Hydra 2019 thankyous and war stories

So, how was your Hydra?

I am still processing (and waiting for my feet to stop hurting), but some initial things:

  • My players in Best of the Wurst were perfectly on-genre, down to the ending;
  • Lazarus Bar & Grill was a really great cyberpunk larp and @Auroran should publish it (Publish your damn games, people!)
  • I’m probably going to have to write Longmuir Hall 3, the wedding(s). Match & Matrimony?
  • Michelle’s burritos were tasty.

games are on Larp Resume for those of you who use it.

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Hi everybody, I had a lovely time. I think my favourite roleplaying moment was spending almost all of Project Foxtrot immersed in my steadily disintegrating marriage with Ged (yeah, there was some ‘dealing with science’ stuff going on with the other players, but we had our priorities straight.) Then I found out that the second Foxtrot group had had to watch all of the video footage of this. I should say I’m sorry, but really it just made me cackle.

Thank you to the Ulysses players, you were all awesome .

Stephanie

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I loved what the players of The Lazarus did with the game. I’m still so tired, but overall I had a great time at Hydra this year. :grinning:

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I’m very, very jealous of those that got to play in Lazarus Bar & Grill. It would’ve been my top pick if I’d been able to go to Hydra at all.

I guess what I’m saying is: sign me up if there’s ever a rerun! (You heard it here first…!) :stuck_out_tongue:

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This was such a good Hydra!

Summary of all my games incoming.

Bloody Memories was fantastic - it was great having memory fragments and not knowing who to trust. It turns out almost all of us could trust each other, it just didn’t seem that way at first. I enjoyed thinking I was basically the worst person in there only to find out there were great lengths to save me from what should have been my death.

I fell to the floor laughing in Another One Bites The Crust because of Sven Svenson, the “Experimental” Chef making a noise that can only be described as a cross between a Sneeze and a Horse Neighing. The whole game was great silly fun.

I particularly enjoyed the fear in some people’s eyes when I was a dragon in Most Magical Time of The Year. Especially when they would ask for help and I would tell them to solve their own problems and not bother me with such easy issues.

Lazarus was great. I decided I would actually just be a bartender, and did dishes cleanup when no one was telling me their sob story. I also got to shoot people on more than one occasion.

Battle of the Bards was amazing and you could tell there were so many D&D lovers in the game because of the great tales just being borrowed from their actual games. In the end I got the best bard when I wasn’t even trying to get the best one! I just wanted a bard! And to get rid of my bad smell so my beloved would not avoid me :frowning: as well as the curse of the amulet (Achieved!)

Finally Louvre Actually was basically a giant riff-off with a lot of very funny people, including my favourite “Whoooooosh! Spindleyyyy”. What a shame the statue had to be bitter and set us all on fire at the end.

Such a great year!

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The details:

On Friday, I ran Best of the Wurst, a silly larp inspired by the classic British comedy 'Allo 'Allo. As might be expected from the title, it was a total sausage-fest, with the players producing a string of innuendo before lining up to present their sausages for judging. The Germans shouted, the French resisted, there was much ado in the cellars and constant “prayer” in the chapel, and it ended with a perfect 'Allo 'Allo-style ending. I have a few thoughts on extra things I can do, and based on feedback have offered this for Phoenix 2019 in August.

On Saturday morning I played as not-Gordon Ramsay in @RobotPie’s reality TV-chef larp, Another One Bites The Crust. Despite being television’s sweariest chef, I felt like the straight man in the room, especially compared to @joker’s children’s chef and @Dragnew’s amazing Swedish chef. People’s efforts to actually cook with the provided sugary substances provided another level of crazy. It was good silly fun, and I recommend playing it if it re-runs in future.

On Saturday afternoon I played in @Dragnew’s The Most Magical Time of the Year, about the office christmas party of a local government occult agency (local government apparently being a lot weirder than people think it is). Unfortunately my energy levels were flagging (as were a lot of people’s), but I ploughed through, found some inspiration for my primary plotline, and discovered that dragons like NeoLiberalism (because dragons are arseholes). The game ran short, so I got to have a nice nap before dinner.

On Saturday evening I played in @Auroran’s Lazarus Bar & Grill. This was a pitch-perfect 80’s cyberpunk larp (you know, where people have overt cyberware, there’s constant drizzle, and governments fight dirty wars in small, far-off countries in pointless resource squabbles, while the megacorps who really run things make out like bandits. A far more optimistic scenario than the Zuckerberg / climate crisis / script kiddies hack your fridge timeline we’ve actually got. OTOH, in 80’s cyberpunk, livestreamed murder would be a full-on commercial channel). I was an android chef, so I spent my evening delivering deadpan humour while trying to manage a combined kitchen / operating theatre space. The big challenges were customers, the GM’s excellent 80’s soundtrack (androids don’t sing), and having to find something to say at the scheduled memorial service which wouldn’t break my delivery (androids don’t cry). Fortunately @tog42 saved me from the latter. This is an excellent larp, and if you get the chance to play it, you should.

Sunday morning was Property & Propriety, the sequel to last year’s Longmuir Hall. Many players returned to reprise their roles, and while the game needed more time, it seemed to go well. While I wasn’t able to keep track of everything that was going on (there is only so much the servants can eavesdrop on), kudos to @Lady_Prema for her wonderfully scandalous Lady Frances, @tigger for Sir George, and @hannah for her portrayal of Aunt Lavinia. based on what happened in this game, I will almost certainly be writing a third episode, about The Wedding (or weddings), but I’ve also had a request for a rerun to allow the players who missed it to reprise their roles. Maybe in September as a double with Stephanie’s Jolly Good and Really Excellent Larp That Will Go Splendidly?

Sunday afternoon was The Sky Like Glass, a sci-fi horror game which ran like a classic Twilight Zone or Outer Limits episode. Which isn’t really my preferred style of SF, but the game was fairly solid for what it was. I can’t talk much about it because of spoilers though.

I played in good games every round. And every round I also had regret over the games I wasn’t able to play in. And I’m really interested in seeing what great stuff will be on offer next year…

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Bloody Memories - it was interesting piecing the story together from the different memories. I could see the setting working quite well as a campaign too. There’s not too much that can be said without spoilers. However, I would mention that the game while having some dark themes, is not excessively grim

Another One Bites the Crust - in which I learned that microwaved bowls of random lollies and whipped cream don’t taste as bad as you’d think. There were some hilarious performances in this. A special mention to Miss Spoony, who made have made the ultimate sacrifice in this game.

Most Magical Time of the Year - this is one of those games where there’s so much crazy going on, it’s hard to pick out specific highlights.

Ill-Met by Moonlight - this felt like playing in a flagship with the level of costuming and set-dressing effort that had gone into it. I was expecting to flub this, being somewhat sleep deprived, but the game was sufficiently engaging to kick my brain awake.

Toil and Trouble - Toil and Trouble is one of those games that when you read it, you really regret that you won’t be playing it. Fortunately watching a really strong group of players playing it is almost as good.

Tears of Heaven - I found the dynamics of this interesting. It was geared towards exploring the relationships between pairs of characters both explicitly through the night watch mechanic and coincidentally via the walking where it is natural to fall into groups of 2 or 3 for conversations. I also like the fact that the final battle comes down to a D20 roll.

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I challenge the 'Allo 'Allo writer’s room to come up with better (or is it worse?) than the Best of the Wurst players:

  • would you like to sample my sausage?
  • A man must master his sausage
  • My sausage is quite overwhelmed!
  • Who brings a gun to a sausage contest?
  • (When something dangerous happened): we brought the painting. The tittles are safe!
  • Can I have another look at the boobies? (I think this was a reference to a painting. I think)
  • My blue-veined sausage is the best in the world.
  • Show me your private sausages.
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This was my first Hydra and larp weekend convention in general, and the first time I’ve played a theatreform since…kapcon, 16 or so years ago? I guess there might have been one at an OURS con after that, but I don’t recall exactly.

I had a blast, thank you all so much.

Special shout outs to;
-Bloody Memories, which was a cool concept and execution
-The Devils Brood, which I think more men should play and pay attention to.
-The Lazarus Bar and Grill, which got people accusing me of being a robot because I was looking around without blinking, and I WASN’T EVEN DOING IT ON PURPOSE THAT’S JUST HOW I HYPERVIGILANT GUARD OK, bit also was a cyberpunking hell of a good time and I want to make more trashy 80’s costuming for
-Battle of the Bards, which made me hurt from laughing so hard

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I think this was my favourite Hydra yet :smiley:

If Colours Hated Me by @u_ne_korn was super cool, and genuinely unsettling (don’t want to say much more because spoilers, but A+ frightening, particularly walking around outside in total darkness while Russ said increasingly distressing things…)

The Joy of Bob Ross by Hannibal was… odd, as I think it was intended to be. I had an excellent time stealing everything I could get my hands on and endlessly frustrating Samantha :stuck_out_tongue:

The Lazarus Bar and Grill by Sarah was awesome and everything I wanted out of a cyberpunk larp (and the gore props were SO COOL). I had immense fun grilling various people, particularly @Ciaran about the existence of a certain [spoiler], and then watching them find out later that it was me all along.

Toil and Trouble, run by @Catnip, was the highlight of the weekend for me, and I think one of my favourite LARPs ever. Can’t say much because spoilers, but the other players were all amazing, and I’m not sorry about any of it.

My two games, The Always Winter and The Sky Like Glass, went well, and will probably both be run again after some mechanics tweaks. The fables I heard people telling in The Always Winter were gorgeous, and I wish I’d recorded them (especially Russ’ game-ending story).

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First of all BIG thanks to everyone for being amazing!

If Colours Hated Me was absolutely awesome! The game was super unsettling and even scared myself by walking into a spider web and left myself feeling like I had spiders on me for the next hour which only added to the tension.

Quick Wit and Queasy Stomach was everything I had hoped it would be and more! Never had so much fun being hungover :stuck_out_tongue: I really enjoyed roleplaying with everyone

The Most Magical Time was a hoot and a half. I became besties with the orange pyramid god of safety and got a passive aggressive note about my “loud shoes” from a ghost, BEST OFFICE PARTY EVER

The Last Voyage of the SS Prometheus! SPACE what more can I say! I angered a coworker, I befriended aliens, I became a depressive drunk and…I…GOT…HEADPATS!

The Untitled Space Larp, Well this was my pride and joy, my baby, my apotheosis.
IT HAS A NAME NOW Wednesday on the Aspidistra HUGE thanks to my players yay!
It was so much fun to watch and I’m glad everyone enjoyed it, It needs a bit more tweaking and I will publish it.

Oh and i’m definitely running it again

The Devil’s Brood, I am glad to have been able to fill in for another player as I had no game in that session. It was a hard game. I played a devout believer and I am not. Nevertheless I enjoyed it :slight_smile:

All the cheese and wine and rum the liars dice the stupid conversations about whether tables are benches (they’re not) how the turtles holding up the earth eat (Spoons) what happens when the last turtle eats (still not sure), the massages the friends! the catch ups, the costumes
THANKS EVERYONE

Tables all the way down

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