One quick point first: almost any available picture of the main library in town frames it to make it as angular and bleak-looking as possible. Yes, it is angular, but it also includes nice trees and a busy street and plaza, so don’t get the idea that it sits in silence except for a nearby croaking raven or that the only person in it is Ingmar Bergmann looking dour.

The library staff contacted Spelens Hus to see if anyone wanted to play and demonstrate some games during the February school break called Sportlov, and I signed on.

I know very well that events like this can’t just be me sitting alone, and they also can’t be a full table of people who obviously know one another; either case is unapproachable. I organized it such that Arvid, Johan (from Proteus), and Kristoffer joined me in sequence for a while apiece, overlapping a little but not much.

I brought some brightly-colored and jump-into-play things, including Fantasy for Real and The Mountain Witch, as well as the following which all saw some play:

• Gamma World 7E (4E D&D): I rolled starting material for some characters and truly cannot believe my results: a Hypercognitive Rat Swarm and a Radioactive Cockroach. Working straight from the book, I chose some foes (a newly-activated Android and some cultist Hoops who did the activating) and used a map from the box – pure mayhem ensued.
  • Against two beginning characters, three Hoops and an Android are insanely, unfairly dangerous … which turned out to be a positive feature in play, as they realized their peril and fled, indeed, with the rat swarm lugging the helpless, ichor-bleeding cockroach to safety. In other word, this is not a set-em-up, knock-em-down pillow fight; it’s a playable situation with its own degree of danger, which they must actually play. (To their credit, they almost prevented the activation.) So I’m not adjusting the danger for later demonstration play, far from it: I’m keeping it right there.

• InSpectres: who knew that tomten were infesting the air ducts in the apartment building? Or that they could be stomped into even smellier goo?
  • A core feature: taking the client NPC (in this case, Tina Thorström, angry city official) and the general legal/economic culture (conerning a weird smell in an apartment building) seriously, however satirical or funny they may become. These are the true uncertainties of play, not “the case” (because it will almost certainly be solved), in their impact upon the characters and on the ongoing player choices about the success of their little start-up.
• Mörk Borg: the pass-out-and-play quick materials I developed for last year’s events – yielding some remarkably moral-conflict jump-in from the young people, which speaks to the strength of the basilisk god-stuff that’s easily invoked by play.

• The Pool: I have been slowly working the Galactic Peace game into a playable device for a while, using this two-page handout; in this case, I also used the location maps from the original game and some pre-made characters.

I’m still hoping for an ongoing relationship with the library system. Last year’s chance went well in practice but ran face-first into budget cuts. Let’s see how it goes this time.