Shadows Over Garenport Session #1 Tonight

Well, we changed our plans. Due to inclement weather, all of the things we were going to do this weekend got pushed to next weekend, and the indoor things (i.e. the SOG game) got pulled ahead to this weekend. In a few hours, we'll be playing. 

I've made a few minor tweaks to what I was expecting to do. Let me go through my last minute preparations, for a record on how I run.

• Rather than the original patron list, I came up with an abbreviated contact list. Everyone will start with a contact, but they'll only take one slot on their character sheet. Some of the contacts allow you to start with an alternate race if you want, so if you don't want to be a human, you have to pick that contact to have access to that race to start. However, I did not create a contact that allows you to play a seraphim or an Atlantean skraeling. There is a contact that allows access to the two orcling races, one that allows access to the grayman race, one that allows access to the woodwose race, and one that allows kemlings and surturs, etc. In fact, here's the file of contacts to choose from right here.
• I also made the Scooby gang as pseudo-PCs that we'll play first. Before even really doing anything else, we'll start that and I'll call it the "tutorial" phase of the game. After it's done, we'll all make characters together. I've got printouts of the characters to cut out and hand out with the character sheets, which I've made. I'm quite sure that the pop culture reference will not go unnoticed.
• I think the chargen might take longer than I expected, just because I don't have a lot of veteran players, so I'll probably have to hold lots of figurative hands as we do it. Still, my estimate is that between the tutorial and the chargen, we'll be ready to take a small break and get started within 1-2 hours of starting, which will give us probably a good 2 or even more hours to actually play with the characters. I've got everything ready for the "prologue" adventure, transferred and slightly modified if needed, into my notebook so I don't have to consult a blog on my phone during the game, which would be really awkward. However, I seriously doubt that we'll finish up the prologue in one session. If we do, and we go faster than I think—and it's not impossible if the tutorial and chargen goes fast—then that's the end of the night no matter what, because it will make a natural stopping point without having to mess up the pacing. I could get started on the next phase if by some crazy twist of fate we get there way faster than I think that we will, but I don't plan to, and would much rather do that in another session. I think the tutorial and chargen will probably be on the long side of our plan. If we play for 3½-4 hours, then at best we'll get near the end of the prologue, but be very unlikely to finish it.

Anyway, I'm excited. This has been theoretical for years, and now not only am I playing, but it's my son, my daughter, my son-in-law and my daughter-in-law (I still only have the one, for at least a couple more months.) Could I ask for a better group? Well, I don't know. I don't know that our gaming tastes are entirely aligned; I guess we'll find that out as we play for a few sessions, but at least they're people that I enjoy hanging out with, needless to say.

Dominic Clevenger, my iconic protagonist