Paranormal Activity 1 and 2: Changeling Movies?

Last year I reviewed Paranormal Activity which is a really great horror movie using the "Found Video Footage" thing other movies I really liked (Cloverfield, Blair Witch Project) have done.

Well this year its back, as a form of prequel/sequel.

And thinking about it (while naming the entity "Nigel" as if he was a car from Top Gear) I came up with this SPOILERIFFIC TO BOTH MOVIES WARNING DANGER DANGER WILL ROBINSON explanation of how its really a Changeling backstory/scenario.

So in the interests of any Changeling fans or folks who like tales of the Faerie I present to you this incredibly DORKY analysis of the events of the (rather quite good) Paranormal Activity movies, mostly focusing on part 2.

There is also gonna be some "South Park" level foul language here and there.  I try to avoid it on this blog, but one can't discuss the Adventures of Nigel without it.

Hopefully the below will give some of you ideas for your own Changeling games!

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While trying to get to sleep this morning I had a thought.


Maybe its not a demon but a Fae. 

With a couple tweaks these two movies could pretty much be a Changeling: The Lost game/prequel.

We have Nigel (as I am calling him) who made a deal in exchange for a family's firstborn son. That's such a trope of the mythological Fae it isn't even funny.

Well there have been no firstborn sons for Nigel to take through the Hedge (The land between Arcadia and the Real World) back to Arcadia. Perhaps higher up Fae or someone had made a deal with him for the son and are equally pissed at him.

Thus no physical body for Nigel. Maybe its hidden somewhere or something similar. So he needs power to manifest at all in our mundane world. He needs his Glamour if he is gonna get the deal sealed. Or at least a little payback on them uppity humans...

Big Hooter Sisters' mom was one of Nigel's earlier targets since it was her mom or grandmom who hadn't fulfilled her end of the bargain and Nigel's bosses are kind of pissed. Fae just LOOOVE swiping human babies, and this is one they wouldn't even need to have a Fetch to replace.

(Fetches being the simulacrums the Fae leave in place of the actual humans they abduct.)

His messing with her caused the twins before they had their own twins hur hurr to mess with occult stuff thus giving him more Glamour (spiritual magic Fae type energy) so he could cause more havoc.

Which causes the STUFF THEY DON'T TALK ABOUT. (Coming to you Halloween 2011 or 2012 depending on whichever idea Paramount's beancounters have to milk this action for all its worth. We all know PA3 is coming next year. And its either gonna be a prequel or the Hunt for.. Hunter while Katie F. still looks about the same age.)

Then for whatever reason it stops. Nigel probably used up too much of his Glamour and now he can't do much. Its gonna take a little time and a lot of bad vibes before he can do any manifestations again.

So he is saving up, waiting and watching. Then here comes Hunter. WHAM!! Nigel uses up a big hunk of Glamour and goes apespit on the house. Its time to pay up. Except as we have seen, Nigel is a DICK. He used up too much, which is why shit slows down for a few weeks. He can't do as much, but can cause just enough trouble to get more power than he is using.

Even if that stupid housekeeper and dog keep harshing his mellow. They are gonna get theirs. Oh YES.

He finally gets rid of the housekeeper and has enough power to mess with the dog, taking it out. All those bad vibes and the fear he is causing (plus handy use of Ouija board to give him a stronger grip on the living world) have BK Franchise dad and Allie leave, giving him free reign on Mom and Hunter.

ITS TIME TO BRING THE BEATSTICK. 

He tries to grab mom and her fear, while Glamour creating, isn't quite enough for him to grab her first time. (Plus Nigel is only slightly brighter than his victims and doesn't always do the smartest things. If they did, mom and Hunter would have gone with the other two. And Nigel would already have Hunter. Unless he wants to be a complete dickhead. And Nigel is quite the dickhead.)

But he has enough Glamour now to pop his spirit back in the Hedge and get to Hunter's room before Mom gets back in, and this time she is going in the basement.

Now is when Changeling or "traditional" Fae folklore gets sort of dicey. Does Nigel possess mom which is something Fae don't really DO, or does he pull her ass into the Hedge sending her to a near eternity of madness in Arcadia and replacing her with a Fetch?

Maybe with his currently low status in the Fae he can't produce a Fetch, and just drags her into the Hedge which probably causes her to go completely crazy. (He has been priming the women of this family for that. And they DO have a history of it in the bloodline..) She is weak enough for him to spiritually possess, but not completely. 

Its not a Fae thing to do normally, and he has been using up that Glamour like its Magic Happy Hour at the Fae Bar of Terror and Payback. So he only sort of has a grip on her. Which leads to her being sick and weak, not totally under his control. 

Otherwise he would have already collected Hunter, and been on his way, and with a nice extra Human as an example of why YOU DO NOT HOSE THE FAE OVER IN A DEAL. 

Marcelus does not look like a bitch. And Nigel REALLY doesn't look like a bitch. (Ok, he doesn't look like ANYTHING right now. Which is kind of his point.)

Dad is stupid AGAIN and leaves Allie home while Nigel is completing his grip on Mommy. And he can really only threaten at this point while he gets things settled in there.

(But man is her screaming ever satisfying. She KNOWS what he is doing and she can't stop it. She is trying to fight, but between her grip on reality and sanity being greased with WD-40 and his power she is DOOMED. Enjoy the show bitch. Nigel is gonna take this monkeyshow on the road Frankenstein!)

Sadly for Nigel his attempt to take out Dad fails and that stupid housekeeper gets involved. Maybe the basement is worth another shot? 

ARGH DEFEATED BY A BALDING ASSHOLE WITH A NIGHT VISION CAMERA. 

Oh wait...

Dumb spits didn't stop him.. they just knocked him out of Mom but towards her nearest relative.

One with a bigger set of sweater puppies. And a FAR douchier mate. And no smarty pants dogs or maids or teenaged girls to get in his way.

Micah's Alpha Male routine helps Nigel QUICKLY get his Glamour Groove back and he is getting a handle on this possession thing. Not as effective as a Fetch, but beggars cannot be choosers.

Nigel has a baby to collect.

He takes over Katie a bit slower and safer, and that dumbass helps him lock the deal by throwing away that Crucifix in a fire.

A little more time to make sure Katie is HIS and its time to thank Micah. And show whoever looks at that camera how they do things in Downtown Arcadia. 

(Stupid mortals just don't listen to their own tales. Learn the rules or pay the price.)

That damned psychic almost caused trouble but people with such open minds are easily taught who the boss is.

Now Nigel still isn't completely locked into Katie and he sort of feels bad for his little ego stunt with the camera (Nigel IS an egotistical dick after all!) so he forgets to change clothes and just takes his new form of transportation into the Hedge.

Time is funny in the Hedge so he pops out in his recently forced out of terror grounds and takes out Dad quick like. Katie could never do this, but Nigel has Glamour enhanced Fae power on his side. (And its just HILARIOUS feeling Katie screaming at the murders she is committing. Even if it is causing a mild migraine.)

Nigel wants this action done QUICK in case things go pear shaped. No playing around. Up those stairs and off to collect Hunter do not pass Go, do not collect 200 dollars. 

One quick slam of his fist takes the confused Mom out and its time to bring Hunter back to Arcadia.

The debt has been collected.

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Yes the above IS incredibly dorky, but it really does fit the movies well.

(Not counting the alternate endings which basically poop all over any connection to Fae and Changelings.)

I sort of thought of the above as Nigel doesn't just possess the women but pulls them into another room. I wondered why he would bother unless it was to switch the women for a Fetch under his control. Which kind of works outside of the exorcism transferral towards the end of 2. (I don't think Fetches work like that. Its POSSIBLE both Katie and Mom were Fetches. Which means they are pretty much stuck in Arcadia for an eternity. But its doubtful. Why kill the Mom Fetch even if she has been purged of Nigel's direct control? Maybe in his state he HAS to possess.)

Thus we have the above highly dorky missive of me No Prizing 2 movies that have made tens of millions of dollars.

Why I Quit LARPing. (At Least in a White Wolf Game)

For those of you who for whatever mad reason read my older posts from the 08 timeframe will remember I did some reports on playing in a White Wolf Changeling LARP.  In 09 I did a few more, but they became more and more infrequent till they stopped.

Mainly because a few months after I quit writing them I finally gave up trying to have fun with the game, and decided staying home and sleeping before work was a vastly superior use of my time and money.

This little post will be my thoughts on why I tried it in the first place, and then why I quit.

Let's head back to Connecticon 08....

I was there with a friend and his friend and they are active fans of the original Changeling and had some interest in the current one.  They are also in a more hardcore fantasy LARP up in Mass that has the stereotypical "LIGHTNING BOLT LIGHTNING BOLT!", sorts of boffer combat where you get to use nerf like weapons on your opponents while dressing silly.

Not my thing, and working weekends it never WILL be my thing I can safely say.

But as I like to be social I was hanging out with them Friday when they went to look into playing in the Changeling LARP the next evening.  For curiosities' sake I asked how the game was played, having heard how silly the Old World of Darkness LARP games were with Rock Paper Scissors game resolution and people dressed horribly and so on.

The organizer mentioned it used a card draw system, something few RPGs seem to use and I find quite a fun diversion from the norm.

I decide for the hell of it to join in too as the Warhammer 40K tournament I was scheduled to play in would be over about an hour or so beforehand.  (Well it was SUPPOSED to be.  It actually got cut short and still took 3 times longer than it was scheduled to.)  As my friends had the book on them instead of using a pregen I got to make my own character.  (Albeit one that was unoptimized and kind of underpowered due to rules mistakes.)

I learned the basic concepts of Changeling which seemed PRETTY AWESOME AND RAD.  (New World of Darkness Changeling involves people being abducted to the world of Faerie where they are forced to serve their masters, which changes them in mystical ways, and they then escape back to the real world where they try to recover what they can of their shattered lives.)

I chose to take one of my array of characters and build a version of him for Changeling.  Rufus Landale.
Going through the book I found what seemed to be a good fit of abilities and faction selections for his personality.

http://wargamedork.blogspot.com/2008/10/my-changeling-larp-character-let-me.html

Go to next day.  Wake up with little sleep (yay being a night shift worker.  Doing days is VERY hard to impossible for me.) and do my Warhammer thing.  Win the first match with my Tyranids get owned by what was probably a cheating Tau player who seemed to have 2-3 times as many models as anyone should have.  Then its time to go to the LARP.  Since I lost match 2 of 3 and I felt I had promised my friend and his friend I was gonna be there, I go.  It starts off really slow and stupid, but gets moving pretty well later on as in general the entire group works together to find out about a murdered official and take revenge on him and the Faerie minion who comes afterwards.

We kicked butt, and I was apparently so in character I not only won an in continuity leadership position should I keep playing in the active campaign, but by 20+ player vote they also voted me best roleplayer and I won a nifty prize worth a good 25-35 bucks.

I FELT AWESOME.

I don't exactly have the greatest of self esteems and life hasn't done much to help this.  I was nearly bouncing off the ceiling that convention and for much of the week afterwards and the game was to blame.  It wasn't the doofy Goth nonsense I always considered LARPing to be.  It was basically tabletop gaming with cards and you moved around a lot more instead of sitting around a table.  (Well 20 or so people at a normal sit down game all needing GM attention would be INSANE anyhow so it is sort of for the best...)

I find out the normal game is run once a month in the afternoons about 20 minutes from my house and ends with plenty of time for me to get to work after provided I don't mind losing an hour or two of sleep.

I go and in general have a decent time of it for a while.

But the more I play the more problems come up.

The biggest is the one that seems to infest EVERY White Wolf LARP.  Its less about adventures than it is about Machiavellian power struggles as done by supernatural beings.  Its a bunch of high school cliques.  Except they have neato powers.  The campaign settings almost all have ways to encourage and enforce this, and most players and Storytellers LIKE IT THAT WAY.

I constantly had to deal with people wanting power struggles, trying to be douchebags, characters that "in character" were insulting my more straightforward heroic character who the host out of character once in what I considered an insult, deemed me as "A White Hat".

As if wanting to play a hero is a BAD THING.

MY WHOLE POINT OF PLAYING AND RUNNING RPGS IS TO BE INVOLVED WITH HEROIC STORIES.

This does not mean being an unstoppable perfect Jesus figure mind you, but it is about as far away from how most White Wolf games are encouraged to run as you can get before you get into joke games like Paranoia, Kobolds Ate My Baby, and "I Kill Puppies for Satan".

(Which I consider to be the greatest name of a game EVER.)

I was actually starting to feel insulted even though in general most of the players seemed to be perfectly nice folks out of game.  In game most REVELED in playing jerks to various degrees.

The Storyteller's response to my desires for a more heroic game?  "Its the World of Darkness for a reason.  Deal with it".

The fact I am writing this shows I dealt with it by quitting.

Now I am not condemning this style of play.  I just don't get the damned point, and I want NOTHING to do with it.  But by all reports the local group was LIGHT (at least in Changeling.  The Vampire game which I tried on a day or two when I used a sick day was REALLY jerk charactet central!) as many people came from other groups or travelled to other groups where PKing (player killing) and deviant characters forming stupid political alliances to bone over other characters were the order of the day, instead of just most of the side dishes.

Yet it was not the only reason.  Just the biggest part.

Another one is the whole Camarilla LARP setup itself.  Unlike your average RPG campaign, the game is connected to a worldwide organization requiring players to cough up membership and sometimes site fees in order to play.  This of course brings in REAL LIFE politics and organizational nightmares as characters need to be approved and higher powered ones need to be ran through Regional Managers and there are a good dozen or more acronym laden titles going up the ladder.

My friend chose to take one of the local roles which not only involved group voting, but it required TAKING TESTS.

All this to play a game?

And the worst part is yet to come.  Because of this worldwide thing and approval being needed, you could gain extra experience points by going to other games, being one of these Acronym People, or doing things that HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH PLAYING IN THE LOCAL CAMPAIGN.

Yes kids, you can grind for XP in White Wolf LARPs provided you have time to drive around your region.  We had people drive to and from Virginia here to Connecticut, to New York, all over the place.

So in a game where hosing over other people is pretty much part of the normal situation, if you have a lot of extra time and money to get there, you too can play a character that can curbstomp anyone else, especially if you have been playing longer than the newbies.

And don't tell me the whole approval process helps keep broken PCs away in a system that makes it VERY easy to custom build broken characters.  We had more than a few PCs that nobody could really do anything about that if the player wanted to could have wiped out everyone else at the game!

I'm sorry.  That goes against EVERYTHING I think an RPG campaign should be.  Sure its nice you can play in a worldwide metaplot and all, but why should one character be better than another just because they do some extra paperwork?

There were so many broken PCs the higher ups did a "soft reset" which had many PCs brought down to sane levels, but only just.

And once we add in the expense of losing sleep on a workday and the money for meals and the various site/small yearly fee and I just felt it wasn't enough fun for the way I PERSONALLY enjoy RPGs so I dropped out.

The soft reset brought the current story arc to its end and I felt that was a good place to bow out.  I would have tried talking it over with the organizers as I could be taking things the wrong way, but there was no game at this year's Connecticon and the few times I talked about anything at all on the Google Group the local group uses not a single person replied either public or privately as if I didn't even exist so why bother?

Now I am NOT condemning the group or the Camarilla or White Wolf or really even LARPing in general.

Its just a perfect storm of time, money, bureaucracy, and style of game I seriously dislike all joining together to make me not want to play period.


I guess I am just too used to nice normal sit down RPGs where you don't have some silly organization to care about and the GM (with a little help from the players of course!) is all that is needed for a good fun game.


But I am a "White Hat" so what do I know, right?

Saturday Changeling LARP Report: Rufus' War Journal Part 5

(Transcribed from an IRC conversation.)
{No, not a real one. Its my characters talking to each other.}

YOU HAVE JOINED #teamkermit
MESSAGE OF THE DAY: "Little kids shouldn't see people killing each other." - Amuro Rey, Mobile Suit Gundam
Rufimus_Primal has joined the chat
Staffmeister has joined the chat.

Staffmeister: What's up? I was organizing my music. This better be important.
Rufimus_Primal: We had another Lost meetup at TC on Valentine's Day.
Staffmeister: I HATE that day. Just means more people come cryin about the STD they got at some bar 'round 2AM.
Rufimus_Primal: If that was the worst thing that happened it would have been a good day.
Staffmeister: Oh no. What did those druggies do THIS time?
Rufimus_Primal: The area is full of drugs and scum. But we had.. problems.
Staffmeister: Well, considering my only problem is that Kari Byron is preggers and I am not the baby daddy I suppose I can listen to you whine some more. Go on. It sounds like a good time for a cup of tea anyhow.
Rufimus_Primal: Well there were LOTS of people this time.
Rufimus_Primal: Soultaker, this armored guy who just growls a lot and wants to kill and get vengeance on everyone who hurt him.
Staffmeister: So he is an emo Batman type then?
Rufimus_Primal: The problem is he is really powerful. Possibly too powerful. He doesn't believe in justice, just getting even.
Staffmeister: Hey we were in the Navy. What do you do with a cranky douche? Take him to some sleazy bar on shore leave. That will clear him up while giving some cougar a few minutes where she forgets how her life turned out.
Rufimus_Primal: That's not nice dude.
Staffmeister: But its true. Keep going.
Rufimus_Primal: There was also Halyon Rex, who mostly made dumb rude comments about me.
Staffmeister: That's my job Gaia-dammit. Someone has to straighten you out and it'll be me.
Rufimus_Primal: Roderick the weapons maker guy was back too.
Rufimus_Primal: As was Dion the ogre, and Darryl.
Staffmeister: You mean Darryl the Winter King who for some reason you think you can make a heroic type? He is a Winter. They are pansies.
Rufimus_Primal: I don't give up on anyone dude. Everyone has the heart of a hero, it just needs to be brought out. If I believe in them, maybe they will believe in themselves.
RUFUS CHANGES MESSAGE OF THE DAY: "Don't believe in yourself. Believe in the me that believes in you." - Kamina, Gurren Lagann
Staffmeister: You and your cartoons. The world isn't like a cartoon.
Rufimus_Primal: I know. But it should be. :(
Rufimus_Primal: Mia showed up later, plus this quiet spy kinda guy with wings.
Rufimus_Primal: Plus 2 other guys showed up later too, but I will get to them in time.
Staffmeister: Ok, so we have the Dramatis Personae. Let's hear what happened. Last time y'all fought some of the army by their camp and that Mirrorskin douchebag went off to try to Solid Snake up their ammo tents.
Rufimus_Primal: Well he didn't come back. And we got a visitor telling us the Goblin Market was open today for our yearly visit. Because of all the havoc we caused there were restrictions.
Rufimus_Primal: Only 2 people at a time could enter. Myself and Rex went in first while Soultaker went out to kill things.
Staffmeister: So while you were shopping this Soultaker guy was out 'Sperging like a mofo?
Rufimus_Primal: Pretty much, yeah.
Rufimus_Primal: There was a bunch of stuff to buy, some of it useful, other stuff just trinkets from plain old normal real life.
Rufimus_Primal: One item we found there was something of David's the Goblin seller said his people found in the Hedge, but he wouldn't tell us exactly where or take us to it.
Rufimus_Primal: The prices for the items were really wierd though. Prices like an hour of our day, and other things. I didn't take the risk even though some of the things could have come in handy.
Staffmeister: "Trust no one. Shoot straight, and never EVER make a deal with a dragon."
Rufimus_Primal: Yeah. I am not a gambler. Taking a risk for these things just isn't worth it.
Rufimus_Primal: Roderick, Dion, and Soultaker returned from their explorations in killing and brought a letter back they found on one of the patrols, listing that David was captured by the general Jonathan Burgoyne (Aka Red Jonny) and they had some sort of super weapon that can demolish wards.
Staffmeister: Holy Galactic Empire Batman. Except late 70s-early 80s Carrie Fisher I would go to the Death Star to rescue. Silvery-McDouchebag? Not so much.
Rufimus_Primal: Nobody stays behind. We ARE our brother and sister's keeper.
Staffmeister: And now I feel like a dick.
Rufimus_Primal: What else is new? Its what you get being a Corpsman and all. ^_^
Staffmeister: What's wrong with helping people? Oh right. Most people are IDIOTS. That's my problem.
Rufimus_Primal: Anyhow, Rex suggested ambushing another patrol to see if they had the same letter as that could let us know if it was a trap or not. Everyone but myself and Mia went on this one. I don't have the strength to hold back Soultaker so its best I stayed back.
Staffmeister: You finally learned something from me. Being the idealistic goodie goodie you are is great. But there is a time and a place to die for your ideals.
Rufimus_Primal: That sounds HORRIBLE. I was mostly guarding the base. I'm not fond of Hedge excursions. And if the bad guys arrived someone had to protect the freehold, as pointless as it is.
Rufimus_Primal: It was good I did. We were attacked by Jonny and 30 of his troops. I took a few shots at him with my pistol, but he went incorporeal and it went through him.
Staffmeister: How fun.
Rufimus_Primal: Mia went invisible and ran out, so I fell back, and made some phone calls.
Staffmeister: Yet another example of why you should stop putting any faith in these people.
Rufimus_Primal: I can get through to them. I know I can.
Staffmeister: Keep telling yourself that. Maybe you can Care Bear Stare them into being useful.
Rufimus_Primal: Its like the wards weren't even there. They passed right through!
Rufimus_Primal: The others found an enemy patrol and killed it, finding a map with patrol routes.
Rufimus_Primal: We then all met up to plan a counterattack.
Staffmeister: By plan you mean argue right?
Rufimus_Primal: What else is new? -_-.
Rufimus_Primal: Anyhow the assault team brought 2 more Lost with them, a sniper kind of guy and a handyman type.
Staffmeister: So you had Tim the Toolman with you?
Rufimus_Primal: I guess. Maybe. We were sort of busy. We originally planned to assault from the front and the back, except as usual the bickering lead to dallying. Mia went off to get a hold of her friend who could help us.
Rufimus_Primal: You won't believe who it was.
Staffmeister: The Pillsbury Doughboy?
Rufimus_Primal: No. April, the Spring Queen.
Staffmeister: The drunken chick?
Rufimus_Primal: Yeah, and she was dead SOBER.
Staffmeister: Who would have guessed. Maybe there is hope for those schmucks after all.
Rufimus_Primal: Since reinforcements were arriving, we went in from the back, yet some of us went into the Hedge and captured Jonny. I sorta jumped into the Freehold fight and got stuck in.
Rufimus_Primal: So as to keep Soultaker from eating Jonny's soul, I chose to take him out myself. I gave everyone a chance to speak up on his behalf, to hopefully give me some reason, ANY reason not to kill him for his crimes. Nobody said a thing.
Staffmeister: What a surprise there.
Rufimus_Primal: So I took him out. At least his soul didn't get eaten.
Rufimus_Primal: Then a goblin arrived with David's box thing. It had Maude's head in it.
Staffmeister: Ding dong the witch is dead.
Rufimus_Primal: It had a letter in it. This was all David's plan to get rid of his competition. He was playing us for fools.
Staffmeister: What a surprise there.
Rufimus_Primal: And I trusted him. I am not amused. Its like the harder I try the further I fall.
Staffmeister: Hold that thought. Its my idiot sister. She is causing trouble and I have to go deal with this. Don't get yourself killed for those dumbasses before we can talk again.
Staffmeister HAS DISCONNECTED
Rufimus_Primal HAS DISCONNECTED

Saturday Changeling LARP Report: Rufus' War Journal Part 4

This one is just text. A TON happened at this month's game and the thought of doing it comic style frightens me. Plus I have too many other projects and things I am working on right now. Painting, getting more content for the Adamythryl Engine, just fun stuff.. maybe even the HORROR of getting a life. Oh wait. That one never works. :(

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War Journal Update 10 Jan 09

Eric.
On the 10th of January, I sent a comrade to what may be his doom. I know you want to be kept informed of what goes on at the Freehold, but this was a hard situation to update you on. But I will tell you what happened, and hopefully you can see the kinds of challenges I face in trying to build a brotherhood here in Connecticut.

Since December, David had discovered Maude's location within the Hedge. Her exact location, this time for sure as opposed to a wild guess. We also had to bring Darryl (the English fellow who was willing to sacrifice himself during the Sid incident over the Summer where I became Summer King) into his position as the Winter King, made more difficult as he and the quiet tall woman Mia are the only two Winter Court members nearby.

(Mia being mostly insular and quiet and not believing in herself. I have been trying to get her to open up, rarely with any luck.)

We had guests from New York, their Summer King, a Naga like man known as Nemo, and his Marshal, a Dragon like formed fellow by the name of.. ahh.. damn. Forgot his name. I REALLY need to do better at remembering names. :( We were joined by a new local, a hulking ogre by the name of Dion.

The Baba Yaga like hut David had found was in fact Maude's residence in the Hedge, so we began planning our assault, with our incredibly powerful New York guests in tow. We left a message for any other Lost who would arrive at the freehold later on, and headed to her old cabin in the woods to enter through a portal. Our angry booze selling Summer I mentioned? You know, Erin? She would be one of the few to receive our message and join us. And with the usual amount of grousing.

(I swear she and David are in competition for being the crankiest!)

Given our typical luck, David forgot how to actually open the portal, but with a little energon and a LOT of luck, we discover how to open it, which lead inside her hut. We find a fire elemental trapped inside her fireplace, writhing in pain. Removing him lead us to discover he was a Lost, burning in agony. We put the fire out, and anonymously got him to a hospital.

(With the amount of us who end up there on a regular basis we should probably be getting frequent patient miles. Or some really good insurance.)

We take what few books are found to be worthwhile, and the crew that went into the hut itself found a birdlike man's set of bones, charred and staked to a post. There was a sigil clawed into the wood. The crew that went in decided to burn it down, and eventually they all met back up. (Yes, someone got separated. Quite foolish. Always stick with your squadmates!) Of course, now our secure portal to the hedge no longer exists.

I can only do so much. I also find out that the captive soldier we grabbed a few months back, Doug, was no longer staying with my dad who apparently missed him leaving one day. I really need to get pops off the bottle. I am getting him to move and get a new trailer somewhere else. Hopefully it will keep him out of danger. And we REALLY need a better place to hold captives.

(That reminds me. Have you found out where Mr. Stewart went yet? I found my dad, you should be able to get back yours, even if he is a private detective and well capable of knowing how to avoid being found. You came back from being missing so there is no reason for him to be searching for you, right?)

We discuss what to do next. There is an enemy camp in the Hedge with over 200 soldiers there. We finally notice Mia has arrived, hiding herself in plain sight as usual. Our plan turns into a recon mission. One team will form a distraction while the other is a secondary. This gives time for the Dragon Marshal to fly over the camp and see what he can see, given a boost into the air thanks to Dion and his Ogre-ness.

While planning continues, we attempt to get Mia to acknowledge Darryl as the Winter King so he can take his place in running things. We show her the symbol from the post, and we begin to have an idea that the previous Winter King, Dave, may have been the poor soul tied to it. With some coaxing from both of us, we lead Mia to Maude's cabin so she can see some of these things for herself. Again, the Hedge hut being burned down meant we couldn't show her the body itself. We did however show her the altar in the woods David has been putzing about with. Darryl not being the most evasive of people answered David's cell phone call with what we were doing in a level that angered him enough to show up there, even as I tried to mitigate the damage. David didn't want anyone going near the altar, but Mia wanted to see it for herself and I saw no reason for her not to. David may be one of us, but anything someone wants nobody else to go near is something that needs a second pair of eyes to check up on. And my deal is fighting for my brothers and sisters, my claws slashing the darkness. This magical stuff is not my strong suit!

He showed up and groused some, but we were able to calm his grouchiness down enough. Darryl then officially became Winter King, and that was that! On to the recon mission!

It goes off well to start. We fire a couple sniper rounds into some of the guards (dressed like Revolutionary War troops! Greatcoats and everything!), and then the other team gets into action when they are distracted, causing more havoc, and the Dragon gets airborne. But they see him and launch a flaming person at him from a catapult! We take some shots at our scout's new passenger, but it fails to dislodge him. He ends up crashing to remove the poor fellow, and the rest of us scatter and head back to the Freehold.

Our plan there now becomes one of disruption. We decide to take out their ammunition tents as that will not only slow them down, but demoralize them and give us and other Lost a better chance against them. We set up an ambush against their patrols, with David taking advantage of the propaganda against us that claims we current Summer and Autumn Kings are Loyalists. He tries to convince them he needs some of their ammunition to deal with rogue elements. (Which are really US mind you!) But its so badly done they refuse and PLAN B happens where those of us hiding move out to kill and capture the patrol. This works, with lots of painful hits taken (man these loyalists WILL NOT let go of their weapons regardless of how hard they get hit!), except everyone is so worked up, the entire patrol gets killed.

And with that failure David decides there is no other option but for him to attempt to morph his looks into one of the Loyalists we have fought, and to quietly sneak into the camp, find out the information we need, and sneak back out. His odds are not very good.

Eric, we may have lost one of our brothers to this plan. I could not stop him from trying such a risky and foolish stunt. I have yet to hear back from him, and his sacrifice may have even been in vain.

But for now, I watch, I wait, and I hope.

Your friend,
Rufus Landale

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yeah, a lot happened this session, and with time tight, and my projects many, this month its just a prose format. I have plans for another way to do pure text reports, but this month I didn't feel like going too crazy and inventive, and my idea had the chance to be more important than the information being relayed. Which in such an eventful month is not such a good idea. I will save it for when its needed. Plus it will be a good introduction for my other Changeling character, and his Hunter sister.

Eventually this blog will introduce you readers to most of the characters that ramble about in my head, though in many cases they will be tweaked to fit whichever game system and universe I am bringing them in to. If comics legend Osamu Tekuza could have a "studio system" where his characters were used in various stories and genres, why can't I?

Ok, BESIDES the lack of skill and talent. I already know that part...

Saturday Changeling LARP Report: Rufus' War Journal Part 3

The extra special holiday comics episode! Its written as if my character Rufus is sort of out of whack due to painkillers and numerous injuries sustained from fighting an evil beastie. No insult to other players or their characters is intended outside of me finding it mildly amusing to see what is going through Rufus' head due to said injuries and painkillers.













I hope everyone will enjoy the silly! Its actually sort of what happened, just in an abbreviated form. Plus Rufus' currently addled brain making himself a bit more heroic and all...

Saturday Changeling LARP Report: Rufus' War Journal Part 2

I have been lax on these! Now I have two game sessions worth to report on. Unlike last time, bold is ST stuff, and Italics is out of game bits, and normal text is in character text. Cuz I felt like doing it this way!

OCTOBER
Teaser: "Join the Loyalist Army! Turn your friends in today! All traitors
will be spared!"
This is what greeted the Lost of Willimantic when they entered the Thread
City Cafe last month. Letters were delivered to the Lost, secret notes were
left, all pointing fingers at others saying they were a loyalist. Who can
you trust? The traditional Summer King, Sid, was killed in August and the
new King, Rufus, is still new and untried. The Spring Queen, April, has
been kidnapped and is being being tortured by a new force in town called the
Scorpion. As Autumn approaches, will the traditional Queen, Maude, be up to
the task of setting things to right in the city or will she meet with a
similar fate as the other two monarchs?

It has been a troubling time for us in the Lost. The Loyalists are trying to confuse us and throw us into disarray.

Its working well.

We had some folks from Virginia here to help us, a rather strange trio who seemed to have a thing for "efficiency". Between them and the regulars getting this group organized is proving to be a difficult task!

We came up with a plan to rescue April from Scorpion's bar hideout. One of us was sent to get April ready by morphing herself into a coin that our mirror visaged friend David dropped into the room after he transformed himself into a ganger type. I believe the coinformer was named Nothing. As I said, the Virginia folks were a little... odd.

As we needed an Autumn king I nominated David to run things at least in the short term, and the other local members of the Lost agreed enough and it was done.

This is sort of coming back to bite me though. We do not exactly see eye to eye even though we have similar objectives and ideas on how to take care of things.

We split up into two teams, one of which went to confront Scorpion who was within the Hedge, and I backed up our blacksmith as we sent Scorpion's den of evil into the dust, albeit with a few dead gang members along the way besides the ones now buried under rubble. No matter. Criminal scum like that shouldn't be left alive anyhow.

The other team confronted Scorpion and killed him, rescuing April. He thought we were the loyalists alongside April! But what kind of sick monster would do the things he did to her regardless of her actual allegiance and actions?

Nobody who deserves to live.

NOVEMBER
Last month the Lost formed a plan to go rescue the Spring Queen April from
the clutches of a sinister figure known as the Scorpion. Dog sized scorpions
and a building falling down on top of them were not enough to stop them and
April was brought to safety.
The long reigning Autumn Queen Maude is nowhere to be found. Her shop is
boarded up and abandoned. Has she left the Lost to deal with the loyalist on
their own or has something else happened to her? In her absence the Lost
elected the Mirrorskin David as the new Autumn King.
What was the connection between the Scorpion and the loyalist? Were they
allies or enemies? Why did the Scorpion kidnap April in the first place?
While Autumn is still the reigning season, Winter is just around the corner.
Why has the Winter King not made an appearance yet? Is he responsible for
what is going on in the city or has he also suffered some dire fate?

Some new people showed up this time while friends from the previous months were nowhere to be seen. An annoying duo named Vicks and Wedge accused myself and David as being Loyalists. They would believe nothing we said, even refusing a handgun I handed them. David tried to be a bit more political than myself in dealing with them as I was ready and willing to throw them out a window.

He eventually took an oath to fight against the loyalists lest he be striked down, and a little spirit frog appeared on his shoulder to make sure he kept that oath.

We are given a map, and find out information about Maude's hut within the Hedge. A few of us go to ask for some spirit frogs resting within some stone frog statues for help, but none of us having any real way to contact them meet with no success. I actually talk and inform these stone frogs of what is going on, which mostly just has people looking at us funny. Oh well, it was worth a shot, right?

And more bad news. After all the work we went to rescue April, a woman named Mia who was tasked with getting her to the hospital reported she was taken. AGAIN. This is not good, not at all, especially with the Winter king missing.

Given our lack of cohesiveness I came up with a list of objectives, based roughly on the seasons we seem to follow.

Summer would be the objective of investigating the Goblin patrols within the Hedge, and battling them off when needed.

Autumn would be finding out where our missing monarchs went off to.

Winter would be the fortifying of our stronghold.

Spring would be a catchall, going where needed.

It took me some time to explain using the seasons was largely symbolic and a little bit of yelling and force to get things going, but as I explained, all the Lost are my brothers and sisters and we have to work together. We have been constantly arguing and doubting each other. I have to nip this in the bud. I do not care what season king is in session. As far as I am concerned I am the main person in charge of this Freehold and the men and women within it. They are always my concern and always my responsibility. And I will fight for them to my last breath! I will lead by example and prepare others for command as well. David and I are butting heads a bit, but we will work it out, and a fellow from "Across the Pond" as they like to say who was there for the Sid incident is my tentative nominee for Winter king.

As repeated by Samuel L Jackson in Pulp Fiction: "The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who in the name of charity and goodwill shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee."

This is how I must live and lead. It will be done. Perhaps I will be loved. Maybe hated. Maybe I will die, but I WILL fight for my brothers and sisters with everything I have to give!

We are given a parchment mentioning a contract made between a loyalist known as Red Johnny, Maude, and Sid. The very contract used to sacrifice one of us to go back. Proof has been found of their evil.

I send out an investigative team with our prospective Winter king. They return with 2 loyalists, one living, one dead. The area they were guarding was none other than Maude's hut within the Hedge! She was known to them as "The Evil Queen".

David organizes a strikeforce to investigate, and yet again leaves me at the Freehold. I have a chat with the living loyalist who lets us know he was told we were loyalists ourselves. He has no name, only called by Red Johnny as "325". I rename him "Doug" until we can find his original name. He tries walking out, but we stop him.

I now wait for my brothers and sisters to return...

At game's end I find out that Maude is within her hut, and that David has apparently defected to the Loyalist side, though it may be to keep himself alive.

Overall I am really enjoying the LARP games and am even getting sorta used to the lack of sleep one Saturday a month. I need to work on my outfit a bit more though. Right now a Navy ballcap and a pair of faux spiked leather fingerless gloves form my total outfit, excepting my normal clothes of course! Some folks really have kickass costumes! Of course I head off to work afterwards so I can't exactly go too out there to begin with, but it is making me want to step up my game. And both times I was invited to stay on for Vampire, but again, work. Yay.

My Changeling LARP Character. LET ME SHOW YOU HIM.

Intelligence, Wits, Resolve 2
Strength, Dexterity, Stamina 3
Presence 3, Manipulation, Composure 3

Crafts 1
Politics 3
Athletics 4 (Specialty Acrobatics)
Brawl 4 (Specialty Claw Knockback)
Animal Ken 1 (Bless Spec Tiger)
Intimidation 3 (Specialty Physical Threats)
Persuasion 2 (Motivational Speeches)
Socialize 2

Merits:
Mantle Summer 3
Brawling Dodge 1
Tiger Style Kung Fu 3

Fang & Talon 2 (Beast's Keen Senses)

Health 7
Willpower 4
Glamour 6 (11 max)
Wyrd 2
Clarity 7

Current Unspent XP: 16 (Most likely 15 will be spent on raising Intelligence to 3. Next two session's XP will be used to take Firearms, probably to 2 dots.)

Rufus grew up in the late 70s and early 80s. While his family was pretty poor, he was mostly happy, and his Saturday mornings were spent with a bowl of Corn Pops, a couple toys, and many glorious hours in front of the TV watching cartoons.

Cartoons were his escape from living in a trailer home and his generally off working (when they weren't out drinking) parents rarely being around. Optimus Prime, Duke, and Captain Global were his father figures. The Voltron Force his brothers and sisters. The Thundercats his pets.

In a rare difference one day in 1988 he was taken to an amusement park for his birthday. His mother being too hung over to even get out of bed, it was just Rufus and his dad that day. And it was there in a land of roller coasters and videogames that he was taken. His father was getting them lunch and Rufus was over by the Star Wars machine playing a couple rounds when he heard some splashing at the lake over the park's fence. It sounded like someone was drowning!

Following what he learned from various morals and messages in his cartoons he acted without hesitation, jumping over the fence to try to help whoever was in danger. There was NO TIME to waste! He yelled quickly for anyone to get real help and dove right in to help whoever was in trouble.

When he got to the thrashing person he found it to be a preteen just like him. In fact once he got a good look at him, he saw it WAS HIM. With an evil grin this impostor tried to pull him under only to get a solid punch from Rufus. Those martial arts classes at the Y were paying off! It worked for Snake Eyes after all. Then from below something was pulling him under! He grabbed at his doppleganger and didn't let go. Deeper and deeper till all went black.

When his father heard the commotion and got over there he saw something bob to the surface, lifeless.

His only son. On his 12th birthday. Dead.

Rufus was then indoctrinated into his new world by Stefan. A world of hunts and violence and death. Yet Stefan was stern, not harsh, and took a firm liking to Rufus' spirit and attitude. He had seen so few people who actually were as idealistic as this boy was. Rufus for a time followed his instructions, and let the beast inside come out. Yet it was a noble beast, a white tiger. Yet even the most majestic animal has a side terrible to behold, a side of wrath. Whenever Rufus saw injustice this side came out. The results were usually fatal for someone.

On what would have been his 24th birthday Stefan let Rufus go. The day before Stefan had professed all his feelings towards Rufus. Feelings Rufus did not share or reciprocate. In fact in spite of the power and magic and adventures they had shared Rufus merely wanted to be in the real world with his family.

Hurt, Stefan told him to leave. But now the hunter would be the hunted. Like one of Rufus' favorite movies said "If they catch you, they will kill you".

But first they had to catch him. And Rufus said he would take out anyone who tried, even if he fell in the process. Even if he had to face Stefan himself. Optimus Prime didn't back down when Megatron fought him on Autobot City, and neither would Rufus!

Getting back to the real world Rufus tried to reconnect with his family. His mother blaming his father, had left him via a cheap pistol in her mouth. His father had spent the last decade working and when not working drinking trying to forget it all. Yet this man seemed so much like his boy it brought a little life back to him. He helped his son get back on his feet any way he could, using some of his drinking buddies to get Rufus fake ids and data so he could live like a normal person.

Yet Rufus could not stay. They would hunt him. Saying goodbye to his dad, he joined the Navy for a tour and travelled the world, keeping moving and as sailors so often do, never really staying in one place for too long. He took this time to learn as much as he could, and sent most of his pay home to his father, outside of what he needed for martial arts classes and basic necessities like clothes and Corn Pops.

Upon completing his tour in the Navy he started competing in various martial arts competitions both legal and illegal, winning enough to live out of a suitcase and help people in the towns he visited, like Bill Bixby did in the Hulk.

Then one day a friend of his, Eric Stewart (possibly my secondary character) introduced him to other runaways. He found notice of a meeting one summer night in Willimantic Connecticut.

And yet again, everything changed.

(Actual play begins here.)

The Summer King Sid was murdered! The Spring Queen turned up missing! People were thrown into the Hedge without their consent! Thrust into this sort of situation Rufus helped to take charge, worked with his fellow runaways and brought Sid's killer to justice, and revealed the reason the area was so safe in the past. People were being taken as sacrifices and taken back to those nightmarish lands.

Rufus was elected Summer King and is currently trying to come to grips to his new role as a commander of disparate people who are full of mistrust and doubt. Rufus will bring them together as brothers and sisters in arms, even if he has to die to do it.

His childhood heroes would do no less, and neither will he.

Saturday Changeling LARP Report: Rufus' War Journal

(Bold is Storyteller stuff, Italic is Rufus' journal entries, normal text is me out of game stuff.)

Last month the news of the Summer King's death hit the Lost of the area pretty hard. The Summer Court went out seeking vengeance for their monarch's murder. A trail of blood was left in their wake. In the void left by Sid's passing, another stepped forward to take the reins of leadership. Meanwhile, a newcomer to the city claims he was lured back into the Hedge by none other than the Spring Queen. He found his way back out again but says that something was chasing him in there. While the Lost sit stunned at the accusation, a self-proclaimed loyalist arrives asking where this year's tithe is. He claimed that a Lost was suppose to be left in the Hedge for him to take back and this deal is what kept the city safe. If someone didn't come with him, then there would be war. Refusing to sacrifice one of their own, the local Lost banded together in defiance of their former masters' henchman. War would be preferable to cowardly submission.



For so long I was a traveller, running on my own, or amongst people who were not escapees like myself. This summer I met others of my kind and together we fought against our former captors. I was honored with becoming the Summer King for my efforts, I was given the burden of command.

Luckily the regular LARP takes place during the day and not during worktime on the second Saturday of the month so I can attend, provided I don't mind missing some sleep! MagicDrew was gonna be able to make this one as well, and since it was only about a 20 minute trip and a 10 mile drive I figured I might as well give an actual game a go!

Upon reaching the meeting place in Willimantic for us, the Lost, I met one of the locals who wasn't at the August incident. She asked me if I was a local or a visitor, being a wanderer, I replied justly, having been searching the region for evidence of our foes. I was given a letter. This letter basically threatened those of us who fought so hard against our captors and the sacrifices they demanded. They said we were going to be attacked by the armies of the Fae and anyone supporting us would be harmed as in the crossfire. Others soon showed up, including two more women, and two men, one of which I had met before. A mirror visaged man who was eloquent in speech. While I don't exactly trust him, his council has been sound and wise so far. Damn politicians!

The Mirror visaged fellow was another guy at the Connecticon LARP. One of the female players was an NPC there, and the other two were both brand new folks to me. Apparently it was a pretty decent turn out. Hmm, maybe if I and MagicDrew help promote it a bit, we can get more folks to play? MagicDrew is utterly FEARLESS when it comes to actively promoting things. I tend to take the passive route. Because I am a wuss. And a pessimist.

We continued investigating the events and aftermath of the incident, trying to find out more about the previous Summer King, Sid, and the missing Spring Queen, April, who sent a good man into the hedge. Very little help from the Autumn Queen Maude was given, which made us suspect she is a part of this sacrifice for safety deal, or at the best, she could care less about us. Not that I exactly made myself friendly to her.

I sort of sent an EXTREMELY powerful NPC a cellphone message telling her to "DIE BITCH". That might not have been such a good idea...

With some investigating we found out that April was married and her husband has been worried for her. When heading back to our Freehold, I decided to walk back, just in case we were being followed. We did attract Enemy attention, but it was at the Freehold itself. The gateway to Hell, the Hedge opened up, surrounding the building. I ran towards the siege, hoping to break it off, or sacrifice myself dearly to the monstrous dogs that had been trying to get in. One came towards me and I fought it off, with great injury to myself, while quick thinking on the rest of the team's part kept them from any harm, and Maude surprisingly arrived for a moment and used some incredible magic power to eliminate or drive off the rest. As I said, she might not actually be our enemy. But no matter what I do not like her, and I doubt she would be fond of me. Helping your friends and defending the innocent on the front lines is more important than any power she seems obsessed with preparing for, leaving us to fight and die on our own! She says she isn't concerned till its her season to rule.

Rule? We of the court should not rule, we are officers, commanders, figureheads. The first to battle, and the last to leave.

While I am sort of posting a few things out of order above (we actually investigated someone else as well, but it was a dead end and this sounds more interesting!) its basically how things went. I dumbly split off from the group to check on a lead, but after a point gave up on it. I also was hoping that being on my own would draw our adversaries out in the open. Rufus is a lone wolf sort. He will command and do his best at it, but he prefers to lead by example as opposed to by command. Plus our Mirrorvisage is way better at the political and organization bits. Rufus is better on the front line. Which meant I don't think I was particularly good as a Summer King, unless being a massive meatshield counts as Kingly.

Plus my first time gaming with a new group, and with a game system and style I am not very familiar with. I didn't want to be a glory hog. I've always hated those players who try to make the whole damned game about them. Thus I felt more comfortable in being quiet more often (because I naturally have trouble being quiet anyhow.. I DO NOT SHUT UP EVER) and hopefully not making an ass of myself. If MagicDrew wasn't there I probably would have barely talked at all.

It also helped everyone was roleplaying really well (better than me really) and everyone had some great ideas. Sometimes I just sat and listened, and took some notes.

We went back to the scene of Sid's death looking for more answers which due to the Mirror's ghost speaking we found, and another teammate put her life at risk to set up a meeting with the criminal scum in the area. Sadly, when the Mirror morphed into a cop, the locals were.. not too pleased. Our car was damaged, but I fought off as many enemies as I could while they started up the car and pulled my heavily injured self along with them.

I would rather take the injury than the people under me. That's what the good guys do.

I'm seriously truncating what happened and not detailing what everyone did, but as in the game I am trying to avoid metagaming here. There were some cool things that happened that I wasn't a part of at all and quite a bit of time was spent just making decisions and figuring out what to do next. LARPs tend to involve more actual roleplay than your average sit down game which has combat and lots of game mechanics in there.

I was dumped off at the ER for some R&R while everyone else continued to find out what they could about the new criminal kingpin, The Scorpion. According to what they told me afterwards, he may be one of us, and he may have April locked up, doing horrible things to her on a regular basis! Even if she is a part of the plot to sacrifice us to the Enemy, nobody deserves that sort of torture and abuse! As soon as I am able we will mount an assault on this Scorpion.

Justice will be done, and we will be a united front against those who took us from our loved ones and our homes. I do not fear our enemies or my fate. Optimus Prime wouldn't back down from Megatron when he attacked Autobot City, and neither will I! Mine are the claws that slash through the darkness.

Even if the light shines for but a moment before I am silenced, I will do what is right.

Overall it was a pretty damn good game, even if we sort of went the kick ass route most of the time. Half the party being combat types, or at least having combat oriented personalities tends to cause havoc, even if much of our rage might be misplaced at the wrong people. As mentioned, I feel I didn't roleplay my best or do as well in my command position as I should have. Next session should be in the Autumn Court so I won't be in command anyhow and Rufus can kick ass for justice as he is wont to do.

Hopefully I didn't suck too bad, and hopefully I will get to know everyone and start remembering their names too. I'm thinking of the usual nicknames for the blog updates, but right now all I have is Snarkrabbit, Vodkasmash, Platformiz, Storymiz, and MirrorCauldron for them. I dunno. Its not grabbing me as of yet.

I guess I wasn't too awful as I was invited to stick around for the Vampire game happening later with MirrorCauldron running it, but being rather hungry, a bit tired, and the basic fact I wouldn't be able to do Vampire much at all in the long run, I declined. Plus not being all that familiar with that area of Norwich I wanted to follow MagicDrew out. If any of the LARP crew are reading I hope y'all had fun with the fangs and the vampirey nighty stuff!

Everyone seemed like a nice group of people and made my second LARP experience a pleasant one as well. Now I just need to join up in the Camarilla to be "Official" and whatnot before next game. And probably type up Rufus' backstory besides just leaving it in my head.

Thanks again for the great game Midnight Rose!

Wednesday Game Report

This week was another trip to Sarge's Comics for moving around wee toy soldiers and making pew pew noises. At least in a perfect world anyhow.

But I FINALLY got to play Warhammer Fantasy. 1500 points of Night Goblins vs 1500 points of Wood Elves. My poor Goblins, already afraid of nasty Elves and their pointy ears, (Except for Liv Tyler. She makes them feel funny...) had the absolute worst luck. They lost every combat. They failed every morale test. Their spells almost never actually worked. Outside of my Fanatics and the Rock Lobba doing some damage, my whole army basically did nothing and died horribly. When they weren't running the Hell away. It was a fun game, but a bad one for the little green blighters.

For a quick follow up game, we played a 1500 point game of AT-43. Therian vs Therian. I had my usual army, and my opponent had a 2 Storm Golem/2 Strider force. However, fitting Tiamat and the big strider in meant he had no Overseers (officers) in his forces other than Tiamat. I used my Tiamat as bait, and my Goliath squads and my Tiamat managed to take her out, giving me the win.

My playing and pimping helped one player grab the Warhammer Battle for Skull Pass set to go with some Orcs and Gobbos he already got a deal on, and its pushing Starfury who was there observing towards the Dark Elves who just got a new army book and some new models. (22 dollars MSRP for 5 Cold One Cavalry? THAT'S A GOOD DEAL.) I even bought a D&D miniature off of Starfury, cutting down what he owes me for the old car I sold him. I get a nifty Efreet model that looks like the pants wearing little brother of the one on the original AD&D Player's Handbook, and he effectively got his booster pack for half price!

I also grabbed the Operation Damocles campaign book for AT-43. I haven't had time to do much more than skim it, but its got some neat new special rules, the game errata, and a bunch of new scenarios to play.

Of course I now have Changeling the Lost thanks to a Borders 40% off coupon (and I personally blame Jess H, and the Connecticon Changeling LARPers for making me want to buy it. ITS ALL YOUR FAULT!), and a killer ebay deal for some 2nd edition AD&D books too. Quite a bit to read, and all of it purchased at a fine price.

And now with a Warhammer Fantasy player going Orc, I may finally put my Lizardmen together so I can play something different. The Warhammer talk is getting MagicDrew a bit more interested in getting his Vampire Counts all set up too.

I'm such a damned gaming instigator when I get the chance.

Now if only I could get dates this easy!

LARP and Me.

I really need to thank the players, storytellers, and NPC players for this year's Changeling game at Connecticon 08. It was so kicky rad I just had to say thank you once more. Time for a long but not massively detailed recap, and a bunch of me feeling utterly not worthy at the majesty of megafun you fine ladies and gentlemen provided for me Saturday night!

First off, why I didn't ever do LARP before this event:

1: It seems dorky. Yeah. Its kind of goofy running around in silly costumes in public doing silly things.

2: Possibly illegal. One of the first times I got asked to LARP it was with a group who mentioned they had to look out for cops as they run around graveyards and stuff.

3: Some WEEEIIRD PEOPLE MAN. Its unfair stereotyping, but it does cloud your opinions.

4: Conflict resolution is usually STUPID. Throwing beanbags at people? Rock Paper Scissors? Hitting each other with pool foam tubes? DUMB. Maybe if there was lightguns, airsoft, or paintball, but you can do those without having to yammer on with the prince of Muncie. I love putting my wee toy soldiers on a battle mat or my Heroscape scenery or whatever and having my wargames where RP breaks out.

5: Mostly gamestuff I don't like. I am sci fi and horror as my big nerd on things. Most LARPs are goth Anne Rice wonderlands or immersion breaking sword and sorcery games.

6: I work weekends and evenings. Yeah. It ruins what little social life my sorry butt could have to begin with, and even makes it hard to tabletop game.

Now this week, my opinion was changed thanks to my LARP friends convincing me to give the game a try. It was a Changeling game. What sold me to at least give it a shot was the conflict resolution. Your stats and skills plus a randomly picked playing card.

Ok, that's kind of neat. And I like playing card mechanics in RPGs. Its a nice change of pace from dice. Its how I ran All Flesh Must Be Eaten in a sit down game many moons ago.

We were allowed to make our own PCs if we wanted, so I made mine up the day before. I had a negative opinion of Changeling as well, but I went in at least willing to give it a shot. I made a version of one of my pet PCs I have used in such games as Castles & Crusades, Car Wars, and Warhammer 40K. I would have much rather played a Promethean as I am a total fanboy for that game, but it wasn't on offer.

Because nobody likes Promethean but me.

I make him up and tweak his concept for this setting. Being our characters are in a local place in a modern setting, no need for costumes or whatever which helps with immersion. Even if its just in a large conference room at a convention. Some folks have their cosplay either as their character, or from their impromptu dealer's room trips. Or just for the con itself.

It starts off with us being gathered at some meaningless social gathering. OH BOY.
Even my friends are giving me a look of "Oh no. Boring disaster in the making." But some folks are more outgoing than others and a little RP starts happening and we get into character a bit more and sort of at least familiarize ourselves with each other.

Then the Storyteller gets things moving with reports of one of our upper leaders being dead. We split off and go find things out. Still just in the same room, but I can visualize it well enough. The ST does a great job of RPing the NPCs and we move on. The RPing gets a bit more intense as we work on what to do next and how to do it. I become one of the three big movers and shakers getting things done. (We would later find out the guy who pretty much nominated myself and the other proactive leader type did so figuring we would all get taken out. ) We come up with a plan and start putting it into motion. It leads to a combat situation and we described what we were doing and BELIEVED IN THE HEART OF THE CARDS. Except unlike terrible anime, it didn't always work out as planned.

But even the failures lead to a TON of laughs. (The only other time there were so many big laughs this con was in a rather disastrous Warhammer 40K battle where one of the best close combat models in the game got taken out by the worst. Its a minis wargamer thing...)

We took care of our problems, and as RPGs and stories go, it was merely the first step to more fun havoc and mayhem. Which we as a group dealt with. And pretty much AS A GROUP. Nearly 20 people, most of whom had never met before and we worked as a team. (Even the guy who tried to orchestrate our doom ended up becoming one of the gang. Post game he apologized for going from an evil sort to more good to get things moving in a way he thought it should go, but I thought it was great myself.)

We had a KICK BUTT TIME, and I ended up chatting with people from the group off and on for the rest of the convention and because of it, got to meet and talk with tons of great folks. I tend to be a quiet lonely sort whose life is pretty much work, 1-2 days of nerd gaming in the afternoon, sit around at home and waste my life on videogames and the internet. I don't get to meet people who share similar interests as me and talk about stuff I care about. Because of the LARP I did, and I found the game itself really fun.

My experience was closer to a sit down RPG with 2-3 times as many people, light costuming, and more roleplaying with much less constant GM supervision.

I WANT TO DO IT AGAIN. ASAP.

And now I want to sort of develop a little LARP myself. It could make a fun Mecha game. Either hybrid it with rules light miniatures play for the robot combat (TOYS FOR EVERYONE! HUZZAH! ^_^ ), or just as the LARP I played in, describe the actions.
It would sure be a nifty way to get people who generally shy away from the glory of big stompy robots to play in a mecha game. Either way the rules light approach and more people actually ROLEPLAYING as opposed to Advanced Squad Leader with robots could be really neat. Its making my neurons fire with inspiration! I even have the perfect setting for this. SO CURSE YOU AWESOME LARP PEOPLE! SEE WHAT YOU HAVE DONE! (But its mecha, and like Promethean I am alone in my love for it so it would just be a mental workout as opposed to something I would expect to actually see USED. Even if it would be totally RIGHTEOUS. Seriously. Sci Fi Channel 11pm-midnight Mondays as of this writing. Gurren Lagann. Giant robot action is AWESOME.)

I really regret not taking pictures at the game. When I do my post con report on my blog (see below plug plug!) I will have a gaping hole in my pictorial commentary done up in a fun and easy to read comic book style. (If anyone else happened to take pics PLEASE SEND EM TO ME!)

But for yall that were there as this youtube link says:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayF1T_CdGro

Yep. If I ever have a chance, first round of the tasty beverage of everyone who played this year is on me!

As to my tiny amount of regular readers? My full con report will be started sometime this week.