It was really hard to follow everything happening, and it’d be great to hear stories about how you found it The Flight of the Hindenburg, what your characters got up to, how you found your character sheet, what was your favourite stuff about the game and what could have been improved.
Happy to try to explain anything that still didn’t make sense after the debrief.
You all looked totally amazing, and it was great to meet lots of new folks!
I’m just checking in before heading off back to Chimera again, and wanted to say Hindenburg was everything I’d hoped for. I utterly failed in my objectives and now there’s a mobster out to kill me (Al, baby, how could you?) and possibly treasury agent out to arrest me (I’m not even a criminal, I just wanted to be one!) but it was massive amounts of fun irregardless.
I reckn we Aucklanders need more practice at how to play theatreform, I couldn’t help but notice the explosion of action as the runway came in sight as everyone tried to get everything done. Spectacular fight scene as Al Capone and Frank the Enforcer punched their way out of Ness’ gang who had tried to take them out on a tip from Capone’s viper of a girlfriend (:D) and evacuated the bomb-riddled Hindenburg.
Like I said before the game. Epic.
Being my first larp I was not sure what to expect.
Initial feeling when walk into onto the Hindenburg was
"gosh, hope I play good enough and not disappoint the people that invited me along."
I was getting into the flow of things and about to set out to achieve my objectives.
Conspiring my my new best friend ,Dr Hugo Eckener, to get some potential anti Nazi evidence from (forgot her name).
My plan was to call on the help of my drinking buddy’s son, Indiana, to get it off her using his dubious methods, kick her ass 
But it turns out, as reveled in the end, it was just some footage of aliens.
Before I could try this plan, I had a snack.
Coincidence or a well time visit by a gm (sorry I have forgotten your name), should have had me collapse.
Would have been the first that night but I was not sure how far to take it.
So it was not as spectacular as the other collapse’s later.
Now I was an alien out to help one of the two sides that had an interest in Edith Keeler.
I spent some time trying to find what these time travelers wanted.
Jim, Sarah, (can’t remember who the the time traveler was)
Failing to get any information out of them I decided it would be easier to insure Keeler’s well being than plot her demise.
By the time I made this decision the runway was on screen and all the action started.
I decided to trade my Blueprints with Howard Hughes who could call on Franklin Delano Roosevelt for some assistance.
Hughes mentioned that Elliot Ness might be usefull.
First we had to find out if Keller was a US citizen.
She was, the prints handed over.
Then who comes stumbling into the infirmary?
Ness in no condition to protect anyone, there goes that plan.
Throughout the evening Valkyrie had been shadowing me trying to get the blurprints off me.
Hinting at physical harm. She did menacing well and I feared for my life.
I tried to avoid her as much as possible.
Unfortunately she was on the bottom of my list of recipients due to connections with the nazi’s.
So after seeing ness in bad shape, Valkyrie make one last attempt to get the prints off me, sorry lady I don’t have it anymore.
I am sure she is going to kick my ass now.
Just then the shadow show up, wth?
Ultraman whisks us to safety before bomb goes off.
In a fit of rage Valkyrie kicks me in the nuts.
…What a night and a first game. 8)
What I would have done different?
Fainted better.
Traded my plans to one of the ‘kick ass’ pilots to help protect Keller.
Worked more on my costume, after seeing the work that went into some of the others there I felt a bit ashamed.
Questions that nag me.
Why did lee/ultraman faint earlier?
Who was the Xenonian? Ultraman?
Who would have benefited from my Cryptography skill?
More drama than a season of Desperate Housewives 
Love it.
Yeah, Albert Einstein is one of the stranger stories we have planned for the lucky actor! 
To answer your questions:
Lee/Ultraman was the Xenonian (think Kryptonian) from the planet Xenon (Krypton).
He collapsed because he was too close to the Xenonite (again, think Kryptonite) in the pocket of Dr Henry Jones, sr.
Capone’s Ledger was readable by anyone who had the Cryptography skill.
Ironically, someone with the Cryptography skill was precisely who Elliot Ness was looking for. One of the great things about this LARP is that there are so many ways for things to play out that we don’t expect most to come out and so it’s great seeing what does and doesn’t happen.
World class event, guys and a sensational evening.
I spent the evening mostly “flipping records” (if you know what I mean). The music was, for almost all of it, genuinely recorded before 1934 and now in the public domain.
At the coming nzLARPS AGM, we’ll be raffling a copy of all the music played - and a whole lot more - and a Flash drive to take it home on.
I spent the rest of the evening schmoozing with guests. I found this guide beforehand and it’s excellent:
blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/02/the … _schm.html
I can’t wait to see the photos.
Edit: Hey, who won the prizes? Pretty tough call on costuming, I reckon.
When we debriefed at the end I had missed so much I couldn’t help but think “did I play in this game?” 
I felt horrible being rude to Malu / Polly all evening. Sorry Malu…
I have been so hyped about this game. Anna was right. Very much Epic.
Playing a movie star - Bette Davis - was a blast. Acheiving most of my goals was great! Chatting to friends and fans was cool. (Thank you to those of you who pretended to be starstruck, it was an interesting experience.) I did realise I shot myself in the foot with regards my camera-phobia though. You cannot play an up and coming movie star without having your photo taken with all and sundry. ARGH!
I was was really stumped on my main goal for most of the game. To find and destroy the vampire that killed my father. Apparently part of the problem was that Dick Tracy (get well soon, Sridat) wasn’t there. He was investigating the grisly murders in New York. Anyway, I’ll let Bette tell the rest.
From the diary of Bette Davis:
It really was a lovely party and great to catch up with all my actor friends Ann Darrow, Bela Lugosi, Charlie Chaplin, and of course Errol Flynn. I haven’t spoken to Errol since I found all that Nazi stuff at his house, but after talking to him tonight I realise it’s all research for a new film. Silly misunderstanding! I’m so pleased we’ll be starring together in Hell’s Angels. Darling Howard wouldn’t dream of casting anyone but me! I thought it was lovely of him to keep my reputation in mind all night, but I’ll kill whoever told Garbo. She just blabbed all about us to everyone there. In the absence of evidence or a confirmation, I can only hope tomorrow’s newspapers will find more scandalous fodder. In fact, after last night, I’m absolutely sure they will.
Bertie Wooster was there! I nearly died. All those letters going on and on about his adventures. Telling me all about himself as though he was my best friend! Namby pamby British aristo, as if!
I had to spend part the evening avoiding him, but there were so many people there it wasn’t too hard, although apparently he’s invited me on a plane trip to Europe. Sorry Bertie, gonna be way too busy filming Howard’s new flick!
All night I kept my ears open, I knew the vampire that killed daddy would be at this gala, one of my informants had heard. But he didn’t know who it was. I kept hearing rumours from different people about Mr R Woodruffe, CEO of CocaCola. Slowly the different snippets came together to form a picture I’ve been searching for for 20 years. I was sure he was the vampire. But how to prove it? I admit, I was stumped until I remembered seeing a man with a Lens of Vor earlier in the evening. Unfortunately, I remembered the lens, but not the face of the man, and it took a fair length of time to casually mention it to enough people that I found him.
It took even longer to convince the Professor to wave his little trinket at Woodruffe and discover that he was indeed a vampire. But what to do? I certainly didn’t want to murder a well known and wealthy man in front of everyone. Mr Capone, who certainly has a reputation amongst my “other” friends as someone who can solve “problems”, agreed to help me out although he was currently busy with his own problems in the form of a stubborn FBI agent.
Then unexpectedly the announcement came that we were landing and I couldn’t just let Mr Woodruffe get away. I was lighting a cigarette when I suddenly realised I was holding what was essentially a small wooden stake. More time would have been nice, to let Mr Capone take care of things, or at least to arrange a private conversation and a slaying that would not have put me in the sights of the FBI agent, but I did what had to be done and Mr Capone conveniently took care of the agent. That was nice of him, wasn’t it?
Some weird guy in a black cape tried to arrest me, but I kicked his ass too. Funny night. Given that Mr Woodruffe turned to dust and there’s no body, I rather suspect I’m going to get away with it. After all, even though plenty of people saw it with their own eyes, no one believes in vampires and who’d suspect lil ole me of being a vampire slayer?
I wouldn’t want you to feel like you missed out on too much Derek, one of the ideas of the LARP is that there are lots of different plotlines going on which interrelate so that everyone feels like they’re story is really important.
Though if you have any feedback on ways to tie the plots together better, please let us know so we can pass it on to the writers.
[quote=“theotherphoenix”]I was was really stumped on my main goal for most of the game. To find and destroy the vampire that killed my father. Apparently part of the problem was that Dick Tracy (get well soon, Sridat) wasn’t there. He was investigating the grisly murders in New York. Anyway, I’ll let Bette tell the rest.
From the diary of Bette Davis:
…
All night I kept my ears open, I knew the vampire that killed daddy would be at this gala, one of my informants had heard. But he didn’t know who it was. I kept hearing rumours from different people about Mr R Woodruffe, CEO of CocaCola. Slowly the different snippets came together to form a picture I’ve been searching for for 20 years. I was sure he was the vampire.
…
Then unexpectedly the announcement came that we were landing and I couldn’t just let Mr Woodruffe get away. I was lighting a cigarette when I suddenly realised I was holding what was essentially a small wooden stake.
…
Some weird guy in a black cape tried to arrest me, but I kicked his ass too. Funny night.[/quote]
I was really impressed that you managed to both uncover Woodruffe and kill him as that was a tricky goal to achieve. When I realised that you were following up the grisly murders, which had nothing to do with Woodruffe, I thought you’d followed the red herring and you wouldn’t achieve it.
But sure enough, you got him in the end… with a cigarette holder! Fantastic!
And then you kicked the Shadow’s ass!
That was one of the stories that made my night. I thought everyone was great, but I loved the outcome of that one.
From memory, Bette Davis in Wellington didn’t get close to Woodruffe and he ended up turning Greta Garbo into his bride and living happily ever after with her, on the coke syrup he’d created as a blood substitute.
I must admit, I’m curious, how did you figure out Woodruffe was a vampire, and that he was the one who killed your parents?
I talked to many, many people that night, and it took hours before I even heard one rumour. But then I overheard someone saying that Mr Woodruffe never, ever got up before sunset, so I stopped and chatted to them about that for a while. Then I realised (ahem, read: checked character sheet! 
) that the guy with the little shiny crystal was the Lens of Vor, so I found him, and I think it was him who told me about the coke/blood thing. So, between the rumours and the confirmation from the Lens that he was an occult creature, not a man, I knew he was a vampire. Then I ran out of time… so…I DID NOT know that he was definitely the vampire that killed my parents, actually, but he was definitely a vampire and if it’s good enough for Buffy, it’s good enough for me. If I’d had more time I would have got Frank and Al Capone to take him somewhere quiet with me (if possible) and had a little “chat” first about history, about a certain persons activities, say, oh, 20 years ago…
Bette the Vampire Slayer, indeed. /facepalm
Awesome, awesome game. Loved it. I’m only bummed that we can’t play again, now that we know the stories.
[/quote]
Yeah, on that topic, and this is an open question to everyone:
Did people like the Debrief?
It never even occurred to me for us not to share the plot-love with the players, as I hadn’t really thought anyone would be able to play in it again, but exquire mentioned to me afterwards that it was a shame that everyone now knows all the plots. Well, at least, most of them. 
Do people feel that they could have happily played in it again with different characters involved in different plotlines? (And if so, I apologise for ruining it for them.)
Or do people feel that while they may not have picked up on all the intricacies of everyone else’s plots, they heard too much for them to be able to play in it again, debrief or no?
EDIT: And another point that exquire raised, which I think is interesting and I’d like feedback on:
Do people think it would be more fun to have been able to discuss their plots with their friends and have found it all out that way, rather than having us infodump it all on ya?
Yes, I certainly would have loved to have played it again. And there were entire sections of the game I had no inkling of. Aliens? Superheroes? bloody hell, what game was I playing? lol.
Don’t feel bad though. We were all so hyped we were telling all our friends our plotlines, so the secrets would have been spoiled even without the debrief.
I love the game settings very much, and I couldn’t wish for a better character for myself, so I’m ok with the idea that I can’t play this particular game again - but if someone does a different game with different plots but of similar type, I’d be happy to take part. The idea of high society party of such different characters was great.
I’ve had a lot of fun playing Marion Ravenwood! Making my entrance with Rick Blaine, meaning to make Indiana Jones jealous, was very cool, and Rick was quite willing to help When we walked to the Egyptian exhibition it was closed to visitors at that particular moment (they turned people away), and then Sallah saw me and yelled “Marion, my friend, it is so good to see you again! Come in!” I felt very special After Sallah dragged Rick aside to look at the artefacts, Indy made the first move and apologized to me, in his own manner, admitting that what happened between us a week earlier was a misunderstanding.
Me: "So… you are apologizing?"
Indy: "Um… yeah… kinda…"
Me: "And you are sorry about what you said last week?"
Indy: "Ah… yeah… well… I think so…"
Neither of us had it on our character sheets what the quarrel was about
So I forgave him for that misunderstanding and for me leaving to New York where I had to stay with Rick.
Meeting Ardath Bey brought up a vague sense of great affection that was to be between us, but since he failed to get the ancient books that he needed to bring his lost love back, I never found out that I was Anck-su-namun, his ancient queen lover reborn 
So I just kept looking at him dreamingly for the rest of the evening.
Still, I found myself extra busy, helping my friends solving their problems. When I told Rick he shouldn’t hang around Al Capone because this man would get him into trouble, he responded that was his way to escape from troubles with Gestapo, and I had to admit that choosing between those two Al Capone wasn’t such a bad option
And my school friend Evelyn appeared to be Al Capone’s girlfriend! I spent lots of time persuading her she should leave this bad and dangerous man, which led to him approaching me trying to persuade me he’s in fact a good guy. Of course I didn’t believe him 
Eventually Evelyn asked me to organise a meeting with Elliot Ness for her.
Me: "Elliot, Evelyn wants to talk to you privately"
Elliot: "Sure, let’s do it this way: I’ll be at Egyptian exhibition, and she can come there right after me"
Me (looking in the direction of exhibition): "But Al Capone is there RIGHT NOW!"
Elliot (turns around and sees Al Capone at the exhibition): “Oops, well, I guess we’ll wait till he leaves then”
Then I spent some nervous time watching Al Capone and Frank Nitti moving around the hall, ready to warn my friend if they come too close. When I was talking to Anne Lindbergh I suddenly saw both of them moving straightly to the exhibition!
Me, to Anne: "Would you like to have a look at the exhibition?"
Anne: “Sure, that will be interesting"
Me: “Let’s go!” (rushing into the exhibition room, hissing to Elliot and Evelyn) Watch out, Al Capone is coming!” And then I’ve made a nice excursion for Anne, reviving all my memories about ancient Egypt
Other nice moments:
Hearing Indy and Sallah talking that “it will be wise to not drink any of this Coca-Cola”, saying “But I’ve just had a glass of it!” and seeing their faces turning pale in one second.
Loosing Al Capone and Frank Nitti at some point, looking for them all around the hall, just to turn around to panically find them both right behind my back! Dave, you make a VERY SCARY GANGSTER 8)
All of interaction with Evelyn, my school days friend, whom I was so sincerely helping to get out of trouble
Indy and Sallah were great and so made this game for me!
And I got to talk to a bunch of movie stars, yay!
Big thanks to GMs, that was an awesome game 8)
One piece of feedback I may give to the writers is that I think that there needs to be just a tad more incentive for the people who can help with hidden memories to help the people with hidden memories.
Glad you had so much fun!
Also, I should probably say at some point, it was really nice to meet so many of you, finally!
True, the briefing could have done with some tips on playing a pregen larp:
Try like anything to achieve your objectives, and start straight away because time will fly by. If you ignore your objectives, characters who are trying to oppose or help them will suffer from lack of plot. Doesn’t matter if you succeed, it’s the trying that creates interesting interaction.
Don’t be afraid to get into conflict and offend other characters, rock the boat hard because that’s where the fun comes from. Same goes for causing a ruckus, feel free. Don’t worry about spoiling the party, it’s a larp first.
You probably can’t achieve much on your own, you may be missing vital skills or items or be facing superior forces. The stuff you need is spread around the characters. Network, get allies to help you, find the person who has the skill you need, do whatever it takes to get them to help. You may have to use go-betweens, blackmail, etc.
If you can’t think what to do, spend some time helping your allies achieve their aims.
Those are helpful thoughts in a lot of larp, but in a pregen larp they’re extra important, because the plot on the character sheets is what drives the game, and you only have so much time to get everything done.
That’s totally how I felt after playing in the Wellington run. It’s like there are 10 games in the scenario, and each player is in 2 or 3 of them.
I love that feeling that the whole thing is bigger than any one character. I think the scenario has a kind of crazy genius about it. Reading through all those characters, it was really hard as a GM to keep all the connections in your head at once.
Oh my goodness, what an awesome game.
I really liked my character and it was fun spending the night preaching to anyone who would listen about world peace and feeding the hungry.
I had lots of favourite moments, but a few are:
“This is my son, Junior” and then Dave’s incredulous face as he says:
“Dad, I tooold you not to call me that.” - well done Dave and Taz made me feel like I was really in an Indianna Jones movie.
I was then absolutely distraught when I found out he was dead and even more so, when the man that I was in love with, seemed to ignore my grief and keeps insisting that I should do the speech.
Turns out that there was a bomb planted on the speech podium and I had to do the speech so that I could die in the explosion, so Robert’s death delayed my own death.
However then Captain James Kirk, the man Edith Keeler was in love with killed her with a “Phaser” (sp?) gun in the infirmary right after Robert turned to dust.
That last little bit of roleplaying is probably my favourite form the game.
WOW I wish I could unlearn all the plots and play again, but I am glad I heard all the stories because it was an amazing game.
[quote]I felt horrible being rude to Malu / Polly all evening. Sorry Malu…
[/quote]
It was sooo much fun. " I did not sabotage your plan, like you didn’t cheat on me.’
Memorable moments include selling the story of Little Orphan Annie’s reunion with her parents to William Randolph Hearst and almost bring Al Capone down, although his explosive get away will make for one fantastic story.
I feel like even with the plot explanations I could still play this game again, the layers upon layers of story were epic. It was really cool to learn some of the meta-plot and it didn’t spoil anything for me.
Well apart from wearing such a stylish suit all evening and showing off “my girl, doesn’t my girl look so beautiful” all evening…
Almost immediately forging an allicance of sorts with the shady Rick Blain, much to our mutual advantage. Al Capone always has use of such resourceful people 
“Fencing” with presidential candidate Kase Cameron around certain “restrictions” that imposed unnecessary difficulties on the working people, turns out a gangsters help can be most useful to those wanting to get an edge…
Then trying to get in on the fixing of the air-race. Again Rick Blain seemed to be the man to work with, its a pity he hadn’t sorted that properly as it would have been most interesting to see Bugs Morans reaction to finding out that his “sure win” had become a “sure loss” That said, it was still interesting to get a collective “WTF?!?” out of him and Elliot Ness when I hinted at a possible truce for the sake of stablising our businesses. Really all I wanted was to find out who Bugs was pegging for the fix so I could screw it up for him
“My boy Frankie” being the best second-man a kingpin could have, and being so willing to make problems “disappear” Between the two of us, working on Rick Blain to help get my ledger back was almost easy - best sidekick EVER
That and the quick conversation on how a couple of “Thompsons” could solve a lot of situations for us that evening…
Having Evie fawning over me gently all evening, then getting all emotional when she was starting to set me up and trying to turn me against my main man. “Frankie, I have a new problem, and you know I don’t like problems.”
“No boss”
Somehow I managed to get involved in smuggling people in/out of the country. Good thing Kase Cameron has some good connections, fake passports can be so hard to find…
After near nil contact all evening save aquiring her a drink, having the famous actress Bette Davis ask so sweetly how I deal with “problems” and blink in momentary stunned silence at the very blunt “I have my boy Frankie make the bad ones ‘disappear’. What can a simple businessman do for you, Miss Davis?”
And literally dancing around Elliot Ness all evening, circling each other like a pair of sharks waiting to strike (yay Hamish!). Of course it all came to a head when Rick Blain gave me the free tip-off about a bomb as we were landing - so collecting Frankie along the way “Frankie, Mr Blain has advised we should leave. Now.”, and trying to collect Miss Davis as well, “Evie, eh, let her burn, Miss Davis will at least bring some business”, we prepare to leave only to find Ness and his posse waiting for us…
Poor Ness just wasn’t kick-ass enough (or at all) to take the pounding and goes down, as does an unfortunate Indiana Jones. Poor Sallah(?) finding Frankie and Rick wading in behind me to put down the fez (ha!) before laying out everyone else in the vicinity (that’s my boy!) and hauling me up to safety before anyone can loot or torture me. Breaking for the infirmary, Ness takes a second beating (HA!) for the ledger (which I wanted to take the first time), the unfortunate Shadow gets nailed just for getting in our way, and Capone’s new gang breaks for the door. In a moment of misplaced sentimentality I blurted at Evie to run, but Frankie would have paid her a visit later if she survived …
Poor Ultraman, he tried so hard to stop us leaving but the look of resignation when I yelled to the masses about the bomb, causing a near stampede. The resignation on his face was almost palpable.
So it was that Capone made his daring escape from justice… I will have to confess to slight fudging at the end there in all the confusion, but I figured with two kick-ass henchmen backing me up, there wasn’t much stopping us regardless. Plus I wanted to beat Ness again. Just for thrills
All in all, an amazingly awesome game. I’m only sad that playing a second time isn’t really an option - the debrief to find out what was going on was good and would have happened with or without the GMs leading.
Thanks Ryan, Fraser and Steph for “teh Awesome[size=75]TM[/size]”