Rogue Cthulhu's Origins '99 Photos

And So it Begins...

... Origins 1999 was Rogue Cthulhu's debut show. After having attended Origins for several years as players, we finally decided that enough was enough. Someone had to show these jokers how it's supposed to be done. We spent an entire year putting together the first show. We wrote gads of new adventures and even imported a few from other like minded people we met along the way. We made posters, buttons and fliers, put up a web page and publicized our cause over the Internet. Within three months we had gotten national attention for our outspoken "take no prisoners" attitude. It was that attitude that got our page bumped off our first web server. Although the response we got initially was overwhelmingly positive, one RPGA member who's feathers we had ruffled, posted a negative comment in our guest book. Within 24 hours, our page was taken down by GeoCities. Coincidence?

... Our original intention was just to write one or two scenarios and take them with us next year (1999) to Origins. We expected to play in the RPGA events as always, and get screwed over as always, and then to put into action “Plan A”. After getting spanked around and having the scheduled event canceled by RPGA, as we knew we would, we planned to whip out the scenario we had written and offer to give the players what they payed for. We were going to commandeer a table in the RPGA area and run our scenario. No more would the players have to go home empty handed when their Cthulhu event got canceled. We would be there to pick up the slack. That was the plan anyway. But long before the con ever arrived we could see that our little mutiny was turning out to be much, much more than that. ... Within a couple of months our numbers had swollen to a formidable force. People were crawling out of the woodwork to help us in our crusade. We were taking heat for our open criticism of the RPGA and our hostile attitude towards the establishment, but that only fueled our fire. We were making waves in the gaming industry and by the time the con arrived, people would know the name Rogue Cthulhu. Chaosium liked our driving spirit and offered to help however they could. They gave us prize support and turned in our events along with their own so there would be less chance of us getting slighted by Andon Unlimited. Our two scenarios soon turned into ten. The idea of running our game one or two times in place of an RPGA event that had been canceled, soon turned into thirty events all our own. We made arrangements to be listed in the pre-registration book and with Chaosium’s help, even got Andon to promise us our own gaming room.

... The show was not without problems, but over all it was a tremendous success. While in previous years the RPGA had boasted 13 Cthulhu events with their “Chulhuthon”, this year they posted a token 4 (one title, four times), while we stole the stage with an unprecedented 30. And not one single event was canceled due to the lack of a Game Master. Stick THAT in your Paragon Level pipe and smoke it! We serviced over 120 Cthulhu fans and christened two new Call of Cthulhu phenomena.

... The first was an over night marathon event called "And Then There Was One". It was originally scheduled for 15 players, but the turnout was so tremendous that we let 21 players in (a move the GM would later regret). Although the event drug on a little too long, and in the end we were too tired, worn out and hung over to enjoy it, the first 4 hours or so included some of the best role playing we had yet experienced at Origins. ...The second were our “Shubby Sunday” adventures. No one had ever tried to do “Adult Only”, sexually explicit adventures at Origins before (as far as we knew). We scheduled them on Sunday for two reasons. The con would be less crowded, leaving less chance that a minor would try to get into the game. And in case Andon didn’t appreciate our mature themes, the con would be nearly over and we wouldn’t be missing much if we got kicked out. Although we didn’t get kicked out, we did get a talking to by Andon. It seems that one of our Shubby Sunday events (AC/DC) was so disturbing that one of the players showed up at the Andon booth in tears over the experience. Sorry about that.

... We made a lot of new contacts this year at Origins. We made a few new friends and we made a few new enemies. Gwen Kestrel, the events manager for Andon was more accommodating than we expected she would be, and perhaps more than she would have been had we not adopted such a steam roller persona from the beginning. Wes, the “hall monitor” for lack of a better title, had a hard time swallowing our unorthodox style, but once he saw that we were much more reliable and organized than what he was used to, he learned to ignore our eccentricities and eventually to be amused by them. He gave up trying to administrate our room and left the driving to us. Thanks Wes, we know you dig us. You just can’t let it show because “Big Brother” is watching. It’s cool.

... And then there’s Ed. Ed is an RPGA member, and one of the main reasons Rogue got started in the first place. He was one of the Game Masters that most consistently left us feeling like we had been robbed of a good time by the RPGA in our past visits to the con. We saw Ed again this year, hanging out at the RPG info booth at end of the hall, with Wes. He even got to run the booth solo for a spell, although we’re not sure if he had any actual authority to do so. By Saturday we were feeling pretty bulletproof, and having Ed down at the hall monitor’s station, as if he was in some way supervising us, was making us froggy. How it happened, exactly, is a long and sorted tale, but Sandor (an RPGA member himself, and a recent Rogue convert) ended up paying Ed a visit at his booth, without any pants on. He strolled right up to Ed wearing a long tailed shirt, briefs, and an RPGA SUCKS pin, and asked to file a complaint with the RPGA, that Rogue Cthulhu has stolen his pants! We hadn’t of course. He had disposed of them himself during a game (that’s the long and sorted part). Sandor has a way of pushing the boundaries of good taste, while remaining funny and charismatic. The pants incident was a close call. Even some of us thought that we had gone too far, but it eventually got smoothed over. Sandor explained that the whole thing was a joke, and luckily no one with any actual authority was called in on the matter. While Ed had always been someone we intensely disliked, he most likely had been ambivalent towards us. I imagine we have come to a mutual disdain for one another now.

... Although Sandor was upset because he thought Marx had trumped his pants stunt by having the woman show up at Andon’s booth crying after playing in his adventure, Marx was willing to call it a draw. The con was coming to a close, and the bad boys of role playing were saying their last goodbyes to their new friends. The future looks bright for Rogue Cthulhu. Having made it past all the hurdles of putting on our first show, and looking good to boot, there’s no telling how big this could get. People will remember us. The players will cheer and the competition will glare as we come on to the scene next year. We are already working on ways to make the Rogue experience even better in the future.

... We’re looking into expanding into other conventions besides Origins and also into other game systems besides Call of Cthulhu. We have also had several offers from people who want us to come to their local cons or who would like us to send them copies of our adventures to run at their local cons. Soon there could be Rogue cells all around the country. Wouldn’t that be cool?

... See you next year. Same Rogue time, same Rogue channel.