Playing with FATE

After Dexcon, Shoshana gave me one task when it came to working with Phoenix Outlaw:

"Read the Fate Corebook. Read It, Learn It, Love It."

And, I did just that.

So let's get real for a second, my table top gaming experience is pretty shallow. Aside from White Wolf's New World of Darkness and three games (individual games, not campaigns) of D&D, I have no experience with tabletop games. I'm the kind of larper who looks at the system last, rather wishing to explore the world, themes and character types that can be played. I'm a Narrativist, surprise! Talking about systems and mechanics, which invariably leads to the talk about numbers, bores me to no end. When I want to hear about your character, I don't want to hear about the math, I want to hear about your character.

As someone who is desperately trying to develop his own psychotic Larp Project, the most difficult thing I've discovered is trying to build a system that works for the world. Game mechanics exist as an interface for the world we're playing in, more often than not as a means of doing in the game what we cannot physically do in reality. Some games eschew this and favor a "what you see is what you get" style of play, which I rather prefer. But in some games, especially Salon/Theater style games, you need a means of interfacing with a world that you cannot readily duplicate.

I'm of the mind that in a Tabletop game, which is all narration and discussion, you need a system to interact with the world in some way. But it's far too easy to get focused on the math, and soon you're forgetting about the Role Play and focusing about the Game, how to get the best results and how to get the best gear to get the best results. For those of you just tuning in, I do not like Min Maxing and Munchkining on general principles unless the game is literally just a smash and grab game.

So for me to get giddy about a game system means something pretty significant to me.

The Fate system is a narrative driven game system. Where most games are slavishly focused on the system of the game and emphasize rules, exceptions to the rules and the enforcement of the rules, Fate outright states it's Golden Rule as: Figure what you want to do, then consult the rules to help you do it. This is enforced further by the system's Silver Rule: Never let the rules get in the way of what makes narrative sense. These statements sort of go in the opposite direction of the way I've seen most larps be handled, where the rules are meant to keep everyone, both the players and the gamerunners, honest with one another. This makes it clear that, under no circumstances, that the story trumps the rules, and that this is a collaborative effort between the players and gamerunners.

The character creation for the game is set in primarily Four different sections: Aspects, Skills, Stunts and Stress. Aspects make up the Core of a Character, what makes them matter. These are in the form of specific phrases that are broken down in to subjects: High Concept, which denotes who they are and what they do; Their Trouble Aspect is what complicates their life. This may be seen as a negative thing, and it does stand the chance to bite the character in the ass, but there is a benefit to it; Then there are minor Aspects that can describe character relations, background events, and other things that add depth of character, often put into the context of a one sentence phrase. White Wolf does this on their sheets under Character Concept, except the Aspects are mechanically beneficial as they can potentially help aid characters in relevant actions. Importantly, most of those Aspects are developed by players building ties with one another and the ST, creating past events and ties that connect them and add bonds.

The games Skill system believes in broad strokes. Where most games rely on numbers to describe a quantitative aspects, Fate relies more on the Qualitative. Skill ratings tell how good you are in something and action pulls/rolls (if you're using cards or die) tell just how well you did a thing. The Fate System assumes that every PC is a competent individual. At the very least, PCs are mediocre and don't get bonus' to their pulls, whereas in other systems they get minuses for not paying in to a skill. They leave it mostly to chance in Fate, which is something of a point. It is blind towards equipment modifiers, someone with a gun can do just as well with a sword or even with their fists. We'll get to why in a bit. While there is a set placement of skills like Notice, Deceive, Shoot, Fight, Physique and Crafts, the system allows for customization and additions. The Dresden Files Larp has Discipline for most Supernatural actions.

Now, in most systems, certain purchases of skills means you're able to take specific actions. With Fate, that is up to Narration. In the Dresden Larp I ran, someone used Fire Magic to absorb an attacking creature made of Flame. There was nothing on his sheet specifying that he could do that, but there was a logical reason that he could, conceivably do that action. So we did the appropriate pull and, low and behold, absorbed said infernal beastie like a Ghost in a Trap.

Specific Skills come in the form of Stunts. Stunts are special actions that the players can use sparingly throughout games. Need a quick boost of a skill? Or are you capable of performing the functions of one skill with another? Do you have something that, in normal circumstances, just wouldn't be possible? Those are Stunts. They aren't always on, but they are spectacular. The Key thing to keep in mind about Stunts is that they are made entirely by the player with the Storyteller's help and approval. The books give examples of stunts, but they are only meant to give an understanding of what can be done.

Finally, we have Stress. Stress replaces the concept of health damage. First off, there are two forms of Stress: Physical and Mental. Stress alone doesn't mark how much damage you've taken, but how prone you are to take damage. When your Stress bars fill up, you go into Stress Out, which removes you from the combat completely. The only way to get back in is to take a Consequence. Consequence is where the real damage is, where Stress goes away after every combat scene. Consequences are like Aspects, in that they are small phrases, but those that denote the damage you've taken. From a gash over the eyes, induced into paranoia, to Blinded or I can't feel my legs. Gaining Consequences keeps you in the fight, but gain enough of them and your character dies.

At the Heart of this entire system are Fate Points. Fate Points are granted to the players depending on their stunt spread, more with lesser stunts and less with more. They form a sort of economy as Fate Points allow you to invoke your Aspects to aid in pulls or roleplay, to activate Stunts and to add something to the story being told. You get Fate back by accepting the ST compelling your Aspects, creating drama and story to happen to you, or by conceding a conflict. It's an entirely Meta-level economy, having relatively no basis in the game, and it's telling that the only way to gain back points is by allowing potentially bad things to happen to your character.

So the pros for the Fate System is that it focuses on and rewards a Narrative based game. A lot of my tabletop friends have made several comments though about some of it's cons. It doesn't take into account the use of weapons (the newest edition of the core book addresses this, but it also notes that focusing on better Armor/Better Weapons is the path towards Loot Hunts). This makes a little less sense when you consider that the Stress isn't actual damage, and Merely the measuring stick for what gets you the Consequences, which is the real damage, has their own negative and long lasting effects. Even then, it's still all primarily for the benefit of telling a Story over playing a game.

I think a lot of the hang ups seem based on the fact that this is a system that isn't based on the standard D&D model of thinking. It's an entirely different Operating System that relies on  This means that the concepts of class and stats are put to the back. In a fight, a social character can potentially do more damage than a combat character if they use their aspects right or if the cards are fortunate. It puts it more firmly in the hands of chance...or Fate, to be honest.

A friend of mine, who is a veteran table top player. Said that as a table top system he didn't like Fate, but after having played it in a Larp, he felt it was more appropriate. This comment reminded me of my usual rant about Role Playing Games and Live Action Role Play, and how the "G" isn't present in LARP for damn good reason. I think that people focus on the Game aspect, and assume that that means the need to win and avoidance of losing. I tend to focus more on the Role Play, and emphasize the Play. It's make believe, and the rules are there to give us the frame of the sandbox, they aren't the game entirely.

I think the Fate System agrees with this.

The comment also brings about a good point about translating systems to meet different requirements for different forms of play. The White Wolf systems are still primarily used for the Larps, pared down a bit to make some adjustments for the focus on role play...but it's still very clearly based on a tabletop. This comes out all the more when combat or a scene that requires mechanics to function need to be done. All of the roleplay and action stops and it literally becomes a table top game again. The Fate system lends itself and it's emphasis on the RP side of RPG that it works as a tool for Larps.

This is especially true since, through many of it's guides and directions, it evokes the notion that Larps are communal projects and require cross cultivation between each other. In table tops, you can rely on your sheet at the least. In a larp, where you are physically playing your character, you require the players around you to fill in the blanks in the world and with each others ties. Fate runs heavily on that concept.

Fate is, to me, a system that I as someone who looks more to character factors and background than dots and points as system I can get behind and utilize for some of my projects. This has actually gotten me interested in making a Tabletop game for friends, and possibly a theater larp. This system is NOT for everyone, but I welcome it as a system that lends itself to what I look for in a game and that can be customized to suit the needs of the game and translated into various formats of Play. If you prefer the traditional methods, then this simply isn't the system for you.

Later


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Review: Rise of Tiburon

At Dexcon, I was given the honor and pleasure to take part in one of the most anticipated Larps at Dexcon 2014. The game was Pacific Rim: The Rise of Tiburon. Based on the immensely popular 2013 Guillermo Del Toro movie, Rise of Tiburon was a high production larp created by Nerdy City. It was also one of the first games to utilize the Chronos Universal Larp System in their game play.

For those of you who haven't seen Pacific Rim, I'll give you a synopses of the world. In an alternate 2013, a giant rift in space and time opens up in the pacific ocean, unleashing a giant reptiloid-esque monster. Within the span of days, San Francisco and several other Coastal Cities are levelled before the monster is killed. Then, eventually, more came. In response, the nations of the world banded together to create weapons capable of killing what were then being called Kaiju. These weapons were called Jaegers, giant humanoid mech suits piloted by two pilots (called Rangers) who link up together and with the Jaeger to move in an effective unit. They think together, they move together, they are together. The pilots, and the machine both have to be compatible to enter what is called the Drift which links them as one.

Rise of Tiburon is set in 2023, two years before the main events of the movie, inside the Seattle Shatterbase where the Jaegars are housed. It was the original house of Mark I Jaegar codenamed Echo Thunderhead. Echo was an awesome hitter, but after years of use and the growth of larger Kaiju, he was phased out and put into disrepair. Housing a rotating cast of visiting Jaegars, the Seattle Shatterbase is the home for a colorful cast of characters that help to cancel the impending apocalypse.

When I registered, I spoke with Josh, one of the gamerunners, about what kind of character I wanted to play. In the movie, there was a scientist character who was unabashedly an admirer of the Kaiju from a scientific stand point. I asked him if it was possible to play that, but for the Jaegers. I was blessed with a childhood where every show that had the word Gundam in it, and every Power Ranger Zord to come across the screen. In short, I wanted to play someone whose love of watching Giant Robots go to town fueled his brilliance and his desire to work on the things when they became a viable reality. No sooner had I said that did Josh present to me a list of options which included exactly that.

And thus, Dr. Himura was given to me. Dr. Himura (whose first name was omitted as to allow anyone to play them. I named him Akira) had a full page dossier, including blood type, family members, and enough of a description to give me a feel for him. I'm used to larps where people come in with PCs they themselves have built, and the level of detail they put into these characters was astounding intricate. And they wrote 75 of them, each with their own agendas, history, wants and connections. In short, they could write a book simply on this game alone and still have some leftover on the cutting room floor.

I may have been drunk when that photo was taken, don't judge me

It also says something of the source material. Del Toro wrote an entire world that never showed up on the screen. Histories and Jaegers and Kaiju, the way the world reacted (which is alluded to as nearing Dystopic levels) and the rise of Kaiju Worshipping. The gamerunners clearly did their homework and used that to their advantage to build on it, extrapolating and creating a world that while there is a lot of their stuff it makes sense to the heart and soul of the core material.

Finally, game day comes, and we're given a briefing on the game, Chronos and the sections we'd be playing in. Himura was a member of J-Tech, the technicians who build and repair the Jaegars. Each character was fully fleshed out, from Chief Engineers, to neuroscience experts, to computer programmers and robotics experts (that'd be me) and munitions experts that believed More Dakka was not ever enough Dakka. Each group had their own Storyteller, ours was Miles, who played Punk-Grunge frontman Quartermaster Eli Jeong. Miles wins the award for costuming, clearly playing a native of Seattle in the "Grunge didn't die, it just got upgrades" attire. He, more than anything, sold the setting for me. Plus the band's name was Baby Seal Club, which I spent a lot of time giggling madly about (I'm a sick individual, sue me)

Speaking of the selling the setting. The production that Nerdy City put into making gamespace REAL was a masterstroke. Most of my experience was in J-Tech, a work shop with desks, a row of computers and a giant robot hand that belonged once to Echo Thunderhead...

'Sup?

There were also posters scattered throughout the spaces, some were posters straight from the movie merchandise list and some were handmade. Notices from administration, posters of some of the more fictitious Jaegers, ads for apartments in the City and flyers for Jeong's band show. J-tech was littered with paraphernalia, circuits and tools, including a diecast mini version of Dath Maul's lightsaber staff, which I immediately began twirling in my fingers, and most of the Pacific Rim Jaeger action figures, which when I saw them, I (and/or Himura) exclaimed "Ah! that's where my work station is.

This was all before game. And the moment we went in we started to work, interacting with one another, clashing ideas and reminiscing about the glory days of Echo Thunderhead. Then the sirens went off, and the screen in the room showed us look at the Seattle Skyline as Bedlam Armada, Echo's Replacement from Canada, took to the bay to meet with the incoming Tiburon, the first of the Category IV Kaiju. It was sleek, it was fast, and it dropped into the bay like a sack of titanium alloy potatoes.

With only hours before Tiburon touched down onto the coast, everyone in J-tech looked at each other, then the large giant hand in the room. A few minutes of Aikidoing Command and Echo Thunderhead was to be recommissioned for one last fight.

That was when the game really began. Repairs and rebuilds were represented by interesting minigames doled out by Miles. Computer reprogramming took the form of transferring cyphers, calibrations were done using an app that simulated the little handheld games that required you to move all the ball bearings into little divets at the same time. In order to reformat the model software, I and a team of three built a small sculpture of Echo using modelling sand that was collapsing in my hand. I enjoyed this section as it actually reflected the hardwork that we would be doing.

It was aided by the fact that certain challenges required certain proficiencies that no one person had. Himura was Great at Robotoics, and Decent in bio-tech and computers. If he was given a task that required robotics and mechanical engineering, he needed to find someone(s) to work together. This part upheld the theme to Pacific Rim, the need to work together, to compliment each other's skills. Rangers needed to be compatible to drift with the Jaeger, the crews needed to be compatible to make the Jaegers work.

After several hours of work, and a few interactions that cemented the team further, we got the job done. We were treated to watching the fight on screen, piped in live from one of the other rooms as Echo Thunderhead made it to the bay and took on Tiburon in a fight that nearly destroyed Seattle but saved millions of lives. It was interesting, watching the better part of 75 players sitting together and cheering on something that we all felt like we worked together to build.

I remember after game feeling giddy about the experience. It didn't help that each room seemed to have the Pacific Rim soundtrack playing, which is geared towards the epic and badass, and in keeping with the J-Tech Grunge, a good chunk of Black Sabbath and other bands were playing. It was a fun experience, and an immersive game all around. It kept us in J-tech busy enough that we didn't break out of character even while doing the minigames. Whoever thought of them was a genius, and regardless of who did, Miles deserves props for being an awesome ST.

My one negative is that, as a member of the J-tech Minigame squad, I did not get to use the Chronos Cards. At All. They did serve as an effective reminder of what my character could do, but there was nothing present in the environment that allowed himto do so. So as much as I'd love to do a work up of Chronos--I'll get to it eventually--it'll have to wait until my review of  FATE is done. That being said, I loved the minigames as it actually felt relevant and representative of the actions we were taking part in and was something that was actively active as opposed to turn based systems, which can take you very much out of a scene.

Other than that, Rise of Tiburon was one of those games that, as a fan of larps and a up and coming builder of larps, set the bar high for what theater larps can be. With the right amount of creativity, madness (which may be one and the same), support and funding (important, that last one) you can achieve a lot. Clearly though it can't be run by the faint of heart, and that certainly doesn't include the folks at Nerdy City. I know that many people were asking for the next run almost immediately after game, and there have been some rumors. But until then, let the guys decompress. They ran an awesome game. And not unlike the movie it was based on, we can always hope-and receive-the sequel it deserves.

Later,

Just hit Play: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vU7XqToZso

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Dresden Lives

I've mentioned before that I've been honored with a position with Phoenix Outlaw Productions, a larp development company run by my friends Shoshana Kessock and Josh Harrison. While I'm more or less a general staff member, my primary focus is directed towards storytelling for Dresden Lives. Dresden Lives is the live action role play adaptation of Evil Hat's Dresden Files RPG, a developed by Phoenix Outlaw and produced by Evil Hat.

For those of you that don't know, the Dresden Files is an urban-fantasy noir series written by Jim Butcher. The series is narrated by Harry Dresden, Professional Wizard (seriously, he's in the Chicago Yellow Pages, under 'Wizard'). He finds lost items, helps the fledgling magic users as much as he can to hone their craft, and is sometimes contracted to consult with the Chicago Police Department's Special Investigations office when something that can't be easily written into a report is presented before them. Fifteen books in, and Harry has defeated countless bad guys and made allegiances and rivalries with some of the most powerful moral and supernatural forces in the modern world. There's magic, creatures of great beauty and terror, and enough sarcasm and wit to make it all very humble and self deprecating.

Dresden Lives is an expansion of Harry's World, where the supernatural forces deal in the dark places while Wizards and the few mortals in the Know get embroiled in each others schemes and plots. Depending on the gamerunners, the actions of Harry and Chicago (especially in some of the later books) may affect the storylines of those games. The players and characters get to explore the themes of the Dresden Files: Order Versus Chaos, Temptation, Predation, Faith, Hope, Love and the balance between Humanity and something Other.

I've mentioned before that I've been a long time fan of the Dresden Files series, was a main fixture of the Jim Butcher forum for a long while (under the name Uilos, in case anyone is asking), was blessed with being friends Priscilla Spencer and Richard Shealy, two of Jim's beta readers and Matthew Merbeck, who is the star and driving force for the Dresden Files Fan Films. So working with making the Dresdenverse a living thing for others to explore and play in is a major and amazing thing. So when I was given the chance to do a playtest for Phoenix Outlaw and Evil Hat, I jumped to do it.

The system for the game is based on the Fate system by Evil Hat. It is, by it's very core, a narrative experience that values role play over dice rolls. Character creation involves giving your character some flavor (it even helps in dice rolls) and by listing a very basic skills like Physique (physical strength and endurance) Shoot, Fight, Will and Discipline to name a few others. You can do magic with a straight Discipline pull, and then narrate the action with the rest of the group to respond to. This is in contrast where every magical power in the White Wolf games has clearly spelled out powers. My copy of the Fate corebook is currently in the mail, and I intend to do a full review on it. The short gist is that you and the storytellers and other players are in a game where collaboration and role play aren't just suggestions, they're kinda the central core concepts of play.

So I gathered a handful of players, got them to read the beta-test material, make some characters while I made up a setting and got a studio in the City and played a game. It's actually not that difficult to find studio space for a larp game in New York? Potentially expensive as all hell, but worth it if you have enough support from your friends and players. The game itself was set around an auction, and the various parties and factions in New York sent delegates (the players) to bid on the items. Not everyone there was what they seem, and not everything there was what it seemed either.

I've been storytelling for the MES games for nearly three years in some capacity or another. Dresden lives was hands down the most fun I've had doing it. I'll admit, I was in a room full of people I knew and trusted and who understood what the core of the game was about. But I got to do a combat scene, which I never get to do, and got to do a good one that put some people down and gave them consequences. I got to do a story that, by the end of it, had the characters eyeing each other suspiciously and having a full on conflict pop off. The general consensus was that the book needed to be more clear on a few things as to what they can do. It's an odd paradox when the choices are left open to a player. It's like the book has to spell out "no, really, you can create these on your own". 6 of the 8 were White Wolf/MES veterans. 1 was a new larper and 1 has actually played in the Dresden Larps that Dresden Lives is built on. So a lot of the issues with mechanics were just unlearning what we've spent years doing. I've had several players wanting to play more games and I've had at least one person who hadn't read the series (I wanted some people to focus on the game and not the series) tell me they were now going to read the book.

I consider that a victory.

After the playtest, I was hired on by Phoenix Outlaw to help narrate for their future Dexcon games. Dresden Lives, which started as an unofficial larp based on the RPG and is now gaining legitimacy and publication, has grown in size. We had well over 50 participants at Dexcon this year, playing everything for Wizards, to Sorcerers, to Fae and their Changeling counterparts and White Court Vampires tempting emotions on which to feed. The game was set in medias res, requiring the players and characters to figure out what the hell had happened before they got to that point, leading them to a dark hospital that carried dark secrets. In the end, I got to play a Warden, the soldiers and cops of the Wizard government, and things got very interesting very quick.

The game was played in the conference center's learning annex, where some of the rooms were transformed into the evil Hospital (which let me tell you, took a while to build it right) and the Night Market, an area of St. Marks where the magical can congregate and purchase whatever they need. There was also the Cold Room, a space in the annex where the ventilation is nil but the AC is blasting, making it a perfectly chilly space. Turn off the lights and this is the area where characters who are so inclined to talk to Spirits or Gods or Powers get the chance to talk to them.

Watching the game from a detached perspective of a narrator allowed me to watch the spirit of the game. The players were responding to the world around them, creating ties with each other and the world they were in, including an antagonist that hadn't gone off yet. This lead to a series of comments between Shoshana and I where she finally went "Wait...they haven't KILLED him yet!?" They wanted to see where it went.

Which leads to a critique of the game itself, a lot of the information the players were basing their actions on were based on the books over the game they were in. The books are told from the perspective on one man who consistently has his notions of things rocked. It's also a perspective that has experienced a lot of things out of the norm and therefore knows more about the ground game of the supernatural, most people don't speak across the aisles, making known information about groups and types of people all the more difficult. The next game, I think that there should be a general announcement going "Focus on what your character would know. Harry's casefiles aren't public knowledge and he's just one poor shmuck from Chicago whose mouth gets him into more trouble than is worth."

That's what's the problem with games based around published media. You run the risk of playing what you've read and not what your character should know. This is true of the White Wolf games, which have all of the antagonists and histories written out. One of the things that we, as storytellers and game runners have to do is note what the limits of knowledge are, or else where is the discovery in a thing? Some people have argued that that gets rid of the suspense but telling us we don't know there's something out there. Suspense isn't being revealed a bomb, suspense is knowing there's a bomb and waiting for it to go off.

But now that I've seen the games, worked through their system and seen people play it. My next question is "Well, when do I get started?" There are ideas I have forming in my head for what I'd like to do, modules and NPCs I'd like to introduce and some side plots to give some of the characters. Oh, I have ideas. Right now, my copies of the Fate corebook and the Dresden RPG are on their way, and I'll be thumbing through them to get my foundation going. I intend to do a full review of Fate once I'm done with the book, there's talks of doing something by the autumn for another game and then we'll have a few more things set up.

Until then, Later, and Dresden Lives.

Dexcon 2014: The Bigger World of Gaming

This weekend, I began my employment as Storyteller for Phoenix Outlaw Productions working at Dexcon. Dexcon, run by Double Exposure Inc and located at the spacious Morristown Hyatt Hotel and Conference Center spanned five days. Five days of games from board games, war games, card games, video games, role playing games and, inevitably, larps.

So okay, I've been to big conventions like New York Comic Con, which spans a wide ground and a broad number of topics. I've been to Jeff Mach events like Wicked Faire, Steampunk World's Fair and GKE where they've taken over the entire hotel, and I've been to the regional conventions of the MES where everything from sun up to sleep is non-stop gaming. Dexcon has elements of all of these things.

The hotel's conference center takes up several floors and has dozens of small panel rooms, it's also attached to a learning center, various other offices and even an AMC theater. So when I say we had run of the full conference area, we had run of the full conference area. All of the genres of play weren't on top of each other. I was rooming with Phoenix Outlaw Productions: Shoshana, Josh, Abigail  and fellow recurring henchmen Nicolas, Sean and Justin. The room we were in was large enough to room all of us, our luggage and most of the gear for two different larps. There was just enough room to be comfortable without being on top of each other. We were all familiar with the tetris system of sleeping in a hotel room together, and things fell into place pretty evenly. We had a pretty decent command center.

What struck me was how many people I knew at the convention. I walk in and suddenly I know at least five people. Hell, the first person I saw Thursday was Michael Pucci talking with several people in the lobby. Most of the people were faces and names I'd known from my brief experiences at Dystopia Rising, or those I'd seen at the Living Games Conference. Most of the event I didn't spend working the larps I spent getting to know most of them. Shockingly enough, I was amazed by the one or two people who knew who I was without meeting me.

Friday was the crunch time. Phoenix Outlaw worked from 7am to 2am to put together and run two larps: Dresden Lives, the Dresden Files larp. I'll talk more about it in it's own blog, as some of you may suspect that I have a lot to say about it. We also worked on Battlestar Galactica: Tales of the Rising Star. I didn't work as much on BSG, mostly as photographer, but I was consistently amazed by the setup and the roleplay of the game. The game itself was based on the episode '33', the first episode of the series where the fleet had to constantly jump for five days to evade the Cylons. No sleep, everyone on alert and everyone still grieving the deaths of their families. Everyone looking at the clocks. From what I got to see, the tension was high in the room as the military kept their oppressive might against the engineers and civillians while several of people in the room were not what they seemed. There was a level of cynical "why yes it could get worse" going on, which was at the very core of the show.

As a first timer, this gave me a lot of great ideas about some of the larps I want to pull off. Now that I've been to one and can see one, I can create a six hour Kensei game (assuming I can write the rest of the materials) and also gives me ideas for other larps and experiments I'd love to pull off. At this point, Kensei is one of those ideas that has to be born. I'd love for it to work, but right now I just want to see it manifest. A few people gave me tips on possibly debuting it at Dreamation or Metatopia, with everything going on Dreamation in february would be the most likely time to aim for.

One of the things that was consistently marked upon was the prominence of larps, and how the convention has been prominently showcasing larps in their events and giving a multitude of larp groups tables for display and promoting their games I know that larping is seen to many in the Geek Hierarchy to be just one or two steps above (or to some, right next to) Furries at the bottom of the geek totem pole. Meanwhile, we're putting on larps where people get the chance to experience what it's like to be in their favorite scenarios or to give them the chance to make their own. Of course, I'm biased and stopped giving a damn about how geeky I am since I was 12. The punchline is that larping in the US is making strides in their production, execution and attendance.

The weekend also made me think of the Mind's Eye Society. There wasn't much of a presence there, aside from one current player and some former players. It's amazing how isolated some groups are. There's a whole world of games and resources to talk to and discuss with at these kinds of conventions and I don't really see that from the MES. I'm not discussing "we should all pitch in" but I think that limiting ourselves to one mode of play is silly and dangerous. In an isolated system, entropy can only increase. We need new ideas, and this is definitely a place where ideas can come from.

I think the most important thing I'm going to take from this weekend isn't as such the games, though lordy lou these games are worth remembering. But my favorite times were sitting in the lobby with the folks from the various groups and just jamming out ideas for the next string of larps they wanted to run. This isn't just a small group of tribes, these are collaborators, friends, loved ones. This is a community of blessed lunatics who like to make, run, and play in what amounts to make believe games that run the gamut between whimsical to maudlin. And while we're clearly working to the breaking point and right up to the last minute, the first word that escapes our lips after is done is "So, when's the next one?"

I'm very lucky to be able to work with and be associated with such talented people, and I'm looking forward to doing more work in the future.

The next couple of articles will be focused around Dexcon, including a review of Dresden Lives, of Pacific Rim: Rise of Tiburon, The Fate System and a discussion on Aftercare at larping conventions.

Later