The holidays are over

[nishatalitha]

Back to work today for the first time in nearly a month. I did a lot of filing, was tired from about 11.00am onwards and bored enough at the end of the day to Not Care and troll Tenancy Tribunal Orders.

Wellington Anniversary Weekend was the usual sugar/caffeine high people overdose gaming weekend. I probably didn't have enough caffeine or sugar over the weekend. Next year, I think I'll buy a four pack of bottles of V, not cans.


First games I played was eyes_of_winter's Dresden Files game. It was lots of fun; he set it in Wellington. I played a Knight of the Cross. The system was unobtrusive and easy to use. It helped that I already knew the world and how things worked pretty well. I enjoyed it enough that I will seriously consider buying the book when it comes out. As a result of some of the games I've played over the last year, like With Great Power, I understood the aspect part of the game a lot more and could turn some of it to my advantage.

Most awesome moment was when my character stood and roared a challenge to a demon, the temple dog then flattened said demon and my character generously offered the demon a chance to surrender the coin or die, not really expecting the very meek "okay" that he got. It was cool because I did have stand up and raise my voice and challenge the demon.

I completely fail to remember what I played second round. I'm sure it was fun and I enjoyed it, but it can't have been awesome awesome, because I just can't remember.

Skipped third round as usual so I had time to get ready for the LARP and think about my character sheet. There was glitter. Lots and lots of glitter. And random computer bits. And six-inch heels. My knees did not like me on Sunday.

Laura was a not an easy character for me to play and I found she had too many goals. Even with ignoring most of them (I mean, find out whether my husband was murdered after two years and I'm done with the grieving and there's been a street war and I want to move on?), I still split my focus too much.

I certainly had the most challenging moment as a player I've ever had in this game - Laura was confronted with someone who claimed - and appeared to be - the avatar of her god. I think Laura had a more generic belief and the avatar was very convincing. I have an intensely personal faith in my God and what Laura believed was counter to what I believe and the contrast, when it was no longer generic kinda freaked me out.

Or perhaps, ultimately, it's something as simple as the fact that Laura Kyne did not enjoy the funeral or almost any of the things happened at the funeral, and thus, I found it very hard to enjoy myself. Or maybe, like mashugenah says, I'm never going to have an awesome a character as last year's. However, I'm willing to try. :P

Sunday morning, after not much sleep, but more than I got on Friday night, I played in The Journey, a one off game about a small party escorting a sixteen year old daughter of a wealthy merchant to a convent. Said daughter is rather resistant to the idea and would like to have adventures on the way. A three day journey took us about five, but we only had to pay for three nights, since we managed free accomodation at one place for two nights. I was the girl and that was quite fun.

Fifth round I played in Dan's Buffy game - there was a gender swap and I played the Slayer's big brother and the guy sitting next to me played the slayer. Brand was The Jock of the school and mostly there because he believed his sister didn't know what she was on about and should be protected. He said it went better than the playtest, but I didn't feel it ran particularly smoothly. There were a couple of leaps of logic which you could see as players, but the characters wouldn't necessarily be able to.

Last round, as usual, I picked a game that looked really silly. This year, it was Pigs in Space.... You're genetically enhanced pigs (failures from the McDonalds/Starbucks breeding programme for big stupid pigs). You're being transported to a planet to live out the rest of your lives in peace and comfort as demanded by the animal rights activists. Aren't you? One of your number doesn't believe this and has now been slaughtered in front of you. Will you meekly accept your fate or will you take control?

Norman was the Hogfather and did the voice the whole time. He had four little pigs and they were very useful. There was also Spiderham, Madame Pink, Oliva Porkling, Barry Trotter and one other whose name I currently forget. We broke the GMs brain through the very simple mechanism of consistently not being able to tell left from right, which meant that every map description had to be reversed. There were many terrible puns and my brain got broken a couple of times. Just what I needed.

I skipped the afterparty this year and went home to die.

Did nothing yesterday until I was due at stephanie_pegg's for the BHS game which I've now joined on a permanent basis. I'm in the process of coming up with a long term character. It should be fun.

Lectures start on 9 February, so I'll be playing frisbee Tuesday nights until then. Life is already starting to get busy.

Comments

[adrexia.livejournal.com]

I completely fail to remember what I played second round.

Pantheon Games, with the Scion system.

[anarchangel23.livejournal.com]

What's BHS?

[stephanie-pegg.livejournal.com]

Big Honking Spaceship. Ivan's SF game. We all live on a Big Honking Spaceship called the Pericles which flies around as part of a treaty organisation inspired by the Delian league. Our home planet has some alien tech which enables us to travel around a lot faster than everyone else (ie two weeks between planets instead of six months), so the big ships are an essential part of keeping the treaty together.

We just spent three sessions neck deep in a planetary epidemic. Harrowing and fun at the same time.

[mashugenah.livejournal.com]

Ivan's Big Honking Spaceship, his "troupe style" game with only a single GM with Sean, Steve and the aforesaid Steph.

[anarchangel23.livejournal.com]

Cool.

[anarchangel23.livejournal.com]

Wait, troupe style with a single GM? Isn't that a contradiction in terms?

[mashugenah.livejournal.com]

However, I'm willing to try. :P

Hindenberg was a great confluence of my various interests; Mafia 2071 didn't appeal on any level.

I guess I just don't grok the whole point of these mass social LARPs. They don't seem to get the dramatic story movement I want - they're virtually consequence-free zones - and they don't seem to get much beyond superficial characterization...

the VR larp was good because I just had to wander round the room telling tales of the west, and Hindenberg had me playing Lex Luthor.

I'm in the process of coming up with a long term character. It should be fun.

Good luck. I found Sean and Steph extremely difficult to work with in terms of coming up with a character that they'd accept.

[stephanie-pegg.livejournal.com]

Gosh. That sounds like a definite attempt to start a fight.

To give background, Mash was involved in the early sessions of the game, then left due to artistic differences/incompatible play styles. Sadly, he just missed the session where the mountain blew up.

[mashugenah.livejournal.com]

I think artistic differences is probably not too far wrong as a description.

[exiledinpn.livejournal.com]

Wait, troupe style with a single GM? Isn't that a contradiction in terms?

Not really - just think of it as a traditional game with a bigger cast, with the characters onstage alternating as appropriate.

[exiledinpn.livejournal.com]

I guess I just don't grok the whole point of these mass social LARPs. They don't seem to get the dramatic story movement I want - they're virtually consequence-free zones - and they don't seem to get much beyond superficial characterization...

Constraints of the format; a Salon LARP is a wind-up toy, and while you can write good conflicts, how they are played out and when (or whether they are at all) is up to the players. And when you've got 60 characters to write, for people of varying levels of ability, its easier and probably better to keep to broad brush strokes.

As for consequences, that's the physical constraints: the game takes place in one room over three hours, so what happens outside that tends not to feature much in people's consciousness. And there's an unspoken rule now that you can't kill people off during the game (unless they get to come back as ghosts or wotnot) because they're there for three hours of fun...

[mashugenah.livejournal.com]

One other thing that did make Kane Kameron a more enjoyable experience was that I did spend a lot of time wheeling-and-dealing for things I'd do or not do in my presidency if elected: it felt like there were consequences to what he was doing, even if I couldn't see them.

[anarchangel23.livejournal.com]

So each player has multiple characters? I thought the defining feature of troupe style play was the rotating GM.

[exiledinpn.livejournal.com]

So each player has multiple characters?

Yes. So for example a member of the bridge crew, someone from a science team, a security person, whatever.

We used this setup effectively in a long-running VtM game, with people playing recurring "supporting cast" for the primary PCs.

I thought the defining feature of troupe style play was the rotating GM.

Not strictly, but it tends to go with it (e.g. in classic Ars Magica).

[anarchangel23.livejournal.com]

Cool, that's an interesting idea.