June & July
May and June took a good deal of getting used to. A new rhythm always does for me. Still, it was very good, with a lot of fun stuff to do and plenty of time with friends. While Amsterdam will never be my favorite city, the ease with which I can pick up groceries or sundries on my way home or meet up with friends is something I could get used to. I am pretty stuck in the big summer road/traffic/public transportation maintenance work, so I had to change my morning routine several times over the past few months which requires a little re-planning. I am so not a morning person.
Omen was awesome. The right combination of lovely people, good roleplay, proper action and shiny weather made it an wonderful event to be at. It does feel that my character, Bertram, is working towards something now, even if that means that my character will at one point leave the setting. But if he does, it will be in the best of company and I can live with that just fine.
On the personal front there has been a lot of progress, and a modicum of stability. I have found some of the answers that I am looking for, and that makes me very happy. It gives me the energy to keep moving in the right direction, and it reduces the stress on the brain. I am noticing that last bit in particular, mainly in my health. And I can't say it enough: I am thankful for friends.
Xenophobia has come and gone, and in my opinion it is off to a good start. We tried a few new things like the 'Henk'-mechanic and scaled up tried methods like the 'community-creation' system we used in Dead Fox Junction. The deluge of player-written information threatened to overwhelm even our Lextalionis-trained information processing speed and it did take more then a little tweaking to expectations to get the results we wanted.
The interesting bit was primarily if the Dead-Fox-esque community would function when put in a larger whole, and how those relations would evolve. And if the relationships alone would be enough to sustain the community through times of doubt and hardship. This approach limited our toolbox in regard to 'entertaining the players' so that was quite the difficult choice, but I am satisfied. There was a plan, we made it happen and let the participants sandbox their way out - and that was the important bit.
I have the intention to write more on Xenophobia and larping in general after recent talks with various larpers and organizers-to-be - I've kept decently detailed records of my own experiences throughout the years and know where to find player-experiences, but if we want to start creating a platform for Dutch larp with useful info, knowing what we did, when we did it and how it worked - from several angles - is important, including those wonderful frack-ups that we know and hate *grin*
So. That is the start of summer for me. Not bad so far.
Omen was awesome. The right combination of lovely people, good roleplay, proper action and shiny weather made it an wonderful event to be at. It does feel that my character, Bertram, is working towards something now, even if that means that my character will at one point leave the setting. But if he does, it will be in the best of company and I can live with that just fine.
On the personal front there has been a lot of progress, and a modicum of stability. I have found some of the answers that I am looking for, and that makes me very happy. It gives me the energy to keep moving in the right direction, and it reduces the stress on the brain. I am noticing that last bit in particular, mainly in my health. And I can't say it enough: I am thankful for friends.
Xenophobia has come and gone, and in my opinion it is off to a good start. We tried a few new things like the 'Henk'-mechanic and scaled up tried methods like the 'community-creation' system we used in Dead Fox Junction. The deluge of player-written information threatened to overwhelm even our Lextalionis-trained information processing speed and it did take more then a little tweaking to expectations to get the results we wanted.
The interesting bit was primarily if the Dead-Fox-esque community would function when put in a larger whole, and how those relations would evolve. And if the relationships alone would be enough to sustain the community through times of doubt and hardship. This approach limited our toolbox in regard to 'entertaining the players' so that was quite the difficult choice, but I am satisfied. There was a plan, we made it happen and let the participants sandbox their way out - and that was the important bit.
I have the intention to write more on Xenophobia and larping in general after recent talks with various larpers and organizers-to-be - I've kept decently detailed records of my own experiences throughout the years and know where to find player-experiences, but if we want to start creating a platform for Dutch larp with useful info, knowing what we did, when we did it and how it worked - from several angles - is important, including those wonderful frack-ups that we know and hate *grin*
So. That is the start of summer for me. Not bad so far.