Apr 06, 2006 22:42
A factual entry to kick things off:
In the days of old, storytellers would wander from village from village. In return for providing entertainment they would be fed, lodged and maybe given some coins to see them on. Today, storytellers are almost a business but they are very different from storytellers of old. They are treated as artists with theatrical appearances, book deals, audio tapes, booked venues and even festivals.
I love stories and storytelling but it's not exactly a career choice for me. However, recently I got about as close as I can possibly get, I think, to feeling the way the storytellers of old must have felt. But a different kind of storytelling: roleplaying.
Allow me to provide you with some backstory here.
After moving home from university I didn't really get any opportunity to roleplay. Eventually I discovered roleplaying conventions. It was a nice way to get a gaming hit and even though I eventually started getting a gaming group together I continued to go because a) I enjoyed them, b) they were a good place to get ideas and try out new material, and c) I was making friends there. People I only meet at these conventions.
Now, at these conventions I would meet these Dutch/Belgian guys. Not only fun to hang out with but fun to game with. They somehow got it into their head that I'm a good GM or something. They'd played some of my best scenarios and I'd gained from them the title of "Best GM" or, at least, one of the best, I guess. I think it would be arrogant of me to think that they thought of me as the best.
Anyway, so this year we met up at Conception 2006 (February) and, alas, I had no scenarios for them to play. It was a shame since I hadn't had a scenario for a while now and each time I saw them they would ask if I had anything for them to play. They were not alone, either. I seem to be getting a lot of people asking what I'm running for them and the past few conventions I've not been as interested in running scenarios as I've been in the past. I've wanted to just be there. However, I feel a bit guilty here because they only usually come to about one convention a year.
So, after a little pleading (hey, I didn't want to make it too easy for them) and throwing someone I hadn't met before, I decided to fall back on a Call of Cthulhu scenario I'd been toying with. It was an easy one to run, really, since I'd run a "prototype" of it online before so I knew the strengths, I knew how I wanted to do it differently, and more importantly, I knew already what was going on. I simply needed to hop onto a computer, throw together some characters and hey presto, ready to go.
So, without going into the long boring details of the session, it went down really, really well. So well in fact that I was flown over to run more games.
Yes, flown over. It started as an aside in someone's LJ. I said: "I'm always up for running [for you guys]... However, unless someone is offering to fly me over there and put me up then it's gonna have to wait until the next time you guys are over be it GenCon or next year's Conception."
The reply came from Tâm via email: an offer to fly me out to run games.
How could I refuse? I mean, a free flight, accommodation, an offer to be cooked for and all just to run some games! In another country! In Belgium! Hell yeah! Now I only had to figure out what I was gonna run.
Long boring explanation cut for my decisions in choosing game and writing it, this was perhaps the most awesome thing to have happened to me. I'm going to Japan in May for 3 weeks, which is really cool, and I'm not paying for the flight because I'm going with my Dad and my mother is paying. But family doesn't count. Here are friends chipping in together to fly me out! Utterly awesome. Even on the flight to Belgium I was still in awe that they'd done this. Even landing in Belgium I was still in awe that they'd done this. In a way I'm still kind of in awe now, after the fact. Moreso that they turned round and said: "What are we playing next time?" afterwards. (Clearly I wasn't a total crashing disappointment after all the summer blockbuster-style hype around my arrival.)
I have a long list of coincidences that I'm not going to start listing just yet in case I come off looking like a nutter! However, it was kind of interesting (and started my whole looking for coincidences schtick in the first place) that Air Wales started their flight to Brussels in March (with nice cheap promotional flight) and announced, just days before I was due to leave, that they were stopping all their passenger flights from April. Perfect timing or what!
Since I'd not been out of the UK in 11 years and hadn't flown in nearly 12 I thought that flying again would feel kinda weird, maybe even freak me out. I thought that being in another country would feel strange and alien to me. Perhaps that was just from the thought of going to somewhere so culturally different as Japan in May that I was expecting more of a culture shock than a flight just across the water to Brussels was likely to give me.
Arriving at night, it didn't really make such an impression that it felt so different. I was in Belgium. It was cool because I was in another country visiting friends on their home turf. I was in Belgium. They'd arranged a little party (not exclusively for me) so it was food, drink and meeting people old and new alike. It was really fun and then I got taken to where I was staying. About 10 minute walk away, my own key, my own student room, and then up in the morning to a five minute walk for breakfast with Tâm. It was like being a VIP.
Yeah, so I was spoiled. But it was nice to be pampered, too. With all this attention I did have the horrible fear that suddenly they'd be horribly disappointed in the game. On the plane I'd started reading all the problems with each scenario of the campaign and it was too late to go reworking everything. Suddenly I was filled with self doubt (mind you, I had that when my play was about to go on stage and that got great reviews - I guess every artist doubts is work right up until he gets the feedback and sometimes even beyond that).
Thursday daytime I visited Brussels. Personal highlight for me was off the tourist trail. Brussels is really cool with a lot of interesting buildings and places to eat. But as I said, the highlight I don't think is typically on the tourist agenda because it's a working building.
Personal Highlight #1 - The Palace of Justice: an amazingly huge building. Built in the 19th Century it's so big that even the lawyers who work there get lost! It's true. Tâm got lost showing me around the place. We ended up walking down dusty corridors where the dust had dust half expecting to find the skeletons of those who'd lost their way, perhaps lawyers sneaking off for a clandestine affair, then unable to find their way out once more. It made me think of Kafka's The Trial. Sitting atop a hill called "Gallows Hill" in the Middle Ages, The Palace of Justice was designed by a mad architect called Joseph Poelaert. My mind momentarily confused the architect who committed suicide after building the Leuven town hall with Poelaert. It sounds so much more interesting "an insane architect who committed suicide" - especially since those twisted halls could be set to no end of supernatural thriller delights. As it was Poelaert was an eccentric piece of work as it was. He had a reputation for pushing the working-class out of their homes with the aid of the police in order to build his massive structure. The Palace of Justice is 105 meters high covering 24,000 square meters. It still functions as the as the Supreme Low Court today.
Thursday night-time we gamed.
Friday daytime we went and had a look around Leuven which is where I was staying. Leuven's quite small but still quite interesting. I think what struck me most was the history of violence. The place seems to be rife with rebellion in any kind of war and while Belgium itself was a stamping ground, Leuven seemed to get a lot of trouble. While the UK has had its share of wars, the most recent war fought on UK soil is long, long ago. While heavily involved in both World Wars, Britain was never invaded. There are monuments for people who died in the war, but these are for people who died abroad. We don't have monuments marking, for instance, the place where the Germans lined up all the men and shot every tenth man as punishment for one of their soldiers being shot at by rebels. It was kind of unsettling and put a lot into perspective. Leuven, like Cardiff, is a university city with buildings university buildings scattered around the place. Unlike Cardiff University, Leuven is a Catholic University. Apparently this doesn't really change much except for its reputation, which is very good.
Friday night-time we gamed.
I didn't get to bed that night. Instead I spent the whole time up talking to one of the most interesting people I've met in a long, long time. We talked all night and in the morning went out for pastries and coffee. I'm not going to elaborate much more here, but it was Personal Highlight #2 (these are not ranked, simply in order that they happened). I forgot I could enjoy myself so much with someone.
Amazingly I stayed conscious and focused enough to run two sessions on no sleep. It's not the first time, really, but in the past I've usually managed a little shut-eye. It was actually kinda fun.
Sunday, we gamed the end of the campaign.
While I know I shall be chastised for saying this: I think I made a mistake running that campaign. These guys like really involved character intense stories. They'd played my best stuff which is all heavy character driven drama including pivotal points which challenged their characters' beliefs and foundations (either directly or indirectly). This, meanwhile, was an action adventure romp in the style of something from Indiana Jones. It was also pretty linear. At least the first three parts which I'd written between 2000 and 2003. The later parts, I'd sketched but was still ultimately fairly linear. I sensed a certain amount of frustration and perhaps a little disappointment from some people at first, but I think everyone finally enjoyed themselves once they accepted what kind of game I was running for them.
And rather than be pelted with rotten food, I got asked what I was going to do next time. Wow!
Sunday night I got hammered. Not good. But in a great place. While I like the atmosphere of a pub I hate the beer. The bar we went to in Leuven reminded me of this fact with all the kind of beers I could drink all night quite happily. I was in heaven doubly so because that night, of all the nights, was the monthly soundtrack night. Soundtracks. Normally it is with difficulty that I answer the question "What kind of music do you like?" but soundtracks are definitely high on my list with perhaps nearly a third my CD collection being soundtracks. It was brilliant identifying the soundtracks, drinking great beer and playing drinking games. Unfortunately, fatigue got the better of me, and the alcohol effected me a little more forcefully than I could have normally handled (and I'm sticking to that story!). Perhaps not such a wise idea when I had to be up fairly early the next day to catch my plane home. Ah well. It was worth it!
On the whole I really enjoyed my trip to Belgium. I enjoyed meeting up with friends I normally only see once a year, I enjoyed meeting new people, I enjoyed cycling through Leuven (how's that for full integration!), I enjoyed eating waffles, going through the market, having a coffee with someone great after talking all night, seeing some cool buildings, playing games with fantastic people, and generally all that malarkey.
It seemed kind of strange coming back. I'd so quickly adapted to being the non-native speaker that the way I related to people changed. I found myself instinctively using the style of speech I'd use on people who may not understand me. It took a bit of re-adjustment to accept I was back. Mind you, I was still sobering up and very, very tired, so that may have also been a factor.
If that's how I was after only four days in Belgium, I can't wait to find out what I'll be like after three weeks in Japan!
travel