how I fell asleep while RUNNING a role playing game
Some background; back in the early 1900s, a logging company completely took out all the trees in a chunk of north Michigan far from Ann Arbor, then donated the land to the University. The University used it to create a biological station, which ran really intense classes during the summer (there literally was only one winterized building at the Station before the 1980s). A lot of good stories come from my coursework at UMBS, aka “bug camp.”
how I fell asleep while RUNNING a role playing game
More background; the house where I lived at the time back in A^2 was owned by an alumnus who worked as a distributor for games. He figured he’d have his kid serve as landlord, thus screening residents, giving his kid a place to stay while at UM, and him too when he came to town for basketball games. In fact he got us housemates GenCon memberships and hotel space if we worked booths.
This is about to become significant.
how I fell asleep while RUNNING a role playing game
Remember how I said Biological Station classes were intense? The last few weeks passed in a blur of cramming, finishing reports and collections, exams and what undergraduates do while isolated in rural north Michigan- so, “drinking heavily.”
This means I was already running on several weeks of nearly no sleep when I got back to Ann Arbor, asked “when do we leave for GenCon?” and got the answer “tomorrow.”
how I fell asleep while RUNNING a role playing game
So I did a lot of laundry and didn’t sleep much. I’ll spare you the story about Ed’s D&D Stats until you ask.
We got to the only GenCon I’ve ever attended! An amazing convention which also didn’t include much sleep.
So that’s the atmosphere in which i bought a brand new Werewolf splatbook and was so excited to use it I threw together a one-shot game to run in my hotel room. I was GMing while sitting on the bed.
how I fell asleep while RUNNING a role playing game
The game commenced after 9 pm! Within an hour or two our heroes had failed to save an eastern Shadow Lord from motorcycling fomori, had opened a Moon Bridge to Kyoto to return the carefully wrapped bundle the Shadow Lord was guarding to the kitsune. There was a powerful magic sword the PCs could use... and potential alliance with the fox-folk. And all the burly western PCs had to do was... politely have tea with a centuries-old fox matron.
how I fell asleep while RUNNING a role playing game
Then weeks of sleep deprivation caught up with me.
Picture; werewolves in a new land, desperately trying to be socially adept for a change. Their every action is scrutinized by an old woman resplendent in several kimonos, the hint of nine tails twitching behind her as she sips o-cha, when suddenly her head drops and she says something like;
ITS SOME SORTA MAYFAIR KINDA DICE GAME.
before she abruptly wakes up and asks “what did I just say?”
