Optimally different!

HEY! Are you going to INTERCON? Would you like to help ME survive INTERCON? Come volunteer at Consuite! The work will be easy! I'll mostly just need people to help bring food out prior to mealtimes and keep snacks stocked in between.

So if you'll be at the con and have some time to sign up for one of those lovely Consuite slots over on the right of the games grid...

http://www.interactiveliterature.org/N/Schedule.php

...then that'd be real swell! :) If you need to arrive a bit late or leave a bit early on account of a game, that's fine too, just let me know.

And yes, if you didn't know, I'm in charge of food at Intercon this year. So add "mitigating the fears of my friends" to your list of motivations and volunteer now! :D

(feel free to share/forward/cajole/whatever)

In case you care and haven't heard, signups for games at Intercon, one of the biggest theater-style LARP cons in the country, start on 11/3. There are a lot of great looking games on the schedule, running throughout the weekend.

If you're interested in checking it out, but haven't done Intercon before, be aware that the signups work in such a way that it's best to be proactive. At 7pm on 11/3, everyone who is registered for the con will get to sign up for one game. This is to ensure that everyone gets a fair shot at their top choice, but also means that popular games fill up *fast*. On 11/10, everyone gets to sign up for a second game, and then on 11/17, everyone gets to sign up for as many games as they want.
R
Intercon is a great opportunity to meet players, writers and GMs from all over the world, and to play in a wide range of games. It's definitely one of my favorite cons of the year. If you've never gone, but you're curious about LARP, it's a good way to dive in!

Every year I look forward to Intercon, and every year it proves to be totally worth the wait. The intersection of geek and theater is definitely where I fit, and spending the weekend with so many of my favorite people is always magical. One of my favorite parts is the beginning, when people are first showing up, and it seems like everyone who walks around the corner is someone I know and like, and who knows and likes me. There are the locals, the college groups from Worcester and NY, contingents from Chicago and Madison, the trio of fabulous psychos from Florida (who I learned this year are no longer all from Florida, but still get together each year at the con), the hardcore folks from England, whom I've gotten to know better over the past year, and this year a new contingent from California, who were all really good and a lot of fun. It turns out they're running an Intercon-like con in SoCal this year, and boy am I tempted to go. Then again, the Brits have been hawking their annual convention, too, and... hmm. I'm going to stop thinking about this before I do something impulsive. ;)

In short, I had a great time. Played in a lot of games that were experimental and/or new styles for me, though the highlight of the con for me games-wise was Diamond Geezers, a relatively traditional but very solid game the Brits had brought with them. Think the LARP equivalent of caper comedies like Snatch, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, etc: lots of banter in terrible east-london accents, gratuitous cursing and brandishing of firearms. I had a blast both because the game is really good (bought a copy and may run it at some point-especially as it strikes me as a great game for new players), and because almost every member of my household saw the description, drooled a bit, and jumped on it, so I got to play with my housies, which was fantastic. We made the gm laugh so hard she spilled her coffee, and zapf and aeries_walker (not a housie, but still fantastic) had me on the floor with one of the best spontaneous comic schticks I've ever seen in a game. Good stuff. Also, I love playing stupid characters. :)

But even without that, Intercon can't be anything but an awesome experience for me, because you just can't get that many of my favorite people in the world in one place and expect me to not have a ball.

Anyway, got home this evening with enough time for a nap before going to Evil Dead rehearsal (heard our Linda and Cheryl for the first time, and they are both great!!), and now I'm off to bed for reals, as I've got a crazy-big week ahead of me at work. I'm actually a bit worried about my cope-levels for next week, since I'm going to be under-slept (though not as much as I could have been), and dealing with both workstress and coming down from the con-high. Wish me luck! ;)

For those who aren't registered for Intercon or don't check their email, signups for Intercon J begin Wednesday at 3pm 7pm Eastern!. Expect the more popular games to fill up very quickly thereafter. More info at the website, including the detailed list of game descriptions and schedule of what's running when.

If you're in New England and interested in LARP, it's a great way to try out a bunch of games with a bunch of very fun people!

Ok, I guess there's no denying it anymore: I really, really like LARPing. Intercon was an absolute blast. Five four-hour LARPs, one of which was a musical and none of which involved vampires. Well, one of them had a vampire... and we ended up voting him king of the universe, but that's different.

I really hadn't realized how much I missed acting, or how perfectly the "theater style" (prewritten characters, mechanics-light, roleplay-heavy) LARPs met my need for it. I really am a character actor at heart. The more over-the-top the character is the more fun I have with it and over the course of last weekend, I got to play:

• A senile ex Spaghetti Western star
  
• A homicidal, shapeshifting alien going incognito (my first bad guy!)
  
• A flamboyant toreador/duelist named Don Gilberto De Ordonez aka "The Golden Pants"
  
• The King of the Goblins (no relation to David Bowie)
  
• The White King in a game that involved characters from Alice in Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass and The Matrix.
  

I loved the challenge of coming up with a distinct voice and attitude for each of the characters, even though the voice I used for the Goblin King has left it completely thrashed for the upcoming week of teaching (it involved a great deal of high-pitched shrieking). Going into Intercon I was most worried about whether I'd be able to think on my feet well enough to do a good job with the roles I'd been given, but the community there is fantastic and I got a lot of really great, supportive compliments.

I think the role that got noticed the most was Don Gilberto. This was because

a) He was in the musical LARP and those of you who have heard me sing know that I don't sing softly
b) He had Golden. Pants. (thanks to the wonderfully wonderful penguinkraft who crafted (krafted?) them for me)!

I only got two of my five-or-so songs out over the course of the game, but one of the ones I did get out went:

My pants mean something special
Oh yes they do!
My pants mean many things
to me and you.
My pants can make you happy
when you feel blue
Touch my pants and you'll feel special too!

I am called the Golden Pants
so brave and bold!
My pants are very special.
In my pants you will find solid gold!

Sadly, it was not successful in wooing the woman I sang it to. Well, not too sadly I guess as she turned out to be Gilberto's younger sister in disguise. Whoops.

The Wonderland game was an especially great way to finish off the weekend as I got to just be completely mad for a few hours (having a character with an excuse to sit on the comfiest chair in the room all game also helped). I spent the better part of my time trying to get the Lion and the Unicorn to fight for my amusement. At one point this involved giving the Unicorn a flamingo from the croquet match when she'd lost her sword. =:) Oh, that and trying to get someone to steal the looking glass for me so that the white queen and I could use it to "reflect the blast" should an explosion happen nearby.

So yeah, anyway. Intercon good. I'm already signed up for next year's and, after looking at the list of games I already can't wait. I mean, one's described as "Star Trek meet Gilbert and Sullivan". Teh rock!