Chimera 2013 Favourite Moments

Monsters vs. Monsters: This was a brilliantly daft and fun start to the weekend. Spending half of the game just making fun of Morgan (played fantastically by Abe) with Jayden (Nick, it’s always a laugh with you) was perfect. Preparing to scare jump the ‘seniors’ and somehow getting instead the Tooth Fairy, and then a Christmas tree was definitely my top moment of the game.

Captain’s Table: I was a little unsure going into this of how I was going to pull off playing a Romulan but in the end it seemed to work out. Making polite chit-chat (and dropping Sci-Fi references every 10 seconds) with an Alliance officer and a Starfleet captain helped realise the brilliant scale of the game.

Bombini Bombus: 3 hours of Communism lectures, in a Latvian accent, with Bee puns. I don’t know how we pulled it off, but everybody else seemed to love it, and our Pollen and Hope dances. Dave, Freddy and Tim, you guys were the perfect companions. Viva la Beevolution! Emily, congratulations on making your Chimera nightmare my favourite game of the weekend.

The Rose and the Dragon: I was really nervous about this in the last hour leading up to the game beginning. The Great Hall was initially very slow, but over the course of the game it slowly ramped up until everything exploded right at the last minute. Easily the best moment was Lord Robert de Vere sitting the Baroness down to explain how he had proof her family line was illegitimate, only for her to immediately turn to her Captain and give the order to attack his army. Just perfect. I can’t thank the players enough, you pulled it off better than I could have hoped. My only wish is that I could have seen more of the other areas, but what I did see looked amazing. Anna, congratulations on the set dressing. Everything looked incredible.

As a slight aside, if you have any feedback about The Rose and the Dragon, particularly pertaining to The Great Hall please message me. Good, bad, suggestions for things that could have been done better, please get in touch.

Slash: What happens in Slash stays in Slash. That said, more or less anything Patch said forced myself and much of the rest of the game into fits of laughter every damned time. That, and that ritual. Here I am indeed!

No Quarter: Such a brilliantly tense game to finish the weekend off with. Our little hidey-hole looked amazing, why did everybody have to come and ruin it? I loved the dynamic with the rest of the Family unit, thank you to all of you and especially to Russ. Sorry I had to go and get shot so dramatically like that :stuck_out_tongue:

Glad you enjoyed it.

Do you also find some flying ointment to enjoy? :wink:

I realised on Monday that I hadn’t thought about any “real life-ness” for the entire weekend, which made Chimera feel like a real holiday. I haven’t had a holiday in FOREVER, so, YAAAAAAAY!!!

Fall of the Jaguar Gods - (Maya) My first ever LARP, so I wasn’t sure what exactly to expect, but it turns out I had SO MANY fun moments! Shrieking dramatically when the King was murdered, trying to resurrect my dead daughter, getting poisoned, manipulating other people into attacking gods,

Captain’s Table - (Captain Giselle Engel) I didn’t really get to interact much with the overall plot, but I had my own little sub-plot which was rather fun! Illicit love-affair with my commanding officer, only to realise that once I left the bar I’d be dead… DEAD…

New Voices in Art - (Inebriated, insecure version of myself) Getting very drunk, feeling very paranoid about my art, spouting a plethora of bullshit artist-speak, getting fed up and lying on the floor to prove I just didn’t care, coining the phrase “Nouveau Gallifreyan” to describe someone’s shirt.

Steampunk Alive! - (Guildenstern) Reprising for the third time my role as a member of the Rosencrantz/Guildenstern duo; acting very unintelligent; accidentally stealing money; trying to arrest my superior officer; accusing everyone, including myself, of being a German spy. Madness. Complete madness.

Night at the Museum - Coming up with a wildly elaborate and highly inaccurate theory for all the thefts; trying to convince my selfish dickhead of a father to let me get married. (Gee. Claiming all the thefts were “my fault due to my lack of attention” and “I hadn’t put enough effort into the evening”, as though I hadn’t organised the entire event. Not cool, Dad. Not cool. :stuck_out_tongue: )

Rose and the Dragon - (Monica Bella) I’m going to go overboard in my description of this one as I just loved it so much. First off, wandering around as a mysterious foreign fortune teller was just so epicly cool. My prostitute friend Juliana and I got kicked out of the Great Hall because we were so obviously low-born and heathen - very exciting and dramatic! So instead we went off to try and help Juliana with her relationship problems, which involved having to prove whether Suitor #1 was an honest and trustworthy man (he wasn’t, he was totally a stolen sheep smuggler, but somehow someone else was tried and executed for the crime); in the end we decided he was an unsuitable suitor, so I used my “powers of forsight” to make him leave Juliana alone (a.k.a. I made stuff up and he totally believed it). Suitor #2 was our ideal choice, but alas, he seemed reticent to marry Juliana because he was busy being the Bishop’s bodyguard. Just as I was searching for Suitor #2 so I could “curse” him into marrying Juliana, he was unfortunately executed for attempting to stab and rob the Bishop. I tried pleading with the executioners on behalf of Juliana to allow him to live, but it turned out that Suitor #2 had lied when he was captured and claimed that I had “enchanted” him and had “forced him to do it”.

Far from rescuing my friend’s beloved, I was now summoned before the Bishop to be questioned for witchcraft. Fortunately, my own two love interests were close by to attest to my integrity as a God-fearing woman. Unfortunately, my love interests were completely unaware of each other’s existence, and when the Bishop’s assistent decreed that “my man” could accompany me to my meeting with the Bishop, both of my lovers immediately volunteered, which led to a sudden plethora of glaring. I decided that I’d much prefer the Captain of the Gloucester Army instead of the Disapproving Crusader to be my one true love, and together the Captain and I pled my case to the Bishop, who let me off with a warning and the command that I attend confession sometime in the near future. The Captain and I then became engaged, and when all sorts of shennanigans went down in the Great Hall, I snuck in afterwards and watched with great agitation as my husband-to-be fought for his life. (As a roleplayer, I was kinda disappointed he wasn’t severely wounded, because then I would have rushed out and called upon the spirits of fate to revive his maimed body and curse anyone who tried to stop me, which may or may not have worked, but would have doubtless led me to be executed for witchcraft. But it didn’t happen. We just lived happily ever after.)

I also emotionally manipulated my fiance into attacking the Dragon during the parade. I don’t think he would have tried otherwise, he seemed a pretty uptight sort of guy. :smiley:

My wall o text will be a smaller wall than usual, since this year I played half the con and did makeup for the other half. :slight_smile: The makeup was definitely a highlight. So many different things to play with, tattoos, scars, prosthetics, monsters, aging, cybernetic implants… fun fun fun. I love my job. :mrgreen:

Bad Dreams - The costumes! Such an amazing looking crowd and a very interesting and eclectic crew. My drug-dealer gang chick was a bit puzzled as to why so many grand high corporation mucky-mucks were down slumming it on her turf, but whatever, they addict as easily as street scum. Burn the corporations, burn them all, but not until I’ve had a chance to get to an ATM with this limitless Corp credit card, thanks. :wink:

The Rose and the Dragon - Full confession with the Bishop. Oh dear, oh dear. And the look of disappointment you couldn’t hide when at the end I mentioned I had been mugged and didn’t have any money. Thank you Yahn. Highlight of the game.
Accusing the two drunks of the mugging, even though I had no proof at all, having them dragged off and arrested and then sent for trial by combat by the great and good Lord de Vere, because I was a respectable and sober looking woman. He also restored my life savings of 10 silver pieces. I spent the rest of the game praising possibly two of the most corrupt men in Thamesly to everyone I met. :mrgreen:

Slash - my sides and face hurt from laughing so much for so long. “For science!” “To infinity, and beyond!” “I’m the chosen one! - No, I’m the chosen one!”

Yeah… I don’t think you’d get very far without John Smith’s retinas. He might be less willing to give those up than he was the credit card.

I’ve already Kermit-flailed about my weekend at length on facebook, so this’ll be the short version.

Bad Dreams: Electric Sheep
I think the best part of this game was seeing the universe come to life - my character was a rich bastard that thought he could go anywhere and be worshipped, but looking around at the bar denizens I was OOC terrified by the situation. I was convinced I’d wake up in a tub of ice without my kidneys.
I traditionally wind up dead in Bad Dreams games, so it was nice to survive this one. I really enjoyed roleplaying with Sarah, my girlfriend for the game (and also several others over the weekend). Best moment was being frozen stock still while my bodyguard was literally torn apart only a few feet away. That gave me chills.

The Captain’s Table
I can’t play Captain Jack Harkness without a few drinks in me, it seems. I was reading up on the character afterwards and a review tells me that he flirts, and waits for other people to respond, so maybe I didn’t do too badly by not hooking up with anyone.
I thought the plot was really, really good, even though I can’t say anything about it. I found the RP of the person playing Captain Smith of the Titanic (and also Jack in ‘Party Down’, I think?) fantastic, and I hope that I get to interact with you more next year. Watching you sit there nursing your bottomless drink was excellent. I should’ve flirted more. Titanic captains get lonely.

Struck to the Quick
Sweet merciful crap, this was fun to GM. I really loved the way that the players kept going, even when the venue started to turn on us. I have to hand it to the players who realised that something weird was going on, and then went and threw themselves at it. “Hmm, something strange happens when people play with the nerf ball. I shall go and try that.” Note to all the people who play a Shakespeare game: that way lies madness, so I heartily encourage it.
Special shout-out to Jarratt, who’s been writing to me lamenting the fact that his light-hearted comedy game ended in melodramatic heartbreak and tragedy. I swear I was not expecting that to happen.

The Rose and the Dragon
Success came swiftly and abruptly when I got to flee to France with my secret gay lover (Kirk). Up until that point, I was reasonably certain I was going to be dead, so it’s nice (and odd) when that sort of thing happens in a game.
The layout of the game was nothing short of spellbinding, though, especially when I got to roam around. My War Camp bodyguard watched a play in the Greenwood and was asked to dance in the great Hall (apologies again to everybody for how cold my hands were). Period dancing is one of the few things I can offer to the community, so it was nice to be able to indulge that. I would have loved to roam around that universe all night.

Party Down at the Glass House
My pick of the weekend, because it’s nice to have something on Sunday morning where you don’t have to think. Turns out that playing a genuinely nice guy (who’s a bit of a bro) is a good way to do it. This marks the only game where I’ve been involved in a hot dog eating contest, and I was winning right up until I quit, but it was either that or actually hurl, so I decided that Fabio was probably a vegetarian.
Really enjoyed the challenges: realising that the observation game was going to be about what the rest of the team was wearing, and cheering Fraser on as he ran around solving algebra. I dropped out of high school maths, so most of it would have been trial and error for me. It was just… fun. Bonus points for the unexpected crossover with ‘Slash!’

No Quarter
This was a surprisingly tough game, and I was flagging, so I did what I normally do in these situations: let the emotions carry me. Also getting a gay romance to dig my teeth into is fun (because it’s pretty uncommon in games), so I decided to act on the vague feelings for Jules (Martin). I wasn’t expecting it to go anywhere, but that plot took off and gave me the best heartbreak of the weekend.
‘No Quarter’ is actually a really clever game - claustrophobic without being crushing, dramatic without being melodramatic. My tears at the end were real, and it was nice to get catharsis after two days of roleplaying. I loved playing with my ‘family’ - Rob and Rowena and Sarah. We’ll all make it out. We’ll all be fine…

Yeah… I don’t think you’d get very far without John Smith’s retinas. He might be less willing to give those up than he was the credit card.[/quote]

It was a lady that gave me her credit card. Did I need her eyeballs too? Darn it. I’ll make a note to bring a spoon in future… you know, if there is a future. :slight_smile:

One of my favourite moments in KiL Quest was when the Gobling King let rip with the blast spell, mostly hitting half of his army and killing them! :wink:

Favourite moments of my first Chimera

Monsters vs Monsters trying to make everyone happy by A) being the bait in the trap for the senior students (which turned out to be the scary tooth fairy) and B) screaming for the monsters.

Teslas Wedding discovering running away in the airship with the King  and the Mawage and wuv, tru wuv speech.

Working in the kitchen with Kim and crew getting to know some of the Aucklanders and making Dinner.

Rose and the Dragon had me playing a character that I struggled with for quite a while i especially loved the dancing in the great hall and the talk I had with my Mother in Law (Nikki B) who told me to go and have my affairs’, followed eventually by a talk with my Husband (Chris Evans) that had me in tears and considering suicide. However at that point the great hall erupted into swords pointed at everyone and a kindly GM suggested “you could always just kill your husband” which I decided would be a good way to end the night since I felt my character was going to die anyway. Which lead to the unexpected “Die you Bastard” as I killed my husband and interrupted everyone with our deaths.

Steampunk Alive I got to play Moist Von Lipstick, and spent the better part of an hour trying to convince everyone I was a woman, consummating my marriage to Baldrick in front of witnesses, who tried to convince others that we did it the RIGHT way.

As We Waltzed my first attempt at GMing a larp I had amazing players with amazing costumes and seeing all the hard work come together had me buzzing for hours and I never saw the ending coming so thank you all.

[quote=“Ryan Paddy”]
Do you also find some flying ointment to enjoy? :wink:[/quote]

No, I pursued a lead which went nowhere then got caught up in other things, wish I had though :frowning:

Yay! I made it into two of your favourite moments… Mehitabel had to be my favourite character of the whole weekend. You should have seen me laugh when I learnt her language!

[quote=“Lady Prema”][quote=“Ryan Paddy”]
Do you also find some flying ointment to enjoy? :wink:[/quote]
No, I pursued a lead which went nowhere then got caught up in other things, wish I had though :frowning:[/quote]I had Marianne, Malkyn Bonewits, and Eluna come to me during a quiet bit in the firepit and go through it. I, uh, had to improvise some visions for Marianne to have. She was asking some pretty specific questions, I hope I was able to bullsh… make up enough suitably vague but relevant things that made some kind of sense for Michelle :wink:

Bad Dreams: Electric Sheep
~The world that the GMs built was amazing and complex
~The costumes, particularly the Cyber Rats but everyone else as well were fantastic
~Mila’s character cutting my head open and saying how beautiful it was.
~Being operated on while insanity was happening in the main room that directly related to the operation I was happening. I was somewhere between IC and OOC but man my heart was pumping.
~Being given the most horrible character I have ever been given but having a fantastic story arc that resulted in my daughter actually trying to save me instead of kill me and my reason for living being thrown out the window so at the end I just wanted the corporations to burn.

Run the Heart
~Pretty much every interaction with my Grandfather. Thanks Ryan. Best candy store owner ever.
~Yet another great cyberpunk world created by the GM.
~Trying to convince an AI that school isn’t boring because it’s where you hang with friends and pass notes and never learn.

Struck to the Quick
~Turning comedy to tragedy. No wait, I really wanted (needed) a light-hearted game and was expecting this to be it. Boy was I wrong.
~Crying on the beach and having people try to perk me up.
~Pretty much ignoring the madness because I was consumed by my own personal drama.

Rose and the Dragon
~The scale and the scope of the game. I liked traversing between parts of the game, even though some of the time because of this you would never meet the person you were trying to see.
~Working with Allen’s character even though I completely despised him. I was just waiting for him to try and get his “cut” of the sheep. But at least for a change he was following the law.
~My fellow Woodsmen who were so much fun to RP with. I loved how tight knit we were.
~Suggesting to my two female Woodsmen that I might also be looking for a wife (because I wanted a romance plot dammit) and seeing the matchmaking cogs star whirring in there heads.
~Which ended in most of my evening spent escorted and flirting with Sparrow. Yay!

Robin Hood and the Golden Arrow
~Everything.
~Seriously I used to run around the woods playing Robin Hood as a boy. I had a bow then but no foam swords. This was the adult version of that but with more story and more awesome. It basically had the perfect Robin Hood ending, while completely opening the doors for more Robin Hood stories.
~Also I won the archery tournament which was completely unexpected but so perfect.
~Favourite game of the weekend. It played out so well and everyone was amazing.

As We Waltzed On
~The costumes were great. I like how eclectic everyone was but it all fit together. I especially loved Beth’s Mother Earth costume.
~The dancing. There were no mechanics involved to make people dance, but dancing was the best (and only) way to have a one on one conversation.
~Being a villain. I found it quite challenging, and most everyone hated me so I had no chance at all, but I felt like I made myself horrible enough that people got some satisfaction in taking me down. That’s what counts. I really wish I had made Prema’s Lady Ruby fight my duel for me at the end though, because it would have been so perfect.

Great weekend. I also enjoyed staying up late, getting drunk but not to drunk, chatting and getting to know a bunch of awesome new people.

[quote=“Jarratt”]~My fellow Woodsmen who were so much fun to RP with. I loved how tight knit we were.
~Suggesting to my two female Woodsmen that I might also be looking for a wife (because I wanted a romance plot dammit) and seeing the matchmaking cogs star whirring in there heads.
~Which ended in most of my evening spent escorted and flirting with Sparrow. Yay![/quote]Glad you had a good time :slight_smile: I meant to catch up with one of you lot :stuck_out_tongue:

Where did you all take off to? You left the firepit pretty early and never came back as far as I know!

[quote=“Viperion”] I meant to catch up with one of you lot :stuck_out_tongue:

Where did you all take off to? You left the firepit pretty early and never came back as far as I know![/quote]

We did leave quite a lot but we gravitated back to the fire pit pretty regularly. It was amazingly easy to miss people you wanted to talk to.

[quote=“Jarratt”] I really wish I had made Prema’s Lady Ruby fight my duel for me at the end though, because it would have been so perfect.
[/quote]

Wow that would have been a great twist :slight_smile:

[quote=“musicforwolves”]
‘No Quarter’ is actually a really clever game - claustrophobic without being crushing, dramatic without being melodramatic. My tears at the end were real, and it was nice to get catharsis after two days of roleplaying. I loved playing with my ‘family’ - Rob and Rowena and Sarah. We’ll all make it out. We’ll all be fine…[/quote]

sniff Thanks Russ :smiley: that was what I was going for.

Evil Overlord Society: My incredibly subtle security check that involved asking everyone in the room whether they were plotting to kill Bactroba (thanks to Lady Web who tried to give me some pointers on how to conduct a covert investigation properly)

Run the Heart: My son was very understanding of my rather messed-up condition and he was quite polite when asking questions such as “are you quite sure you’re sane?”

The Rose and the Dragon: I’m quite aware that I only saw a tiny fraction of what was going on, but every now and then I’d see a snippet of something that looked amazing. The Good Wives’ Guild were frighteningly efficient. Idiot and I would love to hear how everyone in the village ended up, so feel free to post your stories here (or you can email or PM us).

Robin Hood: Trying to convince the Friar to raise a toast to the speedy return of King Richard only to find he was immune to magical manipulation. sigh. I still managed to get up to plenty of undirected mischief though.

Victoria Junction: This was one long roller-coaster (train?) of insanity. It’s pretty hard to single out any one piece of mayhem.

The best game of the weekend for me was definitely the Rose and Dragon, where I played Greedy John Miller. Mister Miller managed to get himself in a boat load of trouble. Within an hour (or maybe even the first twenty minutes, I wasn’t exactly looking at the time), he was dragged before the Quartermasters of the three respective armies presently in residence with his wife in tow. Apparently the watered down grain he had sold them had caused their respective soldiers diarrhea for the last two - three days. So I was pretty much told to cough up a grand total of thirty-one bails of good grain or there would be point things shoved where the sun don’t shine.

Within twenty or so minutes of being escourted back to the Villiage Hall there was a meeting of the gentlemen of the town for a Council meeting. Apparently my actions with watering down the grain had brought the village into disrepute and I was given the chance to willing give up the Mill to my son or have it forcefully taken from me. Seeing the writing on the wall, and not being particularly pleased with the outcome, I let my son have the Mill. But then proceeded to storm off in the huff. (Apparently I was rather convincing in my displeasure as I the guy playing my son (whose name I can’t for the life of me remember) out after me to make sure I was actually okay with what had happened).

But was not all. I would soon learn that the elder Bywater, whose land I’d picked up for a song after he had been declared an outlaw, had himself declared innocent and that his land should be returned to him. Which left me without the Mill, without any land, and seriously in debt to the men with the swords. The only thing I had working for me was that I was still alive. To cap off a brilliantly crap evening for my character he proceeded to sign a five year deal with the Wooler for twenty-four potentially stolen sheep and my wife managed to find the funds to free herself. So that left me somewhat paranoid for the last half-an-hour or so of the game as I expected the soldiers to come in any minute to lob my head off…

Those sheep weren’t stolen - Thomas Wooler was legitimately selling sheep as part of a futures arrangement. And while you ended up with no land, having sheep meant you would probably land on your feet.

And your wife getting her freedom strictly speaking isn’t bad for you. After all, its not as if you had to pay for it…