On 13 May 2016 12:24 am, "Richard Aiken" <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:
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> On Thu, May 12, 2016 at 4:55 PM, Timothy Collinson <xxxxxx@port.ac.uk> wrote:
>>
>> And the PCs ignored all my shiny new(ish) rental Grav vehicles on display and went for the old ATV out the back. Despite meaning a day of travel instead of a couple of hours. Are they *sure* they haven't played before?!
>
>
> I don't know if I've told this story before here, but . . . .

Not that I recall. Great to hear this!

>
> Back when I was running my college group, one of my players had a girlfriend express interest in learning "what this roleplaying thing is all about."
>
> So I told her to imagine her ideal life five years in the future, then describe it to me, in as much detail as she could. After thinking for a couple of minutes, she said, "Okay. I'm going to be a graphics designer, working for a company in Atlanta. I'll have a really cool apartment and drive a cherry red classic Mustang convertible."
>
> It was my turn to think for a minute, then I said, "Okay. One fine spring day, you're driving in to work as usual and you notice that a large black SUV seems to be following you through several turns. What do you do?"
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> Without hesitation, she said, "Damn! I need a bigger car!"
>
> Natural roleplayer . . . :)

:-)

I do think my colleagues are picking things up fast. After one complained about a seemingly fruitless rumour search in *one* bar of a downtown area, the quiet backroom cataloguer playing a 7ft gunbunny looked up and said 'yes, but there's a whole street of bars outside and Gvoudzon's already got his new found vargr pal asking his mates to keep their eyes open'. (Perhaps that last should have been 'muzzles keen'!). (One weekend at TravCon has taught her a lot. But she loved it enough to already be signed up for next year.)

And our map librarian (playing Gvoudzon from The Traveller Adventure) - after muttering about my instant city sketch map not having a scale or key! - understanding from third colleague he could 'do anything' immediately says: 'OK, if we're looking for this metal case, I see one under the table' !! We established some boundaries at that point before he found himself near the factory that makes that brand of case. At convention time...

I have to admit that this 'off the cuff' adventuring is utterly terrifying for me. (But is the whole point of what we're trying instead of my usual TravCon massive prep and writing.). My hat is off to all those experienced refs who eat this for breakfast.