Adventures at RinCon '09
Rincon was fabulous. I must say that I could get used to these con-things. Just the day after is sooo hard.
We arrived late Friday evening, and I got to hang out with stannex and Hyrem, as well as wickedthought , mnight , and wunderworks .
Saturday morning came very early for me as I awoke several times and had difficulty sleeping I was so excited for the day. Soon I was dressed as Beryll Tal, a rather violent wolf in a very red outfit. Going down to breakfast was fun as there were many Battle of the Bulge vets and their wives there. I generated quite a bit of interest, including being asked if I was part of a wedding party, a comment I found vastly amusing as red leather, organza (trails?) and oversized swords are not generally seen at weddings.
Soon, Calaban Ru (wunderworks ) and Tyv Adrente (nihilisticmind ) joined me. I really wish I had gotten everyone's photo, but my favored time for getting pictures was rushed due to a Will Wheaton panel in which we had to clear the room FAST.
Changling
My fellow costumers and I were lured into a Changling game. I had never played it and found it quite fun. My character was an emotionless elemental who was very manipulative. I found that slightly worrisome as I don't feel I can pull off manipulation well, though I have gotten some practice with Houses. I drew inspiration from the DragonLady from the Dying Kingdom's LARP for my character and spent the time when not with my motley eyeing the rest of the group, listening in and generally disapproving of the bouncy cat person with flowery growy things sprouting on the ground around it.
My goal was an amulet. And incredibly powerful amulet, that should cost dearly. When the Autumn King drew me aside, he practically seemed to beg me to take it in exchange for just my good will. Being a good Houses player I immediately suspected treachery and new he was trying to manipulate me. I elected to refrain from even touching it, saying we would discuss it later. He agreed most graciously, once again making me suspect him even more. Especially since one of my motley (wunderworks ) had told me he had an innocent for a sacrifice locked away
Speaking with another of my Motley afterwards, one Romeo (nihilisticmind ), I discovered that Romeo was going to get the ring which opened the room with my amulet. Apparently, it opened the room with the harem - which Romeo wanted, and the room with the innocent. Romeo only cared for the harem, which I could understand, but convinced him to let me go along to access the treasury and then we could rescue the innocent. Our GM seemed surprised that I had convinced Romeo to take me with him. And Romeo gave me the ring after he got his women.
Of course, I didn't have time to get the rest of the motley, which was annoying, but I got my amulet and went to rescue the Innocent. Which wasn't. instead, I tripped a series of events which resulted in our cat person turning into a hell-hound, the Wild Hunt being summoned and our Autumn King being murdered and.. well, I ended up holding a knife which demanded I kill something. I went and stabbed said being (I think it was a huntsman, everything got confusing in the end) in the back, killing it, and apparently satisfying the Fae's desire for death of an innocent.
Lovely. Lol.
I guess that is what happens when you open strange boxes and touch magical daggers… DOOM!!!!!!
Also amusing was the fact that Fabien, Ben and myself were voted the best RPers in the group. To which, I gained a beautiful, signed by Jess Hartley herself, Changling book. Woot!!!
Speaking of magical daggers… I purchased a beautiful dagger from the Cthulhu booth, which now allows the Houses LARP costumery to have a DOOOOOOOOOM!!!!! Artifact dagger.
I really like that little dagger ^_^
After the Changling LARP, was the Houses LARP. WOOOOOOT!!!!!!!
Blood & Tears LARP
It was an absolute riot. I totally lured in ladies with the promise of costumes. There's nothing like having a lady come to the door and saying, "no, I don't have a costume" in response to asking her to play and saying, "That's OK, we have some you can wear!"
And we even had swords, which were eagerly borrowed!
I was the Hostess. I also had two enemies. I apologize to them for not being able to pursue them properly. Though, in the beginning, I sought them out and tried to talk to them about why I hated them, and wanted them dead. One of them was jesshartley , and I didn't realize who she was. She was amused by my openly plotting with her how I might cause her demise, and how she might use that to her advantage against her own enemy. I do wish I could have pursued that line further, but… I was completely inundated by being hostess to a party of 30+ players. My second enemy (Why did I end up with two?!?) I will tell you about at the end, because he was awesome and everyone missed what he did.
I love having a Wisdom weakness. There were a few times I was genuinely confused, and it didn't matter!! I passed off things on servants and Calaban and The Fox. Yes, about an hour in, I picked one of our players to be The Fox, my spouce. Ryan Macklin (The Master Plan) was the closest Yvarai on hand and he accepted style to be my spouce. Then I told him how much power I had just granted him. He seemed amused, though he didn't get a chance to use that power to influence me, but we had several lovely scenes afterwards. I was very happy to have him as spouce.
I had several characters trying to get into duels. They were trying so hard, and the first one to get to me, got their Jury. And they payed well to get their duel.
While they were preparing for it, I was propositioned by a Serpent who had a swordsman aspect. Beryll accepted, and they had brief entertainment while waiting for the more bloody entertainment.
Their duel was a fine show and one lost his ork (Bravo!!) and his Romance and there was Blood!
I had numerous people trying to convince me of this and that being a sorcerer. I am glad for the Wisdom weakness, because Beryll needs proof to actually kill someone. Or Calaban's word. Or The Fox's.
Tyv Adrente caused plenty of problems by declaring openly that he was going to campaign to get sorcery legal. I could not abide by such things and after an intense scene, I revoked my hospitality and said, while I would not kill him as i did not think him a sorcerer, I promised a vague reward for killing him.
After a short period of time I realized the character preservation mentality was in full swing amongst all the players because no one would actually try to kill him. I walked up to Fabien and asked if I could kill get his character killed. He got a wide-eyed look. And I bribed him. I started with one resource, and quickly changed it to three. He looked at them, picked out the three he would want and accepted.
I then announced to the room, that anyone who killed Tyv Adrente would receive a resource from me. Immediately, many tried to come up and take it in promise of future accomplishment. I demanded proof, i.e. his head - to give the resource. I had one player even tell me a fabulous story, and upon hearing that, go and grab fabien's hair and walk him over to me. Fabien looked confused and I couldn't help but crack up. Everyone was confused, and it was explained that Tyv was not dead yet. then a group went and got to use the Murder rules and I understand Fabien made them pay dearly for beating him up and nearly killing him. In fact he made them pay so dearly they could not bring me his head, for my Seneschal(wickedthought ) (who I later found out was Tyv's spy in my house) gave them style that they had none to refuse to bring him to me still alive.
I was mildly annoyed that they had brought him to me alive. For I had said I wasn't going to kill him since he wasn't a sorcerer. But then, he Cursed me! And it sounded like sorcery. I removed his head and dropped the resources on his chest as I walked away, with his death monologue echoing in the room! That sorcery would be the death of me, I believe. (of course, I killed a man innocent of sorcery)
And I got to keep that one resource, for I killed him. I was trying to get rid of the resources!
Afterwards, someone put a rumor on one of our serpents that he was bragging about bedding me. (I think I paid him style to say he had not) I confronted him about the truth of it, (with Calaban standing right next to him) and when he refused to admit saying it, I stalked away, flinging back a dismissive, if he had, then I would have demanded he make it true). I think both gentlemen were startled by my response as I heard Calaban saying something about missing out on that one.
I had been received a lot of rumors up to this point, some most delightful. I showed them off willingly.
And then, I received The Rumor. A rank 20 rumor saying that my promiscuity was only exceeded by my lack of skill. When I received it, my hysterical laughter attracted several players who came running at full speed to see what it was.
(Friendly game, John admitted he started it)
Another player started a rumor about himself that he had started the Bad Rumor. I challenged him and he confirmed the claim. (I also paid style to say I had not bedded him) and thus, i challenged him to a duel. I said it would have to wait, but I would fight him for his audacity.
First, I wanted to deal with this rumor. I found two willing to help me remove it. in exchange, for… the opportunity to prove it wrong. Confirming with my Senechal that I could get multiple people to help remove it, he told them that they ought to make sure they got paid for it. We all said they were getting paid. He still didn't suspect what was going to happen.
We "discreetly" collected other players who were willing, and well.. together, we proved my rumor was wrong. Well, at least the last half.
It was amusing when John finally realized what I was doing to remove the rumor. He allowed us to override the rules and allow all my Beauty weakness folks to pool together to remove the rumor because it was fun.
One of the gentlemen just wanted in the action and actually didn't have style. I paid style to say he owed me a favor, so he had something to put in the pot. Frankly, he cracked me up just for that mentality.
Thus, my little group of six, or was it seven?, disappeared for awhile.
When we returned, I found the man in the green shirt and initiated a jury and demanded a duel. Now, I am a person who rarely spends style. I always end up with a mini-horde of it at the end. So, having no beauty or anything to convince, it was amusing to circle while I counted out 14 of my 20 style to convince the jury to let us fight. My opponent also wanted to fight and said I had spent enough style to convince them.
A serpent (the one with the bragging rumor) wanted to speak and gave an annoying speech not backed by style to not have the duel. I was going to close it for comments when The Fox asked to have a word. My seneschal was closing comments when I spoke up.. "Wait, wait, my husband wishes to have a word." I said in a weary tone of voice.
The room cracked up!
The Fox pleased me immensely by saying. "I'm bored. Can we please have a duel." And he paid more style.
We got our duel. And a duel it was! He got my rump with the flat of his blade. I removed his shirt with my own blade, and we ended it with a kiss which made him drop his blade and we started a rank 12 Romance - in front of my spouce!
I went to him afterwards and in sight of the room, he declared, "Good form!" he IS a Rake after all ^_^….
My Romance and I disappeared and the evening was almost over. I can't recall some of the remainder of events, such as who Calaban's heir actually was! Though, an emissary of Jonan Drax showed up. I was delighted and had the game gone on further, I would have been in A LOT of trouble for murder….
But the final scene is one which needs to be told.
The gentleman who was my second enemy received a heartbreak in the final scene. He was standing next to me and he grabbed MY sword and fell upon it. I stared at him in shock and gave him a slow hesitant clap. My enemy was dead, by my sword…
He was tickled and I was proud of him for embracing the Houses mentality! Plus.. I had asked him to come up to me if he ever had a cool idea for such things to fall out… and he had! Good form, sir!!!
I hope wunderworks and nihilisticmind write up their own experiences, because in talking with other players, I realized that there were sooo many story and plot lines going on!
I think this game system truly allows each player to be a hero of their own story, each a main character, amidst a sea of Main Characters, and it works!!!
It was an absolute blast!! I loved playing with ALL of you!!!
I just wish we weren't so hurried out of the room, I forgot to take photos! Especially because I really want pictures of people in our costumes!!
More con stuff later….
We arrived late Friday evening, and I got to hang out with stannex and Hyrem, as well as wickedthought , mnight , and wunderworks .
Saturday morning came very early for me as I awoke several times and had difficulty sleeping I was so excited for the day. Soon I was dressed as Beryll Tal, a rather violent wolf in a very red outfit. Going down to breakfast was fun as there were many Battle of the Bulge vets and their wives there. I generated quite a bit of interest, including being asked if I was part of a wedding party, a comment I found vastly amusing as red leather, organza (trails?) and oversized swords are not generally seen at weddings.
Soon, Calaban Ru (wunderworks ) and Tyv Adrente (nihilisticmind ) joined me. I really wish I had gotten everyone's photo, but my favored time for getting pictures was rushed due to a Will Wheaton panel in which we had to clear the room FAST.
Changling
My fellow costumers and I were lured into a Changling game. I had never played it and found it quite fun. My character was an emotionless elemental who was very manipulative. I found that slightly worrisome as I don't feel I can pull off manipulation well, though I have gotten some practice with Houses. I drew inspiration from the DragonLady from the Dying Kingdom's LARP for my character and spent the time when not with my motley eyeing the rest of the group, listening in and generally disapproving of the bouncy cat person with flowery growy things sprouting on the ground around it.
My goal was an amulet. And incredibly powerful amulet, that should cost dearly. When the Autumn King drew me aside, he practically seemed to beg me to take it in exchange for just my good will. Being a good Houses player I immediately suspected treachery and new he was trying to manipulate me. I elected to refrain from even touching it, saying we would discuss it later. He agreed most graciously, once again making me suspect him even more. Especially since one of my motley (wunderworks ) had told me he had an innocent for a sacrifice locked away
Speaking with another of my Motley afterwards, one Romeo (nihilisticmind ), I discovered that Romeo was going to get the ring which opened the room with my amulet. Apparently, it opened the room with the harem - which Romeo wanted, and the room with the innocent. Romeo only cared for the harem, which I could understand, but convinced him to let me go along to access the treasury and then we could rescue the innocent. Our GM seemed surprised that I had convinced Romeo to take me with him. And Romeo gave me the ring after he got his women.
Of course, I didn't have time to get the rest of the motley, which was annoying, but I got my amulet and went to rescue the Innocent. Which wasn't. instead, I tripped a series of events which resulted in our cat person turning into a hell-hound, the Wild Hunt being summoned and our Autumn King being murdered and.. well, I ended up holding a knife which demanded I kill something. I went and stabbed said being (I think it was a huntsman, everything got confusing in the end) in the back, killing it, and apparently satisfying the Fae's desire for death of an innocent.
Lovely. Lol.
I guess that is what happens when you open strange boxes and touch magical daggers… DOOM!!!!!!
Also amusing was the fact that Fabien, Ben and myself were voted the best RPers in the group. To which, I gained a beautiful, signed by Jess Hartley herself, Changling book. Woot!!!
Speaking of magical daggers… I purchased a beautiful dagger from the Cthulhu booth, which now allows the Houses LARP costumery to have a DOOOOOOOOOM!!!!! Artifact dagger.
I really like that little dagger ^_^
After the Changling LARP, was the Houses LARP. WOOOOOOT!!!!!!!
Blood & Tears LARP
It was an absolute riot. I totally lured in ladies with the promise of costumes. There's nothing like having a lady come to the door and saying, "no, I don't have a costume" in response to asking her to play and saying, "That's OK, we have some you can wear!"
And we even had swords, which were eagerly borrowed!
I was the Hostess. I also had two enemies. I apologize to them for not being able to pursue them properly. Though, in the beginning, I sought them out and tried to talk to them about why I hated them, and wanted them dead. One of them was jesshartley , and I didn't realize who she was. She was amused by my openly plotting with her how I might cause her demise, and how she might use that to her advantage against her own enemy. I do wish I could have pursued that line further, but… I was completely inundated by being hostess to a party of 30+ players. My second enemy (Why did I end up with two?!?) I will tell you about at the end, because he was awesome and everyone missed what he did.
I love having a Wisdom weakness. There were a few times I was genuinely confused, and it didn't matter!! I passed off things on servants and Calaban and The Fox. Yes, about an hour in, I picked one of our players to be The Fox, my spouce. Ryan Macklin (The Master Plan) was the closest Yvarai on hand and he accepted style to be my spouce. Then I told him how much power I had just granted him. He seemed amused, though he didn't get a chance to use that power to influence me, but we had several lovely scenes afterwards. I was very happy to have him as spouce.
I had several characters trying to get into duels. They were trying so hard, and the first one to get to me, got their Jury. And they payed well to get their duel.
While they were preparing for it, I was propositioned by a Serpent who had a swordsman aspect. Beryll accepted, and they had brief entertainment while waiting for the more bloody entertainment.
Their duel was a fine show and one lost his ork (Bravo!!) and his Romance and there was Blood!
I had numerous people trying to convince me of this and that being a sorcerer. I am glad for the Wisdom weakness, because Beryll needs proof to actually kill someone. Or Calaban's word. Or The Fox's.
Tyv Adrente caused plenty of problems by declaring openly that he was going to campaign to get sorcery legal. I could not abide by such things and after an intense scene, I revoked my hospitality and said, while I would not kill him as i did not think him a sorcerer, I promised a vague reward for killing him.
After a short period of time I realized the character preservation mentality was in full swing amongst all the players because no one would actually try to kill him. I walked up to Fabien and asked if I could kill get his character killed. He got a wide-eyed look. And I bribed him. I started with one resource, and quickly changed it to three. He looked at them, picked out the three he would want and accepted.
I then announced to the room, that anyone who killed Tyv Adrente would receive a resource from me. Immediately, many tried to come up and take it in promise of future accomplishment. I demanded proof, i.e. his head - to give the resource. I had one player even tell me a fabulous story, and upon hearing that, go and grab fabien's hair and walk him over to me. Fabien looked confused and I couldn't help but crack up. Everyone was confused, and it was explained that Tyv was not dead yet. then a group went and got to use the Murder rules and I understand Fabien made them pay dearly for beating him up and nearly killing him. In fact he made them pay so dearly they could not bring me his head, for my Seneschal(wickedthought ) (who I later found out was Tyv's spy in my house) gave them style that they had none to refuse to bring him to me still alive.
I was mildly annoyed that they had brought him to me alive. For I had said I wasn't going to kill him since he wasn't a sorcerer. But then, he Cursed me! And it sounded like sorcery. I removed his head and dropped the resources on his chest as I walked away, with his death monologue echoing in the room! That sorcery would be the death of me, I believe. (of course, I killed a man innocent of sorcery)
And I got to keep that one resource, for I killed him. I was trying to get rid of the resources!
Afterwards, someone put a rumor on one of our serpents that he was bragging about bedding me. (I think I paid him style to say he had not) I confronted him about the truth of it, (with Calaban standing right next to him) and when he refused to admit saying it, I stalked away, flinging back a dismissive, if he had, then I would have demanded he make it true). I think both gentlemen were startled by my response as I heard Calaban saying something about missing out on that one.
I had been received a lot of rumors up to this point, some most delightful. I showed them off willingly.
And then, I received The Rumor. A rank 20 rumor saying that my promiscuity was only exceeded by my lack of skill. When I received it, my hysterical laughter attracted several players who came running at full speed to see what it was.
(Friendly game, John admitted he started it)
Another player started a rumor about himself that he had started the Bad Rumor. I challenged him and he confirmed the claim. (I also paid style to say I had not bedded him) and thus, i challenged him to a duel. I said it would have to wait, but I would fight him for his audacity.
First, I wanted to deal with this rumor. I found two willing to help me remove it. in exchange, for… the opportunity to prove it wrong. Confirming with my Senechal that I could get multiple people to help remove it, he told them that they ought to make sure they got paid for it. We all said they were getting paid. He still didn't suspect what was going to happen.
We "discreetly" collected other players who were willing, and well.. together, we proved my rumor was wrong. Well, at least the last half.
It was amusing when John finally realized what I was doing to remove the rumor. He allowed us to override the rules and allow all my Beauty weakness folks to pool together to remove the rumor because it was fun.
One of the gentlemen just wanted in the action and actually didn't have style. I paid style to say he owed me a favor, so he had something to put in the pot. Frankly, he cracked me up just for that mentality.
Thus, my little group of six, or was it seven?, disappeared for awhile.
When we returned, I found the man in the green shirt and initiated a jury and demanded a duel. Now, I am a person who rarely spends style. I always end up with a mini-horde of it at the end. So, having no beauty or anything to convince, it was amusing to circle while I counted out 14 of my 20 style to convince the jury to let us fight. My opponent also wanted to fight and said I had spent enough style to convince them.
A serpent (the one with the bragging rumor) wanted to speak and gave an annoying speech not backed by style to not have the duel. I was going to close it for comments when The Fox asked to have a word. My seneschal was closing comments when I spoke up.. "Wait, wait, my husband wishes to have a word." I said in a weary tone of voice.
The room cracked up!
The Fox pleased me immensely by saying. "I'm bored. Can we please have a duel." And he paid more style.
We got our duel. And a duel it was! He got my rump with the flat of his blade. I removed his shirt with my own blade, and we ended it with a kiss which made him drop his blade and we started a rank 12 Romance - in front of my spouce!
I went to him afterwards and in sight of the room, he declared, "Good form!" he IS a Rake after all ^_^….
My Romance and I disappeared and the evening was almost over. I can't recall some of the remainder of events, such as who Calaban's heir actually was! Though, an emissary of Jonan Drax showed up. I was delighted and had the game gone on further, I would have been in A LOT of trouble for murder….
But the final scene is one which needs to be told.
The gentleman who was my second enemy received a heartbreak in the final scene. He was standing next to me and he grabbed MY sword and fell upon it. I stared at him in shock and gave him a slow hesitant clap. My enemy was dead, by my sword…
He was tickled and I was proud of him for embracing the Houses mentality! Plus.. I had asked him to come up to me if he ever had a cool idea for such things to fall out… and he had! Good form, sir!!!
I hope wunderworks and nihilisticmind write up their own experiences, because in talking with other players, I realized that there were sooo many story and plot lines going on!
I think this game system truly allows each player to be a hero of their own story, each a main character, amidst a sea of Main Characters, and it works!!!
It was an absolute blast!! I loved playing with ALL of you!!!
I just wish we weren't so hurried out of the room, I forgot to take photos! Especially because I really want pictures of people in our costumes!!
More con stuff later….