Entries tagged with lovecraft

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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.

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Chihuly and Bricco with the family

My parents are in town this weekend for my brother's graduation from Emerson. Thus far it's been a lovely visit, including dining in some great restaurants and a trip to the Museum of Fine Arts to see the Chihuly exhibit. I had only heard of Dale Chihuly because an actual piece of his was in Frasier's apartment on Frasier, but in case you don't know him, he is a famous glass blower ("gaffer" is apparently the technical term) who makes vessels, sculptures, and hanging "chandeliers" out of glass. I remember thinking that Frasier's piece was kind of ugly, but I really enjoyed this MFA exhibit. He does many vessels, like gorgeous colorful bowls in many different textures and ones meant to look like Native American woven baskets, but he also has huge installations of curving horns, tall spears, bubbles, and tendrils, that he says were inspired by flowers but strike me more as like plants and creatures under the sea. Some, with their tentaculous outstretching branches, even struck me as distinctly Cthulhoid! Funny how often I see Lovecraft in everyday things... Anyway, one thing I thought was particularly interesting is that now, after a car accident and his advanced age, he doesn't actually physically make the pieces anymore, but stands with his assistants as they make them, giving direction and looking at the pieces from all perspectives, the way a director works with an actor. If you like unusual art displays, I recommend going to see this exhibit at the MFA.

We also went to dinner at Bricco, a fabulous Italian place in the North End that is considered to be one of the top ten restaurants in the United States. Certainly it is the best restaurant I have ever been to. Whether you want something traditional Italian or something more modern haute cuisine, you will find something remarkable to order off the menu. Though I am not a pasta eater, I will make an exception for this place, as it is all handmade and delicious. It's very expensive, so I only end up going the on special occasions with my parents, but it makes for a wonderful meal every time.

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Slightly delayed gaming report

The tabletop games of this past weekend all went well to varying degrees. I enjoyed the prewritten World War I Call of Cthulhu mod, but the pre-generated characters were a bit too bland. I like pre-gens as a concept-- in fact, I may actively prefer them, since I think the GM tends to be able to integrate them better into the world --but these didn't have much to sink your teeth into. Also, it ran very late, and the more tired I get, the less and less I can stay in character and roleplay.

I was very pleased with my Burn Notice game. We resumed quite smoothly, given that the last time we played was back in January. I am glad to report that we finished the episode, which included a "boss battle" of sorts that I ran a lot better than I was afraid I would. Combats are still tough for me. Also, fellow tabletop GMs out there, do you ever find the PCs latching on to an NPC that you didn't particularly expect them to develop any attachment to? The most recent adventure involved an underground boxing ring, and there was a cut man named Archie Judd who was designed to be able to be turned over to their cause. They ended up really liking him and asking if he'll ever appear again. That surprised me; I didn't expect them to find him as cool as they did. So it might be worth it to find some way to have him recur if they enjoy him that much.

We also arranged for the next session, which is a good idea as I'd like to play on a semi-regular basis. Not this Sunday but next Sunday we'll get together for it again. Two separate storylines have been going simultaneously, and now that the boxing one is concluded we can work toward finishing the one regarding Gwen being framed for acts of terrorism. Marissa will be rejoining the group in the role of Riker; it'll be good to have her back. I don't think Riker had much involvement in the current caper thus far, so she should be able to come in fresh on it. I think I like the idea of a once-every-two-weeks schedule. It gives me time to plan the adventures to my liking, something I don't think I could do if I only have one week in between sessions.

Then I played in the rules test for Bernie and Joe's proposed Eternal Darkness-style larp project. It was a tight, short mod with a great player goup that I liked very much, set in Egypt during the period of the big tomb excavations. Joe is a good DM; he makes good plots and handles players very skillfully. I got a slightly problematic character in that she had a really cool, fun personality but given her circumstances as a young woman in the late 1800's did not have a great entre into the adventure and was somewhat prevented from being as active as I would have liked. A fixable issue with careful design, however, and I liked her enough to use her as a role. As for the rules, by and large I thought they worked well, though they were clearly devised by people much more used to tabletopping than larping. Still, i think they could be cleaned up to high larp functionality.

Tonight is cooking preparation and packet stuffing for The Labor Wars. We are nearing the moment of truth where we actually have the run. I feel so proud of us for doing this. I can't get the thought out of my head that I participated in the writing of a new weekend-long game. As far as I know, there hasn't been a new weekend-long game written in the last ten years. And weekend-longs people regard differently; they're kind of a big deal. So I can't tell you how much I want to get the heck out of work today and get down to the prep. God, I am so excited for this game.

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Intercon J weekend report

Wow. What a con.

Back from Intercon now and back to the grind of regular life. I am happy, exhausted, and very thoughtful.

( Shadow Over Babylon on Friday night )

( Super Villain Academy Saturday morning )
( Oz on Saturday afternoon )
( The Last Seder on Saturday night )

( GM Space on Sunday morning )

( Wrap up of the weekend )

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MINI PIE PLATES

My mom just sent me MINI PIE PLATES. MINI PIE PLATES, I TELL YOU. I LOVE HER SO MUCH.

Because it's my wonderful mother, the package contained, in addition to the MINI PIE PLATES, chewable immune supplements, a mini-DV of her riding her horse Braveheart, a couple of chocolate kisses, and a humorous short story parodying Lovecraft fandom entitled "The Eldritch Pastiche from Beyond the Shadow of Horror."

I love packages from my mom.

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humor,
lovecraft

Cthulhu daily

It occurs to me that my life is such that discussions of Cthulhu and related monstrosities occur for me daily.

:-)

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Miskatonic costume

I think I've figured out my costume for Miskatonic Class Reunion 2000. I want to wear all black, and look kind of somber but elegant. I've decided I'm going to wear this little black dress I have, but it doesn't have a back, and I don't want it to look that sexy, so I'm going to wrap my black pashmina around my shoulders. A delicate little necklace that belonged to my grandmother finishes the look, and perhaps diamond stud earrings. If I can get it to look how I want, I plan to wear my hair up. It's a little on the formal side-- by contrast, for Gloria Preston, my MCR character, I wore khaki dress slacks and a silky button-up blouse --but I really like the way it looks and even if I'm a bit overdressed by comparison to other players I think it'll be okay. It's also important to me that I look appreciably different from how I did as Gloria, since I'm playing a different character in a similar situation.

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Verdict: success!

Last night was the playtest of GM Space, and I am delighted to report that I had a blast. Jared and Sharone should be very proud.

I played Lily the GM, one of the cast characters, and I had a really fun time wracking my brain for ways to get players to keep playing even when they seemed determined to somehow break or ruin the game. Apparently rigel is signed up for this game at Intercon, and I would hazard guesses both that she would enjoy/is likely to get cast in this character. I believe that would be the second casting she and I will have shared. But as much as I liked my cast role, the horde had so many hilarious bits that I was starting to get jealous. There were lots of spot-on parodies of the weird things that happen in larps and the stupid things that players do that just cracked me up-- not to mention a lot of cool stuff taking off of the Lovecraft universe. All the horde players, particularly Nat, Susan, and Ryan, were just so funny and awesome. I really loved a lot of Mac's bits as well. I remember when Jared started getting concerned that certain important things hadn't come up yet, because the players weren't moving through the horde characters fast enough. Well, dear, that means you've written horde characters that are strong enough to actually stay in game for a while! Apparently they were written too well. :-) The game pretty much accomplished everything it was supposed to-- it has just enough plot to create a framework and a trajectory, with enough humor to really carry its true goal of being a humorous game. With some minor tweaks suggested by the playtesters I think could be completely polished and ready for Intercon. Should this game rerun in the near future (I want to bully Jared into bidding it for Festival) I highly reccomend it.

I extend my congratulations to Jared and Sharone, and I am immensely proud of both my love and my friend. Say nice things to them when you see them!

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GM Space playtest!

Last night I determined my head just isn't safe around

witticaster. ;-) She knows why!

Tonight is the official playtest of GM Space, the humorous two-hour horde larp written by Jared and Sharone. I'm very excited for it. I will be playing Lily, one of the cast characters and the lone female GM running the in-game game, Miskatonic Graduation Party. It'll be at BSCF tonight, going simultaneously with the regularly scheduled gaming. Wish them luck, it's their first game!

Also, this week I had the audition and callback for A Midsummer Night's Dream. Jared did as well. Tonight all the theater groups will get together and fight over actors, and then we will get our roles. I'm very interested to see how this casting turns out, but that won't be done until late at night.

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Two cool things that happened today

First on the list of Cool Things of Today-- guess what we're reading in my short story lit class. Call of Cthulhu. Seriously. We will actually be reading a mythos book and getting to discuss mind-raping tentacle beasts. Yay!

Second on the list of Cool Things of Today-- (taken out of my previous entry) my priest friended me on Facebook. How weird and cool is that? He also lists himself as "Interested in Men and Women." I love that he put that, 'cause I know exactly what he means. Kinda gutsy, too. Father Cuenin is awesome.

Current Mood: happy

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Festival close

It's the last day of Festival of the Larps, and I don't have a Sunday game, so I am wandering around various games just hanging out. Jared is busting out his incredible impression by playing Sean Connery in Clue, Impaired. It's pleasant and relaxing. I will go to the dead dog after conwrap and it will be very nice. I had an excellent weekend, particularly in the games on Saturday.

I didn't have a morning game-- the only morning game that interested me was Snaf U, and it filled up immediately, so I was content with getting to sleep in. The first game of the day was the excellent and brilliant Marlowe 2020, easily my favorite game of the weekend. I played to my delight what turned out to be the Hamlet character. I wore the costume from my show and channeled Frances's performance into my roleplaying. It was fantastic. I spent the first part of the game angsty elaborately, yelling, wandering, bemoaning, and generally putting on an antic disposition. The next part of the game was the plotting part-- with the help of my devoted Ophelia, played by the incredible

electric_d_monk, I maneuvered, made alliances, and sacrificed to accomplish the all-consuming goal of destroying my uncle. I made a decision partway through the game that i was not going to burn every positive relationship I had the way my literary counterpart does, which lead me to ally closely with Matt instead of pushing him away. i also enjoyed the offbeat dynamic of me playing the man and him playing the woman. Most of the characters in that game are gender-neutral, but I felt it was very important to play Pat as a man. I always say on my casting questionnaires I'm okay with cross-casting, but this is the first time I've ever actually played a man in a larp, and it was only because I chose to. Unfortunately, my nemesis was poisoned before I had the chance to kill him myself, but I did get to shoot his corpse in the face five or six times for consolation. It was so much fun, and the GMs did a fantastic job. They made an elaborate club setting complete with low lighting, music, and food, and added some excellent plot threads that made sure every character feel busy and important. It was one of the best gaming experiences I've ever had. Matt was also a great partner to work with. He made both the scheming and the romance plot work really well, and of course he's a fantastic larper.

The third and final game I played at Festival was Miskatonic Archeological Expedition run by the esteemable

zrealmand Foam Brain Productions. Andrew and his guys, particularly Stephen and Zack, run good games and are always fun to be around. I liked my driven, ambitious character. I do, however, feel like I didn't quite embody the leadership position as well as I could have. I don't feel as if I did much to lead my team, but of course, larpers always have their own agendas-- at least, they should in a good game --so perhaps I wasn't meant to actually so much "take charge" in any practical sense. The "dungeon crawl" aspect of the game kind of got away from me. I didn't want to die or go insane, so I felt like it was best to stay out of the ruins, but at the same time I worry what I missed by staying out. I was nagged by the concern that as a glory-hound I would have wanted to explore the ruins, but so many people came out hurt or possessed by an alien mindworm that perhaps it was the most prudent decision. i really liked working with Patrick, the guy who played my cat, who tends to own whatever game he's in. I don't know how really successful we were in our goal of securing the credit for significant archaeological research, but it was a fun game overall and I liked it. I like any opportunity to wear my nifty fedora. I also enjoyed how so many characters were descendants of characters from actual Lovecraft stories. In fact, in an amusing coincidence, the only Lovecraft story I've ever actually read featured the forebear of Jared's character.

So i am sitting in the room in which Sheena's game Welcome to Sunnyvale is running, typing on a public computer as I observe. This was the second larp i ever played in. The character I played is now being played by

rigel, and I'm interested to see what difference is made in the outcome by her being played by an experienced larper, as opposed to an inexperienced one like I was. I made a pretty big mistake in my run, at least inasmuch as it brought about the end of the world. :-) But it was a great deal of fun, and kept me coming back to larping for more.

I'm looking forward to the dead dog. I don't think Jared will be able to come, he feels like he should go home and do work instead. I'll miss him, I've had such a great time with him this weekend. But I think Bernie will end up coming, and all the other fun people I've larped with this weekend, so it should still be nice.

I love Festival. I love larping. I love the people I larp with. Life is good. :-D

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Second day of Festival today. Last night was a fun beginning to the festivities, though I think the game I played needed work. It was one of those situations where there were lots of characters for whom their lack of connection to the only plot that was going on gave them very little to do, and the fact that the most logical, in-character actions for many of them would have, at least for them, ended the game. I still had fun, but from an objective standpoint there was stuff I felt needed overhauling.

Today I'm in Marlowe 2020 first, and then Miskatonic Archaeological Expedition in the evening. I am very excited for both. I wish there was more of a gap in between them, though; MAE begins only an hour after M2020 ends. I may end up bringing my costumes to the building with me, rather than going back to Jared's room to change.