Intercon report

[breakinglight11]

Friday night - All's Well That Ends - This really was an excellent game. It was incredibly thickly plotted, and it seemed like pretty much every character felt like they were important and involved in significant things. I loved the setting, and the way the history was interpreted for dramatic effect. I was Robert Floode, a successful boy actor on the Elizabethan stage, and I very much enjoyed my entanglement in the theater world. Also, I always enjoy having the chance to interact with electric_d_monk, who had the role of Mr. William Shakespeare. I was genuinely cross-cast for the first time, and a role like mine is actually probably better suited to it than most. Additionally, it's games like these that really point out how the management of information can really affect a game. I tend to be an inveterate liar in larps, mostly to manipulate people, but sometimes you manipulate them more by telling the absolute truth. I got a fundamentally honest character to to tell me everything she knew by answering all her questions completely frankly. Amazing how one thing works well in some instances and another works better in others. AJ, the author and GM, is not only an excellent writer but an incredibly charming guy; I'd love to get the materials from him and run it myself here at Brandeis sometime, and from a quick conversation I had with him it seemed like he'd be okay with that.

Saturday morning - Muppet Purgatory - Unfortunately I did not have quite as good a time in this game. It was a horde game in which I was cast as horde, but-- obvious as it may seem --I like being horde in good hordes, I really don't like it in not-so-good hordes. The horde in this game was not written to allow a lot of interaction with other characters, and a lot of the time if someone didn't get the Muppet reference the character was making, either you had no idea how to play it or no one knew how to respond to you. Not my kind of horde. I think the cast characters must have been better, as the cast seemed to being having a lot of fun, but they were also played by some really strong larpers-- oakenguy as Fozzie, Margaret Simkins as Miss Piggy, Jim MacDougal as Gonzo, and the guy I didn't know who played Animal was absolutely amazing. Poor Nomi as Kermit had to run around herding cats trying to get us all out onstage, and Adina and Laura made a really good Statler and Waldorf. I liked the performative aspects of it, when you went out on stage with an act-- I got to play in a D&D game run by Animal, and sing the Internet is For Porn, among other things --but the horde just wasn't strong enough to stand without the context of the presentations. So not a great game, but probably some would have fun with it, and not really the game for me.

Saturday evening - League of Extraordinary Hogwarts Students - I had a blast in this game. I heard reports of Matt and Lise working on this game over the past year and grew progressively more excited for it as time went on that I couldn't not sign up for it. I loved the Victorian pastiche part of it, and they wove it very skillfully into the Harry Potter setting. I was the Cheshire Cat, and got to wear my sexy kitty costume that got more than a few approving looks. ;-) i had enough plot to give me a direction, and then the total freedom to pursue what interested me and stick my nose in other people's business. It was a very interesting character in its function and capabilities, and I loved getting to figure out how to use my situation to my best advantage. I had an ability that was both very powerful and incredibly abuseable, and I surprised myself by how much I used it during the game, but I worked very hard to not screw anybody with it. I followed around the guy who played Auguste Dupin a lot, as well as Marc Blumberg as Professor Moriarty, partly because they had interesting mysteries and partly because they were just fun to interact with. Among those that impressed me were those two, Margaret (as always) as Artemisia Black, the guy who played Watson, and Jared in his incredibly cool character that I ended up having a really fun time with. The one real criticism I had involved the deduction mechanic, which was a great idea and worked well, but there was just so much of it to get done that it tended to eat up a lot of time. I like the concept of it, though, and I'm considering asking if I can adapt it for something in Oz. Heh, as a side note, there was an incredibly cool moment right before the game that I was in my Cheshire Cat costume standing in front of Matt and Eager Mike-- my two Cheshire Cats. I am extremely amused to think that Matt was my original Cheshire Cat, and I was in the first run of his.

Sunday morning I wasn't in any game, but I did watch the second run of GM Space. It ran beautifully yet again, and I am incredibly proud of how strong that horde is. I think everyone who played it enjoyed it, even the players who typically don't like horde games. Socially I felt like I got to talk and hang with a lot of great people. Jared and I chatted a lot with David Cave, who played the March Hare in the second run of Alice, who is trying to finish a larp of his own. It was also great getting to see Marc  Blumberg, who impressed the hell out of me as the White Rabbit. I wanted to talk more to Margarat Simkins, but she just kind of got away from me even though we were in two games together. One of the best things was that I got to be with Matt and Lise, who I haven't seen in a really long time and have really missed. They were excellent company, and I want to talk to them more about their game. The dead dog, organized by londo, was very nice. This weekend I also made a point of hanging with bronzite because I haven't seen him in a while, and I wanted to hear about how it was to do Iron GM. His team, I Escaped from Arkham, won the contest, and now I'm very curious about their game. I also chatted with the dude from Mystical Journeys in the black and purple cyberpunk getup, who maintains the fact that he was flirting shamelessly with me is proof positive of how he was not part of his fellow's speculation that my age was fifteen. *Grumble* Stupid Alice pants making me look like a scrawny shapeless kid. It was also really nice to just be able to just be with Jared, hanging with people, playing games, and not worrying quite so much. We both had a bit of con crash afterward, I think because we had to be plunged back into the grind of work and stress, but for the timebeing it was a really nice diversion. He busted out an impression of someone at the dead dog that cracked up those of us still lingering.

So yeah, it sucks to be back to the grind, but overall, good con, and thanks to everyone that helped make it so.

Comments

[zrealm.livejournal.com]

Was good to see you again :) It sounds like you had a good time :-)

It looks like you've got a pretty full run slate at FotL - I'm impressed :)

[breakinglight11.livejournal.com]

You too! And yeah, I'm a little nervous for how full my FotL weekend will be, but I'm very excited too. Here's hoping the new stuff runs okay. :-)

[electric-d-monk.livejournal.com]

Well, we're definitely hitting BSCF this week(and I am planning on bringing prin touts of certain bits of LXHS that I want to discuss with you... particularly the visions...)

I must admit, while it worked well for you, the Cat is one of the characters I'm a little worried on how it played out in practice. Your choices made perfect sense and were in character, but I really want to keep the cat more physically present in game. Now whether to pursue that through mechanics tweaks, or characterization impetus provided in the character sheet, or a mix of both is a bit of a puzzle...

[breakinglight11.livejournal.com]

The reason I stayed invisible so much is I felt like an inordinate amount of people really were not okay with my being around-- it's tough to when more than a few people are talking about how they think your character shouldn't be present in the only location that is gamespace, and threaten to do something about it. I guess my suggestion for keeping the cat more present is to not have any (or at least few) factors preventing the cat from feeling like being present is a workable idea.

For example-- make people in general not mind that the cat is around, not caring that there happens to be a cat, and balance that out with several select characters have specific suspicions or issues with the cat. If so many people hadn't made me feel like they were going to kick me just for being around, I might have felt like I could be present. Instead, I felt like no matter where I went, I was trespassing, so not actually being there was my only way around it.

[teenyweenyowen.livejournal.com]

The guy in black and purple is almost certainly Gryph. I know him from my boffer LARP. He's a little nuts and WAY too loud but overall a good guy.

[oakenguy.livejournal.com]

(This is me reading interconlarp's friendslist and poking my nose in...I hope you don't mind.)

I can totally see what you're saying about Muppet Purgatory. I've spent time over the last couple days thinking how it could have flowed better, which is something I never do. Without speaking for the other characters, I can say that I was so stressed about being unable to go on stage that I became very single-minded in my interactions with horde characters. It was all about a)finding what I can do to obtain a token, b)doing it, c)getting the token, d)finding a new horde character and repeating. Which in terms of good roleplay with y'all is totally not where my orientation should have been.

[oakenguy.livejournal.com]

I logged onto the FestEvil site 13 minutes after signups started, and Oz was already full and had a 12 person waitlist! Bad news for me, but congratulations--you have a hit!

[breakinglight11.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm sorry you didn't manage to get in, but with as much interest as I'm seeing, I'm definately running it again.

Also, you were fantastic as Fozzie. I was so impressed by your comedy routine, by how you balanced actually being funny with Fozzie being not so much in the comedic skills department. :-) Incredible, sir.

[oakenguy.livejournal.com]

You are *totally* making me blush. Thank you!