At Story Games LA’s Indie RPG Night, I came with some backup options, but was mostly interested in joining a game, like Sam Dunnewold’s wedding larp (which he had advertised as an option that night on the Discord).

Well, as it turns out we needed some more games running due to number of folks. So I went in and pitched a game. I did bring my good friend and temporary house-guest Lauren, so she did get to play in Sam’s game though!

What did I pitch? Microscope, a Ben Robbins classic story game. But I wanted to run a specific premise, which I had done once before while playing with my brothers: We would play “The Life of an Elf”. This premise was inspired by watching the anime Frieren some time last year, which is the story of a long-living elf against the backdrop of world-ending events in the past, and in the present, and the ideas of friends long past, and friends new.

I pitched the game, but we did make some tweaks at the table - especially as I wasn’t too set on “elf” as the main premise, just that it was a long-living entity. So, we went with an “immortal” human. And specifically, as we explored our Add and Ban lists for the game, a human which isn’t otherwise superhuman in any way. They don’t know why they live forever, and don’t otherwise have any super powers or super intelligence.

All-in-all it ended up being a good game for the relatively short timeframe we’ve got, and I got to introduce Microscope to two of the players who had never played it before.

We did have someone use the Open Door during the game. (What is the Open Door? Check out the TTRPG Safety Toolkit for details, but simply put from that document: The Open Door is the assurance that someone can leave or take a break from the game for their own safety and well-being without being judged.) I mention this because sometimes a game’s tone shifts in ways that may not be enjoyable for everyone, or even the game itself has rules that may not vibe with everyone at the table… always important to describe these tools up front (we do that in every Story Games LA session), and to encourage and check-in on your players, so that they do what they need in the moment!

Separate from all that, however, I will say that I would like to play this scenario in a longer format sometime, but we’ll see…