SLAW 2013
Went to SLAW at WPI this past weekend, and I am glad. For a while I was worried adding it to my already huge workload was a bad idea, particularly when it looked like Paranoia was not going to fill, but it was a really good time. I played in two games, both on Saturday, in addition to running Paranoia with the team,
The first was The Other Side of the Glass by wired_lizard and mllelaurel, whose games I always enjoy. I am always slightly tripped up when I have to learn a complicated made-up metaphysical system in order to be successful at a game, but the writing and characters were so compelling it was fine. I played a character who was very tied up in the mirror-based magic of the world, and I got to wear Mrs. Hawking's stealth suit for my costume. :-) I feel like I may not have taken the best advantage of all there was to my character, who had an interesting psychology, but I definitely had a good time.
The second game was A Single Silver Coin by laura47 and Peter Litwack. The description and game materials did not particularly grab me, I must be honest, but I had heard so many glowing reports of it that I had to sign up. It did not disappoint. It delivered an intensely compelling emotional journey in an interesting religious context. I get cast as religious characters fairly often, mostly because I say I don't mind it on casting questionnaires. The religion in this case was made up, but I was definitely a True Believer, the kind who honestly did their best to do right, and the way that made sense for me to portray it was through the lens of my own faith. Though I tend to be fairly private about it, I am an educated practicing (if deeply critical) Catholic, and it gave me a schema to use. I got to use many of the on-point lines from Hamlet and C.S. Lewis, particularly his beautiful faith-as-house-of-cards metaphor, talking about things there isn't a lot of call to talk about in my life. It was a beautiful game, and I'm extremely glad I played.
On Sunday we ran Paranoia. This was the fourth run, and sadly it didn't fill up until the game running opposite of it dropped. The original writing team of me, Bernie, Matt, and Mac minus Bernie's brother Joe made up the GMs, plus Michael filling out the fifth slot. He made for a wonderful addition, taking on the role of HK47 and 1/2, the bitter warbot brain stuck in the mechanism of the storage bay. Also we were fortunate to have Aaron Fischer take on the role of the Friendly Luggage Bot, an NPC added for color and texture to the game world. He had a very unique and hilarious interpretation, and we're so grateful he took the time to help us. This game isn't the sort that I'd like to play all the time, but when I feel like something silly and high-energy it's exactly right. We managed to make the somewhat one-note joke of Paranoia (kill-the-traitors-that's-above-your-clearance-level) work for a four-hour game, and managed to give just enough plot to sustain it while keeping it pretty damn funny. I'm proud of us, and glad that we were able to make the run happen.
As always, now I'm in a larpy headspace. Festival will be coming in April, which is one of the most important weekends of my year, so I need to figure out what I'll be bidding then. I'd love to have a new game, but I really do not have time to write something as big as any of the ideas I've got on the back burner at the moment. We'll see what I decide.