A song based on the show

Perhaps because of the rain finally letting up, or perhaps because I am sipping a lovely cup of my newly restocked pretenious chai blend from Teavana, I am feeling light in spirits today. This has translated to my being quite productive this morning, which pleases me immensely and makes me feel even better.

Yesterday was a nice day despite the rain. I went with Bernie to run some errands for Caesar; among other places we hit the fabric store, which I always enjoy going to because of all the neat little notions. My dad is in town for work, so afterward he, my brother, his girlfriend, and myself all went out to dinner at the Union Street Oyster House. I've always loved that place, the seafood is fantastic. Jared sadly could not join us, but it was a nice time anyway. Afterward I attended the Hold Thy Peace coffeehouse for Julius Caesar, which Jared had organized and was emceeing. It was a lovely time spent with friends and HTPers showcasing their talents. The highlight of the evening for me was the guitar playing of Jonathan Plesser. It turns out he's a talented songwriter, who not only composed a hilarious love song about typically awkward Brandeis social interactions, but also a beautiful song from the point of view of his character Damon in To Think of Nothing. I was incredibly touched that he was inspired by the show; it really meant a lot to mean to hear it. So thank you, Jonathan, for sharing  that with me. :-)

Larp queries

Probably because I feel vital and productive right now, I find myself wanting to work on new larps. I think I'll do some work on the two character sheets that are due for the next Labor Wars meeting today and over the course of this week. Also, it leads me to think of some questions that I think I will throw out there in the interest of soliciting opinions.

1. Is there any value in including costuming hints in character sheets? Particularly as a redundant measure with the casting e-mails sent out to players?

2. What is the best way to alert players to the fact that there is some value to be gotten from interacting with the game's environment when the game is on the whole more about social interactions? This is an issue I've had several times.

3. Is it appropriate to remind players to look at name badges if there is significant information on them other than just names, or should they be expected to take note of what's there? For example, I use character numbers to represent appearence recognition (as in, if you know their number, you recognize their face) and this can be important if a character is using a different name than the one you may know them by. I always list character numbers with names on sheets if that character is expected to recognize them. If they don't grasp that, is it my fault if I don't explain, or is it their fault for not noticing?

I may have more, but those are the ones I'm currently pondering.