#killer breakfast

[mattilynblack]

The killer breakfast

Battler of titans, Japanese god. Killer japese god, and rabid bunnies.

[endreal]

My very first convention was Gen Con 2002 (the last year it was held in Milwaukee) with my dad and his best friend back when I was still a callow youth. One of my friends had convinced me to read the first few books of the Dragonlance saga, and Tracy Hickman was one of the guests at the con. On the day before we had to leave, my dad and I attended "Killer Breakfast with Tracy Hickman", which is one of my most favorite memories of Gen Con. Since I'd never seen or heard Hickman before, I expected Tracy to be a woman based on name alone (which seemed reasonable to me, especially since Margaret Weis co-authored the Dragonlance books I'd read). When a guy with a beard stood up and started emceeing the event, I turned to my dad and whispered "Is that Tracy Hickman? I thought it would be a woman!" The event started and Hickman started systematically going through the audience killing off characters one by one (or in pairs, or trios, or entire groups) in a "tag-team" RPG session. The whole thing was a riot! Finally it was our turn to get up on stage and when Hickman asked the obligatory "how did you character get here?" questions, my dad lights up with this mischievous grin and blurts out "Oh man, I heard Tracy Hickman was going to be here. Have you seen her? I've heard she's a real babe!" The whole room busted out laughing, and it didn't even matter that me and dad got "killed" by Hickman before we even properly joined the game.

The experience was so much fun, it inspired me to run a similar event at a local convention for over 5 years. ((Ask thedrunkenminstrel sometime about the year I included a Dragonforce air guitar competition against Satan as one of the challenges))

My dad passed away last year, but Tracy Hickman is going to be at Dragon*Con this year, running another Killer Breakfast.

[chinhand]

[laraleecupcake]

A bit of a LARP-ish thing with Jason Marsden participating.

[endreal]

This weekend I will be at a local convention, running a a Killer Breakfast event.

A Killer Breakfast is an early-morning (10am is early for a weekend, right?), "instant-respawn", interactive RPG that is light on rules and heavy on body-count. Players continuously cycle into the party from the audience as characters are killed off one-by-one or in droves.

I tend to run events that draw heavily on puns, wordplay, and pop culture references.

I am putting this here because I'm hoping that any known GMs among my followers are willing to review my rough game outline and offer suggestions or feedback.

Pre-emptive thanks!

Meet the PCs:

Taurus - probably-human warrior. Big and beefy. Character attributes: Master of Arms, PercepBiception, [+1 more?]

Matterhorn - half-mummy rogue. Sly like whoa. Character attributes: The Deadest Eye, [+1 or 2 more].

Eidolon - blond cleric. Personality—animated gifs. Character attributes: Turn Undead, "Bless Your Heart", Item—Coat of Many Kittens.

Teremko - carbon-based mage. Opportunistic...ish. Character attributes: Cantrips, Expert Scaler [+1 more]

PCs begin outside imposing LIBRARY with gothic architecture - the library of the nefarious Spine Mistress. The Spine Mistress has collected every grimoire and necromantic text in the world, and is going to tap their collective power to create an unstoppable undead army to establish her Empire of Bones.

PCs must enter library, which is protected by electrified puzzle lock - tangram puzzle (if a PC puts a piece in the wrong place, electrocuted to death) ((I want to do a "Tetris" lock, but that may be too complicated to incorporate))

Once inside the library, assaulted by animated tomes (have rest of audience pelt PCs with duct tape balls/foam/paper wads/something. Audience member comes up to replace the PC they "killed")

Brief (expository) encounter with Spine Mistress; SM banishes PCs into various tomes.

Liber Ludos Mortis ("Book of the Games of Death") manuscript: PCs sent to hell described in the manuscript. To escape they must journey to the center of the plane and win games against Death.

target practice (perspective shenanigans are such that a miss of the target sends the projectile hurtling toward the back of the shooter)

pictionary (??? ??? ???)

rock paper scissors (losing results in death)

Items gained: 3 chunks of DEATH ORE

Clavis Tartari ("The Key of Tartarus") manuscript: Oh man. This place is the pits (ba-dum tssh).

construct a bridge across the great pit. If your guide line fails, you get dragged to your death into the pit (reel out a metal measuring tape across the length of the room without it bowing/"folding")

battle against hecatonchires (100-handed primordial beings that guard Tartarus). Holy smokes! An ACTUAL combat encounter!

Item gained: BAG O' GIANT HANDS

Corpus Necromantium ("The Body of Necromancy") manuscript: the PCs end up outside the kingdom of the dead

gain entry through a magical security system that only admits undead into the kingdom

navigate the graveyard (follow v. specific path or skeletal hands erupt from ground and pull PCs to their doom)

PCs must make their way to a grand masoluem and reconstruct the columns around the entrance the activate the portal (4 dice towers have to be constructed). Failure to do so results in a burst of eldritch energy that consumes the builder.

item gained: GRAVETALKER'S KNITTED BROW

Return to LIBRARY, Mistress is pissed, causes eldritch whirlwind that causes all books to fly away, leaving PCs in a LITERARY WASTELAND

item gained: AN ACTUAL CARD CATALOG(?) (Spell Checks)

LITERARY WASTELAND: after defeating the three tomes, arrive in final book where world is entirely bleak

- approached by jawa-esque merchants, who trade trophies from each book's Page for powerful equipment

3 chunks of DEATH ORE for HEAVY METAL ARMOR

BAG O' GIANT HANDS for HANDORA'S BOX

GRAVETALKER'S KNITTED BROW for BALL OF SPUN YARN

AN ACTUAL CARD CATALOG for SPELL CHECKS

The Spine Mistress

"Multi-stage" boss battle.

- surrounds self with wall of "muzak", so soothing the PCs can not attack until the wall is penetrated (activate: Heavy Metal Armor)

- begin reciting terrible poetry so that it dazes, confuses, and hurts the PCs (Vogon-esque stuff). (Activate: Handora's Box)

- attacked by demon fable sphinxes (SM's familiars) (Activate: Ball of Spun Yarn to best the sphinxes)

- form of MAGICAL DOOM (Activate: Spell checks)

Once SM's doom spells have all been neatly transactionalized and sent to the Central Spell Bank for processing (3-5 business days), she storms off in a huff.

VICTORY