Intercon H - Heaven and Hell (Part 1: Most of the interesting stuff)
It was both but I wouldn't have missed it...
Things started in earnest on Wednesday late afternoon. A final runthrough of making sure that I had character sheets and information printed out, then heading home to throw clothes and supplies into suitcases and organize what needs to go tomorrow. citabria had already pulled Con Suite supplies off of the garage shelves and out of nooks and crannies.
We were up rather late because there were other household chores to take care of but we got up reasonably early on Thursday to collect more things and then I got picked up by Enterprise--they really do it!--to pick up the cargo van. We had already decided that we weren't going to be able to really use two cars and lots of trips and the cargo van seemed like the best choice. We were able to pack it with our stuff, Con Suite supplies we had stored at our place and one hit to a Sam's Club in Worcester to fill up with lots of goodies. (Oh, there was already a trunkload full of stuff that citabria had gotten earlier in the week, too. We have lots of boxes available from our move which helped organize the piles of goods from Sam's, too.
The Chelmsford Radisson was the next stop. We checked in and got our room right by the elevator and relaxed a bit, then got the kitchen and prep room unlocked and started to cart in the first load. (We had called Kerri S., who had volunteered to help us and she arrived about halfway through and would stay with us for the rest of the night.) After the unload and was done it was onto the Sam's in Hudson, NH for another van load. Negotiating four carts of goodies with three people was lots of fun. (citabria is very organized for all this with spreadsheets and prices so we knew how much we need and how much it should cost.)
Even though the three of us were tired and hungry, we had to make a stop at Stop and Shop to pick up a few more things and then head back to the hotel. And most of a day of loading and unloading in cold and windy weather was hellish. I picked up a sniffle that it took me a good part of the weekend to shake off and I never really felt warm this weekend. (I'm doing okay now.)
It was after nine, nearly ten, I think, when we got to the hotel. bleemoo, natbudin and barryt helped make short work of the second pack-in wave and...we were (nearly) done! barryt had to head back but the rest of us ate at the hotel's restaurant and talked about Intercon and some war stories and then we all headed off to sleep. (And Kerry home.)
Friday morning we had breakfast delivered while citabria prepared signs and I started to sort out my costumes and clothes. We had to make a run to another couple of stores to pick up a few more supplies for Con Suite and then headed back so citabria could start setting up. I ran out and got us both some lunch then came back to check email for a missing character sheet (it wasn't there) and run errands. The entire convention was starting to get set up too and there were various oddments to help other people with. (ladysprite, Linda, auror and others started to arrive to help citabria out with food preparation so I was able to do other things and see people as they came in.)
NEIL invested in a cash register this year and it was new and shiny and fun to play with. laurion had set it up so it was pretty idiot-proof and did I mention it was shiny? (I'm such a geek.) I got to play with it by buying some raffle tickets, too.
There were several other things I was helping with but it all kinda blurs together, along with seeing people, and I don't really remember it all...except running back to the room to get ready for...
...And Thunder Shall Roll, my Friday night game. This was the game I didn't have a character sheet for. The GMs did they best they could in getting out character information verbally but a tad more pre-game help would have been nice. I played Francis Wheeler, a gunslinger and stranger in town with some angsty background. After an hour or so of hanging around waiting for the information, its paucity was a little freeing but his only main plot was a rock-and-a-hard-place dilemma. But it was resolved satisfactorily enough and it was fun hanging out in a bit of the Old West. Some of the other plot points I watched were entertaining enough to watch but the climax which was sort of out-of-the-blue. (Then again, I wasn't playing a major character.) So, ignoring the initial delay and the last few minutes, I had a good time.
After that I hung out for a while in Con Suite hanging out for a bit and helping out in Con Suite some more and making sure citabria got at least some sleep. We did get up in time to do the breakfast buffet--which was a little sad compared to other years, in my opinion. I had to run back and change for my next game, to which I was a little late...
...for Ghost Fu. Boy, I really with I had had more time to soak up the information. (And I didn't get some of it in time to really spend on it.) I played Six Lucks Ba, an important noble who had the privilege of working for the Son of Heaven, his Imperial Majesty, the Emporer, before his untimely death. (Yes, most of the characters in this LARP were dead.) I wasn't directly involved in the Kung Fu tournament and those who were were having a great time hamming it up. I had a set of "five impossible tasks" to do, three of which I was able to accomplish adequately. This would have been more fun had I been more prepared. I'd enjoy a second crack at this one, in a different role.
It went a little over and I had to run up to check on citabria, grab some lunch and change for my next game...
...As The Sun Falls. This game was set in a pre-Biblical land at a pivotal point. Most of us were people of one tribe or another that needed to make deals to get food, arms, troops and some other odds and ends because the sun, that is, the Morningstar, was falling and, offstage, was about to be cast out of Heaven. And bad stuff would happen. So, for most of us, it was wheeling and dealing and some easy-going roleplay. I was happy that I was able to save one player from ditching the game because she wasn't happy with the heavy mechanics. My character proposed marriage to hers. (I had pretty good success with this tactic before, so I tried it here. :-D)
There were a handful of Nephilim also wandering around that were both strangely serene and oddly generous and just...Nephil-like. It was a little difficult being, I think, the only "team" that had one representative (I was Herschel Goldtounge, of the Tribe of the Rat) but I made it work. Having to manage the mechanic and try to meet with people (and having a built-in cultural handicap as well) was a little difficult to juggle. But it wasn't a bad game and I could recommend it as long as you didn't mind shuffling twenty or so cards at a time. It had a little feel of a tabletop game done live, but many games are like that. This one I liked because it was different enough and had plenty of fun.
Headed out to try and help out some of the evening Con Suite confusion. (There's lots I can say about that but not in this post. But, I had to grab some munchies and retreat to my room to study my next character sheet and at about a quarter after seven, I had to grab citabria to make sure we both made our evening game...
...Sassy Pirate Wenches on the Island of Stern Viking Jarls. Somewhat earlier in the evening, I watched jingsaw and gower bring in an entire forest. And that was just the beginning of the set. They transformed the room pretty effectively into an outpost on a remote winter island. Major props for effort. Unfortunately, there was also the effect of bright moonlight that kept the room very dark. Now, on the one hand, this is an interesting way to force the players to simply be their parts and not use the character sheet as a crutch but, on the other hand, there was a lot of character information for, I gather, most of the players and at least I found it necessary to refer to it. Especially when in an early twist of the game, much of the sheet suddenly became a lot less important than other parts. I got at least one encounter completely backwards when I winged it. And it was cold. I mean, not just uncomfortably chilly, but COLD. I had to go back to my room and throw on a couple more layers. I'm not sure whether that was deliberate or it was part of the hotel issue
Okay, enough of that. The great thing about games by this team is that you can pick any 30% of the character sheet and still have a fantastic time. I was Slegper Snowbound, Jarl of the Black Elk Clan, stern, ruthless, and full of plans. Except, well, shit happened. So, I have to apologize to cristovau and mpgalvin at the sudden collapse of our grand scheme. Oh, wait, it wasn't my fault. It was...never mind. He's dead and had his last laugh on me. But that was fine, it got me interacting with the orcs and down an entirely different thread with laura47 and Chris. Orcs? Did I mention orcs? I have no idea why orcs were there--but it worked. Then there was the nominal head of the Vikings who was channeling an efficiency expert trying to get us all in the meeting again and back on the agenda. And then the game just got zany and weird and I even got some ravishment in on the side. And then I watched citabria "winning" the game. (That's her story to tell. But she tells me that she doesn't understand much of it, either.) I had lots of fun, despite the annoyance at the environment. I hope they run it again sometime so that another group can play it.
bleemoo rushed in and pushed me (and laurion and laura47 into the NEIL Board Meeting. (bleemoo? "I am only saying that because I care - there's a lot of decaffeinated brands on the market that are just as tasty as the real thing." But, you get bonus points for identifying the movie. :-D) The main business of the board meeting was electing two new members. (I was running for re-election. natbudin moves up to President and bleemoo moves sideways to Advisor Emeritus, so there were two slots.) zrealm was also running as well and was there to give a statement, too. Then, I left and found out later that the two of us were elected to the open spots. Oh, and Wuf was elected as Mascot.
And then that was it for my LARPing. I change out of Viking garb into something warm and headed to the Con Suite. Heading back in I ran into shogunhb and asked him how the LARP he was writing under the gun went--awesomely enough by his account, as told to him by the players. Music had already started and bleemoo and citabria and I danced through the room carrying goodies to the food tables. Then there was lots of schmoozing and hanging out with friends and dancing a bit and restocking and gave a hopefully passable lapdance and more schmoozing and some more stocking and cleaning and then I grabbed citabria and took her to the room to sleep for a bit.
Okay, that's all I can do tonight. Eyes are beginning to fail. More later.
Things started in earnest on Wednesday late afternoon. A final runthrough of making sure that I had character sheets and information printed out, then heading home to throw clothes and supplies into suitcases and organize what needs to go tomorrow. citabria had already pulled Con Suite supplies off of the garage shelves and out of nooks and crannies.
We were up rather late because there were other household chores to take care of but we got up reasonably early on Thursday to collect more things and then I got picked up by Enterprise--they really do it!--to pick up the cargo van. We had already decided that we weren't going to be able to really use two cars and lots of trips and the cargo van seemed like the best choice. We were able to pack it with our stuff, Con Suite supplies we had stored at our place and one hit to a Sam's Club in Worcester to fill up with lots of goodies. (Oh, there was already a trunkload full of stuff that citabria had gotten earlier in the week, too. We have lots of boxes available from our move which helped organize the piles of goods from Sam's, too.
The Chelmsford Radisson was the next stop. We checked in and got our room right by the elevator and relaxed a bit, then got the kitchen and prep room unlocked and started to cart in the first load. (We had called Kerri S., who had volunteered to help us and she arrived about halfway through and would stay with us for the rest of the night.) After the unload and was done it was onto the Sam's in Hudson, NH for another van load. Negotiating four carts of goodies with three people was lots of fun. (citabria is very organized for all this with spreadsheets and prices so we knew how much we need and how much it should cost.)
Even though the three of us were tired and hungry, we had to make a stop at Stop and Shop to pick up a few more things and then head back to the hotel. And most of a day of loading and unloading in cold and windy weather was hellish. I picked up a sniffle that it took me a good part of the weekend to shake off and I never really felt warm this weekend. (I'm doing okay now.)
It was after nine, nearly ten, I think, when we got to the hotel. bleemoo, natbudin and barryt helped make short work of the second pack-in wave and...we were (nearly) done! barryt had to head back but the rest of us ate at the hotel's restaurant and talked about Intercon and some war stories and then we all headed off to sleep. (And Kerry home.)
Friday morning we had breakfast delivered while citabria prepared signs and I started to sort out my costumes and clothes. We had to make a run to another couple of stores to pick up a few more supplies for Con Suite and then headed back so citabria could start setting up. I ran out and got us both some lunch then came back to check email for a missing character sheet (it wasn't there) and run errands. The entire convention was starting to get set up too and there were various oddments to help other people with. (ladysprite, Linda, auror and others started to arrive to help citabria out with food preparation so I was able to do other things and see people as they came in.)
NEIL invested in a cash register this year and it was new and shiny and fun to play with. laurion had set it up so it was pretty idiot-proof and did I mention it was shiny? (I'm such a geek.) I got to play with it by buying some raffle tickets, too.
There were several other things I was helping with but it all kinda blurs together, along with seeing people, and I don't really remember it all...except running back to the room to get ready for...
...And Thunder Shall Roll, my Friday night game. This was the game I didn't have a character sheet for. The GMs did they best they could in getting out character information verbally but a tad more pre-game help would have been nice. I played Francis Wheeler, a gunslinger and stranger in town with some angsty background. After an hour or so of hanging around waiting for the information, its paucity was a little freeing but his only main plot was a rock-and-a-hard-place dilemma. But it was resolved satisfactorily enough and it was fun hanging out in a bit of the Old West. Some of the other plot points I watched were entertaining enough to watch but the climax which was sort of out-of-the-blue. (Then again, I wasn't playing a major character.) So, ignoring the initial delay and the last few minutes, I had a good time.
After that I hung out for a while in Con Suite hanging out for a bit and helping out in Con Suite some more and making sure citabria got at least some sleep. We did get up in time to do the breakfast buffet--which was a little sad compared to other years, in my opinion. I had to run back and change for my next game, to which I was a little late...
...for Ghost Fu. Boy, I really with I had had more time to soak up the information. (And I didn't get some of it in time to really spend on it.) I played Six Lucks Ba, an important noble who had the privilege of working for the Son of Heaven, his Imperial Majesty, the Emporer, before his untimely death. (Yes, most of the characters in this LARP were dead.) I wasn't directly involved in the Kung Fu tournament and those who were were having a great time hamming it up. I had a set of "five impossible tasks" to do, three of which I was able to accomplish adequately. This would have been more fun had I been more prepared. I'd enjoy a second crack at this one, in a different role.
It went a little over and I had to run up to check on citabria, grab some lunch and change for my next game...
...As The Sun Falls. This game was set in a pre-Biblical land at a pivotal point. Most of us were people of one tribe or another that needed to make deals to get food, arms, troops and some other odds and ends because the sun, that is, the Morningstar, was falling and, offstage, was about to be cast out of Heaven. And bad stuff would happen. So, for most of us, it was wheeling and dealing and some easy-going roleplay. I was happy that I was able to save one player from ditching the game because she wasn't happy with the heavy mechanics. My character proposed marriage to hers. (I had pretty good success with this tactic before, so I tried it here. :-D)
There were a handful of Nephilim also wandering around that were both strangely serene and oddly generous and just...Nephil-like. It was a little difficult being, I think, the only "team" that had one representative (I was Herschel Goldtounge, of the Tribe of the Rat) but I made it work. Having to manage the mechanic and try to meet with people (and having a built-in cultural handicap as well) was a little difficult to juggle. But it wasn't a bad game and I could recommend it as long as you didn't mind shuffling twenty or so cards at a time. It had a little feel of a tabletop game done live, but many games are like that. This one I liked because it was different enough and had plenty of fun.
Headed out to try and help out some of the evening Con Suite confusion. (There's lots I can say about that but not in this post. But, I had to grab some munchies and retreat to my room to study my next character sheet and at about a quarter after seven, I had to grab citabria to make sure we both made our evening game...
...Sassy Pirate Wenches on the Island of Stern Viking Jarls. Somewhat earlier in the evening, I watched jingsaw and gower bring in an entire forest. And that was just the beginning of the set. They transformed the room pretty effectively into an outpost on a remote winter island. Major props for effort. Unfortunately, there was also the effect of bright moonlight that kept the room very dark. Now, on the one hand, this is an interesting way to force the players to simply be their parts and not use the character sheet as a crutch but, on the other hand, there was a lot of character information for, I gather, most of the players and at least I found it necessary to refer to it. Especially when in an early twist of the game, much of the sheet suddenly became a lot less important than other parts. I got at least one encounter completely backwards when I winged it. And it was cold. I mean, not just uncomfortably chilly, but COLD. I had to go back to my room and throw on a couple more layers. I'm not sure whether that was deliberate or it was part of the hotel issue
Okay, enough of that. The great thing about games by this team is that you can pick any 30% of the character sheet and still have a fantastic time. I was Slegper Snowbound, Jarl of the Black Elk Clan, stern, ruthless, and full of plans. Except, well, shit happened. So, I have to apologize to cristovau and mpgalvin at the sudden collapse of our grand scheme. Oh, wait, it wasn't my fault. It was...never mind. He's dead and had his last laugh on me. But that was fine, it got me interacting with the orcs and down an entirely different thread with laura47 and Chris. Orcs? Did I mention orcs? I have no idea why orcs were there--but it worked. Then there was the nominal head of the Vikings who was channeling an efficiency expert trying to get us all in the meeting again and back on the agenda. And then the game just got zany and weird and I even got some ravishment in on the side. And then I watched citabria "winning" the game. (That's her story to tell. But she tells me that she doesn't understand much of it, either.) I had lots of fun, despite the annoyance at the environment. I hope they run it again sometime so that another group can play it.
bleemoo rushed in and pushed me (and laurion and laura47 into the NEIL Board Meeting. (bleemoo? "I am only saying that because I care - there's a lot of decaffeinated brands on the market that are just as tasty as the real thing." But, you get bonus points for identifying the movie. :-D) The main business of the board meeting was electing two new members. (I was running for re-election. natbudin moves up to President and bleemoo moves sideways to Advisor Emeritus, so there were two slots.) zrealm was also running as well and was there to give a statement, too. Then, I left and found out later that the two of us were elected to the open spots. Oh, and Wuf was elected as Mascot.
And then that was it for my LARPing. I change out of Viking garb into something warm and headed to the Con Suite. Heading back in I ran into shogunhb and asked him how the LARP he was writing under the gun went--awesomely enough by his account, as told to him by the players. Music had already started and bleemoo and citabria and I danced through the room carrying goodies to the food tables. Then there was lots of schmoozing and hanging out with friends and dancing a bit and restocking and gave a hopefully passable lapdance and more schmoozing and some more stocking and cleaning and then I grabbed citabria and took her to the room to sleep for a bit.
Okay, that's all I can do tonight. Eyes are beginning to fail. More later.