Things wot I learned at Gothic Consequences
1. Rich Perry thinks you would make a great Nora Charles in Cafe Casablanca. Yes, you. No, you don't know who he is.
2. If you ever play in Brian Williams' game The House on the Hill, you should totally show up in Middle Earth costume. He'll love it.
3. It's important to tell British folks to take the paper off Reese's cups first. I realized this after the third or fourth person accidentally got too much fiber in their peanut butter chocolate-ness.
4. Scotch is apparently just "whisky" in most of the UK. But bourbon is bourbon. Huh.
5. My new British word of year = naff.
6. There are really people who name their children Chardonnay. As it turns out, I dislike children even more when they're named after wine and decide to invade my game.
7. Unsurprisingly, British folks seem to do better with the titles in Cracks.
8. Elina is a masochist who sat through six sessions of a Hackmaster campaign, or a larp where she had to wear a veil and stand in a staircase most of the game.
9. Putting hot and cold water together in one faucet is... just not done here, apparently. Very inconvenient. Also inconvenient are the low-flow toilets that half the time won't flush properly. I may have sworn "Do we believe in water pressure in this country?!" in a bathroom at one point. Old plumbing, or some sort of effort at greening things up?
10. Steve Bassett, the con chair, gets more and more Scottish every year. Last year I was all, "Huh, his accent is a little bit different than other English folks." This year it's, "Oh, yes, that's Scottish."
I know, I know, that doesn't tell you anything. So here's more:
Wednesday
We flew British Airways into Terminal 5 of Heathrow, which is a much nicer way to travel than connecting through Dublin to go to Gatwick, or going into any other terminal of Heathrow. Our flight was literally the smoothest I've ever had -- on time, little turbulence, no screaming children, no painful ear popping, and a very smooth landing.
Brian Williams was our host for the day--he of Coffee Spot fame, or, more larpily, Clockwork Cafe, The Man in Black, Council of Fennas Drunin. He picked us up at the airport and brought us to his home, which is the epitome of small and quaint. We were still pretty wakeful, so he made us delicious (decaf) coffee--Guatamelan Elephant Bean, I want to say?--and we helped him pack Clockwork Cafe.
Thursday
Brian made breakfast and more delicious coffee, and we took a walk around Guildford. It's not the sort of place you would go for the tourism, but I appreciated getting to walk through the fields behind Brian's house, with him showing us various landmarks, including the sandstone cliffs which may have given the town its name (i.e. the 'golden' ford of the river Wey). In the process he explained some of the history of the area--how it was seen as the last defense in case of a land invasion, in both the Napoleonic wars and WWII.
Somewhere, in a field in Hampshire Surrey...
After that we finished the last items in packing Clockwork Cafe, and were on our way to Christchurch and Naish!
For a late lunch, we made a stop by Lemana, a cafe in Lymington run by three sisters. I had a delightful cheese board--how much do I love than a mess of cheese and bread is considered a meal in this country?--and a mocha, despite Brian's scoffing at my lowbrow taste in coffee. This is where I learned the term "naff," meaning a sort of trashiness that pretends to be something better. It was not, gladly, in reference to my coffee.
Once at Naish, we met up with Chris A. and vortexofchaos, with whom we were sharing a three-bedroom chalet. They had Thursday games, but Matt and I did not, so we sat around with Brian and went over stuff for the wargame in Cracks. I'm thinking we had the better time of it; it sounds like the Thursday game Chris and Jeff selected wasn't very good.
Meadow Lodge 67, our home away from home
After games ended, we wandered over to the Thursday party, held by the Belgian/Dutch contingent. I once again handed out lots of Americandy, discovering that I got rid of the Twizzlers a lot easier if I asked, "Do you want to be Twizzled?" rather than explaining they tasted like strawberry-flavored plastic.
(As much as I love that Intercon has gotten huge, there is something to be said for a con where the entire population can still go to a single party).
There, I met up with some folks who would be playing in the Amber game with me the next day, Hope G. and Graham W. (I think). They were playing Llewella and Eric respectively, and as it transpired that they knew nothing about Amber, and I apparently knew something, having read the first two novels, they asked me for advice. We had a conversation that went something like this:
Graham: I'm playing Eric.
Me: Oh, you're the douchebag!
Graham: Am? I don't really know. I gather arrogant, but other than that?
(At which point I explained to him that, with Corwin being the main character of the series, Eric is basically his main rival).
Hope then asked me for my feedback on Llewella, to which I said I had no idea, but most of the female characters in Amber, canonically, were kind of... lacking personality.
"Oh, that's going to be hard for you," said Graham.
"As far as I can tell I'm supposed to be wet, wild, and Welsh," says Hope.
I replied with, "I think I saw a porno called that once."
Friday
Friday morning/afternoon was said Amber game, The Maid, the Pickpocket, the Assassin, and the Lover, by Ben Harvey and Dave Collis. Although the timeline differs quite significantly from the books, the game concerns the reading of Oberon's will after his death, apparently by murder, and the ensuing succession crisis.
I played Fiona, who I *think* is a canon character, but not one I know anything about. I spent large portions of it closed in a room with Bleys and Brand, 'cause, well, brothers. And we apparently are not supposed to be nearly as divisive as Faiella's brood.
Although as Brand ended up betraying us, maybe not!
This was a game where I could have been very ambitious and scheming but, I guess, chose not to? Mostly I felt like there wasn't much of a chance of my ever getting the throne--although as I was the oldest of the second batch of legitimate heirs, and Corwin and Eric were fighting like they do, I suppose it was not that far-fetched.
Now the spoilery bits.
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My game culminated with an expedition into Shadow (with Bleys, Benedict, and Llewella) to stop a gate being built by the Courts of Chaos. Then almost being stuck there when Eric decided he didn't want to Trump us back. 'Cause, well. Douchebag. We finally convinced Caine to summon us, and found ourselves in the midst of the final contest for the Jewel of Judgment, at which I thought our efforts had ensured Bleys a good shot.
The final vote came down to Eric and Bleys, and after some discussion, and an outburst ("You know what I fucking love? Speeches!"), Eric ended up becoming King. Yay status quo?
I probably didn't help Bleys' cause -- trying to explain that there was a house of the Court of Chaos that would only accept my brothers or myself on the throne was taken as a threat, rather than a statement of fact. That caused even the known independents, like Benedict and Gerard, to go over to Eric's side.
(Matt was playing Gerard, and filled me in on this after game... As he is really not the sort to get anything out of an Amber game, playing someone who didn't want the throne suited him just fine).
Other entertaining moments:
- Most of the heirs rushing for Tir Na Nog'th when the moon rose, looking to grab the Jewel of Judgment--which Random had had all along--and walk the Pattern. The remainder of us left kind of looked at each other and said, welp, I guess we know where we all stand.
- "I think I should have spent more time reading my character sheet and less painting myself green," said Hope.
- Getting to be the one person with Trumps who worked when Dworkin died. Which were then used to go pay a visit to Random, who had run off with the Jewel of Judgment.
- Figuring out that Mirelle and Dalt weren't really who they said they were. ("Hmm.... I've seen Mirelle's tomb in Shadow, and I've seen Benedict kill Dalt... and Julian just told us there were two dudes from the Courts of Chaos found in the Forest of Arden...") But then, sadly, there was very little I could do about it, except not trust them.
- Getting bullied by Eric into asking for his help in the plan to destroy the Chaos Gate. It was just spot-on characterization.... i.e., "I'm going to be belligerent about you needing my help until you cave." For all that the player didn't know the canon, he was utterly brilliant in this role.
- queenortart was playing Lord Rust, a diplomat from Begma? I think? Nevermind, she looked like a fabulous 17th century gentleman. "I feel like I should be calling you Guido and setting you on fire," said someone of her garb.
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This game was also my first interaction with Graham A., a fabulous roleplayer who I was lucky enough to play with in every game this weekend. In this game he was playing Random. Graham is kind of infamous in this community as being... somewhat larger than life and a bit of a spinner of tales. In that way he reminds me a bit of Marc B. or Andy K. He's got his own reference in the "By golly, it just might work!" rules for Clockwork Cafe, as "Honest Graham A.," if that tells you anything ;)
All in all, an enjoyable time, even if I was less ambitious than usual. If I have any complaints, it's with the writing of the game materials, which could have been more grammatical and a little bit more artful. But they did the job of setting up an excellent game of cutthroat politics, which is all I really need.
Friday night I helped to run Brian's game The Clockwork Cafe. I played in this game at Intercon K, and if you are going to Intercon this year, you should strongly consider it!
From my perspective, this is a game which sort of runs itself, and does not really require three GMs. I spent a lot of time sniggering with the other GMs about the crazy things players did. What questions I did get asked were not ones I knew how to answer myself, alas. (i.e. "how do I know these are the real plans? What happens if I poke so-and-so with a dental speculum?")
It was interesting to watch, though! This run was 75% male, rendering most of the usual female roles male, including co-host Helen Bach, who became Alain Bach, and the character I played in the Intercon K run, Anna Key, who became Arnie Key.
The game ended with the revolutionaries winning. Vive la revolution!
Also, Dan T., who played Bleys in the Amber game, was playing Baron Schwartz, firmly establishing my impression of what type of characters he plays :)
And this Richard Blanc (Ryan My., who flew in from Singapore!) was not nearly as awesome as ours, i.e. Matt :) This one only had an off-white suit. No painting the soles of his shoes white or anything...
There was a Friday party, too. I might even have gone to it. It's all a blur...
Saturday
Saturday, my only plans were:
1. running Cracks in the Orb
2. preparing to run Cracks.
I did though have time to partake of the delicious Thanksgiving-ish dinner Chris A. put together. Mmm. Mashed potatoes.
I alsoalso did some shopping in the dealer's room ("traders" seems to be the term of choice for this), and came home with a top hat with red decorations from Claire of Clockwork Tea Party. Matt got a new pocket watch, and a notebook cover for Johan in Cottington Woods.
Cracks went... well, I think? The biggest problem, honestly, was the wargame, which neither Brian nor Matt nor I had all the information we needed to run. I'm pretty sure we misplayed how bridges are supposed to work, which meant that it was the same big ol' stalemate it was the first time I ran the game.
The wargame map, turn one
There were also some players who disliked their characters for reasons I consider features of the character, not bugs. Hmm. It is often hard to predict what players will like, in this regard.
But I know I had some players who loved it, and I got high praise from queenortart, who played Seodra, and Dream, who played Bryara, and is known to be somewhat picky in terms of what she likes. Alison R-H even liked her role, as Dradia, and that was one I was worried about. So overall I felt like it was a success!
This was the most Dragon-y of runs of Cracks, too -- but then, I had a great set of players of Dragons, including the aforementioned Graham A. as Rollondar, Nathan R. as Fornia, Dream as Bryara, and Sam L., who was new to me, as Adron.
The game ended with a Dragon duel pile. It started with Fornia and Rollondar dueling, naturally enough, which Rollondar won. Bryara then decided she was pissed off AT EVERYONE, and was going to duel them all. ("Don't worry," Bryara said, leaning on Fornia's shoulder with false affection, "I'll heal you up before I duel you").
Fornia won his duel with Bryara, and decided that, in leaving her Bleeding, he was going to cut her dress open. 'Cause Fornia. This, naturally enough, caused Rollondar to be so awkward that he lost his duel to Bryara, falling to one knee. "While you're down there," Bryara said, imperiously, "do you have anything else you'd like to ask me?"
Graham's interpretation of Rollondar was a little bit more naive than I had previously seen, but it worked. I also like how he attempted to subvert the patronage mechanics, and hired ALL the artists -- including hiring Megarrion to write a poem he could use to ask Bryara to dance.
So perfect. <3 Dragons. Especially this group.
Ohgod and that's not even getting into Civi as Morvyn, who carried around a bottle of wine and two glasses, and spent most of his time getting his various paramours drunk, while managing to never give away his heart.
Spoilers ahead:
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Morvyn also took control of Unnyara's wargame faction, and led it to defeat.
Which I almost forgot... Steve Bassett, as Fotheringil, was given control of the Empress' Personal Guard by G'aereth. I have never had that player ask me, "So... when it says I have to have seven units fielded to reach this goal... does that just include Harvest Salvation?"
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Saturday I stopped in at a party, but was completely exhausted, and came back to the chalet quickly. And yet I lay in bed for a long time, plotting and planning changes to Cracks, future plans for larps, future blog posts, etc. You might even see a post from me in the future about writing historical games--or, as I've realized they should be called, historical fantasies.
Sunday
Sunday morning was Something Wicked, a game by C.J. Romer, who I primarily remembered as playing Lord Emsworth in Midsummer Mischief, and, I think, Hugh Wake? He was at least a GM. This was billed as "a gothic melodrama set in old London town," and took place in 1888 at a fun fair. I was cast as Irene Adler, the famous adventuress from the Sherlock Holmes story "A Scandal in Bohemia."
Matt as the spirit Ariel; me as Irene Adler
Or, well. That was the plan at one point in time. Then approximately everything bad ever happened to the authors, including the theft of the laptop with most of the game materials on it. The game had to be substantially rewritten, and became something... different.
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... Something timey-wimey.
Let's just say that in the game briefing, we were told there was a blue police shed outside the fairgrounds. *headdesk*
If there's anything I like less than Victorian romances turned into games with woo, it's Victorian romances turned into Dr. Who pastiches.
That said, I had fun. I spent most of the time investigating the Ripper murders and verbally sparring with my Sherlock Holmes (Sam W.). Mostly I ignored the time travel plot, although I certainly did benefit from my conversations with vampire!Lord Byron (guy wot played Brand in the Amber game) and time traveling John Dee (Graham A, again). I was especially entertained by time-traveling Aleister Crowley (Sam L) hitting it off with Lord Byron and smoking opium together, because.... seriously, yeah, that's a thing wot needed to happen.
Many, many people did not have fun, though--notably the two other people in the love triangle I was supposed to be part of, playing Sherlock Holmes (without his Watson!) and Sebastian Moran (who I don't think ever managed to find his Moriarty, although that character was in game).
It was pretty well illustrated by the conversation I had with Rich S, who was playing Moran, at the end of game. He was trying to tell me of his love for me, and how he wanted to protect me, etc, etc, while my character's sheet sole commentary on him was "he thinks he wants to save me from Sherlock Holmes. How cute" and "he'd just as soon slit my throat as kiss me."
I pointed out as that I couldn't trust him, and rephrased the latter line, to which he said, "Well, not that I haven't done that, but you're different..." At which point the player realized the love plot was fucked, and trailed off, just as game wrapped.
While Moran's demurral was evilly adorable, I still wish there was more for Irene to go on...
Also entertaining was when I was discussing the Spanish Armada with John Dee--and how he could procure a storm--when Holmes came along and we got into a bit of sparring. I don't recall what I said, but it did end with my sticking my tongue out at him. Dee then made the observation that "You fancy him" and suddenly I found myself discussing my character's love life--including the fact that the Crown Prince had gone around telling people we were schtupping each other all game--with a time traveling wife swapper.
Like you do.
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In the final analysis, not sure what to say about this game. There's a game in there, somewhere, but it's still deeply flawed, and I'm not entirely sure the two authors agree on what that game should be. I only wish it was the gothic romance it tried to be, because that love triangle could have been something really quite awesome.
I have the fondest memories, perhaps, of the rest of Sunday, which I spent mostly in Brian/A.J./Steve Bassett's lodge, drinking scotch whisky, and talking larp with the residents, as well as Suey, Mikey, Elina, Sam W., and Martin J. This is often what I enjoy more than larping--spending time with my larp friends, sharing war stories. The whisky only helped with the warm glow that surrounds my memory of that evening.
Monday
Monday we were back to Heathrow, with a stop at Southampton, to drop Steve off at the airport for his flight back to Edinburgh, and a short stop in Winchester, to get an outside look at the Cathedral and the Great Hall of the old palace. We ate at the Cathedral's refectory--I had a cheddar and pickle sandwich, one of my favorite British foods--and then were on the road again.
Winchester Cathedral, from the front
The flight home was not terrible, but not as flawless as the one in. The flight was grounded for an hour, and twice during it the entertainment system was restarted, each taking about 20 minutes. I listened to about half of an audiobook of Emma on the entertainment system, which I am embarrassed to admit I kept referring to the plot of Clueless as my guide for what should happen. I also watched an episode and a half of Vikings, but it was just too trashy to continue.
The biggest challenge, though, was the fact that the person who had valet-parked our car in the economy lot at Logan had left the lights on. For five days. The car just barely started >.<
And that was my adventure! I feel an odd mix of... relief, to be home, where things are comfortable and familiar, and yet melancholy, because I have left most of my British/Irish/Dutch/Belgian friends behind for two years. (Because given the expenses of this year, Heroic Consequences is not in the cards).
2. If you ever play in Brian Williams' game The House on the Hill, you should totally show up in Middle Earth costume. He'll love it.
3. It's important to tell British folks to take the paper off Reese's cups first. I realized this after the third or fourth person accidentally got too much fiber in their peanut butter chocolate-ness.
4. Scotch is apparently just "whisky" in most of the UK. But bourbon is bourbon. Huh.
5. My new British word of year = naff.
6. There are really people who name their children Chardonnay. As it turns out, I dislike children even more when they're named after wine and decide to invade my game.
7. Unsurprisingly, British folks seem to do better with the titles in Cracks.
8. Elina is a masochist who sat through six sessions of a Hackmaster campaign, or a larp where she had to wear a veil and stand in a staircase most of the game.
9. Putting hot and cold water together in one faucet is... just not done here, apparently. Very inconvenient. Also inconvenient are the low-flow toilets that half the time won't flush properly. I may have sworn "Do we believe in water pressure in this country?!" in a bathroom at one point. Old plumbing, or some sort of effort at greening things up?
10. Steve Bassett, the con chair, gets more and more Scottish every year. Last year I was all, "Huh, his accent is a little bit different than other English folks." This year it's, "Oh, yes, that's Scottish."
I know, I know, that doesn't tell you anything. So here's more:
Wednesday
We flew British Airways into Terminal 5 of Heathrow, which is a much nicer way to travel than connecting through Dublin to go to Gatwick, or going into any other terminal of Heathrow. Our flight was literally the smoothest I've ever had -- on time, little turbulence, no screaming children, no painful ear popping, and a very smooth landing.
Brian Williams was our host for the day--he of Coffee Spot fame, or, more larpily, Clockwork Cafe, The Man in Black, Council of Fennas Drunin. He picked us up at the airport and brought us to his home, which is the epitome of small and quaint. We were still pretty wakeful, so he made us delicious (decaf) coffee--Guatamelan Elephant Bean, I want to say?--and we helped him pack Clockwork Cafe.
Thursday
Brian made breakfast and more delicious coffee, and we took a walk around Guildford. It's not the sort of place you would go for the tourism, but I appreciated getting to walk through the fields behind Brian's house, with him showing us various landmarks, including the sandstone cliffs which may have given the town its name (i.e. the 'golden' ford of the river Wey). In the process he explained some of the history of the area--how it was seen as the last defense in case of a land invasion, in both the Napoleonic wars and WWII.
Somewhere, in a field in Hampshire Surrey...
After that we finished the last items in packing Clockwork Cafe, and were on our way to Christchurch and Naish!
For a late lunch, we made a stop by Lemana, a cafe in Lymington run by three sisters. I had a delightful cheese board--how much do I love than a mess of cheese and bread is considered a meal in this country?--and a mocha, despite Brian's scoffing at my lowbrow taste in coffee. This is where I learned the term "naff," meaning a sort of trashiness that pretends to be something better. It was not, gladly, in reference to my coffee.
Once at Naish, we met up with Chris A. and vortexofchaos, with whom we were sharing a three-bedroom chalet. They had Thursday games, but Matt and I did not, so we sat around with Brian and went over stuff for the wargame in Cracks. I'm thinking we had the better time of it; it sounds like the Thursday game Chris and Jeff selected wasn't very good.
Meadow Lodge 67, our home away from home
After games ended, we wandered over to the Thursday party, held by the Belgian/Dutch contingent. I once again handed out lots of Americandy, discovering that I got rid of the Twizzlers a lot easier if I asked, "Do you want to be Twizzled?" rather than explaining they tasted like strawberry-flavored plastic.
(As much as I love that Intercon has gotten huge, there is something to be said for a con where the entire population can still go to a single party).
There, I met up with some folks who would be playing in the Amber game with me the next day, Hope G. and Graham W. (I think). They were playing Llewella and Eric respectively, and as it transpired that they knew nothing about Amber, and I apparently knew something, having read the first two novels, they asked me for advice. We had a conversation that went something like this:
Graham: I'm playing Eric.
Me: Oh, you're the douchebag!
Graham: Am? I don't really know. I gather arrogant, but other than that?
(At which point I explained to him that, with Corwin being the main character of the series, Eric is basically his main rival).
Hope then asked me for my feedback on Llewella, to which I said I had no idea, but most of the female characters in Amber, canonically, were kind of... lacking personality.
"Oh, that's going to be hard for you," said Graham.
"As far as I can tell I'm supposed to be wet, wild, and Welsh," says Hope.
I replied with, "I think I saw a porno called that once."
Friday
Friday morning/afternoon was said Amber game, The Maid, the Pickpocket, the Assassin, and the Lover, by Ben Harvey and Dave Collis. Although the timeline differs quite significantly from the books, the game concerns the reading of Oberon's will after his death, apparently by murder, and the ensuing succession crisis.
I played Fiona, who I *think* is a canon character, but not one I know anything about. I spent large portions of it closed in a room with Bleys and Brand, 'cause, well, brothers. And we apparently are not supposed to be nearly as divisive as Faiella's brood.
Although as Brand ended up betraying us, maybe not!
This was a game where I could have been very ambitious and scheming but, I guess, chose not to? Mostly I felt like there wasn't much of a chance of my ever getting the throne--although as I was the oldest of the second batch of legitimate heirs, and Corwin and Eric were fighting like they do, I suppose it was not that far-fetched.
Now the spoilery bits.
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My game culminated with an expedition into Shadow (with Bleys, Benedict, and Llewella) to stop a gate being built by the Courts of Chaos. Then almost being stuck there when Eric decided he didn't want to Trump us back. 'Cause, well. Douchebag. We finally convinced Caine to summon us, and found ourselves in the midst of the final contest for the Jewel of Judgment, at which I thought our efforts had ensured Bleys a good shot.
The final vote came down to Eric and Bleys, and after some discussion, and an outburst ("You know what I fucking love? Speeches!"), Eric ended up becoming King. Yay status quo?
I probably didn't help Bleys' cause -- trying to explain that there was a house of the Court of Chaos that would only accept my brothers or myself on the throne was taken as a threat, rather than a statement of fact. That caused even the known independents, like Benedict and Gerard, to go over to Eric's side.
(Matt was playing Gerard, and filled me in on this after game... As he is really not the sort to get anything out of an Amber game, playing someone who didn't want the throne suited him just fine).
Other entertaining moments:
- Most of the heirs rushing for Tir Na Nog'th when the moon rose, looking to grab the Jewel of Judgment--which Random had had all along--and walk the Pattern. The remainder of us left kind of looked at each other and said, welp, I guess we know where we all stand.
- "I think I should have spent more time reading my character sheet and less painting myself green," said Hope.
- Getting to be the one person with Trumps who worked when Dworkin died. Which were then used to go pay a visit to Random, who had run off with the Jewel of Judgment.
- Figuring out that Mirelle and Dalt weren't really who they said they were. ("Hmm.... I've seen Mirelle's tomb in Shadow, and I've seen Benedict kill Dalt... and Julian just told us there were two dudes from the Courts of Chaos found in the Forest of Arden...") But then, sadly, there was very little I could do about it, except not trust them.
- Getting bullied by Eric into asking for his help in the plan to destroy the Chaos Gate. It was just spot-on characterization.... i.e., "I'm going to be belligerent about you needing my help until you cave." For all that the player didn't know the canon, he was utterly brilliant in this role.
- queenortart was playing Lord Rust, a diplomat from Begma? I think? Nevermind, she looked like a fabulous 17th century gentleman. "I feel like I should be calling you Guido and setting you on fire," said someone of her garb.
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This game was also my first interaction with Graham A., a fabulous roleplayer who I was lucky enough to play with in every game this weekend. In this game he was playing Random. Graham is kind of infamous in this community as being... somewhat larger than life and a bit of a spinner of tales. In that way he reminds me a bit of Marc B. or Andy K. He's got his own reference in the "By golly, it just might work!" rules for Clockwork Cafe, as "Honest Graham A.," if that tells you anything ;)
All in all, an enjoyable time, even if I was less ambitious than usual. If I have any complaints, it's with the writing of the game materials, which could have been more grammatical and a little bit more artful. But they did the job of setting up an excellent game of cutthroat politics, which is all I really need.
Friday night I helped to run Brian's game The Clockwork Cafe. I played in this game at Intercon K, and if you are going to Intercon this year, you should strongly consider it!
From my perspective, this is a game which sort of runs itself, and does not really require three GMs. I spent a lot of time sniggering with the other GMs about the crazy things players did. What questions I did get asked were not ones I knew how to answer myself, alas. (i.e. "how do I know these are the real plans? What happens if I poke so-and-so with a dental speculum?")
It was interesting to watch, though! This run was 75% male, rendering most of the usual female roles male, including co-host Helen Bach, who became Alain Bach, and the character I played in the Intercon K run, Anna Key, who became Arnie Key.
The game ended with the revolutionaries winning. Vive la revolution!
Also, Dan T., who played Bleys in the Amber game, was playing Baron Schwartz, firmly establishing my impression of what type of characters he plays :)
And this Richard Blanc (Ryan My., who flew in from Singapore!) was not nearly as awesome as ours, i.e. Matt :) This one only had an off-white suit. No painting the soles of his shoes white or anything...
There was a Friday party, too. I might even have gone to it. It's all a blur...
Saturday
Saturday, my only plans were:
1. running Cracks in the Orb
2. preparing to run Cracks.
I did though have time to partake of the delicious Thanksgiving-ish dinner Chris A. put together. Mmm. Mashed potatoes.
I alsoalso did some shopping in the dealer's room ("traders" seems to be the term of choice for this), and came home with a top hat with red decorations from Claire of Clockwork Tea Party. Matt got a new pocket watch, and a notebook cover for Johan in Cottington Woods.
Cracks went... well, I think? The biggest problem, honestly, was the wargame, which neither Brian nor Matt nor I had all the information we needed to run. I'm pretty sure we misplayed how bridges are supposed to work, which meant that it was the same big ol' stalemate it was the first time I ran the game.
The wargame map, turn one
There were also some players who disliked their characters for reasons I consider features of the character, not bugs. Hmm. It is often hard to predict what players will like, in this regard.
But I know I had some players who loved it, and I got high praise from queenortart, who played Seodra, and Dream, who played Bryara, and is known to be somewhat picky in terms of what she likes. Alison R-H even liked her role, as Dradia, and that was one I was worried about. So overall I felt like it was a success!
This was the most Dragon-y of runs of Cracks, too -- but then, I had a great set of players of Dragons, including the aforementioned Graham A. as Rollondar, Nathan R. as Fornia, Dream as Bryara, and Sam L., who was new to me, as Adron.
The game ended with a Dragon duel pile. It started with Fornia and Rollondar dueling, naturally enough, which Rollondar won. Bryara then decided she was pissed off AT EVERYONE, and was going to duel them all. ("Don't worry," Bryara said, leaning on Fornia's shoulder with false affection, "I'll heal you up before I duel you").
Fornia won his duel with Bryara, and decided that, in leaving her Bleeding, he was going to cut her dress open. 'Cause Fornia. This, naturally enough, caused Rollondar to be so awkward that he lost his duel to Bryara, falling to one knee. "While you're down there," Bryara said, imperiously, "do you have anything else you'd like to ask me?"
Graham's interpretation of Rollondar was a little bit more naive than I had previously seen, but it worked. I also like how he attempted to subvert the patronage mechanics, and hired ALL the artists -- including hiring Megarrion to write a poem he could use to ask Bryara to dance.
So perfect. <3 Dragons. Especially this group.
Ohgod and that's not even getting into Civi as Morvyn, who carried around a bottle of wine and two glasses, and spent most of his time getting his various paramours drunk, while managing to never give away his heart.
Spoilers ahead:
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Morvyn also took control of Unnyara's wargame faction, and led it to defeat.
Which I almost forgot... Steve Bassett, as Fotheringil, was given control of the Empress' Personal Guard by G'aereth. I have never had that player ask me, "So... when it says I have to have seven units fielded to reach this goal... does that just include Harvest Salvation?"
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Saturday I stopped in at a party, but was completely exhausted, and came back to the chalet quickly. And yet I lay in bed for a long time, plotting and planning changes to Cracks, future plans for larps, future blog posts, etc. You might even see a post from me in the future about writing historical games--or, as I've realized they should be called, historical fantasies.
Sunday
Sunday morning was Something Wicked, a game by C.J. Romer, who I primarily remembered as playing Lord Emsworth in Midsummer Mischief, and, I think, Hugh Wake? He was at least a GM. This was billed as "a gothic melodrama set in old London town," and took place in 1888 at a fun fair. I was cast as Irene Adler, the famous adventuress from the Sherlock Holmes story "A Scandal in Bohemia."
Matt as the spirit Ariel; me as Irene Adler
Or, well. That was the plan at one point in time. Then approximately everything bad ever happened to the authors, including the theft of the laptop with most of the game materials on it. The game had to be substantially rewritten, and became something... different.
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... Something timey-wimey.
Let's just say that in the game briefing, we were told there was a blue police shed outside the fairgrounds. *headdesk*
If there's anything I like less than Victorian romances turned into games with woo, it's Victorian romances turned into Dr. Who pastiches.
That said, I had fun. I spent most of the time investigating the Ripper murders and verbally sparring with my Sherlock Holmes (Sam W.). Mostly I ignored the time travel plot, although I certainly did benefit from my conversations with vampire!Lord Byron (guy wot played Brand in the Amber game) and time traveling John Dee (Graham A, again). I was especially entertained by time-traveling Aleister Crowley (Sam L) hitting it off with Lord Byron and smoking opium together, because.... seriously, yeah, that's a thing wot needed to happen.
Many, many people did not have fun, though--notably the two other people in the love triangle I was supposed to be part of, playing Sherlock Holmes (without his Watson!) and Sebastian Moran (who I don't think ever managed to find his Moriarty, although that character was in game).
It was pretty well illustrated by the conversation I had with Rich S, who was playing Moran, at the end of game. He was trying to tell me of his love for me, and how he wanted to protect me, etc, etc, while my character's sheet sole commentary on him was "he thinks he wants to save me from Sherlock Holmes. How cute" and "he'd just as soon slit my throat as kiss me."
I pointed out as that I couldn't trust him, and rephrased the latter line, to which he said, "Well, not that I haven't done that, but you're different..." At which point the player realized the love plot was fucked, and trailed off, just as game wrapped.
While Moran's demurral was evilly adorable, I still wish there was more for Irene to go on...
Also entertaining was when I was discussing the Spanish Armada with John Dee--and how he could procure a storm--when Holmes came along and we got into a bit of sparring. I don't recall what I said, but it did end with my sticking my tongue out at him. Dee then made the observation that "You fancy him" and suddenly I found myself discussing my character's love life--including the fact that the Crown Prince had gone around telling people we were schtupping each other all game--with a time traveling wife swapper.
Like you do.
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In the final analysis, not sure what to say about this game. There's a game in there, somewhere, but it's still deeply flawed, and I'm not entirely sure the two authors agree on what that game should be. I only wish it was the gothic romance it tried to be, because that love triangle could have been something really quite awesome.
I have the fondest memories, perhaps, of the rest of Sunday, which I spent mostly in Brian/A.J./Steve Bassett's lodge, drinking scotch whisky, and talking larp with the residents, as well as Suey, Mikey, Elina, Sam W., and Martin J. This is often what I enjoy more than larping--spending time with my larp friends, sharing war stories. The whisky only helped with the warm glow that surrounds my memory of that evening.
Monday
Monday we were back to Heathrow, with a stop at Southampton, to drop Steve off at the airport for his flight back to Edinburgh, and a short stop in Winchester, to get an outside look at the Cathedral and the Great Hall of the old palace. We ate at the Cathedral's refectory--I had a cheddar and pickle sandwich, one of my favorite British foods--and then were on the road again.
Winchester Cathedral, from the front
The flight home was not terrible, but not as flawless as the one in. The flight was grounded for an hour, and twice during it the entertainment system was restarted, each taking about 20 minutes. I listened to about half of an audiobook of Emma on the entertainment system, which I am embarrassed to admit I kept referring to the plot of Clueless as my guide for what should happen. I also watched an episode and a half of Vikings, but it was just too trashy to continue.
The biggest challenge, though, was the fact that the person who had valet-parked our car in the economy lot at Logan had left the lights on. For five days. The car just barely started >.<
And that was my adventure! I feel an odd mix of... relief, to be home, where things are comfortable and familiar, and yet melancholy, because I have left most of my British/Irish/Dutch/Belgian friends behind for two years. (Because given the expenses of this year, Heroic Consequences is not in the cards).