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I somehow got talked into going to ProCon, a small (c. 50) roleplaying convention hosted by Brown University's Fantasy Gaming Society, this weekend. As is starting to become a not-unpleasant habit for me, it was an adventure, full of poor planning and surprises, but generally turning out for the best.
This trip was quite reminiscent of my first trip to Arisia in some ways. I left my apartment a bit late, with incomplete directions to a place I'd never been, a bunch of clothes, a sleeping bag, some snackish food for the drive, an empty stomach (oops), and a sense of adventure. Fortunately, unlike that Arisia trip,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
emergent had done some work finding a place for me to sleep (at my friend Dana's house) on my behalf a few days in advance, so I knew I wouldn't have to deal with that aspect when I got there.
Trip pit was pleasant, a bit over three hours. The non-existence of one of the roads on my directions was only a minor inconvenience, as the Tourist Information place in Danbury, CT conveniently has directions to Providence which worked fairly nicely, and I was actually doing most of my travelling while the sun was out (how odd). Found Brown, found a place to park, realized I'd forgotten to write down which building the convention was in. Oops. Wandered around a bit and managed to find the student activities center, where people didn't know what I was talking about at all, but were able to point me to a public computer. Discovered I'd fortunately ended up just a couple buildings away from my destination.
I'm going to pause here for a word about ProCon. It consists of two large LARPs, one each evening, which have nothing scheduled against them, and a number of tabletop RPGs and a few other events, demos, open games, etc. scattered throughout the daytime. The LARPs are definitely the center-pieces of the convention, and, this year at least, both were largely pre-cast. I refer you back to my statement about when I made the decision to atttend. Attendance is 80-90% members of FGS, I believe there were three of us there who weren't members past or present.
I got there at about 7:45, only 45 minutes late for check-in for Congress of Vienna, Friday's LARP. Not too bad, and check-in was still going on. As I walked in the door and cast around the room foremergent, who was one of the co-GMs for the game, I heard the words, "His Majesty has arrived!" Emergent put the envelope for His Majesty, Frederick Augustus of Saxony in my hand, I spoke with him briefly, and ran out to grab my garment bag from my car, which had the closest thing I had to a reasonable costume for the part (and I find yet another LARP in which to wear my three-piece suit). The LARP was a lot of fun. I failed in my primary goal (prevent Saxony from being divided or annexed by Prussia), and succeeded in my secondary and tertiary goals (although the third was really a means to the first). From post-game discussions, all the cards in the deck were stacked against me, and I would have needed both to have identified the right people to whom to speak almost immediately, and engaged them in enough conversation to find out their misconceptions of me and correct them to have even begun to have had a chance. I need more practice at the whole political thing, I think. The Bonapartist plot gets less mention because, although I was in it, it didn't occupy nearly as much of my time except as a way of meeting people in interesting ways, but none were both able and willing to do anything significant to help me.
Post-game, managed to get emergent to point out one of Dana's housemates before the spill session, attended spill which was great (finding out about all the stuff I hadn't been aware of because it hadn't touched me), and caught a ride back to said house. Dana had waited up to make sure I made it (thanks and sorry, Dana), all was good, fell asleep relatively rapidly after making plans for heading over the next morning. A careful observer might note at this point that the only thing I've eaten thus far is whatever I failed to specify eating while in the car. To them I'll point out that I also had a few cups of juice during the LARP before it all ran out (there wasn't nearly enough to drink), and a couple of cookies.
Made it to the site around noon on Saturday, and got pulled into a tabletop game which was about to start, "Young Nubile Virgins Meet the Volcano of Doom" (Personally, I think "Nubile Young" has a better flow to it, but that's me), where I played a never-named virgin thrown into a volcano as a human sacrifice to appease the gods. As my character developed, he turned into something of a buff drugged-up rocker; it's a long story that I might be able to explain in person, but won't even begin to try in writing. The game was a lot of fun, totally living up to expectations.
After that, people were gathering to play "Heavy F.I.S.H.", apparently the third installment in a series of games, each a different RPG with the characters as fish, in Japan. This was a mecha game played with the rules from Sillhouette (a game I don't know at all), with a plot largely taken straight out of Neon Genesis Evangeleon. I played Sanma Kane, a completely useless waste of flesh (that was one of my skills, actually), who had a lot of nervous breakdowns, couldn't get any sleep, barely managed to pilot his F.I.S.H., locked up at critical moments, apologized all the time, and was generally useless except as a completely necessary plot device. The game was a lot of fun, most of us fell into character quite easily, the silliness quotient was high, and the result was highly quotable, with greats such as, "He's a fish, man!" and something like,"We shouldn't have DONE this to him!" "He's my son!"
Potluck dinner Saturday evening, at which I had a decent amount of food, which is good, because it's all I ate except a couple handfuls of grapes and a couple cups of juice during the LARP later that night. Had some good conversation, mostly about the games which had gone on that weekend, largely avoided the discussions of all the other games these people play that I know nothing about.
During dinner, the announcement was made that the GMs for that night's LARP were having printer trouble, and would be getting there in about an hour. An hour and a half later, it was announced that they were stuck in traffic, no E.T.A. I believe they finally arrived around 10pm. Much harried organization, a quick rules explanation, characters were handed out, and I got the great news, the GMs had made no plans whatsoever for the possibility of there being walk-ins. This for a convention LARP at a convention where there's nothing else to do but the LARP. My mind still reels at the very thought. I think there were five of us. A few got roles that had been abandoned by people who either hadn't been able to make the convention, or had chosen to leave rather than wait for the late start. After some consultation, they gave two of the possibly more major (or at least visible) NPCs to the remaining two of us, head of Hotel Security, and Hotel Manager. With my three-piece suit, I got the latter. Quick stats, a couple of abilities, no goals, and off I went into the game. I grabbed a copy of the cast list and jotted down the names and positions of the people I thought I ought to recognize by sight, and headed off into the game. I spent a good amount of time pacing around the hotel being visible. Had a couple of decent, albeit brief, conversations with guests. (Unfortunately, I didn't know if the GM staff had specific needs for things, so I had to make a bunch of stuff up, and I tended to err on the side of being inconclusive. "I'm not sure if we have any openings, but please feel free to leave a letter at the front desk for me to review sometime when we're not so busy." or "I'll be certain to pass your interest in investing in the hotel to the owners, and thank you for the compliment on how I do my job.") I guess it worked out tolerably, I don't really know how I came across, but I made the best of it. With about an hour to spare, the ST staff decided to shake things up by having me be possessed by one of the major forces in the world. With a * added to my nametag, a new set of stats and powers on top of the old, instructions to sow discord and destruction and attempt to get people to give up the things they cared about most, and a list of names of the magically aware people to whom I should definitely pay a visit, I left the security office. Obviously my role-playing opportunities picked up after this, and I felt like I rose to the occasion (although I'd love to hear a good critique of some of those scenes from anybody who interacted with me). Certainly, most of the people with whom I interacted handled the situation quite well, and I think I did a good job of driving each scene (as was my sense I should do as the more powerful person in the scene). After one, I decided to adopt Mr. Morden as something of a role-model, and opened each interview with a, "What do you want?", then attempting to steer the conversation toward my ability to "remove obstacles" for "the right price". Shockingly enough (*mgrin*) I'm quite good at increasing discord in a tricksterish fashion, especially if I have some power to back it up. Although people didn't end up literally killing one another, and most people turned down my offers for one reason or another, I felt it went pretty well, and I enjoyed it tremendously.
Skipped spill, went back, stayed up for hours talking to Dana, who had to miss most of the convention to work. Sleep at 6, didn't awake until Dana pointed out that it was 2 on his way out the door. Up, walked over.
Didn't catch any of Sunday's RPGs, but I did get in on the contact-juggling demo. After an hour or so, I think I was kind of getting the hang of it reasonably, although I think it's probably not the best thing for someone with a lot of tight tendons and oddly-put-together joints to be doing. That segued into a ballroom dance lesson, which caused me to think, as I do every Lunacon, that I'd really like to get back into dancing, as I picked up basic steps fairly quickly and did manage to reach the point where things started feeling right. Although it's possible I'm fooling myself and I was actually annoying to work with, I suppose...
Post dance, was vocally in favor of the suggestion made for a sushi dead dog (not referred to by that name, but that's what it was), and helped nudge events in that direction, especially since my food intake for the weekend had been, well, lacking. Greatly enjoyed winding down with a smaller group of good people, got the post-Vassar representation of the group to almost 1/3, and caused (if I understand what was said correctly) the conversational style to be one that's quite familiar to NSOers, but apparently a bit more innuendo-laden than is usual for the FGS crowd. Nudged people into agreeing to continue the dead dog over some games back at Dana's. Lost a game of Puerto Rico badly (I'm going to cop out and blame the presence of the expansion), showed off Dice Kwon Do a bit (If anybody wants more information about it, have them contact me), and then settled into a nice, comfortable conversation in which I spoke surprisingly little, which lasted until 3. Gave some people a ride home, started on my way, got home by 6:30, right around sunrise.
I fell asleep on the sofa without my lenses sometime between 7 and 8 this morning, and slept until about midnight. Oops.
All told, I'd have to say I had a really good weekend. I got to spend time with friends I see only infrequently, met a whole load of quite interesting people (who I hope to meet again in the future), and played a bunch of games.
My advice to people considering going to ProCon in the future: register for the LARPs early, and fill out any forms they might have to get a good character. Do so even if you're uncertain if you'll go, you'll probably be doing the GMs a favor by making them write an extra character. Advice to people GMing a ProCon LARP, write extra characters for walk-ins. Give them enough hooks into the plot to make them interesting, but design them so the plot can run without them. This way you'll be prepared if somebody like me shows up, and won't be hurt if it doesn't happen. My advice for ProCon: decide what you are, including who you want to be there, and how many of them you want. Once you know this, you will be able to determine how to make this happen.
This trip was quite reminiscent of my first trip to Arisia in some ways. I left my apartment a bit late, with incomplete directions to a place I'd never been, a bunch of clothes, a sleeping bag, some snackish food for the drive, an empty stomach (oops), and a sense of adventure. Fortunately, unlike that Arisia trip,
emergent had done some work finding a place for me to sleep (at my friend Dana's house) on my behalf a few days in advance, so I knew I wouldn't have to deal with that aspect when I got there.Trip pit was pleasant, a bit over three hours. The non-existence of one of the roads on my directions was only a minor inconvenience, as the Tourist Information place in Danbury, CT conveniently has directions to Providence which worked fairly nicely, and I was actually doing most of my travelling while the sun was out (how odd). Found Brown, found a place to park, realized I'd forgotten to write down which building the convention was in. Oops. Wandered around a bit and managed to find the student activities center, where people didn't know what I was talking about at all, but were able to point me to a public computer. Discovered I'd fortunately ended up just a couple buildings away from my destination.
I'm going to pause here for a word about ProCon. It consists of two large LARPs, one each evening, which have nothing scheduled against them, and a number of tabletop RPGs and a few other events, demos, open games, etc. scattered throughout the daytime. The LARPs are definitely the center-pieces of the convention, and, this year at least, both were largely pre-cast. I refer you back to my statement about when I made the decision to atttend. Attendance is 80-90% members of FGS, I believe there were three of us there who weren't members past or present.
I got there at about 7:45, only 45 minutes late for check-in for Congress of Vienna, Friday's LARP. Not too bad, and check-in was still going on. As I walked in the door and cast around the room for
emergent, who was one of the co-GMs for the game, I heard the words, "His Majesty has arrived!" Emergent put the envelope for His Majesty, Frederick Augustus of Saxony in my hand, I spoke with him briefly, and ran out to grab my garment bag from my car, which had the closest thing I had to a reasonable costume for the part (and I find yet another LARP in which to wear my three-piece suit). The LARP was a lot of fun. I failed in my primary goal (prevent Saxony from being divided or annexed by Prussia), and succeeded in my secondary and tertiary goals (although the third was really a means to the first). From post-game discussions, all the cards in the deck were stacked against me, and I would have needed both to have identified the right people to whom to speak almost immediately, and engaged them in enough conversation to find out their misconceptions of me and correct them to have even begun to have had a chance. I need more practice at the whole political thing, I think. The Bonapartist plot gets less mention because, although I was in it, it didn't occupy nearly as much of my time except as a way of meeting people in interesting ways, but none were both able and willing to do anything significant to help me.Post-game, managed to get emergent to point out one of Dana's housemates before the spill session, attended spill which was great (finding out about all the stuff I hadn't been aware of because it hadn't touched me), and caught a ride back to said house. Dana had waited up to make sure I made it (thanks and sorry, Dana), all was good, fell asleep relatively rapidly after making plans for heading over the next morning. A careful observer might note at this point that the only thing I've eaten thus far is whatever I failed to specify eating while in the car. To them I'll point out that I also had a few cups of juice during the LARP before it all ran out (there wasn't nearly enough to drink), and a couple of cookies.
Made it to the site around noon on Saturday, and got pulled into a tabletop game which was about to start, "Young Nubile Virgins Meet the Volcano of Doom" (Personally, I think "Nubile Young" has a better flow to it, but that's me), where I played a never-named virgin thrown into a volcano as a human sacrifice to appease the gods. As my character developed, he turned into something of a buff drugged-up rocker; it's a long story that I might be able to explain in person, but won't even begin to try in writing. The game was a lot of fun, totally living up to expectations.
After that, people were gathering to play "Heavy F.I.S.H.", apparently the third installment in a series of games, each a different RPG with the characters as fish, in Japan. This was a mecha game played with the rules from Sillhouette (a game I don't know at all), with a plot largely taken straight out of Neon Genesis Evangeleon. I played Sanma Kane, a completely useless waste of flesh (that was one of my skills, actually), who had a lot of nervous breakdowns, couldn't get any sleep, barely managed to pilot his F.I.S.H., locked up at critical moments, apologized all the time, and was generally useless except as a completely necessary plot device. The game was a lot of fun, most of us fell into character quite easily, the silliness quotient was high, and the result was highly quotable, with greats such as, "He's a fish, man!" and something like,"We shouldn't have DONE this to him!" "He's my son!"
Potluck dinner Saturday evening, at which I had a decent amount of food, which is good, because it's all I ate except a couple handfuls of grapes and a couple cups of juice during the LARP later that night. Had some good conversation, mostly about the games which had gone on that weekend, largely avoided the discussions of all the other games these people play that I know nothing about.
During dinner, the announcement was made that the GMs for that night's LARP were having printer trouble, and would be getting there in about an hour. An hour and a half later, it was announced that they were stuck in traffic, no E.T.A. I believe they finally arrived around 10pm. Much harried organization, a quick rules explanation, characters were handed out, and I got the great news, the GMs had made no plans whatsoever for the possibility of there being walk-ins. This for a convention LARP at a convention where there's nothing else to do but the LARP. My mind still reels at the very thought. I think there were five of us. A few got roles that had been abandoned by people who either hadn't been able to make the convention, or had chosen to leave rather than wait for the late start. After some consultation, they gave two of the possibly more major (or at least visible) NPCs to the remaining two of us, head of Hotel Security, and Hotel Manager. With my three-piece suit, I got the latter. Quick stats, a couple of abilities, no goals, and off I went into the game. I grabbed a copy of the cast list and jotted down the names and positions of the people I thought I ought to recognize by sight, and headed off into the game. I spent a good amount of time pacing around the hotel being visible. Had a couple of decent, albeit brief, conversations with guests. (Unfortunately, I didn't know if the GM staff had specific needs for things, so I had to make a bunch of stuff up, and I tended to err on the side of being inconclusive. "I'm not sure if we have any openings, but please feel free to leave a letter at the front desk for me to review sometime when we're not so busy." or "I'll be certain to pass your interest in investing in the hotel to the owners, and thank you for the compliment on how I do my job.") I guess it worked out tolerably, I don't really know how I came across, but I made the best of it. With about an hour to spare, the ST staff decided to shake things up by having me be possessed by one of the major forces in the world. With a * added to my nametag, a new set of stats and powers on top of the old, instructions to sow discord and destruction and attempt to get people to give up the things they cared about most, and a list of names of the magically aware people to whom I should definitely pay a visit, I left the security office. Obviously my role-playing opportunities picked up after this, and I felt like I rose to the occasion (although I'd love to hear a good critique of some of those scenes from anybody who interacted with me). Certainly, most of the people with whom I interacted handled the situation quite well, and I think I did a good job of driving each scene (as was my sense I should do as the more powerful person in the scene). After one, I decided to adopt Mr. Morden as something of a role-model, and opened each interview with a, "What do you want?", then attempting to steer the conversation toward my ability to "remove obstacles" for "the right price". Shockingly enough (*mgrin*) I'm quite good at increasing discord in a tricksterish fashion, especially if I have some power to back it up. Although people didn't end up literally killing one another, and most people turned down my offers for one reason or another, I felt it went pretty well, and I enjoyed it tremendously.
Skipped spill, went back, stayed up for hours talking to Dana, who had to miss most of the convention to work. Sleep at 6, didn't awake until Dana pointed out that it was 2 on his way out the door. Up, walked over.
Didn't catch any of Sunday's RPGs, but I did get in on the contact-juggling demo. After an hour or so, I think I was kind of getting the hang of it reasonably, although I think it's probably not the best thing for someone with a lot of tight tendons and oddly-put-together joints to be doing. That segued into a ballroom dance lesson, which caused me to think, as I do every Lunacon, that I'd really like to get back into dancing, as I picked up basic steps fairly quickly and did manage to reach the point where things started feeling right. Although it's possible I'm fooling myself and I was actually annoying to work with, I suppose...
Post dance, was vocally in favor of the suggestion made for a sushi dead dog (not referred to by that name, but that's what it was), and helped nudge events in that direction, especially since my food intake for the weekend had been, well, lacking. Greatly enjoyed winding down with a smaller group of good people, got the post-Vassar representation of the group to almost 1/3, and caused (if I understand what was said correctly) the conversational style to be one that's quite familiar to NSOers, but apparently a bit more innuendo-laden than is usual for the FGS crowd. Nudged people into agreeing to continue the dead dog over some games back at Dana's. Lost a game of Puerto Rico badly (I'm going to cop out and blame the presence of the expansion), showed off Dice Kwon Do a bit (If anybody wants more information about it, have them contact me), and then settled into a nice, comfortable conversation in which I spoke surprisingly little, which lasted until 3. Gave some people a ride home, started on my way, got home by 6:30, right around sunrise.
I fell asleep on the sofa without my lenses sometime between 7 and 8 this morning, and slept until about midnight. Oops.
All told, I'd have to say I had a really good weekend. I got to spend time with friends I see only infrequently, met a whole load of quite interesting people (who I hope to meet again in the future), and played a bunch of games.
My advice to people considering going to ProCon in the future: register for the LARPs early, and fill out any forms they might have to get a good character. Do so even if you're uncertain if you'll go, you'll probably be doing the GMs a favor by making them write an extra character. Advice to people GMing a ProCon LARP, write extra characters for walk-ins. Give them enough hooks into the plot to make them interesting, but design them so the plot can run without them. This way you'll be prepared if somebody like me shows up, and won't be hurt if it doesn't happen. My advice for ProCon: decide what you are, including who you want to be there, and how many of them you want. Once you know this, you will be able to determine how to make this happen.
