Work Likes Me Not

Well, it had to happen sooner or later. I am back at work, slaving over a hot course outline. Teaching is not an easy job, and I don't think the profession would be well staffed if they reduced the holidays at all, but damn it's good to have a lengthy break over summer. I suspect that it is one of the motivating factors to enter (and stay in) the profession for many teachers. The year is so busy, and so much of your life is taken over by teaching, that you need the break away from it to recharge. So, another year of teaching commencing. It shall be interesting to see how it all goes. I shall say at this stage that I am quietly optimistic, and slightly worried. I know the two don't go together all that well, but there we have it. I think the teaching side of this year will go more smoothly (though I am teaching 3 new courses, so will have to spend a lot of time preparing materials). I think the management aspect will be fine once I've climbed onto the tiger's back. Must get back to work. Course outlines don't write themselves...

Heady Days of Summer

It's a very nice thing to be able to relax. Life has been filled with little and not-so-little stresses for what feels like a long time - end of year busyness, marking, Kapcon and the Kapcon LARP. The past week has been notably relaxed, as Debbie and I wind down from the stresses we'v e had. Yesterday was particularly unwindy, with a BBQ and hot tub and grand, fine company. I had thought that I needed to be back at school tomorrow, and that there was some work I'd need to go in and do today. However, after an early morning check of the school's website, I realised that I can take this whole week to prepare myself for the year, and don't actually see any students until maybe Wednesday or Thursday next week. Hence today is all relaxing too! Note to self: Spending more than 2 hours in a hot tub can lead to symptoms not unlike a hangover. 5 glasses of water over the course of the evening may not be enough to get back to normal hydration.

Getting Cultured

This has been a busy week on the Arts front, much less so on the Kapcon front. Well, apart from the frantic posting, checking blogs and NZRaG, and returning of keys and costumes. As Debbie has mentioned, we saw Memoirs of a Geisha and Beauty and the Beast. One was an exquisitely beautiful fairy tale, and the other was a stage show of a Disney film. Memoirs was very, very cool. Debbie pretty much covered this one, except to say that the audience was very gender balancy (quite the date movie from all appearances), with a slight bias towards female (several groups of women together). It was also the most asian audience I've spied at a Readings cinema so far. Beauty was good fun, especially Gaston. I tend to find that I get a little hot and fidgety during shows, so I did my best to control myself during this one. No item of clothing other than my jacket was removed, and I did my best not to bump anyone with random twitches or stretches. On the whole, most enjoyable. Now I will return to my Kapcon obsessing.

Tale as old as time

 I went and saw the stage show of Beauty and the Beast last night after consuming a large and satisfying Turkish meal (why do I always plan to be adventurous and try something new and then at the last minute go for the tried and true chicken eskendar?). Dinner was fun and filled with much Kapcon-fuelled enthusiastic banter with Matt, L and S. Overall, I would say I liked B & B rather than loved it. Partly I suspect it is because I adore the Disney cartoon so much and so many of the really funny or cute scenes could not be recreated (or weren't attempted) on the stage. Obviously, the inventor's horse couldn't easily be on the stage but I was still disappointed not to have the fantastic moment when he is considering the options of which path to take through the woods - the dark, creepy one that leads to the Beast's castle or the safe-looking and well-lit path. Obviously, the oblivious human insists on taking the dangerous path but the horse's expression at human craziness brilliantly captures equine attitudes towards being forced to do something scary "You want me to go THERE?! Why? Can't you see it's SCARY?!" Rather like Tango's expression when he is expected is go on a horse float. "What the…?! You want me to go in that dark box thing?! The wobbly stable? I don't think so. I'll walk thanks. Just give me directions, I'll meet you there. Don't really need transport. I'm rather good at walking myself, being a HORSE!!! Seriously, I don't need someone to carry my big butt all over the place unlike some people I could mention! . Sorry, that was personal. I didn't mean it. I'll walk, no wait, I'll gallop there. It'll be faster, I promise. Just don't make me go in the dark, wobbly box thing!!! ARRRGGHHH!" Or at least that is the inner monologue his expressions and snorting seem to suggest. Back to the Beauty and the Beast. Gaston was awesome and by far my favourite, although Lumiere was also very cool. They had added songs (none of which were as likeable as the original ones) and some lines of unnecessary dialogue. So a 90 minute movie became a 2 and 1/2 hour stage show without really adding much to either the characters or story. We did have a very cute little girl sitting near us. She was all dressed up in her princess outfit and was obviously a big fan of the movie. She will, I suspect, pursue a lucrative career as a critic in the future judging by her commentary during the show. She had the art of harsh but not inaccurate criticism ("But she's fat!" - when Belle first appeared on stage) and plot spoilers ("He's not really dead!" - the climatic scene when the Beast has been stabbed after fighting with Gaston). Some aspects that disappointed me were the lack of charm or romantic chemistry between the leads. Belle's voice sounded pre-recorded and I wouldn't be surprised to learn that she was an animatronic Belle that had been stolen from a Disneyland ride as she moved really stiffly and unnaturally. The Beast actor and make-up was good but I guess they can't make anyone as loveable and cute as the cartoon character. I was wanting to see the scene where they give The Beast a makeover before his big date with Belle and they didn't put him in curlers or anything. They just changed his jacket. And that's one of the funniest scenes in the movie!!! Also there were no wolves actually attacking Belle when he went out to rescue her in the woods. He flailed around a lot and then fell over but there were no wolves there - not even a chorus member in a grey leotard. Matt's theory is that he was performing a modern interpretative dance of the economic and political fluctuations in Germany in the early 20th century. Thus when Belle thanks him for saving her it was a metaphoric saving from her uncultured, provincial upbringing in which she had never been exposed to interpretive dance. The cuts on his hand that he also had in the following scene were due to scraping himself about some sharp branches when thrashing around to represent Hitler's dramatic rise to power. There were, however, some fantastically lovely moments. One of my favourites is when Lumiere is giving advice to the Beast on wooing Belle when she enters the room. Lumiere] (Whispering) Say something about her dress. Beast] (To Belle) It's pink.

Part 2 - Memoirs of a Geisha

 

We went and saw Memoirs of a Geisha last night - a movie I have been hanging out to see for a long time. I was pretty impressed. It was a beautifully shot film, with costumes and set both equally stunning. I was truly drawn into the emotional drama of the story. It had a strange sense of reality to it - the story was both a moving historical drama and also very much a fairytale. The film-makers cleverly realised that for this story there was no conflict between gritty historical reality and the heightened reality of a Cinderella tale. The world of the Geisha is so strange and built on mystery, beauty and artifice that Chiyo's story is both a historical drama and a fairytale. Hatsumomo is one of the more frightening villains - I found myself both intensely disliking her and getting really upset by some of the things she did but also understanding her motives and where she was coming from. Her cruelty seems more horrific because she is beautiful and cunning but also deeply sad and tragic. I realised when I was talking about the film with Matt on the way home that Talula's game system for Mean Girls could fairly effectively be used to run a game about Geisha in the Okiya - the sniping, backhanded compliments and petty cruelty that reaches levels of evil that would make Beelzebub shiver. I adore Ken Watanabe - in this film he is essentially a Japanese business version of Prince Charming but his character has depth and is very much taking his own journey and has his own choices to make and conflicts as well. He is a brilliant actor and very swoon-inducing when he is being lovely and kind yet enigmatic or brooding. Lovely, lovely film.

Superheroes and Geisha

 The title may sound like a bizarre concept for Matt's next SDC roleplaying game, but in fact I shall be talking about two things. One Kapcon related, the other not*. Part 1 - Superheroes Firstly, the fantastic Superhero game ran by Dale round 6 at Kapcon. The players were fantastic and well-cast in the roles of the Elite Superhero team. Talula as the most sensible** member of the team, Professor Eternity, her only mistake seemed to be her betrothal to the dim-witted Captain Hope which was justified on several ocassions after his intellect was less-than-superhuman by "he's very charming". Luke was the aforementioned Captain Hope who by his own explaination "brought hope to the hopeless." He had several unforgettable moments of ditziness which I later found out to be the result of an exhausted player rather than the insightful roleplaying I had thought. Early on Captain Hope was handed a briefing of emergencies and the GM starting talking at the same time. "Hold on!" he instructed the GM "I'm trying to read." The briefing was handed over to the Prof not long after. Later in a scene when the Secretary-General personally phoned Hope to plead for his assistance with rescuing his wife, Hope confusedly referred to him as 'General' for the whole conversation. Matt played their love child Danny who despite his mother's best efforts did take after his father and thus his grades weren't what they should be. Panda Pitt was playing, true to type, the bad-ass loner of the team called Salvo. In a bid to rescue the secretary-general's the team had their emotions altered by a shadowy supervillain, and several members of the team had been sobbing their heart out (Zia and Zero had become angered). After the carnage and explosions that occured in our attempts to rescue the wife and defeat the villain, many of the team were injured, bloody and several spandex outfits were ruined. When told he could clean himself up and remove the blood from his face, Salvo replied, "I'm more worried about the tears!" The much-missed Morgue played the Ground Zero was all the deep-voiced strength of a wrestler. He was Captain Hope's ever-loyal best friend. Unfortunately he exploded whenever he became angry - which meant when the shadowy villain made him enraged, he blew up. With us all in the lobby. After the debris had settled, Hope confronted Zero about endangering his family. What ensued was one of the most entertaining arguments ever to be held in a crater. Hope fired Zero as his best man and despite Professor jumping up and getting between them to calm them down, the inevitable happened. Ground Zero exploded. Again. Several police cars and ambulances were overturned but this time none of the Superhero team were hurt. Valiantly Zero offered his clothes to the others. "It's OK. I'm used to going in speedoes." However, the rest of the team rejected the proferred spandex. The traumatic argument had a bad effect on Danny and in the next encounter he pulled out a gun and shot wildly at the villains shouting Salvo catchphrase, not his father's. This made Hope realise he needed to be a fatherly rolemodel and prompted the touching reconciliation between Hope and Zero - "Zero, I was bad to you." I played Zia the Magnificant, a vain Vegas-style magician who due to unfortunate over-due tax debts had to make money on celebrity reality TV shows. When the team were transported into a alternate universe where they were supervillains, Zia was the one most able to adapt to the dark side. She teleported to a coffee shop and seeing the public's fearful reaction to her, demanded a orange-chocolate frapaccino. Then realising the full power she had recosidered. "No! Make that TWO orange-chocolate frapaccinos! And those muffins there..." Ah yes, the allure of the dark side was strong. However, Zia did return to the normal dimension with the team in a cunning invention made by the Professor, but she told the fruits (well, muffins) of her evil with her... I can't remeber nearly enough quotes or scenes from this game but I was lauhging until my sides hurt pretty often which is always good. * I'm trying to wean myself off my Kapcon obsession slowly. It is scary how the hours fly by when you lurk about the NZRAG site waiting for new posts to pounce on and blog-surf desperate for fresh comments and posts. ** Where most sensible = the only intelligent one.

More Kapcon

I have written an official post Kapcon report for the Kapcon blog. It pretty much says that Kapcon was awesome, and that we did all right financially (as in made the smallest possible profit). I have also been posting on nzrag.com, as have many other people. I really enjoy the post-Kapcon enthusiasm. It's one of the nicest things about the convention. Although I only played in one game at the con, it was quite possibly the best con game I've ever played in. Dale is a genius, and Debbie, Nick, Jenni, Luke and Morgue are brilliant roleplayers. I should also remember that I actually got to play in a total of 7 Kapcon games this year, through the wonders of playtesting. Ah, I am a lucky man. The past couple of days have been really interesting from a stress point of view. I have been, understandably, very relaxed and quite chuffed with my efforts over the weekend. I think it will be a while before I commit myself to a long term stress generator like the LARP again. It was actually fun to write, and I'm very pleased with the way it went (a lot of people have said very nice things about it, in person and on blogs and such), but it was weighing on me for the past few months. It's a lot of work for 3 people to do, and it is to Debbie and Svend's credit that we managed to get 60 characters written, all the props bought, and the actual running of the game fairly smooth. I am very grateful to both of them for all their hard work, and I am deeply impressed by how excellent Debbie's LARP was. I remember, back in the innocent days of March last year, when Debbie conceived of the idea for the LARP. She had a vision of how the game ought to be, and I think we managed to stay pretty true to that vision, doing even better than we'd expected in some ways, and the awesome players who brought the whole thing to life added a depth and variety that we are entirely grateful for. And now, a brief word about something that I thought went very well over the weekend - the announcements. I actually quite enjoyed doing all the greetings and in between round announcements, but probably my two stand-out moments as an organiser were the pre-LARP briefing and the prize ceremony. Before the LARP I gave what I would estimate to have been a semi-formal introduction to the LARP. As Sam commented, it had a bit of a story-time feel to it, with people sitting down in a big semi-circle listening to my rambling set-up. I think, despite being quite exhausted and having not a little anxiety about how the evening was actually going to go, I managed to do a pretty good job. I was pleased with the way it went. Svend's explanation of the name badges was hilarious and tone-setting, which was most impressive. Of course, Debbie was hard at work on set-up while we were lounging about soaking up the spotlight, something I feel was in some small way less than ideal. It is interesting to be one of the people ulitmately responisble for the LARP. Over the past 2 years Debbie and I had written many characters for LARPs, and had played NPCs, but were not really the ones who'd be blamed if everything went to custard. It certainly adds an element of stress. Of course, that also means that we're the ones who get to bask in all the praise now :) The other part of the weekend that was really enjoyable was the prizegiving. I liked explaining how we decided who got what prize, and being able to ask people to explain little stories or demonstrate the things they had done in a public setting. It was especially nice because the scores and prizes made sense, and I felt really happy to be able to award them. It's a really nice tradition, and I'm glad that I got to be a part of it. There was only one thing that I want to say more about today, and that's Debbie's amazing contribution to Kapcon. I got lots of spotlight time, and I enjoyed it, but there's no way in hell Kapcon would have been half as good, and there simply wouldn't have been a LARP, without Debbie. I invited her to take the spotlight for some of the con, but she very kindly said that I was doing a good job and that was fine. People have thanked both of us, and I've thanked Debbie personally, but I want to give her the mad props she deserves here. Debbie - you are amazing.

LARP Photos

 Robert was kind enough to take a whole bunch of photos of the Kapcon 15 Larp. Here are just a few of those awesome photos. Hopefully he'll make the rest of them available some time soon:

Post Kapcon Post

 Approximately 63 hours since the Kickoff of Kapcon (Drinks and social chatter at Southern Cross) on Friday night, I am still buzzing with Kapcon hype. So much in fact that I am actually posting on this blog*. I generally find that Kapcon is the most fun and simultaneously exhausting and invigorating gaming experience I have each year. It is the fountain of RPG enthusiasm for me. It keeps my passion for roleplaying fresh and renews my enthusiasm for some games and genres, and is also responsible for introducing me to brilliant new systems and types of gaming. Also the catching up with old friends, making new ones and reminding yourself again why you are lucky to be able to game with the range of talented people you do, is a pretty emotionally satisfying experience. With RPGing, as most other hobbies, you can fall into the trap of of thinking that it is becoming a bit stale or that you aren't as keen or inspired by your own personal gaming as you used to be. I know that now, as a person with a job and adult stuff to worry about, I'm only able to squeeze about one game a week into my regular life, as opposed to the 3 or 4 weekly games plus being able to eagerly jump into whatever one-offs and LARPs I could when I was a student. I'm very lucky with my regular group in that we all work together to cram as much quality roleplaying into the short amount of time we have each week and also that our GM(s) keep things fresh by changing games and systems. I think that we are very lucky to have an interest like Roleplaying, that has so many clever and creative people at the game design, GMing and player levels ensuring that each game you play is unique and you keep getting something new out of each experience - even after over 20 years of roleplaying. As I get older I find that books, movies, TV shows seldom surprise me. I generally am easy enough to entertain and enjoy and appreciate the storytelling or crafting but few strike me as original or unique. All too often they are formulaic and predictable. I virtually never have that experience at Kapcon. I am all too often blown away by the spontaeous, caffeine-fuelled quotes or actions of genius that flow from fellow players and the skills the GM have at pacing, setting up and crafting interesting stories in only 3 hours. It can also be amazing to see how well they allow players the freedom to go crazy and manage to get some pretty bizarre player actions to shape and enhance their stories rather than derail them. I guess what made this year's Kapcon different from the usual euphoric combination of "I love these people and RPGing" warm fuzzy feeling and the gluttonous orgy of gaming (and sugar), was being involved in the more stressful role of organiser rather than participant. I only played in one game, Dale's 6th round Superhero game (a game so awesome it requires its own separate post to do it justice). I feel a huge amount of relief now that it is over (especially the LARP because I was very stressed that it would, in spite of hundreds of hours of work, be a disaster, or people would be disappointed and people who spent hours and money on amazing costumes would lynch me - probably some kind of re-enactment of the KAPCON 13 LARP where I was disembowelled). Yet in spite of the stress, lack of sleep and tired blurry eyes making it difficult to read some handwriting and spreadsheets on the computer screen, I had an immense amount of fun. I am hugely amazed at how much fun it is to watch other people roleplay, hear war stories and read other people's accounts of games or nominations for funny or inspired moments. I thought the joy came from doing the roleplaying but now I know that it can be fantastically entertaining to simply see or hear about the roleplaying. The important thing is that the fun and the amazing experiences happened. It doesn't matter if you personally did them, or saw them, they are rich moments that should be shared and enjoyed by us all. I strongly encourage everyone who went to Kapcon to make the effort put their stories out there. Every moment that made you laugh, cry or drop your jaw in wonder/horror is worth sharing. That way we may all share in the joy and the legends of Kapcon 15 will be consolidated in the memories of everyone who went or read about it. * A fact that will be surprising to the many who have noted that my blog has of late** become an abandoned, cobweb-infested basement - barren and starting to reek of the musty odour of desolation. ** Ok, I admit it, it's probably over 3 months since my last post.

Kapcon Comment Number 1!

My first ever post on NZRrag.com Thanks to everyone who came to Kapcon, who ran games at Kapcon, who helped with the running and planning of Kapcon, and who was awesome at Kapcon. It was a great experience running the convention. There were a lot of awesome things, such as: Dale's Superhero Game - the only game I played in, in the final round. We had a stellar group (Luke, Jenni, Nick, Morgue, Debbie and Matt), it was an awesome 4 colour superhero game, and the character interaction was magic. Best moment for me? I was playing the super-powered son of the dim-witted Captain Hope and the brilliant Professor Eternity. I had moved so I was sitting between Luke and Jenni (the players), quite close, so I could roleplay with them the most. Then they had a fight in front of me. Being 7, I was quite traumatised, and my character slunk off to hang out with the pistol weilding bad boy Salvo and the Vegas Narcissist Zia the Magnificent. I moved my chair so I was sandwiched between Nick and Debbie, leaving a big space between the players who had just argued. I then decided to get back at my parents by emulating my father's foil, Salvo. At the climax of the game the 7 year old Daniel whipped out a police issue revolver, screamed out Salvo's catchphrase, and started shooting blindly at the villains. The reaction from my super-dad was fantastic, and it helped to push him into a reconciliation with his best man. There are many other fantastic moments from this brilliant game, but I'll let some other people comment on those. Prize Giving - it really is a very nice thing to be able to acknowledge some of the cool stuff that people have done during the con in a public setting. We had a lot of neat prizes this year, as Chaosium, SJG, the RPGA, Milsims and others had donated lots of goodies. and the last one for now, Stephen Hickey (Hix)'s comment at the end of day 1 Matt: "How was your first ever day at Kapcon?" Hix: "Great, I ran some great games, and I have some interesting ideas to work on for tomorrow. And there are really good people here." Really good people. That's why Kapcon is so awesome.

Getting Close!

Kapcon is just around the corner! It's starting to get quite exciting indeed. There are lots of little jobs that need to be done between now and Kapcon, but everything is on track and looking good. We have about 35 LARP characters assigned, somewhere close to 60 people preregistered (and about 25 of them prepaid), and we have 27 non-RPGA games so far, with Jon and Erik and Svend all having promised to run something, but not yet on the list. So, I am very well disposed towards the world in general. I have also convinced myself to run Kapcon for another year if the rest of the committee agrees, although I won't be involved with the LARP again for a while. Three years in a row is a pretty good stretch anyhow. One of the things that I'm intending to do this year is to build on the records I kept from the organising of this Kapcon, so that the next organiser has a pretty clear guide as to how it's been done in the past. I'm also looking at taking on an aprentice for K16, someone to train up to run K17. I have one or two people in mind for this, and will be approaching them during or shortly after Kapcon. Just to make sure I don't forget, here's a sample of some of the things that need to be done in the next 2 weeks: - print out game choice forms, scoring forms and nomination forms - maps of rooms for each floor - get RPGA room signs printed - arrange for coffee urn and hot water for tea etc. - buy some supplies for Kapcon cafe (same as last year - mostly drinks and nibbles) - pick up t-shirts - buy props for Kapcon LArp (wooden puzzle, brooch, 'diamond') - print out name tags - count number of plastic badges and buy extras if needed - purchase small lockable money box - LARP meeting on Wednesday - Write newspaper sheets for LARP background info - keep assigning LARP characters and sending out character sheets - collect keys for venue (probably a Scott job :) - set up rooms on Friday Feel free to comment with extra jobs that I've overlooked. I do have a list in my Kapcon big book of stuff, which I shall also check today. We are booked into the function room at Southern Cross / Zeboes, although they have redecorated and may no longer do such delicious food.