I am inspired to write this post, due to this recent post, recalling the 20 year anniversary of The Watch House.
This was more than just a game to many of us who were playing in it, but I can only say what it meant to me, and so, through the haze of time and aging memory, I will try to do so.
I first went to university in Glasgow (Strathclyde Uni), but in all my time there, I didn't look up any University role playing clubs. The are likely many reasons for this, but they're not really that interesting.
When I moved to Edinburgh, however, I did look up the local University Gaming club The Great Edinburgh Adventurers Society, GEAS. Still going strong. When I joined, I was, what I would consider now to be essentially a very trad gamer. I had played with the same group since Secondary school, and though we had played many different games, we mostly fell into the same routines with each game.
Geas was a real eye opener for me, and in my time there, I played in a number of games, and with a number of people, that really stretched me, and showed me different ways to play and run games. Not all games were great, some definitely showed me how not to do it. A couple I still remember, the Xena game with Shevaun, Izzy's long running L5R game (that game could have a similar post to this in many ways). I played many new games from the Forge, and games of that ilk, by the GMs and game designers that frequented the club (again, another post on it's own).
Even in this crowded list of genius, there was one stand out game. The Watch House.
Roll Credits...
I think there had been a couple of sessions when I joined in the game, but it was in season 1 of the game. I created Jake. A musician, sometime taker of illicit substances, and psychic. Sometimes possessed, sometimes a vampire. Always trying to do his best and not hurt his friends, especially Milli.
As Craig mentioned in his post, the way the game was played was so much more collaborative than anything I had played in before, and the type of sessions we could do because of this were unique. This really was the game where I can trace the turning point in my RPG career from a 'trad' gamer to someone who was willing to experiment. It really opened my eyes. I'm quite sure this was down to the LARPing influence of Cat, and the well, Joe... There was a real meeting of minds at that table. It was lightning in a bottle.
I left the game in 2005-06. Jake was dead, and I was moving to Canada. I know that the game had write-ups on RPG.net, but I could never really read them when I was a player, and once I left, well, I think there was a type of mourning for something lost that took over, and I didn't keep up with the game.
For the time I was a player, it was before we all had camera phones, so the memories are all in my head, rather than in images. That is not to say that there is no evidence of my time there. I went into the RPG archives, and pulled out some artifacts of the game. Including bespoke artwork by Jamie.
There was even a soundtrack to the game, but I seem to have given away all the copies of the CDs I burned, as I couldn't find a copy. Maybe someone out there can send me the set list. I Know about 3 or 4 of the songs for sure, but not the rest.
The Buffy Archives from the Great RPG library
That character folio contained quite a hoard. Here are a few choice items.
Jake
Some of the artwork by Jamie. The best we can do for images of players.
Finally, the action figure of Jake. For some reason, this figure doesn't quite match with the one in this post. Maybe there are indeed two out there. One good and one bad, I'm sure!
So I end with this. Thank you Craig, and all the other players, for creating a memorable gaming experience. One that we are still talking about 20 years later.
Thanks for the track listing for the soundtrack. Not sure it is of enough interest to add to the post, but it's nice for me to have.
From what I remember, I was in a rush to burn enough copies to give to you all at a Christmas party, and always said I'd burn my self a copy at my leisure. Of course that never came to pass!
Here are some handouts I put together for the Zagreb chapter of the Horror on the Orient Experss campaign. Feel free to use them for your games. pdf available on request. Put behind a cut to allow players to ignore spoilers.
As I mentioned ever so briefly here, back in the review of games played for last year, I have been involved in the playtesting of FiveEvil. This is a game based on the d20 system of the "fifth edition of the most popular TTRPG on the market", aka 5e. FiveEvil takes this base game that many people know and love, and modifies the system and rules to allow the game to work for a horror setting. The game is currently under development through Handiwork Games . 5e is often used as a system to run any type of game. Mostly because it is the biggest game in the TTRPG space, and has therefore has the largest player base. However, any time the though of using 5e to run a horror game comes up online, this raises the hackles of the horror game community, as at its heart, 5e D&D is a heroic fantasy game where character agency is front and centre, whereas horror games require putting that character agency on the back burner, and put them in situations where they do not feel in contr...
As my last post was rather long-winded and ranty , I decided to cut it off before getting round to what I had planned as the main event, that is the unboxing of the Sedefkar Simulacrum, as delivered to me last week. Each set came with a letter from Delphes, the campaign organiser and artist, as well as a certificate of authenticity. A packing error meant I got two copies of the letter and certificate, but as the certificates are not numbered, this isn't an issue. The Box First off, the box itself. Aged to look like it has sat on a shelf for some time (even the hinges are rusted), and labelled on the outside as part of the Miskatonic University collection. Inside, the Simulacrum is hidden in wood shavings/straw, and on the inside of the lid is a faded and slightly warped insignia for the Simplon Orient Express. As was mentioned by Delphes on the KS page, the box is a touch too short to lie the Simulacrum flat, due to a later change in the positioning of the leg mag...
That was indeed the 'first edition' Jake figure, I made another with less floppy hair. :)
ReplyDeleteFirst edition, therefore priceless! ;)
DeleteThanks for the track listing for the soundtrack. Not sure it is of enough interest to add to the post, but it's nice for me to have.
From what I remember, I was in a rush to burn enough copies to give to you all at a Christmas party, and always said I'd burn my self a copy at my leisure. Of course that never came to pass!