Current state of my larpy life

So with Intercon now officially one week away, I take stock my of position in regards to my larp life.

In pretty decent shape for Intercon given the amount of time that remains. All my costumes are assembled; I even printed out my chest symbol for my Super Villain outfit. Yesterday I packed away as many items as I could that I would need to take but wouldn't need to use before then. I have arranged the ride situation for my merry band of intrepid congoers. All that is in fairly good order, or as good as it can be right now.

Yesterday I also took stock of what needed to be bought in order to pack and print Oz and GM Space. Most of the GM Space cards were left over from the last run, so I just printed out the handful of missing ones here and there. Now all cards are printed, though I will leave the packing to Jared as I'm not sure where everything goes. I didn't print any full sheets either; again he can cover that. As for Oz, I am mostly out of the supplies I need. I have a handful of white index cards left, but I'll almost certainly have to buy more. As for playing cards and nametags, I'm certain I've got enough of those left over, and the sheets themselves I printed at work. That leaves only the index cards, and of course folders to pack them in. Today I think a Staples run may be in order, or at least hitting the dollar store.

So Intercon is pretty much set. That means that now I should start looking ahead to Festival. I think, like many people, I've been caught in the "Oh, Festival is forever away, I don't need to think about that yet," but at least point I think we've only got five weeks. Which means I've got to decide what to run. I've got a number of possibilities here, and a number of concerns to think about. I have had requests from people to run both Alice and Oz. I am totally willing to do either, or both. I spoke to Jared, and he is willing to help both either or both. So, in all likelihood, is Bernie. I have concerns about both, though.

First let's deal with Oz. The advantage of Oz is that, as a fifteen-player game, it's pretty easy to fill. But Oz has run A LOT recently-- with Intercon it will have had four runs within the first year of its existence --such that I'm concerned people may be a bit glutted on it. And I've run it so many times over such a short period I think I'm more interested in running something that I hadn't put on as recently. Don't get me wrong, there are people who told me they want it to play at Festival and I certainly love GMing it, but a fifth run at this point doesn't feel like a big personal priority right now.

Now there's Alice. I am finding myself wanting very much to run this again-- for all that it was my first, it's still the game I love best and am most proud of. As with Oz, there have been requests to rerun it, and I haven't put it on since last August in Chicago, so I've been itchy. My worry here is that it is a large game that has had two previous Brandeis runs. Ever since Chicago, I have been terribly gunshy about the game not filling. I'm thinking of cutting two characters that I've never quite managed to be satisfied with, at least until I figure out how to fix them. That brings the total down from twenty-seven to twenty-five-- not much different, but some.

Still. It might not be too hard. Fortunately for me my games, particularly Alice, have been blessed with excellent word of mouth. I remember when I went to WPI for SLAW in November, I was recognized by name alone as the author of Alice. :-) I know WPI has a ton who haven't played, and I know I can think of a number of people off the top of my head that I'd like to bully into playing (natbudin , pezzonovante , natbudin, ultimatepsi,juldea, mllelaurel...) Hell, I think captainecchi has forgotten enough by this point to actually play. And I have a couple of friends new to larping, like April and nennivian, who might be persuaded.

I'm also concerned that Bernie will want to rerun Paranoia, which honestly I would be happy to do if I wouldn't rather run Alice and Oz and I'm not certain I want to run a third thing. I'd like to have a little more flexibility in my schedule, to have more options for what I'm able to play this time around. It wouldn't be the end of the world if I ran three things, and it would certainly be easier this time since all those games are actually finished in advance, but it'd be nice to have a little choice of what to play.

What does everyone think? Any opinions or insights you can share to help me figure this out would be very welcome and appreciated.

Various random clothing-related thoughts

I am surprised by just how many articles of clothing I have. The fact that, according to my wardrobe journal, I managed to go about forty days without repeating a seasonally-appropriate outfit boggles me. I never really thought of myself as a clothes horse, but no wonder my drawers are stuffed and the closet bar sags in the middle.

I want to jettison some pieces to lighten the burden on my dresser and hangers. Unfortunately, what this wardrobe recording experiment has taught me is I DO like and I DO wear the vast majority of my clothing. I guess that's a good thing, but I would like to weed things out a bit. I've got a handful of items that could stand to find a new owner to love it and wear it with more pride than I do.

I read about women having parties where they brought clothes that were still in good condition but for some reason they no longer wanted-- never wear it, doesn't fit right, no longer suits their taste or style. Everybody would try on everybody else's stuff and whenever you found something you liked, you got to keep it. Anything not taken at the end of the night gets donated to charity. I kind of like this idea-- you get rid of your unwanted stuff, and maybe getting something new for free. Maybe I should throw one and make a little dinner party out of it.  

I am also thinking of acquiring some sort of separate storage solution for articles that are decidedly costume pieces-- as in, I want to keep them because they are useful as costume pieces for larps and plays, but they are not things I wear as part of my normal wardrobe. I have more than a few of these taking up space the regular clothes could use. The yellow dress with the black lace overlay, the oversized black turtleneck, the Asian-inspired shirt, all these things are good to have for dressing a part but I would not wear them as everyday clothing. Maybe a box or something that I can slide under my bed.