Kapcon 21: Requiescat in pace
Kapcon is done for another year and this was the hardest one yet for me. Writing the flagship LARP for 77 players was a mammoth task, and only other people who have worked on a similar sized game can really appreciate just how much work it really takes. Add on to that the LARP administration, planning the set dressing, and still having a hand in the general Kapcon administration, and the convention has occupied my every waking moment for the last three weeks.
I arrived at the school first thing on Friday morning for setup, and we quickly got the general Kapcon layout sorted to focus on the set dressing for the LARP. However this proved very frustrating, as although there were plenty of volunteers it was all very piecemeal, people coming and going made it hard to build any momentum. Trying to coordinate this and dressing two different areas meant that I was constantly explaining the same thing repeatedly, so by the end of the day things were only about 1/2 - 3/4 done.
Going into Saturday I started off helping get the convention underway and then on the administration desk for the first round getting Norman settled in for the con. Not being happy with where the set dressing was at, I pulled out of my second round game and then spent the rest of the day getting everything ready. My pizza order got mucked up so I made do with leftovers from Mash and Nasia.
The LARP finally kicked off at 20:30 and after a slightly muddled start things got going. It was interesting watching things unfold but it was really hard to tell what was going on from outside the action. I'm not entirely sure how it went overall; there is never any time for a wrap-up and although some people commented how much they enjoyed it, I know some people certainly didn't. So my main feeling after the LARP was simply relief that it was now all over and I went home exhausted.
Sunday was straight into breaking down the sets. As always, it is much easier to destroy than create so this went relatively quickly. We tore it all down and organised the props, equipment, and set dressing for transport and were done by about lunchtime. As we headed out for lunch I discovered that my game selection for round five had been mucked up. I used one of my preferential game selections from all the admin time to book in for Karen's White Rabbit (which I'd pulled out of in round two to finish setup) but this had been confused somewhere along the line. This was the straw that broke the camel's back for me, and I was just too tired to care anymore. Eyes of Winter kindly helped me pack up my equipment and dropped me home.
Kapcon has not been fun for me the last three years. It has just been hard work. I can say with confidence that no one has worked harder on Kapcon over the last three years than myself. Self-sacrifice is in my nature; I genuinely hate to ask anybody to do something when I could do it myself and spare them the effort, especially with my friends. Combined with a perfectionistic streak it can lead to some self-destructive behaviour at times. One of my goals when I first took
Kapcon was to get Scott off the desk so he could enjoy the fruits of his labours and avoid burn out (he and Idiot are the backbone of Kapcon and people need to support them). However I did this by taking it all on my shoulders and I just made myself sick from overwork last year.
I'm proud of where the convention is now thanks to my efforts but now I think it's time for me to step back and let other people do the work. I've done my bit for king and country.
I arrived at the school first thing on Friday morning for setup, and we quickly got the general Kapcon layout sorted to focus on the set dressing for the LARP. However this proved very frustrating, as although there were plenty of volunteers it was all very piecemeal, people coming and going made it hard to build any momentum. Trying to coordinate this and dressing two different areas meant that I was constantly explaining the same thing repeatedly, so by the end of the day things were only about 1/2 - 3/4 done.
Going into Saturday I started off helping get the convention underway and then on the administration desk for the first round getting Norman settled in for the con. Not being happy with where the set dressing was at, I pulled out of my second round game and then spent the rest of the day getting everything ready. My pizza order got mucked up so I made do with leftovers from Mash and Nasia.
The LARP finally kicked off at 20:30 and after a slightly muddled start things got going. It was interesting watching things unfold but it was really hard to tell what was going on from outside the action. I'm not entirely sure how it went overall; there is never any time for a wrap-up and although some people commented how much they enjoyed it, I know some people certainly didn't. So my main feeling after the LARP was simply relief that it was now all over and I went home exhausted.
Sunday was straight into breaking down the sets. As always, it is much easier to destroy than create so this went relatively quickly. We tore it all down and organised the props, equipment, and set dressing for transport and were done by about lunchtime. As we headed out for lunch I discovered that my game selection for round five had been mucked up. I used one of my preferential game selections from all the admin time to book in for Karen's White Rabbit (which I'd pulled out of in round two to finish setup) but this had been confused somewhere along the line. This was the straw that broke the camel's back for me, and I was just too tired to care anymore. Eyes of Winter kindly helped me pack up my equipment and dropped me home.
Kapcon has not been fun for me the last three years. It has just been hard work. I can say with confidence that no one has worked harder on Kapcon over the last three years than myself. Self-sacrifice is in my nature; I genuinely hate to ask anybody to do something when I could do it myself and spare them the effort, especially with my friends. Combined with a perfectionistic streak it can lead to some self-destructive behaviour at times. One of my goals when I first took
Kapcon was to get Scott off the desk so he could enjoy the fruits of his labours and avoid burn out (he and Idiot are the backbone of Kapcon and people need to support them). However I did this by taking it all on my shoulders and I just made myself sick from overwork last year.
I'm proud of where the convention is now thanks to my efforts but now I think it's time for me to step back and let other people do the work. I've done my bit for king and country.