Oh, that was a “hero”? 
I thought “bandit” 
I don’t think there is a need to connect all characters to each other, it will just make lots of messy little connections instead of several serious which you can play with. If someone wants to approch character they aren’t connected with for a chat it won’t be a problem (like I approached many movie stars 
), plus you always have secondary connections - people to whom your character is not connected but who is somehow related to someone you are related to… Grrrh, complicated. Like this: I had no connections to Dr Henry Jones, so I approached him myself and we chatted about Indy and how I should take good care of him. I had no connections to Al Capone but his girl was my friend… that was funny
The Shadow was awesome. I talked to him out of character, and he had the ability to see if people were good or evil. The mysterious apple symbol on my nametag was explained.
(I was evil, in case you wondered 
)
Nup.
Dunno. Games like Graduation Day and For the Honour of the Family suited the time frames they had. Trying to stretch them out to be a full day game mightn’t work.
I don’t know that it’d be better, just different.
No, I meant just a one-day convention, with three timeslots for larps. So exactly like the Saturday of the Chimera just past, but with no Friday or Sunday play.
Sounds like Chimera was awesome. Anna, and all those that helped her, should be very proud of what they achieved. A high water mark in NZ larping, methinks.
I’m looking forward to attending next year’s one.
I agree with Ryan that this is a large project that could use a formalised team arrangement, especially if you want to grow it. Motu Moana has some growth potential if Mowgli (the Inn) is included as a playspace.
How did Orcball go ? And the TV Soap game ?
Blue team won. Constantly. Nuff said 
Blue team won. Constantly. Nuff said [/quote]Age and treachery for the win! 
We had two teams of 3 or 4 players each. The strategy that worked for our team was to have a couple of bruisers out the front, and a runner who lagged behind them until I had the head and a clear shot at the goal, so I ended up scoring most of our points. (I’m not used to being good at games. It’s a good feeling.)
Then when people got tired, the teams got cut down to two each, and degraded into a blood bath, and after that, the two best fighters were in a team of their own and everybody else mobbed them. I suspect that the tactics change a lot with more people playing.
Despite including it in the line up, I was dubious about how the soap opera larp would go, and if it would be any fun. Turns it goes well and is insane amounts of fun. It helps if players are aware of the conventions of soap operas (finally, watching Days of our Lives pays off!) and way in which it is presented.
Our first few goes were a little chaotic until we introduced the “one person talks at a time” rule, which is different from other larps, but works really well for the soap opera genre. It’s very much “what the players say goes” larp, and it’s a lot of fun when everyone rolls with it.
It’s probably closer to improv theatre than larping, but it was a heck of a lot of silly fun, and everyone roleplayed excellently with the bizarre curveballs that we threw at each other. Heaps of fun.
Of the games I played, I found Tryst the weirdest, I think mostly because the instructions were to be yourself. My first instinct on being cast as the group leader was to get all jingly and New Agey and ham everything up, and I had to consciously put the acting impulse aside and just react to things how I normally would. Also, the game had three orange-clad figures that I couldn’t ‘see’ in the context of the game, but could in real life, so I kept catching flashes of orange in my peripheral vision and deliberately not focusing on them, and had to wait to the end of the game to find out what the players looked like. Actually, because often they were standing behind me, or sitting on either side, I found them quite comforting - backup, like. Also, because everytime I ran out of something to say I said “Let’s meditate!” I finished the game feeling amazingly calm and relaxed.
The Soap Opera was zany fun, and a good way to kick off the weekend. Orc Ball was lots of running around and getting muddy, which was just what I needed at that point. Hindenberg was a bit tiring, because we had a stressy couple of hours setting up before hand, but great to see it go well. (The people who dressed the set, and the Nielson brothers with the multimedia setup were awesome.) Serenity scratched a completely different itch - that of the crewmember of a thousand faces, most of which we made up on the spot. Incidentally, Madame Tallulah made 50 credits out of the day, from an unnamed client. 
That Tryst was weird, even for Tryst. I think the first half of the game was briefing, with me trying to get my head around how to brief everyone as themselves while creating some drama, which is much harder to do with people you don’t know and shouldn’t have been done at the event. I was underprepared, partially as a result of spending time on Hindenburg, which I’m sorry about. An hour and a half of briefing, then the same amount of play… that’s running late even for me.
My briefings on how the game itself works, especially the grotesques, were clearly inadequate and led to long pointless distractons about floating objects that should never have happened. The grotesques were also under-briefed on how to achieve their goals - and how to recognise the specifics of their goals.
In all I think Tryst is a game to play with mates in your living room, with proper preparation. Not a con larp, unless the “play yourself” aspect was dropped and everyone was handed characters at the start. Cons and pregen larps definitely belong together.
EDIT: but you made a great meditation leader Steph, I was quite surprised how real it seemed.
I enjoyed Tryst, but I did think it was a bit weird. I personally enjoy religious/philosophical discussions so that aspect of Tryst was really interesting. The grotesques and the floating objects were confusing though as it was hard to know how to react to this, especially playing ourselves.
I could see it working better with pre-gen characters as you could encourage more debate by having different belief stystems represented. Maybe characters with interests in different aspects of buddism too?
I can see that Tryst wouldn’t appeal to all larpers, but I do think it’s good to have different styles of games on offer. It’s also the type of game that I could definately play again as I imagine it would be very different with different players.
And yeah, Stephanie was an awesome leader. Really well played.
Yeah, I found the chat fun too, and in some ways I find playing myself a thought-provoking experience. Especially comparing a naturalistic approach to playing myself instead of another person. It makes me consider the level of naturalism I use in playing other people in larp, which varies quite a lot depending on the larp. After that I noticed in Hindenburg that some people played very naturalistically, and some very dramatically.
I actually enjoyed the meditation too.
That I can answer. Firstly, I should have been more clear briefing the grotesques not to 1) fiddle with stuff just for the sake of it, like moving stuff pointlessly and slamming doors 2) do things that would be impossible to rationalise, because it would lead to their destruction. Secondly, I should have briefed the mundanes more clearly that if something is impossible to rationalise, they should look at the gortesques as a warning, and then stare them out of existence. For example, a grotesque dropping an object in front of a player so that it seems to materialise out of nowhere should probably result in the grotesque being stared out.
Floating objects are tricky. I always assumed that objects held by grotesques are invisible, just like the grotesque, because otherwise the floating objects would be impossible to rationalise. I think players in the first event treated them this way, but I should make it clear in briefings and the player guide. The grotesques may need to be able to move objects, but should try to be subtle about it. Players should notice that items have shifted, but they would not perceive them “floating through the air” because that’s close to impossible.
That’d work, but the playing yourself thing is kind of a feature of the system too. Maybe I’m a bit precious about it, but playing yourself is supposed to ground you in the mundaneness of the ordinary world, it’s part of the theme. Ideally, the GM should know the players well enough to be able to create interesting interaction. In the original run the players were more different versions of themselves - one committed suicide, another cheated, one got pregnant, etc. Mundane but interaction-inspiring stuff. It didn’t have a Buddhist theme, it was about the ghost of the person who committed suicide. This time I didn’t know folks so didn’t know how to stretch them appropriately, and I underprepared for it which didn’t help either.
Chimera was amazing. I started larping about ten years ago, but only Vampire, which never really grabbed me despite taking years-long breaks and trying to come back multiple times, and Chimera has finally, firmly convinced me that yes, larp can be good and wonderful and fun and DAMMIT I WANT MORE! Why do I have to live all the way across an ocean?! pout
I’ve been so obsessed with Nightmare Circle from reading Anna’s blogs and I was so jazzed to finally play. Don’t feel too bad, your character was originally written with full Sanity, too…
shakes fist at people burning down my house
Oh my goodness it was so hard not to laugh out loud at Madam Tallulah’s Fancy Themed Whorehouse. Bess and Olivia were both just O_O “You’d never find that sort of thing on Ariel. God I miss home.”
I only did one game each day and it felt huge to me. I can’t imagine playing in every single session. Kudos to all of you who managed it!
And Derek, in the three games I saw you in, your costumes were fantastic. I had the best-looking husband of the weekend!
Not at all, especially if you’re trying to draw people from great distances, one day just isn’t worth it. Perhaps cut down on the number of time slots, like have only two games on Saturday instead of three; people can still play for the same amount of time but fewer games means less costume/accent/mindset switching, which I think is what made Chimera exhausting even to some experienced weekend-larpers.
Um thanks, lets just never mention that little purple number again 
My character started life as a child of privileged. Money, education, property etc. Working in one of the finest facilities in the 'verse. Using the best tools, tending the most important people. Performing God like medicine on a weekly basis…
…and has now ended up doctoring whores in a themed whorehouse.
If I’d owned a gun, I may have killed myself!
[quote]…and has now ended up doctoring whores in a themed whorehouse.
If I’d owned a gun, I may have killed myself![/quote]
Jus’ outta curiosity, didja bring that fancy little purple thang witcha? Cuz y’all could take up with th’whorin’ when th’ doctorin’s slow… Madam Tallulah has her boys too, y’know. 
OMG shudder at this rate the GM’s gonna shoot himself.
I’ll just do my own bit of shameless post game promotion.
[size=150]KNIGHTSHADE=FANTASY FUN![/size]
Knigthshade went together pretty damned well from what I can tell from the comments coming in so far. Level of costuming and involvement was high!
All went well and pretty much to plan, except for Davids leg injury of course.
The game proved rather robust in terms of the rule set, although there was a little confusion around the torso/limbs hit locations rule. Nevermind though, it is a little alien to some and understandable at a first game.
And a call for more “wugglies”, although my 2 main re-occuring foes played by Vanya & Adam did exceptionally well at keeping them busy.
And the occasional bandit too.
SO, next game is planned for the 13th of September, to be held here in Hamilton or somewhere very close to it. Full details TBA.
See the main Knightshade thread to sign up!
Should I be glad or upset that I have no idea what you mean by little purple number?
[quote=“Derek”]My character started life as a child of privileged. Money, education, property etc. Working in one of the finest facilities in the 'verse. Using the best tools, tending the most important people. Performing God like medicine on a weekly basis…
…and has now ended up doctoring whores in a themed whorehouse.
If I’d owned a gun, I may have killed myself![/quote]
I saw that headdesk from across the room after one of them asked if you were going to come around later. Tee hee.
And not just whores! The Admiral’s daughter is also now under your care. And she wonders why an educated man like the doctor would ever want to leave the Core.