Pheno
Wow...
I have never been as wiped by a Con as I was by this Pheno, but I figure I should probably get this down while it is fresh in my mind. Then I am off to some oh-so-welcome sleep.
Being sleep depreived and a little tipsy, appologies if this post is a little... inelegant. I'm also trying LJ tags for the first time.
Reflections:
demiurgically_m, MH, RB and AB are fantastic team members. They are considerate and organised as well as being talented roleplayers. If anyone has the chance to be on their team, I suggest you jump at the chance.
The Devonshire Tea Party theme worked, IMHO, brilliantly. It was certainly unusual to be changing OUT of a tuxedo for a freeform, but everything worked suprisingly well.
In terms of the refreshments; I now feel slightly sick. Effectively unlimited tea, coke, diet coke, nuts, biscuits, chocolate... I sit here feeling my newly enlarged and engorged stomach hang over my pants.
Unfortunately, we had camera problems; but the images I have will stay in my mind for ever, I think.
The other games:
In general the quality of games at Pheno was excellent. I played in 8 sessions, and all of them were very good games - as well as being sufficiently diverse so as to prevent my becoming jaded. I played in both the new designer freeforms, but missed out on playing in SM's game. I hope to convince her to run an out of con game later. (I am doing the same with BK).
My only real consistent complaint was that games ran over time! I am aware this may have been a problem with the DTP however - we did end up losing about 15 mins to setup wheras we used to lose about 5. It meant I never really had a chance to catch my breath however. Every meal was discarded half eaten simply because I had run out of time.
Ah, forgive the bragging, but I won one trophy!!!!! Yay!!!! I felt a great sense of validation.
Organisation:
I had some serious qualms about the organisation of the con on friday night - but I now understand they were using a JIT situation for that night only. Come saturday morning everything started running like clockwork. I was most impressed.
My game:
Well, the two sessions I ran ran well, I think. Not perfectly, however. The playtests definitely ran better than the con sessions, but a large part of that may be the difficulty in making myself hyperactively bouncy at *nine-a-freaking-m*. There *were* excellent character moments in the con sessions, but there was a problem with consistency. Had I been able to I would have awarded AS the award for best Nigel. He was the first to play the character (in a play test), and left ENORMOUS boots for everyone else to fill. This, combined with the fact Nigel is the hardest character to play...
And of course, AS ran FIVE sessions. That's right FIVE. I ran TWO. I am still in shock the game ran to SEVEN sessions. This was just part of the culture shock I felt from the con. To say it is different to cam culture, and my para-con experiences in Melbourne is to understate *significantly*.
I have faithfully promised no less than three organisers that I will NOT play a game next con. I will instead concentrate on running my Tryptych.
Uhuh. Tryptych.
I can't believe it, but I WON THE NEW DESIGNER AWARD. Yes. Capitals ARE appropriate. I dreamed about that award for about three years now. I have run game after game on the screen of my mind trying to find a game that might have a chance. When my first three ideas were shot down this con, I ended up running S5 because I knew I could - I really didn't expect it to win, so I gave up on the NDA. Especially when I thought I would only be running the one session (I didn't understand the voting process). When I thought demiurgically_m, MH and RB would be running with me, and then later when it was AS, I sort of thought I should be disqualified for not running every session. I talked with some people and they pointed out the wording of the award.
I also thought I could "phone it in". I'd been running teenagers succesfully back when I was a teenager for years. And then I started trying to crystallise the game. Damn. It was absolutely the *HARDEST* game I have *EVER* written. Bar none. The New Years Eve game may have caused more stress - but that wasn't the game itself. I passed to the point where I almost swore I would *never* run a con freeform again.
And then I had to write it so ANYONE could run it. And it got HARDER.
I started trying to take days off work from the stress - seriously. I talked to my manager about it.
Although part of that stress MIGHT have been the fact they are shutting down my branch and cancelling my project and I have till september to get a transfer or find a new job.
Anecdote; I kid you not, I walked into a meeting on friday at work (I dropped in) and WALKED OUT because I had teenagers/DTP party stuff to do. It was a meeting about the job I might be transferred to. And people wanted to talk about saving my project. It just didn't compare to what I was feeling about teenagers. I suspect I may have started taking the con too seriously.
okay... rant over. Anyway, it was hard.
AS was fantastic (as he always is) he was supportive, he was optimistic, he gave me fantastic advice (advice I was too stupid to follow in time for it to be useful though.)
I still feel sort of hollow about the award though, for two reasons.
Firstly, the people I was up against were *good*. I was hoping SM or SP would win - I like them both. And as I said, the freeforms were very well run. And I play with SM, so I can sort of extrapolate out how her game would be. Plus she had Antigone going on at the same time, which must be like Stress+++. And yet at the same time a small part of me that *wanted* that award kept trying to pipe up.
Secondly, AS ran so many sessions - its not like it was a number of GMs. It was one. And AS is like the lamborghini of GMs. He could probably quite happily run an award winning con game gievn one page ripped out of a dictionary. He has indicated that he was 'running your game as you intend it to be run'... but I have to wonder....
Oh well, people (including me) will have doubts I guess. Which means I have to wow them with the Tryptych. And if it sucks, people will know it was him. So the pressure starts... now.
The end:
Oh no, not of the post... of the con.
By the end of the game I could barely stand. The tremors started about 10am. By the award ceremony I was vibrating. I was having trouble reading, talking, thinking. At the end, adrenaline was such I jumped up a half-flight of stairs, lifted and carried a huge box, and then MH. I felt no pain. Wierd.
Post Con drinkies settled me down a lot. It was great to see everyone. I appologised to (I think) every con org, and faitfully promised a bunch I would not play next con. And then xole said she was thinking of running a game I have wanted to play for years.
Regrets:
If I had known then what I knew now, I wouldn't have volunteered to run the game - even if it cost me the NDA. I ended up with a choice of screwing the con-orgs or a team that had put enormous time and money into an idea I had pushed. I should have concentrated on the team, and then run the game the next year. Trying to find a compromise meant two groups of people I like got screwed - just not as much. :(
I am really coming down now. And really looking forward to sleep. Writing this post took longer than I thought it would, but hopefully I can work out how to make it one of those memory things.
I have never been as wiped by a Con as I was by this Pheno, but I figure I should probably get this down while it is fresh in my mind. Then I am off to some oh-so-welcome sleep.
Being sleep depreived and a little tipsy, appologies if this post is a little... inelegant. I'm also trying LJ tags for the first time.
Reflections:
demiurgically_m, MH, RB and AB are fantastic team members. They are considerate and organised as well as being talented roleplayers. If anyone has the chance to be on their team, I suggest you jump at the chance.
The Devonshire Tea Party theme worked, IMHO, brilliantly. It was certainly unusual to be changing OUT of a tuxedo for a freeform, but everything worked suprisingly well.
In terms of the refreshments; I now feel slightly sick. Effectively unlimited tea, coke, diet coke, nuts, biscuits, chocolate... I sit here feeling my newly enlarged and engorged stomach hang over my pants.
Unfortunately, we had camera problems; but the images I have will stay in my mind for ever, I think.
The other games:
In general the quality of games at Pheno was excellent. I played in 8 sessions, and all of them were very good games - as well as being sufficiently diverse so as to prevent my becoming jaded. I played in both the new designer freeforms, but missed out on playing in SM's game. I hope to convince her to run an out of con game later. (I am doing the same with BK).
My only real consistent complaint was that games ran over time! I am aware this may have been a problem with the DTP however - we did end up losing about 15 mins to setup wheras we used to lose about 5. It meant I never really had a chance to catch my breath however. Every meal was discarded half eaten simply because I had run out of time.
Ah, forgive the bragging, but I won one trophy!!!!! Yay!!!! I felt a great sense of validation.
Organisation:
I had some serious qualms about the organisation of the con on friday night - but I now understand they were using a JIT situation for that night only. Come saturday morning everything started running like clockwork. I was most impressed.
My game:
Well, the two sessions I ran ran well, I think. Not perfectly, however. The playtests definitely ran better than the con sessions, but a large part of that may be the difficulty in making myself hyperactively bouncy at *nine-a-freaking-m*. There *were* excellent character moments in the con sessions, but there was a problem with consistency. Had I been able to I would have awarded AS the award for best Nigel. He was the first to play the character (in a play test), and left ENORMOUS boots for everyone else to fill. This, combined with the fact Nigel is the hardest character to play...
And of course, AS ran FIVE sessions. That's right FIVE. I ran TWO. I am still in shock the game ran to SEVEN sessions. This was just part of the culture shock I felt from the con. To say it is different to cam culture, and my para-con experiences in Melbourne is to understate *significantly*.
I have faithfully promised no less than three organisers that I will NOT play a game next con. I will instead concentrate on running my Tryptych.
Uhuh. Tryptych.
I can't believe it, but I WON THE NEW DESIGNER AWARD. Yes. Capitals ARE appropriate. I dreamed about that award for about three years now. I have run game after game on the screen of my mind trying to find a game that might have a chance. When my first three ideas were shot down this con, I ended up running S5 because I knew I could - I really didn't expect it to win, so I gave up on the NDA. Especially when I thought I would only be running the one session (I didn't understand the voting process). When I thought demiurgically_m, MH and RB would be running with me, and then later when it was AS, I sort of thought I should be disqualified for not running every session. I talked with some people and they pointed out the wording of the award.
I also thought I could "phone it in". I'd been running teenagers succesfully back when I was a teenager for years. And then I started trying to crystallise the game. Damn. It was absolutely the *HARDEST* game I have *EVER* written. Bar none. The New Years Eve game may have caused more stress - but that wasn't the game itself. I passed to the point where I almost swore I would *never* run a con freeform again.
And then I had to write it so ANYONE could run it. And it got HARDER.
I started trying to take days off work from the stress - seriously. I talked to my manager about it.
Although part of that stress MIGHT have been the fact they are shutting down my branch and cancelling my project and I have till september to get a transfer or find a new job.
Anecdote; I kid you not, I walked into a meeting on friday at work (I dropped in) and WALKED OUT because I had teenagers/DTP party stuff to do. It was a meeting about the job I might be transferred to. And people wanted to talk about saving my project. It just didn't compare to what I was feeling about teenagers. I suspect I may have started taking the con too seriously.
okay... rant over. Anyway, it was hard.
AS was fantastic (as he always is) he was supportive, he was optimistic, he gave me fantastic advice (advice I was too stupid to follow in time for it to be useful though.)
I still feel sort of hollow about the award though, for two reasons.
Firstly, the people I was up against were *good*. I was hoping SM or SP would win - I like them both. And as I said, the freeforms were very well run. And I play with SM, so I can sort of extrapolate out how her game would be. Plus she had Antigone going on at the same time, which must be like Stress+++. And yet at the same time a small part of me that *wanted* that award kept trying to pipe up.
Secondly, AS ran so many sessions - its not like it was a number of GMs. It was one. And AS is like the lamborghini of GMs. He could probably quite happily run an award winning con game gievn one page ripped out of a dictionary. He has indicated that he was 'running your game as you intend it to be run'... but I have to wonder....
Oh well, people (including me) will have doubts I guess. Which means I have to wow them with the Tryptych. And if it sucks, people will know it was him. So the pressure starts... now.
The end:
Oh no, not of the post... of the con.
By the end of the game I could barely stand. The tremors started about 10am. By the award ceremony I was vibrating. I was having trouble reading, talking, thinking. At the end, adrenaline was such I jumped up a half-flight of stairs, lifted and carried a huge box, and then MH. I felt no pain. Wierd.
Post Con drinkies settled me down a lot. It was great to see everyone. I appologised to (I think) every con org, and faitfully promised a bunch I would not play next con. And then xole said she was thinking of running a game I have wanted to play for years.
Regrets:
If I had known then what I knew now, I wouldn't have volunteered to run the game - even if it cost me the NDA. I ended up with a choice of screwing the con-orgs or a team that had put enormous time and money into an idea I had pushed. I should have concentrated on the team, and then run the game the next year. Trying to find a compromise meant two groups of people I like got screwed - just not as much. :(
I am really coming down now. And really looking forward to sleep. Writing this post took longer than I thought it would, but hopefully I can work out how to make it one of those memory things.