Me and Moo bailed on the Kraken attack at the end because it would’ve just been lame with the few resources at our disposal. Instead, we invented some Gillmen/Kraken evil halfbreeds and crawled on board to harass the cook as a random encounter.
I gotta rerun that game with proper preparation and props.
Haha for some reason for many LARPs I was getting typecast as an evil character, no idea why 
.
But your Captain was just such a damn good man that I had to save him in the end (and this game I don’t think I was supposed to be evil at all yay, just different). Had some fun interactions in that game with some of the characters. That game would have been nuts with props.[/quote]
i really enjoyed the final voyage of the Mary Celeste. i was lead to understand that it was quiet last minute also? with more effort and time i think that it could be a bad-ass larp. only problem i found was the climax came all of a sudden and didn’t last very long. i def think it should be done again, for the win.
Actually, one of my highlights was at the Great Exhibition, walking past this guy I’d pegged as an accountant (or maybe a vampire) who was suddenly talking about Neverland, but being too busy to stay and eavesdrop. And then two minutes later there was a showdown: “Captain Hook!” “BOY!” “I DO believe in fairies!” and a GM in fairy wings tinkling up. Come to think of it, that was the start of all hell breaking loose with demons and freeze rays and stuff. I can remember running past a woman lying on the ground with a guy asking for medical help, saying “I’ve got more important things to do!”
I must say, the whole game was pretty normal before that. For me at least. Until then, I could pretend everyone was just as they appeared - nobility (and those who hang around nobility) looking at inventions. I think in the rationalists vs theosophists discussions that went on, this was the point where I no longer had to use the line “you really have to see it to believe it. Magic CAN happen.”
The Captain Hook/Peter Pan encounter was all kinds of awesome. Adam and Ryan were both excellent! Plus I love the whole Peter Pan story 
Well with props the level of awesome when I realized just what the gun I had opened fire with was, wouldn’t have been anywhere near as cool. Started the game with flint-lock pistols and end with a: [quote][color=#FFFFFF]submachine gun[/color][/quote]
So many things were awesome, its so hard to choose.
Spy hard had such an awesome atmosphere of intrigue and chic, it was fun playing my weakness for champagne and letting slip secrets. also the amount of seduction cards used was phenomenal, often the party being rather deserted for the “designated areas”.
camelot was great, but difficult considering my goals were based purely on judging peoples character through their roleplaying… unfortunately the better the roleplayer the harder it made my job. however Tristan and isolde were a joy to rp with. I would lve to play a more involved character because really my character was clueless to most of the plotlines, just generally preaching righteousness and faith.
Great exhibition highlights: playing a straightup socilaist in a world of the supernatural and two-faced. never realising that LaRouche was in love with me, thinking him a shy character (and being proud that he was breaking out and talking to so many people) when in fact he only acted like that around me. Winning the literary prize as a completion of my goal as well finding a story that Hugo plausibly would have written. With the excuse of hunting a story being able to be curious abotu many things that I wouldn’t have normally seen. Having a very intense conversation with a leader from the southern states of america about slavery. we convinced him of socialism!
Emergency wolfgangs game was awesome, especially since it was written in a night. Casting the evil eye on someone and them actually dying, then being accused of witchcraft was fun
I’m so gutted i missed Nobody loses and eye and Mary celeste… definately want to play them again sometime.
Generally everyone was such a joy to roleplay with, none of the games were lacking in fun
Ohhh man, I feel so bummed I missed out on almost everything! To all the GM’s expecting me to play and who wrote a role for me I am truely sorry. If I wasn’t so crook I’d have gone to all the games I enrolled in -not just The Great Exhibition- and I apologize for letting you guys down. 
On a positive note though, The Great Exhibition was awesome enough to warrant the follow day’s sickness (hang on, is that positive or negative?) 
Thanks the GM’s for looking out for me too.
BTW All you cult members: I’m starting my OWN cult now so I don’t need you mysogenistic buggers!
[quote=“Anna K”]Chimera this year was bigger than last year - it was essentially filled to capacity, excluding last minute drop outs and no-shows, we had about two or three spaces left each round (not each game, each round) and some were completely full. I don’t have the numbers on me at the moment (at work) but we had something like 65 people registered for either the whole weekend or most of the weekend, about 15 registered for just one game (mostly Great Ex, but some people came in for other individual games) and Great Exhibition had 73 players, 5 GMs, 1 photographer and a 2 person camera crew from 20/20 so that weighed in as our biggest event with 81 people (compared to Hindenburg: 63 players, 3 GMs, 2 entertainment, 1 photographer = 69)
Round by Round Comparison to last year (2008 vs 2009) (approximate numbers, I can get more accurate ones when I’ve finished all the paperwork)
Friday Night: 33 vs 53
Saturday Morning: 43 vs 53
Saturday Afternoon: 39 vs 45
Saturday Night: 69 vs 81
Sunday Morning: 35 vs 41
Sunday Afternoon: 35 vs 46
We had a good rate of complete newbies to larp, as well as a quite a few people who didn’t come to Chimera last year, and some that came for a whole weekend this year after attending only Hindenburg last year. Conversely, we also had about 20 people who didn’t return after attending last year (some of those have since gone overseas though)[/quote]
This interests me very much, thanks.
I wonder what other data you’ve collected about Chimera’s attendance (or, in parallel, NZLARPS members). I’m particularly interested in demographics like age, gender and ethnicity. My impression was that Chimera’s sample of the NZLARPS crowd was close to 50% gender split, average age in the low 20s, predominantly NZ-born Pakeha but with an extremely high (relative to NZ as a whole) percentage of people born in Europe. Is that fair?
Highlights, hmmm…
Friday Night - Nightmare Circle:
Total Party Death (in under an hour ???) - actually that was pretty cool. Game highlight, deciding to be proactive and beat up our host and rob his safe. 
I’m not a good person, it has been said.
EDIT: Friday Night - A bit of Spy Hard:
I caught the tail end of Spy Hard. Mostly did security and washed dishes. Enjoyed “waiting tables” and keeping an eye on everyone. Best moment - I ate every black jellybean without being caught - yeah!
Saturday Morning - Knightshade:
Played re-spawning Vagrants (undead) - walked slowly around the woods moaning at people. Game highlights: the makeup was extra cool and I enjoyed beating down a player and holding a knife to her soft warm throat. cough Umm, she lived and I died and it was good plot 
Saturday Noon - The Black Hart of Camelot
My favorite game. The type of game I really live for. Romantic-medieval, with a small amount of intense combat. I played Sir Gawain, a knight of the round table, and I:
Saturday Evening - The Great Exhibition
70+ larpers in fantastic costumes. What is there not to enjoy? I played “Mr Darcy” - the grandson of arguably the most romantic male role in literature (Romeo died - he was also less romantic). Beautiful women, ninjas, aliens, intrigue, lesbian demons, cults, the occult, thieves, famous and infamous people from history and literature.
Sunday Morning - St Wolfgang Vampire Hunters
Kicked arse for the Lord, but not directly. Favorite moment, arresting a Gipsy because she cast an evil eye on my Lord’s son - who promptly died (she swears it was a coincidence).
Sunday Afternoon - The Final Voyage of the Mary Celeste
I played the Captain of the Mary Celeste. I had the only key to the ship’s gun locker, which contained two pistols and four cutlasses and somehow I was the worst armed person on the ship. Best moment - when I realised I must be in a dream, and decided to just sit down and have some chocolate cake. “I’m going to wake up in a few hours, I’m going to dream about eating chocolate cake”.
Worst Moments:
[quote=“Derek”]
Worst Moments:
…
Yours?