Hydra 2018 thankyous and war stories

Wellington Hydra
#1

So, how was your Hydra?

On Friday, I played The Longest Night, which was a short, intense larp about the living, the dead, and unfinished business. I’m not a bleedy player, but it was a very emotional game, with excellent performances by everyone. A perfect way to start the con, and my pick of the con.

On Saturday morning, I played Justice and Nemesis. Apparently five years in the making, this one was worth the wait - it was a Roman larp which Did Romans Right. Plenty of family drama, argument about what it meant to be a real Roman, plotting and investigation. I had a perfect daughter in @Curuniel, and a perfect foil in @BlueJay.

On saturday afternoon, I played Blackened Hearts. I expected a not too serious (but also not too light) pirate larp, and this delivered perfectly. A solid game with lots of Arrrrr, and worth picking up on DriveThru.

On Saturday evening, I ran Longmuir Hall, my “Regency - Downton Abbey” game. It seemed to work OK, and I’ll be looking for feedback to see if I can in fact do a sequel.

On Sunday morning, I ran Peaky Games’ Burning Orchid. This had been a hit overseas, and it went very well here, producing some strong emotions in the players. I just wish I’d had surroundings worthy of people’s costumes. I’ll almost certainly run this again, and I highly recommend it.

On Sunday afternoon I played in @Anna_K’s House of Wild Cards, a political parody larp about a thinly disguised Trump presidency. As in reality, it was a total dumpster fire, and yet he still got away with it. All of it.

The games this year were incredibly good, the crowd was fun, and the late night cheese and larp-chat sessions kept me up far too long. I’m sorry I didn’t get to run any of the BTL games, but I’m sure I’ll get a chance to do that in the future.

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Longer format theatre-style larps
#2

Friday Night, I played in AFK, I was an ORC who had been wheelchair bound and now was no longer so I was doing squats in other peoples way and running around everywhere, and somehow renamed Russ’s character Lemon-Rind. It was a blast

Saturday Morning, I played in Spellbound and I was an absolute bastard and I loved every minute of it, im not sure what else I should say about that one other than it was a riot. CORN POLITICS

Saturday Afternoon I played in The Silver Kiss of the Magical Twilight of the Full Moon and tried to be a good teacher chaperone at the school dance, Only problem, I kept forgetting that I was the History Teacher not the English Teacher. Fantastic game, fantastic players.

Saturday Night I ran Hydra TV Presents, The Spooky Woods A game set in a very serious, not silly at all 80s horror movie, where a bunch of teens are being stalked around the woods by hunger teddy bears, Thank you so much to everyone who played, you were all amazing and hilarious, I had an exhausting but fun time trying to kill you all

Sunday Morning I played Burning Orchid, were we attended a very well mannered and well behaved wrap party for the movie we were all working on in some way or another. Nothing Out of the Ordinary. Just a lot of gasping and snarky remarks. It was an absolute pleasure to play

Sunday afternoon saw me die a horrible death in the Freighter Corialus because my only friend in the universe tried to sacrifice himself and leave me all alone, So I out of spiteful anger and despair, I let another crew members selfish sacrifice be in vain and my dying wish was that everyone Eat Shit and Live because apparently you cant use your dying wish to veto someone else’s.
Sorry we speed ran your game Quentin but it was oh so fun

Thank you so much to everyone I roleplayed with and everyone else too, It was a magnificent weekend and my favourite Hydra to date,

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#3

Friday night I ran around waving a sword I had no idea how to use (IC or OOC) in AKF The LARP, a game about being trapped in an MMORPG. Had a lot of fun exploring the boundaries of the world (and answering the very important question of whether our avatars could pee).

Saturday morning was the first of the Kestrel triple feature, in which I played a gambler and con man who definitely had no ulterior motives at all. Not sure how much I can say about the game without spoiling future runs, so I’ll just say it was chaotic and a lot of fun.

Saturday afternoon was The Silver Kiss of the Magical Twilight of the Full Moon. This game was everything I’d hoped it would be - snark, awkwardness, inconvenient romantic feelings, and persuading the school principal to smoke a heroic amount of confiscated weed.

Saturday night was Hydra TV Presents the Spooky Woods - I really had no idea what to expect from this game, which was billed as teenage drama + horror + teddy bear’s picnic. It delivered on all three aspects, with screaming chases through the woods, emotional breakdowns, and an evil fanged teddy bear eating my character’s legs. Fantastic amounts of fun, and some really cool atmospheric effects from @KingCodyak. He had us taking an army of teddy bears completely seriously, and inspired some genuine moments of terror. Awesome.

Sunday morning was Snow White, a dark fairy tale game. I was too tired for this game (lesson learned - next year I play comedies on Sunday morning), but once I managed to wake up enough, really enjoyed my grumpy old woman character.

Sunday afternoon was House of Wild Cards, a completely ridiculous parody of the Trump administration. Playing the daughter of Ronald ‘Make America Ace Again’ Ace was hilariously frustrating, a particular highlight being attempting to explain that he couldn’t in fact make a high-level Russian [spoiler] the American Secretary of Defence. (It didn’t sink in.) This was probably my favourite game of the convention - I achieved none of my goals, found out a lot of horrifying/hilarious secrets, and generally had an amazing time.

As usual, stayed up too late talking to awesome people, and came out of the con having promised to run games, and to sign up for campaigns, and with ideas for more games.

Thank you to everyone I played with, and everyone who GMed (and especially Scott for putting the whole thing together)! You’re all the best, and I can’t wait for Hydra 2019. ____ ______

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#4

My main takeaways were from silver kiss and spooky woods. silver kiss i found out after the game it wasn’t just a normal school dance, and from spooky woods i found out it isn’t appropriate to sing loudly while attempting to hide as people kept shushing me and pinning me down so everyone couldn’t hear my wonderful singing.

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#5

Friday night I played AFK. I was one of the few characters who found someone they were connected to IRL. Thanks @Mundens for playing the other half of that rather sad and unresolved relationship. Honorable mentions to my warm cloak that kept me toasty throughout the game

Saturday morning I ran Spellbound. I hope the players found it as entertaining to play as it was to watch.

Saturday afternoon was Blackened Hearts. It provided the expected piratical hijinks. In this game I learned that puffy sleeves are really useful for hiding things in.

Saturday evening I tuned in to the pilot of Longmuir Hall. I played Sir George Osbourne, cad and opponent of all things decent (e.g. democracy and human rights). I had great fun with Lady Frances sniping at all the other guests.

On Sunday morning I played A Night in Babylon, based on Babylon 5. It’s a mystery game, so there’s not too much that can’t be said without giving away spoilers. However, it did a good job of evoking the setting (and making me want to go back and rewatch B5)

Finally my Hydra was wrapped up with @Anna_K’s House of Wild Cards. This was good silly fun for a Sunday afternoon. However, I do worry whether the game could be rerun in a year’s time, or whether reality will have surpassed it by then. Most dramatic probably goes to Petrova’s big reveal (although the line “new family rule, no arguing when we’re under fire” comes a close second)

Not only were all the games I played in this year excellent, there are several that I regret not getting to play. Hopefully there will be reruns…

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#6

Games I regret not being able to play:

  • Spellbound
  • A Night in Babylon
  • The Freighter Coralus

Hopefully I’ll get a chance to play these in reruns or at other cons.

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