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vizi for the floor space, muchly convenient to the venue.
Friday
Made it to Welligton by lunchtime, according to schedule. Certain others who I was supposed to meet up with weren't so lucky, mechanical delays setting them back 6 hours. Visited Bizzy Bees bookstore, had lunch, found my way tovizi's, dropped my stuff then made my way down to the railway station to meet up with geolbt for dinner.
I've never been down Lambton Quay before (usually going in the other direction from usual accomodation). My conclusion is that Wellington has an incredibly loooong shopping district.
Spent a couple of hours catching up withgeolbt over chicken kebabburgers before acquiring some breakfast and pain relief supplies and hobbling back to vizi's. I knew it wasn't an opportune weekend for breaking in new shoes. Fortunately I had taken alternative footwear.
Saturday
Got to the venue in plenty of time, checked in, confirmed I had players for the first session.
Session 1 - Running Ace of Spades (7 players)
A very energetic game, with tokens flying. Started in a hospital in Bolivia, which had just been hit by a massive earthquake. Most of the characters were fairly normal, but I knew there was going to be trouble when Morgue decided to play a monkey escaped from a bioresearch institute :D After a fairly slow start things picked up as the missionaries's daughter (PC) was picked to be the bride of a volcano god by the resistance forces and the PCs made a break for it from the hospital. A few scenes later and the finale was held in a bioresearch facility entwined with an ancient temple to the volcano god, who had been summoned into the body of El Presidente (NPC). There was an EHP who also had an UZi, but never really got to use it :) And monkeys. Special forces monkeys, cultist monkeys, haxx0r monkeys. So many monkeys [holds head].
Ultimately three of the PCs had the spirits of gods liberated from them, and another player who's character had a) been revealed as a minion of the EHP and as a result b) pretty shot up, took over the volcano god. He managed to take his wife (PC) back by force, over her protestations that it wasn't the right time. Two of the other PCs were married by the monkey god (PC) and became his high priest/priestess.
QOTG - "Who would have thought that a god would be a premature ejaculator?!" Volcano god's bride to be/ex wife.
Apparently the game was so enjoyed that some of the players were recommending it and I was enjoined to make sure it was run again the next day. This made me feel good :D
Session 2 - Played in "The Kung Fu Game"
This was more a demonstration of the combat mechanics of the Fireborn system. Some novel concepts, but the game itself was fairly linear and suffered from GM distraction. I would have liked to see more of the non-combat mechanics.
My character was Princess Mei Lei, on her way to the winter palace along with several hand picked guards and pet talking tiger - Yum Yum (PC). We were all kickass martial artists ala teen anime, but I also got to intimidate the heck out of mooks.
Nearly died in the boss fight - he moved first and I was of course the target.
QOTG - "I lick his shoes off" Yum Yum intimidating a ninja we had captured for questioning
Session 3 - Played in "Octopus Rising"
A nice near-future supers game (M&M) where I had a electrotelepath (communicate with machines) with a few other electrical powers. A survey crew had gone missing in the bermuda triangle of the North Sea. They were important people.
We found a Nazi super-sub with a crew (led by WWII Nazi supers) which had recently come out of stasis deciphering the ruins of a hyperborean city. They were two hours away from unlocking the codes to the weapons bases on the moon.
Lightning generating swords and electrically loaded Frankenstien monsters can be quite the hazard to your own side when the opponent has some command of electricity :D
Actually we got pretty beat up early on and had to be much more cautious after that. But we did take out a Nazi she-vampire with a panzerfaust, and a mad scientist. And rescue the surviving survey crew, and activate the hyborian defences to deal with the sub.
The GM had done his research and knew his stuff. This was a very good game.
LARP
As per usual, I didn't actually play in the LARP but ran (limped) around with a camera. Surprisingly I was the only cameraperson this year, last year there were at least three. I was a bit more selective than usual - having forgotton to empty my card before leaving home and my first set of batteries dying almost immediately I wasn't sure how much of either I had left. However I made it all the way through, and with no real dud pics.
[Edit 29/1/05] All [/edit] of the photos are up here - http://pics.livejournal.com/marsden_online/gallery/0000r420 - a full set was given to the organisers the next day (thanks again to vizi for the loan of his cd burner) and I'll take further requests from anyone who was in the LARP for copies of any images they may appear in.
Later on Sunday I was given a box of chocolates in appreciation for the camerawork - this was completely unexpected and very flattering.
Sunday
Session 4 - Played in "Descent into the Pit" [?]
A group of variously flawed knights and myself as God's official witness (completely non-combatant character!) escorted the son of the Devil to the lake of fire to imprison him there in chains. Although as record keeper I actually took quite extensive notes I don't think I'm supposed to give out spoilers so I'll quote GMvizi:
Two of the ones who got out were in our group, and I was one of them. It was a close thing tho'.
Really enjoyed this game.
Session 5 - Ran Ace of Spades (7 players)
This was a less energetic session with somewhat more mystical weirdness. In summary one of the characters turned out to be a she-werewolf whose actions had resulted in the death of the pack Alpha. The others seemed fated to get caught up with her - especially after she declared herself outast in defiance of her brother and he declared them all members of her pack. Escaping via a castle/motel run by Morris Dancers (where the she-wolf seduced the minstrel PC thus making him "family"), to an island occupied by a mad scientist/inventor/jekyll-hyde (where they picked up a crystallised soul and one PC drank half a j/h potion), to the land of the dead (with the treasure of a thousand shipwrecks washed up above the high-tide mark and sudden activity from the soul crystal), to the demonic bathingstoke roundabout (where three of the PCs nearly got run over by a train), led by the gem to a crypt with a tomb for each of them, each with a place in the decoration where a gem would fit (and the ceiling supported by a statue of a demon (which spoke once but the PCs didn't figure out what caused it).
One PC ("Hunter") finally decided to put the gem in his place, and was welcomed home by the statue, and asked to choose who would go with him. Eventually everybody did, the amnesiac turned out ot be a Demon Lord, leader of several of the Legions of Hell, the minstrel was "Tainted one" (in refernce to both the potion and a running sideline about which sins had been accumulated), The pizza delivery boy was a celestial messenger - and had another delivery waiting to be made, the OD&D hedge wizard "graduated" and recieved a Staff of the Magi, the "Daughter of Fenris" got her name cleared and the black guy from the tenements got his first choice to chose a path.
Wrapped up bang on time.
QOTG: "But I'm too young for puppies!" recently 'claimed' minstrel
Session 6
Put Ace up again for session 6, but there weren't enough takers so sat out from playing (was hoping for a board game, but it didn't eventuate) and helped with clean up. It was a nice wind down.
Monday
Headed into town for breakfast and then caught the bus to the airport. No hitches getting back to Chch, the usual post-con exhaustion sinking in.
In Summary
A good weekend. I didn't have any real dud games either as player or GM, and I had my ego stoked in multiple ways. :D Unfortunately I didn't get to catch up with everyone I would have liked to as much as I would have liked, and at this stage of course I don't know if I'll make it next year, which was in the back of my mind more often than I would have liked.
I hope to see several of the Wgtn crowd down here for BoD. Hope to. :)
vizi for the floor space, muchly convenient to the venue.Friday
Made it to Welligton by lunchtime, according to schedule. Certain others who I was supposed to meet up with weren't so lucky, mechanical delays setting them back 6 hours. Visited Bizzy Bees bookstore, had lunch, found my way to
vizi's, dropped my stuff then made my way down to the railway station to meet up with geolbt for dinner.I've never been down Lambton Quay before (usually going in the other direction from usual accomodation). My conclusion is that Wellington has an incredibly loooong shopping district.
Spent a couple of hours catching up with
geolbt over chicken kebabburgers before acquiring some breakfast and pain relief supplies and hobbling back to vizi's. I knew it wasn't an opportune weekend for breaking in new shoes. Fortunately I had taken alternative footwear.Saturday
Got to the venue in plenty of time, checked in, confirmed I had players for the first session.
Session 1 - Running Ace of Spades (7 players)
A very energetic game, with tokens flying. Started in a hospital in Bolivia, which had just been hit by a massive earthquake. Most of the characters were fairly normal, but I knew there was going to be trouble when Morgue decided to play a monkey escaped from a bioresearch institute :D After a fairly slow start things picked up as the missionaries's daughter (PC) was picked to be the bride of a volcano god by the resistance forces and the PCs made a break for it from the hospital. A few scenes later and the finale was held in a bioresearch facility entwined with an ancient temple to the volcano god, who had been summoned into the body of El Presidente (NPC). There was an EHP who also had an UZi, but never really got to use it :) And monkeys. Special forces monkeys, cultist monkeys, haxx0r monkeys. So many monkeys [holds head].
Ultimately three of the PCs had the spirits of gods liberated from them, and another player who's character had a) been revealed as a minion of the EHP and as a result b) pretty shot up, took over the volcano god. He managed to take his wife (PC) back by force, over her protestations that it wasn't the right time. Two of the other PCs were married by the monkey god (PC) and became his high priest/priestess.
QOTG - "Who would have thought that a god would be a premature ejaculator?!" Volcano god's bride to be/ex wife.
Apparently the game was so enjoyed that some of the players were recommending it and I was enjoined to make sure it was run again the next day. This made me feel good :D
Session 2 - Played in "The Kung Fu Game"
This was more a demonstration of the combat mechanics of the Fireborn system. Some novel concepts, but the game itself was fairly linear and suffered from GM distraction. I would have liked to see more of the non-combat mechanics.
My character was Princess Mei Lei, on her way to the winter palace along with several hand picked guards and pet talking tiger - Yum Yum (PC). We were all kickass martial artists ala teen anime, but I also got to intimidate the heck out of mooks.
Nearly died in the boss fight - he moved first and I was of course the target.
QOTG - "I lick his shoes off" Yum Yum intimidating a ninja we had captured for questioning
Session 3 - Played in "Octopus Rising"
A nice near-future supers game (M&M) where I had a electrotelepath (communicate with machines) with a few other electrical powers. A survey crew had gone missing in the bermuda triangle of the North Sea. They were important people.
We found a Nazi super-sub with a crew (led by WWII Nazi supers) which had recently come out of stasis deciphering the ruins of a hyperborean city. They were two hours away from unlocking the codes to the weapons bases on the moon.
Lightning generating swords and electrically loaded Frankenstien monsters can be quite the hazard to your own side when the opponent has some command of electricity :D
Actually we got pretty beat up early on and had to be much more cautious after that. But we did take out a Nazi she-vampire with a panzerfaust, and a mad scientist. And rescue the surviving survey crew, and activate the hyborian defences to deal with the sub.
The GM had done his research and knew his stuff. This was a very good game.
LARP
As per usual, I didn't actually play in the LARP but ran (limped) around with a camera. Surprisingly I was the only cameraperson this year, last year there were at least three. I was a bit more selective than usual - having forgotton to empty my card before leaving home and my first set of batteries dying almost immediately I wasn't sure how much of either I had left. However I made it all the way through, and with no real dud pics.
[Edit 29/1/05] All [/edit] of the photos are up here - http://pics.livejournal.com/marsden_online/gallery/0000r420 - a full set was given to the organisers the next day (thanks again to vizi for the loan of his cd burner) and I'll take further requests from anyone who was in the LARP for copies of any images they may appear in.
Later on Sunday I was given a box of chocolates in appreciation for the camerawork - this was completely unexpected and very flattering.
Sunday
Session 4 - Played in "Descent into the Pit" [?]
A group of variously flawed knights and myself as God's official witness (completely non-combatant character!) escorted the son of the Devil to the lake of fire to imprison him there in chains. Although as record keeper I actually took quite extensive notes I don't think I'm supposed to give out spoilers so I'll quote GM
vizi:"I went to Kapcon this weekend. I ran my "Bottomless Pit" game three times, wherein a band of knights had to escort a prisoner to the lake of fire in Hell, overcoming internal treachery and such classical challenges as the river Archeron and an army of demons. Much to my surpise I picked up an award for best game run more than two times at the con, and scored a couple of Conan d20 books. Rough summary: Four knights went to heaven, three got out alive, and the rest deserved what they got."
Two of the ones who got out were in our group, and I was one of them. It was a close thing tho'.
Really enjoyed this game.
Session 5 - Ran Ace of Spades (7 players)
This was a less energetic session with somewhat more mystical weirdness. In summary one of the characters turned out to be a she-werewolf whose actions had resulted in the death of the pack Alpha. The others seemed fated to get caught up with her - especially after she declared herself outast in defiance of her brother and he declared them all members of her pack. Escaping via a castle/motel run by Morris Dancers (where the she-wolf seduced the minstrel PC thus making him "family"), to an island occupied by a mad scientist/inventor/jekyll-hyde (where they picked up a crystallised soul and one PC drank half a j/h potion), to the land of the dead (with the treasure of a thousand shipwrecks washed up above the high-tide mark and sudden activity from the soul crystal), to the demonic bathingstoke roundabout (where three of the PCs nearly got run over by a train), led by the gem to a crypt with a tomb for each of them, each with a place in the decoration where a gem would fit (and the ceiling supported by a statue of a demon (which spoke once but the PCs didn't figure out what caused it).
One PC ("Hunter") finally decided to put the gem in his place, and was welcomed home by the statue, and asked to choose who would go with him. Eventually everybody did, the amnesiac turned out ot be a Demon Lord, leader of several of the Legions of Hell, the minstrel was "Tainted one" (in refernce to both the potion and a running sideline about which sins had been accumulated), The pizza delivery boy was a celestial messenger - and had another delivery waiting to be made, the OD&D hedge wizard "graduated" and recieved a Staff of the Magi, the "Daughter of Fenris" got her name cleared and the black guy from the tenements got his first choice to chose a path.
Wrapped up bang on time.
QOTG: "But I'm too young for puppies!" recently 'claimed' minstrel
Session 6
Put Ace up again for session 6, but there weren't enough takers so sat out from playing (was hoping for a board game, but it didn't eventuate) and helped with clean up. It was a nice wind down.
Monday
Headed into town for breakfast and then caught the bus to the airport. No hitches getting back to Chch, the usual post-con exhaustion sinking in.
In Summary
A good weekend. I didn't have any real dud games either as player or GM, and I had my ego stoked in multiple ways. :D Unfortunately I didn't get to catch up with everyone I would have liked to as much as I would have liked, and at this stage of course I don't know if I'll make it next year, which was in the back of my mind more often than I would have liked.
I hope to see several of the Wgtn crowd down here for BoD. Hope to. :)
