Tuesday, May 6, 2014

A good few weeks

The past month has been a pretty enjoyable series of events in larping circles. That's saying a lot considering the recent rash of burnout. I figured I would share.

Last week, I went to Boston to play their Requiem and Accord games. My friend Abby invited me to come with her and it was a great opportunity. Boston is a great town, even for someone who is born and raised in the Bronx. We made our way in to Requiem, which was already under way. Abby and I play (respectively) Genevieve and Owen Asteria. Genevieve is the Harpy of New York, one part Court Reporter, two parts Queen High Bitch of Sass. She records the goings on and sordid details of Court as well as recording the major currency of Vampire Society: Favors. She records their purchase and cashing in, as well as the Status one acquires for the City. Owen is her childe, she is the one who bit him almost a hundred years ago. He is Seneschal of New York, the chief of staff for Prince Maria Lorraine (note: Prince is considered a gender neutral term to Vampires) of New York. Together they are a part of House Asteria, a family of hedonists, ritualists, socialites and influence mongers that span the Eastern Half of the United States.

Visiting the Boston Court was interesting, as there had been some drama as of late between a House member and the current Prince of Boston. Genevieve was there to smooth things over, Owen was there to make sure she got out of Boston without breaking a nail. It was mostly a social gathering for us. Many of the other characters were chasing down plot (more of that to come), so it was just Genevieve, Owen, Prince Claudia Malve and her Harpy, May. Owen/I sat at the sidelines and just enjoyed the three talking. All of them having been Harpies at one point or another. Just being able to socialize and learn about things outside of New York, especially how people view Owen's family.

As the game moved on, the characters chasing the plot arrived. The spoke of a Cult that Worships eternal darkness, being able to summon Monsters of Shadow from a different dimension. Genevieve and Owen just look at each other, because Owen is a Khaibit, a type of vampire that can control shadow and darkness, one whom worships eternal darkness. Owen shakes his head and just goes "Not my circus, not my monkeys". I'm not sure what Owen could have done, but I don't like coming into a town and just going "by the way, I have this thing which could quite possible kill your plot." Social are for visitors, plots I like to keep for the locals unless it's absolutely necessary.

At Accord, my Mage Rhys had a full night. Rhys came in with Abby's Firewall (spelled F1R3W@LL, because fucking computers), a Changeling who runs the New York Cell of the Accord. They came to celebrate a cell member of Boston at his wake, as he sacrificed himself at the National Convention just a few months before. Rhys went to mingle with other Accordists and to do what he does best: Speak to Cities. Rhys also went to brow beat another Mage, who had essentially abducted one of his friends into the Spirit Realm for no reason other than "I wanted to make friends with him and show him what I can do"

Rhys, if nothing else, is not a fan of other Mages. He's from the school of playing smart and clever than Hard and Loud. The running joke from people more often working out of New York is that Rhys is one of the most competent Mages in the entire (global) Accord. We joke about it, we laugh, then it was spelled out to Rhys (and myself) that this wasn't a joke. Not only that, but people had been keeping Rhys off of people's radars because incompetant Mages can be used. A competent Mage is a threat.

This was made abundantly clear when the Cell Leader of Boston asked Rhys to investigate the major problem going on in the City...actually, he asked a lot of things, to which Rhys replied with "Whoa! Whoa! I'm good, but I didn't exactly bring my CSI kit, and I don't think Cities speak much Science, except maybe Silicon Valley. He searched, and he got some answers with the help of others. Rhys became useful the entire night as people kept asking him to look into things.

By the end of the night, he *might* have found a way to fix things for Boston. Which he then goes "Guys, go and do a thing. Seriously. Will help you." Because I DO NOT LIKE BEING THE SPECIAL SNOWFLAKE OF THE ROOM, ESPECIALLY WHEN IT'S NOT MY ROOM.

Oh, and he managed to get a date that night with one of the local cell members. Score all around.

It's refreshing to play outside of your home town, because you don't know who these people are for the most part, both in and out of character. You don't know the set lingo, you're out of your comfort zone. You feel the need to be on your best game. Whereas in your home game, you slip into familiar patterns, allowing yourself to have off nights and such. If you're going to be visiting another group, you might as well give it some extra oomph.

Also happening this month was the all call for articles for the Wyrdcon Companion. WCC is a yearly publication for scholarly larp articles. Having met quite a few of the writers, and being spurred on by my own cheering section (hi guys), I submitted my abstract for the publication. The Article is about Mythology and Larping, how Mythologies create larping situations and how larping situations (players and their roleplay) in turn create their own mythology. It's a subject I hold near and dear, having formed the idea some months back. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens.

I was also able to meet Johanna Koljonen and Bjarke Pedersen, members of the Nordic Larp scene. They did a lecture on Nordic Larping as an artform. Together, they gave a breakdown of larp, of Nordic Larp, and as it's use. They spoke of four games, one in which it was a larp based around Hamlet, and the players took on the roles of the court of Elsinore. The second was a larp about a futuristic commune based around the concepts of Perls and Gestalt Therapy (which having spent years reading Perls, he'd have most likely gotten a kick out of it). They touched on a lot of feelings I have towards Psychodrama, having studied it in my internship. The third was Just a Little Lovin, the story of love and life at beach houses in New York during the beginning of the Aids epidemic. And finally, Monitor Celestra, a Battlestar Galactica larp taking place on a WWII ship to simulate the retro tech of the series.

During the lecture, Johanna asks an important question: Are these high concept larps 'games'? My answer was that it was more 'play'. You have rules agreed upon, boundaries and settings. And then you stretch out your imagination. Games, at least in the modern sense, denotes a winner and a loser. What is winning and losing in a larp? How does that factor? It's more playing with one another, less competitive and more collaborative (KEY WORD).

After the lecture, I spoke with Johanna, Bjarke and Shoshana (who of course hosted). We talked about the shaping of mythology in larp (which gave me some really good feedback). We also talked about the Harry Potter larp that's forming in Poland by Claus Rassted (major Nordic Larp designer and overall awesome human being), and the planning that some people are putting into their trip, including a trunk and filling it with genre appropriate things. I spoke of my love of in-world books and my projects in that vein, making field journals and grimoires and tomes for my characters and games. We spoke a lot and it was a fun night of exchanging ideas. It's also made me want, in a very real way, to go to Denmark next winter for Knutepunkt, the Nordic Larp conference. Several days in Copenhagen listening and playing a bunch of interesting high concept games? Yes, please. All of this.

Finally, this past weekend (after my trip to Boston), Owen was made Prince of New York. This was something that, quite honestly, I didn't think was going to happen, but somehow it just worked out that way? I had said before that Owen would want praxis, but Craig wasn't sure. Craig made the decision to go for it. The Prince the past several months has been played by Jenna, my friend of five years. This was her first ever larp character and her first time roleplaying, and she managed to play Prince so well that people didn't want to kill her to take the throne. Now the game has changed a bit, and while Owen has the throne, he now needs to prove he earned it.

This also means that, at the end of the month, Owen will be at NERE (the regional convention for Mind's Eye Society) as a Prince of New York, joined by probably several others. That means I get to be sociable to all of the fellow monsters.

It's been a good couple of weeks for me. I'm sure I'll update as the time goes on.

Later,

C






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