In a few hours Luke and I will be hitting the road for a few days rest and relaxation in Egmont Village. We plan on hiking on some of the trails at the base of Mt. Taranaki and exploring a part of New Zealand I've only been to once!

Whatever you and yours are doing for Christmas this year I hope you have a safe and happy day filled with lots of love and joy!

So from Luke and I, Merry Christmas to you all!

Sorry for the x-posting.

Anna and I are working to get a one-off public screening of Repo! The Genetic Opera in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. We'd love to give fans of the film a chance to dress up and watch the film with full audience participation.

We could use your help. All you need to do is join our Facebook group and ask your interested friends to join as well!

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=110980852294837

We'll be using the group to update interested parties about our progress and hopefully announce the screening details once we have confirmed venues.

Thanks so much!

(Trailer here if you haven't seen it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xETgGym8cnE )

Thinking of you all in Christchurch!!!!!!! Be safe and take care!!

An interesting TED talk.

http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world.html

I can apply a lot of what she's saying to roleplaying.

Sending much love to my fella through all available means. Happy birthday baby!

XoXoXo

Feeling maudlin tonight so I put on The Empire Strikes Back.

Yep, undoubtedly my favourite movie of all time ever. It's beautiful to look at, it's engaging, it's well-paced, the special effects are gorgeous to me ... and on and on.

There's no part of this film I don't like.

Given that Leigh Bracket was one of the screenwriters for this, and also served as the screenwriter for El Dorado, one of my favourite Westerns, I think I need to see more of the films she's credited working on. If not some of her books. Though she seems to write Sci Fi and that's not a genre I usually like.

But here I am, watching Empire Strikes Back for the 34th time.

The first in a series.

"Reach Out" by Eleven. Enjoy!

I'd like to encourage people to consider donating to help the earthquake relief efforts in Haiti. There are 10 different organisations listed on the following page in case you're looking for a place to start:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/3230192/Haiti-earthquake-relief-donations

I made a quick and easy payment by NZ bank transfer to the NZ Red Cross, so you don't even need a CC to donate.

First up, a big thanks to our GM for the night to come all the way down from Palmerston North to run this for us. Always appreciate you guys making the drive down here to do stuff. The level of costuming was good and there was some enjoyable RP happening.

I'm pretty apathetic about 'solve the mystery' games - as I've realised this year I haven't the interest nor patience in gathering clues and figuring out puzles. So I was delighted that my character really didn't care either and had some silly, easy to achieve goals. I was cast as Lady MacBeth and Bryn was cast as MacBeth - a good pairing as we play well off each other - though in his addle-pated state he kept making me laugh when I was supposed to be bitchy and cross.

My character had no special abilities, so save for one fun war of words I had no insight into the mechanics. It seems that amongst some there was some debate that lead to bad feelings/frustration but I had no real exposure to that myself. One point of feedback I have is that the plays and other material that were meant to be read aloud should have been printed in a larger font as people were struggling to read it.

One thing I'm really learning to appreciate is to dress a room as much as you can as it does make a big difference in setting the mood. I brought 4 bag-loads of my personal stuff to use as decorations and secured a CPR dummy to stand in for the body - and even though it was a half-assed attempt to make it look like William Shakespeare it was effective enough that I didn't want to be down in that end of the room very often. Ew. Corpse. Big ups to the other people who brought food and wine too. Having nibbles and drinks gives people stuff to do other than wander in a circle and float from person to person - and I had a good moment of paranoia when someone offered to fill my glass. There was a poisoner amongst us, you see. I opted to fill my own cup instead.

There was some fun RP and some fairly immersive moments and a lot of laughs with Bryn when we stole the 'new' play by William Shakespeare and added a few verses to proclaim us both innocent of the murders he'd done. I should have kept that paper as the lines we wrote were delightfully bad.

All in all I felt it a good bit of silly fun in typical parlour game fashion and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I'm sorry not everyone felt the same way. As I'm gearing up to co-write a larp it's good to learn what I can from people's bad experiences to try and address those issues before it happens. In this case it seems that making the mechanics known ahead of time to all players might have set some expectations before the game.

It's interesting to me how much the St. Wolfgang's experience has changed my expectation of short, one-off games. I think I see them more for what they are and as such am not as inclined to sweat the small stuff I might not enjoy or that might cause hiccups. Not that you can't have profound games in a short period of time, mind. I'm hanging out for Black Hart of Camelot and feel that's going to be pretty intense.

We have a special guest GM flying down from Auckland to bring her hugely popular larp "Masquerade on Fleet Street" to Wellington. Details as follows.

Masquerade on Fleet Street
A Gothic Melodrama

When: Saturday 20th March. Please arrive from 7pm for briefings and photos. There will be drinks and nibbles provided but have dinner before hand. The game starts at 8pm and expect to wrap around 11:30pm.

Where: First Floor, Turnbull House, 11 Bowen Street, Thorndon, Wellington.

About: London, 1900. It’s the turn of the century, and London is a city forging its name in these new times. Culture is flourishing at the new opera house which boasts rising stars and exotic performances, as well as stunning illusions. The journals are filled with news of a fair and just legal system, new advances in the field of medicine and psychiatry, human knowledge is advancing in leaps and bounds. And of course, there is all the upcoming excitement and matchmaking of the coming Season to look forward to!

Yet there are dark things afoot in London, and there is great public unease about a series of gruesome murders that have happened in the last month, a serial killer whom the police have been unable to catch. And recently, two notorious bandits have been holding the streets to ransom, and the wealthy no longer feel safe in their carriages at night.

As one of the opening events of the season, London’s pre-eminent judge, Rex Solomon, is throwing a coming of age ball for his beloved daughter Bella. Masquerade is the word of the night, and all the guests are expected to wear full face masks. All the best people have been invited, and it promises to be a night of glamorous mystery!

Masquerade on Fleet Street is a gothic melodrama inspired by Sweeney Todd. Passions run deep, and enmity deeper, loyalty is tested and revenge wrought bloodily. Amidst the swirling fabrics and dizzying lights of the masquerade, who can say whether a friend or foe lies behind the mask?

Characters: There are 40 characters for Masquerade on Fleet Street - 20 male, 20 female. Characters are assigned based on a questionnaire.

Costume: Formal ball-wear, period clothing is appreciated but not necessary. Everyone must wear a mask.

Cost: $12 for players. $10 for members of nzLARPS.

To RSVP: To register, please submit the following questionnaire to silver.owl at gmail dot com.

Questionnaire is after the cut:
( Read more... )