Slightly delayed gaming report

The tabletop games of this past weekend all went well to varying degrees. I enjoyed the prewritten World War I Call of Cthulhu mod, but the pre-generated characters were a bit too bland. I like pre-gens as a concept-- in fact, I may actively prefer them, since I think the GM tends to be able to integrate them better into the world --but these didn't have much to sink your teeth into. Also, it ran very late, and the more tired I get, the less and less I can stay in character and roleplay.

I was very pleased with my Burn Notice game. We resumed quite smoothly, given that the last time we played was back in January. I am glad to report that we finished the episode, which included a "boss battle" of sorts that I ran a lot better than I was afraid I would. Combats are still tough for me. Also, fellow tabletop GMs out there, do you ever find the PCs latching on to an NPC that you didn't particularly expect them to develop any attachment to? The most recent adventure involved an underground boxing ring, and there was a cut man named Archie Judd who was designed to be able to be turned over to their cause. They ended up really liking him and asking if he'll ever appear again. That surprised me; I didn't expect them to find him as cool as they did. So it might be worth it to find some way to have him recur if they enjoy him that much.

We also arranged for the next session, which is a good idea as I'd like to play on a semi-regular basis. Not this Sunday but next Sunday we'll get together for it again. Two separate storylines have been going simultaneously, and now that the boxing one is concluded we can work toward finishing the one regarding Gwen being framed for acts of terrorism. Marissa will be rejoining the group in the role of Riker; it'll be good to have her back. I don't think Riker had much involvement in the current caper thus far, so she should be able to come in fresh on it. I think I like the idea of a once-every-two-weeks schedule. It gives me time to plan the adventures to my liking, something I don't think I could do if I only have one week in between sessions.

Then I played in the rules test for Bernie and Joe's proposed Eternal Darkness-style larp project. It was a tight, short mod with a great player goup that I liked very much, set in Egypt during the period of the big tomb excavations. Joe is a good DM; he makes good plots and handles players very skillfully. I got a slightly problematic character in that she had a really cool, fun personality but given her circumstances as a young woman in the late 1800's did not have a great entre into the adventure and was somewhat prevented from being as active as I would have liked. A fixable issue with careful design, however, and I liked her enough to use her as a role. As for the rules, by and large I thought they worked well, though they were clearly devised by people much more used to tabletopping than larping. Still, i think they could be cleaned up to high larp functionality.

Tonight is cooking preparation and packet stuffing for The Labor Wars. We are nearing the moment of truth where we actually have the run. I feel so proud of us for doing this. I can't get the thought out of my head that I participated in the writing of a new weekend-long game. As far as I know, there hasn't been a new weekend-long game written in the last ten years. And weekend-longs people regard differently; they're kind of a big deal. So I can't tell you how much I want to get the heck out of work today and get down to the prep. God, I am so excited for this game.

So much gaming coming up!

The next week and a half promises to be jam-packed with gaming for me. It will be of both the tabletop and larp varieties, and I will be participating in the capacities of both player and GM.

This Friday night, Joe will will be running a prewritten Call of Cthlulhu game set in World War I. I've played in his Lovecraft games before and really enjoyed them, and he says this is a particularly fun mod, so I expect it to be good. My only concern is that we won't be able to get started until late, and I have a tough time staying up past midnight these days, even on the weekends.

Saturday will be the off-day. With much of the desired player pool depleted by Rage Across the Cape, no other games will be scheduled for this day. I don't mind, it's probably good to have a break in there somewhere, and I want to have nothing conflicting with the birthday party I am looking forward to attending in the evening.

Either Sunday afternoon or Monday evening will have my Burn Notice game. I really want to finish the adventure they're currently on, and I am certain it can be done by the end of this session. We haven't played since January; after the last session my play started up, like, immediately and there was never any time. Over the next few days I must buckle down and plan the thing. I know the gist of it, where I'd like it to go and all, but it's been long enough since we played that I must rethink some things, and just try to prepare for the eventualities. I am excited for the conclusion of this job; the climax of I expect shall be well-received. I like to think it's quite a kicker. :-)

Monday or Tuesday night will be a mod designed to test some of the rules devised by Bernie and Joe with the intention of being used in larp projects. I am not certain I'm the best person to be involved in such a playtest, but I have been told my aversion to rules, particularly complicated ones, will give me a perspective useful in determining what will be too unweildy and byzantine for larpers who think like me.

Wow. That's a lot of tabletopping, especially for me. And then, with Thursday comes the day we prepare for The Labor Wars the following weekend. We have cooking to get started with, and of course stuffing the game. And then Friday, Saturday, and Sunday shall be spent watching things unfold. I can't say enough how very, very excited I am. It occurs to me that we GMs once discussed assuming the roles of house servants to add to the verisimilitude during the run; I should ask if we're actually doing that, and figure out some appropriate costuming.

Ah, so much to do. I am at once daunted by the work and anticipating the fun. Yay!

Labor Wars approaches!

Just finished my last (I think) assigned bits of writing for The Labor Wars. As I checked them off my to do list, I felt a rush of excitement. This is so close to happening! We've got this brand-new game almost ready to go! I got to be part of a huge new writing project with people I really like and whose work I really respect! Yay! Less than two weeks to go.

The intervening time is looking to be busy. Bernie's brother Joe will be coming to visit, and I really want to hang out with him, but the schedule for the time he's in town is still very up in the air. I know he wants to run a couple of tabletop games while he's here (and I certainly wouldn't mind him finishing off the last session of Burn Notice he was so awesome in) but that's a lot of gaming in a fairly short space of time, and I'm not certain what we'll have time and players to do. I'm pretty much free all of that time if I need to be, but I really like knowing ahead of time how to arrange my schedule.

Burn Notice success

Burn Notice went well last night, fitting all my criteria for a good session-- roleplaying, moving plot, all players engaged. We didn't get quite as far as I hoped we would, because we worked on both story threads at the same time, but I successfully ran one fight and think that next session I can also make the other work. Joe did a great job as Riker, capturing the spirit of the character perfectly, and the highlight of the evening was his character and Kindness's character pretending to be a trashy rich engaged couple from Texas bickering hilariously with each other. Kindness's Southern accent alone made the conversation. Not sure when we\ll play next-- we don't have a regular schedule for this --but I feel like we're in a good place to move on from here.

I really need to catch up on the episode guide. I've only gotten the first one written up, and we've had probably around four more discrete storylines that would be the tabletop game equivalent of an episode of a show. Unfortunately they're a lower priority than most of the other creative projects on my plate, so they'e probably going to be put off for a while longer yet.

Among the number of things I need to get done today, I want to go buy a new version of my favorite scented candle. I found this amusingly-named off-brand "Patriot Candle" at Walgreens in a soft cinnamon-vanilla scent, and I absolutely love it. I just went through my second one, so today I want another one. It makes my room so pleasant and I like feeling like I'm living inside a giant mug of chai. :-)

Lovely dinner and stand-in Riker

Dinner with rigel* and bleemoo* was lovely last night; they were excellent company and wonderful dinner guests. I shall have to have them over to cook for more often. The apple cider chicken came out well; it's basically a sauteed chicken dish in a thick, coarsely pureed sauce made of carrots, onions, cider, heavy cream, and apple vinegar, topped with a garnish of a sauteed apple slice in butter. I thought all the vegetable flavors worked well together. Having made it once I think I can do it without the cream, but it would take away from the richness of the puree. Rigel suggested trying almond milk, which might be a non-dairy way of keeping it creamy. I like that idea; I've never had almond milk before, but I've always wanted to try it.

Joe is coming to visit today for the rest of the week, along with his girlfriend and another friend of theirs. I'm excited to see him. He's going to be filling in as Riker in the Burn Notice session I'll be running this weekend. That promises to be interesting; I'm really looking forward to seeing what he'll do with the character. At the moment there are two storylines active in the campaign-- one a job for a friend of Donovan's mother that involves busting up an underground boxing ring, the other about Gwen's brother and ex-fiancee coming from Ireland to warn her that someone's trying to frame her --so I've got to sort out how those two will interact in this session. I guess I could put one on hold for the other, just so one has a chance of getting resolved sooner rather than later, or I could just let them follow whichever thread they prefer at the moment. That probably will require even more planning on my part-- I like an extremely well-planned out campaign --so I'm going to have to buckle down.

Home from WPI

I ran Oz with Jared, Bernie, and Joe sticking around as an AGM. I wouldn't have thought so much help would have been strictly necessary from previous runs, as I've run it with just one other GM in the past, but I was incredibly glad to have them all for this one. I suppose it had slipped my mind that WPI and RPI larpers tend to be a lot more intensely goal-oriented than those of us at Brandeis, but I was definitely reminded by this run. Personally I prefer a bit more balance between plot advancement and character development, but I guess that's a matter of taste. I was very pleased to see that my measures to fix Ryan's character (also played by simplewordsmith*and Kevin Munn) so that he wasn't too brokenly able to tip the scales of the game actually did work. Also improved the workings of the character previously played by beholdsa*, usernamenumber*, and most recently ultimatepsi*. I think pretty much everyone had fun, which is the true measure of how well the game went.

Saturday I rose early to take Ryan and Tegan to their morning game, then immediately turned around to hit Somerville to collect in_water_writ*. I was happy to help her out and get to spend that extra time with her, but the extra driving was tough on me physically. I'm not used to driving for long stretches of time, and my back and tailbone were killing me by the end of it. Still, we got there in plenty of time for her to buy me a nice lunch (thanks so much, love!) and we got to our first game of the day, Bard of Avalon.

I really enjoyed Bard, and I was especially glad since I'd been looking forward to it for so long. It was really a well-written game, so props to yunafonfabre*, and something really funny happened. The game is inspired by the characters of Shakespeare, and I found myself stalking around reverting to my Hamlet persona. And I was like, "Why am I doing this? This character is not Hamlet. I should be capable of doing something other than Hamlet!" And then I found out at the end of game, I actually was Hamlet and my instincts were right! It just wasn't directed at my own family, if that makes any sense. Oh, I love being the Hamlet character. :-) Though it wasn't really part of any of my goals, I ended up becoming the lord of two duchies and the king of the realm, so heh. I made out like a bandit! But I had to be married to Goneril, so maybe those things didn't balance out. And, incidentally, my character was technically an amalgamation of Hamlet and Tybalt, so I was actually playing, well, Frances. :-D That delights me.

Saturday evening was Chateau Ennui, a game that I am still pondering my feelings about. The premise is brilliant, and I had a character that was both interesting and very well suited to me. But there were some real structural issues that needed to be sorted out, and I'm trying to put my finger on exactly how that should be done. I'm thinking the trouble is that so many plots depended on pursuing mysteries, and while plots can still function if the mystery is not solved, it needs to be possible in game to access the information necessary to make any progress on that front. Mysteries are hard to write in games, because it isn't always easy to leave truly useful clues in game, but I think if some real effort is put into including real accessible helpful clues, that would go along way toward helping plots move. So I had fun during the game, but I think it needs some real fixing.

Sunday then was our second run of Paranoia. I must say, our GMing team worked our asses off editing this thing, and I am immensively proud of what we produced. The first run went really well and players had a lot of fun, but it needed tightening and fleshing out in a lot of places. The game as it stands right now is incredibly well-rounded, and the job we did during actual runtime was excellent. We quantified the NPCs and cast them-- Bernie as Friend Computer, Joe as the wandering janitor bot, Matt as the mech bay bot, Mac as the doc bot, and myself as the vending machine, plus stellar performances from Jared as both the High Programmer Acc-U-Men and HK-47 and 1/2, the warbot brain stuck in the storage bay computer, and Ryan as the poor frightened Friendly Luggage Bot. Also, none of the players seemed bored at any point during the game, which pleased me immensely. There may still be some minor kinks to work out, but overall the thing is extremely solid, and good fun to players whether you're a Paranoia fan or not. Also interestingly of note-- I think we had eight drops over the course of signups for this game, and we still ran with a full complement. Yay for us!

We all went back to my place afterward and had a really nice, low-key chat that included Jared, Bernie, Joe, Matt, and myself. I enjoyed this until I fell asleep. Now that weekend, the preparing for which has dominated my life lately, is passed. Physically, I feel okay but off in small ways. I got a good night's sleep last night, which helps. Body is still a little stiff from the unusual amount of driving I had to do on Saturday-- knees feel tight, lower back is still a bit tender. Also woke up with a slightly sore throat, which worries me I'm going to get sick. Don't really have time for that right now, so God, I hope not.