LARPwriting.org

Intercon Mid-Atlantic Bids open - $500 LARPA Contest Opens

2009-03-23T22:32:51Z

ids for Intercon Mid-Atlantic, Oct 23-25 in Gaithersburg MD are now open.

We're back in the Washington DC area this year. Check the website for transportation information

IMA Is accessible through

Washington Metro Red Line and Convention Shuttle (Fri-Sun)

Two major airports - DCA and BWI. Also through IAD - all connect to public transportation

Amtrak through Washington Union Station

Registration is currently $20 but will go up when games are announced May 1st

No formal deadline has been set, but games bid before April 30, 2008 are more likely to be accepted.

http://ima.larpaweb.net

The annual LARPA Small Games Contest is also open. To bid a contest game, please fill out the submission information and deadlines here:

http://www.ima.larpaweb.net/imawiki/index.php?title=Contest_Introduction

Two Top Prizes $200 and $300

Overall best will win $300, $200 for best in Category, Additional $100 top prize

Two category winners will receive $200 and the be eligible for best overall.

Categories

Games compete either in the 5-12 player category or the 12-24+ player category. Each category will have one $200 winner, and one of the winners will receive "best overall" for a total prize of $300. Games must have a flexibility of at least 6 players. So for example a game could be for 12-18 players, or 18-24 players. Games may be written with more characters than 24 available, provided all other criteria are also met. Games can be run privately for playtest purposes

John Updike is Dead

2009-01-29T06:27:22Z

This isn't news to the world. John Updike died on Tuesday. Many of my friends do not know this, or do not know what it means, but I am saddened. So I will tell them a little.

Around 2002 I had a bitter argument online with a player and author about the use of non-genre media in LARP. I made the point that my influences are not limited to the universe of action-adventure or genre SF, Fantasy, etc. Many of my stories come from "mainstream" fiction. I was inroduced to the concept of LARP through John Fowles novel The Magus where it takes the form of "Godgaming."

If you had asked me on monday to name the greatest living American author I would probably have named John Updike. Of the men who formed the constellation of great names when I grew up, he is the last among the living. Updike's name I associate with the like of Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Norman Mailer, Bernard Malamud, John Steinbeck, Sinclair Lewis, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Mailer died two years ago, and I drank.

Even his lesser contemporaries are mostly in the grave. There are novelists who reached his ability but only in one or two books. Ken Kesey, Joseph Heller, Hunter S. Thompson.

Philip Roth alone remains alive and I mean him no disrespect. But I never warmed to Nathan Zuckerman the way I did. J. D. Salinger is miraculously still alive (as far as we know). His literary career ended the year I was born. There is hope however. Margaret Salinger says much of Salinger's unpublished work is marked for publication when he dies so...he may yet emerge as the true literary giant of our era. I think not though. Relevance is more important to a novelist now than in the year of my birth and I fear he will be an echo for academics a museum of his own past. Salinger is a narcissist and to me it is narcissistic enough to be a novelist...he has compounded the sin. Sad that, but his choice. I think it's a shame he broke up with Joyce Maynard, but it gives me something to look forward to.

But...all that aside...

I came to Updike through Bech: A Book, and its sequels. I had a Jewish girlfriend and was fascinated by all things Jewish, particularly Updike's alter ego Henry Bech. I saw myself in him. I saw mortality in him and most of all I learned a sense of proportion about ambition from him. Updike will get a funeral...he was a Christian of sorts...but someone should sit shiva for Henry Bech. I later pursued him through Couples, which taught me what to really expect from polyamory. All the truths Heinlein glossed in Stranger in a Strange Land and Time Enough for Love. My readings in Updike were eclectic. If my friends know of him it is almost always through Witches of Eastwick (considered one of his lesser works). Of all of his works I think the one which I most admire is The Coup which is probably much like admiring Shakespeare for Coriolanus. I admit I never read the Rabbit novels. Someday maybe I will.

Occasionally someone comes along that I honestly am a bit stricken by...there have been a lot of losses to the literary world lately. I do not think they will be replaced. I truly mean this.

There will be new and great artists. But the novel is dying or dead. The day when it is mostly a matter of desperation sales, adventure, and Oprah Winfrey is upon us. I am not saying writing is dead. But there will not be another John Updike just as the survival of John Williams and the existence of Orchestras or the importance of John Lennon or does not suggest there will ever be another Igor Stravinsky...there will be no new great classical composers...

There will be no new great American Novelists in the mold of the 20th century. Updike was the last of the real titans. I liked him. He was unassuming, wrote prose spare enough to die for, and was comfortable with sex.

We shall not see his like again.

Repo - the Genetic Opera

2009-01-18T21:27:56Z

So I spent the weekend with Stephanie and she suggested a Saturday night entertainment. She said REPO was in town, and we should go see it. I said "sure."

I'd heard of Repo. It had been brought to my attention because it concerned a dystopian future where they repossessed people’s personal organs, and that happened to vaguely match a plot I’d been writing for Threads of Damocles.   But Repo was a musical and I’m not that fond of musicals. Also a number of people ranted and raved about it, and I’m not a big joiner. Finally a friend who saw it wasn’t impressed by the “personal sell” element of the Road Tour.

But I didn’t have anything against it either, figured it would be amusing.

So for people who don’t know the background, here’s the quick rundown. Repo was an indie arts project playing in black box theatres, that managed to get a budget and a theatrical release as a project of Director Darren Lynn Bousman, best known for the  Saw franchise. It’s a very SFX and squip heavy satire. It’s impossible to really say what genre it is. You could say roughly it fits into the dark musical genre associated with Assassins or Sweeny Todd. But theatrically it shows more like Frank Miller’s Sin City, or other dark anime rendered into live action. You might through Guillermo's Pan's Labyrinth in there too...but it's not serious, so that's a very weird divergence.

I can understand why it's a marketing nightmare. It's "Springtime for Hitler" level fucked up...like "Hey what if we made Pan's Labyrinth into a musical comedy." It's the sort of thing that does well on stage but has a very fucking hard time getting in front of a film audience.

One paralell that has been invoked is The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and the roadshow adapts this framework, encouraging people to come out in costume. Since the costumes include pretty hot looks for the girls, I’m generally okay with that.   For actual thematic similarity the closest thing I’ve ever seen to it was Brian De Palma’s 1974 Phantom of the Paradise. In terms of feel and content, it struck me an awful lot like Frank Miller, but the universe complexity and themes really reminded me of Mike Kaluta’s Starstruck (not the more recent Gaiman piece). I think the feel may come somewhat from the fact that Starstruck was derived from an off-Broadway play by Elaine Lee, Norfleet Lee and Dale Place.   It’s darker and more “modern” than Starstruck of course, along the lines of Watchmen.

At any rate, Repo flunked it’s test-screening badly and Lionsgate sent it straight to DVD.   It missed the mark largely because it was billed to the test audience as a horror vehicle by the Director of Saw II, and it’s not. It’s not surprising that “Frank Miller as musical comedy” did not play well to that crowd. It was a flop, and so like Terry Gilliam’s Brazil faced a huge issue getting released.

Theatres are sockets that studios put movies into to make money.   You pick the movies that are going to fill a 200 seat theatre to 200 people. Not that are going to fill it to 50 people.   It’s true hype and advertising play a role. But while I don’t agree it is the worst movie ever made, I can see it having real trouble finding a clear advertising method and an audience. I’m not sure the people who went to see Sin City would like it, and I’m not sure who you’d sell it to. One thing to understand about movies is just how fucking enormous releases are. Sin City cost $40 million (a lot more than Repo’s 8m,) but grossed 158 million worldwide. You can have a TV show, or Broadway show that a fuckload less people are interested in that is still very profitable.   Movies need a big audience to be anything other than arthouse films. I suspect that Repo’s gore makes it hard to play in art houses like the Landmark E St. Cinema. And frankly that’s a big drawback. I can’t say “everybody is going to love this show,” because unlike say Sweeny Todd, if you are not okay with seeing human skin cut open and blood spurt out this is going to freak you right the fuck out. It's not incredibly far afield in either tone or gore from Kill Bill, but it's a lot more fantastic and it's a musical.

At any rate, Director Darren Lynn Bousman and Writer Terrence Zdunich are touring around with lead Alexa Vega to try and generate a cult following.  Intentionally or not there's a sort of push for it as a new Rocky Horror, and they want to see a bigger big-screen release. I think it’s a noble goal, and I doubt it’s really profiting Bousman, though it may be the best thing Zudnich can be doing for himself right now. If you've read Terry Gilliam's The Battle for Brazil you have some idea of how these things work.

They make a good show and it’s fun and friendly. People who know me know that I’m not big on actresses. I don’t care much about them…my fandom stops with Ingrid Bergman, Myrna Loy, Katherine Hepburn and Marlene Dietrich.   A friend of mine got me half sold on Julie Christie. But that’s about it. That said, Alexa Vega kinda kicks ass. She’s got a commanding personality which is not something you usually hear said about actresses. When she takes charge, vocally, you actually feel it, and that’s sometimes very hard to do with a pretty girl especially one who’s playing young. I’m gonna like the girl of course, it’s me, but she’s a cut above.

I was pleased to meet them all where “meet” = seeing their presentation and passing about nine words in the lobby on the way to the gents. All friendly words though.

So this film is not without talent. The big names in the film other than Alexa Vega (who was in Spy Kids and is apparently now on Broadway in Hairspray) are Paris Hilton and Anthony Head (who played Giles on Buffy for folks like me not good with names). Paul Sorvino (Law and Order) rounds out the bill.

There's also apparently a cameo by Joan Jett though I missed it.

The music is pretty fucked up in a good way. Sarah Brightman actually has a screen role as does Ogre of Skinny Puppy. But I think a real chunk of the sell is the soundtrack. You’ve got David Lee Roth's in studio guitarist Brian Young, the frontman from Filter, the drummer from Jane's Addiction and Porno for Pyros, the rhythm guitarist from Guns n' Roses, David J Haskins the bassist from Bauhaus and Daniel Ash of Bauhaus and Love and Rockets. It also includes Ozzy's bassist Blasko, the drummer from Rob Zombie, POE ("Hey Pretty"), and Rami Jaffee, who has played with The Wallflowers, Foo Fighters, Soul Asylum and Pearl Jam.

The producers were Yoshiki (who I've never heard of but is apparently big in Japan the way Elvis was big in the U.S.) and Joseph Bishara who produces Glenn Danzig, which kinda figures.

So what did I think of it?

Well…I did not walk out thinking “this is the greatest fucking movie ever made…I am obsessed with it.”   But I think it has the power to grow on you. There’s a lot of rich complexity of the sort that you see in Pan’s Labyrinth that feels like there's a world behind it. It feels strongly like it was made from a comic or graphic-novel media.

The music was the same way. It's complex and despite it all not all that catchy except for "Zydrate Anatomy." Some of it really seems to suborn music for story which since it claims to be an opera you can't complain about.

But I think it grows on you. It's rich and there's enough there for two watchings. It's a fascinating world, and in the end you've only sort of licked the dark corners of it.

I think it's destined to become a cult classic, though I doubt it will ever see a major theatrical release. It's got some serious chops and if it seems a little scratchy in places, it's really beautiful in others. And it draws you back. Sin City was pretty, but I'll be damned if I remember more than one or two scenes. It was a comic book - bubblegum. I suspect I'll remember Repo ten years from now in pretty good detail.

It's worth buying rather than pirating, and I'd strongly recommend it (out on DVD and Blu-Ray on the 20th). It isn't often art is "something else" and Repo is definitely something else.

Not really a meme...

2009-01-16T16:14:22Z

As most people have probably gathered I do LJ memes approximately never. I've recently become interested for reasons of personal reseach in the concept of the "Johari Window"

According to Wikipedia:

A Johari window is a cognitive psychological tool created by Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham in 1955 in the United States, used to help people better understand their interpersonal communication and relationships. It is used primarily in self-help groups and corporate settings as a heuristic exercise.

When performing the exercise, the subject is given a list of 55 adjectives and picks five or six that they feel describe their own personality. Peers of the subject are then given the same list, and each pick five or six adjectives that describe the subject. These adjectives are then mapped onto a grid.

Charles Handy calls this concept the Johari House with four rooms. Room 1 is the part of ourselves that we see and others see. Room 2 is the aspect that others see but we are not aware of. Room 3 is the most mysterious room in that the unconscious or subconscious bit of us is seen by neither ourselves nor others. Room 4 is our private space, which we know but keep from others.

This went around as an LJ meme about a year or more ago, and like most memes I bypassed it. At any rate, while I don't tend to do memes I do occasionally comment on serious issues raised by my friends, so I've created a Johari window and a negative Nohari window, and I am interested in the input.

Just for what it's worth, I don't expect people to use identifiable names, don't care what they say, and won't take anything personally. You can't really NOT be critical in the Nohari window. I'm just curious about the results for purposes of research. I tend to take all things pop-psychological as interesting, but superficial. As an estimator I value roundhouse methods while recognizing they are an incomplete picture

At any rate, for anyone interested:

http://kevan.org/johari?view=James_dc
http://kevan.org/nohari?view=James_dc

Live Roleplaying Groups, Money, and Self-Destruction

2008-11-21T16:02:27Z

This morning's economic news came from Monty Python. According to the Post:

OBAMA: But I don't want to think I've not lost a Treasury Secretary, so much as... gained
    a bailout!
    [clap clap clap]
    For, since the tragic death of the economy--
PAULSON: It's not quite dead!
OBAMA: Since the near fatal wounding of the economy--
PAULSON: It's getting better!
OBAMA: For, since the economy, which, when it seemed about to recover,
    suddenly felt the icy hand of death upon it.
FEDERAL RESERVE: Uugh!
HARRY REID: Oh, it's died!

So...the best we can say about the economy is that it was coughing up blood late last night...

In that spirit, I'm going to reprint an article from back in 2002, during our last declared financial panic. I think it was a good summary then, and holds up reasonably now. I wasn't enchanted with the title, but mine was admittedly much more boring and the current title was put on it by Dave Coleman, then the Editor of the LARPer, and it is probably better than whatever I had (which may have been the subtitle)....

This article originally appeared at http://larper.larpaweb.net/no_work.html

January 2002, Volume 2, Issue 1

LARP in the Time of Cholera

Live Roleplaying Groups, Money, and Self-Destruction
by Gordon Olmstead-Dean

A couple of weeks ago, I sat down with the Co-GM of my current campaign and figured out our current unemployment statistics. After a few moments with pen and paper, we came to the conclusion that about 18% of our regular contingent were currently unemployed, with about a quarter having expressed serious concern about being severed.

I shook my head, and began looking through our schedule…this game could move to a private venue we owned. This one we could cut the price on a little bit and offer more meals…and we could look towards running the season without any significant prop expenditures…we'd always borrowed where we didn't have to buy, and between that and my private stock, we could run the season till about next October on last year's properties…

"Maybe..." I said hopefully..."Things will be better by then."

My partner in crime began running games in the mid-nineties, and had never been through a recession. So I ordered another cup of coffee and launched into the dreaded old-timer's account.

I ran Live Roleplaying events through the `92 recession and lived to tell about it. So I told her what I was worried about.

It wasn't the cost of the games. We had a plan to control that.

It wasn't the cost of the food. It's a decent group and people will help cover for them as haven't got right at the moment. And my wife who heads our logistics and catering effort works miracles on a low budget with mass food prep. We could get by on a lot less money for victualing.

What I was worried about is that our community would self-destruct around us and that nothing we could say or do would stop it. That an enveloping spiral of personal quarrels, fallings out and grievances would rise and suck the entire Roleplaying community down into a black hole from which it would still be digging itself out in 2005.

Because I'd seen it happen once before.

Maybe this doesn't concern you. You don't game where I do. And different groups are constituted differently. But read a little and find out. I've seen the insides of seven different LARP communities in seventeen years, and shared stories of a dozen more. And they all have some similar characteristics that make them vulnerable when this sort of cloud darkens the horizon.

Shadow of the Past

The 1992 recession began in July 1990 and lasted through December 1992, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, which declared on November 26 that the current Economy had been in recession since March of 2001.

The 1992 recession was more traumatic, because it was recognized late. By the time that the administration admitted that there was in fact a recession, it had been going on for nearly a year and a half. And during that time period, friends lost jobs, apartments, and found themselves being swamped with debts, and didn't know why. Certainly there was a slowly dawning sense that something was wrong. But by the time there was any general recognition an awful lot of people were on the rocks.

Now, in 2001, most everyone knows there is something dramatically wrong with the economy and that layoffs are snowballing. Nobody knows how bad it will get, but the best-case scenario says that if this issue sees rock-bottom, things will not be well and healed again before March 2003, though they should be a lot better by August or September of 2002. But if it isn't rock bottom...who knows?

In the face of this sort of trouble, it may seem trivial to be writing about the preservation of what is, to most people, a hobby. But I'm doing it for two reasons. First, while Live Roleplay is a hobby to those who play it, to those who create and build it, it's an art and a passion. Like any group, we deserve a chance to try to weather the storm.

Second, in most communities that I have seen where there is LARP, Live Roleplay becomes the central community. Whether it is students at a school who identify as LARPers, or middle-aged adults who don't quite fit in at Church League Bowling, or the Country Club. I think there is a very good chance that to most people reading this, Live Roleplay represents a circle of friends and acquaintances that are "the community" in a way that Church Committees or the Rotary Club might have been Mom or Dad's Community. Sure, it isn't a way of life for everyone. But everywhere that there is LARP, I see a core community of people for whom it is a primary activity outside of work.

In 1990, I was more or less on top of the LARPing world, such as it was. I was part of a handful of about three hundred people on the East Coast of the U.S. who were actively involved in building theatre-style LARP - a Live Roleplaying genre that tended to be indoors and did not entail hitting anyone with a duct tape-wrapped piece of PVC. It was new, having roots that went back no more than about seven years, and it was growing and it was exciting. The group that I worked with was producing four games in a calendar year and five games in a six-month period. By the standards of the day they were very successful - substantially more people liked them than not. Within the community of two to three hundred (mostly readers of the nascent Kevin Barrett Edited foldover version of Metagame - the distant ancestor of this very Web Publication) we were known and talked about.

At the time, I was working part time, and living at home, having lost my father to a serious illness in early 1989, and having a bit of money. Mostly I was writing and learning LARP, while toying with starting my own Desktop Publishing Business.

Three years later I was broke, had launched a string of unsuccessful or mediocre games, and had seen the community of about three hundred dwindle to a community of scarcely more than one hundred twenty five. Worse, I'd seen friends become bitter enemies, and seen a community riven by strife.

I didn't blame the economy. In fact it was 1999 before I first began to seriously assess the early 90s and realize to what a profound extent the problems and controversies of the period…and the bad feelings that outlived the period…were linked to the economic woes of the 1992 recession.

I could go on at length about all that fell apart and how it happened. Everything is a chain of causes. I quarreled because I ran bad games and felt put upon for my hospitality and resentful of criticism; I felt resentful because I had no money; and I ran bad games because I had to go to work, and do odd jobs, to make money because my badly contemplated small business went belly up. The business would probably have failed in any situation, but the particularly painful circumstances, debts, and issues were compounded by the bad economy.

But really my situation wasn't so bad. The truth is I was a college student, used to living hand to mouth, and really wasn't so bothered by my circumstances. I saw friends have their furnishings put out on the lawn at apartment complexes, saw friends have to pick up sticks and move back to the west coast, or take jobs in places whose names could not be pronounced on short notice. Saw couples that had been stable for several years suddenly marry or explode into discord and separation.

What surprised me and aroused resentment was the bad feeling and critical attitudes among so many others. It was a time of a failure of cooperation. Certainly some of it was inevitable. Many of us were involved in trying to build an organization to promote Live Roleplay - the SIL, and its successor the ILF, the ancestor to LARPA. Small group politics are always good at bringing out pettiness and vindictive behavior. I was an idealistic crusader who did not yet understand how to temper that idealism to get people to cooperate, and gave offense and injury. Yet the same people and entities had functioned before and when there were quarrels, the vicious ones that hit home and really made enemies were about time, travel, and money. There were high egos in those days too, and groups that were going to one up each other, or gloried in their own aggressive self-promotion...these things would have left hurt feelings at the best of times, but they would not have aroused the bitterness they did if it were not a time when the money involved mattered. I nearly lost my house over a LARP, a bitterness it would take me a long time to forget.

Even at the time, we realized that the economy was somewhat to blame. It was openly discussed that with things tight, people were being more critical of games because they felt a need to get their money's worth, and it hurt to spend a hundred twenty bucks on a lousy weekend.

Eventually, I realized that the bottom line boiled down to no more than human nature.

In normal times, most people are friendly, and behave with some reserve. But in times of stress that reserve breaks down.

Take a stable community. Put a good third of them either out of work, or in fear of losing their jobs. Put another third in fear of being enmeshed in close personal situations with people that don't have jobs, that have their hands out for food and money...or whom they guiltily realize they should help...after all aren't they friends. Then put another third in the "unaffected" category, suddenly irritated at why everyone else is so picky and can't pull their weight. Mix liberally with boyfriend girlfriend and ex-boyfriend girlfriend relationships, because this is a social group and tends to partner off.

Suddenly this picture became very clear to me, and it was no longer strange to me that so many people seemed to have an attack of "the pissies" for the first couple years of the nineties. In fact it seemed a miracle any of us stayed friends or that a community of sorts endured at all.

Human beings, we are told by sociologists, respond to stress by fight or flight...generally flight involves the suppression of the fight instinct - the suppression of hostility. Create an environment where certainties are suddenly uncertain, and you have created an environment suffused by suppressed hostility. And that hostility will out.

At the core of that miracle was the fact that LARP is an escapist literature. As movies prospered in the 1930s, so LARP should by rights prosper in a time of economic downturn. Yet LARP is also stressful personal interaction. And in a time of great uncertainty that is not necessarily the best balm.

Looking around my own community I see the signs. I see people who are usually composed being prone to snapping and bitter statements. I see myself doing these things even when I don't mean to, because I am not immune to stress. And I look around and see that there is an observable difference in how my friends and acquaintances act now, and how they acted a year and a half ago. And I remember where I have seen this before...in the early 90s.

Thus endeth the Sociology lesson. In times of pressure and fear a community might draw together if it has to, but there is also an increase in fighting, in social hostility and in individual instability. Since a hobby community does not have to stay together it is inherently more vulnerable. If you don't believe the lesson, I can't help you. I can say with some confidence that in a general sense it is true, in the same way that it is true

What can a gaming community do to blunt the consequences?

What we can't do is avoid all the fallout that comes from people interacting with people. We can't help it if Hans fights with Lottie, or Lottie fights with Jane. But we can help to create an atmosphere which is less conducive to conflict, and which helps hold the community together. In retrospect, the political matters concerning the government of the SIL/ILF and its Conventions which were among the nastiest flash points of the fall out in my own community in the early 90s were tailor made for causing division and pain. Likewise, the very style of game that predominated - a full weekend event with a high buy in and high costs for facilities (hotels and restaurants, generally) were tailor made for provoking maximum hostility when an event failed.

Take matters seriously - it's an axiom in business that no plan can succeed unless it is taken seriously and supported by management. Unless folks who run campaigns and events take the lead, and really think about these things, nothing else here will much matter.
Recognize the signs - when you see players behaving erratically, suddenly withdrawn, or agonizing over matters you don't understand, you are seeing the onset of a reaction to general stress in the community. Recognize it for what it is, and be understanding, and encourage others to be understanding.
Communicate - create an environment of openness. Answer questions about matters of budget, time, and planning. In every LARP community there is some person who thinks that someone is getting rich off of this (microbucks!), and usually they deserve to be heartily mocked. But now is the time to give quiet, reasoned, careful explanations of where money is going, and what the status of the event is. That goes for the GMs' work status too. If you are not being able to put the time in on the events that you would like, say so, and explain why. Far better than a bluster to cover up work left undone, or worse, an autocratic refusal to take help or allow things to run their course without GM supervision for fear that "things will get out of hand."
Take Help - any campaign or event, at any time, should try to take all the help it possibly can. It isn't always easy. Trying to make use of volunteers is tough, and worthy of an article in itself. But now is the time to stretch yourself. It is especially important if the result of the current adversity is that you...or your principal writing partners...have less time than previous to give to the game.
Plan Small - figure out your available time commitments and realistic financial situation, and plan accordingly. Now is not the time to stretch. Players might enjoy a good retread of a previous event more than an ambitious and badly planned fiasco you didn't have time to follow through on because of pressing work concerns. Players might tolerate a smaller venue or less polished props if they don't have to pay extra for them.
Cut Costs - pare your budget where you can, but try to achieve real economy, not false economies. You also won't do yourself any favors by cutting your budget so thin you have to go out of pocket to fund your events. Letting one or two transition events ride with a little out of pocket or "sugar daddy" funding is fine, but it shouldn't be a regular practice (unless you are so fortunate that you are able to do it all the time). Trim prop budgets, look for cheaper venues, and borrow instead of buying to keep costs down. Above all borrow props. Your players own a huge amount of neat stuff. Telling them you want to borrow it, gives away a lot less about the plot of your game than you might imagine.
It's all about secondary costs - the really deadly costs are the ones you can't counter. I would not like to be, right now, a game that ran at a fixed site, for which I paid rent, a long way from my player base, so that they had to drive a good distance. But that's what most games are. Gas, food on the way to games and lodging if you don't provide it, are all player costs. On the other hand it's no gift to your players to cut a breakfast and cut a dollar off the price…often group meals are among the best financial deals in gaming. Our campaign is actually trying to plan *more* meals onsite, because they cost less than restaurant meals - we can provide a good dinner for less than the cost of a MacDonald's Meal Deal.
Make sure that those who have need are not ashamed - while this may be obvious, it is important. Make sure that there is no onus of shame on folks who are short on cash. This means not drawing overmuch specific attention. Nobody wants the GM to say "Joe can't really afford the game, can everyone help JOE out, since JOE is out of a job…" Recognizing folks who are currently in a tight spot as a class of individuals is better than singling out any one person.
Don't expect the "unaffected" to carry the burden - humans will be humans. Good as we are, when our friends start being unemployed, it takes a saint not to step slightly away, especially if we've ended up with friends on the living room sofa once before when we were younger. Those slight steps away hurt, and are the unspoken act behind a lot of fractured friendships. Don't make it worse by setting up a situation where anyone who is not currently out of a job feels they are targeted for almsgiving, and are expected to directly or indirectly underwrite others. The first tendency is to say "friends will help out," and they will. But some friends may draw away. Maybe that means they weren't real friends, but your campaign doesn't need to be the place people find that out. My current working theory is that it is better to establish a baseline system by which people who are unaffected can pay in a little bit extra to help out than to create free-floating expectations that friends will carry meals, gasoline, etc. People are willing to give, but they also want limits. And remember that the "unaffected" may have friends, relatives, siblings, or reasonable fears that make them much less able to be forthcoming with extra funds no matter how much they might like to.
Remember that the unaffected have expectations too - One of the things which rends a community is a sudden breach in expectations. While some people can be keenly aware of this, a certain number of people in a community blithely expect that the current pricing structure and offerings should match their capability. "Why NOT" run at a beautiful bed and breakfast that would be a perfect site, but costs $120 per person per night. "Why NOT" run at Ed's house which is a suburban rambler and cannot conceivably be made to look like a game site, but which is within walking distance of my house and free. As much as possible, try to keep up standards. Players who are used to - and still perfectly capable of - paying $65 a night for events may not be interested in a $5 game in Ed's Basement. Try to compromise, and when possible, maintain standards.
Create ways for those who can't pay to participate with dignity - the fact is that the people who probably need help the most are often those who won't take it. A lot of people are too proud to be a burden on their friends. You need to create routes by which people who don't have the ability to pay can contribute legitimately to support the event. Our group has "cast" and "technical" roles. The first group, for a small discount, play pre-written characters for us - the concept is found in nearly every system, under the name "monsters, NPCs, etc." Tech is a little different. Usually we charge tech nothing, and they work as stagehands, playing smaller roles as needed. It may not be the most fun role, but it does keep people getting out with their friends. Other ideas might be to sublet the construction of props, or costumes in return for admission. This would work particularly well if your group actually has a small budget for such things, since free admission or food generally creates fewer problems than paying members of the group money. Of course a real constraint is that it doesn't help to have all the volunteer help in the world if you can't afford the venue, and have to go out of pocket to cover the game. But most campaigns are open to some creative avenues for allowing players who are in bad financial shape to pull their own weight without accepting charity.
Consider that the need for social stress decreases and the need for escape increases. I'm the biggest fan in the world of evil psychological games that twist reality and perceptions, and often leave you feeling bleak or disappointed. In terms of action adventure literature, I'm a big John LeCarre fan. Not the stuff of happy endings.
However, when we choose to run for a broad audience, while we may challenge that audience, it behooves us to keep that audience's interest. There is no artistic law here - just sound advice. Not everyone likes the extremes in gaming, and those who want to keep a game running will temper the extremes a bit. It's not an obligation, but it is a good idea.
Here is a hint. Your players are less likely to take it cheerfully that Nyarlathotep ate them all, or that the Lich slaughtered them than they might be at some other time. Now may not be the best time to run risky experimental concepts that are not really crowd-pleasers.
Right now your players have a higher need for pure escapism, and a lower need for social and psychological stress. Now is the time to deal them a few victories. If you want to keep your group lively, you'll bear that in mind.
Now is the time for you to be laid back - this is probably the single most important item of advice I can give. There is always something to irritate you. There is always a player who can't quite get with the drill, who makes excessive demands, or mistakes, or causes problems. Oddly enough, now is not the time to take that up with them. Sure there may be issues that have to be addressed. But now is the time to say, "do I really care that much that Joe doesn't keep his stats properly."
Now is the time when you'll want to be confrontational. Because you are feeling the stress as much as everybody else, and you would love nothing better than a just cause to lash out at - someone clearly in the wrong for you to focus on and blast into mincemeat with perfect justification.
But this isn't the time for that sort of behavior. The reason you want to so badly is the reason you shouldn't. Being justified or right doesn't change the fact that you're creating bad feeling. And LARP isn't like work at an office. There, however painful, if you fire someone, they go away. In Live Roleplaying communities, they may stay around to cause you infinite amounts of trouble. And rest assured if you round heavily on someone, you have just made yourself the magnet for all of their suppressed rage.
It's easy to say "I don't care, I can take them." But nobody wins fights in which everyone feels bad and embarrassed. The best you can hope for is a draw in which it is quickly forgotten.
If you have a real problem, be as gentle as possible. Enlist others to help. And try to hold on to your temper.
Nobody ever likes trivialities...now is not the time to harp on them. Remember you can't change the bottom line. Your principal problem is not a minority of players who are unemployed, or in bad straits. Your principal problem is a majority of players who are under untoward stress, which makes them hostile and defensive. This is not the time to try and enforce the letter of the law.
Be a pillar. The core of what causes problems in social groups at times like this is fear. Fear of changing circumstances, and of unexpected reverses. What attracts people the most is someone they can rely on. The more you can be this person, the more you will earn the respect of your community and be a pillar that holds it together. Try not to be snappy, mercurial, or inflexible. In a normal time, those might be appealing characteristics for the temperamental artiste that is the GM. But now is not a time when prima donnas are appreciated. Now is a time to be reliable, calm, dependable, and helpful.

I very seriously do not know if these measures in my campaign...and the fact that I'm willing to share this advice with other area GMs, will help preserve the community in the Washington Metropolitan Region. Ask me in 2005.

On the other hand, I cannot help but think that facing the current crisis with a clear vision, and a plan, is better than facing it with ignorance, activities tailor made to create strife, and no plan at all. Whether it helps a little, or a lot, it's something.

LARPA Contest Winners!

2008-11-18T05:29:28Z

Intercon Mid-Atlantic is over, and what a convention. The company was great, the games were very good, and the weather stayed fairly warm if rainy. The Con numbers never reached the usual levels, but you couldn't much tell from the party in the function space after hours. People had fun, talked shop, danced, and generally had a good time. I got several "best Intercon evar!" comments from people, and if we lacked a little in numbers we made up for it in quality of company and good spirits.

We had some new faces this year and that was very exciting. I got a chance to talk to a lot of the good people involved in producing the New England Convention about cross promoting, and pushing the Intercon name. If IMA is going to have a growth year and be a good neighbor, we'll need help and everyone I asked for help was really forthcoming and willing to go the extra mile.

I love IMA and I want it to keep its special feeling and characteristics, but it's time for us to grow again as well, and this weekend we roughed out a lot of the things that need to happen for IMA to move forward. Contest Submissions will be much earlier this coming year so that at least a few tracks of good games are up by the time the New England Convention runs.

This year’s contest proved pretty exciting. There was some real competition. I should explain briefly that all games compete in two categories. Technical Submission (a copy of the game submitted beforehand and read by judges) and Runtime Scores. A game that does not complete it’s Technical Submission may still run and Receive Runtime Scores, but is unlikely to win Best Overall since its highest possible score will be 50%. We also had a “Wildcard” category this year which only reflected Runtime.

This years winners were:

Gold - Best Overall - Time Travel Review Board by John D'Agosta, Susan Weiner, Nat Budin, Josh Rachlin
“Wildcard” – Best Runtime - Holiday Season by Mike Young
Gold – Best in Category – 6-12 Players – The Road Not Taken by Mike Young
Gold – Best in Category – 12-24 Players - Time Travel Review Board by John D'Agosta, Susan Weiner, Nat Budin, Josh Rachlin
Silver – 12-24 Players - Shangri-La by Tom Vorhies, Carol Young, Andrew Zorowitz and the Foam Brain Staff
Bronze – 12-24 Players - Finals by Christopher Buck, Emily Buck, Jennifer Buck, Elizabeth Mullen

I’m going to throw in a note here. People who were at the Convention are aware that Road Not Taken won best 6-12, but also had no competition. I think it’s worth mentioning that it was only beaten for Wildcard by Holiday Season by the same author, so clearly competition aside, it was a very worthy entry.

I think all these games were very solid and very credible, and the spread on scores was close enough to make us feel that all the games were good competitors and that everyone put in a good effort.

The real winner is the rest of the LARP playing world. There are now six new games in the GameBank, posted and ready to go!

http://www.larpaweb.net/gamebank-mainmenu-31

On a final note, I want to thank everyone who attended Intercon, and the people who worked hard to produce it, particularly Stephanie Olmstead-Dean, who handled the hotel, and con-suite, Meredith Peck who handled a lot of the admin work of the convention, and Mike Young who handled database issues.

I also want to thank the many people who came forward and made displays of generosity by donating to the Con and the Bar. Many people went above and beyond the call of duty to help out in this difficult year, and we deeply appreciate that.

Next stop – Intercon I!

Intercon Mid-Atlantic - almost upon us!

2008-11-12T20:03:08Z

So Intercon Mid-Atlantic is almost upon us. With gas prices falling and the economy stuttering and Obama elected, reg has picked up a little. More than I expected, honestly. And there are a few more people in the wind, friends bringing undecideds who will either come at the last minute or not. The games that are open now are probably going to have slots at the door, and the ones that were full already were. I'm guessing we'll shuffle up to around 80, which has us down about 22%, which given the timing on our ass-kicking is not bad. By the time people unfroze and decided they might be willing to travel again, IMA was just too close.

I'm looking forward to the weekend! For once I have the latitude just to have fun and not worry that the con is going to lose a lot of money.   Effectively this Con is paid for by LARPWriting.org and Threads of Damocles.  Enjoy the bar!   This year for all it's failings IMA will be a good set of games and a good party. I'm browsing through the attendance list, and except for a very few people who had some pre-existing conflict, we're mostly not missing the core people who we enjoy partying with and who make the Convention fun. And IMA is still bigger than Threads, which is a great party. So it's going to be a nice fun weekend, and I officially refuse to worry that the economy hurt us. We're going to rock on, play games, have fun, and maybe learn something. I'm thinking of running an informal roundtable track during the day, and seeing if anybody shows up if we actually have a TOPIC for our rambling daytime discussions.

Also I'll add that we've run a lot of discounts and slashed prices to try to help the games by getting more reg. That was aimed at people who were hard hit. With GM comps, price reductions, etc., reg will cover about 35% of Con budget this year. I don't want to guilt anyone so I'll just remind my friends who work jobs as good or better than mine and are not starving that most of the Con is coming out of my pocket, so if you don't need to figure out how to pay nothing for the con, you know those little bits do help. I don't mind and I won't complain, but everybody appreciates the person who kicks in for the party.

We'll turn that around next year, having gotten Threads up and making ends meet.

We'll do a lot of things differently next year. Next year will be Intercon 24, and we have some big plans for Intercon 25, and if that is going to happen we need to ramp up now.   We're moving back to the Baltimore-Washington area, expanding the Convention to include workshops and roundtables on Thursday, and finally adding a real workshop and panel track all weekend. I'm expecting about twenty people the first year, and we'll go from there.

I've added an additional "WildCard" prize to the LARPA Small Games Contest this year, and that should make things interesting. We've got three competitors for the 12-24 Category, but it's likely that the one micro entrant will win that category.   We have more entrants this year than ever before, and I'm happy about that.   Next year we are going to open Contest Game Bids before we open Regular Bids and may also offer a few more Categories.

I think if IMA is going to be the art and theory con, we need to be the art and theory Convention and that means really putting our money where our mouth is and provide a real programming track. It will be lightly attended at first, but you can't grow something without planting a seed, and it's time.   We'll also move to a heavier promotional message. IMA-2008 was intended to be a "coasting" con - run our usual numbers and usual crowd during what would arguably be the most intense and difficult year for the Threads Campaign. With Threads beginning to run itself, I'll have more time to devote to IMA-2009 and to the twenty fifth anniversary in 2010.

As a side note, the 25th Anniversary of Theatre Style LARP passed without remark last year. But I think in a lot of ways that's less of a landmark. The SIL was founded as the Harvard SIL that year, but we know there was LARP before that, and there are murdery mystery events that go back as far, and Assassin games, etc. So that was a landmark, but not really anniversary worthy. I think that the beginning of SilIcon/Intercon in the United States is going to be a much more memorable date down the years.

So we'll worry about the future later

(Offtopic) Because people ask...

2008-11-05T18:36:15Z

No particular ideas on Defense other than Jack Reed. I think you could do a lot worse than that. Reed is a veteran with cred and a certified expert, who can work closely with Joe Biden, who is probably going to be the Defense/State guy.

Treasury is obviously going to be very important. Bob Rubin has been talked about a lot as well as Paul Volcker. My personal guess is going to be Timothy Geithner (President of the Federal Reserve Bank). He's worked for Rubin, who may well end up as the Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors rather than Secretary. Geithner is already in the middle of the bailout, day-in/day-out and that's going to be enormously important.

the_smith_e asked what Warren Buffet wanted. I'd guess if anything a role on the CEA. I'd guess Rubin or Volcker for Chair though.

State is a big one. Madelaine Albright has been suggested, but she's something like 72, and I just don't think she could keep up with the pace. I think she'll be an advisor of some sort, but someone younger will take State. You do not want the health complexities inherent in a 72 year old derailing the delicate processes State needs to be responsible for. A good realistic choice is Greg Craig. Colin Powell has been suggested, as has John Kerry. I think if we see that sort of "dream team" pick it would be in this slot, but my money is going to go on Craig or somebody like him.

At this writing, as far as I know Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Illinois) is a given for Chief of Staff and should be announced shortly.

No strong feelings about the other slots...

Election Day Rants, IMA, and Leadership Posts - III - "Modular Structure"

2008-11-04T15:28:49Z

Intercon Mid-Atlantic is coming along. Reg has started to move up a little, which may go with the easing of the financial panic. There is some thought that the likely "blue" election day will settle things more and people will get a little less panicked about spending. If you still want to come, but were locked out of the room block, please contact me directly as we may be able to get you a room.

Election Day - I haven't digressed much about politics this year, because frankly it was a very close horse-race then a foregone conclusion. But a quick early evaluation. To pull off a win, McCain would need to get every solid vote he has, also claim every leaning vote he has, claim every single tossup vote in the country AND claim 18 electoral votes that are currently leaning Obama. I won't say that's impossible, but it would take a significant miracle...the only thing I see that could possible save McCain is a surprise upset in Pennsylvania. That still means he has to carry both Ohio AND Florida, but he could afford to slip in one other place...he could afford to lose one of GA, VA, NC, MO, and he could afford to lose the Dakotas and Montana.

Today in Leadership, we visit the topic of Modular structure...

The Modular Structure and some Pros and Cons

Despotism in LARP

During most of the 1990s it was put forward that LARP only worked as a Dictatorship. The theory was that in order for a LARP to run well there had to be one tyrant who controlled everything with an iron fist. While this isn’t true, it is a product of perception. Small political entities are Despotisms (Primitive Dictatorships). People familiar with the political model of Sid Meier’s Civilization will recognize this concept. Civ players will also remember that as society gets larger, Despotism is less and less efficient. The capability emerges to support more complex models, and the Despot is a drag, not a help. In a small group a Despot gets things moving quickly. It could be argued that the Continuity Staff is a Despotic Oligarchy, but the effect is the same. In a large group Despotism slows things down because a few people have to oversee everything directly. Civ players could humorously argue whether we are moving to Monarchy or Republicanism but the truth is we have some elements of both. The Production-Company model and the “Marketplace of Ideas” model below aim to keep some of the elements of Despotism that work well. Having someone willing to take responsibility and say “the buck stops here.” But it aims to eliminate the drag of all decisions having to be approved by or blessed by a small cadre of oligarchs.

The Origins of the Modular Structure

The advent of the modular structure made it possible to consider a stronger move away from Despotism. Modular. The real origin of the concept is the 1988 LARP event The Arabian Nights. The designers of that original event, including but not limited to Russell Almond, conceptualized a structure which could support 120 players and dozens of GM writers who had little time or inclination to closely coordinate writing efforts.

Like the Pyramids of the ancient Egyptians, the architecture of, The Arabian Nights, was vastly ahead of its time and would not be repeated for some time. In LARP terms it would be a decade and a half before the Arabian Nights model was fully appreciated. One reason for this is that it takes a fairly large Event to need a modular style, and games had tended to stay in the 40-50 range with only a few large events reaching larger sizes.

The Advent of the modern Modular Style

By 2003 we were seriously looking for models that would support multiple writers as anything but assistants. . 1936: Atlantic Clipper (2002) was our first attempt to heavily integrate writers who were not the core founders into production, and it showed us that there was much to learn. Modules of sorts had existed in TS/Adventure crossover from the time of Dark Summonings, where the DS: Dreamlands game presented a modular model. The first two experiments of the current group (1936/1948/Threads) with the serious modern module structure began in 2004. In September 2005 with 1948: Washington and then in January 2006 with 1948: Shanghai we fully debuted the modular structure similar to that of Threads.

It is interesting to consider that the enormously evolved “bid and grid” system we have in October 2008 was developed in only four years. We have to bear this in mind when we want the system to suddenly change or expect to fix all its problems overnight.

It can be argued that like “Monarchy” and “Republic” in Civilization, “Bid and Grid” is a stopgap between the ideal (Democracy) and the realizable (Despotism). It is not the best possible system. It has shortcomings. However it is the best possible system we can operate within our resources. If we are to move beyond, or at least build on top of “Bid and Grid” our core staff needs to reach a higher level of training and personal discipline so that we have a model that not only supports our model, but is capable of training and drawing in new authors without alienating them. Below under “Pros and Cons of the Modular System,” we will explore shortcomings and what we can do to improve the current system.

The Theory Of Boxes – a key concept

In the modular system we talk about each Writer’s Box or Boxes. The things that are in the Box are things that the Writer has complete control over. A Writer’s Box may be his own personal creations (where they do not interface with others) or tasks he is a Czar, or Custodian of (concepts we’ll explore more below in “A Free Market of Ideas”)

Connectors extend out of the Box. A Writer does not control the connectors coming out of his box. Some connectors are automatic. A Thread may have any internal politics a Writer designs, but its SPEM ratings and gate outlets are connectors that must be checked with others.

Make money on IMA - Leadership Posts - II Background A

2008-11-01T15:44:27Z

Intercon Mid-Atlantic will Pay you Money!

We're broadening the Intercon Economic Incentive Program, and you can make money!

We need to encourage people who are COMING to the con to push to fill up their car with people who can afford $35 to crash, eat, and drink for the entire weekend. We're getting some response but it isn't enough.

Get ten people to sign up for IMA, and show at the door. Crash space or full hotel and $25 rate. I will hand you a $100 bill at the door
Get five people to sign up for IMA and show at the door. Same deal and I will hand you a $50.

Sorry we can't quite do a $10 refund for "bring a friend" but coordinate...fill a car with people, come to the Con and get paid.

Just as a side note...every time we've been in tough financial times and been trying to hold out a hand to help, we get one or two people asking technical questions like "so if I bring my friend Bob and he shows up but leaves because he was really just coming to see his sister, does it count..." My answer to all questions is, "we're fair, generous and trying to help. Do well by us and we'll try to do well by you."

Now on to the next segment of the Leadership White Paper. Remember you can read the full White Paper here.

II - Background – How Things Have Been and Are Now

We can’t move forward without a good grip on where we are now. Some things about our current state are obvious. Some others are known only to a few people who deal with them, or are “principles” which get enforced only because I enforce them.

Structural Facts – How Threads is Organized

Most people see only a little of the organization of the game. Even many writers do not deal with it in much detail, preferring to ask me for “yes” or “no” answers. To act as leaders, we need to know why we do certain things, and how our structure is set up.

Executive Producer

As Executive Producer, my job is to assume all financial risks associated with the game. If, for example, we had paid nearly all the costs associated with the game – food insurance, etc., and hurricane Fay had slammed through our area causing a cancellation, it would be up to me to absorb the losses. The same with a winter game being cancelled or very unprofitable because of snow. I also accept the hazards of loss of the physical plant, etc. If I cannot cover a cost, which happens only rarely (the generator four years ago, the GP, a few other items), it is up to me to go hat in hand and get the money together. That’s what Producers do. Alongside that, I set overarcing policy and general goals. In setting direction and goals, I work closely with Eric Johnson, and several other members of the Continuity Staff, and some of the more experienced writers.

VIA – Our Servicing Agent

Virtual Interactive Arts is a Delaware based LLC that exists as a service provider for LARP. This is my personal “production arm.” VIA acts as the insurer for Threads events, limiting the liability that can accrue to the senior volunteers. VIA also keeps me or someone else from having to pay income taxes on the $12,000 - $14,000 a year of traceable “income” Threads generates. In reality most of this money is rolled directly into the event. In the future it is possible we will move to a 501 ( C) (7) “Social” Non-Profit model for Threads. VIA is also important because those viewed as “officers” of the event could be sued directly by anyone injured at a Threads Event. Because VIA exists it is likely that a legal action could be directed against the LLC not one of our volunteers. This may be more important than you think. You may think you’d never sue Threads. But do you belong to an HMO, or have other Group Insurance? Read your service agreement carefully. You probably signed away your right to sue in the event of a major injury to your insurer. Your HMO would probably sue Threads, even if you didn’t want to.

Continuity – the current and “old” model for Leadership

The term “Continuity” is a little confusing. In most games, “Continuity” is the staff of copy editors that make sure that one scene agrees with another. In our group Continuity picked up the meaning of “the leadership group.” This makes sense if you think about the usage as being similar to “Editor.” An “editor” is technically a person who looks at copy and changes it. However an “Editorial Staff” is the management branch of a Magazine or Newspaper, and the “Editor” is the manager.

The concept behind Continuity was to avoid terms like “leadership” that tended to breed the sort of hellish small-stakes envy and bad behavior so common to volunteer groups where the lowest of stakes seem to spur the most bitter of fights. Our goal was to be a functional group that got things done, not to have titles to lord over others. This is important because our experience teaches us that LARP groups are often perceived as small and flaky and tend to be targets for ne’er-do-wells with the need do “climb to the top” looking for a suitably small hill they might actually be able to be king of. Often these people aren’t very socially adapted, and may not care how messy or unpleasant their climb is. We don’t want to be attractive to that sort of person, and not offering a lot of “titles without jobs attached” is an important part of that.

Continuity is currently the decisionmaking body. I cannot unilaterally change anything about this group that lies outside the direct sphere of the Executive Producer. The process must be that these people accept what changes are put forward, and agree to move forward, or that we must vote. I think that it is the case that we’d all prefer to accept changes with acclamation. But for that to happen these people have to feel they have been respected and included.

Founders – the People who Started or Inherited Threads

The Continuity Staff is not synonymous with the founders of the game. Hank Kuhfeldt was a founder but no longer sits on Continuity, and Colin Sandel was not a founder but does sit on Continuity. Various founders became involved at various times. In many groups being a “founder” has sparked bitter acrimony. We have seen groups torn apart as an original founder decided to “take their marbles and go home,” or threw their weight around to demand changes that were of interest to them and a few supporters but not in keeping with the overall direction of the group. Since none of the original founders wanted this, we agreed to a Creative Commons license for the game, so that there would never be any question that any individual, including myself, had the right to suspend or derail the campaign for everyone else.

That said, I think it’s realistic to suggest that these people are owed some respect.

I’d also like to note that the other person who has a special relationship with the group is Adrienne Gammons. Just as I bring a great deal of the infrastructure to the table (not only the actual physical infrastructure, but the cumulative costs to store and transport it), Adrienne brings our summer site to the table. This suggests that particularly in regards to the summer games, she has an important position and is someone we need to respect and listen to. She also has the ability to mandate certain things about the site which brook no argument.

Our Volunteer Base

The core of our group is made up of volunteers. Even players who mostly pay Money do some volunteer work cleaning up the camp and undertaking other tasks. We are a community based group, of and for, volunteers. Some people volunteer more time, others are contributors who provide more money. We use the TERM system to describe this. If you aren’t familiar with the Time/Expertise/Resources/Money model, you may want to catch up by reading: http://wiki.Threadsofdamocles.org/index.php?title=TERM.

Understanding Why People Volunteer for Threads

It is not very fun to do paperwork or hard labor for Threads. But people do it. It is easy to assume that people do the hard jobs because they “want to,” and assume they’ll just keep doing them. But that’s not the case. Everyone must get some gratification or payoff. To retain our volunteers we need to understand what they get out of working for the Group.

The right to “sit at the table.” People who are not writers get the right through work to act as Chiefs instead of Indians. Getting to sit in, kibbitz, and have a hand in the creative process is a reward they get for being one of the “doers.”
Friendship. Many of the people who do work for us do it out of personal friendship with one of the principals. These people probably wouldn’t work with the group or support it nearly as much if their friendship changed. Their reward is the reward of their friend feeling they have supported them. This is not something to discount. Probably more service to Threads is motivated by direct personal friendship than any other category. When we “dis” or penalize on person, we may alienate their friends who support the group.

The privilege to “do it right” and “be my own boss.” Many of our volunteers do work for Threads similar to that they do at the office, but are frustrated with superiors in day to day life. In working for Threads there is a chance to do things “my way” and get to be the one who sets processes and makes plans. That’s very gratifying to a lot of volunteers.

Leadership Posts - I Introduction

2008-10-28T22:32:19Z

Hey folks. The GMs of Intercon Mid-Atlantic still need reg. We've had a few new reg, but we really need to push the free crash space, the other deals. Please push information about the Intercon Economic Incentive package out as far and wide as you can. I wouldn't ask for myself, but the people who have bid games deserve good full audiences, and there are some events really hurting. You can help. You can offer to drive people. With $10 crash space and $25 food, people can afford Intercon if they can get there. Help me with that.

Today I'm starting a modular release of my White Paper on Leadership in LARP groups. You can read the whole paper at LARPWriting.org, but for people who want small, digestible bits, we're going to serialize it here. While it was unashamedly written for the Threads of Damocles group, it has a larger significance.

Since it was released the most common response I've had is for someone to describe a basic business management model, and suggest that maybe instead of this hare-brained amateurish stuff we try doing it like the "real" folks do it. It may be worth explaining that we began with a straight business model for LARP back in the 1990s and have evolved to this level of specialization. I summed up the differences by saying:

<i>Volunteer management and leadership on an NPO level does not work like real business leadership
Volunteer management on the organized suburban community/soccer mom level does not work like real NPO leadership
Volunteer management on the gamer-geek/LARP level does not work like organized suburban soccer mom leadership...

So once you pass through that filter...really the model we need is DRAMATICALLY different from a real business model. I've seen groups apply that model and seen them fail. Where they have worked it is only because people have carried out the pretense of that structure as an elaborate LARP while actually running on a much less sophisticated model. Where they have failed that structure typically shot the group in the foot, became a huge stumbling block it could not work around.

It's a great ideal to break the project down into blocks, etc., but that MUST happen along organic lines driven largely by the volunteers and personalities involved. If it doesn't, it's going to be a resounding failure.

What most business people want to build is a business structure that works if you fill it with people. That will, in no uncertain terms, fail. <i>

I - Introduction

This White Paper is intended to kick off a planned discussion on the future of leadership in Threads. It is long. I have tried not to repeat myself or use too many big words, but this is a big subject. If it seems I’m writing too much about it, consider the hours that many groups have spent miserable because of failed choices about leadership and ask…”is it too much to spend an hour reading to avoid weeks of misery and a failed campaign?” I figure it will take about two hours to read through the 45 pages of this discussion.

It isn't just a blueprint of leadership. It is a detailed discussion of every challenge and problem facing us. It presents a new model for production based on a "Free Market of Ideas."

Despite jokes that are made at my expense and which I may indulge because I'm good natured. I do not write or talk because I like to hear my own voice. This has been hard work, and I have put a great deal of thought into it. I collected and in some cases invented the ideas and principles here because I think that the players and volunteers of this group deserve well thought out and reasoned leadership. I could have done many of these things unilaterally, but I chose to write them down for two reasons.

First I think that our group is made up of intelligent, educated, people who can easily read fifty pages, and understand it. The ideas in it are an attempt to crystalize much of what I have learned and observed into a form that others can benefit from.

And that leads to the second reason. I think the ideas and concepts presented in this document could benefit many campaigns and many writers, and as much as I want these ideas to benefit our group, I want our group to serve more than it already does as a model for other worthwhile endeavors in the future.

Our group is fortunate enough to have an influx of younger LARPers who are active, and have the interest and background to do significant work. It is not necessary for them to spend twenty years learning the same lessons I have learned when I can write them down in summary so they can spend the next twenty years learning new things. LARP has too much "reinventing the wheel" because no-one has any impetus to write down lessons learned.

I've said jokingly that when people begin bitching at about Threads in the coming year I am going to ask if they have read this paper, and that if they have not I think they should be limited to two and a half hours of bitching, cumulative, for the year.

Joking aside, how much time do we waste reading flame wars or bitching when a group's leadership slowly fails, or we grapple with problems.? More than two hours. Much more. Some people are not interested in the leadership of the group. They pay their money and play and accept what comes. This is fine. Just remember that this was your chance to learn, respond, discuss and have input, so if you don’t like the leadership you get, don’t complain about it. I have no doubt there will be “summaries” of this information posted. Remember that when you read the summary, you lose the detail.

We are not at a crisis point of leadership. We do not need to have this discussion now. But right now we can have it at a time when we are not in crisis. If we wait for a crisis, emotions will be high and endurance stretched to the breaking point, and some of us will be approaching the table with a list of grievances and a will to do harm. We have the luxury of being affable and relatively detached now. So this is the best time to have this discussion.

This is also not a coup, or an attempt to overturn the existing leadership. I have said that the current leadership is “broken” but that is not because the people leading, including myself, have done badly. It is because our group has grown both in size and knowledge. To risk a historical analogy, we have had the Articles of Confederation, and it is now time to have the Constitution. But this is a constructive change brought about by growth, not a negative one brought about by bad management.

Finally I want to point out that the group is not in anarchy and does not lack leadership. The model that we currently have has served well. We have an Executive Producer (myself) who handles money and overall direction, and we have the Continuity Staff (Kate Bunting, Adrienne Gammons, Eric Johnson, John Kammer, Lawrence Lee, Stephanie Olmstead-Dean, Colin Sandel) who either as writers or Administrators have worked very hard to produce this campaign. None of those people will be excluded or marginalized under this plan…but we will bring more new voices into the mix.

next:

II - Background – How Things Have Been and Are Now

Intercon Economic Incentive Package

2008-10-23T20:39:08Z

PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO YOUR GAME LISTS!!!

So every year, IMA reg is about 105. I suppose it could be bigger if we advertised more. It's true we're sort of the "best little-known secret of LARP." A small, quiet convention that is serving free food and booze at an incredibly cheap rate. But we like being the "thing you have to know about," and it's been a great place to run cool experimental work. Not trying to be snobby just figure you have to be around a few years to hear about IMA. We don't compete much with the Boston Convention.

I track registration. And I know when it should peak. The Con runs up to 70 and then during the period that would be the last two weeks

On the Day the stock Market first crashed, Intercon Reg was 70. It had been steadily gaining and was in the period where over about two and a half weeks it should run up to about 110, with a few drops taking us back to 105.

Today Intercon Reg is 71. The curve didn't just slump, it shattered. Never seen anything like it. Healthy, healthy...BAM!

The good news is, MOST OF THE GAMES HAVE MINIMUM. Most of the games are going to run, only a few are in danger, and there are players who haven't signed up yet. I think we're going to get everything run. I've been working on that.

But it's clear we need a larger solution. By now it is clear that this is not a normal time. This is not 1992. It may not be the Great Depression, but you may have to remember Nixon as a President to have been through worse. The solutions that worked to keep the con afloat in the last two recessions are not good enough now...THIS CALLS FOR MORE!

It's not clear to me that the crisis is really affecting our attendees all that much. But I suppose with people talking about staff cuts, people are reluctant to travel even if they don't actually have less money than they did last month.

I also understand that "it's the travel and the expense not the Con Reg."

But it's time for some "Economic Stimulus" of our own. This is a one time emergency provision to operate the Convention at a loss in order to make sure the LARPA Contest games run.

http://ima.larpaweb.net

1) The Con Rate is $25. If you paid $45 I will hand you a $20 at the door. I am resetting the rate. If you paid $25 I will hand you a $5 at the door. We are officially the cheapest place to eat and drink that weekend. PERIOD. You can hardly eat and drink at HOME for less than that.

2) We are creating "Crash Rooms" Crash space is $10 payable to me, per person. Rooms are going to be segregated into "Girls" "Boys" and "Couples." There is no guarantee of bed, it's "first come first served." That doesn't mean "get there and stake out a bed" it means the first four people who fall asleep get bed space. Bring a bedroll. If you can get to the con, we have space for you. So far that's $35 for the trip. TELL YOUR FRIENDS!!!!!

3) PLEASE DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT DROP A ROOM RESERVATION. IF YOU DECIDE TO DROP YOUR ROOM CONTACT stephanie@vialarp.org. The Con may take over your room. (This doesn't mean we pay for your room, but we may use it for one of the crash space rooms). We realize that if people have a room and some room-mates bailed they may elect to go to the "Crash rooms"

4) Gas is fixing itself. Travel right now is cheaper than it has been at ANY POINT THIS SUMMER. Gas is the one thing declining. Pile into a car and COME TO INTERCON!!!!!

This is going to be a great Con and I don't want to see it ruined by bad Economic Timing. Come down and help us push Intercon that last 30!

We got food, we got soda, we got a bar...now we got crash space...Join us!

http://ima.larpaweb.net

Threads Leadership White Paper - Introduction

2008-10-21T02:03:15Z

I've put together a White Paper on plans to revise the Leadership and Production Model of Threads of Damocles. I think it has a lot of value to anyone running a sophisticated campaign with a genuine commitment to a broad-based leadership.
This White Paper is intended to kick off a planned discussion on the future of leadership in Threads. It is long. I have tried not to repeat myself or use too many big words, but this is a big subject. If it seems I’m writing too much about it, consider the hours that many groups have spent miserable because of failed choices about leadership and ask…”is it too much to spend an hour reading to avoid weeks of misery and a failed campaign?” I figure it will take about two hours to read through the 45 pages of this discussion.

It isn't just a blueprint of leadership. It is a detailed discussion of every challenge and problem facing us. It presents a new model for production based on a "Free Market of Ideas."

Despite jokes that are made at my expense and which I may indulge because I'm good natured. I do not write or talk because I like to hear my own voice. This has been hard work, and I have put a great deal of thought into it. I collected and in some cases invented the ideas and principles here because I think that the players and volunteers of this group deserve well thought out and reasoned leadership. I could have done many of these things unilaterally, but I chose to write them down for two reasons.

First I think that our group is made up of intelligent, educated, people who can easily read fifty pages, and understand it. The ideas in it are an attempt to crystalize much of what I have learned and observed into a form that others can benefit from.

And that leads to the second reason. I think the ideas and concepts presented in this document could benefit many campaigns and many writers, and as much as I want these ideas to benefit our group, I want our group to serve more than it already does as a model for other worthwhile endeavors in the future.

Our group is fortunate enough to have an influx of younger LARPers who are active, and have the interest and background to do significant work. It is not necessary for them to spend twenty years learning the same lessons I have learned when I can write them down in summary so they can spend the next twenty years learning new things. LARP has too much "reinventing the wheel" because no-one has any impetus to write down lessons learned.

I've said jokingly that when people begin bitching at about Threads in the coming year I am going to ask if they have read this paper, and that if they have not I think they should be limited to two and a half hours of bitching, cumulative, for the year.

Joking aside, how much time do we waste reading flame wars or bitching when a group's leadership slowly fails, or we grapple with problems.? More than two hours. Much more. Some people are not interested in the leadership of the group. They pay their money and play and accept what comes. This is fine. Just remember that this was your chance to learn, respond, discuss and have input, so if you don’t like the leadership you get, don’t complain about it. I have no doubt there will be “summaries” of this information posted. Remember that when you read the summary, you lose the detail.

We are not at a crisis point of leadership. We do not need to have this discussion now. But right now we can have it at a time when we are not in crisis. If we wait for a crisis, emotions will be high and endurance stretched to the breaking point, and some of us will be approaching the table with a list of grievances and a will to do harm. We have the luxury of being affable and relatively detached now. So this is the best time to have this discussion.

This is also not a coup, or an attempt to overturn the existing leadership. I have said that the current leadership is “broken” but that is not because the people leading, including myself, have done badly. It is because our group has grown both in size and knowledge. To risk a historical analogy, we have had the Articles of Confederation, and it is now time to have the Constitution. But this is a constructive change brought about by growth, not a negative one brought about by bad management. Finally I want to point out that the group is not in anarchy and does not lack leadership. The model that we currently have has served well. We have an Executive Producer (myself) who handles money and overall direction, and we have the Continuity Staff (Kate Bunting, Adrienne Gammons, Eric Johnson, John Kammer, Lawrence Lee, Stephanie Olmstead-Dean, Colin Sandel) who either as writers or Administrators have worked very hard to produce this campaign. None of those people will be excluded or marginalized under this plan…but we will bring more new voices into the mix.

HTML Version http://www.larpwriting.org/essays/leadership_white_paper.htm

Word Version http://www.larpwriting.org/essays/leadership_white_paper.doc

Intercon Hotel Block Closing!

2008-10-14T06:33:46Z

Apologies if you receive this notice more than once, but it's ~~impoirtant~~ important (and apparently my spell checker is not working).

The deadline to reserve a hotel room in the Intercon Mid-Atlantic room block is tomorrow, 14 October 2008!

After that time there is no guarantee that you will be able to get a room at the reduced rates for IMA, or indeed, that you will be able to get a hotel room at all. November is actually a pretty busy month for the sites that stay open in Rehoboth Beach! I can't make more hotel rooms appear where they don't exist, so grab yours today while it's still available!

IMA 2008 room rates are $80/night single/double, $95/night triple, and $110/night quad, plus 8% tax. To make your hotel reservation, just call the Atlantic Sands Hotel at 800-422-0600 (302-227-2511 outside the U.S.), and be sure to mention Intercon. PLEASE PASS THIS ALONG TO ANYONE YOU KNOW WHO'S PLANNING TO COME TO THE CONVENTION!

See you there, and thanks!

Real Risks to the World

2008-10-12T16:27:13Z

I've generally stuck to LARP here, but after my comments last week, I thought I'd add this article on "The Next World War? It Could be Financial" At the risk of upsetting people who think that ideology is something other than a dying entertainment for people who grew up in tents or Red States, I think this speaks more to the realities of current day warfare, and economics can drive instability that results in miltary adventurism.

I'll go one step further, providing a vague LARP link, and say that I think the current crisis, and its political issues are of interest for players following the political game in Threads. The political game is constructed largely by three or four lifelong Washingtonians including a guy who can't say what he does but knows military and political analysis better than your average bear. It's certainly worth keeping your eyes open...the Threads political game is not a simple "us/them" set of conflicts, and it will shape up considerably over the next six to eight months. Not everyone is involved, and we've worked hard to create a modular game where not caring or being interested in those plots does not leave you without interesting things to do. But it's there for people who are interested and entertained.

6th Annual LARP Roast

2008-10-08T19:02:20Z

Welcome to the Evite for the 6th Annual LARP Roast. This year's honoree is Eric Johnson. Please join us for a night of fun and bad behavior as we recount Eric Johnson's "exemplary" career.

Dinner will be catered, buffet-style, by That's Amore. Price per person is $40. You can vote for menu items using a surveymonkey form which we will send out when you respond to the evite.

http://www.evite.com/app/publicUrl/MBZVUDKKOIIMFQMXMMOG/roast08

The DEADLINE for signing up is Saturday, October 11. If you want to speak, please email gordon@vialarp.org right away!

This year we are starting the Roast in the afternoon, before the meal, in order to make better use of the day and allow for a more extensive afterparty. This year's afterparty will be onsite, and will be run in the style of a Threads party with the Threads bar, but less roleplaying. We have the site to ourselves all evening and even booked it for the next day so we don't have to clean up. You can probably still book a hotel room so you don't even have to drive home.

The roast is a light evening of good-natured, if ribald, entertainment to honor a member of the LARP Community who has done a great deal to forward LARP in the Mid-Atlantic Community. We welcome our friends from everywhere, though we don't expect folks to fly to attend.

Past Roasts have tended to be rated "R" for strong adult language and references so the roast is probably not suitable to children.

You need to select your entree by answering the questions, or we won't know what you want to eat, and the past honorees may amuse themselves by randomly selecting an entree for you.

To reduce the chances of noise complaints from other guests, we have blocked the rooms on the lobby level of the hotel. Two King-bed rooms remain at $89/night. If you would like to reserve one of these rooms for the night of the Roast, please contact the hotel at (301) 428-1300 and mention Threads.

Please feel free to add others to the invitation, or tell your friends! We cannot accept +1 Guests, because we need everyone's entree order.

Writer's Block: Day of German Unity

2008-10-06T18:31:40Z

It’s the Day of German Unity, marking the 1990 reunification of East and West Germany. In our current period of global instability, do you ever feel nostalgic for the seeming simplicity of the Cold War?

View other answers

No. I think that yearning for the Cold War is very similar to romanticizing the First or Second World War. Great from a vantage point of watching movies and wanting an artificially simplified struggle, but not so great if you are dying at the Somme or Malmedy. I spent most of my teen years growing up under the shadow of nuclear annihilation. Was that reasonable? Possibly not. There is no well defined suggestion that the U.S. was in serious danger of a real nuclear war after 1962. But we read about computer errors like the 1979 Exercise Tape and 1980 Computer Chip failures, and were concerned that a war might start accidentally. We also knew that Soviet systems were technologically inferior to ours and that based on their WWII experience Soviet logicians might potentially consider a catastrophic nuclear war that broke U.S. military power a "win."

When international tensions rose, we feared that there would be a catastrophic war brought about by human failure.  I don't think I was as prone to this as others, because I was very familiar with the Cuban Missile Crisis, and knew there were a lot of checks in the loop. But that also meant I was aware of the potential for real misunderstandings, or simply a real conventional war. I'd read Gen. Sir John Hackett's "The Third World War," illustrating a Fulda Gap invasion of Europe. It was also conventional wisdom that if 3 or 4 "hotspots" ever detonated at once, it could trigger an international situation so completely chaotic that a nuclear attack might be expected.

There was tension there because all of us knew two things. We were suburban kids, not survivalists, and we were not going to drive to cabins in West Virginia every time things looked a little rough. None of us wanted to behave like imbeciles. But at the same time we knew that realistically only people who guessed well which crisis would be the "big one" and got out of town were going to live. We lived in the DC suburbs, and there was not going to be any "running away" after a war started. In a way you hoped for the conventional war scenario, because that would give plenty of time to get out of town. I'd planned to meet my friends in Austinville where my grandmother lived, which we felt might be a target because of the lead mines, but we also felt had a lot of mountain coverage that would contain a subsurface blast, so that even a blast that destroyed the mines would probably leave the area habitable.

We hadn't worked these things out in detail but it was understood we might have to if "things got worse." I was also the political kid and basically the person in my peer group that I think people counted on to tell them whether or not things were "bad enough" to warrant "doing something."  I never panicked or did anything stupid, but I think we did. Other people might have the bliss of thinking a blast would kill them outright, but we'd all read John Hersey's "Hiroshima" and we knew that at extended range, most of us would live, and it was a coin toss depending on what was a target whether you'd die horribly or be stuck having to live in a world without infrastructure.   We knew the bombs were bigger than the Hiroshima blast, but we also knew a lot of them were subsurface penetrators, and smaller warheads...more accurate but less "beefy."  Only a small handful of "city busters" were supposed to be deployed.

I'd just entered College when the Soviets shot down a KAL airliner for violating their airspace at Sakhalin Island. I called my girlfriend of the time, and we had many hours of conversation.  We all agreed right then that things weren't "really bad" but that they might go south quickly and I made plans to leave school if the situation really deteriorated.

I don't miss not responding to every international crisis by waking up thinking "is something going to start a nuclear war today, and if it does, is enough information going to leak out that I can second guess right, and not give a false alarm and make an ass of myself, but also actually successfully second guess and get out of the way.  Even if I do, will it be worth it?"

The nukes are still out there, but nobody seriously thinks they are going to be used.   At least not in a big way.  There's still Russia-Ukraine or Pakistan-India.  That's meant that there is more fighting in the world today. Maybe the nukes were good. They made everybody behave. The U.S. would not have conducted a resource-motivated seizure of Iraq during the Cold War, nor would it have had to. A lot of people in a lot of the world have lived in misery since the Soviet Empire fell apart and every two bit power can fight over the scraps. But...I don't miss not living under the shadow of death, and I think if it came back, very few people around today would be happy about it.

Please Help! - IMA Games Beginning to Fill. Hotel Block Closes in Two Weeks!

2008-10-05T14:50:40Z

Hi folks. I don't send out mass mail very often or without good reason. IMA is entering the "serious" phase of reg now, with the hotel block closing in two weeks, and games beginning to fill or close to full. If you are a GM, or a player on any LARP or gaming-related lists, Please pass along a note about IMA. You can cut and paste this, or make up your own promo note. This "word of mouth" helps more than anything else you can do for IMA and I deeply appreciate it:

Intercon Mid Atlantic 2008 - Nov 14-17, Rehoboth Beach, Delaware

http://ima.larpaweb.net/

This year we have more function space than ever along with the traditional open bar and Con-Suite and Intercon parties! Don't you owe yourself one little vacation at the beach this year. Registration for games is open, and we have a great slate of games this year. Sign up now before our hotel room block fills. One game, Screwed, is already full and others are close to full.

The Intercon Party!
Two nights of Intercon Party. Open Bar provided in a convenient nearby hospitality suite by Threads of Damocles. Party till you drop! Dance, and a good selection of non-lame music.

A First Look at Lullaby of Broadway: Another Openin' Another Show

2008-09-22T03:03:41Z

Lullaby of Broadway: Another Openin' Another Show ran September 19-21, 2008 at the Days Hotel in Timonium Maryland. The game is credited to Interactivities Ink, but was largely a solo effort in writing by Mike Young with editing by Suzanne and Paul Wayner and others. Karl Musser ably assisted with onsite production. I'm not going to try to reproduce the full production credits here, as I'm sure Mike will post them to his blog shortly and if you aren't getting it on the Planet LARPA Feed you ought to be. I worked with Meredith Peck on Technical Crew and Cast.

I think before I talk about Lullaby, I ought to be honest about where I'm coming from in talking about it. I have a lot of respect for Mike Young as a producer and writer, and he's been in the game for years. But I admit I had concerns over this game, and I don't think they were unjustified. Solo work is always risky. The genre seemed...wonky...at best... Mike's 2006 Nightmare Before St. Patrick's Day can be fairly considered to have been a troubled event, and while Brassy's Men had high points, I'm on record as feeling in some areas that when it ended it had not yet achieved its full promise or conquered all the challenges that needs must face any campaign.

So this was an ambitious project, and I had concerns. I want to make that clear, because I don't want to come off as writing a very fluffy "positive" review.

Lullaby of Broadway: Another Openin' Another Show was in my personal opinion a first class production and a significant success. It ran well and on schedule, and would be a credit to any writer or producer. It was a pleasure to be a part of the production.

I'm not in any shape for a full length review here. I stayed up until 4:45 one morning, and about 6:45 the next, drinking and gossiping with various of the usual LARParati, and generally behaving badly. There were a lot of old faces I was happy to see again and some new folks I hope we'll see more of. It's been a long time since I burned the lights at the Days Hotel Timonium till the sun rose, and it brought back some happy memories.

The short version is that Lullaby combined a very structually sound framework with a successful genre concept.

I could muse a lot about the "theatrical LARP" sub genre. By this I mean LARP where the players assume theatrical roles and are empowered to take a very active director stance. I think there's a very strong tonal difference in a game where the player is associating the event with a threatrical production, whether or not they are playing an actor playing a character. Lullaby disposed of that unecessary complexity as have most theatrical LARPs, but keeps the feel...even if you aren't playing at being an actor, I think for most players theatrical LARP promotes a very strong feel of being able to "play the plot" rather than "win the game."

I'm still mulling what made Lullaby work so well, but I thought it was notably less rough than the 1997 Timonium run of Shakespeare's Lost Play. The 1997 SLP. was generally considered to be a very good run, but I think Lullaby is one of the smoothest theatrical LARPs I've seen. I certainly think that the success may be rooted in the fact that this was a very polished and technically competent game. Everything was prepared, playtested, and done in advance, and there was good cross checking and editing. That's certainly a very big plus. It may be no more than that Mike is a talented writer, producing the sort of material he excels at.

But I do tend to think despite being a strikingly proficient game technically - and I don't want to detract from that, there are probably other things that help. I think the audience of 2007 is more mature than the audience of 1997, and the general level of player sensibility higher. The art is more advanced overall. I also think that the musical genre is a good find. I think it allows for a certain ritualization that takes the focus away from the gamist "win win win" drive. It's hard to play Max Bialystock to "win." If it had been an old school theatre-style full length it would have been underplotted. But musicals are underplotted, that's the way the genre works. And for whatever reason it works in LARP.

I'm sure I'll have more observations later, but that's a quick first look. This was a well run production and I was pleased to be able to help with it.

The next run All That Jazz will be Oct 2-4, 2009. While the official calendar is not out yet, we know it will not conflict Threads or IMA. Signups will be open in a few weeks, and it is definitely worth checking out.

Greetings to everyone I got to meet, or renew ties with at Lullaby!

Phoenix and the Russia-Georgia War

2008-08-19T17:59:36Z

So back in 1996-97, John Corrado, Jr. wrote a set of games focusing on the concept of a crisia between two former elements of the Soviet Union

* "Phoenix" by John Corrado, Jr., from 9 AM to 2 PM
June 14th, 2006
In Moscow, Russian President Alexi Rukovachev announces that he has proof that the rebellion group Svoboda is being housed, trained, and equipped at Ukrainian bases along the Russo-Ukrainian border. Thirteen divisions are redeployed to that border.

In Kiev, Ukrainian Prime Minister Boris Voyenney denies that his government has anything to do with Svoboda, and that it will not be intimidated by Russian posturing. Eight divisions are redeployed to the border. And in Washington, President McGrier calls an emergency meeting of the national security committee to try and figure out a way to avert what may soon be the first conventional war between two nuclear powers....

The structural similarities struck me in the past week...

Who'd have thunk Georgia, instead, huh?

Intercon Mid-Atlantic...much to do, and we still need games!

2008-06-25T22:04:15Z

So it's that time of year when we talk about Intercon Mid-Atlantic. I've been busy today sending out some notes, reminders, and thinking of new ways to communicate about the con. Right now, we need game-bids, contest or not. The problem is that bids come in when I flog them, and of course the ideal season to promote IMA falls during the busy season for Threads. So I've got slots in the campaign full to bursting, but not enough GMs for Intercon.

It will work out of course, it always does. I know of a few bids rumbling around out there and there will be more.

Things that help. If you can send this note (below the cut) as a courtesy to any game lists you happen to be on.   I know a lot of you play various campaigns...if you could send a note to your campaign list that would be really great and helpful to IMA, and I'd be particularly personally grateful.

IMA this year is going to be a lot of fun. We're going to have a considerably more "modern" dance party that's heavily based on requests and attendee preferences. We'll have the usual suite with open bar, courtesy of threadsofdamocles.org. Scotch challenger this year is the_smith e . The contest games are actually going to be allowed to take pre-reg and function like other games, so you won't be in the throes of mystery about them.   It's been a problem that these games...which are usually planned further in advance and better documented than any other Intercon Games - have tended to get avoided because people heard "contest" and though "build your own" and assumed they'd be kind of lightweight. If you think about the ontology nothing could be further from the case.

So...if you can do your part and circulate this, everyone that attends IMA would thank you. I don't know if I can get them to dress in Gecko suits and do it personally, but somewhere deep down you will have their thanks.

Intercon Mid-Atlantic ix Open for Registration and Gamebids.   Register now to get the best price!
http://ima.larpaweb.net

Intercon Mid-Atlantic Bids open - $500 LARPA Contest Open

Bids for Intercon Mid-Atlantic, Nov 14-17 2008 are now open. No formal deadline has been set, but games bid before July 30, 2008 are more likely to be accepted.

http://ima.larpaweb.net/home/database/index.php

The annual LARPA Small Games Contest is also open. To bid a contest game, please fill out the submission information and deadlines here:

http://www.ima.larpaweb.net/imawiki/index.php?title=Contest_Introduction

Two Top Prizes $200 and $300

Overall best will win $300, $200 for best in Category, Additional $100 top prize

Two category winners will receive $200 and the be eligible for best overall.

Categories

Games compete either in the 5-12 player category or the 12-24+ player category. Each category will have one $200 winner, and one of the winners will receive "best overall" for a total prize of $300. Games must have a flexibility of at least 6 players. So for example a game could be for 12-18 players, or 18-24 players. Games may be written with more characters than 24 available, provided all other criteria are also met. Games can be run privately for playtest purposes

Three Rules...

2008-04-25T05:15:47Z

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.:: LARPWiki : : PLANET LARPA BLOG FEED : : LARPA : : INTERCON ::.

In a discussion on another blog: http://moiramisu.livejournal.com/131033.html?view=459737, I made a post I was so enamored with I am reproducing it here.

Context aside, these are three good rules to use when GMing in any situation. They were written in reference to a discussion of player complaint responses

Three rules:

1) Do not cater to crippled roleplayers.
That's cruel, but it's right. A lot of the "player v. player" complaints I used to get were basically "Bob is more outgoing than me, and gets all the plot/fun/attention. Please rein Bob in." My answer is pretty firmly "no." Note that this is in due respect to item 3. But if Bob is a moderately normal, if flamboyant, player, the answer is no.

Look some people can't roleplay their way out of a wet paper bag, or are simply too shy to get along in a group. There are three solutions. Either gravitate to tech work, screw yourself up and learn to be more outgoing, or figure out a character who can be a strong silent type who doesn't get much action and enjoy that.

But I can't fix broken roleplayers. I can try to give them some opportunities, but I cannot sit on other players to beat them down to the point where Bob Wallflower can suddenly shine because everyone else has been made to be silent.

My advice - be brutal and clear about this. People either get it or they don't. Likewise, if you have somebody who is clearly working hard on it, try to give them all the breaks you can. They need the help and it's human to try and provide it. But don't hurt others.

2) Do not overreact
The fact that Bob Roleplayer has a problem does not mean a problem exists. It means that a problem exists for Bob. I have seen over the years any number of otherwise comptent GMs end up in a shitstorm because the fact that somebody complained made them feel they had to do SOMETHING right away.

Stop...look...listen...

Don't let someone else tell you that there is a problem. You listen to them then YOU make the judgment as to whether or not there is a problem. Do not be driven.

I will say offhand that the two areas where this gets ugliest are sex, cheating and safety. Somebody says "I'm uncomfortable," "Tommy is breaking the rules" or "X is unsafe" and the whole world stops.

Take a deep breath. Give it your own considered opinion. Ask one or two people who you respect quietly. Ninety percent of the time, somebody is being excitable and you can basically pat them on the head and ignore them. The other ten percent of the time, you need to spring into action. But even then you need a concerted plan to address the issue with realizable goals and methods, not some kneejerk response.

That's the basic rule. Don't make kneejerk responses.

3) Do not take bullshit
The final line is that rules and standards don't matter if there is bullshit going on. Do not let someone hide behind bullshit. If somebody is being a real pain in the ass, and it's not just that they roleplay differently but that they really have an issue, just talk to them up front about it.

"Look Joe, I hear all you're saying about Cathy cheating in the game. But let's face it, she's your ex and you're sore at her because you broke up. I don't want to hear about this anymore from either of you. Stay away from her and I'm going to tell her to stay away from you."

"Look Mel, this is the fourth player complaint about you this year. I don't care what youre excuse is. Four people who don't make a habit of causing problems and have good reputations have told me that you are a problem to them. Now I don't know what you are doing, but I need you to stop it. Next complaint and I'm putting you on probation and if there's another one, I'm suspending you. Sorry but that's how it has to be."

Not as Easy as it Sounds
So why don't most GMs handle things that way. I think partially it is because they aren't forty two year old bastards with twenty three years in field. That sounds braggartly, but it's true. I know one reason I can run a stable game is that I have enough gravitas not to be victimized by every bad player that comes along. It took a long time. I spent nearly four years over the barrel with an incorrigible problem player who was ingratiating enough to have some defenders left. There are still people who feel I treated that person unfairly.

But that's not all...

It is true that having an experienced team with senior GMs that have enough respect to be able to drive opinion matters. The thing is, it isn't a matter of age. It's a matter of consensus building. At this point if I tell someone to shape up, I can be reasonably certain I am making a credible threat. But while time in grade doesn't hurt, the real way I can be sure is networking. I check and recheck decisions with other people, even many novices. I talk to them and justify what I do, and explain things. I build enough credibility that when the chips are down, I know I can get my way and force my hand.

But the way to do that is by compromise. If you try to get your own way all the time, you will NEVER have the consensus to support your decisions. You need to be easygoing, and only push when you need to. I used to push hard on everything I thought was "important." The result is that I was fighting a hundred pissant battles with no victory in sight. I realized the trick is to let some things go, and be cool, and pick your fights. Let other people get their way. Ask their advice and don't assume you know it all...

If you do that, you can build support and consensus. And if you are good at that, then when you need to take on a problem, you have the leverage to do it and make your solution stick.

And the wonderful thing is that if people realize that, they tend to be a lot more reluctant to cause problems. And really, who wants problems. I hate confrontation. The problem that never happened at all is the one I'm happiest about.

The Island...not your typical game...

2008-04-11T17:18:19Z

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So some people I think a lot of are running a LARP this summer, and I wanted to tell you a little bit about it. People have bemoaned the loss of the Theatre Style Full Length game, but I've noticed that when a good one comes along it has trouble really generating excitement next to the campaigns. This is going to be a game worth traveling to, as good as any Threads event, and I wanted to take a minute to tell people about it. I'm not on the writing staff, and my only "official" tie is that I'm doing the tech setup at the site. So I'm being impartial here. These folks are good and their work deserves attention...

First I think you have two of the most underrated GMs out there today. Moira and Suzanne are both unassuming people, and they don't ballyhoo themselves as much as some GMs (pot to kettle...over...), so I think despite a long string of really solid game creds they don't get the attention they should. Suzanne was one of the really solid talents behind Brassy's Men, producing a lot of the material that people liked and enjoyed, as well as a really solid stable runtime presence. Both of them have a string of very credible indie work.

Suzanne is the least mysterious of the two, largely because she actually fills out her GM biographies for Intercons. She's been writing games for better than a decade. The first solid hit I have on her is City of Light at Intercon 10.5, but I know her track record goes back to 9.5 (we're on XXII now folks). Credits I can lay hands on easily include "Future's Hope," "Little Petshop of Horrors," and "Csh'taa." So you're seeing a real versitility here that I think is the mark of a serious good author, going from comedy to serious SF and back.

I'm also going to go out on a limb and say that none of these games have been bad which is something even I can't say. I've been around Suzanne and Moira for a decade, and I've never heard a bad thing about their writing. Suzanne got one bad rap as part of staff for a '96 full length, but hey, I was once a GM on The Prisoner, possibly one of the most flatulent games ever run. I mention that so you'll know I'm shooting straight with you here not writing hagiography. These are two writers with rock-solid reputations. They are going to produce the material, have it done, and have a good solid entertainment for you.

Moira brings the crystal clear transparency of George Soros' financial mechanations to LARP. Which is to say despite having been around her for at least twelve years, I can't find a solid listing of her credits to save my life. She's written a ton of stuff, in addition to countless hours thanklessly teching other people's games, or being the "reliable person" on their projects. Solid finds include "Lord of the Two Lands," "Happily Ever After," "Wolfpack" (loosely based in Bill Willingham's "Fables" universe), and "Last Meal."

But let's talk about the game at hand. Once again these two are being a little shadowy and mysterious. I tried to prize some goodies out of Moira and got some cryptic quotes written up by Dirk...so I'm going to bring together everything I know.

The big thing everybody knows of course is that this is loosely based on concepts from the popular show Lost. I think the key here is that it's a cool LARP take on the concept, not a slavish copy of the original. So it's not the "Lost game" it's more like "what if something cool like that happened to me." Other references cited include: King Kong, Mysterious Island, The Island of Dr. Moreau, Lord of the Flies, Pitcairn Island, Robinson Crusoe, and Treasure Island, as well as anything else the GMs feel like using. The focus is obviously going to be on entertainment, not on imitating a specific show or book. Have I mentioned that Suzanne and Moira are literate as hell?

I know there's going to be some breakup between Island people and new arrivals. Knowing Suzanne and Moira, I suspect there will be a little levity (though despite the quotes below we've been promised no Gilligan), but also a very serious and spooky tone. Moira has done a lot of tech work for Horror campaigns which excelled in spooky atmosphere, as well as working at Goatman Hollow, a big haunted house/area that runs locally every year. I'm certainly putting all of the Threads tech infrastructure at their disposal, and I am pretty sure that Moira has an in with ARC on account of it being stored in her basement, so I think you're going to see some kickass stuff that goes beyond the basic budget of just this one game. Because they have access to a lot of good material.

Joking about mysteriousness aside, I think this is something you can't get as much in other genres. A game with a lot of cool secrets, that you'll get to discover during runtime. I'm going to be there of course and I think it will be well worth your while. These are people you can trust to give you a good time.

The run dates are July 11-13, 2008 in Kempton, PA, same site as Threads. It is a camping venue, but there are hotels nearby, and our infrastructure includes electric light, limited running water, and several large stormproof structures for shelter.

WWW.islandlarp.com

So in response to my prizing for details I got the following cryptic quotes:

Skipper! Skipper! What’s going on?
This island seems very strange! Where is Mary Anne?
My radio seems to pick up odd sounds – Someone is screaming for Locke!
This seems like someone is keeping us here!
Time seems to flow awful strange!
Umm, my entire crotch just caved inl – where’s the professor? I need a coconutectomy!
Gee, Skipper you did taste like pork!
Boss, Boss!
Shut up, you dwarfish sycophant. I think we have a problem.

Stand still. The trees ahead and bush beside you are not lost.
- Albert Einstein

Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.
- Henry David Thoreau

He decided to sleep out on the beach tonight. The noises had been getting worse inland, and he feared that they were now aware of him. He hadn’t seen his companion in days, the only other survivor of the crash. Maybe they had already gotten her.

It was mostly peaceful out here though. Mostly. Sometimes things would come out of the mist surrounding the island, irregular, indefinable shapes. That was ok, really. It was when the shapes formed into something that he had learned to worry.

Then he heard her voice from inland, singing...

Some of you were born here.

Some of you will die here.

Some have newly arrived – either running away from home, or looking for one, or desperate to get back to wherever it was they came from. But if they do manage to return, they will never again be the same.

The Island is a fully plotted LARP in mostly PvP style, with also some cast characters that will help plot along. Some characters start on the Island, having been there for various amounts of time, and others will have just arrived, coming from a lost and storm broken ship.

There is a kind of cool quotes contest on the Web Page at http://www.islandlarp.com/

Fear and Loathing in Long Island...

2008-04-08T16:06:14Z

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We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something like "I feel a bit lightheaded; maybe you should drive...." And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the car, which was going about a hundred miles an hour with the top down to Las Vegas. And a voice was screaming "Holy Jesus! What are these goddamn animals?"

It was that kind of road trip.

Admittedly we knew and planned it that way.

The story goes back a year or so. Our friend Lauren Silver, who we met through the wonderful folks at Gamer the Podcasting had suggested we might want to come up to I-Con and run a game. I’d talked about it to Johnson and the rest of the staff, and we’d decided that of the potential mid east-coast venues where we could put a demo that would be a good promotional for Threads, I-Con was one of the best.

It’s questionable that Threads needs a promotional, but we felt there was value in getting the brand out there, and there has been talk of spin-offs and expansion already. I did a really poor job of pimping LARPA and "The Island" and other interests, but we'll do better now that we know what we're doing.

Johnson was an I-Con veteran, having run there with Ambug666 in past years, before Joe Valenti became LARP track director for a while. I’d been only once many years ago in May of 1991, for a particularly lamentable run of Masks. Masks itself is good, but the presentation was not one of the best of that game, the trip was miserable, and after that dismal affair I never felt much inclination to go back to I-Con.

I decided if I was going back it would be a hell of a return. We had a good group for a road trip…about one more person than really fit in the car, but we made do. My aging Honda has a rather useful feature which is that in addition to the back seat folding down, a little “secret panel” in the middle of the back seat also folds down, just big enough to pass a bottle through. Thus alcohol could be stored in the trunk and…

Well as Johnson said “there is no last call for the trunk…”

We had a designated driver of course, Sam Swanson, who ably got us there and back again in one piece with no problems. The rest of the car was myself, Eric Johnson sophistbastard, Colin zombie_dog and Dani Church.

The night turned ugly. No bright desert sun for us but a chilly thick rain chasing us all the way up the East Coast. Nevertheless, spirits were high.

Colin and Johnson introduced us to the comedic stylings of “Bear.” Colin came across a reference on Sensible Erection, which he describes as “Slashdot for porn” where he said “this guy asked them to host his adult site, and in a few days became the laughingstock of the community.” I found the original item.

So when I send you to the unprotected members only index page at http://www.fantasybear.net/index.htm, you’ll miss the intro, but I can assure you this guy is worth his weight in gold, if you like badly written but horribly quotable Pr0n that is incapable of referencing any act other than basic penetration, and uses such romantic terms as “penis” and “vagina,” to describe the nasty. We amused ourselves over the miles by filling in the names of Threads characters, in the spirit of Threads “slash fic.” The one that took the best was Sutro, who for those of you not familiar with the campaign is a political character. We replaced the word “orgasm” with “election.” There were other combinations but by the end of the weekend, “election” had become a euphemism for sexual climax with long trailing cries of “recount….recount….ahhhh….recount….”

Dani found us a diner not far from Ronkonkoma which is where our hotel was.

We were lodging at a Holiday Inn, because that is the space that the Convention was giving us for free for running a game. We were paying for Thursday night because we wanted to get there. I should say that I’ve never much liked the Holiday chain. They screwed over an Intercon years back by being conservative and Christian, one of the very few venue problems we’ve ever had. The Holiday chain is mostly attractive to older travelers, and so caters to the very old and the very conservative, and has no interest in the shit we pull. What I’ll say was that the staff was very decent to us at this hotel.

My first hotel need was to make sure we could keep the room we were paying for Thursday for the one that we were getting from the con Friday. I arranged this, which allowed everyone to sleep in, which considering we got in about 4:45 was a good thing.

I got to bed at 4:45 and about 5:15…before it was light…realized that the room was too hot and crowded for me to sleep. So I got up and started writing. Now the truth is that if we had written not one more word after we got onsite, we would have had enough characters to run the game, and in fact would probably have had all but a few of the characters that were eventually cast. But we had no way of knowing “feast or famine” so we were committed to at least 40 core characters plus the people we brought with us. I think we just sort of obsessively felt we ought to complete that many whatever we eventually got. It’s also arguable that getting the game done for I-Con meant having it in the box for Origins, though I am not certain we will get a lot more players at Origins.

I should explain as I did at the time that I have no skill in dealing with hotels, but that Stephanie has hotels at a 5, which allows her to make it a transferable skill at a 2. So I was actually using her “speak with hotels” ability.

Friday was a writing day. Johnson had a business meeting of some sort around 10, so he and I were both up, and I made screwdrivers because the hotel didn’t sell V-8. We later calculated that since we drank through to going to bed about 5:00 the next morning, we did about nineteen hours of constant drinking. But we got a game written.

This is the main advantage of ether: it makes you behave like the village drunkard in some early Irish novel ... total loss of all basic motor skills: blurred vision, no balance, numb tongue- severance of all connection between the body and the brain. Which is interesting, because the brain continues to function more or less normally ... you can actually watch yourself behaving in this terrible way, but you can't control it.

We dispatched Sam and Dani to the liquor store, not because we really needed more booze but because once you get into a serious alcohol collection, the tendency is to push it as far as you can. We also had Sam pick up for us at Con Reg, and wrote like madmen until 7pm. When I say “like madmen,” I’m not really being poetic. Johnson had an interesting new obsession. He’d printed cards out for all the characters and we pasted them up on a wall so we could see relationships between them, and that worked fairly well.

By evening the Boston crew started showing up, eventually followed by our other DC area car. Jenny with Jason H. blackflame2180, and Kirt Dankmyer xiombarg. Jim H. also put in an appearance. From the north we got Lisa, with Aaron N, Lucas and Keri.

At 8 pm, Colin’s birthday party started. This man has so many birthday parties I began to wonder if he was just making them up new ones get more shelf space in the supermarket. At any rate, we broke out the booze box, dragged in some sodas and had a good time till about 10:30, when the hotel began to give us shit about noise.

Now we were being kind of noisy. But it was the sort of noise that is a dull roar in a hotel that was as far as we knew very nearly sold out to the convention. I didn’t want any trouble, especially as we were now a Con room, and we wanted to reflect well on our hosts. We promised to be quiet a few times and there was in fact much shushing, but it became increasingly clear that just normal conversation with laughter was going to be a problem for them.

I gave them a good chance to go away, but the security guy decided to make an issue of it. I came out, walked him up to the front desk and talked to the manager about the problem, explaining among other things that even if they kicked people out of that room, they were just going to go to other rooms and that there were enough potential rooms that it was not a good idea for them to make trouble about it. I offered to switch us to another room…apparently there was a proverbial “elderly couple next door who needed to catch a flight in the morning.” Let me just say that I have heard that particular cant about a thousand times, as if somebody being tired for a flight would in some way be a problem. I’m like “do they have to fly the damn thing? “ Get on the fucking plane and sleep people. For my part the more brain dead I am, the more marginally acceptable TSA is. But didn’t do that. Instead I explained our requirements in simple but uncompromising terms. Eventually I came back to the room and announced that we’d been given function space, and moved to a nice sort of café/terrace area with tables, couches and chairs. Very comfy. I stashed a mini-version of the bar under a table. This was the travel bar of course so no obvious containers.

Johnson was the one who understood best what had happened. “I wasn’t worried…when you walked out the door and into the hall it turned from a noise complaint into a customer service problem.”

I gave them a fair chance…

The party went on until some unfathomable hour, then we slept, got up and finished writing. Again I think we could have stood on what we had, but we wanted to complete what we meant to write. So we did, about an hour before we had to leave for the Student Union.

We hit the ground at the Student Union and I have to say that other than a bit of chaos with an elevator that had no button inside to open the back door, we did pretty well. Sam and Colin got the “rave” element of the game up and running smoothly and the room looked sharp. And we only had about an hour for setup.

The one thing I lament about I-Con is that there isn’t a really easy to get to social center to the Con. The hotel has shuttles, but it’s 9 miles away and events are straggled out all over campus and the hotels. We were running against Greg Agostini’s PST crew, who I have great respect for, and against the masquerade being held at a hotel, and there wasn’t an easy way to locate and recruit bored attendees.

Initially I was pretty disappointed at turnout. But people kept drifting in and by an hour in we had about 22 new players. Not all of them stayed with us, but our ultimate numbers were close to 35, which is a respectable game, honestly a stronger first showing than the best we’d ever gotten off at one of the other mid-east coast venues. I’d say with a few people who peaked early or drifted off we were at about 30 for the height of our run and stable at 25 till fairly late in the evening.

We had some great new players. Aaron F. we already knew, and he did a great job with a lead role as Pearson, the former Chief of Staff who is the “power behind the throne” in Los Angeles. We also had some talented new people.

We got some great compliments, and I think they reflected as well on the Threads crew as the game we’d written. “In our group there is sort of a top level of roleplayers and everybody else…this was like playing a game with just those top level people,” and “this is one of the two or three best roleplaying experiences I’ve ever had.”

So I think we began to win hearts and minds. As Johnson has said, it’s all about branding. With no real central facility for direct communication, games draw based on name recognition. And that's true most places. So we’re going to have a few years building recognition. But we’re already drawing more players than we were able to in some other venues with more promotion, so I’m pretty happy and excited. And it’s a good prep for Origins. In many ways Origins is less important to us, because we’re less likely to recruit people directly to Threads. But we’re also pimping LARPA, IMA, and the new revitalized GameBank.

We got summarily evicted at 1:30 (the schedule said we had the place until 2am), but the building staff people said they’d rebuild the rooms if we’d just get out, so we packed up pronto and headed out. We were pretty much done, so no harm.

It seemed too late to try to extort function space from the hotel again, so instead we hit the Airport Diner where I got a bagel with the works, and somebody else got a milkshake.

The other big media piece for the weekend, other than the lamentable “Bear” was a consistent recapping of the “drainage” scene from There Will be Blood, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URjeS5-NaXY&feature=related Milkshakes became the popular drink for this trip even if they didn't bring all the boys to the yard. I could instruct you, but I would require pecuniary compensation.

We finally went off to bed, agreeing to meet at the Airport Diner at noon, which we did. Checkout was at noon, but I’ve figured out the secret to getting an extended checkout anywhere.

The secret is “don’t ask.” Figure you’re going to be awake during the hour extension anyway, right? Checkout is at 11, you’re going to be up by 11, you just want to sleep until then. So at about 10:50 you call and say “can we get extended to noon? We’re trying to get out but we have this big trailer.” See that sounds like more trouble than they want to deal with. And of course as long as it is clear you are getting out, we both know the hotel does not actually having somebody standing by right there with nothing better to do than clean just that room. So they accept the fait accompli and say ‘of course,’ even if their policy was no late checkouts.

The meal and the trip home were relaxing. We were done. I like best to run early in the weekend, so that I am done and can relax, but in this case it was probably well that we didn’t. We have at least a respectable game together.

A constant speed is good for gas mileage- and for some reason that seemed important at the time. Indeed. On a trip like this one must be careful about gas consumption. Avoid those quick bursts of acceleration that drag blood to the back of the brain.

The drive back seemed long. I think we were ready for it to be over. We managed to keep in vague contact with Jason H, Jenny, and Kirt, and so we had one last final dinner before dropping Sam off, since she was still facing a two hour drive back north after riding herd on us drunken maniacs all day.

It was a good trip and opened up a lot of horizons. Threads is growing, and we have some material to push with LARPA again, some things that are actually happening and moving forward. I’m glad we took up Lauren’s invitation and it meant we met some great new people. I-Con is a little strange in Convention terms, but it has a lot of possibilities, and I think it’s a good opportunity. At the very least this trip redeemed my bad experience many years back.

In the long run, we’re back, tired but whole, and with a good game under our belts…

Next, Origins…

Intercon Mid-Atlantic Accepting Bids, $500 Contest

2008-03-29T01:57:18Z

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Bids for Intercon Mid-Atlantic, Nov 14-17 2008 are now open. No formal deadline has been set, but games bid before May 1, 2008 are more likely to be accepted.

http://ima.larpaweb.net/home/database/index.php

The annual LARPA Small Games Contest is also open. To bid a contest game, please fill out the submission information here:

http://www.ima.larpaweb.net/imawiki/index.php?title=Contest_Introduction

Two Top Prizes $200 and $300
Overall best will win $300
$200 for best in Category
Additional $100 top prize
Two category winners will receive $200 and the be eligible for best overall.

Deadlines
Deadline to Declare Entry - Aug 20, 2008

Deadline for Submissions - Oct 19, 2008

Categories
Games compete either in the 5-12 player category or the 12-24+ player category. Each category will have one $200 winner, and one of the winners will receive "best overall" for a total prize of $300. Games must have a flexibility of at least 6 players. So for example a game could be for 12-18 players, or 18-24 players. Games may be written with more characters than 24 available, provided all other criteria are also met. Games can be run privately for playtest purposes