Awesome moments

Your expression when you saw the tunnel was PRICELESS.

On the bright side, the pound of glitter was a vast improvement over the 70 litres of slime from last time!

This is an awesome sentiment I can totally back up. Thanks to you too!

I’ll try to put up my moments in a couple days.

[quote=“AhGoodTheSea”]

And especially happy-making was how the newer players took to the game. Alexander (Mr Fish) came up to me before the start of the game and said he was feeling awfully daunted by the character- so watching him go in and OWN was really cool. [/quote]

i was really daunted by the role…the other people made it much easier to be Mr Fish by keeping me very busy …and now i love the role…so thank you for giving it to me!

This is an awesome sentiment I can totally back up. Thanks to you too![/quote]I also concur (and I’m not named in the quote :stuck_out_tongue:)

Finally getting round to posting all the moments!

Firstly thanks so much Anna or running Chimera, it truly is one of the highlights of my year every year I attend.

Muppets!
Thanks so much to all my players who threw themselves into one of the silliest larps I have ever witnessed, all your costumes were amazing, they really bought the characters to life! The spontaneous group singalong of Bohemian Rhapsody made my weekend. Driving home that night my jaw ached from laughing and smiling so much.

Wands at the ready
I loved seeing this game come to life too, and co-GMing was fun. I also loved seeing our mage duel mechanic being playtested, I think it worked quite well. I think I highlight for me was when Rowena’s character was dared to say that one of the other masters was the best… such a great moment.

Brick + Water
This game, because we hadn’t recieved much info on it, was the round I was least looking forward to, but it turned out to be one of my favourites. I actually find the nordic style larps where you co-create your character and story very energising. I loved playing a bolshy anarchist artist, arguing with Cholerics (especially enjoyed my conversations with Malcolm’s character, we were like chalk and cheese), punching a guard, being punched in return, drinking drugged toliet water just so I wouldn’t get into trouble,seeing the rise of the revolution only for it be another different take on the old system which wasn’t revolutionary enough for me, it was a riot!

Secrets of the Deep
This was my favourite game of the weekend I think. So much politicking, but it really seemed to matter. I’ve never seen a political game done so well, all my scheming seems to go somewhere. I loved being the most prolific grandmother, scheming to get my family closer to the throne. And then out of nowhere, a romance plot. Playing a 60 year old woman that was the last thing I expected. Roleplaying with Ryan was a highlight of the game for me! And I think it turned out pretty well in the end, even if my actions did inadvertently get my favourite grandson killed.

Romeo and Ethel the Pirates Daughter
Hilarious fun, especially with all the double identities. I even managed to get myself in a sword fight or two. I loved dominating Martin’s character into telling me who he truly was, and the great moment between him and Judit. Realising I could never get in the way of true love, and marrying my true love in the end. The costumes for this game were also very cool, oh and the two guys who were crewing were fantastic in each role that they played. I only regret that I was so tired that I wasn’t as prepared for this game as I would have liked to have been.

Angels in the Fog
I must admit by the time I got to this round I was exhausted, but it was a great game. Again I wish I had been more prepared. Doing the whole reporter thing was fun (and a hail back to my witch house character) and the whole plot of with the diamonds, very satisfying. I only wish we’d had a bit more time to finish everything off. Russ has descibed it as the slow burn game and I have to agree, but for a sunday afternoon that’s not a bad thing.

Overall I had an awesome time. I do think the stressful lead up to the weekend exhausted me out more than I would have liked, but was still a great weekend. I can’t wait for the next!

Such an awesome weekend. At muster someone asked me how I was going, and I just blurted out “current mood: happy”. Sums it all up for me really.

Round one was The Moor-stepper on Lloegyr. This is my kind of game! A sense of historical depth, the dark ages setting and the personal/political/problem solving plots all conspired to make for a really involving game. Loved my character, it was the only gameI had time to really go full-on for costuming and I really enjoyed the transformation into a war-weary champion with an outrageous accent. So many cool characters. Enjoyed Jonathan’s old wizard and Sam’s apprentice, Tigger’s rival champion, the dodgy-seeming Lord Mark, and the even dodgier-seeming skald and Lucy as his companion, spinning lies like bottle tops. Most of all enjoyed Anna’s unexpected take on her character, which made me take sharp turn in direction with mine. She was just so outright prideful and discontent that we very nearly started a war.

Fantastic fun running around fighting in the forest for Multiverse. I really needed at least one game with minimum prep (in order to juggle running the Paddywhack store with playing in games), and crewing this was just the ticket. Rampaging demons, murderous sneaky bandits, and a cool and unexpected finale where the players’ actions through the game really seemed to come to fruition. Was playing a major demon of Law in the finale, and it was pointed out that just killing enemies outright wasn’t very lawful. So I decided a trial was in order, appointed myself judge, called only witnesses favourable to my ideas and then let the witnesses “execute” my sentence of death on the defendants, tearing down their magical barrier and chasing them into the woods. World’s worst court, but they were so guilty anyway. A strange and original ending was had!

Saturday night was Secrets of the Deep. Massive congratulations to the GM team, this was such an exemplary larp in so many ways. It dished out many things that are sure to please: lovely setting, important characters, romance, intrigue, loyal friends, treachery, unexpected twists of fate, the mighty laid low and the lowly elevated, distinctive characters, gods and mortals, slap-stick silliness and buckets of drama. It also did all that without encumbering us with complex rules or abilities. I loved how cohesive and consistent the setting was, nothing was out of place and it all made sense. Personally my game was made by the interactions with Prema, such a fantastic story with a real mythological feel to it from my end, and from her end she made it feel real and grounded. Great acting, such believable moments. I realised after the game that I was playing my character a bit like Dream from The Sandman, which is no bad thing in my book.

I ended as Gaheris in Seven Deadly Virtues. Enjoyed the chivalrous setting, another chance for combat, and the way the story with Rowena and her character’s sister played out, also the comradery between the Orkney brothers and their aunt Morgan played by Cheryl as really being there to look out for us.

I could get used to just playing and not trying to put games together, it’s pretty relaxing. :wink:

Chimera was, as always, good. I liked this year’s feel, it was very chilled out, the atmosphere was relaxed and friendly while still being abuzz with excitement. We had a good mix of people and games, which gelled into an event that was a privilege to be part of. Well done everyone for coming together and forming the Chimera community for 2014.

Game moments that were awesome:

Friday Night: Anna’s glee at the muster when she announces that she will personally guide the players to the Morpho Project; her increased glee at the disappointment on their faces.
The game with no GM was great fun to be part of, and I was very proud of my lovely wife Linda for coming up with and running the whole thing.

Saturday:
Sunset in the Silver City:
Potentially the best game of convention; I have decided not to choose between the two best moments.
Absolutely everything involving my roleplay as Michael opposite Vanya as Lucifer. Neither had been back to heaven since the fateful day where the former cast the latter down. The angst, the brotherly love, the past hurts, everything came to that moment where Michael burned his own essence up to completely and utterly destroy Metatron and then Lucifer.
I looked at Muppet as Metatron and told him his end was at hand, and then destroyed him. Muppet played a wonderful Metatron.
Then, having almost died to do this, I turned and looked at Vanya as Lucifer. He opened his arms, knowing what was coming, welcoming it. Michael and Lucifer embraced as brothers again, for the last time, as the former burned the last of God’s word out of him to finish the latter.
The end was beautiful and tragic; just as the game had been.
Thanks to Dave, Martin, Vanya, Muppet and everyone.

Dry Spell:
The highlight was most definitely seeing Linda in her costume for this one; and receiving compliments for how ‘smoking hot’ she looked. Then, her roleplaying was absolutely excellent, I know she loved the part she had.

However, the best moment was sitting down with Scott on one side and Martin on the other. Scott is the demon in the coin I have. Martin is the priest, who cannot hear the demon, but who is trying to completely convince my character that I need to give up this coin, this power. The moment will stick with me for a long time, and it was great roleplaying on both of the others’ parts; however hats off to Martin who persisted and acted as if he could only hear me.
The lesson is never to say “I will give up this evil/dubious power, but first I have to…”

I have to hand it to the GMs because they gave Linda and I (and Martin) a really emotional ride with our characters, and it was fun, in sense. The real thanks goes to them for taking tame to check on our welfare as players. Solid GMing, especially from Ellen and Scott.

Team Untouchables, we were surprisingly awesome, and we managed to get stuff done as a unit despite being all separated most of the time. Good stuff Quentin, Nathan, Gaffy!

Sunday:
Have to here give a thanks to Anna K for running Romeo and Ethyl, it was fun, it was lighthearted, it was silly, it was the perfect tonic for the previous night’s Noir.

Finally thanks Daniel Carlton for losing to me yet again, even in a competition about number of deaths.

Chimera is good, it is always good, long may its awesome continue!

Okay, favourite moments, second try – I wrote these up on Tuesday then a browser crash took everything with it.
At Friday muster, the palpable disappointment from the Morpho Project players as they realised I was taking them to their play area and I still wasn’t revealing who the GM was. I love being in on a good surprise!

On Friday night, I was excited to play in “The Moor-Stepper of Lloegyr”, which sounded like ‘Beowulf the Larp’. I enjoyed it a lot, even though I was quite tired by the time we started, and I was so grateful we moved into the hall because while it wasn’t the most atmospheric, at least it was warm! I really enjoyed roleplaying with James as King Castus, and with Jared and Cheryl , as the King’s bastard son and the completely legitimate daughter respectively. I wasn’t a very nice character, so I was utterly shocked when I got exactly what I wanted with no bloodshed required whatsoever! That never happens! I had two really good moments in this game. One was when I was talking to Angus, played by Ryan, who was a warrior of my people and also secretly something more. He asked me if I was happy with my lot. After a few seconds of thought, I realised the character wasn’t. As I said no, my husband the King walked up and asked how I was, and I had to smile and pretend everything was okay. Then Angus quietly turning away and walking away to give us privacy. It’s hard to put into words – it was a very subtle, emotional moment. The other one was when it looked like the Heorot son was going to marry the Kraki princess and leave us Aels out of the lineage, and I called together my Ael warriors and we were getting quite riled up for a fight. That was quite an intense and awesome moment, poised on the knife’s edge of war. Big thanks to IdiotSavant for running the game, and James stepping in as Castus last minute – there were a lot of cast changes and difficulties to overcome.

Saturday morning I reran Donna Giltrap’s “Betrothals and Betrayals” to a lovely cast of players! My favourite moments included watching the Baxter family huddle as they found a secret fortune, watching Meredith’s BBC-worthy performance as Mrs Bennett – er, excuse me, Mrs Baxter, Tobias and Courtney’s characters dramatic getaway and Kemys’ gambit with the holy water. Beth St Claire did a wonderful job as the innocent but quite independent Anne, as both Nikki and Yahn’s characters fought hard to save her, with some really excellent roleplaying. And Derek, who was the perfect cat among the pigeons, unflinching, clever and impeccably timed. The way you casually convinced Anne to take the cross off, and the way you threw George under the bus was magnificent. It was a great to watch this drama unfold. Also, as a tangential favourite moment to this game, the reaction of my bunkmates on Friday night when I was like “Shoot, I can’t go to bed yet, I have to put a diamond in a monkey.” Only at Chimera!

Saturday afternoon, Judit and James were kind enough to rerun my game from Kapcon this year, “Boats Against the Current” while I ran around trying to make sure the flagships had everything they needed. I’m still nervous every time my game runs, even when I’m not there, so it was something magical when I was heading somewhere with an armful of stuff only to run into one lot of Boats players, dressed all dapper, looking shell shocked and teary eyed. Martin telling me, “That was SO unsatisfying” was an indicator that it had gone exactly as designed.

Saturday night, I will cover in a post of its own. I was playing Dry Spell for the second time, and I had such a good time at the first run that I was a little worried that the second run wasn’t going to be as enjoyable. It turned out I had nothing to worry about. More on that later.

Sunday morning, I ran “Romeo and Ethel the Pirate’s Daughter”, the only comedy game I’ve written that’s not Slash. I loved seeing the gusto with which everyone had thrown themselves into the crossdressing with: the giant false moustaches on the women! The pretty dresses on the men! You guys were amazing! Highlights included many moments where wigs were ripped off and declarations were made that, “AHA! BUT I AM NOT SUCH AND SUCH!” including a string of revelations off in one corner that was so beautiful I was crying with laughter, especially the bit where two young lovers revealed their true identities and were reunited, only to have the girl’s mother leap bodily between them to stop them hugging, shouting “OH NO YOU DON’T.” Special kudos to Chris Evans for being the man disguised as a woman disguised as a man, to Graham Caine who went from being a suave Al Capone on Saturday night to a pretty lady on the Sunday morning, to my versatile NPCs Mike Curtis and Paul Taylor (and their horrified faces as they listened to the sounds from Slash, which was right next to our crew room). Mike Curtis was fantastic as everything from a shy young woman seeking a kiss from Casanova to a petulant sulking teenage king, while Paul Taylor made a wonderful evil Cardinal and did a thoroughly hilarious job with a role involving the crown jewels (you know, crown jewels – national wealth – no, not the one in your pants! This isn’t Slash, you know!)

Bonus funny moments from Sunday morning:

  • Scott, dressed as Cardinal Hollier D’anthou, wandering off after the Salem Witch Trial players, who promptly panicked at the thought the Pope was in their game.
  • When after muster, one of the newer players came running up to the Ethel players as I was handing out character sheets. I didn’t remember him being in my game, so I asked who he was. He replied, “I’m Jamie Lannister.” “Oh, you’re wanting Slash, they’re up that way,” I said, pointing up the road. The fellow did a double take. “Oh! I was confused by all the cross dressing…” In fairness, we could see his point.

My favourite moment from Sunday afternoon was when we finished clean up and I could go home to my shower and bed. I imagine heaven is a lot like a hot shower in the comfort of my home after a long Chimera!

Also we ran the most on time ever :open_mouth: I KNEW WE COULD DO IT! :smiley:

Sunday morning muster was so great. There was a game with Carnival folk, a game with insane cross dressing and hidden disguises and Slash. Anyone could have been in any of those games.

Thank you! I really loved playing this game and that moment. It was a fantastic dare, and so much fun to have to say it through gritted teeth to my mortal enemy. And then get to have a tantrum about it afterwards :smiley:

You were so fantastic, yours was the first character I wrote and when we where casting I just knew that you would bring her to life in the most amazing way.

Thank you Ryan, a compliment on game writing from you is high praise indeed! I am so glad that you enjoyed the game, you were brilliant in your role in Secrets. I really enjoyed roleplaying with you in Seven Deadly Virtues as well.

It wasn’t the photographers. Some guy with a phone…

[quote=“The Keeper”]
It wasn’t the photographers. Some guy with a phone…[/quote]

Well, that’s unsettling.

Yay! I was so happy to be able to go to Chimera again this year after being overseas last year, and it came at perfect timing to help me get out of my post-masters bubble. I forgot how much I’ve missed larping recently and how much I’ve missed my friends!

So, my awesome moments and games:

Muppets: Somehow as beaker I only got blown up once. Maybe because I kept running away from Dr. Honeydew. Even though I was fully coherent, it was still fun to fall back into only saying 'mee mee mee mee’. We were told to have some kind of act prepared to audition so I google’d ’science tricks for kids’ and somehow still managed to muck them up but hey, everyone was supportive and it was in keeping with the general chaos we know and love from The Muppet Show!

Wands at the ready: This was the first game in which the ‘high five’ mechanic was introduced to represent kissing. It didn’t take long for one character to dare another to go kiss their crush. Unfortunately the person being kissed had missed the briefing so, with slight hesitation reciprocated, not fully aware what it meant. Because we were all a bunch of teenagers, queue everyone loudly going ‘OOOOH’.

There was a moment we happened to have four of the photographers at our game. This was also the moment I was running from the other players for , I round the corner and suddenly there’s four cameras pointed at me. This must be what it feels like to be famous and have the paparazzi after you.

Boats Against the Current: Some time ago, Anna was telling me that she had 18 people sign up for a 9 player game so I offered to do a second parallel run of it, so to what was how I ended up GMing a game for the first time!

It’s a pretty hands off game as far as GMing is concerned so I wasn’t too nervous (and I have great faith in the skills of the author!). I played in Boats earlier this year at Kapcon and so it was fascinating to step back and just watch. It’s a hard game to gauge because a lot of it happens internally, but I loved watching the reactions to the radio announcements, especially towards the end of the game and when they interrupted particularly tense moments or outbursts. I had to really hold myself back at times when I wanted to squee and tell my players they were doing such an awesome job.

Secrets of the Deep: I was a bit scared about having to politic as it’s not one of my strongest skills but the house I was in was a really fun one to be a part of - we were kind of the black sheep, exiled generations ago but tentatively allowed back. Had some great RP moments, especially with Jared as Lord and Lady Leventis, a strong partnership that saw us through a bunch of difficult twists and turns. Can’t say too much without spoilers but several times we both had any hope of achieving our goals go up in smoke, only for them to unexpected become achievable again. Yet somehow even at the most serious of moments, we would be making jokes quietly to each other and ‘high fiving’ at the back of the room.

I was really surprised to take out people’s choice favourite costume too! I was a little disgruntled at having to try find something vaguely Grecian looking in black (they didn’t really do black). Luckily their style is also little more than glorified sack with with the help of my very talented seamstress and favourite sister, we managed to cobble something together. Thank you to everyone who voted for me! :smiley:

Romeo and Ethel: So much hilarity and confusion. I loved the costumes and the cross dressing and that fact that almost everyone was a different character and / or gender by the end of the game. I was saving the moment of revealing my true identity for the moment that would provide the most hilarity and I definitely got it with thanks to Prema and Martin. Following that, my true love’s identity was also revealed. We’re going in for the ‘high five’ when my mother jumps between us. I remember seeing Anna collapsing in a heap of giggles in the corner so I knew we were doing it right! I love playing romantic plot lines and I’ve had my first LARP wedding!

When the end of the world came: Though I usually go for the comedies, there’s a few more serious games I’ve played that have really stuck with me and kept me thinking. This was one of them. In a world that ended too many generations ago to remember, all we know is a world of hunger, cold, and darkness. Had some great RP with Yahn with our closely intertwined characters and really got me thinking about the meaning of life and love and everything in between.

It wasn’t the photographers. Some guy with a phone…[/quote]

Wow, i was playing this game and didn’t see it, that’s kinda wrong, and a wee bit creepy