
apparently... I don't know what that sound was. ha he's I'm trying to think how much I could tell here. Okay, but yeah. So he has laptop. He has laptop. If can't anything nice. Right? No, it was good. No, it was really good. It was honest. It was really cool. So he has laptop and then he had an attachment to it where you just set it behind the laptop and it has two extra monitors that fold out from the center.
00:09:35
Speaker
really cool. It's like, Oh my gosh, I've seen that. And it kind of looks like a GM screen, doesn't it? yeah I really did. I was like, what? And he's like, he's like, Oh no, I, I got this to work. You know, it's like, hello. we've seen those but But he was apologizing about his it. It takes up too much space. It's like, no, we were all like, no, that's amazing. But how you said reference.
00:09:57
Speaker
h So he would tell us, I have the story in the center. I have stat blocks on my right. And then I have extra notes on my left.
00:10:09
Speaker
So I can just type in quick hyperlinks and go to wherever I need to go. Yeah. And it's like smart yeah technology. And yeah, that could be whole episode, right? Like I've got, I've got a, I've got Kenka, which is my um campaign organizer. And if anyone were to go in and look through my Kenka, I would be locked up for how like, you know, this guy's too obsessive ah for something that's supposed to be a game, but I love it. It's fun. I like doing that. yeah it's And it's like, we talked about prep and I'm not prepped.
00:10:41
Speaker
I don't prep so much for the session because I've prepped for the world. Right. I can wing the session. But in this case, this is the session. Like when you go to, and I'm going I'm going to, I'm going to tell you something. Honestly, I have never been to a physical convention. and This would be a good one for you to go to.
00:10:59
Speaker
Yeah. I'd love to. I mean, I would love to go. There's one in Toronto that happens called breakout con. I'd like to check out. I'd like to go. I mean, Have I gone? i think I ah maybe went to something that was they called a convention, but it was just like like people selling some you know like i went to a comic book convention that wasn't really a comic book convention but that's not we're talking about but as far as a gaming convention i've only ever been to one online and it was chupacabra con and it was all the best experiences of my life and i wanted to be there so badly in person to go meet ed and meet preston and meet all these people that were there that like like i i played i played all kinds of games i played the the gi joe game the the savage world's like gi joe um
00:11:41
Speaker
ah stuff But i love that's the thing. That's why I want to do it is because I want to try everything. And I'll tell you right now, the just, you know, because you you typically game in person much more than I do. You know, um I like it, but it's hard. Exactly. Exactly. The energy is different.
00:12:00
Speaker
And, you know, for because when I'm there, I ran the game Friday,
Future Plans and Reflections
00:12:05
Speaker
Saturday and Sunday. And we'll get to that. I want to get to that. I just want to. yeah ah So for, for what the one game that I was in, know, he, he knew his stuff. i know i knew it stuff knew He knew he had a very good idea. you remember, you remember his name? You want to call it out or casey everberg listens Enter GM name here. We'll find that later. Well, if we can find it, we'll throw it in the show notes. Yes, absolutely. But, and again, thanks for running that game for my friend, Chucky. Oh yeah. Thank you very much. No, no. Cause well, cause the other thing is, you know, my wife doesn't game all the time.
00:12:43
Speaker
And so she's always nervous about sitting at the table and she's always nervous about making a mistake. So, like sorry, I got to, I got to jump in because you your wife came with you, which is awesome. Yes. Right. yeah And, and, um, but I saw a photo of you two and you were dressed like a boy scout and girl scout or something. yeah Was that for a game that you were, I thought for sure you guys were like going to, we would signed up to play like, they, they, they tried you. Boy Scouts murder story. or so pretty yeah Well, it depends where you want to go with that. um They usually, Chaosive Khan usually tries to have a theme.
00:13:17
Speaker
Oh, I get it. Okay. Because on Thursday night, they have this mixer that they do. Oh, fun. Yes. Really cool. So you get to go up, you dial yourself up, and you go for like the theme and stuff like that. Or just whatever. know Who cares? and So this year is because they had Campfire Tales.
00:13:37
Speaker
It's a brand new source book coming out focusing on Boy Scouts. Or scouting. For BPR? For Call of Cthulhu. Call of Cthulhu. Yeah, right?
00:13:49
Speaker
I want to avoid children and Call of Cthulhu, I think, personally. The game handles that. Okay, good. And a lot of it, what I was hearing about. Like ETU and ETU, like middle school and kids on bikes and all those. I understand. But Call of Cthulhu should be about terror and death and like sanity. And I don't want to traumatize children when I'm the GM.
00:14:16
Speaker
Well, and and from what I understand, the book goes into pretty good. That's awesome. so Here we go. Here's here's the new box.
00:14:27
Speaker
Here's the new box on how to do this so you're not a monster. Yeah. As a person, you're not a monster. Yeah. Here's here's how to here's how to write and how we mitigate the the. Yes. And I heard i heard that a lot.
00:14:38
Speaker
I heard that a lot. um ah they they have They have several seminars. going on all weekend. And so you'll have guys like Rick mites. And so you so said the name he's, uh, what's his, what's his position? He's like somebody within chaos. I believe he's art coordinator oh or creative director or something like that. I know I, I believe in the States he's, he's one of the head honchos. Oh, okay. Oh yeah. so hes Oh yeah. ah So did you take any good seminars on, on how to be a gooder GM?
00:15:12
Speaker
ah I love it. ah Well, yes. If it can't be great, be good. Sadly, I did not because when I was running mine is when they were having these these these just discussions. right um and But Clarissa, my wife, and Big Stompy went and they sat in on uh armchair which um uh you will thank me later for not sitting in on because it was specifically revolving around masculine i'll let the tap thank you for not sitting uh-huh yeah uh but they were talking a lot about that about hey these are some tips and tricks that apply not just to masculine i'll let the tap but to games and campaigns in general
00:15:57
Speaker
and And for the listener, just in case this is the first time you're hearing this, I'm running Masked and Nyer Lithotep on the Void Ledger podcast for Chuck, so I'd rather he didn't know the big story. i would rather not know.
00:16:07
Speaker
Yeah, no, of course, because it's fun, right? like it's Right. It's it's me. it's it's It's not spoiler central. It's like, no, I want to learn this stuff as we go. um The other one I sat in on, ah Bridget Jeffries, and I believe her name is Maeve.
00:16:22
Speaker
um And Maeve is a multi-platinum award winner on DriveThru. And she's got, what, 20 stories that she has published on there? Yeah. And so her, Bridget and Maeve, were both going through on um how to successfully publish through drive through RPG.
00:16:46
Speaker
And that was really good, really good conversation because they didn't hold back. They're like, look, these, this is the honest truth. These are the things you need to look at and be aware of.
00:16:57
Speaker
And seeing anything you can share like any, yeah. ah Yeah. um if If you publish something, um the biggest thing was ill it's never perfect. It's just done.
00:17:08
Speaker
get it to the point where it's yeah done. Yeah. Put it on because even if it gets done, you know, they made a very good point of pointing out that you can go back and you can make revisions and then just repost it.
00:17:23
Speaker
So, you know, so as, as people are giving you those feedback, I mean, don't put up garbage. No, no, no. bought it Get to the point where it, remember if you can't be great, be good. Right. Put it out when you're, when you're happy with it, but you're never going to be happy, happy with it. So just put it out. Yeah. Get it out there. You know, and then as people are saying, Oh, Hey, by the way, did you see this?
00:17:44
Speaker
If it's that big of a deal to you and you want go in and fix it up. Yeah. And that, was that was, you know, that, that was a real big thing. Um, Pay what you want. Oof-da. There's no fans of that in there.
00:17:59
Speaker
They're like, no, never do pay what you want. Okay. Yeah, they're like, no, your your time is valuable. Right. yeah You have value. And if you put pay what you want, nine times out of ten, you're zero Oh, yeah.
00:18:14
Speaker
And so they say no, even if it's $0.25. I'm guilty of that. I'm guilty of that. If I see something that it looks that looks interesting to pay what you want, I'm like, well, there you go. Free samples. Thank you. Like, you know. Yeah, I mean, i i'm I'm right there, too. I've i've done it. I try not to. You know, maybe when when Good GM's podcast starts, you know.
00:18:31
Speaker
you know, pulling bank, I can go back and give them some money for now. Go back. ah Hey, PS two years ago, I bought this. Here you go. It's ching. Yeah. And let's not forget we have a Patreon too, and we've got at least five, five members at this moment of recording. And which is, which is pre launch of our, of our actual show. But, but you know, so far it's all ah free members and you're all welcome to become free members. If you want the info. So, but also you can also, you know, give us. Come on in.
00:19:00
Speaker
Come on. Join us. Join us. Help us buy a cup of coffee. get let let Let your voice, your name be heard in the voice of e e Morris as a list of of yes recent ah Patreon supporters. Yes, yeah absolutely.
00:19:15
Speaker
So, yeah. so So, let's tell us. Tell us. Okay. So, you ran The Haunting. Yes. Yes. For the last four years. yes That is what I've been writing. Well. I'm not laughing at you. I'm laughing about you. Right. well ah Well, when my wife and I first went,
00:19:32
Speaker
You know, it was like, cause it's right there. It's Ann Arbor. It's right there. Like the zing straight shot. We're there. and that is the story, right? Like that's the one you get for free with the, with the Kickstarter. That is the notorious no all story. kickstarter It's just right. Not Kickstarter. Not Kickstarter. Quick start. I meant to say like, it's the. Yes. Yes. Quick start. Yes. Yeah. um So it's like, and it's the first one they published for call Cthulhu.
00:19:53
Speaker
Mm-hmm. And I swear to you, cause my wife is the one who puts our itinerary together because I can't be trusted to do that. There you go. oh Well, no, cause she got mad at me. She got mad at me and she was like, why do we have 12 things to do in one day?
00:20:08
Speaker
Oh, did I do that? You never do this again. I'm okay, I love you. And so she's real good at streamlining it and making sure that, Oh, PS. Well, i'll get her. I'll send her when I'm coming next year, hopefully depending on, um,
00:20:22
Speaker
Oh, yeah. No, trust me. She gets it all lined up. Ding, ding, ding, ding. Here we go. I'll send her. I'll get her to do my itinerary too then. Yeah. because She's good at it. Yeah. Well, we were driving home afterwards because all we signed up for. She's obviously a saint is if she's with you, sir. That's also true. That's also true.
00:20:40
Speaker
It really is. Yeah. But she, on the drive home, because all we signed up for were seminars because we we didn't know what to expect. You know, right yeah ah you know there was that there was that initial...
00:20:54
Speaker
beware, you know, because small con, you know, and I'm thinking, oh, well, you know what? It'll get us out the weekend. Spell it out. Spell it out. What what were you afraid Ah, Timu. Timu, you know, because I'm used to going to, like, Gen Con and all this, like, big boom, bang, and all this stuff. So, but I still, I i know what Timu is, but what do you mean? You're going to get garbage games? You're going like... hot I thought off brand. okay I really did. Oh, you're talking the first year. You're just talking the first year. Yeah. First year. Cause I didn't, I didn't appreciate the value of,
00:21:27
Speaker
ah only you know something less than a thousand people i didn't appreciate the value of that well and also something specific for one like creator like gen con is for every yeah rpg and massive right whereas um this is specifically con is specifically chaosium yes niche hard like you're not gonna go run a savage worlds game there you're No, no, that is faz frowned upon.
00:21:50
Speaker
and Even though, even though Chaosium allowed licensing for their stuff in the the horror companion. The horror companion. Oh yeah. No, they, they, they, they do collaborate with each other. And that's really cool. Yeah. ah But we're on the drive home from the first year. i asked my wife, I said, in the games, did, did any anyone run the haunting?
00:22:14
Speaker
And she was like, the what? I'm like, the haunting. It's it's like one of the first ones they ever wrote for Call Cthulhu. First one ever ran. And she's like, no. i At that point, I had never run it.
00:22:26
Speaker
m you know i just i just I was in a in a game and I wanted to do something different for my for right yeah group for Halloween. So I found the haunting and ran the haunting. right And that's when we stopped playing the campaign and started playing Mask and I are lithotap, right? So a different group. but Right. yeah And so that that for me, I was like, wow, that's that's sad.
00:22:48
Speaker
You know what? I'm going to be that guy. And of course the second year, I wasn't just that guy. Apparently other people may have noticed. And there was, I think it was me like three other people were all running on the haunting.
00:22:59
Speaker
Of course I'm better, but anyway, moving in Oh yeah. Well, I think you and I would have fun dueling hauntings because my, I, having played your hunting, I wouldn't run it for you now because you and me have a very different style yes um of running it. And I think, okay, maybe, maybe we make, let's make that a Patreon exclusive. Oh, that would be fun. That could be fun. We'll each run the hunting for our patrons and And so for every year that I ran it, oh boy. I'm kidding. They can not vote. They can tell us what they like. because yeah mean Hey, you know what I would win, but it's okay. We're not here to talk about that. You're a fun keeper. I'm the punishment keeper. What? No, I abuse my players a lot because they want it.
00:23:40
Speaker
They tell me that. There you go. they go oh but So for every year, for the last four years, I've been running The Haunting. And every year I try to up it in some way you know the props i'm bringing you know things like that that's awesome um and uh yeah uh stompy sat in on someone else that was running the haunting because he's like you he's like you know yeah i've i've sat in a lot of yours just i want to see what somebody else does right and i was like okay um he was disappointed bet um
00:24:13
Speaker
Yes. If you can't say anything nice. Right. Just yes. We'll leave it at yes. He was. He was not. Because again, how I described the first GM, the first good GM, it was like this individual showed up, signed up. Because if you sign up and volunteer for 12 hours a your time, however you want to divide it up.
00:24:36
Speaker
You don't have to pay for the badge. Right. So it's okay. it So that's just three games over four or five days? Yeah. ah For the weekend, it's just okay one one game a day. That's it. Yeah. And you can go in, schedule it.
00:24:52
Speaker
For the most part, bing, bing, bing, here we go. Yeah. sounds like this guy was just there for the badge. Yeah. Right? So no that's not fair. That's not fair. No, no. So when we're talking about good GMs, bad GMs. Yeah.
00:25:07
Speaker
It's like so next next year, our listeners are going to be going to Chaosium Con and filling your tables. Right? Because you're going to do it again next year. Oh, yes. I'm toying with the idea of actually instead of running it in 1920, running it set in 2025.
00:25:27
Speaker
Modernize the whole thing. Love it. Love it. That'd be fun. That'd be it'd be a good twist. And I think i think what we'll do what we'll do for sure is I would like to have an episode specifically devoted to running cons and maybe see if we can get a guest to have someone in mind. Oh, yeah. um So I don't want to dwell too long. I don't want to spend too much longer going about like, but your props, you brought props, you brought handouts.
00:25:49
Speaker
they're They're good looking maps. you've i've seen I've seen pictures. You laminated them. Like you've spent money and time making these look amazing. Yeah. Go go home. Well, that's it. It's a show. Yes. Like, I have it.
00:26:02
Speaker
that I've never been to a show. It is a show. I have never been to a con, but I have two, two con games prepped and ready to go. And a third one in in mind. And I have Scooby-Doo and Cthulhu 2, which is against Savage Worlds. But I have the little minis. have maps. I have i have the the character sheets, the handouts. i have a um ah a book that I give them that's like the's got the the ritual to like stop the end of the world. Sorry. Or rather, to it's not really end world because maybe it's Old Man Jenkins. You don't know until the end. half it's it's It's fish, people. Anyway, um and the other one that I have is is a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles story where you play the turtles, and I have, like, the the maps are in pizza boxes. The character sheets are in pizza boxes. So you have your you have your character sheet, you open up the pizza box, there's a character sheet, and there's a dice a dice tray for you to roll into. I even had it for one time, I ran it at my local gaming club, where I had i had the different colored masks that people could wear.
00:27:01
Speaker
Nice. So that, you know, they could pretend to be like the turtles, right? It's a show. It's a show. And I try it right now. People remember that. People remember that. um Stompy got complimented several times on his game. And and all he was running was the ah the story, What's in the Cellar?
00:27:20
Speaker
Right. Also a free ah free, you can download it right now on their on on online. it's I know I have because it's right it's like ah it's like ah it's supposed to be like a one-hour game, which I think he's obviously stretched out to a four-hour game. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. yeah god i Well, I think he got to like two and a half hours.
00:27:36
Speaker
Oh, okay. On his stuff. But again... the the The players, they had a good time. They had a beginning, middle, and end. Yeah. That's good it's a good story. Yeah. When they got done, they were all saying... He didn't get the... that's it They were like, oh, we're done? Wow. Oh, my God. Hey...
00:27:55
Speaker
I got time to go do this or I got time to go do that. And so no one cried that it was too short. Right. No one did that. It's funny because it had a good time and they got to go short. If it's satisfying, it's fine. If it's too long, it can be more frustrating.
00:28:12
Speaker
But we again, we'll talk about con games too. But I, when I ran at the online game, I ran that Scooby-Doo Cthulhu game and we got right to the very end at the end of the ritual game. And then like at the right at the at right of the the time's up thing, it was like the final role, the the final role for the ritual failed.
00:28:30
Speaker
And if you fail a role in ah in a dramatic task in ah in ah in a Savage Worlds game, yep you that's the worst can happen. And when you're trying to stop a Shoggoth from coming and devouring all of Innsmouth, You know, that's that that's the end of the world. And so I basically said, OK, time's up, guys. Sorry. and They're like, no, that's fine. This was so much fun. I said, OK, last round around the table. Tell me what happens to each of your characters. Yes, I think I think ah I think like I don't remember everybody, but i remember for sure Shaggy got, you know, will say.
00:29:03
Speaker
assaulted to death by fishmen. Fred got stabbed. and Daphne daphne was was funny. She was like she was fighting off fishmen left and right, and like a tentacle just came up. like It didn't even know she was there and crushed her. And that's that's the that's that's and then last the last and the best one was Velma, who lost her glasses and then was was feeling around, found her glasses, put them on saw the Shoggoth,
00:29:30
Speaker
Done. Took off her glasses and stabbed out her own eyes. Yes. So. yeah Yeah. Like, oh Well, I can tell you right now. You guys win. the You guys win. Yeah. can tell you right now, because I know you and you understand both systems very well. Mm hmm.
00:29:45
Speaker
So I know, i already know you could easily convert that to call Cthulhu right now and run it next during it bring that with you and you'll have full tables all three days. Oh yeah. Guaranteed. Oh yeah. How much fun would it be to make Shaggy and Scooby and and Velma and all them? and oh perhaps Oh yeah. Hands down. Easy.
00:30:06
Speaker
Yeah. Easy. And yes. And um the energy is just so different, but, ah but you know all in all, I think a lot of the really good things is, um oh, who did I meet? My God, I'm terrible with names. Why do you do this to me?
00:30:25
Speaker
um I think he was the VP, i think. Okay. I'm so sorry. Well, my God, I talked to him twice, so I feel bad. You might to edit this out. But anyway, um no, because his wife stopped me.
00:30:37
Speaker
Okay. And I didn't know who she was. I had no idea who she was. I thought she was just another attendee and she's got this great German accent. I believe i believe it's German. I hope it's German. um And she was just like, oh, look at this. This is so good. Cause I have a wagon. Cause I have those big posters and I learned very early on. That's very difficult to carry those around. Plus all the other gear.
00:30:59
Speaker
And ah she's like, so she stopped me and she's like, oh, this is so nice. Nice. It's so good. Oh, I love this. And I'm like, oh, hey, hi. um i'm I'm Chuck. Friends call me Chucky. And she's like, oh, this is so nice. And I'm like, yeah, I'm running the haunting. Are you playing are you gaming? yeah I don't know who she is. Not a clue.
00:31:19
Speaker
And she doesn't even look at me. She's just still going through the posters, checking them out and looking at stuff. She's like, oh, it's so nice. And she's very casual. He says, oh, I'm i' running. i am running. Yeah. 26 players.
00:31:32
Speaker
few tables.
00:31:35
Speaker
a few tables Yeah. Okay. You saw that look, that look on your face you just did. that's you I know I did that too. And I was like, I i was like, who Holy crap. That's hardcore. now and She laughed. She's she's like, Jeff, Jeff, you come here. You look at this. This is so good. So good.
00:31:54
Speaker
her hubby comes over again. i don't know who this guy is. You know, if I've seen him before, i don't remember who he is. I'm like, okay, sure. And he goes by and, I'm just like, tell him he's look at the poster. She's all like, this is so cool. And I'm like, and this is your maps and stuff. Like, yeah, I have all the maps. And, uh, you know, and, and he's like, yeah, that's really cool. That's really cool. And I'm like, yeah, you know, cause now we're buddies, now we're buddies. So now I'm like, I'm leaning in and I'm like, yeah, you know, the, the, the deals to have, cause I had Matt, the their cartographer for the company.
00:32:25
Speaker
I had him sign. I have to explain who he is to this guy. Right, he knows the guy. Yeah, he employs him. So it's like, okay, again. Yep, yep. And I was like, gosh, going to have Matt. That's the deal. I'm going to get Matt to sign one of these for me. Yeah. I just don't want to look like, don't want to look like an a-hole and have them pick the wrong, me give him the wrong map. The guy doesn't even break stride. He steps forward. He's got drink in one hand. The other hand, he's just, he just starts grabbing the maps. He goes, yep.
00:32:56
Speaker
Matt did this one. Not that one. Not that one. And he did that one. And that one. Yeah. Yeah. Matt'll, Matt'll do that. He'd love to. Just find him. He'll do it for you.
00:33:07
Speaker
And then he says, hi, I'm Jeff. By gosh, I forgot the guy's last name because I'm a good person. um I'm the VP of this. And I'm like, oh, are you? Hi. Hi. So, yeah. so but but that But that's the level.
00:33:26
Speaker
That's the level of engagement you're going to get. You probably don't get that at 12,000 or whatever. won't even come close to that. No. Unless you know someone, you won't come close But you can go down in the lobby and there's Seth Skorkowski.
00:33:41
Speaker
Just and you can just have and a drink. Well, that's the thing, right? Like, I love this and it's a great community overall. Like, yeah, like our last thing, yeah our episode that we last recorded where I just happened to be friends with two guys who are like the designers of one of our favorite game settings in the whole wide world. That's amazing. But they're just people. They're nice guys like they're teachers and whatever. Like, they're just people with jobs. And then they come to these events and they get treated like so like like royalties, which is great. But at the end of the day, they're just they're just like you and I, man. like They're just dudes. like they're just like And it's so hard to forget that sometimes.
00:34:17
Speaker
Yeah. It really is. like You put these people on pedestals right because they are doing the awesome thing. Well, like you know you found out last week, yeah you know, when you we were talking to those guys and it was just like, it's like, they're good dudes. They are very good dudes. They were, they were just as excited to, to be asked to be interviewed as we were to have them on the show. Like, Oh man. A couple of years ago for Halloween, we had Carl Kiesler. I got, I just messaged him saying, would you send a video to me so wishing us ah a happy Halloween for our, for our game?
00:34:51
Speaker
And he was like, of course I will. And he did it. And it was like i put that in I was like, guys, before we start our game, I want to play this for you. And you guys were like, We lost our minds. Damn! We lost our minds. But he's just a really nice guy. just you know he He happens to also be the the designer behind some really cool stuff. A lot of really cool stuff, right? Well, because the other thing is, it's not just the designers. It's actually it's it's also the player community is really cool, too. um ah Big Stomp and I were demoing a pirate game.
00:35:21
Speaker
a ship to ship combat game that these guys up from the the gentleman from pine box entertainment, the ones who did the doom town. They're usually there because yeah. Cause they, well, they, they do the card game seven seas and that's the other one. Right. That's another game. Yeah.
00:35:38
Speaker
Not bad system, by the way. No, that sounds like fun. I would love to, that I would love to run ah I would love to, I think a pirate, a pirate campaign, even a short one would be a lot of fun. Oh yeah. But a gentleman came up to me cause he saw the posters and he saw the call Cthulhu book was sitting on top of everything that I just tossed into the wagon. Cause I'm disorganized.
00:36:00
Speaker
Cut that out anyway. Uh, but he came up and he's like, Hey, uh, I hate to ask you this, but do you do you have some extra character sheets? Because I got a game and like a couple of hours. I'm going to go to a game right now, but I'm running a game in a couple of hours, and I left everything at home.
00:36:20
Speaker
And i I don't want to drive home. And I and i was like, i I don't have extras. But Stompy had made extras. Oh, nice. And so we were able to go to a room, get the extras, go back down.
00:36:34
Speaker
And he said, I'm in salon seven or salon five or something. Go down, find him. give them the papers. And then Sunday before we leave in the guy was outside having a cigarette and we got to see how it went and talk to him for a while. Yeah. You got the whole story, right? Like you felt like you were part of that. That's awesome. That's awesome. well It was good.
00:36:57
Speaker
We probably could go on about this for a long time. A really long time. Yes. But we already have. And I highly recommend it. Yeah. And yes. Gaussian con in April in, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. In Ann Arbor, Michigan. And like I said, depending on political climate at the time, I may cross the border down into the U S and finally, finally have a big hug from Chuck.
00:37:20
Speaker
Yes. I imagine it's an incredible. Oh, I'm a great hugger, baby. And at a $25 Patreon level, you can have a hug, too. I'm kidding. i don't That's not a promise or a guarantee. It's $50. But anyway. but yeah And you have to go to him. yeah He's not coming to you. i highly recommend you got you got gen con for the big baboom you got origins for that that that beautiful adrenaline and and small and then you got chaosium con for that niche intimate here we go i know of genghis con i know of chupacabra con i know of I know Necronomicon. There's so many good good cons that I would love to go to someday. And yeah, maybe you know maybe in the the near future we'll be promoting the pod on going to these conventions as like guests and heck yeah you know running games for for for our fans and our friends and our and our new fans.
00:38:17
Speaker
a new call it members. Hell yeah. All right. um So thank you for joining us. Thank you for telling your story, Chuck. I'm glad i'm glad you got to have such a great weekend. It was good. ah worth And, and, and I look forward to, I look forward to next week's episode, whatever that's going to be. Oh, it's going to be a good one. Tune in kids.
00:38:35
Speaker
Yeah. All right. Take care. Be good. As always. It can't be great. Be good. I like that. Practice makes gooder. Makes good
00:38:49
Speaker
That's awesome. good
00:39:06
Speaker
Thank you for watching. If you like or dislike what you heard, let us know. If you want to suggest an idea for an episode, ask the host a question or just tell Chuck and James what you really think of them.
00:39:24
Speaker
Join our communities at patreon.com forward slash good GM's podcast or find us on the usual social media platforms.
00:39:35
Speaker
For now, I'm E.E. Morris, and you're all good GMs.