Impressions from the ‘Roleplayer’ Convention

Last week I attended the ‘Roleplayer’ Convention, which took place at the ‘exhibition space’ Danilovsky Event Hall. I went not as a journalist, but simply as a tabletop player. More accurately, as a newcomer to tabletop games, since I had previously only played trial sessions of ‘The Backside’ and ‘The Black Book’ at ‘PlayerCon’.

As the name suggests, the focus of the convention was on role-playing tabletop games, and one could even play a short session for free. I ended up playing two — one in Shadowrun and one in ‘[Call of Cthulhu](/games?search=Зов Ктулху)’ (albeit in a Japanese setting). I could have even played a third if I had arrived earlier.

Each session lasted about two hours, and the introduction to the system was quite quick. The game master explained only the basics of the system, after which we (the players seated at the table) set off on adventures. Specific situations were then explained as they arose — what was happening, how character parameters influenced it, what could be done, and how the outcome of actions was determined (how many dice to roll, what results needed to be achieved, etc.).

In Shadowrun, this approach played a cruel trick on our party when, after careful (or so we thought) preparation for a heist, during which we were supposed to pose as technicians arriving to service the servers, we found out during the capture of the actual technicians that their passes were tied to biometrics (in the world's terminology — SIN).

So in the end, instead of quietly passing as system operators, we had to break down the door of the back entrance. Fortunately, the police didn’t arrive quickly (I think the master may have slightly assisted us), and we managed to take down the security in the office and download data ordered by the local ‘fixer’ from the server.

With ‘Call of Cthulhu’, the adventure went more smoothly and straightforwardly. More accurately, there were no major surprises for me. Two other players, when a bride disappeared from the house of a powerful Japanese clan the night before the wedding, and her maid was found with her heart ripped out, said, ‘Sorry, we didn’t know what we were signing up for’ (there was a possibility for a preliminary sign-up in the VK group) and left the session. However, their characters were redistributed among the other players, so I got to play both a somewhat silly American actor and a more intelligent doctor.

The only thing that slightly disappointed me about the plot was that there was no real difference in roleplay depending on the gender and race of the characters. I was disappointed because at the very beginning, the game master specifically warned us that since the story takes place in Japan, Americans would be looked at oddly, and women would be regarded as less than nothing. Yet almost immediately, all characters descended into a dungeon where they had to interact with fishmen (or whatever curse had transformed these people), who frankly couldn’t care less about gender and race.

But overall, the session ended successfully. The bride was rescued, the wedding between the clans eventually took place (even if only in the epilogue to the main action), and only one of the heroes died (with two others losing limbs).

Actually, by the end of my misadventures in mystical Japan, it was almost seven in the evening — so I headed home. But some parties were still ongoing. Besides Shadowrun and [Call of Cthulhu](/games?search=Call of Cthulhu) (I chose these games because I was at least familiar with the setting, if not the system), they were playing Pathfinder, Starfinder, Dungeons&Dragons (although I didn’t find any free spots there), and various unfamiliar tabletop games (yes, role-playing games were not the only thing at the convention).

There were even several tables led by authors of their experimental systems. But that was already paid entertainment. And as a beginner, it was clearly premature for me to jump into something experimental.

In one corner, there was a special guest Sneaky Dice (apparently known in the circles of game masters). You could get an autograph.

Also, by the windows, a row of vendors offered various figurines, postcards, beautifully bound rulebooks, and even game sets to tabletop RPG enthusiasts.

For the hungry, there was a café near the entrance. And in a nook, they were showing movies on a big screen. In general, everything was quite nicely arranged.

My final impressions from what was essentially my first session in tabletop role-playing games (two sessions) were quite positive. So I might try it again someday, but probably not for pay — I'm not ready for that yet.