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May 6th, 2008
11:44 am - Solmukohta 2008 Report
Somewhat belatedly, I'm including here my report on Solmukohta 2008 -- an international larp convention with a focus on analysis and discussion, held this year in Finland that I flew out to. (I had a separate post about my personal experience of it.)
I'll post this material soon on my Convention Reports page.
( Long enumerating of larps and program items )
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March 28th, 2008
11:56 am - Off to Solmukohta 2008
So tonight I'm leaving for Finland to attend Solmukohta 2008, an international larp convention that rotates between the four mainland Nordic countries. (I've sometimes called it the Scandanavian larp scene, but I should correctly call it Nordic now if I'm going to Finland.) So there's a week of sightseeing, larping, and drinking beforehand (called "A Week in Finland" by tradition); then the convention itself which is more about analysis and theory than play.
I'm especially interested in what they have for the book this year. I have an article in it about parlor larps, which I hope is a good introduction and issue raiser, but nothing ground-breaking. I am eager to see what others wrote, though.
See my Knutepunkt 2005 Report and Knutpunkt 2006 Report for more details on what it's like in general, along with my larp LJ tag.
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November 29th, 2007
08:52 am - Solmukohta Call For Papers
If you're like me, then when you're getting a new job and dealing with other home issues, you forget about deadlines. Like how abstracts for papers in the Solmukohta 2008 book were supposed to be due November 17th.
Luckily for me (and probably others), they've extended the deadline to December 1st.
The books for the nodal point conferences (Knutepunkt/ Knutpunkt/ Knudepunkt/ Solmukohta) are focused on larp but are wide-ranging in the sorts of articles. From analyses of larps in practice, craftsmanship, to theoretical focus are covered. I think all of the books have been excellent, but the Finns last book ("Beyond Role and Play") especially so.
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November 28th, 2007
12:33 am - Recent Convention Reports (Fall 2007)
I've posted two convention reports for my recent conventions,
EndGame October 2007 Mini-Con Report
AmberCon NorthWest 2007 Report
A few words on the games I ran.
At End Game, I ran another Spirit of Serenity game based on the popularity of previous runs. And it went quite well as before. I'm still struggling a bit with the system in my campaign game, but with well-designed pregenerated characters it has worked great for me in one-shots.
At ACNW, I ran two games: a predesigned Parlor Larp scenario ("Hamlet") and my Amber-setting Spirit of the Century game "Big Trouble in Little Amber". Both turned out quite well. Most of the conflicts in the Parlor Larp game went smoothly, and moved the game forward. The SotC game worked pretty much as I hoped -- I think practice in making a good group of pregenerated characters was good. In particular, making up good aspects is tricky -- and even trickier for the GM to compel them with zero familiarity. So I recommend pregens for SotC one-shots.
More details are in the reports.
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October 2nd, 2007
10:03 am - AmberCon NorthWest 2007 Game Book open
So the AmberCon NorthWest events are open for registration now. Registration is due by this Saturday (October 6).
ACNW 2007 Game Book
I'm running two games this time: a parlor larp and a pulp game set in Amber. My general rule for most conventions is to run one fairly traditional game, and one more experimental/indie game. At previous AmberCon NW years, I had run an Amber DRPG game ("Princesses in Rebma") and a session of Polaris. This time, I'm doing something a little different.
Hamlet
This is a parlor larp created by the original designers from Shifting Forest Storyworks. The description I gave is: A larp adaptation by J Li of Shakespeare's Hamlet, set in a twist of the plot the day after Hamlet accidentally kills Polonius. Hamlet is about to be sent away to England in a few hours, and will not have another chance to kill Claudius perhaps for years. The majority of the court, Ophelia included, have been told that Polonius accidentally fell down the stairs. At the queen's insistence a small gathering is held to send Hamlet off. In the middle of it all, Laertes returns unexpectedly, demanding to see his father.
I've run this before and it's a pretty good scenario, I think. The court and politics make it similar to Amber in theme, I think, and the material is familiar to most people.
Big Trouble in Little Amber
This is a pulp game set in the Amber universe, obviously taken from John Carpenter's hilarious Big Trouble in Little China. The description I gave is: In Jidrash, the capital of Kashfa, there is a neighborhood known to locals as "Little Amber". It is a little piece of the great empire of Amber, where people of Amber congregate within this foreign land. However, mysterious events go on within the bowels of this neighborhood that none of the Kashfans fathom. Solemn oaths are sworn, deals brokers, and wars carried out without any of the local Kashfans understanding.
All of that is about to explode when a local tradesman happens on a mysterious crime, and heroes within Little Amber must rescue the kidnapped victims.
This is a Spirit of the Century game set in Kashfa before the first Amber series, with pulp action and spirit.
My plan is that all of the PCs will get detailed background information about plots that are going on -- though there will be a mix. All, that is, except one. One of the PCs will be the "Jack" character who is a native Kashfan that doesn't know anything but is nonetheless caught in the middle of it. I'd like players to contact me ahead of time with character requests, and I'll send background.
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August 27th, 2007
12:38 pm - GenCon Indy 2007 Report
So I went to GenCon Indy the weekend before last, and I finally finished up my convention report. My trip this time was marred by a few outside factors: problems with my flight coming in, a room with very nice roommates but a bit too small, and losing my wallet on the final day. I was also nervous about the Indie RPG Awards, which went off fine on Friday -- though I always feel like I could do more for them. Here is the full report:
"GenCon Indy 2007 Report"
I was even more disappointed with the con organization this time -- starting with my first event which turned out to be five blocks away from where is was printed to be in the program I had just been given. It was nice to meet lots of people whom I had only encountered online, and I had a good time on Saturday, but I am ambivalent about going back.
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July 19th, 2007
04:49 pm - End Game April 2007 Mini-Con Report
So I had two big blocks of gaming this past weekend. The first was the quarterly mini-con at EndGame in Oakland, California -- cf. the End Game Minicon page. I had signed up to a Truth & Justice game and a Spirit of the Century game, but the T&J game didn't get any players. Instead, I played Dogs in the Vineyard (GMed by Carl Rigney) in the morning slot and Liam Burke's game Dog Eat Dog in the afternoon slot, followed by running my SotC game in the evening. I went there with my friend ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) martinemonster, who is visiting the U.S. from Norway and stayed with us a couple of days. (I had met her at Knutepunkt 2005 in Norway). I've put a full report up on my webiste as:
End Game July 2007 Mini-Con Report
I was a bit disappointed at the lack of T&J, but everything I played was fun. Dogs with Carl was solid as always. This was a low-key run where no shots were fired and there were relatively few conflicts -- notably between PCs.
The new part was playing with Liam and Dog Eat Dog. It is a game about colonialism, particularly reflecting Pacific islands where the colonials had overwhelming power. Any player describes the results of her characters actions, but the one colonial player has the power to judge how tokens are awarded and power to win in conflicts. After each scene that the colonial player is in, the natives add a rule which they gain tokens for if they follow it in later scenes.
This run had the feel of a playtest where there was a lot of focus on the draft rules and some feedback about them. It was interesting that in discussion afterwards, one player disliked the unequal power dynamic -- whereas I thought that it was very much the point of the game.
I had seven players for my Firefly/Serenity SotC game, with Liam as the extra player since I did have a seventh pregenerated character. My run went more smoothly this time, and I drew in more expertise with the system including a lot more compels on character Aspects. Also, I added stunt explanations to the character sheets, which helped. I played with variant rules to speed up conflicts, where each hit takes off as many boxes as its margin.
All in all, a good time.
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July 1st, 2007
11:49 pm - Rooming at GenCon Indy
So, I'm sharing a room at GenCon with Jonathan Walton, and we've invited Christopher Weeks, but other people have dropped out.
It's at the Courtyard Indianapolis at the Capitol, about four blocks from the convention center. lordsmerf, who originally booked the room, planned to share with about six. It's $300 per night ($1200 from check-in Wednesday to check-out Sunday), so we could use another person or two to share with us.
Ping me via comments or email if you're interested.
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11:16 pm - Go Play Northwest '07
So a belated report on my time at Go Play Northwest last weekend.
There has naturally been discussion of it already. On Story Games the main thread was "GPNW is teh hawtness!" along with "[Go Play NW] Photo Thread" and "Numbers, Reflections, Lessons Learned, etc.". On the Knife Fight forums, there was a thread on "I played your game at Go Play Northwest". There is also a Flickr photoset.
I'll post some of this edited as one of my usual convention reports, so think of what follows as a rough draft.
Arriving
I flew into Seattle from San Jose on an early morning flight, and I arrived at the con shortly before 10:00. At that point, though, the first slot games were already all underway and didn't have room. So I instead checked into my room, showered, and checked my email at the library, then joined everyone for lunch at noon.
When we got back, I was introduced to the sign-up system -- which was people writing games they would run on the white board and other people signing up. At that point, though, all of the announced games were basically full. There were at least half a dozen people not signed up, though. So I proposed some games. I was prepared to run five games: My Truth & Justice one-shot "Bonds of Steel", my "Spirit of Serenity" one-shot, 1001 Nights, Dead of Night, and The Weaver's Daughters. I suggested TWD first, but didn't get a quorum of interest, and then both T&J and SoS -- and people were more interested in SotC.
There were about 55 attendees both days. They ranged in age, with a few in their 20s, most in their 30s, and maybe a quarter in their 40s. There were around 5 women, and less than that of non-Caucasians. Most were local, but around a third were from out-of-town, and stayed in a dorm hall where the organizers had arranged cheap rooms.
Sat Afternoon: "Spirit of Serenity"
So I game-mastered a session of Spirit of the Century using the Firefly/Serenity background. I had pregenerated characters that I had made up for my group. However, I hadn't developed the material as a convention game to play with strangers. Also, when I played this with my group it took roughly 4 hours, rather than the 3 hours I had at GPNW. Overall, I like this setup and I'll keep it around as something to run at conventions, but definitely with some changes. The characters are all pretty good, I think, but I'll probably end up majorly revising the adventure background / situation. Going around the table counter-clockwise, the players were: - Peter Curry as Fannie Granger, a veteran Companion and the captain of the ship
- Dan Shiovitz as Lt. Pearl Hatfield, the military commander
- Charles Picard as Galvin Holloway, friend of the captain's
- John Powell as Dr. Eliza Collins, the ship's doctor
- Michael Brislawn as Lilly Shepis, a journeyman Companion and the second-in-command
- Lucian Smith as Lalu Chang, the ship's engineer
Two of the players posted comments about GPNW07 -- Dan (inkylj) posted "Go Play '07", and Lucian (lpsmith) posted "Go Play Northwest". inkylj wrote: Also as I imagine is typical for con games, it felt like we were going agonizingly slow in terms of "solving the mystery", and the spotlight was pretty shaky moving around (partly as a result of the aforementioned dumb plan stuff, although maybe I'm just griping; there was a really obvious location we didn't head to until late in the session because we were distracted by various people's side-plans). It felt like lpsmith in particular got kind of shafted by lack of spotlight, but I guess he did get to hack the computer in a few important places and get some vital plot tidbits (he was playing Lalu, the engineer; I was Pearl, the security chief). Things were quite rushed but we did get 90% of the plot exposed and came to some resolution by the end, so I think we were basically ok, although I don't know how much the GM cut things down to make us get there in time.
In practice, I have noticed that a slow start is common for convention games, but obviously I'd prefer to avoid that. When running it again, I'd make the scenario more personal to these PCs, and write in some strong relationships of the PCs with key NPCs. That's what I did with my Truth & Justice convention game, and it worked very well. Particularly given the setup of the PCs as the crew of a ship, the group dynamic was key. I don't think there's a simple way to improve it, though. When designing convention games, I will often define the inter-PC relationships a little better, giving notes for each PC on what they think of the others. However, it's still a big open question how well they'll work together.
At some point, I'll post revised scenario ideas for use with these characters. Most likely, the scenario will still involve trouble with Companions out in the territories, and it may even involve the training grounds on Newhall -- but everything else will change completely. Any other feedback is welcome.
Sat Evening: Playtest of "Know Thyself"
This was a playtest of a GMless game, organized by the author, Ryan Macklin -- who didn't play but stood by to explain the rules. The general concept was that you're playing someone who has lost their memory. Going around the table clockwise, each player takes a turn doing one scene. As the active player, you control exactly what your character does -- but the players to your left and right define where your character is, their physical body and circumstances, and everything else. The exception is in the conflict which ends a scene -- where success or failure is determined by card mechanics, but you can choose either to narrate how the conflict resolves or define a memory unlocked by the conflict.
The players were Mike Sugarbaker, Jackson Tegu, Brian Wiegman, Joe McDonald, and myself.
At the start, each player defined an impulse that would drive their character, and we came up with ones including "I need to get married immediately" and "Why do I still see my dead mother". Each player thought of five inspirational objects and wrote a purely physical descriptions of them on cards. All the cards were then put in a hat, and everyone drew out four and wrote them on his character sheet. Each recovered memory would be keyed to one of these objects -- like "a broken watch", "a check for one millions dollars, made out to cash", and "fifty feet of rope".
We then started play. One player would draw three cards with random words on them, that define the location of the scene -- like the "(Theater) of (Shameful) (Peace)" or the "(Throne Room) of (Shaken) (Wrath)". That player then frames a scene for the player on their left, describing where they are, what they see, and most (but not necessarily all) of the four objects. After the scene starts, though, the player on the other side of the active player was the GM and could define everything for that scene including physical features of the character.
In three hours with five players, we got through I think seven scenes. As one might expect from this sort of game especially as a playtest, there were many interesting ideas, but not much coherency. I already gave feedback and the rules may change, so I'm not going to go into any more detail on the game design.
To my mind, it was a little slow at first, and came alive a few turns in when Joe McDonald and I started pushing back and forth at each other. The heart of this is that other people have a huge amount of say in who your character is, even though you control everything about what you do.
Sat Night: Playtest of "Cheap"
This was a bizarre session game-mastered by author Joe McDonald. I'm hesitant to describe it too much, since it is basically a mind game where Joe subjected us to stuff where we didn't know the rules. I played with Ryan Macklin, Jake Richmond, and Nick Richmond. jake_richmond posted "Go Play NW" about the con as a whole including this session, which apparently gave him nightmares.
I was not at all traumatized, but I was in a sleep-deprived state since we were playing past midnight when I had gotten up before 5AM that morning. I connected with different parts of the game, but I totally couldn't logically put together patterns. Still, we won in the end. As Joe reported, we broke his game and took his pants.
Sun Morning: "Zorcerer of Zo"
This was a prepared event game-mastered by Edmund Metheny, using a bit of the rules and the canonical setting from Chad Underkoffler's game. Character creation started with picking one of seven wrapped gifts and unwrapping them to find out what our toy was. We then picked our Qualities and Weakness as normal for ZoZ, done in about 10 minutes or so. The players and characters then were: - mechanteanemone got a toy vacuum cleaner (made in Japan) and created Watanabe Hideko, the Happy Family Vacuum Cleaner.
- Wilhelm Fitzpatrick got a stretchy rubber poison dart tree frog, and created Chewy from Honduras.
- Laura Mortensen got an plastic ogre action figure with a cage and a pet gargoyle, and re-created Philban Detmer (whom she had played in an earlier ZoZ game).
- I got a medieval knight action figure who had a lot of accessories, and created Sir Sellalot -- an enterprising salesman.
- Jeremy Zimmerman got a pink plastic car with princess-themed stickers, and created Loue the Jalope -- who was a personal shopper and concerned transport for an imaginary princess.
- Jackson Tegu got a plastic tea set (!!!) and created Good Old Values, the Enchanted Tea Set. Its Qualities were based around different ways of arranging itself, like "Robot Imitator" by arranging the saucers and cups like a robot.
At the start, Edmund had a list of eight or so plot elements on the board that we were going to try to hit, and we added about six of our own. They were things like "Devil Ducks" and "An Enchanted Princess" and "A Daring Rescue". As the game went on, we checked off things that we had done.
The larger frame story was that we went from central Zo to the southern kingdom of Rosso, where we were charged with confronting the attacks of devil ducks on the shipping. mechanteanemone posted Go Play NW wrap-up and mini-reviews including this one. I think that between having to create characters quickly from random toys, and the list of existing plot elements, the results were confusing. Kudos to Jackson in particular, though, for his outstanding efforts to make a character out of a tea set.
I played in a game that was similar in some ways at AmberCon NorthWest '07 -- "Amber's Home for Imaginary Friends" game-mastered by Jennifer Zimmerman. We each got a toy out of that event, too, but it was a symbolic toy that represented a power rather than being a figure for our character. The characters in AHfIF were a little more planned, and they all had more of a thematic bond and a tie-in to the plot.
A few comments on system... We did not end up using the Story Hooks mechanic from ZoZ, with the plot elements on the whiteboard being the substitute. Also, the plausible coincidence spending was a little odd because we often made suggestions that the GM Edmund would pick up on without spending, though sometimes we would spend for some.
Sun Afternoon: "The Princ(ess)es' Kingdom"
This was a run of another kids-focused game, "The Princes' Kingdom", game-mastered by the game's author, Clinton Nixon. We had seven players, which was pretty ambitious of Clinton, I thought. He had eight pregenerated characters, one each for ages 5 to 12. Dividing them up, we had: - Mike Sugarbaker took Prince Andreü, age 6, who could turn into a fox.
- Phil Larose took Prince Vincens, age 9.
- Mike Bennett took Princess Tecla, age 10.
- Lesley McKeever took Princess Elisabet, age 8, who had magic.
- Lukos Myhan took Prince Vidal, age 7.
- I took Princess Michaela, age 11 (and as it turned out, the oldest).
- Doug Bartlett took Prince Calvet, the youngest at age 5.
I won't delve into the plot too much, but there was something of a mystery that we confronted. It uses a simplified version of the system from Dogs in the Vineyard, with only one attribute (age) instead of four, and thus escalation is only to draw in new traits. Because of the number of PCs, the system was only really invoked for effect a handful of time -- notably at the climax where Elisabet ended up taking on the bad guy one-on-one. (And there was something of a distinct bad guy in this.) There were two other times when the mechanic was invoked, but with multiple PCs the odds were such that the GM just gave.
The story was considerably less gonzo than the previous ZoZ game, but also had less distinct hooks for characters. There was some nice dynamics of age, with Calvet the 5-year-old just running wild, and Michaela as the oldest trying to nicely boss everyone around. It could have used stronger hooks for everyone to have their moment and shine differently, I think.
Conclusion
GPNW was a fun time. It's a bit distant for me, coming from California. However, I'm likely to come again at least once.
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May 31st, 2007
09:49 pm - Summer Conventions
So the big conventions of the summer are of course GenCon Indy and the Origins International Game Expo. However, there are more distant or smaller gatherings I should mention.
RopeCon is Europe's biggest independent roleplaying convention -- held this year August 10-12, a few miles from the center of Helsinki, Finland. Ken Hite summed his guest of honor experiences last year as "Across the Finnish Line" -- scroll down the comments for some picture links. The guests of honor this year are Robin D. Laws, Emily Care Boss, and Jakob Rune Nielsen.
Go Play Northwest is a gathering of indie gamer types the weekend of June 23rd - 24th (Sat - Sun) in Seattle University in Seattle, WA. Guest of Honor is Clinton R. Nixon. Preregistration is by June 1st (i.e. now).
Local to the SF Bay Area are two mini-cons: Good Omens Con is on June 23rd; while EndGame's July 2007 Mini-Con is on July 14th -- both at EndGame in Oakland.
And I don't know much about it, but Dragonflight is August 10th - 12th in Seattle, WA.
At the end of the summer are Gateway 2007 is in L.A., and ConQuest SF is in SF -- both on Labor Day weekend (August 31 to September 3).
Commenters should fill me in on other important gatherings (like East Coast ones or other important international conventions).
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