Great Exhibition for the win

Auckland Chimera
#1

I had an awesome time at the Great Exhibition, it was probably the most consistently cool-looking larp I’ve ever played in (or run for that matter), and the character interactions were awesome. The room looked about perfect, an amazing transformation for a scout hall - putting the plants and seating in the center was a great idea that completely altered the feel of the room, and made for an excellent merry-go-round when I was trying to avoid Wendy… before I remembered being Pan I thought she was a crazy women babbling about pirates.

My character objectives were great, and even acting on the Things You Know section allowed me to transform at least one other character’s game - I let the Irish activist know that his financial fraud conviction was probably trumped up. I only wish I’d had more time before the game to peruse my character so I could memorise more of those factoids. Getting a whole 'nother set of objectives as Pan came at just the right time, as I’d worked through my mundane ones.

Huge kudos to the writing team, you worked a minor miracle (minor compared to, say, raising the dead) and anyone who has written pregen larps would appreciate the insane amount of work that went into writing those characters, and the skill that went into writing them so well. The research into the era also shone through, I learned more about the politics of the time than I thought possible in a three hour game. Well done.

#2

Hear hear!!!

#3

It wasn’t until after the game that I realised what Peter Pan’s happy thought was (one of his objectives was to find his happy thought). He doesn’t have to choose between being a child and growing up, he can have both! He can accept the offer of a promotion and make a difference through politics in the real world and be a better husband, and also spend time in Neverland with Wendy fighting pirates, flying between reality and fantasy as it suits him. There is no need to choose! A moral for all of us, perhaps.

#4

plus, there were demon lesbians…

#5

The only thing I want to know is (perhaps this came out at the debrief while I was off doing admin) who ended up with the diamond?

My full gushing recount will come later but yeah, Great Ex was as amazing as I hoped, and it really did look fabulous. The bar is being raised higher and higher in larp standards, and I think Great Ex put it up another notch or two.

#6

Smoking weed much?

I fully understand that this larp was not supposed to be accurate and that - in the words of the GM’s Liberties have been taken with fact and fiction.

To say that “research into the era” shone through simply establishes your own complete lack of knowlege in this area.

Yes it was a great game.

No it was not historically accurate facts were incorrect in multiple area’s and simple resurch was not performed on some basic levels.

However -

I am happy to declaire that accuracy was not the main goal of the creators instead it was a fun game they were after!

Ignorning a few minor slips on character sheets - I feel the event definatly succeeded in its advertised goal and this was why it was the only event I gave 10/10

#7

Probably, yes - my knowledge of British history is pretty weak, especially compared to natives. To put it another way, the detailed discussion of political issues such as the Irish potato famine, the contagious diseases act and suffrage that was built into the setting and the sense of being immersed in them made me interested to learn more about the historical realities of them. Obviously it wasn’t a history lession, and even more obviously it had a lot of fantasy in it and was chronologically muddled, but the issues raised were real human historical issues that shine a light on a different era, and it raised them well.

#8

[quote=“Anna K”]The only thing I want to know is (perhaps this came out at the debrief while I was off doing admin) who ended up with the diamond?
quote]
Dr Horrible used it in his freeze ray device to stop the demon… when that failed he used it on the police inspector trying to stop the demon :laughing: after which I am told it crumbled into probably a fairly large amount of diamond dust. (Either that or he lied to me and walked off with the diamond and possibly having suckerd Nemo into the Fake.)

#9

The freeze ray was also used to freeze Peter Pan, but I’m not sure if the diamond was in it at the time

#10

Dr. Horrible wtf?!!

#11

Yeah, first time I ever heard of him was when I found out he’d come back in time to assassinate me because I was the great great great something grandfather of his nemesis… wtf pretty much sums up my reaction as well!

#12

Yes, Dr. Horrible was there. 'twas me.
The Diamond got broken down into wonderflonium when I re-charged the freeze ray.
At the time I froze Peter Pan, the freeze ray still had one charge left in it after the fight with Captain Hammer in the future

I only shot the demon as three of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen were stood around me at the time. Went to shot at the inspector as they stepped away, but just as I aimed they finished the demon. My PhD in Horribleness suggested perhaps starting a fight without a distraction would be a bad idea

#13

10/10 for atmosphere, for sure. Between the decorations, exhibits, artwork, foliage, costumes and props it was a brilliantly good looking game!

I had a great time being an extremely prim and proper (and slightly pompous) politician’s wife and Malcolm and Gemma were great to rp with as my husband and daughter. Unfortunately, our normalness (?) apparently put people off checking me out for any involvement with the … more underworldy aspects of the game. For example, I spoke to the man who had the dagger I desparately needed at least 4 times, and Scott has since told me he spent a good deal of the game actively trying to offload it to someone, but that he didn’t think I could possibly be involved with the occult.

So my game suffered from a simple case of bad luck, and I began to feel rather picked on by the end of the night (headache not helping there either). There were MANY people around who could have helped me with my goals, and I had spoken socially to almost all of them, but I guessed wrong on the ones to open my mouth to. They either couldn’t help, or were secretly my enemies. So, instead of triumphing and acheiving, I ended up with my entrails spread around the floor after the demon took over my Coven leader’s body and slaughtered me and my daughter. sigh Oh well, you can’t win em all. :smiley:

#14

I was very amused to find that while being a famous thief I had stealing in the end of my goals list. Had lots of fun spying for Vanya, though political people apparently didn’t have much interest talking to me. Being a royal bodyguard I kept Vanya in sight all evening, chatting to him in Russian, including calling him “Your Highness” with nobody understanding, appearing next to him every time some trouble was happening, so with all the strange events of the end of the evening I didn’t have time to steal one of the things I had my eye on - it was a beautiful necklace with cross, did I hear someone saying afterwards it had magic power? Nevertheless, ended up with a handful of other shinies :smiley: Did someone suspect Mina of doing this? I wonder why :open_mouth: She probably acted suspiciously.

I didn’t manage to find out who is bringing the new line of action to the London thieves guild and gives the orders that I considered inacceptable as they were not for the wellbeing of the poor (I was surprised to find the GMs made me a robinhoodish character, though of all liberties they took with authenticity this was the closest to actual legends about Sonya). In fact, I didn’t even manage to bump into that person at all in whole evening. However, had awesome interaction with Kiki, we discussed our thieves business and plotted some stuff, including keeping en eye out for any opportunity to steal the diamond.

The conversations with other ninjas about our ninja stuff were hilarious :laughing: I never got to use my Kick-Ass ability as nobody attacked Vanya, so the pink card rested in my handbag all evening, ready to be drawn out any time :smiley:

After the game I discovered there was a police inspector there who was after me, he knew who I am and he knew my name, and he was ready to arrest me. He never managed to find me! Because I’m a ninja. No, seriously, we didn’t bump into each other the whole evening at all! Instead I kept bumping into scientists, feminists, doctors… but happily avoided the inspector, big LOL to that :laughing:

Oh, and I also made agreement with Jill the Reaper about supplying some drugs that could be useful for my thief business, got invitied to a feminist gathering and a theosophical gathering, and tried to recruit myself into the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen :laughing:

#15

[quote=“theotherphoenix”]10/10 for atmosphere, for sure. Between the decorations, exhibits, artwork, foliage, costumes and props it was a brilliantly good looking game!

I had a great time being an extremely prim and proper (and slightly pompous) politician’s wife and Malcolm and Gemma were great to rp with as my husband and daughter. Unfortunately, our normalness (?) apparently put people off checking me out for any involvement with the … more underworldy aspects of the game. For example, I spoke to the man who had the dagger I desparately needed at least 4 times, and Scott has since told me he spent a good deal of the game actively trying to offload it to someone, but that he didn’t think I could possibly be involved with the occult.

So my game suffered from a simple case of bad luck, and I began to feel rather picked on by the end of the night (headache not helping there either). There were MANY people around who could have helped me with my goals, and I had spoken socially to almost all of them, but I guessed wrong on the ones to open my mouth to. They either couldn’t help, or were secretly my enemies. So, instead of triumphing and acheiving, I ended up with my entrails spread around the floor after the demon took over my Coven leader’s body and slaughtered me and my daughter. sigh Oh well, you can’t win em all. :smiley:[/quote]

I had the same problem with the Dagger, by the time I got around to trying to sell it (still early on) I had been thoroughly vistimised by the police/detictives/captain that I was being very careful who I approached about it, although I did ask the inspector if criminals were trying to sell goods who was usually their contacts (so I could catch other thieves for the inspector of course), I spoke to all of my criminal contacts about finding collectors and tried to approach the Egyptians and Indians but I was too lowerclass for them, a certain professor Whitehall (Moriarty) was also looking for buyers as well. Sorry had no idea there was occult groups were around until late in the game.

#16

I had no idea you were a Thief, in fact I think at one stage I was thinking of pick pocketing you. The one goal that I did the worst with was finding the cure for Cholera for the poor of the city. I attempted approaching Politicians, Doctors and Scientists (those that would actually deem to talk to me), but missed the people I needed. One of the fun things with so many people swirling around.

#17

Haha, what were you going to pickpocket?

#18

No idea, I just saw that you seemed very busy so may have something interesting on you. I was basically stealing very random things towards the end there.

#19

Busy? Wow, I had no idea I looked busy, that’s an interesting thing to know :slight_smile:

#20

[quote=“Scott”][quote=“Aiwe”]
I didn’t manage to find out who is bringing the new line of action to the London thieves guild and gives the orders that I considered inacceptable as they were not for the wellbeing of the poor (I was surprised to find the GMs made me a robinhoodish character, though of all liberties they took with authenticity this was the closest to actual legends about Sonya). In fact, I didn’t even manage to bump into that person at all in whole evening. However, had awesome interaction with Kiki, we discussed our thieves business and plotted some stuff, including keeping en eye out for any opportunity to steal the diamond.
[/quote]
I had no idea you were a Thief, in fact I think at one stage I was thinking of pick pocketing you. The one goal that I did the worst with was finding the cure for Cholera for the poor of the city. I attempted approaching Politicians, Doctors and Scientists (those that would actually deem to talk to me), but missed the people I needed. One of the fun things with so many people swirling around.[/quote]

Huh, I had that goal too, and was just as unsuccessful as you.