Sign up for SFS Live Action Weekend and larp at WPI!

Attention, larpers! This November from the 9th to the 11th, WPI will be hosting SFS Live Action Weekend, or SLAW, a three-day event of four-hour larps!

The schedule of games will be visible available August 27th. Signups open for current WPI students August 31st at 7PM. Signups open for everybody else on September 7th at 7PM. If you're not a current WPI student, please don't sign up before this time.

The lovely Sarah Judd was kind enough to chair this event, so to ease her mind that you're coming, please register now to attend. The website can be accessed here, so be sure to sing up to join me there!

I will be debuting my new short humorous larp Break a Leg, so if you'd like to be in the inaugural run, be sure to come in November!

Break a Leg running at Intercon M

I just got word this past week that Break a Leg has been accepted at Intercon. Glad to hear it, but I would have been very surprised had it not. It will make for a nice, short, funny eight-player game on Sunday morning. Intercon can always use those, and I get my attendance comped for a new game. Everybody's happy.

Now I've got to write the thing. Besides the interpersonal stuff which will provide the bulk of the humor, two somewhat nonstandard major sources of gameplay will be the interactive environment, and the performance aspect. It will be very important to examine the setting, which will be limited to a backstage area, to gather information and things to respond to-- there is a murdered body right in front of you, so of course there's some clue-gathering to be done. But you also have to go on in two hours, and at the moment due to that murder the show you had planned isn't going to work. So you're going to have throw something together then, because of course the show must go on! You know that the eccentric genius playwright associated with the troop has been working on her next project, and as luck would have it pieces of her work seem to be scattered around the space... but rumors of her recent complete mental breakdown may be proven by the fact that these pieces are not as coherent as the troupe might hope. Still, it's your best bet to having a show, so you'd better find ways to make the material work, or you might never work in this town again! Perform what you find for each other so you can figure out how to stage it and assemble it into a some kind of complete show.

I think that performance aspect will be a lot of fun for players, but that means I have to write that weird-ass, hopefully humorous script material too. Which makes the job a little bit bigger than originally planned. Oh, well. As usual, it'll be worth it once it's done.



Festival 2012 Con Report, part II

Saturday night was Folding the River, the newest game from powerhouse writing team wired_lizard* and mllelaurel*. I am at the point where I'll sign up for a game based on who wrote it more than anything else, so I jumped on this. It took place in a world rebuilt after basically a cataclysm on a strange new source of power. I was playing a scientist who had discovered some secret projects going on and I was trying to get to the bottom of them. Though I enjoyed the game a lot, I was expecting to absolutely adore it, so I was ever-so-slightly disappointed, and I feel like I was considerably less awesome a presence than I usually work to be. It is a gorgeously written game with great characters and a lot going on, I was just thrown by the fact that there is so much fictional science that I had to understand. It was hard for me to keep it all in my head, and when a phenomenon happened around me I was never sure if I was interpreting it right. I feel like it kept me from unraveling my plot as far as I would have liked; I'm sorry I made so little progress. That said, I had lots of good interactions, particularly with Greg Lohman, Micah Hollis-Symynkywicz, Mike Hyde, and morethings5*. Definitely would recommended this to people who are interested in complex science fiction games.

Sunday was Paranoia: Research and Dismemberment, our crazy silly dystopian game set in the tabletop universe of the same name. Basically you buy into the concept and you go nuts, which is definitely what happened in this game. There actually is a fair bit of structure and plot for those who want to pursue it, but it's also a great big silly sandbox for those who just want to indulge in Paranoia-style craziness. I think this group tended more toward playing in that sandbox, which is great, as I think most players found that very fun. I played the Vending Machine who is distraught to the point of histrionics over being abandoned by a certain clone who she thought she HAD SOMETHING with. That NPC has gotten more and more over-the-top every time I've played her, and this time we had the hilarious twist ending of when it had seemed that the cruel clone who'd left her also clumsily triggered her destruction in an explosion, a kinder clone put her in the body of the warbot, after which she and the warbot body's former owner ran away together to kill all humans. It was a lovely high note to go out on.

Dead Dog this year was great, a buffet-style affair at Margarita's on Moody Street. My compliments to Shannon for arranging it. She did a wonderful job and I'm so impressed with how she handled everything. This Festival has yet again lived up to my exalting it to the status of one of the most important weekends of my year. Next year lightgamer* will be helming the ship, and I offered to be GM Liaison. I know that now my brain is absolutely buzzing with larp, so I hope to bring something new to delight all my lovely fellows. Thanks to everyone for the wonderful experience!

Festival 2012 Con Report, part I

Oh, beloved Festival.

Friday night was Jesriah, the new game from morethings5*, lightgamer*, and ninja_report*. I was not alone in regarding it as the most anticipated game of the con, and friends, it did not disappoint. I loved my character, a former pop diva who had been committed to the asylum against her will by her shady politician husband and felt completely used-up by the ripe old age of thirty-three. What was interesting was how I expected my game to be one thing from my sheet, and then a curve ball in the beginning turned it ninety degrees, adding a new and challenging dimension. There was a ton of things to do and explore, between the plots I had to pursue, the fascinating other characters I had to interact with, and the elaborate environment of the hospital around us. The atmosphere the GMs generated was great, a little creepy, a little sad, a little tense, like something was hanging over all of us. Despite it being set in the same universe as the earlier game, The Prince Comes of Age, it was remarkably different sort of game with a very different feel that still managed to incorporate cool throwbacks for players who'd played both. I had a great mystery to unravel, which is one of my favorite sort of larp plots, and I'm only sorry I didn't manage to dig up more. There was a long clue chain, and while I did get a fair bit along the way there was a ton more still left to dig up. I was also lucky to have a fantastic group of larpers to play with, which always makes a game better. If you want something dark, atmospheric, and psychologically thrilling, this is a great choice; I highly recommend it.

The next morning on Saturday I ran my third solo game The Stand. This was going to be interesting because I had a lot of relatively inexperienced people in this run. niobien* and Daniel Burns have played about five and Prentice a bit more than that, while this was katiescarlett29*'s third and the first for Sara Brande and Samantha LeVangie. I am very invested in bringing more people into the community, so I wanted very much for them to have a good time. But fortunately I think this is one of the best runs we've ever had. I think plots were more fully explored in this run than ever, even some that got off to slow starts. I just need to make sure that certain character connections get made so they can share their information and start working together, and it also helped that I spoke to a couple of the savvier players (usernamenumber* in particular) to let them know they may need to let their own secrets out. I also have to thank morethings5* for AGMing, even with everything else he had going on. He had this great idea to incorporate the Bear Man from the new True Grit movie (which the whole GM team are fans of) as this wandering figure out on the map who, while being an interesting weird encounter, also proved a way to inject information into the game about things that happened outside of town. I am writing the Bear Man in as a permanent NPC and codifying the things he knows so as to allow him to help the game keep moving. So I am really happy with this run. Thank you, awesome players who were awesome, especially you newbies who all did so well!

The afternoon was tightly scheduled for SLEEP LIKE DEAD time. And oh, Jesus, am I glad that I slept like dead.

To be continued in part 2!

On the eve of Larpocalypse

Last day before Festival of the Larps 2012: Larpocalypse! I am mostly ready to go, just have a few more things to get in order before tomorrow. One or two more things to assemble for The Stand, costume pieces to lay out, crash space to make up for our larper guests. I am ridiculously excited. I think both of my characters are going to be fantastic to play, and both of our games are going to be fantastic to run. This is the biggest Festival in its history, with over a hundred and fifty people signed up, a decent number of whom were friends I invited over the last several years who are now either real parts of the larp community or well on their way to becoming so. I am so proud of our little con for how it's grown and how successful it's become. Big props to our fabulous chair ninja_report* and her awesome staff including natbudin*, in_water_writ*, twilighttremolo*, and lightgamer*. Way to make it happen, guys.

Tonight is also when Jared and I are going to see Lenny's directing project, her HTP-sponsored production of Cymbeline. Sadly it's real performances are over Festival weekend, so instead of missing it we are going to the final dress rehearsal so we get to enjoy their work. It has some very talented actor friends in it who I am excited to see. They've had to deal with a lot of disadvantages, such as a terrible performance space, but they've worked really hard, and Lenny is an extremely talented director. So after I take care of as many last-minute pre-Festival errands as I can this afternoon, it will be off to an evening of theater just before I disappear into the roleplaying haze.

The Larpocalypse is nigh!

New game bid!

So I did it! I went ahead and bid my short funny larp idea for SLAW. I have taken laurion*'s suggestion and called it Break a Leg, as I like how it connotes both theater and disaster at once. Sorry, oakenguy* and morethings5*, for not going with Slaybill, which was also an excellent suggestion. :-) I think this game will be engaging and light, fun and funny, so I am excited to write and run it. I decided there will be eight core players (with one ninth that will be completely capable of being excised from the game) in one small to medium-sized room. The environment will be highly interactive and exploring the "set" will contribute to the plot. I also want to facilitate people performing scenes, since the characters will be actors, after all, which I am interested in writing original script fragments to facilitate. I have a lot of ideas that I'm excited to work out.

Since SLAW is so far away in November, I think I will have to plan an earlier, non-convention run. As a beta, perhaps. I am sure I can get a two-hour eight-character game written in fairly short order. Schoolwork has to come first-- I may be breaking my no-larp-writing rule, but I can't blow off the reasoning behind it-- but I'm used to writing four-hour twenty- or twenty-five-person games. This game should be a snap by comparison. When I figure out when and where that would be, I'll let everyone know so I can gather who's interested. Maybe I'll even do more than one pre-SLAW run. It's short, it's small, so why not? I've been wanting for ages to have a light, quick, funny game I can bust out at a moment's notice, and this just might fit the bill. Hooray!

Call for games for SLAW 2012

The lovely Sarah Judd is getting an early start on planning for SFS Live Action Weekend, a Festival-like weekend of larps at WPI that will happen November 9th through 11th this year. She's put out a call for games to get things going, so if you are interested, send her an e-mail containing this information:

1. Name of game

2. Short Description

3. Min/max gender player breakdown

4. Kind of room/rooms you'd like (Salisbury Labs is reserved for the weekend)

5. If your game can take last-minute casts and add-ins.

She has expressed a preference for newbie-friendly games, as there seem to be a nice group of new larpers at WPI now. I haven't decided what I'm bidding yet, but I am certain that I will bid something. Most of my games have been run into the ground at this point. Though it occurs to me that Paranoia is popular at WPI, and there might be enough people still interested in playing to fill a fourth run. I didn't think to bring it up last night with my co-GMs when we were casting the game, but it's something worth considering.

I may even take this opportunity to break my no-new-larps rule for real. I've been pondering my idea based on Merely Players-- a humorous two-hour larp, maybe fit for a Sunday morning, where just before the actors must go on stage, their leading lady's body is discovered lying dead backstage. Figuring out who did it, and how to deal with it so the show can go on, will reveal the troupe's humorous dysfunction. I think I will go ahead and bid it once I give it a name. Don't want to go with Merely Players, as that's not quite the point in this one. "The Show Must Go On" is an obvious choice, but it's a bit long and unwieldy. "Walking Shadows," maybe? Hmm. Suggestions welcome. Hopefully it will be funny and fun, and not too burdensome to write. *crosses fingers*

Anyway, bid something for SLAW!

Last Pride & Prejudice, first Holmes, and Jesriah casting!

Really good time this weekend. Friday night I went to see Pride and Prejudice again, this time with nennivian* and polaris_xx*, meeting up with electric_d_monk* and captainecchi* for dinner beforehand. Having learned my lesson, we arrived earlier and went to a lower-key restaurant. Their lovely company made for a very nice time, MUCH less rushed and chaotic than the previous Saturday, and we sat up close in the very front row. I enjoyed the different perspective this time; it made me notice things I hadn't been able to before. I found I liked the acting even better for the nuances I could see, and the costumes a bit less for some sloppy or unfinished details, though by and large I still thought it was good, particularly on the men. I am so proud of everyone involved for putting on such a good, enjoyable show, and managing to pack the Somerville Theater to the gills every single night.

Sunday was my first real Sherlock Holmes rehearsal. I think it went well, though I am still kind of nervous. Everyone in the show is very talented, and also quite a bit older than me. Maybe because it's been so long since I've been cast in anything, but I find myself especially anxious to prove I deserve to be there. Though both last night and the night of the read through I warmed up decently as the night went on, my acting has been having slow, stiff starts at the beginning. I worry that somebody thought, oh, they picked her because she's young and pretty rather than because she's talented. I'm sure somebody thought that at the read through, at least in the first half. So I'm feeling especially anxious to acquit myself well. So far I like all the other actors-- as I said, they are all talented --and think they'll be a great experience to work with.

Finally, last night I got my casting for Jesriah at Festival! I cannot tell you how excited I am for that game. I love playing madness and mental anguish, so I'm delighted to play a game set in a fantasy-Victorian insane asylum. Also lovely, my costuming hint suggests I may actually get to use one of those many thrift store evening gowns whose purchase I justified by telling myself they'd make great costumes someday. I am about as delighted about that as I am about anything else! I am supposed to look like a faded starlet from the '40s, so that means, I think, glitzy and slinky. I definitely have a few options that would suit-- I have two sparkly cocktail dresses, one in black and one in blue. I also have a red wiggle dress that I found abandoned in the green room that just happened to be exactly in my size, though the fabric is matte rather than shiny. I should probably also get a cigarette holder to gesture vaguely with as well.

With trouble and at length, The Stand is cast for Festival

Cast The Stand for Festival last night, one of the longest and hardest casting sessions I've ever had to do. Took me literally five hours yesterday. Frequently I'll get a run where everyone wants to be the same character. Usually everyone wants to be the heroic white hat, and finding a villain is next to impossible. This time around everyone wants to be a baddie, or a shifty shade of gray. I've got some of those but not an entire game, so I struggled to fit people in as best I could. I really hope people like their characters even if they're not perfectly what they ask for, I tried really hard to make do. :-P Hints are out now, as well as bluesheets and rules. I want to look over the full character sheets before I send them. Even though the game's been run twice before, I like to make sure there's nothing that needs tweaking between runs before I give them out.

There's one player who I have not heard any communication from whatsoever. No casting questionnaire despite numerous pokes, no nothing. I'm a little afraid she's not going to show up. I cast her in what I consider to be the easiest character to excise from the game just to be safe, but still, I want that character there. I think what I may do is engage a pinch hitter to be on standby to step in and take over the role if necessary. Of course, I would technically be within my rights to replace her entirely. Last year when I was con chair of Festival, one of the GMs contacted me to say that she had a player who was completely unresponsive, even to an email asking to please even confirm that he was still interested in playing. I made the call that she could cut him off her list and put the first person on the waitlist in. I'll give this person a little more time and at least one more ultimatum to respond and confirm that she wants to be involved, then I may just do that myself.

Anybody interested in doing me a huge favor and possibly taking over this role? :-)

Imperium on my mind

Yowza. Pretty mentally drained since the weekend of Intercon and Titus, and have not been productive for days. I think I have finally caught up on sleep enough to get things done again. Still, in my three days of uselessness I had some lovely social time, first recording nennivian* for Tailor, then nice dinners with Plesser and then with niobien* and Ben. At this point my week's entertaining budget for both money and time is exhausted, so it's time to buckle back down to work. I am very nearly done with my screenwriting assignment that is due on Monday, but still have a lot to do for sci fi and fantasy, which is due the following Saturday.

Unfortunately, since going to Intercon and having a blast and having Festival coming swiftly upon us, my resolve to not write larps while I should be writing film and theater is weakening fast. While watching Titus it occurred to me for the first time that Shakespeare did not base the characters or story off of anything historical, which is the same thing I want to do in Imperium, my ancient Roman larp. And while rest assured, I am not going to be including anything like children being baked in a pie or women with their hands and tongues being cut out, I must confess that the show got me thinking about some stuff that I could use as plots in that larp. I've been writing those thoughts down so as to have a record of them for later, but I have not yet actively devoted time or effort to devising this game. Still, I am feeling more inspired on it than I am on other projects right now, so the temptation is strong. Last night I consulted Ben, who is a classics major, on the proper naming for a certain character's son, and on the plausibility for a particular setup in the world's history. So I've got some thoughts going.

Roughly the story will be set in the same scenario as the beginning of I, Claudius-- the civil wars in Rome have just been ended by a man who has just been given the newly-created position of Emperor. But while I will have a number of characters, PC and NPC, who are analogues to the important figures of that time period, I will be changing what they were like or what they did so that people aren't spoiled by their knowledge of history. I would like the game to be on the large side, with at least twenty characters but preferably closer to thirty if I can manage it. I am also endeavoring, despite the social limitations of the period, to generate ideas for lots of interesting active, female characters, which so far I am succeeding with. The game will be largely interpersonal and roleplay based, but I would also like to have a wargame mechanic representing the campaigns that were such a huge part of Roman culture and society. Not sure how it will work yet, that I'll have to do some research and thinking on.

Damn. I think I can't bullshit that I'm not breaking my rule anymore.

Intercon L con report

Back from Intercon L, and although I am utterly exhausted, it was a heck of a lot of fun getting that way. I didn't prepare for the unusual schedule as well as I should have-- I'd stayed late to see the Titus naked tech on Wednesday, and I'd had two days this week when I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't get back to sleep, so I went in with less reserve than I usually did. But even if I couldn't stay up late, I was determined to enjoy this special once-a-year occasion as much as I possibly could. Ahead is my non-spoilery review!

Friday night jhite1230* and I arrived at the con about an hour and a half in advance of games, allowing us to connect with Seamus, who was one of our gracious roommates, socialize a little, and prepare. Jared ran off to meet in their game space for House of the Rising Sun. I socialized a bit and dressed in the hotel room to play Ariadne in Feast of the Minotaur. I must mention again how much I love this dress and how pretty I felt in it. It's a brand-new couture piece I bought on eBay for a fraction of its retail price, made of this luxurious crinkled velvet and washed silk straps in a gorgeous berry color. It's rare that I get a pretty princess role, and I've been feeling like such a frump lately, so I really wanted to look good for this role, and I think I succeeded. Thanks to for taking this picture:

I bought some sea shell necklaces to wear around my neck and maybe like a circlet in my hair, but I decided I looked better without them. Showing cleavage is not my preferred form of sexy dressing, but given the style of the dress I figured what the hell, just this once. Might as well enjoy the one benefit of gaining weight. However, I discovered a dress that's held on only with tied ribbons is not the most stable, and I found myself adjusting it to preserve good taste quite a bit. I should probably look into some body tape for next time I wear it. I decided to wear my beloved Bast sandals with it, and was pleased that they remained comfortable for the entirety of the game. I must have gotten twenty compliments on the look and felt very good.

The game itself was wonderful, but in a very strange way. As I mentioned, when I read my character sheet there was next to nothing in it. Some personality, very little plot. I heard other players found the same in theirs. But when we got into game, it took a little digging and faking it until we made it, but there was quite a bit of plot that existed in the world-- it's just that very little of it got into the character sheets. It helped that it was very strongly based in Greek mythology that, being geeks, we were all pretty familiar with. But I had a wonderful time, particularly interacting with the other excellent larpers, without whom the game would not have worked at all-- it takes active, creating player to dig up plot out of the ether like that. Highlights included offside7* and a new larper named Kelly Morgan as my sisters who gave me dramatic conflict and support at the same time, morethings5* who had a note-perfect transformation partway through the game that would have been awesome if only for the look he gave me at one point, and Alex Pogue as my Theseus who made the romance plot so interesting and fun. There was also a particular twist that I thought was a very clever way to get a crucial element into the game. I got the feeling there were a handful of characters who didn't have enough to do, but for the most part the nebulous plot was available for everyone to seize on to. Still, if it were up to me I think that plot really needs to get put into sheets. I don't know if it was a stylistic choice or if the writers just ran out of time and had to fill the sheets with something. I highly recommend this in its current state, if only on the condition that you are an active, independent player, but I can honestly say this is the most enjoyable game I've ever played for which I would still recommend a total character sheet rewrite.

The other other game I played was as Irene Adler in An Evening Aboard the HMS Eden. I put together a costume I was very pleased with relatively inexpensively, including a thrift store prom dress with a corsety-looking bodice, a gauzy black blouse beneath it to give it sleeves, and a wide Kentucky Derby bonnet with ostrich feathers on it. But I'm sorry to say I was quite disappointed by this game. It had a very fun theme/set dressing, but the writing was, at least in my part of it, pretty lackluster. As I said to some people after the game, all the direction I had was ticky-box goals-- what boiled down to "Okay, go ring that bell over there!" and once you've run over and rung it, you're unsatisfied because there's no reason to have wanted it nor anything interesting that comes of it. Join that club that doesn't do anything, buy a bigger airship that you can't actually use in game, cure this disease that doesn't have any in-game effects so why waste the time, that sort of thing. The only things in my sheet that were like actual plots, the mystery of what was going on with my sister and what the deal with this item I had was, no one seemed to know anything about so I made no progress on them. Not everyone seemed to have unengaging plots, Jared had a pretty good time and a number of people seemed about to stay busy, but I got the impression that around a third to a half the game was in the same situation I was. It was just very amateurish larp-writing, and though the GMs I asked for help didn't really managed to point me in any useful direction, I will give the gentlemen credit for trying really, really hard. I worry I came across as a difficult player, for which I'm sorry, but I think I failed to convey, no, I don't want another ticky-box to check off, I want a plot thread, but given the writing in the game they may not have been able to understand the difference. I will be hesitant to sign up for any game by these authors again.

Last thing I did this weekend was help natbudin*, emp42ress*, and simplewordsmith* run our game Resonance. By this point I was draggy and tired, but fortunately this run of Resonance mostly ran itself. We had a very good group of players who bought fully into the concept and were happy to ride the rails of the story we'd laid out. This game relies heavily on that willingness in order to work. We also implemented a new device in the third act to see if we could convince players to play it out the way we'd intended. In the first run, the third act didn't happen like it was supposed to at all, so we tried a subtle restructuring. It mostly worked if not entirely in the second run, and didn't really work at all in the third. So this time we basically put in a plot hammer. The hammer made it so the players had no choice but to do what we wanted them to. I think the players were fine with it, but seeing it in action I've decided from a writer's standpoint that I do not like the particular technique we chose. It is a kludge, and it's slightly off-tone in my opinion, but I will say that it works and players are okay with it, so ultimately it's an acceptable mechanism. I prefer the subtler one we implemented for the second and third runs, and I'm not really sure why it didn't work, but the fact of the matter is it didn't.

Also, one of my fellow GMs Danielle pointed out how susceptible this game is to becoming derailed by issues of Maslow's heirarchy of needs. We want the players to be thinking of higher-order issues, that's what the story's about, but the game's setting suggests threats to safety and physical well-being that human nature tends to want to attend to first because you can't do anything if you're dead. We need those threats to exist in a vague sense to maintain the atmosphere, but we really need to manage how pressing they are so as not to distract players from the real, emotional issues we want them to explore. We struck a good balance in this run, but I remember how previous runs have been stalled simply by questions of "But will we be safe if we do X?" that resulted in a reluctance to move forward into the unknown.

I left early on Sunday to catch the last show of Titus, which I'm glad I did, but still, I was sorry I couldn't spend more time socializing. Intercon is one of the most important moments of my year, and I love how it surrounds you with creative, interesting people. I was happy to hear that Jared and EB's game House of the Rising Sun ran great, as did The Prince Comes of Age by Kindness, Matt, and Bernie. Congratulations to everyone who brought their artistic labors, and thanks to everyone who helped make this con so wonderful.

Intercon is nigh

Intercon is just a few days away. I am excited, but also a little regretful. Titus is also premiering this weekend, and I won't be there for a lot of it. At least I'll get to see the Thursday and Sunday shows.

I am a little unsure of what to expect from my games this weekend. I'm afraid that of the two that I'm playing, one character sheet seems pretty bereft of plot and things that translate into in-game action, and the other one is of awkward and amateurish construction. The second I'm not so worried about, I've been in plenty of games that were poorly written that still played fantastically-- funny thing about larp --but I confess to being a wee bit disappointed. Still, with my positive outlook for Lent, I am determined to make my own good time one way or another. I am currently brainstorming my own plots and directions for the first character to be implemented if I find myself without a lot to do, and for the second I plan to just go with whatever happens. I at least like the IDEAS behind my two castings, so I can run with that alone if I have to and make up the rest as I go. And there will be Resonance to run, a game that I am proud of that I enjoy putting on. It's going to be a good con, I'm sure.

I have to get packing this week. I've already drawn up my list so as not to forget anything, as is my habit when going away for a weekend. :-P I also need to figure out what food I want to take. I was pretty successful with my picnic basket strategy last year, so I may just want to cook some meals that can be eaten cold and put them in a cooler to take along again. Better get on that, there's not much time let to get it all ready.

Festival signups and Titus build

Both of my games at Festival, The Stand and Paranoia, have now filled. The Stand will be interesting because this time it seemed I was getting a lot of female players, so in order to accommodate them I opened up a few neutral slots. Now I have thirteen men and twelve women to play seventeen male and nine female characters, which is more skewed to the female than either of the previous runs were. If any of these lovely ladies are willing to be cross cast that will make everything a snap, but if not enough of them are, I will have to consider what currently male characters I can gender swap. Given the setting and historical time period, it's a pretty gendered game, and while there are plenty of people stepping outside of their proscribed roles, it's usually pretty significant to their plot. Still, that should actually be a fun and interesting challenge should the need arise. Festival looks to be a good con overall; it's a good roster of games at this point, and they're almost all completely full. Well done, ninja_report*, for making this happen!

Build for the current HTP show, Titus Andronicus, has begun. Though the show is still several weeks off, their unfortunately early performance dates mean there is no show in the theater before them, so they were able to move in and get started. I hope the extra time proves to be of benefit to them. I went by the last couple days to lend a hand here and there where I could. I really enjoy helping with build week. With work and school I spend so much time doing mental, sedentary work that my body craves a chance to pit itself against physical work of some kind. And It's not often that I get a chance to build things. Carpentry is one of the many things I'd love to learn if it weren't something that required a significant money and space investment, so it's nice to have an outlet every now and then to experience it. And I like the challenge to my body to do that kind of work.

Free on a Friday

For the second round of Festival I got into Folding the River. I was torn very much between it and High Rollers, but I'd already told the GMs I would be signing up, so I decided to let that decide for me. Neither Paranoia or The Stand have filled yet, but neither are in the time slots that people tend to prioritize, so I am hoping that once signups go open on Monday night we will get our full complements. Paranoia was in theory supposed to be modular, so it might be able to work if we have to excise parts, but frankly I think that fell by the wayside enough that we'd have to do a lot of fixing to make it work. The Stand is not really able to work without pretty much the entire cast-- I could maybe cut out two roles, max, without having to do major surgery --so I really really want it to fill.

In other news, I have finished my first screenwriting assignment and have decided to declare my afternoon and evening free. I am now making a list of things I'd like to do with that open time. I would like to take a walk into town, maybe run an errand or two, maybe just walk. It occurred to me recently that even if I get back to going to the gym as often as I did in undergrad, back then I was also walking across campus three or four times a day in addition, which I am definitely not getting now. So I am determined not only to make time for workouts, but also just get off my lazy ass and walk during the day. It means a significantly greater time commitment, unfortunately, but I think if I schedule correctly I can make it work. It would be worth it to shape up a little.

I want to finish another scene for Tailor that I've started but not yet made much progress on. It's the confrontation between Tom and Kenneth where we finally learn why Kenneth's been hanging around with so much interest in the Lorings. We recorded a scene between Plesser and Jared this week, which has inspired me. I would also like to have it for the Artist Meetup morethings5* and I have planned this weekend, where we use each other as accountability partners to keep us working on our artistic projects. Maybe I'll noodle a little on my short-quick-easy larp idea, since I'm feeling particularly engaged in larp production right now.

Finally, it'd be nice to make a little more progress with my new beginner sewing text, Sew Everything Workshop. I've gotten a little ways in and so far it's exactly what I was looking for. It starts with the basics and explains them very clearly. So far I haven't learned anything I didn't already know, but I like things that emphasize the foundation and confirm that I understand correctly before moving on to what I don't already grasp. I'm anxious to get to the part where it actually walks you through a sewing project, which is what I think I really need.

Oh, and one last thing. I recently decided that the first "plot line" I'd like to feature on Hipster Feminist is a story about Rhoda stalking an ex-boyfriend. Not sure how that's going to work yet, but I think it has the potential to be very funny. Maybe I'll do a little work figuring out the storyline and seeing how I can chunk it out into individually funny, one hundred and forty-character pieces. 

Larpocalypse signups begin!

Festival signups opened last night, and the flurry for game registration began! As I predicted, Jesriah filled within the first few minutes, but I was fast on the button and made it in. Glad I made that my first-round pick. Congratulations, morethings5*, lightgamer*, and ninja_report*! You win the brass ring for this Festival. The tiered system I think is really good, as nobody will get shut out of everything they want. There were some minor technical issues that some people observed in that some of the games didn't have a signup button appear even though signups were open-- both The Stand and Paranoia were affected by it. But our intrepid con chair and heroic webmaster were on it, and before long all issues were solved. We even got a few people making those two their first round pick! I am flattered that katiescarlett29* and nennivian* chose The Stand-- can't wait to cast them! --and there's also a young man I don't recognize but who appears to be a Brandeis student. Yay, new larping blood! In Paranoia we have, among others, Prentice and niobien*, Emily Baum, and Nat Lathrop. I am confident that everything will fill within the next few rounds, and I look forward to the final cast roster.

My next pick will be Folding the River, and if I don't make it into that, High Rollers. I want to play both of them very much so I won't be disappointed either way. Jared's going for High Rollers as well. Remember to be at your computer at 7PM this coming Thursday so you can get into the game you want before it fills!

Merely Players: The Larp?

Wow, after feeling like for ages there hasn't been much larp in my life, I sure have had it in the forefront of my attention this past week or so.

After laurion* suggested several scenarios for a light, quick larp in a contained space, being the meta-theater freak that I am, I latched onto the ideas of actors, maybe actors just about to go on stage, utilizing the lovely convention of the dysfunctional troupe who've got more drama going on behind the scenes than they do onstage. Eight or so character, two hours, trapped backstage hashing out their bullshit so the show can just go on already! Funny, silly, easy to run and hopefully to write.

It amuses me that I am basically thinking of writing Merely Players: The Larp. Well, not exactly. Similar plots and character archetypes to those I used in Merely Players, if not exactly the same people or plots as they existed in the show. But if I could take a PC and an NPC from The Stand and make a play out of their drama, why can't I take a piece of theater I wrote and use it to inspire a larp?

I think I'm going to noodle around with this, at least idly. Not committing to run it or anything, but it might ease my current malaise somewhat. At least it'll provide an easy, low-pressure alternative to the more serious work I am responsible for lately. Thanks, Chad, for tossing out the idea!

Good larp news burning through my gloom

Stressed. Overworked, overtired, and over-scheduled. Panic over it set in yesterday at the first possible time, and in my upset I was a complete ass to katiescarlett29*. She was gracious and understanding, but I feel terrible about it. I will make it up to you, dear, once I have my head back on straight. I promise. I got a decent chunk of schoolwork done last night, which helps, but there's still a fair bit more to go.

On the positive side, the larp fairy knew I am longing for larpy things, and she has granted my wish. In lovely news for our little roleplaying community, ninja_report* has released the schedule for Festival 2012! I am excited just looking at it. As for the games I will be running, The Stand will be 9AM Saturday morning, while Paranoia will be 2PM Sunday afternoon. That leaves three possible slots for me to be a player. Ideally I have a break somewhere in there, so I will try to limit myself to signing up for two. We have tiered signups this year (yay, natbudin*!) so that means one must prioritize. My first-round choice, no question, will be Jesriah, the noir-style game set in an insane asylum within morethings5*'s fascinating roleplaying world, written in collaboration with lightgamer* and ninja_report*. That takes care of Friday evening. My second-round choice I think has to be Folding the River, written by wired_lizard* and mllelaurel*, a futuristic sci-fi game that may or may not involve time travel. They always run such great larps, so I'm excited. That will take up Saturday evening. Unfortunately it is across from High Rollers, acousticshadow2*'s World War II-era caper game which I've heard excellent things about. I've already told Tory and Lily I'm going for Folding the River, but if I don't get in, I will try to get into High Rollers instead. There are some pretty cool-looking games in the Saturday afternoon slot-- bleemoo* and staystrong62805*'s Vampire game, zapf* and ninja_report*'s Edwardian game, and laura47*'s amnesia game --but I think I need to have at least one free period, where I can go home and take a nap before I die.

The first signup round will open at 7PM this coming Monday, February 6th, so to be sure you get your first choice, register for the con at the website, then be ready to jump in once Shannon throws open the gates!

In other larp-con-related news, I got my casting for my other game at Intercon, The Feast of the Minotaur! It's an ancient Greek mythology-themed game centering around the story of Theseus and the Minotaur. I will be playing Princess Ariadne, who in the story was the daughter of King Minos of Crete who falls madly in love with the Athenian prince. No character sheet yet, but that sounds promising that I'll have a lot to do. I will have to come up with a pretty pretty Greek princess costume between now and March. Once I get this homework assignment done, I think I can afford to give that a little time and attention.

Musing on larps I could write

Harrumph. I know I'm not supposed to be focusing on this, but I am feeling frustrated and restless, so I welcome anything that might relieve it a bit, and right now, I want to muse about larps and larp writing.

Currently my name is listed as author for six larps. They are, in chronological order, Alice, Oz, Paranoia, The Labor Wars, Resonance, and The Stand. Alice, Oz, and The Stand I wrote alone. The other three I was a member of the writing team, The Labor Wars and Resonance with Alleged Entertainment, Paranoia with Bernie, Joe, lightgamer*, and witticaster*. I find I write best when there is a clear hierarchy of creative control in a game. It is not easy for me to collaborate well, so it helps if I don't see the project as "my idea" when I do. As a guest of Alleged's, fleshing out notions conceived by another person, I did not have the problem where I was so invested in the concept that didn't want to concede to someone else's idea. Paranoia was Bernie's baby, which also made it easier to step back. I'm not so good at working with others on projects that are MY idea unless there is a clear understanding that I get the final word.

Most of those larps have or will have been run quite a bit. Alice has run five times, Oz has run six. The Stand and Paranoia will have their third runs at Festival, while at Intercon Resonance will have its fourth. The Labor Wars has only run once, which I know I would like to put on again if time and my co-writers permit. I tend to be very concerned about whether or not a game has run too many times recently, as I have a fear of the larp not filling. That's why Alice has not come out in a couple years now, and I think Oz should not come out again anytime soon either. Which makes me itch for a new piece to debut. I love the feeling of people rushing to play in my larp, and I get a huge amount of validation for my work when players enjoy the piece.

I have several concepts for larps that I could write. Some of them have been rolling around in my head for several years and for some reason I just never got to them. It's worth mentioning that I thought of most of these considerably before The Stand, which had the weirdest genesis ever-- I just found myself bored at work one day thinking about how I liked cowboys, and would like to write a cowboy larp. I was suddenly jotting down ideas and becoming engaged, when I became struck with the desire to bid it for Intercon. It was that bidding that forced me to work on it as opposed to any other game, which is why it got finished while these others are still just ideas.

I know someday I must write that Peter Pan larp that I've always been talking about, to complete my planned triptych of larps based on what are most likely the three most iconic children's stories in the Western Canon. I will call the game simply Pan, both to fit with the punchiness of Alice and Oz, and to fit in with a notion I am adopting from the movie Hook that Pan is used as a title. The trouble is, while I have a few vague conceptual ideas, and I think I want to go with a kind of fairyland setting, I don't really know what the plot is. I went into writing most of my other games with an idea of that already, so I think that may be what's been stopping me from really digging into it.

Imperium has really been nagging at me. I love the Ancient Roman setting, and I am really enjoying the possibilities that are open to me because I have decided to have my characters be only vague analogues to figures from Roman history so I can deal with some of the same issues but take them in totally different directions. I've had a couple really exciting ideas in the last few days, which pull me more and more towards wanting to work on it, but as it's currently my newest idea, maybe it shouldn't get priority. I am amused by the fact that I seem to write "series" of games-- there's my children's-story-inspired triptych, and apparently there's also my pseudo-historical period games like this one and The Stand.

Jared and I have been working on and off for years on our New York Mafia game, Men of Respect. I love the transitional period in the history of Italian-American gangs, the time immediately post-World War II in which the Godfather is set, after the Golden Age was over but before things just devolved into plain old street crime. We have a lot of work done and a ton of good ideas, but probably because we've never set a work schedule for it we've only ever managed to chip away at it off and on. Maybe the time is approaching to set meetings for it and lay deadlines, because this I think has the potential to be a truly epic game. (I wonder if it counts among the "pseudo-historical" type.)

Then there's one that I have never talked about much because I'm not sure if it's a good or workable idea, but it's been kicking around in my head for several years now. It is tentatively called Jabberwocky, and would be designed as a sequel to my first game Alice. Suggested to me by Jared, it would be examining what happened to the state of Wonderland now that the Jabberwock is gone. I've always been unsure about it for several reasons. First, larp sequels are a tricky proposition. It's hard for them not to spoil the content of the previous game. Also, I'm concerned what the hook would be now that the one hopeful thread that had been in the storyline has by now left Wonderland to never come back. I don't think I want to just tell a story of lots of horrible people fighting to screw one another. But maybe the story can be that without the major suppressing force of hope there, there's a chance of people rising out of the despair that holds them there. Alice was a rather successful game, liked by the majority of its players, so maybe there is an audience for this one.

Lastly, as I mentioned recently, I would love to write a small short game that I could put together quickly and easily just to have something new and fun to run. I am imagining it as a two-hour game where the players are explicitly confined to a tightly limited space with an interactive environment that facilitates the movement of the plot. The trouble is, I have no idea what the circumstance or the story should be. That's always my problem when I come up with the project without already having an idea for it. Somebody give me a scenario, and if I feel inspired by it, I would love to write a quick, short, fun larp for it.

Signal boost: Miskatonic Larp Weekend

Repost from interconlarp*:

A weekend of Lovecraftian crazyness is happening!
Sign up for any/all of the three Miskatonic Larps (though be aware that Class Reunion 2000 has some spoilers for the other two):
Miskatonic Class Reunion
Miskatonic Archeological Expedition
Miskatonic Class Reunion 2000

When: March 16 - 17 (depending on which larps you do)
Where: WPI

How do I sign up?
1. Go to this website:
http://miskatonic2012.concentral.net/events/646
2. Sign up for the larps you will be attending

I have already played all three of these games, so I will  not be attending myself, but I can attest that they are a lot of fun, so if you can make it, you should definitely play some or all of this cool Lovecraftian trilogy.

Festival schedule almost ready

Our lovely Festival con chair ninja_report* just sent out the preliminary schedule for Larpocalypse. It looks to be a very good con. Shannon looks to have balanced the schedule nicely, meaning there should be a good variety of games in every time period with an appropriate number of slots. And she and natbudin* have arranged to have tiered signups-- as in, one signup total per person for the first round, two signups total for the second round, and then as many signups as you like for the third round --which Festival has needed for a while now. We've had a problem in the past when people who logged in at 7:03 rather than 7:00 when signups opened and got shut out of their preferred games in every slot. Everybody should get a shot at getting into at least one of their first-choice games.

Oh, and I don't believe I ever mentioned the final verdict on which games I would be running. I did bid The Stand first, as I am quite proud of that game and it's only been run twice before. I'm excited to put it on again. My one concern is that maybe the map needs one more GM, so more traveling and exploring can happen at once. But after some discussion with my co-writers, we elected to run Paranoia as the second one. Despite having debuted it in 2009, if I remember correctly, because of its particular space requirements and the need for the right players (not everyone's into that style of game or the Paranoia setting), we've only run it two times. Bernie in particular has wanted to run it again. We've been waiting for the right time and place, but it did well at Festival in its maiden run so now seems as good a time as any. The edit we made for the second run was really strong, so players should be in for a treat.