With the 2007 con season behind me, I find myself dwelling on what went right and what didn't over the course of the many games we ran. We're at a point where games have folks familiar with WEGS sitting alongside of folks who are playing for the first time. This isn't a problem as that's what WEGS 101 is all about: easy enough for newbies and crunchy enough for game veterans. WEGS is also about options on the gamemaster's side of the table. It is very easy to whip up new minions and introduce ad hoc rules. I don't think there's a game we run that doesn't have some tinkering going on at this point. From our standpoint, it keeps the game fresh for us. Kinda like game improv. And therein lies the danger... Folks who have played with us before know that this is what WEGS is about and they ride this wave without batting an eye. Not so for folks playing for the first time. To them additional rules that seem "errantly" introduced can make the game system seem thin. The plug/play nature of the game is its strength, but can easily be perceived as weakness.
The other side of this is that our con games, to this point, have been system introductions. These are the basic rules, nothing glossy. We've been doing this now for TWO YEARS - playing an intro game. It's great fun, but when you know what the system can do, you start to itch. Me and Willy the Two have pre-game pow-wows on the new stuff. And we can easily get carried away with cool ad-hoc rules. Easily. For example, AggDam and the Blood Chip are two things we've been adding to all games. Just 'cause they're fun for us and they make the minions tougher to beat. However, in their small way, they are complicating the vanilla. It's a tough balance to keep in mind: introducing the game, keeping it basic and keeping it fresh.
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The first time I played WEGS at Ubercon 2006 it was the 'improv' quality of the game that I grabbed me. When players wanted their Arks to do something, the Kreator didn't say 'no'. Instead, he rolled percentile dice and said here's your obstacle, roll under that. That has nothing to do with the rules, exactly, but it characterizes what I thought was the attitude of WEGS. So I was a little disappointed, actually, during the game at Dexcon. You may recall that in an encounter with...a Holy Cow(?)...several of the Arks were mind-controlled into fighting on the side of the Cow. After the initial mind-possession, these Arks were not given the chance to throw off the mind-control, nor were magic users allowed to try and dispel the effect. The possessed characters wound up killing the others. It was a fun game overall, but that encounter was disappointing in that the Kreator was saying 'No' to player ideas.
Mel
Ah, The Temple of the Holy Cow... I gotta say that was some of the most fun we had wrapping up a final encounter. The crux of the "No" was that, as it was the last encounter, I wanted to set some immovable rules in motion to conclude the evening. I think we ended that one brutally and in the "Mean DM Who Says No Way" tradition! Once we agreed that that was the last encounter for the night, we locked/loaded on the Arks destruction. Once the Arks were demonically possessed, they were stuck until the idol was destroyed.
And it was late, Mel! :-)
I know, I know! But I almost escaped! I almost made it for one more room...just one more...At least Dave's mage made it out.
Mel
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