Why me?

Chapter 1: In Which Our Protagonist Amuses Himself

2009-12-15T14:46:09Z

I have been writing LARPs for over 20 years now, but never have I written something so inexorably horrible.

I am currently working on Slash, the game of bad internet fanfic. To be true to form, the character sheets are being written as bad internet fanfic. Really bad internet fanfic. Deliberately bad. So bad as to come around the other side and be funny.

This is not as easy as it sounds.

In any case, I am quite pleased at the opening paragraph of the first character sheet. It is horrible. Also safe for work, a quality not quite shared by the rest of the document. Well, the game is called Slash, after all.

I share it with you now for all to enjoy. It contains no game spoilers.

Stardate 2258.3 . Personal log. Captain James T. Kirk.

We are currently en route to the sun. We have been given a special mission of deep significance to Starfleet Command. There was a historical anomaly of some significance that we have been asked to investigate. By slingshotting around the sun at the exact right speed, we should arrive at the correct time in the past to investigate this significant phenomenon. We should arrive back at the correct time and place early tomorrow morning, subjectively. I plan to take Mister Spock, Lieutenant Uhura, Scotty, and Bones with me to investigate. Hopefully, we shall not run into any trouble of any significance.

Counting Chickens

2009-12-14T18:31:51Z

Soooo. I was going to audition to be Officer Lockstock in a production of Urinetown next spring. There was a good chance I'd get it, too. It was with a group I've performed with before and they liked me.

But when I found out that it would conflict with Intercon and a cruise I'm taking with i.scrib for our 5th anniversary, I started to consider other options.

Specifically, Max Bialystock in The Producers. And as a bonus, I've convinced raging_apathy to audition with me. I cannot tell you how much we would rock as Bialystock and Bloom. I'm less likely to get that part since they don't know me, but you never know, right?

But they just announced the Urinetown auditions with a show schedule that does not conflict with Intercon or the cruise. So I'm going to audition for both plays (with the same song and everything).

So, what should I do if the unthinkable occurs and I'm offered both parts?

I'd rather play Lockstock than Bialystock, but Bialystock is for a more well known group. Also, people are more likely to see The Producers than Urinetown.
But I like the group that's doing Urinetown, too. They were good to work with on Seussical.
Obviously, working with raging_apathy trumps all. I wonder if I can get him to audition for Urinetown too.
I ...could... accept both parts since the shows aren't opposite each other, as long as the rehearsal schedules synced. But I feel that way lies madness.

What should I do?

(Yeah, I know I'm counting chickens before they're hatched, but I have a really good feeling about Urinetown).

WoOt!

2009-12-11T14:31:15Z

I've said it before and I'll say it again: best company EVAR!

Yesterday was our company's annual meeting and holiday party. At the end of the annual meeting, we all got 8GB iPod nanos engraved with the company's logo. Now I want to make it clear that the nano was already a better bonus than I had ever gotten from any other company I've worked for. I mean, I've gotten better from this company, but not any other.

For example, after the meeting, we all went to the Landsdowne Resort for the dinner, which was nice, and the holiday party, which was CASINO NIGHT! Now I did well last time we had casino night, and sat myself down at the poker table, where I spent the whole night. I had a big early loss to a maniac, but made it up and more later (from the same maniac, which was satisfying). I came in fifth overall -- apparently the blackjack table was paying out nicely that night too. This meant that there were still all of the "big" prizes available when it was my turn to pick.

I could have taken a portable DVD player, or a blue ray player, or a Kindle (they were very popular), but I chose the Garmin nuvi 255w (to replace the crappy gps that was stolen in September). Not a bad night's haul.

Best company EVAR.

Wow

2009-12-10T17:26:11Z

OK, so we've narrowed Lullaby of Broadway down to 63 characters, where it will stay. We have 49 players signed up, which means we have 14 open slots by my math. No problem.

Except, we already have more female players than we have available female characters. Problem.

We'll be cross casting in a big way next game.

Show List Finalized

2009-12-07T20:13:42Z

We have finalized the shows we will be drawing characters from for Lullaby of Broadway 3. The next step is getting the character count down to 60. It currently stands at 64. I may just leave it at 62 or 63 and then drop the unfilled characters and shunt their plots to other characters. It's what I did for the first episode and it worked fine.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

Camelot

Cinderella

Godspell

Into the Woods

Jesus Christ Superstar

Kismet

Man of La Mancha

Once on this Island

Once Upon a Mattress

Peter Pan

Pippin

Seussical the Musical

Spamalot

The Fantasticks

The Wiz

Wicked

Thanks

2009-12-02T21:06:36Z

Today I would personally like to thank Arthur Conan Doyle personified as Sherlock Holmes for helping me debug the code and making me look like a frickin' genius.

"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."

(I will not give further details; don't bother asking.)

The MEAN BEAT of the HARLEM VENGEANCE SEX RING

2009-11-30T14:24:02Z

I have been putting up these creative writing challenges on Board Game Geek where they challenge me to write a session report in a style of their choice.

The latest one is up here: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/4262918 I'm pretty proud of it actually.

The latest challenge list is up here: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/49031

Cutest "Gas Leak" Evar

2009-11-27T09:04:52Z

So, I suffer from insomnia. You can tell, because it's 3:56 AM now.

And when I have insomnia, I surf the web, or work on games or something.

So I was sitting in my office when I smell something funny. I walk to the foyer and think to myself, "that smells like a gas leak."

I wake up Laura and she comes into the foyer and smells it too. We go downstairs and observe that the heater is on. It obviously isn't a gas leak or the heater would have blown up the house by now.

We hear a sort of chirping noise from outside and look out front and Laura is the first one to see the skunk. It is on our front lawn and wanders up to the porch, and then to the driveway. Great.

The skunk makes another circle of the front yard and gets very close to the porch. They're kinda cute really when you see them up close. It wanders away and we don't see it again.

The smell is faint in the house so I open the front door to see how bad the front yard is. The worst possible news greets my nose. I beckon Laura to the door and she sniffs the clean, fresh air outside.

Yes, like any good horror story, the smell is coming from within our house.

We have houseguests. My brother's son and daughter and her boyfriend. They are sleeping in the basement and I crack open the basement door and yeah, it's worse down there.

We wake them up, just to make sure it's ok, and I discover the source of the smell is a door that leads to our front insulation. It's likely the skunk burrowed its way under our front porch and has been living in the insulation for some time. Something frightened it, and it let spray. In our house.

Hooray.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Happy Turkey Day

2009-11-25T17:46:19Z

Have a great Thanksgiving everyone...

All Gone?

2009-11-24T03:17:07Z

I just realized that I ran my pants through the wash with my thumb drive in the pocket. I'm going to wait overnight, but I may have lost everything after the last backup. That's mostly just notes for LoB 3, but also a couple of keen card/board games I was working on too.

Sigh.

Name That Tune

2009-11-20T15:18:08Z

It's been a while since we've done this, and I've since gotten a new mp3 player.

Here's the rules. I'll post the first lines of 15 songs. You guess the title and artist. 1 point for each. The winner gets the satisfaction of knowing their tunes. Using the internet to search lyrics is cheating.
Here are the lines:

~~1. I'm wearing my fur pajamas. I ride a hot potato.~~ tafkad
~~2. C'mon and wreck my car.~~ yunafonfabre
3. I have regrets. And most I can forget.* [Hint: by a local-to-Virginia band]
~~4. Yes New York, It's really us. Barnaby and Cornelius.~~ aerynne
5. [XXX] just as it's finishing being cool.* [Hint: by a band about as non-local to Virginia as possible. Frankly, only i_Scribble has a chance here and I don't think she reads my lj anymore].
~~6. Jenny came over and told me about Fred. He's such a hairy behemoth she said.~~ jadasc
~~7. Lift up your head. Wash off your mascara.~~ ladysprite
~~8. The girl works at the store, Sweet Jane Sinclaire.~~ yunafonfabre
9. Goodbye. Goodbye. [XXX] Every day I look across the office floor…
~~10. Old Godzilla was hopping around Tokyo city like a big playground~~ [Title by zrealm; artist by aries_walker]
~~11. I don't have a library card, but do you mind if I check you out.~~ jadasc
12. There's a rustle in the bushes… There's a tremble in the trees…* [Hint: From a musical]
13. It's all a game. You're not the same. Your famous name. The price of fame.* monster_girl
14. [XXX] Keep your bible off my balls. [title: tafkad]
15. All they ever smoke is tobacco in suburbia.* [Hint: It's an oldie]

Hints:
[XXX] is the song name removed from the lyrics.
Only three are from musicals. For those name the song title and the show.
Each song is from a different artist.
*are difficult and are worth double points.

Good luck!

Thanksgiving Prep

2009-11-19T15:21:11Z

I feel that I should post since it's been a while, but I don't have much of an update on my life. I'm holding off on releasing new things on the II site until next year. I'm working on a couple more games for The Game Crafter. I'm working on LoB 3, and Slash. But mostly, I'm just goofing off and being lazy. Admittedly, goofing off and being lazy involves watching DVDs for LoB 3, but it's lazy for me.

We're also cleaning house and preparing for Thanksgiving. My family will be coming to my place and we want a nice spread. We've ordered a terducken and the best ice cream in the world. They are both scheduled to arrive today. Hope we have the freezer space.

See, I have a real non-larp life, too. I just never post about it.

Wow

2009-10-30T13:56:36Z

In time for Halloween and hot on the heels of LoB 2, I present:

The Stupid Case Of DJ Jekyll and MC Hyde

One Week Later

2009-10-27T17:05:29Z

24 confirmed players. 17 registered. We're over 40. That's about 2/3rds full. Only a year to go. Wow!

Six Harvests

2009-10-26T13:56:35Z

So, I was challenged to write an Agricola session report in the style of a Coen Brothers' movie. ausir helped. dance_shiva helped like cats. i_scribble catered the event.

The final result is here: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/456043 Enjoy!

24 Hours Later

2009-10-21T15:24:53Z

16 players confirmed. An additional 12 registered. 28 players. Not bad for one day.

Lullaby of Broadway 3 now available for registration.

2009-10-20T15:56:46Z

Lullaby of Broadway Episode 3 is now open for registration.

To register, log in at: http://www.interactivitiesink.com/larps/broadway and select “Into the Woods” under the “Event Registration” heading on the right of the page.

Lullaby of Broadway: Into the Woods is the third and final episode in the Lullaby of Broadway trilogy. Join us as we explore the mystical, magical, mythological side of Broadway.

This may be your last chance to play in a big, full weekend, Mike Young production!

Our third episode, Into The Woods, will be held on the weekend of October 15-17, 2010 at the Hagerstown Hotel and Convention Center in Hagerstown, Maryland.

Play characters from such famous musicals as:
# A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
# Camelot
# Godspell
# Into the Woods
# Jesus Christ Superstar
# Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
# Once Upon a Mattress
# Man of La Mancha
# Peter Pan
# Pippin
# Spamalot
# The Fantasticks
# The Wiz
# Wicked

Note that the selection of musicals and characters has not been finalized and musicals may be added or dropped from the list above.

While everyone will have the opportunity to sing and dance and perform on stage, it isn't mandatory. But still, strap on your shoes, put on your costume, and get ready for a game that is sure to be a toe tapping good time!

How Much Does It Cost?

Lullaby of Broadway is using the most complex pricing scheme I have ever attempted in a LARP. The base cost for an episode of Lullaby of Broadway is $100. However, in a real sense, the base cost is really $50, which is a good price for a weekend long game. You have to do some work and earn Service Credits to get the good price.

I am hoping to increase player buy-in by introducing a set of Service Credits. By helping to create props and scenery, set, take down, or do other administrative and logistical tasks, you can save money on the game.

You can see a complete list of Service Credits at http://www.interactivitiesink.com/larps/broadway/servicecredits.pl More may be added as the situation warrants.

So, you are considered confirmed for Lullaby of Broadway once you pay the $50 down payment. The rest will be due at or before the game. We'll send a list of Service Credits earned and your balance before the game, and you can always check that information here at the database.

Official Refund Policy: You may have your $50 refunded at any time until character sheets have been written (most likely the middle of August, 2010). There will be no refunds of deposits once the character sheets have been written.

However, if you need to drop after character sheets have been written, you may get a refund for your character if you can find us a replacement player.

Child Policy (this also covers teenagers)

Into the Woods is child friendly, but we strongly urge parents to read the child policy before registering their children for the event.

• We are accepting children to the game, as players or as hangers on, on a case by case basis. We reserve the right to refuse entry to any children for any reason. We reserve this right for adults as well.

• We do not expect players to censor the behavior of their characters because there are children present. Parents should understand that there may be some mature plots and events in the game. Most likely, the game will end up PG, but we cannot guarantee the actions of our players, nor do we wish to censor them.

• Parents are responsible for their children at all times. Neither the GMs nor other players are responsible for your kids in any way, including their entertainment. Especially disruptive children will be asked to leave game space. This is true of especially disruptive adults as well.

• Certain characters in the game are traditionally played by children or early teens. We will make these characters available to child/early teen players; however, as a parent, you are responsible for your child. These characters are full game characters and we will not reduce the price for them, although children/early teens can earn Service Credit just like adults. As a parent, we ask that you determine that your child has sufficient maturity, attention span, and willingness to share the spotlight to play a full character before signing him or her up to play the game.

• Some child/early teen characters are traditionally played by adults (Peter Pan for example). These characters may be played by adults or children in the game. Adults will not be cast in these roles unless they specifically say they are willing to play alongside of children.

• We will also have minor hangers-on characters for children, such as the Mayor's children in Seussical the Musical. These characters will be available to children free of cost, but the parents would be expected to play the part of the characters responsible for the children.

• Parents are also welcome to bring their children to the game as non-players. Non-player children must be under the observation of their parents at all times. This is really for very young children who are not ready to even play small parts in the game.

• We will not have special activities or plots for children or early teenagers. Any child/early teen players would expect to join the game as full characters.

• You are responsible for your child's diet. We cannot prepare special meals for your child. (This assumes we are serving a meal at all, which we are not for Episode 3)

• Please do not breastfeed or change your child's diaper or in game space. The game is taking place at a hotel where there are ample locations outside of game space for those activities. Thanks!

The Truth

2009-10-15T20:38:16Z

Have you ever wondered what German LARPers think of us Americans?

Here you go (warning: rant audio not safe for work)

Creative Writing Project

2009-10-12T16:14:52Z

So, earlier this week, I challenged the denizens of Board Game Geek to choose a game and a literary style and I'd write a session report about it.

While the voting won't close until Saturday, the current clear winner is a completely nonexistent game called Poisson d'Avril, which they asked me to write in they style of "William S. Burroughs...or Hunter S. Thompson."

To stave off it being the actual winner, I wrote the session report this morning. You can read it here: You can't click here. This is bat country.

Help Me - A Zune Review

2009-10-09T14:54:22Z

So, I have recently obtained a zune 120. I want to thank everyone who donated money, music, or whatever toward it. It is very much appreciated and I really enjoy listening to it.

First a review:

The zune itself is very nice. It is small, sleek, and responsive. My old mp3 player didn't have video and it is nice to see a picture of the album cover when the song is playing. It even plays games, including Texas Hold-em.

The car adapter is ok. The problem is that the radio dial around here is overcrowded, so it is tough to find an unused radio station. Also, the fm transmitter isn't that powerful, so even though I've found the best spot for it in my car, I still get static every now and then. It's a trade off. My old adapter -- a cassette jobbie -- has fine musical quality, but it makes a horrible grinding noise.

On to the software. The software sucks rocks. By default, it tries to dump everything in you "My music" folder on your zune, whether you want it to or not. I have some things I've mixed for LARP in there that I don't want on my zune. I have a lot in My Music I don't want on my zune. By fiddling around with the setting, I was able to fix that, but there are other issues. The software only allows you to access the song by artist, album, or title. Not filename. So there is no way to say "I want all the files from this folder on my zune, but not these files" without right clicking on each file and selecting properties. Or by moving the latter directory out of my "my music" folder. But it can't be done by the zune software.

Further, you cannot move files to the zune outside of the software. Sure, there are registry tricks where you can see the zune like a hard drive, but you have to deliberately crash the zune software to use it like a hard drive. It sucks. I look forward to the day when hackers manage to get around this and provide a good, working software interface for the device.

Finally, you cannot select a file that is being synced to the zune and say "remove this from the zune." No, you have to go to an entirely different screen, find the damn file again -- and the songs on the zune are sorted differently than on the computer -- and then remove it.

I look forward to the interesting wrinkles that will occur when I connect my zune to my work computer today.

On the plus side, it has kinda forced me to organize my mp3 collection a bit. Next step is getting rid of duplicates and triplicates and organizing the files into a better structure in "my music." If the software lets me. I tried moving a folder yesterday and dammit if it didn't somehow find its way back after I synced the zune again. Sigh.

Now for the help. I have about 10MB worth of music on the zune, about 3500 songs. But I need more. I don't have a lot of money for the cause, and I don't particularly want to pirate, so I'm looking for good, free music. I have the complete Jonathan Coulton collection, and have been listening to a bit of Tom Smith lately, but I like all kinds of music. Expand my musical horizons. What would you suggest I listen to? Links are especially welcome.

For the record, I especially like songs with clever wordplay, with interesting structure or rhymes, and have an upbeat tempo. If the song has all three I'll probably like it. If it has 1 or 2, I may like it. Genre is irrelevant. Thanks!

LoB Wrapup

2009-10-06T13:41:48Z

LoB 2 went really well. They gave me a standing ovation. Then they gave me a 120MB zune. Wow. I have great friends. Thank you all so much!

The game wasn't perfect. I'd say that of the 77 players, a handful only had an ok time, and two went home early dissatisfied with the game. So, we'll say 90% success rate.

The overwhelming majority had an excellent time. I have little idea what really happened during the game as I was busy handling research requests, setting up scenes, and answering questions. But what I saw looked spectacular.

And you know it's a good sign when people start asking about the next episode.

My current plan is:
1. Clean my house. I have all sorts of relatives coming over for Thanksgiving and my house looks like I just ran a LARP for which my wife made three detailed puppets.
2. Get Hamlet up on TGC. I want a *real* game there.
3. Get the database ready. I want to do some tweaking before we...
4. Open the floodgates. Registration for Episode 3 will begin no later than the end of November.

Thanks to everyone who played. Here's a repost of the thanks list from the mailing list.

Thanks to…

Shane Amerman and Andrew Zorowitz – Sound tech.

Merry Peck – Behinds the Scenes, Scene Wrangling

Karl Musser – Floor GMing and General Help

Barb Jewell – Floor GMing and General Help

Gordon Olmstead-Dean – Scene/Cast Wrangling. Afterparty coordinator

Sue Lee – Continuity Checking

Laura Young – Props, set, and general support.

Andrew Zorowitz – Player Wrangling

Rita Flaherty –Running the Regatta. Prop and set creation.

Dan Gillespie – Backdrop creation.

Ginny Swann – Dead Dog coordinator.

Anna Bradley – Set/prop coordinator and creation.

John Corrado – Rock Band Coordinator.

Rebecca Corrado - General Assistance.

Lynn Anslow – General Assistance.

Julie Luxenberg – General Assistance

Carolyn Grodt - Playlist Collation

Mark Barker – Disk Jockey

Our cast of NPCs. Lynn Anslow, John Corrado, John Corradin, Abigail Hanley, Jim Husband, Amy Knoch, Robin Lee, David Lichtenstein, Celia Tite, and anyone who played an NPC for part of the game.

Anyone who came in at the last minute to play a character.

Anyone who helped with set or props or set up.

Anyone who helped with plotting: Shane Amerman, Dave Coleman, Kurt Dankmeyer, Rita Flaherty, Diana Gagliardi, Carolyn Grodt, Joshua Kronengold, Ben Llewellyn, Lisa Padol, Moira Parham, Del Schlosser, Jason Schneiderman, and anyone else.

Anyone who helped with writing or puzzle making: Ben Llewellyn, Carol Johnson, Merav Hoffman, Dave Coleman, Rebecca Corrado, especially Diana Gagliardi.

Anyone who helped with printing or stuffing: especially Dorothy Altmiller, Rebecca Corrado, Jim and Terilee Edwards Hewitt

Anyone who brought or lent props or set.

Thanks to all the players. Without you there would be no game.

LoB Musings

2009-09-30T20:29:33Z

So, as I approach the actual game day for Lullaby of Broadway, I am struck at just how much easier it is to run a simple weekend long adventure game than it is to run a full weekend theater game.

That isn't true; they both have their own stressers, but the big stresser for a theater style game is casting.

For games like Lullaby of Broadway, all of the action, per se, is in the interactions between the player characters. The players have all been given detailed character histories with an intertwining shared history, and things they want to accomplish over the weekend. And they accomplish these things by interacting with other player characters.

This means that even missing one of the 77 players can cause all sorts of ripples. Let's say that of that player, 20 other players have a plot involving that character to some degree. Now some might just need him for 5 minutes. Some might need him all game, as a rival, an ally, or even a suitor.

Those players have a diminished game, and the plots featuring that player are dropped or, if lucky, shunted elsewhere. But the ripples spread. Those 20 players might then pull on other players to fill their gap, but that upsets the equilibrium elsewhere. For example, X is not at the game, so Y doesn't have a rival. Instead Y focuses all her time on romancing Z. But Z was supposed to spend some time with A and B. But all of Z's time is filled with Y because X wasn't there, so A and B lose out a little bit even though they might have nothing to do with X. It's even worse if they lose Z and X.

Games are more interesting if they have a tightly knit history, but that just makes them more frustrating when players drop.

Now I don't have the drop headaches of LoB 1 where 15 people dropped the month before the game, and people are dropping for good reasons (family events, the horrible economy). And I'm finding replacements.

Finding replacements. Every minute I work on finding a replacement player is a minute I am *not* working to make the game better. I am -- at best -- running in place. Now at this point, it's all done except for a few more prop acquisitions and some small amount of printing, copying, and collating (the lyric book and credit reports). But even if I didn't have anything else to do -- and I would find something to do -- by adding to my stress you are reducing my efficiency as a runtime GM.

That's it! My rant has talked me into a solution. I have been relying on the players to take on some of the burden for this game anyway. What if when you drop the game YOU are responsible for finding a replacement? Obviously, this couldn't work for emergencies, but it might work for regular drops.

Do people think this is workable?

Thank You Sir, May I Have Another?

2009-09-24T14:14:00Z

This morning I went out to my car to discover the driver's side window smashed in and my (junky old) GPS and my (junky old) mp3 player missing.

The police said I was the 8th one in the area today.

Only one on my court though.

Sigh. I'll miss the mp3 player. It had a lot of weird shit that will be difficult to replace on it. It's been a while since I backed it up too.

But, y'know, I could do with a little less shit in my life right about now.

Contingencies

2009-09-23T01:48:34Z

This time last year I was bragging that LoB 1 had 209 contingency envelopes.

LoB2 has 218 and still counting.

Wow.

Little Know LARP Facts #27

2009-09-20T16:24:51Z

I am writing a quazi in-game note that includes the phrase "Cast Wrangler." The note should be in Spanish, so I go to Google Translate. According to Google, Cast Wrangler in Spanish is "Wrangler Pornostars."

While I somehow doubt it is the translation I'm looking for, it pleases me too much to try to change it.

So, come to LoB 2, if you want to see Gordon be the "Wrangler Pornostars."

...I need more sleep.