Dreamation recap: Games

Dreamation recap: Games

Thursday: Blue Collar: a game about stillness, integrity & masculinity. There's something really powerful here. I think the game needs a bit of a rework to emphasize it, but there's most definitely something here.

Friday: Chariots. Our facilitator didn't show due to a medical issue, so we created a larp about two space ships with different cultures meeting and then played it. For an instant designed larp, it worked. At one point, I looked around the table and was like "we need one person to facilitate us doing this. Jay Treat? You're it."

After the play through, we had ideas for what could have made it stronger. Still, not a bad way to spend a couple hours.

-- A perfectly normal dinner party. A hilarious larp about a perfectly normal dinner party at a perfectly normal human suburban house. This was the first-ever play, and I don't want to ruin it. Suffice it to say, it is a larp with secrets and win conditions, and it worked.

Friday, 2 pm: Bulldogs larp: I am pretty sure I am not the target demo for this larp, unfortunately. There's some cool shit here, but I think I would have had more fun on the other side of the table (ie, as an NPC or whatever).

Friday, 8 pm: Tribunal. I helped Eli Eaton run The Tribunal. We did this differently than I am used to, and it worked out. In this version:
-- Every few minutes, we'd call out one of them and ask questions. Sometimes nicely, sometimes with the lights off and a camera flashlight in their face. We offered deals for the "truth", and were generally evil fuckbags.
-- After a character went back to the group faking a limp after discussion with us, the characters stopped trusting us. To be clear: the players trusted the facilitators, but the characters did not trust the officers. Which, frankly? Good. But...
-- But, I want this game to emphasize how we oppress each other. That oppressive regimes rely on the oppressed to do most of the work.
-- Still, having one of the privates absolutely refuse to let me take a character out? That was fantastic, and I was entirely unsure what to do. The oppressed were joining together.
-- So, Eli had me remove the characters that were the glue. And let them fall apart.
-- Oh my gosh. The last two people were Mouse and Hawk. I was in charge of pulling people out, and intentionally left them together for a few minutes. I wasn't sure how this was going to go. Mouse stood up to Hawk! omg.
-- Poor mouse. Still, if anyone can handle it, it's Shawn Roske. As is good custom, when mouse joined everyone else in debrief, there was a round of applause.

Saturday: 9 am: Slept in a bit. Wound up in a playtest of a quasi-board game storytelling game about the creation of myths and epics. Most of the revisions we suggested have to do with presentation, not so much with gameplay. Granted, if you want good story gamers, we had two of the best: George Austin and Michael Miller., and the author of the dang game. That's a dream group.

Saturday: Night Witches at 2 o'clock. I ran one of four tables under Jason's overarching administration. I was a little late and everything seemed a little rushed, but:
-- Several of my PC's died. A couple from enemy action, two from suicide.
-- Polya (always my favorite) was flying, and needed to take harm. She had the option of how to divide up the five harm between herself and her navigator. Four harm is death. I gave the option to take no harm herself, and give it all to her navigator -- and to always know that her actions had intentionally caused the death of a soviet air woman.

She did that, of course. Her other consequence was to take a mark. The mark was to accept her destiny and death. We all ignored rolls after that to make sure Polya got back to base, where she received the Order of the Soviet Union. The most best medal a soviet air woman can receive.

After, she wandered alone to the forest and shot herself. She was found by her friend and maybe lover, who got help to bury her, was countermanded in doing so by a higher ranking official, took a mark, then walked off a cliff.

Both were later found by their CO, who requisitioned more people. This war ain't gonna win itself.

Saturday, 8 PM: A Pirate's Life. This is Jay Treat's larp about family and piracy. I've played this game at least twice, maybe three times, over the years. This run worked amazingly well. Jay's gotten rid of the parts that make the game super silly, and after a discussion on tone at the midpoint, the second half was serious. I liked the differentiation there, and it may be good to aim at. We all had a good cry. Not, like, a big ole blubbery the world is ending cry, just a standard I've got some tears in my face cry.

Sunday
-- omg, slept until ten meant to go to a ten o'clock game. I'm so sorry.

-- Larp sampler. Played "Now we're roomates", a game about figuring out a roomate contract between aliens and humans. Golden Cobra winner, possibly never before played. I feel like this game almost worked, and was a ridiculously neat premise.

Some of these games were pretty intense. I've taken the day off work, and am available to discuss and process for anyone who needs it / for myself.

I may post here more, as I remember stuff.