Tuesday, June 25, 2019

Hail, Hail, Rock and Roll: A look back of Waking Dreams

A pendant we were all given during game, as a part of the Burning Revel
At the end of April, I had the opportunity to go to Waking Dreams, the Changeling the Dreaming blockbuster experience produced by The Imagine-Nation Collective; headed by Ben Books Schwartz & Agata Swistak; and ran by Jeramy Merritt and Kris Kitts of Edge of Forever LLC and their crew. The experience was run at the Showboat Hotel and (now defunct) Casino in Atlantic City.

For the sake of disclosure, I will add that I knew most of the staff before the event either socially or through games that I or they were running. I was also asked to teach an in character swordplay class during the event.  This isn't being written at anyone's behest, other than the fact that I loved the event and wanted to discuss it.

Also for disclosure: this was my first blockbuster live action experience, and it was my first experience with Changeling the Dreaming. By the time I had gotten in to larping, Changeling the Lost, the successor to Dreaming in White Wolf's line of games in the World of Darkness, was the more prominent game. However, life is funny, and it seems that I have been surrounded by friends who have written for Dreaming on either the first edition or the more recently released second edition. So lets just imagine me being strapped to a chair and given the Ludovico Treatment, which is much more interesting because it has Faeries in it.

So by the end of my indoctrination, I had settled on an Eshu, the faerie storytellers and wandering wordsmiths. Because this was the World of Darkness, I decided on making a fixer. This was a guy who could get you anything, could make most of your problems go away with a kind word and a few noodle implements than with just the implements. It would be a good foil for a lot of the magical aspects if this was a guy working to keep the masquerade going, making sure that the Changelings don't get too wrapped up in the mundanity of it all, and that the mortals don't come sniffing around.

And that was the beginning of Connor Mayhew, self proclaimed "Professional Rat-Bastard, Disaster Bisexual, fixer of peoples bullshit through storytelling and swordplay". I should have realized I was playing it a little too close on the nose, but I also decided to run with it. A lot of what I was picking up from Waking Dreams (if not Dreaming altogether) was that this was a story about creative culture in a fading world.

The waking world had been entering a withering autumn since the early 2000's. Glamour, the essence that Changelings use as fuel and what they inspire in others, has been on the low. Enclaves had formed to keep it going, and only a few as strong as the Prince of Glam, Maxwell Starlight and their band: The Burning Revel. Glamorous, Androgynous, Superfluous, the Prince of Glam and their retinue had been the epicenter of rock and roll living for fifteen years, inspiring mortals while keeping the Changelings going. The travels of the Burning Revel created a roving band of camp followers, groupies, crafters, executives, general roustabouts and reprobates (that'd be Connor). 

Yo.


And, after fifteen years, the Prince of Glam was retiring. Headed to Arcadia, their show at the House of Blues in Atlantic City would be their last one. Those going to the show would have to face some hard choices: go out in a last blast or face fading away in to mundanity, a shell of their actual magical selves. Connor was going to make some last deals, keep glamour going a little bit longer, maybe break a few of the rules placed down.

One of the key things that was going on during game was that players of previous Changeling the Dreaming games were allowed to 'un-retire' their characters. Dreaming had been such a core part of the writers of this experience, they knew people would bring back their characters for one last hurrah.

We made our way to Atlantic City on Thursday, where we attended the safety briefings and all had some icebreaking exercises with group 'pods' of people. Everything in the game was focused on enthusiastic consent. There wasn't really to be a major plot point to solve, this was meant to be a weekend of characters engaging one another at an in character concert and festival. 

On friday, at noon, the experience began with a concert by Byrne Bridges in the House of Blues. Imagine walking around the concert area, attendants dancing at the front of the stage, a glamed out rocker is blissfully splayed across the stairs. Heavies standing at pillars and corners in case they needed to intercede on anyone's behalf. Wallflowers hugged the walls. People in the balconies and on the couches in the upper rows talking, carousing. Words were exchanged over the music, as were notes and other things. 

Watching this all, I was struck by how cinematic it was. By having everyone start in this moment, with nothing to do but be in character and enjoy the singer. That was a great moment, it got people to get in to the feel. This was going to be a rock opera. 

Having been working with Nerdy City for the past year, and Sean Jaffe's focus on soundtracks to enhance the gaming experience, I was struck by so much of how this weekend was enhanced by the music going on. One of my favorite moments was the saturday morning. We'd all been up late after the Unseelie Court's Goth Rave, so a lot of us were feeling a bit hungover. One of the characters working the tea-house started to blast "Don't Stop Me Now" by Queen and the entire room started an impromptu dance. Getting us all back on track and back in game. 

The space also demands a mention. Shows were being performed in the actual House of Blues, a tea-house had been opened in an entire wing that was already decked out to look like a hookah den. Deep seated booths with curtains, small rooms with divans with buddha statues. Low tables and lush carpeting, a painting at the bar of Zeus sleeping with Leda while transformed as a Swan (because Zeus). An entire hallway with small shelves where characters could partake in a pharmacy of magical drugs (literal if you had a sweet tooth). The space demanded to be played in, to create a world of lived in whimsical decadence. Players and staff had transformed the space in to something more, and made it feel like it had been like that for years.

Open mic concerts and burlesque shows, dramatic readings of textbooks, goth raves and magic rituals All bookended by two concerts. This was about performance, not for the sake of a major storyline, but for each other. Patrick Rothfuss had said in one book, and I heartily agree, that performers are more apt to go the extra distance when it's just for the sake of performing for other performers. The room gets it more, gets the effort. You can get bad days with a regular audience, you bring your A+ game when its just you and not the fate of the world. 

That doesn't mean to say that there wasn't some plotting and drama going on about it. As the Prince of Glam was making their exit, there became a rush to forestall the fallout of their exit. Deals were being made to find new Princes, and potential pipelines were being built between the magical land of Arcadia (from whence Changeling souls are from) and the mortal realm. 

Connor, being the storyteller, got to be poltical for a while. He pushed the narrative of Maxwell Starlight, and how their disappearance would inspire thousands for generations, producing glamour galore. That by exiting, they made a moment of infinite possibilities. Whatever magic we did, what ever intent we had. We were going to blow the doors off the hinges.

And, as a player, I don't often get to play the politic. I don't often get to play the someone who pushes an agenda. I'm the lore-monkey, the investigator. I deliver the message, I don't create it. And getting to do that and realizing that information sunk made me feel like I'd done right with this character. 
By the end of the game, a pipeline had been created by sacrificing one of the more powerful characters at the event. As the Prince left for Arcadia, the doorway was open for others to do so. Few did, but one of Connor's friends, a player who brought back her character from years ago, went through the gate. They left their children and a note for them behind, leaving Connor to be the executor of their will. Connor had given up someone whom he loved for someone else, had also been given a job opportunity that saved him from walking off, and had his mentor literally rip their own heart out and consume it in ritual suicide. 

By the end of Saturday Night, I'd reached maximum saturation. I'd cried, I'd laughed. I laughed while crying. A lot of me went in to Connor, and after the The Burning Revel (played by real life band The Manimals, with lead singer and frontmonster Haley playing our Prince) began to play Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill" was I truly at the point of tears. Connor had been a creator who had been creating to survive, taking gigs from really anyone worth paying him. He'd had an opportunity to Do More, to Be More, to Have More. And the moment passed him by. It was replaced by another moment later on, but the feelings Connor felt struck home to the core.

It was at that moment that I "Got It", I got the appeal of Dreaming to a generation of gamers. I got the appeal of blockbuster larps. I'd experienced a lot of feelings through Connor, and I got to experience and let it out.  And I'd seen others go through their moments and shine so brightly in those musical, magical moments, culminating in transcendental torch song "Midnight Radio" by Hedwig and the Angry Inch as Maxwell Starlight disappears in to the night. 

And to be honest for those of you reading this, this past year had not been a year of larping for me. After a bunch of years running stuff for people, seeing my friends brought down low and burned out on the wonderously bathshit (and sometimes contemptuously entitled) elements of the larping community, I was ready to call it a day. Getting to play in this game, to have this experience, to be a player again, and to see other people I'd been running games with share in this experience made me fall back in love with live action role play experiences. I began to want to create again, thinking of projects I'd laid down for a while: with Kensei being at the top of the list.
One of the things that made me feel so good about this game was that this was an experience all about community. There was no antagonist, there was no real back biting or back stabbing. Everything was out and open and everything in the end was about the experience and the community built. It's telling that, even months after the game, a large chunk of us are still talking to one another and sharing stories and other experiences. 

The only downside, if there was one, was that while we had full control of the second floor spaces, the hotel was still up and moving. A fraternity had come to the hotel for the end of the year. Their brief interactions caused discomfort with some of the players. I had my own run in, covered in sigils along the entire left arm and the right side of my face, sipping Coca-Cola from a clear red plastic tea cup. 

Elevator Bro (Behind me): I told you there would be stuff like that going on this weekend.
Other Elevator Bro: What stuff.
Elevator Bro: I'll tell you when we get off the elevator. 
A bunch of uniform looking and sounding people all trying to fit in with one another, contrasted with the unique weirdos and magical people I was walking towards. For the most part, we kept it in character, because the real enemy of the weekend was Banality.

I want to thank everyone who was involved in this game, players and staff alike. I especially want to thank some of the people involved in the production: Dmitri, who served as the emotional support kitten in real life and in game for the decompression room; Geoffrey, who was usually running around in the background to help out the staff--doing the job I normally do. Game recognizes game; Kris, who had asked me to teach the class and who put a lot of trust in me, thank you; Emily, who was the best red cap door person; Leanna, for being a boss and The Boss at the fighting arena. 

And, especially, I want to thank Michael. Four years ago on the road to GenCon, in a hotel bar outside of Pittsburgh you told a group of people-- including a very inexperienced larp runner-- about your dream larp. It involved Changelings in a hotel and one final night of the Dreaming. Thank you for sharing your dream with me, and with all of us.
Souvenirs: Vial of drugs, crystal from the staff of a departed Sidhe, crystal won in the fighting pits by not boring the MC, letter of a departed friend to her children, sigil and bottle of wine from the RedCap DJ who asked Connor/Craig a favor.
Waking Dreams is one of those experiences that will stay with me for a long time, and even now, two months after the event, I want more of it. I want to experience more, and I want to create those experiences for others. There's a Mage game I've been threatening to do since I left the MES, and Kensei wants to be born still. I got to have one hell of a Dream, it'd be a shame to waste it.

Thank you.
Later.


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