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.
Ok, so there were many reasons for going to a Con like this, but one of them is surely to pick up on products that you can't get elsewhere, or without spending too much on postage. With this in mind, I think I was actually quite restrained in my purchases. First off, I had a list of books to buy at the Chaosium stand (although I did spend my Cult of Chaos credit, and won one of these through the Extra Life Charity event prize draw). I was able to get the following: Pulp Cthulhu Two Headed Serpent Grand Grimoire of Cthulhu Mythos Magic Doors To Darkness Dead Light Another tip to the vendors hall led me to find a couple of second hand book stores, who had all the kinds of books you'd want to find at a Con like this, including: H P Lovecraft : The Shadow over Innsmouth and other Stories of Horror, as well as a copy of August Derleth's: The Reminiscences of Solar Pons. The Necronomicon Press stand was there, where I hooked up with a copy of TED Klein's: The
Okay, not quite today, but a couple of days ago, but hell, after a hundred years, what's a day or two? On the 18th of November, 1912, the 'Établissement de detention de Montréal' (Montreal detention centre) opened its doors for the first time, (before firmly closing and locking them again one assumes) for 100 prisoners. Within 6 months, it held 150. The prison is frequently refered to as Bordeaux prison , and as such it even warrants a mention in the Urban Dictionary . It was then, as it is now, the largest provincial prison in Quebec, it was built to hold 500 prisoners, and now her a capacity of 1,189 inmates (now all male). In 1915, there was a tramway built to connect it to town (as it was originally built to be out of town, although it has now been enveloped by the city). Prison construction in 1910 As a then very modern prison, there was some outrage amongst the general population that prisoners should be treated to such 'outrageous' comfort,
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!