I have been in or adjacent to the ttrpg hobby for over 30 years in some sort of capacity ranging from bright eyed player to host of a mini convention at Critical Hit Games. If you take ccgs into account, I have traveled the length and breadth of the Midwest and attended close to 50 gatherings of geekdom. Not many to some as I have kept mostly isolated here in Iowa City. But I have never been a GM until last week.
Urged by my marketing team (me), I decided it would be a prudent move to showcase Goblyn Market locally at Gamicon. (Which I understand broke attendance records of over 640 this year!) I signed up for two sessions AND in a fit of ambition volunteered for a a one-shot for Party First. It was too much, it was not enough, and everything in between.
The pounding pulse and slight cold sweats was not because of an exciting scenario but a nervousness unforetold. A fury of butterflies made me catch my breath a couple times in the opening salvo of gaming, but I managed to right the ship because of the realization the players were there because they WANTED to be there. I wasn’t having to cajole or prod folks into a playtesting environment. They were here to have fun! So we did.
If you are coming from a traditional role-playing background like Dungeons and Dragons then Goblyn Market is going to be a liberating experience. The super intuitive system allows the players to take ownership of the storytelling. After only a couple reminders for the players to not only tell me what their characters are doing but what they wanted to get out of the action they were taking. When you’ve been in the backseat it can be a shock to be suddenly promoted to shotgun or even the driver’s seat for a bit!
Session One – Goblyn Market; A Most Wicked Wig in Bonmont
Sallow the gluttonous brute badger, Belle the envious baker frog, Lotti the greedy prankster bat, and Thom the prideful temptor cat were entrusted to prepare the city of Bonmont for the Festival of the Vagabonds. The city is in the grips of acting governor Orville enforcing temperance laws by shuttering the tipple houses. You can find this free affair on itch.
After making off with the wig of judge Judiah (as well as golden gavel and plate of cookies made for renown brothel madame Esmeralda) the vexation of goblyns descend onto Donetella’s tea house with their new bedeviled wig. As a throw away moment the player’s insisted Judiah was in the scene having a calming cup of tea after his harrowing night at the parliament.
Working together (well Bella had taken to charting the stars to pay off the seers) they created a diversion and slipped the bedeviled wig onto Donetella. Her countenance changed and the ebony with pearl lacing wig grew. She began destroying her own tea kettles and opened up ale casks she had stored behind the serving trays. The goblyns made a hasty escape before the town watch arrived.
It was off to the church in an attempt to defrock Orville. In a dizzying series of events plague doctors forfeited their position, a gem encrusted bible was snatched, and poor former judge Judiah had had enough and mooned* the congregation of elderly folks seeking refuge from the sudden flood of booze into the city. Disaster struck. Thom’s pride overcame him as he let his veil swish away to allow all to witness him in his wedding dress with a misinterpreted lumpy bustle glory. The priest had time to proclaim him a demon before a gold gilt cross squished him and the goblyns escaped in the ensuing chaos.
Under much more scrutiny, the band of betwixt, finished out the affair tempting Zimmerhan into writing a blasphemous hymn based on the events that happened in the cathedral. After beating both Zimmerhan and Madame Esmeralda in a game of riddles the scene was set to invite the Empress of Night to Bonmont. A new fashion of wearing a blue sash or pin was invented as a way to let other know they were ‘working blue’. The ‘Demon in the Box’ was played while a bag of mislabeled coffee beans worth 20 quid was enchanted to release 20 illuminated squid into the night sky. The spirit of the Empress was successfully summoned into town through the depravity of dance.
*What I love so much about running Goblyn Market is I can run the same adventure and never, never get the same story told by the players. The previous two times I’ve run this scenario they avoided making the wig all together and went straight to the university to talk to Barnabas the aging composer. That being said, someone pretty much always gets naked in the cathedral for some reason!
Part II and III for another date!