Intercon L Report
Since it seems like the thing to do, here is a (hopefully?) spoiler-free report from Intercon L!
Friday Night - Weeks of frantic writing, printing, and costume-shopping crammed in among precious few hours of not being in class or at work led to a very stressful, nerve-wracking Friday night leading up to my arrival at the con and my first game, Feast of the Minotaur. Fortunately, my life (or at least my costume) was saved at the last minute by captainecchi and her gorgeous vintage sewing machine. Tomorrow I am getting a sewing machine as a belated birthday gift, and it is my sincerest hope that by Intercon M I will be making my own costumes. As twilighttremolo insightfully pointed out upon seeing me in my completed costume for the first time at Con Suite, I had not smiled all day previously. Feast was fun, but for reasons that had little if anything to do with my character sheet. I had essentially one plot, and it was not something I usually go in for in a LARP. Fortunately, my game took an unscheduled 180 degree turn about halfway through and I got to play the sort of character I actually enjoy for the rest of the game.
Saturday Morning - Sleep deprivation be damned, I woke up at 6:30 on Saturday morning in order to eat a hearty breakfast and spend a proper amount of time on my makeup for The Madrian Secret. As a campy '70s TV Sci-fi robot named j4-1x, I felt it only appropriate that my face and hands be liberally coated with silver makeup and little black lines indicating my overlapping plates. This took about as long as I expected it would, but the game was more than enough fun to make the work of costuming worth it. I got to interact with a lot of powerfully fun and weird people, and the episode... er, rather, my game ended with a pitch-perfect Message About Friendship and a Happy Reconciliation After a Zany Adventure.
Saturday Afternoon - After my adventures in the future, I rushed back into the present to prepare for the past in Hyakumonogatari Kadankai, formerly known as Tales of the Fisherman's Wife. It was a semi-scripted game made up of a number of different scenes in which we were either players, storytellers, or active audience members. I'd never played in this sort of game before, but it may have been my favorite playing experience of the weekend. It was a somewhat unexpected roller coaster of emotions, and having the opportunity to play my character in scenes, other characters in flashbacks, and my character watching others' scenes as an observer made for a truly complex game experience. There were moments that the game veered towards silliness, but this only drew my attention to the impressive diversity of the stories that the writers and and players were telling, and lent a potent bittersweet sadness to the most serious scenes (one of which was my own). As a 13-year-old character, Tadanobu, I feel I may have had the largest variance of emotions in my own stories - in some, I was an innocent, inquisitive youth. In others, I was on the verge of coming to understand my parents' complex lives and the realities of everyone in my village. It was a powerful game, and set a new standard for me to achieve in my own writing.
Saturday Night - I barely had time to lazily wash out my Kabuki-inspired makeup from my afternoon game before rushing off to set up for The Prince Comes of Age, my own first-born LARP baby. Much better prepared with a variety of environmental touches and some fresh new mechanics, Bernie, lightgamer, and I ecstatically prepared for our second run. I can honestly say that I think it went even better than the first time around. The characters I felt needed the most work seemed to have a good time, and I think our new rules system worked a lot more smoothly. Most importantly, I've been getting a lot of positive feedback about the characters, in the form of lengthy chats about their personalities, goals, and futures after the game. The players seemed to really embrace their characters and relationships, and there were many occasions in which I was truly awed by how exceptionally well these people were giving my characters life. When my players actually suggest to me that we need to start a fan-fiction wiki for my LARP, I know I've done something right. Despite an overall similarity in the plot-pacing of the game this time around, the character outcomes were for the most part wildly different, and I'm really excited to see that different results are possible from barely-(or not-at-all-)rewritten sheets. Aside from a few more mechanical tweaks and adding some more plot to one or two characters, I'd like to see if we can change as little as possible for the inevitable third run and get something entirely different. The only downside to this is that we will have to choose a canonical ending to this game sometime soon, and I'm just as enamored of this run's ending as I was of the first. My little fantasy world has developed branching continuities, and I don't know which one to write into my future games! (Incidentally, if you are interested in participating in that inevitable third run, I think we've reached the point where I might try to run it this summer independent of any cons and give first-notice to the many people who've expressed interest so far. So let me know if you want to be on that list.)
Sunday Morning - After another brief night of sleep, I woke up as late as possible on Sunday morning to play in GM Space, a wonderfully silly and surprisingly epic game. I played Marcus, the lead GM and the only one who knows what he's talking about, of course. I was able to do a lot of profoundly ridiculous things, and there were a few great moments with the horde "players" that had us both breaking down in laughter as we tried to keep straight faces. I would love to play this game again as Horde, which is something I've never really thought I was interested in doing. Overall, a fantastic conclusion to a really wonderful con. I doubt anyone will ever be able to convince me that it is unwise for me to solidly book a gaming weekend.