Impressions of the Intercon L schedule

The schedule of games for Intercon L is now available for viewing. I'm on bid com, so I knew all of these things were going to run already, but now the schedule is available for everyone to see. As is my custom at this stage of con preparation, I will now go over my current thoughts for what my signup plan shall be.

Friday night I think my preference is for Feast of the Minotaur. It's written by Andandi Gandolfi, who has an excellent track record, and I like the Ancient Greek mythology setting based around the myth of Theseus. Also interesting to me is Colonel Sebastian T. Rawhide's Circus of the Spectacular, which is a classic I've heard very good things about. I've already played in House of the Rising Sun and I highly recommend it to those of you who are pondering your own options for Friday night. Venezia will probably have a test run at Brandeis before Intercon rolls around, and I will try it then.

Saturday morning, I'd go for Garden of Forking Paths. This is the work of my sometime coauthors emp42ress*, natbudin*, and simplewordsmith* taking the "your choices affect the nature of your game" concept touched on in Resonance to an even greater extreme, with simultaneous runs of the same scenario affecting where everyone else's scenario ends up. I'm not sure how it's going to work exactly, but I know this group does amazing, envelope-pushing work and I'm always game to play something they've written. Failing that, I still haven't gotten into a run of Concordance Station written by readerofposts*, or if all else fails I could always sleep in.

Saturday afternoon the options are not leaping out at me. I would probably go for An Evening Aboard the HMS Eden. It sounds interesting, being a pastiche of Victorian literary characters aboard a cruise ship, and even so Jared thinks he's going to sign up for it, and it would be nice for us to have a game together. I confess I'm curious about Nat and Vik's Harmony Quest, despite the fact that I've technically been spoiled on it and when I first heard about it I was certain it wouldn't be my kind of game. Still, there's a morbid streak in me that wants to know just how uncomfortable I'd be. Also I've heard it's well done for the style of game it is, and as was said by at least five members of bid com, I trust Nat. Probably won't go for it, but the thought has crossed my mind. I also have some curiosity as to how The Linfarn Run is, being an intimate Brit game, though I'm not really interested in Firefly.

Saturday evening I will be running Resonance with the aforementioned writers from Alleged Entertainment. We're quite proud of this unusual sort of game, so if you haven't played yet it might be worth your while. Of the games going up concurrently with it, I'm quite sorry I won't be able to play in Port Hidalgo, a well-regarded pirate adventure, and I've heard good things about Roanoke, a game about the Sir Walter Raleigh's colony in Virginia. I tend to like period games.

Sunday morning the only thing that particularly interested me I've already played (GM Space) and so will be observing my usual Sunday-of-the-con tradition of collapsing in an exhausted heap. I do recommend GM Space as probably the funniest larp I've ever played, however, so keep it in mind if you've never been in it.

And that's my plan. Not sure what my first signup will be; logic dictates that Garden, as the game with the fewest number of slots, should be my first choice, so probably I'll go for that. Feast is the other possibility, because although it's large I'm very excited to play it. First round signups open November 2nd, so put it on your calendars, everyone.

Larpercalia con report

Now for my actual reviews of my experience of Larpercalia as a participant rather than as con chair! Spoilers are minimal.

Friday night was Prince Comes of Age, a game the production of which I had heard a great deal. It is, as you may know, set in the larger campaign setting made up by morethings5*, and in fact included larp versions of five PCs of a game he ran a few years ago. I had a blast in this one as a secretly scheming character who was playing several sides against one each other. One of my favorite things to do in a larp is weave an elaborate lie to achieve my ends that everyone buys into, and that is exactly what happened here. Great interactions included my drug-dealing ne'er-do-well date played by Michael Hyde, and speaking very very earnestly to hazliya* in ways that served me and actually did kind of help her despite the fact that I told many, many lies. :-) I highly recommend this game, written by Kindness, Bernie, and Matt to excellent collaborative effect. There is a lot going on and the writing is very well done, though I think the character sheets could stand some pruning-- there is a little over-enthusiastic background scene-setting that is a bit too verbose. And for those of you who were afraid everyone else would be supporting cast to the characters of that campaign's PCs, worry not, the storylines are well-balanced.

Here is me and my date, Ferlis, who spent most of the evening either high or facilitating the getting of others high.



Saturday morning was the second run of my newest solo game, The Stand. The game went well enough and pretty much everyone told me they had fun, but frankly I thought the Intercon run went better. The first time around nearly all the secrets came out except for maybe two, while in this there was a lot more plot that simply failed to materialize. I was especially disappointed that so little of the emotion-heavy plot that would have been bronzite* 's did not come to be, as it's some of my favorite in the game. One thing that may be to blame was that people seemed really low-energy, too tired from the late night before. Also, as solid as the game may be, I don't think anyone was really excited about the concept. They signed up for it because it sounded neat enough and probably on the strength of my name, as I've built up a pretty decent reputation by now. That's flattering, to be sure, but I don't think anyone really sunk their teeth into the concept. I confess I'm slightly disappointed, as the game is extremely full and well-constructed and I think really demonstrates how much I've grown as a larp writer, which I'm not sure really showed through in this run. Ah, well.

Saturday afternoon I played Ruins of Grandeur by Bernie, Matt, Kindness, and Michael, which I really wanted to like. Unfortunately my particular piece of it was fatally flawed in the design and could not function in the game. I'm really sorry I had such a low time, but all my tricks to get engaged failed me. I think by and large people enjoyed it, but my casting was so broken that I had very few hooks into the plot and literally zero power with which to make anything happen. I'm usually the kind of player who can make something up if her character is a little thin and find a way to have my own good time, but when I tried that absolutely no one really met me on anything I did. I wish I could speak to the overall story, but I saw so little of it that I'm afraid I can't give an opinion. I think most people really liked this game and had a good time, but my character must be completely overhauled before they ever run it again.

Saturday night I ran the most recent game I wrote with Alleged, the experimental larp Resonance, and this time it went amazing. At Intercon natbudin* and I were slightly disappointed with how things went-- we had a fairly gamist set of players who didn't seem to really get that the story is supposed to be allowed to unfold to make for an emotional experience, rather than a problem to be solved. This time we didn't have that problem at all. Our group here went with it smooth as you could be; I especially enjoyed their conversations sharing information and trying to speculate on what it meant. Among many others, in_water_writ* was amazing with a character completely against her type, and rigel* fascinatingly stepped into a leadership role. I spent much of the game watching Jared, curious for his reaction, and was pleased to see him leap into the concept wholeheartedly and beautifully act his parts. At the dead dog, bleemoo* gave us the great compliment of saying it may be the best game he's ever played. I am incredibly pleased with it this time around, and consider it proof that our concept is capable of working out the way we wanted it to.

Sunday afternoon I zonked around consuite and tried not to pass out. So, despite some ups and downs, I consider this to be a typically awesome Festival weekend, made even better by the knowledge that I put it all together. Hope you all had a great time, and will be joining us there next year!

Easy but accomplished weekend

Well, that was my first non-packed weekend in quite some time. Spent most of it doing chores, like cleaning the house, laundry, and grocery shopping for the week. It's good to have that all taken care of. It also granted me some much-needed sit on my butt time, which has been in woefully short supply lately.

Edited and sent out the character sheets for The Stand today. God, it is so satisfying to prepare an already-finished game. I have decided to permanently change the gender balance of the game after casting these last two runs. I had one character who I conceived of as male but decided was probably the only one in the game who could be flipped without altering the role too drastically. I had one more female in the first run who didn't want to be cross-cast than I had roles for, so I ended up making that "neutral" character female. In this run, it made sense to also cast that character as female. So I've just decided to keep the part that way. It makes for nine female parts in the game instead of only eight, which is good considering that the other sixteen roles are all pretty firmly masculine.

Also conferred with Nat last night about editing Resonance. We are considering this next run to be another test of the concept to see if the last group of players was the reason that things went differently than we expected they would. If it goes similarly this time, then we will know that the game needs to be altered in order to get it running the way we want. Still, my gut tells me that with a different group of players-- specifically people with a slightly less gamist approach who are willing to go with the flow of the story --things will go much more as we planned.

The last thing of note that I did this weekend was had a really good Midsummer dance rehearsal. I felt like it went really well, like I'd made some real improvement in my dancing, and I had a lot of fun. I've been practicing, so it feels good to know that it paid off a little. I like the piece so much and I really want to do Charlotte's fantastic choreography justice. I also really enjoy having Plesser as my partner for most of my pieces; he's always fun and great to work with. The way you can see him acting the character of Bottom while dancing is awesome. I need to focus more on that myself, I'm still a little too focused on getting through the steps. I intend to practice a little more every night until the performance in hopes that it will become smooth and instinctive, and I can try to bring a little of Titania's personality into it as well.

DREAM PLOT

I had a dream about running The Stand last night. Only, as it always is when I dream about running larps, it wasn't exactly The Stand as it was supposed to be. I must have conflated it with Resonance in my subconscious, because I remember natbudin* was helping me run it, and I was being worried that certain characters didn't have enough to do because other characters they needed to interact with weren't among the fifteen that ended up in the game, which would only happen if you mixed the two game formats.

I remember Dream-Nat having to NPC a giant, and run an expedition into a dungeon. Don't know where that stuff came from. Also, laurion* was there, and though he was playing the character he is in fact cast as for the upcoming run, it... wasn't the character as written, so much. If I recall, Dream-Chad had gathered together a secret society and was trying to summon a demon. I don't believe it spoils anything to tell you that sort of thing just doesn't happen in this game. I mean, I guess anybody could TRY to gather a secret society and summon a demon in The Stand, but... ain't nothing going happen, partners. Ain't no vampires, aliens, superheroes, or time travelers in this here larp.

But what was interesting is that not all the dream-Stand was totally whacked. In fact, it contained at least one thing that wasn't in the game but actually was totally useable in it. The moment I woke up I knew the answer to something I hadn't quite figured out for a certain character. A plot came to me through the dream and I AM TOTALLY USING IT. That's pretty awesome. :-)

The aftermath of signups...

So I'm sure most of you experienced the madness that was signing up for Festival last night. The site experienced technical difficulties that infuriatingly prevented people from registering for games until they were dealt with. Fortunately natbudin* heroically stepped in and straightened things out, allowing things to proceed at 7:30 instead of 7. I am really sorry for the trouble, and I hope it didn't screw up anyone's plans too badly. I received no fewer than five phonecalls at once at one point, which I apologize I didn't answer, but I was already on the phone with Nat trying to understand what was going on and what I could do to help. And, you know. There were lots of you at once.

I was kind of upset about it happening at the time. I've been working really hard to get things going well for the con, and that felt kind of like a disaster. But you know, if I wanted to be responsible for this thing, that means I need to be ready to deal with the problems that arise as well. And I think things ended up okay, though much more thanks to Nat than to me. I hope nobody was too mad. I am feeling better about it now, but at the time I felt pretty horrible that things screwed up on my watch.

As usual, things filled FAST. Most games already have a complete roster, and in fact there are already some timeslots that are totally full. Still, there are many great games that still need players, so I encourage you to jump into those if you haven't already. I plan on watching how the schedule goes from here on to see if anything needs help, or if any adjustments should be made. For on, I just want to admire the mostly-full con and send out my casting questionnaires. Both Resonance and The Stand are good to go, so I'd better take advantage of all the advance notice we GMs have got.

SLAW 2010 Report

Am now back from my lovely weekend of larping at SLAW. This was kind of my weekend of "games I am not sure about," since in an effort to expand my larping horizons I signed up for all games that were not to my typical inclining. By and large this tactic was a success, and I had a very good weekend overall.

Friday night Charlotte, April, and I all played in Martha Stewart's Guide to Interdimensional Summoning (and Basting a Turkey.) Fortunately Charlotte had reminded me just before the game that it actually took place at a party and not at a business conference like I originally assumed, so at the last minute I changed my costuming plan. I thought I looked quite nice, wearing my black asymmetric cocktail dress with my white gold anniversary necklace, the nearly-matching silver infinity earrings, silver pumps with the perfectly-matching silver bag, and my silver-gray pashmina over my shoulders. Though I had a good time in it, this game was not to my taste. It was a game purely about schmoozing, with most interactions conducted solely for their own sake, which is totally fine, I just tend to prefer a little bit more plot. I did end up bonding with the demon who had been my childhood imaginary friend, but I did it mostly as a favor to him-- he needed it and I didn't, which I think may have been a common thing about demons and humans in the game. Glad I tried the game, had a nice time, but it was not exactly what I was hoping for.

Saturday morning I drove Charlotte and Ryan in early so that they could play in their morning games. I had nothing in that slot, so I decided to go cruise a nearby thrift store. It was a very nice, well-organized Goodwill, and there were lots of stuff to choose from. Unfortunately most of the things that caught my eye weren't in my size, but I find it amusing how often even in the thrift stores my eye is drawn to items from Express. Very frequently I see something I like the cut and styling of among lots of random pieces on the rack, and when I check the tag, Express is the maker with surprising frequency. I ended up taking home a fantastic black sweater with a drapey fold-over collar, two dressy knee-length skirts, one with an orange and white cloudy pattern and the other with swirls in various shades of red, and the neatest thing of all, a low-sided oval pan with a copper bottom and a stainless steel interior. It needs polishing, but this pan that looks just like it is selling for hundreds of dollars, and I snagged this one for four. Score! I'm not sure what you would call such a thing-- it's oval kind of like a gratin pan but only has one long handle, and the sides are too low for a saute pan --but I look forward to shining it up and cooking with it, which will promptly require shining it again. :-)

Pleased with my haul, I returned to WPI to grab lunch and get into costume for The Sound of Drums. I wasn't sure if it was going to be my cup of tea, and I was fairly certain I would like Two Hours in London, but natbudin* had highly recommended it and I trust the man's judgment. So, in the spirit of the Try New Games weekend, I went for it. My costume wasn't terrible, but it was weaker than my usual standard. Despite playing a sixty-plus-year-old, I did end up wearing my brown tribal-looking bikini with my brown pashmina tied around my waist like a skirt, and Charlotte kindly lent me her huge patterned green scarf to wrap around my shoulders. This mostly concealed all the decidedly-not-sixty-year-old body in the bikini, and I made some attempt to paint age makeup on my face, but I didn't white my hair and overall looked pretty much like the vain twenty-something I am. Also, I think I lost my brown and white headband scarf at the gamespace afterward, which I am annoyed with myself about.

But the game itself was excellent. The world is very full and well-thought-out. I loved my character and was incredibly busy throughout the whole game. I also had great interactions with Susan, who was my brilliant-but-mad younger sister, and Ryan, who was the troubled outsider with the haunting in his soul. I even got to use my badass spiritual strength to beat up a fallen god! It was awesome. The culture they built, with its ways and its norms that were so different and unusual, was really well-made. There was one small instance of "Christianity as the great bogeyman of non-mainstream living" that irked me, but otherwise I thought they did a really nice job of establishing the foreign people. There was also lots of interesting story told, which pretty much makes any game for me. Overall, I think this was my favorite larp of the weekend, and the one I was most glad that I took a chance on. Congrats to Tory and Lily for making it!

Saturday night was Clarence. By this point I was really dragging, energy-wise. This weekend marks the third week in a row of little sleep and poor eating, and I think I am reaching my limit. Luckily for me, Clarence is a game that is impossible to screw up, and I was playing an AGM so I could afford to be reactive rather than active. Fortunately, others were doing a fantastic job of pushing the game along. This run was blackbagged and carried off over the shoulder by electric_d_monk*, whose portrayal of the fanatically German-nationalist GM Bucher drove the events by sheer force of personality. By the end of the run, we had vampires passing on their nationalities as well as their vampirism, resulting in bronzite*'s General and rigel*'s Carmilla being determined to be genetically perfect Aryans who of course must then go on to spawn the Master Race. With the use of the time accelerator to hasten their growth, soon we had six little Ubermensches prancing about named after the Von Trapp children singing songs from The Sound of Music. And naturally, these unstoppable German supermen went on to take over the world and some surrounding planets, leaving Brewer as Kaiser of the Earth and Mars. It was a typically insane run, but the birth of the Master Race, I think, was a uniquely amusing touch.

"Allow me to explain zee rules of Der Kriegspiel."

Sunday lightgamer* was nice enough to let me ride over with him and twilighttremolo*. I was signed up for In the Jungle that day, the final game of the sort I wasn't sure what I'd think of. But I like the work of emp42ress* and simplewordsmith*, so I wanted to see what it was like. My costume was like most of my others this weekend was a little half-assed, since I tend not to keep worn-out clothes around, but I settled on an outfit that when my parents last saw me in it told me I looked like a bum. I figured that would work. It is a game about hobos, a pure conversation exercise where we do nothing more than talk to each other in character. The game was at bare minimum cast, but it was a good one, including myself, natbudin*, rigel*, nyren*, beholdsa*, and electric_d_monk*. Being in it with such good larpers helped a lot, keeping the converstion interesting and helping ease some of the awkwardness I was feeling about just having to spitball. Not something I'm certain I want to do again any time soon, but I enjoyed the experiment in this instance and I'm glad I decided to give it a try.

Now I am exhausted. I have been going at a breakneck pace for the last three weeks and I simply can't go any more. I have been kind of hoping that if I have one day where I sleep really well and eat properly it will fix my weariness and the mess my digestive system has been in, but I think I need a more consistent effort to really fix things up. Wednesday I will be going home for Thanksgiving with my brother, and I'm hoping to reset myself over that break with healthy eating and enough rest. I have things I need to get done in the near future, such as writing more Resonance characters and getting out the casting questionnaire for The Stand, but as cool as my activites have been, I think my body needs a bit more of a break before it will feel back to normal again.

Brain blah

Feeling unfocused and uncomfortable today. I didn't sleep well last night, my body is tense and knotted from the cold, and my stomach is all out of whack. The rainy weather is not helping me. Cannot really manage a detailed coherent entry today, so here are the broad strokes.

Signed up for Clockwork Cafe for first pick at Intercon. Surprised it didn't fill yet. The Stand has exactly one signup, and while I wasn't expecting many in the first round, I was surprised to see that one singup was natbudin*. I figured all my local friends would wait for it to run around here. I'm shocked but grateful. Thanks, Nat! Though I feel in all fairness I should let you know I'm probably going to run it at this coming Festival, if in that case you want to use your signup for something else.

Having such a hard time focusing amid all the busy that I haven't worked on The Stand in a couple of weeks. Really need to get my ass on that. Certainly want to validate Nat's willingness to devote a slot to it at Intercon. ;-)

Stars of Al-Ashtara happens this Saturday. I am excited, but my brain has had trouble getting through the character sheet. I will have to make sure I sufficiently absorb the content by the end of the day tomorrow.

Stupid fogged-up brain can't remember what I did with my wallet. Hope to God's it's just out of place in my room. Heh, whenever I can't find my wallet it tends to be in its proper drawer in my desk, which I never think to look in because I assume I would never be responsible enough to put it there.

Despite everything, however, had an awesome rehearsal tonight. Got to see a lot of scenes I'd never seen before, and I am pleased and impressed. I felt pretty on my game, which surprised the hell out of me, given how I was feeling about everything else today. We're about to go into tech week this Sunday, and I think we're in damn good shape for it. We even got to load in our wood today, giving the shop a good cleaning in the process. Tomorrow I hear they got permission to start getting boards cut. This is awesome, because this means a lot will be gotten out of the way early. The show before us is a dance performance which doesn't have a set, so we'll only have to strike the lights and not the stage as well.

I am going to be ridiculously busy over the coming week. But I am always happy to have these sorts of things in my life, so I guess I can't complain.

"It's like I speared you-- like a fish!"

Okay, so I didn't really follow my plan (such as it was) when it came to signing up for stuff at SLAW last night. I ended up going with Martha Stewart on Friday, The Sound of Drums and Clarence on Saturday, and In the Jungle on Sunday. I blame natbudin, captainecchi, and electric_d_monk as bad influences, since I did my signing up while I was at the Fantasycraft game with them last night. I went with Sound of Drums because I'd never played a game in that sort of setting before, though I am very sad to miss Two Hours in London. Costumed Henchman was full (surprisingly one of the first to do become so) so Nat suggested I sign up for Clarence, since, as he pointed out, if I hated it, storming out because I thought it sucked would not only be acceptable but totally in character. So I figured, what the hell, why not? And Lise and I made pacts to sign up for games we weren't sure we would enjoy together, because then at least we'd have a buddy with us, and maybe we could find some way to make them fun for each other in spite of everything. Like, we're not sure we're going to enjoy In The Jungle, as we both tend not to like extremely freeform games, but we figured that we could at least get some fun out of being hobos together. :-) And I am curious how many more romance plots I will be in with Matt, as this tends to be a recurring theme. So this SLAW looks to be an interesting one!

The game last night was fun as well. I really enjoy being Ophelia, yammering on about nothing in particular and making really inappropriate observations about everything like a small child. Ophelia's exploits last night include picking the pocket of an unconscious stoner, fending off the advances of a pervy pech-fancier, pegging a fleeing assasin with my throwing dagger "like a fish in a barrel" and thereafter referring to him as "Fish," getting courted for a covert op by an elf who apparently has species-dysmorphia, and telling and retelling an acnedote involving a stolen greatsword and a barrel of pickled herring. Lise, I like this game you've got going on here. :-)

After work I will be hanging out with my family. Today will probably loosely scheduled, but I really hope we nail down what we're doing tomorrow. My parents are normally rather firm and decisive planners, but they want to spend time with my brother as well and he hasn't really gotten back to them about his availability, so they're afraid of making any plan that he wouldn't be able to go along with. :-P Hopefully we'll do something fun. I just wish we could figure out what the hell it is already.

Busy keeps me going

Had a lovely dinner party last night in the charming company of natbudin, captainecchi, and electric_d_monk. I settled on making Italian crusted pork chops as the main dish. I breaded them according to my mom's recipe, using a mixture of panko, parmesan, and Italian herbs, then threw them in a saute pan to brown. To my dismay, all the breading came off in the pan, probably because I forgot to flour the chops before the dipped them in the egg mixture. So when I placed the chops in the baking dish to finish in the oven, I scraped the lost breading out of the pan and sprinkled it over the meat. I then made up a new panko-cheese-herb mixture and shook it over them to create a new crust. This I finished with a drizzle of melted butter, then baked. They came out with a nice golden crust that way, and the slightly more well-done bits that browned in the saute pan complexified the flavor. I would like to try this same recipe doing it the way I'm supposed to sometime, but I liked how it came out even with my mistake. Also, the company was lovely, and did a great deal to make me feel better after the stress of the last few weeks. Must be certain to feed them well on a regular basis, to encourage them to make the long drive out this way again!

Was very productive this morning. I put the chicken for the picnic tomorrow in bags of marinade in preparation for cooking, cleaned the whole kitchen including mopping the floor, and folded and put away a load of laundry. Shortly I will be leaving for Medfield to have lunch with bronzite before opening day of my show. He sadly cannot make the picnic, so we'll spend some time together today instead. I am looking forward to putting on our first real performance, though I am quite certain I will crash afterward. My plan is to pour all my energy into a good performance, then go home and chill, doing nothing more strenuous than chopping vegetables for potato salad for tomorrow. If I can make it through those things satisfactorily, it will have been a very good day.

Wait, I know how to cook?

It occurs to me that I haven't done any cooking in weeks now. I hope I still remember how, because I've got quite a bit to do for this coming weekend. During the weekend of Labor Wars, natbudin* and I made a series of bets about what would happen during the game, with the understanding that the winner would make dinner for the loser. Nat won a fair number more of the bets than I did, so I have the happy task of hosting him this Friday evening. And, because I've been meaning to have them over for ages, I am having captainecchi* and electric_d_monk* over that night as well. I don't believe I've ever cooked for any of them before, so I am looking forward to taking this as an opportunity to show off. I haven't decided on the menu yet; I will do that today between work and rehearsal.

For the picnic on Sunday there doesn't really seem to be any kind of "main dish" being brought, so I think I'm going to step up and put one together. The guest list is around fifteen people at this point, so I need to figure out a dish I can make in large quantities that isn't excessively expensive. My first thought was chicken marbella, mostly because it is very delicious and requires nothing more complicated than marinating it in a bag the night before, laying it out in a pan, and baking it in the oven. Still, it requires some kind of fancy ingredients, which could push up the cost. Maybe if I can get someone to go in on it with me, it'll be a little bit more workable.

Larp brain dump

There is something on my mind right now that I do not feel comfortable talking about, but am feeling very anxious to deal with with the person in question. But I'm not sure what the most appropriate way to do it is. Phone, IM, in person? I don't know yet. At the very least, I must set up an appointment of some kind to do so, and soon. So you get random thoughts from a slightly distracted brain.

I'm so honored to have been asked by Nat, Susan, and Vito to help write the first Alleged Entertainment weekend-long game. I am now officially a member of Alleged Entertainment. I feel good about that.

I now have four games to my credit. Alice and Oz, both four-hours, I wrote by myself, under my own banner, Breaking Light. Paranoia: Research and Dismemberment, another four-hour, was written with Bernie Gabin, Joe Gabin, Matt Kamm, and Mac Magruder, under the banner of Will Not Be Denied, a reference I commend you if you get. And now one weekend-long with Alleged. I am proud of this.

I am surprised to find that in Labor Wars I was actually hoping that some of the replacement characters would be needed. I never felt that way before.

We had some fantastic players in this run. I am amused at how frequently in larps bronzite* is either the one holding back the oncoming tide of darkness, or the one bringing it. I thought londo* was going to be screwed, but he ended up more successful than almost anyone. One person I met this weekend, Shoshana, was a last-minute drop replacement who turned out to be fantastic in the part. I was so pleased with so many.

There are pictures of varying quality now up on Facebook. We should be having another run this coming fall, for those of you interested in playing.

Now I want to write another game. :-)

The Labor Wars, accomplished

At long last, The Labor Wars has come into being as a game. The journey from Nat asking me in Chad’s kitchen if I wanted to help write a game has culminated in a satisfactory run this past weekend.

Overall, I feel the game went well. Players enjoyed it on the whole, and the concepts we put into place worked fairly well. If there was a major issue, it was that conflict was dealt with too easily. We wanted a major source of it to be with people with different interests, alliances, and prejudices wrangling over a limited pool of economic resources/. I believe we established proof of concept by the fact that the mechanic for determining the workings of it was very functional, but we are going to have to make some adjustments to the amount of accessible resources. It was too easy for everyone to secure exactly what they wanted, without having to fight for it with other factions or make compromises in order to gain anything. Also, I was surprised at how much players were willing to work together to come up with arrangements that were agreeable to everyone. I walked around muttering, “Fuckin’ Brandeisians,” given our circle’s tendency toward such kind and gentle play style, but then I noticed there wasn’t any actual Brandeisian in the game! Still, they were mostly part of the extended Brandeis larp circle, and they very much had that kind of larp culture. Indeed, zrealm* coined the term “to Brandeis” a game, meaning to neutralize all the conflict through a tendency to compromise and work together.

We compensated for the lower than expected amount of conflict by throwing lots of events in the world that the players could affect and be affected by. I was actually extremely proud of our GM team for handling this; we came up with a lot of really good material, totally on the fly, that not only amped up the in-game struggle, it gelled with the direction that the players were taking the story, AND it felt like there was a living complete outside world that was active and reactive, and not just a series of crises that the GMs were throwing to trip up the players. They actually really surprised us with the direction they took things, necessitating us to make up so much on the fly, but we rolled with it and generated a series of events that remained true to the spirit while still meeting the players halfway.

We’ll need to make some edits, that’s for sure. Resources definitely need to be scarer. Anything to ramp up the conflict. One character may need to be completely overhauled. But we wrote a brand-new weekend long game, one of the first in this area in ten years, and it didn’t run half badly. I’m incredibly grateful to Nat, Susan, and Vito for inviting me to be part of this really cool project that they came up with.

We’ll have to get it in shape for a second run!

Labor Wars tonight!

Labor Wars starts tonight, Labor Wars starts tonight! Our brand-new weekend-long game debuts tonight! Yaaaaay!

I helped emp42ress* with the advance cooking for the game yesterday afternoon. We picked up an enormous load of groceries including the makings of a number of delicious dishes and snacks that will be provided for the lucky players. As I told Susan, it was nice to be the helper in the kitchen for once rather than the person running it. She could be the one with the plan, who had to go to the effort of having all the necessary steps plotted out and ready in her head, and I could just be the eager kitchen monkey who does useful things when asked. :-) It was a relaxing change. Also, I really admire her ability to plan an elaborate dinner for a huge group of people, both culinarily and logistically. Usually the reason I insist on doing that job myself is because I know so few other people who can really manage it properly, and Susan is definitely great at it. It's going to be an impressive spread, and you have her to thank for it.

Stuffing later that evening was probably the easiest I've ever been to for a game. The game doesn't have lots of little bits and pieces, just paper packets beautifully designed by natbudin*, and so even with a few printing snags here and there, it was a remarkably simple game to put together. I was expecting the many-hour process that is typical of previous games I've run, but this was pleasantly quick.

All that remains is for me to assemble the pieces of my costume. We are in fact going to be semi-in character as house servants during the run, and I had to scramble to figure out what a maidservant would wear in roughly the post-Civil War South. I bought a floor-length black skirt, easily the longest skirt I've ever owned, and plan to wear that with an admittedly slightly-too-current-looking white button up blouse. It has an Asian collar and short sleeves, but it will serve. Over that I want to wear my blue-toile apron. I also have this swath of white lace that I always wanted to find an excuse to use as a shawl. It's a bit too grandma-y for normal wear and so kind of fits the style of the time, though it might be too fancy for a maid. Ah, well, we'll see. It's not going to be the best costume I ever put together, but I'm a GM and playing a house servant to boot-- I'm supposed to fade into the background!

*bounces* Just a few more hours until game!

Completed my sheet assignments!

I just finished my second replacement character for Labor Wars. That means I have completed all my sheet assignments! Yay! I am actually extremely pleased with how this last one turned out. I shamelessly stole a brilliant structural idea from natbudin* (with his permission!) that he used in another sheet, and it turned out to be the perfect mechanism to convey the information. It makes for a slightly unorthodox character sheet, which has never been my inclination, but I found that my typical format wasn't really working for me.

Today will be spent in low-key pleasant things. I will be picking up crearespero* around lunchtime and we'll be running some errands together, as I believe the place she needs to be is right next to the place I need to be, so that coincides nicely. And then this evening I have my hot date with blendedchaitea*. Way back when she went above and beyond the call of duty helping me with To Think of Nothing, I promised I'd take her out to dinner to thank her, and now, months later, we're finally getting to do it. We'll be meeting at Tom Can Cook, and I plan to dress up pretty for her. :-) I am looking forward to spending some time with her and with Frances, and using it to relax and feel okay.

I've been a ball of stress lately. If I can't fix the source, I can at least do something to manage the effects.

Happy birthday Erik!

I want to wish a fantastic birthday to flyingstalins*, not only a remarkable and amazing human being, but the wonderful friend who hooked me up with Muppety goodness! Hope you have a wonderful day! :-)

I just finished writing one of the two replacement characters I have been assigned for Labor Wars, and I'm feeling pretty good about it. Replacement characters are a tricky proposition, in my opinion, but I'm quite proud of the way we're handling them here. There's a lot to recommend using them, of course. The Labor Wars is a weekend-long game with at least some possibility of character death, and nobody wants to be cut out of the game way way early because they got killed. So replacement characters are a way of getting those players back in the game so they don't miss out. But they can have problems. They are often much thinner than full characters, so I've encountered people getting back in the game and finding that they don't have much to do with their new role. Depending on when the second-run character gets into the game, the plots they're supposed to follow may have already resolved, or gone on in such a way as to make it impossible for them to get into those plots. And you can never predict when someone's going to die, so you can't predict when the new character's going to get into the game. Another issue is with information/knowledge management. You might get a second run character who doesn't know things that you already knew in your first character, so you're put under enormous difficulty to not metagame.

In Labor Wars, however, we've done a lot of planning to circumvent these issues as best we can. We are writing the replacements to be each tailored to a particular first-run character. So, if you're cast as X and you get killed, your replacement character will always be Y, whereas if you were cast as A, your replacement will always be B. The replacement is designated as your first character's lieutenant, to whom you've been reporting the goings-on of the game, who is ready to step in for you in the event that something happens to you. This helps make the transition smooth from one, by making character goals stem from the same stuff (if not necessarily consistent!) and by giving a reason for in-game knowledge to be consistent. Your replacement knows everything your original character knew because they are understood to have been informed of everything you learned. And usually you can pick up some aspect of your old plots, if not exactly in the same way to allow you to still have plot when you re-enter the game. It's an incredibly clever design on the parts of emp42ress*, natbudin*, and simplewordsmith*. In the past I have tended to not like replacement characters because of the issues stated above, but their implementation of the concept in this game makes me feel really good about them.

One more to go. Here's off to do it justice.

Larpercalia plan-musings

So I am pondering various things about planning for next Festival. And though at this early, early point I am simply thinking out loud, but I'd like to hear people's opinions on whether my thoughts might be useful.

Bernie made the suggestion that it be made known that there will be board games for play during downtime in the con suite. I like this idea as it is good for facilitating socialization. This is easy enough to arrange; just make sure that the BSCF games are present and available. This also, however, may make another idea I had more feasible.

So for the first time this past weekend I had a situation where one player just didn't show up, and we had to scrounge for a last-minute replacement. We got lucky and secured one fairly quickly, but that sure is an unpleasant situation. I was thinking that perhaps, when time draws near to the con, there can be an extra sign up that basically indicates "I am going to be in the con suite during this slot and am willing to fill in for a no-show, so if you need a last-minute player, you know who and where to look." It might be overkill a little, as it seems like most games find replacements without excessive difficulty anyway, but I think that might make the whole process more efficient, and minimize delay to the game. I envision it as possible to be on a waitlist AND be on this "pinch-hitter" list at the same time, but you're removed automatically if you get off a waitlist and into a game. If people think this might be a useful idea, I'll talk to natbudin* about the technical workability of it.

The most important thing I think we need to gauge is the number of player openings we want in each time period. Using the very useful data kindly compiled for me by bronzite* and Nat, and comparing it to my own observations of the website post-Festival, it seems like between sixty and seventy-five player openings per time slot is about right. In certain higher-participation slots, which seem to be Saturday afternoon and night and maybe Friday evening, the number would be on the higer end of that range. In certain lower-participation slots, like Saturday morning and Sunday, the number would be on the lower end. Heck, it would probably be smartest to push it down to fifty-something for Sunday.

And I'm thinking of making a point of finding someone who would be willing to throw an extra, probably smaller game up on the schedule if we find ourselves getting close to the con and there are still lots of interested people without a game. It would be understood that this game would only get put up if there seemed to be unusually long waitlists; otherwise, this person willing to GM would probably be sitting that slot out. This would allow us to err on the side of helping games to fill while still having a contigency to include anyone who didn't get into anything.

I also would like to encourage people to bring new games this year, or at the very least games that have not been run at Festival before. This would cut down on the "I've played everything interesting in that slot already" trouble that I think we had a bit of this year.

Does anyone have any opinions on these things? Suggestions? Desires? Issues you want resolved? Let me know, so they can be included in the planning process.

Festival report

On Friday night I helped captainecchi* and electric_d_monk* run the fantastic League of Extraordinary Hogwarts Students. I loved playing this game, and I only wish I'd had time to study everything more carefully. I read all the character sheets and the rules, but I still wasn't quite familiar with the inner workings of the game to be all that useful as a GM. I mostly got answers from Matt and Lise and then passed them on to players. I was particularly proud of katiescarlett29*, who stepped in as Irene Adler even though she wasn't totally confident about the improv part of larping, and of nennivian*, who I always thought was a larper waiting to happen. By and large the run went very well, with lots of activity and engaged players, but I wish I'd been intimate enough with the game to be able to give better suggestions to the couple of (usually new) players that got stuck. I wanted to talk to them after the game, but I was so blasted by gamewrap that I had to drag myself home and sleep. I have been sleeping badly lately, and I had to get up for a 9AM game the next day.

Saturday morning that 9AM game was the fifth run of Oz. It was an excellent run, one of the best, with the capable assistance of Jared and Bernie as my fellow GMs. We were a little nervous about the casting in places, but it turned out that everyone had a part they enjoyed. Standout players include the awesome natbudin*, who we initially wanted for EVERY ROLE IN THE GAME, but we finally settled into a part because he wanted to see him portray the personality-- which he did amazingly. Again, Charlotte was fantastic, showing so much talent for getting into and becoming characters. I was incredibly impressed with wired_lizard*, who played the character the way I had always imagined it to be, and gave me a few new ideas on top of that. Zachariah came up with some fantastically clever stratagies for executing his fairly difficult plotline. Hell, pretty much everyone in the game did an excellent job. I should probably stop casting bronzite* as my big bad, because I think people expect him to be the villain all the time, and so no one is inclined to trust him. In the previous run of Oz, Marc Blumberg as the villain did very well and in fact managed to achieve his goal of cataclysmic destruction, but it was more because the characters he was in opposition to made a fatal error that they could not fix. John actually pushed things farther along the doom track than anyone so far, but his opposition managed to repair it properly. I was immensely pleased with this run.

Saturday afternoon, I went home to sleep. I think it helped a little, but I was still pretty draggy for the rest of the weekend.

Saturday night was the fifth run of Alice, again assisted by Jared and Bernie. I think it went well in that players had a good time, but this was the WEIRDEST RUN EVER. Though of course there have been variations, the previous four runs tended to follow some pretty clear trends. Basically, there is a pattern of connections that is supposed to get made, and with some variance in the order in previous runs they all came together, leading to an endgame scenario where two large groups are polarized against each other. A lot of those connections did not click this time around, and I'm not sure where the broken link was. The villain was vanquished again, but not by the person who is supposed to and always has in the past. In all the previous runs, either the core villain group acted so covertly that nobody knew who they were until the end of the game, or they formed a tight-knit group so cohesive that they just overwhelmed and crushed all opposition. I feel like they were more scattered and freewheeling this time around, which made them more obvious and less able to protect themselves should someone decide they were a target. There were still some fantastic performances-- I loved Lise's analytical approach to her character and she made amazing process putting together the pieces of her challenge. And April was excellent, not to mention wearing a fantastic costume. I guess any game where the players have fun is a success, but I was really shocked at how weirdly this run went.

Then I went home to sleep. Again, my sleep has not been terribly restful these days, so still. So. Draggy. Blah.

Sunday was Diamond Geezers, the only thing I played. I had a blast. I was playing an ex-military demolitions expert whose rough, ruthless, but not terribly malicious outlook I enjoyed. It was an interestingly set-up game, basically us in a confined space with a few story hooks built in but a plot that was more or less on rails. I wasn't exactly expecting that, but it was a really fun character game, involving yelling in Cockney accents and waving guns around. We experienced an odd phenomenon that I think was troubling Brad as GM that the only ones who were talking much, at least at first, were bleemoo*, Charlotte, and myself, and everyone else was fairly quiet. I wonder if it was because the three of us were comfortable doing the accent and they felt slightly intimindated to speak if they couldn't. It's not like mine was any good at all, though Josh's and Charlotte's actually were. Josh was so much fun to play off of, and Charlotte continued to prove my theory that she has always been a larper, whether she knew it or not. Definitely recommend this game as a fun silly character experience.

Oh, as a side note, I was amused at usernamenumber pointing how at Brandeis, of course there was going to be less shooting and killing and more hand-holding and agreeing to work things out. :-) I have noticed this trend myself.

Next year I shall be con chair. I am looking forward to it. I am in the process of pondering a few thing to help optimize, which I will record when I have a better handle on my thoughts. Until then, thanks to everyone for making our very own con a fantastic experience again!

Chairing next Festival!

So since receiving the okay that I may mention this, there is a reason I'm so interested in figuring out why games didn't fill at the con this year. I intend to put the data to practical use, as it looks like I am going to be the con chair for next year's Festival of the Larps! I was asked the other day by natbudin*, and he passed my interest along to current con chair zapf*, with whom I discussed the duties last night at BSCF. It doesn't seem difficult, just planning and making sure that things get done. As I said to Sheena last night, I'm mostly in it for the permissions to see what games everybody is in, and to get to pick the theme for next year's con! ;-) I am taking suggestions for that second one, if anyone has any.

I am also seeking for the con committee over the course of the next year, but of course would prefer to line up as far in advance as possible, a bid chair, a GM liason, a housing coordinator, and a master/mistress of the consuite. If you have any questions as to what those positions do, let me know and I'll explain. There are some other positions, but I've been told there is a good shot that those who currently fill them will be willing to do them again next year.

Brain blah, and mystery solved

God, I cannot focus today. Had a ton of work waiting for me upon getting back from my trip home, and though I'm making myself get through it, the brain, she is not there. I am especially annoyed that in my absent state I forgot the tasty leftovers I was intending to have for lunch today on my desk at home, wrapped in their convenient travel-ready package. :-P Bernie and I made steaks for dinner last night using the Alton Brown method, which is unorthodox but quite good.

In regards to my musing about the problem of so many unfilled games at Festival-- in case you haven't seen it already, bronzite* pointed out that this year's Festival has more quite a few more slots for players than the previous year's did. And while we managed to fill more than we did last year, there are just TOO MANY extra slots even for the increased number of players. Some numbers crunched by natbudin* also indicate that while we are growing at least a bit every year, but have mostly leveled off. And the number of people who played the previous year but didn't this year lends some likelihood to the idea that there are no new games for them to play. I'm so lucky to have friends who are smarter than me and think to look at the metrics that matter. :-) Though to be honest I was inclined to look at those player counts myself, I just felt too guilty to spend the time on it when I had real work I was supposed to be doing. Anyway, this is good data to have for planning next year. Maybe shoot for a target number of slots somewhere a little higher than last year to account for a small amount of growth, but not quite so high as this year so as to be able to fill games.

So much interest in Labor Wars!

Had a fun conversation with natbudin* last night about how apparently lots of people are clamoring for a spot in The Labor Wars. We could fill the game just from pre-interest alone. And since the residents of BCOS are getting priority because they are letting us use their house as the location for the run, there are even fewer up for grabs. For a weekend long this is a fairly small game, only seventeen players total. Nat suggested maybe doing a lottery from everyone who expresses interest. I think that's a very good idea, and probably as fair as we can make it. Though personally I was thinking of soliciting bribes from everyone, and only letting the people who give me the best ones in. ;-) And hey, I can always take the bribe even if there's no space left, and just say, "Sorry, my co-GMs overruled me!" Heehee.