Virtual Grogmeet 2022

Yet again I had to skip the Thursday night pub quiz for Virtual Grogmeet, this year because it clashed with the Kult campaign I'm playing.  Accordingly, things once again kicked off for me on Friday night.

Game 1: Reboot The Future

I hadn't actually planned on playing on Friday night, but I've been wanting to try out Reboot The Future since I've backed the kickstarter, so when I saw there was a free space in the game five minutes before the start time, I decided to give it a shot.

Reboot The Future is a cyberpunk game using the Liminal rules, and despite being a radically different genre I thought it worked pretty well.  The Magician focus is replaced by Hacker, and cyberware is handled via traits.  While it looks like details are still being worked on, it's a solid concept and I'm looking forward to seeing the final product.

The adventure we played had a certain Liminal feel to it as well, involving investigating some mysterious deaths and following leads to an extraordinary conclusion.  Having jumped in at the absolute last minute, I wasn't quite my usual sparkling self in this game.  Fortunately the rest of the players did a great job of drawing me in as I figured out what I was doing with the character I'd picked.

Game 2: Matrons of Mystery

Grogmeet says that the games that tend to go down well are older games, and British games.  With Matrons of Mystery being about as British as it gets, I thought I'd give it a shot.  Four more lovely old ladies headed for the village hall to solve a murder at the panto, finding time for plenty of tea and shortbread along the way.  Ultimately a tragic tale of jealousy and betrayal unfolded, until the culprit was brought to justice.

Game 3: Tales from the Loop

I was very happy to see The Recycled Boy on offer, as while I've played a few TftL games before, this starter adventure wasn't one of them.  I'd never played with a pre-gen character before either, with previous GMs having us create our own, either before or during the session.  What this meant was some interesting secrets the kids weren't sharing but which were definitely influencing their behaviour.  Well worth playing, with a new twist compared to previous games.

Game 4: Kult

My Kult version of Unland was a bit of a hit, apparently, to the point where I was asked to run it again.  Meaning that I was a tiny bit nervous, knowing that there were some very high expectations for this game, but ultimately I had to trust that between my pre-gens and Scott Doward's brilliant scenario, it would all work out.

One thing I particularly enjoy about the pre-gens is that I've left small gaps in the backgrounds for the players to fill in, and that means I get a slightly different group of characters each time.  That also means that I never know exactly how the climax is going to go down.  I've run this scenario four times now, and it's been a new experience each time.

Reflections

Virtual Grogmeet is a great opportunity to play with people I wouldn't otherwise see much of.  With the in-person event being geographically distant and so many other good events on the calendar, I don't know when (or if) I'll ever get to it.  So I'm very glad virtual events like this are still happening, letting us play without concerns about transport, accomodation or covid precautions.