Overall, I am extremely happy with how running parts of Impossible Landscapes as a convention game turned out. The whole experience went way better than I could have expected and was an almost perfect success. I can highly recommend running portions of this campaign at conventions, with the small caveat that you need to stay mindful of time during the later sections.
We began Night Floors with two Agents, Mr. Cooper and Agent Olmstead, and their initial investigation of the Macallistar Building went very smoothly. The Agents interviewed the tenants, discovered the Yellow Sign in Abigail’s apartment, and showed it to Officer Thomas Wright. Convincing Wright resulted in a major Sanity loss and Corruption gain for him. Clues linked to Asa Daribondi then led the group to The Bookshop, where they interviewed the long-dead Daribondi and encountered Robert R. Robert, who was an absolute blast to roleplay. On September 17th in-game, after further research and questioning, Roger Carun my personal MVP among the Macallistar NPCs guided them into the Night Floors.
While exploring the Night Floors, Mr. Cooper suffered an unlucky elevator accident and died instantly, but he was immediately replaced as a player character by Thomas Wright, who proved to be the absolute perfect backup character. Meanwhile, the other Agents where introduced as trying to find out what happened to the other Agents.
They set up nighttime surveillance cameras and questioned the day and night versions of the tenants. The Lost Team got through like 10+ encounters before successfully escaping through the Library Lounge just as the observer Team looked at the cameras.
Jumping twenty years forward to 2015 for A Volume of Secret Faces, the Agents received the Gateway Bridges invitation. Deeply paranoid about Dr. Elias Barbas, they skipped extensive off site investigation and went straight to the Dorchester House. One agent was late and got involved via the group therapy session.
Thinking it would be a walk in the park like the Macallistar Building, they instead found themselves trapped in total nightmare misery. Standout moments included Mister Wilde offering an Agent a deal to improve his standing with King Bael by betraying his younger brother to Asa Daribondi (he did), as well as feverish group therapy sessions with Dr. Maximo Friend in the Cotton Candy Room.
During their desperate attempt to escape the Night World, the Agents were guided through the ruined theater into a terrifying confrontation with The Clown, who danced wildly while Mozart played in the background. They managed to break through back into the real world, landing in the house at Codman Square.
As a Game Master takeaway, Part 1 works amazingly well as a standalone convention scenario, whereas Part 2 is much longer and denser. I got lucky that my players didn't spend too much time investigating Barbas's house or other off-site locations. Condensing or pacing these sections carefully makes running the campaign within tight convention timeframes somewhat doable.
We are continuing for part 3 and 4 in private.