The weekend that was: Delayed KublaCon 2k9 trip report.
I'm still rocking the contract gig at Sony, which is quite nice, don't get me wrong. Interesting work and good folk to work with. Its contracty nature means I don't have paid vacation, so it cost me a day's pay to take Friday off.
THURSDAY: Like a thief in the night
therobbergirl and I arrived at the KC hotel, having craftily packed on Wednesday. I stepped off the train from San Francisco at the Milbrae station, hopped into the car, and it was Go Time. Where we were Go-ing, in the event, was straight to work, for me at least, since there was still some last-mile work to do on No Heaven, No Earth, slated for a 6pm Saturday kickoff. I saw some friends briefly, but mostly my evening was spent at the laptop.
FRIDAY: Coffee, smoke, butane, and concrete were the elements of this universe
The room adjoining turned out to contain silverstreak, starseryn, sandman517, ophiomancer, and a friend. therobbergirl took off for BayCon, there to party down, while I spent the morning doing actual work. You know, for money. Folk had agreed to me taking that Friday off and then something became urgent, and I agreed to a half day worked remotely. Which was spent awaiting inputs that never materialised. *shrug* I got a lot of work done on the game while waiting around. Later that evening, I playtested Dan F's "Law & Order: Candyland" game, which was rollicking good fun, even for someone who's never seen the show. That seems a good endorsement of its entertainment value when it arrived at its target demographic. There might have been some booze. therobbergirl came back to the room and there was cuddling. I will use this space to make my pro-cuddling position utterly clear.
SATURDAY: No puedo pedir que el invierno perdone un rosal
The game was ready to go. In the can. Printed. That meant it was a day to spend just vegetating! I spent pleasant beer and relaxation time in the company of therobbergirl, devonapple, anam_moon, and abditus. At three I reached tinellaq and we got our dork on till 5:45, then it was time for the game to go.
It went well. People had a good time. There were hiccups, but they were not serious. devonapple did good work as a more redeemable Robert Baratheon analogue (if you've read A Song of Ice and Fire), silverstreak and starseryn fought crime in nonstandard but effective ways, anam_moon was simply delightful as a mischievous spirit. erik_dahl was simply superb at fleshing out a character I had found very frustrating to round out. purchasemonkey simply had a blast with the Eurotrashiest dragon ever, and pixiecrack just hammed it up hardcore as a wild force of destruction. The rest of the cast were by and large folk I had not met before, and they all acquitted themselves well. Double extra props to cowriters and GMs racerxmachina and roseembolism, who did more than their share of the heavy lifting. I took on the last-minute assembly and polish, but they did most of the actual developing and plotting. They rock!
SUNDAY: "No ticket."
I eschewed the Zombies and Zeppelins LARP that evening. At this point, stuff is a bit of a blur. I played Vampire: the Eternal Struggle with tinellaq, entre autres, I do remember that. I honestly don't remember what I did that morning. I am pretty sure it was enjoyable. Oh! I think it was bumming around the dealer room with changinganswers and spending at least a little time talking with sandman517 about matters nerdy.
MONDAY: Hekatonkheire moar liek Hematomajunkheire, amirite
On Monday, I punched a Titan in the junk. It didn't do much. I got into a Scion game with changinganswers, intrepid_glory, and her husband, whose lj handle is unknown to me if he has any. They are fine folk and their company made a good game better. I had been Scion-curious for a while, and it's pretty White-Wolfy, which means if you like that sort of thing you will like this. It turns out I like that sort of thing. In something of a break from convention for this game (or so I am told), we were all the Chosen of the same god -- Poseidon. This made the Sea World setting darned convenient, and I spoke to selkies and had an awesome magical dolphin companion whose magical powers did not include 'be worth goddamn outside of the water where most of the game took place' so I didn't see much of him. This is not bad game design on the GM's part, because I saw a number of opportunities for underwater hijinks where little Diego would have indeed been a boon. It just didn't play out that way. But it did turn out that Poseidon chose me mostly for my looks. My character's main supernatural powers were "Look at me, I am so damn pretty" and "Buy my outrageous line of bullshit." Which were awesome powers and saw use, just not in combat. On the other hand, Ryan proved himself the King of Mad Stunting. He was, dare I say it, an Icy Hot Stunta. After the game, Ryan and intrepid_glory were kind enough to drive me home (therobbergirl had left earlier that morning), and I rested.
It took a week to get caught on sleep.
Yes, it was a worthwhile experience.
THURSDAY: Like a thief in the night
therobbergirl and I arrived at the KC hotel, having craftily packed on Wednesday. I stepped off the train from San Francisco at the Milbrae station, hopped into the car, and it was Go Time. Where we were Go-ing, in the event, was straight to work, for me at least, since there was still some last-mile work to do on No Heaven, No Earth, slated for a 6pm Saturday kickoff. I saw some friends briefly, but mostly my evening was spent at the laptop.
FRIDAY: Coffee, smoke, butane, and concrete were the elements of this universe
The room adjoining turned out to contain silverstreak, starseryn, sandman517, ophiomancer, and a friend. therobbergirl took off for BayCon, there to party down, while I spent the morning doing actual work. You know, for money. Folk had agreed to me taking that Friday off and then something became urgent, and I agreed to a half day worked remotely. Which was spent awaiting inputs that never materialised. *shrug* I got a lot of work done on the game while waiting around. Later that evening, I playtested Dan F's "Law & Order: Candyland" game, which was rollicking good fun, even for someone who's never seen the show. That seems a good endorsement of its entertainment value when it arrived at its target demographic. There might have been some booze. therobbergirl came back to the room and there was cuddling. I will use this space to make my pro-cuddling position utterly clear.
SATURDAY: No puedo pedir que el invierno perdone un rosal
The game was ready to go. In the can. Printed. That meant it was a day to spend just vegetating! I spent pleasant beer and relaxation time in the company of therobbergirl, devonapple, anam_moon, and abditus. At three I reached tinellaq and we got our dork on till 5:45, then it was time for the game to go.
It went well. People had a good time. There were hiccups, but they were not serious. devonapple did good work as a more redeemable Robert Baratheon analogue (if you've read A Song of Ice and Fire), silverstreak and starseryn fought crime in nonstandard but effective ways, anam_moon was simply delightful as a mischievous spirit. erik_dahl was simply superb at fleshing out a character I had found very frustrating to round out. purchasemonkey simply had a blast with the Eurotrashiest dragon ever, and pixiecrack just hammed it up hardcore as a wild force of destruction. The rest of the cast were by and large folk I had not met before, and they all acquitted themselves well. Double extra props to cowriters and GMs racerxmachina and roseembolism, who did more than their share of the heavy lifting. I took on the last-minute assembly and polish, but they did most of the actual developing and plotting. They rock!
SUNDAY: "No ticket."
I eschewed the Zombies and Zeppelins LARP that evening. At this point, stuff is a bit of a blur. I played Vampire: the Eternal Struggle with tinellaq, entre autres, I do remember that. I honestly don't remember what I did that morning. I am pretty sure it was enjoyable. Oh! I think it was bumming around the dealer room with changinganswers and spending at least a little time talking with sandman517 about matters nerdy.
MONDAY: Hekatonkheire moar liek Hematomajunkheire, amirite
On Monday, I punched a Titan in the junk. It didn't do much. I got into a Scion game with changinganswers, intrepid_glory, and her husband, whose lj handle is unknown to me if he has any. They are fine folk and their company made a good game better. I had been Scion-curious for a while, and it's pretty White-Wolfy, which means if you like that sort of thing you will like this. It turns out I like that sort of thing. In something of a break from convention for this game (or so I am told), we were all the Chosen of the same god -- Poseidon. This made the Sea World setting darned convenient, and I spoke to selkies and had an awesome magical dolphin companion whose magical powers did not include 'be worth goddamn outside of the water where most of the game took place' so I didn't see much of him. This is not bad game design on the GM's part, because I saw a number of opportunities for underwater hijinks where little Diego would have indeed been a boon. It just didn't play out that way. But it did turn out that Poseidon chose me mostly for my looks. My character's main supernatural powers were "Look at me, I am so damn pretty" and "Buy my outrageous line of bullshit." Which were awesome powers and saw use, just not in combat. On the other hand, Ryan proved himself the King of Mad Stunting. He was, dare I say it, an Icy Hot Stunta. After the game, Ryan and intrepid_glory were kind enough to drive me home (therobbergirl had left earlier that morning), and I rested.
It took a week to get caught on sleep.
Yes, it was a worthwhile experience.