Finding The Path To Sigil

Here's the latest skill challenge in Mac's campaign. I am always impressed at the creativity of my DM and all my fellow PCs - and now you can be, too!

Professor Finchley and Erek the Mage await you all in the library of Brilidien. Finchley speaks.

"Adventurers! It is a great task you have taken upon yourselves. Your journeys to find the answers you seek will lie far beyond this world, to the Center of the Universe itself.

"I can give you this starting advice; I have tended this library for many, many decades, and there is only one scrap of information here from which to start your research. The race of Ettin are two-headed giants, typically enormously stupid. A long time ago, one was born of surpassing brilliance. The two heads were smart enough to plot against each other, and one night, while one head slept, the other cast a ritual to try and draw magic from the Abyss. The energy he unleashed blasted the head off his shoulder, and the backlash drove the other head mad. He lived for one month, during which time he spoke in riddles. An eladrin mage contained him, and wrote down all he said; much of it has been proven true, and all of it pertains to the Abyss. Ours is a small kingdom, very much rooted to this world, and our library's knowledge of the other planes will not be extensive. The one page I have, copied from that mage's notes, is your best bet."

He holds up a piece of paper, burned around the edges, trapped between panes of glass.

"Not much directly relates to you, but this might help; 'To retrieve that which the Abyss has taken from you, you must travel to Sigil, City of Doors, and find the Rule-of-Three'. Not much to go on, I know. But it is one clear destination.

"Our services are at your disposal. We will each do whatever we can to help you find your way across the planes to Sigil."

Encounters 10.1 - Peanut Butter Jelly Time!

First combat session of Encounters, hooray! As I mentioned before, the adventurers this season had to choose a faction - House Melarn, House Xorlarrin, or the Bregan D’aerthe mercenary company. I noticed that most people wanted to be part of the mercenary company, and I wonder if that is because they think it will give them the most freedom of choice later on. I really hope that the three affiliations are balanced... mostly because I chose House Melarn!

Ostensibly,  the three factions are united in their quest to help the evil goddess Lolth take over as goddess of all magic. To do this, Lolth has commanded her followers to drain magic items of their power and turn over the raw energy to her. Recently, a shrine to primordial magic was found and a group of drow were sent to harvest it. Apparently they failed, as they have not been seen or heard from since. The leaders of our various factions have commanded us, as a group, to search out the shrine and finish the task. Nothing can go wrong with this plan!

After these general instructions were given, each leader pulled the members of their faction aside for a private chat. I don't want to say much more, but I could see how my instructions could potentially set up an interesting conflict. But, wait! I've said too much...

We proceed into the cave (Cave, cave, of course, a cave! Freakin' Underdark) and are almost immediately set upon by an Ocher Jelly and half a dozen spindly-legged minions. Being a paladin, I charged right into battle, trying to subject as many people as possible to my Defenders Aura (enemies standing next to me get punished for attacking my allies). I ended up dropping a Cloud of Darkness, and I immediately hated myself for it.

We beat the baddies in this session pretty handily, and rescued the previous drow party. They informed us that one of their priestesses had betrayed them, and that was the only reason they were defeated by Jelly & Co. Riiiiiiight. I have to say, it's fun role playing a drow character. For example, here's how the exchange between me and the rescued drow NPC went:

Me: Is his house higher or lower in rank than mine?
Mac: Lower.
Me: Akneth says, "We've come to complete the mission at which you failed, pathetic scum!"
Mac: Wait... Actually, he's higher.
Me: Okay, in that case she says, "With respect, we are here to rescue you and continue your glorious task in the service of Lolth."

Next Time: On the trail of the rogue priestess! But I will be out of town, so check out Dungeon's Master for updates.

D&D Trouble in Brilidien

At the end of our successful skill challenge, we got 5 temp hp for the first battle as well as some acid damage dealing range weapons from the lizardfolk. Awesome! I wrote this for Kismet's reunion with his adventuring party:

Kismet has used his influence at the turnip festival to obtain horses for him and his entourage. Just as they approach the final stretch of road towards Brilidien, he sees a familiar figure astride a enormous dragonfly. Spurring his horse into a gallop, he calls out, "Stumbleduck!" She looks around and, with a huge grin on her face, turns Glitterstitch to fly directly at him. At the last possible moment, when it seems a collision is inevitable, she disperses Glitterstitch and leaps into her bestie's arms. Kismet manages to stay in the saddle, but only barely, and the two laugh their fool heads off. In other words, EPIC HUG ATTACK!

Once they have recovered, Kismet explains that his mother Celle has sent him a letter urging him to come home. Stumbleduck tells him she has received a similar missive from her former master. Kismet dismounts to exchanges a less exuberant but no less sincere handshake with Valna. Stumbleduck then introduces Kismet to Heian, Travok, and Bishop. Something flashes in his eyes when he greets the dragonborn, but his smile never waivers.

Turtle Power!

A side benefit of hanging out at your Friendly Local Game Shop is that you make friends with some of the cool people who work there. My friends Esther and Judy from Labyrinth are awesome! Last weekend, the three of us went out with a meetup.com group to a new "barcade" (bar + arcade) that just opened up, Atlas Arcade. It was rumored that they had the old-school Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game, so we honored everyone's favorite heroes on the half-shell by meeting up for pizza first.

I had the Farmer's Daughter at H & Pizza...
if you know what I mean!

I love the idea of Atlas Arcade, since it combines two of my favorite things - booze and nostalgia. Unfortunately, everyone else on the planet likes these things too. When we got there around 9:30 on a Saturday, the place was busy. There was still some room to move around, but the people playing pool kept having to ask people to move out of the way of their cues. Little by little, however, people started filing in and soon there wasn't enough elbow room to play half of the games (which were all crammed together along one wall). By the time we left around 11pm, the place was PACKED - we had to basically nudge and shove our way out the door. 

Eventually, I just broke out my nun-chucks. Kidding!

I can see Atlas Arcade as a cool place to go on a weeknight after dinner, when it's not so crowded, to have a few drinks and a few laughs playing awesome (or awesomely bad) old-school arcade games. Still, the meetup was fun and I think we all had a good time. I'm already looking forward to the next one!

Journey to Brilidien: Heian

The final member of our party is Paul, who is playing an elf ranger named Heian. His back story is still something of a mystery, but here's Paul's response to Mac's skill challenge:

As Travok returns to the fireside, Heian excuses himself and slips into the surrounding forest. This may be the last chance to enjoy his natural environment for some time, and Heian wants to make the most of it.

Heian starts his wandering spiraling out from the camp, keeping the ever-shrinking glow of the fire on his right. When the voices and dancing shadows are barely noticable, he stops and listens to the sounds of nature. He can hear the sound of a deer looking for a place to sleep and a badger that is just waking up for the night. When the wind rustles the leaves, Heian catches a glimpse of bright blue in the moonlight from one of the trees above, and smiles to himself.

Minutes later Heian walks back into the firelight with a dozen pheasants dressed, seasoned (using natural herbs), and ready to be roasted. "I didn't realize that my desire to spend time among the trees while we can would lead me to spending time beneath a pheasant roost."

Nature: 26

With everyone's contributions, we beat the "hard" difficulty for the skill challenge - hooray! We were rewarded thusly:

Journey to Brilidien: Travok

Perhaps Reuven's character summary says it all:

Travok. Dwarf. Axe-swinger. 

You'd think that a simple character like that wouldn't have much to say/do in a skill challenge. Well, you would be WRONG. Here is Reuven's epic response to Mac's challenge:

Journey to Brilidien: Kismet

And now, submitted without comment, is my contribution to the skill challenge: 

Kismet is making excellent time towards Brilidien, and everywhere he stops he hears tales of his boon companions Valna and Stumbleduck, who have apparently joined forces with several other adventurers. At a local turnip festival, he meets up with his entourage - Tancha, Shirk, and Berg. They are, of course, thrilled to see him and eager to hear of his adventures in the Kadagast mountains. They have secured lodging in the hayloft of a barn (since all the inns were full) and the four spend the night in comfort and merriment. However, in the morning Kismet is distressed to find that he has lost his friends' trail.

So he goes to the organizer of the turnip festival and tries to strike a bargain. He will write and perform a selection of songs dedicated to a certain root vegetable, if he will be allowed to make an announcement asking after his friends. The organizer agrees, and Kismet and his groupies get to work. They commandeer a stage (built by the festival for awards presentation), and the everyone in town gathers for the performance. After his set (and the encore, and the second encore) Kismet describes Stumbleduck and Valna in detail and asks if anyone has seen adventurers matching their description.

Diplomacy: 21

At this point, we had fulfilled the "moderate" threshold for the skill challenge. Mac picked up the story with the main party in the swamp.

Journey to Brilidien: Bishop

And now, here's Kevin's response to the skill challenge. He has DM'ed his own campaign, so he's incredibly creative - as you'll see below, he took Maggie's idea and ran with it. First, however, some back story:

Bishop is a very old Dragonborn. His scales are mottled and a silvery grey due to age. In his prime, he was a great Paladin in Bahamut's order. However, Bishop has long since been retired, content to maintain a peaceful watch over the farming community he calls home. It seems though that Bahamut still has a mission for Bishop in his later years as an old voice came to him to have him take up his craghammer one again, begrudgingly so.

His sense of duty, whether it truly is a calling or senility playing tricks on the mind, compels him forward.

Now, part II of the skill challenge:

Journey to Brilidien: Valna

Maggie was the first to respond to Mac's skill challenge. This was awesome because, when we're doing this during our sessions, Maggie is usually the least excited about skill challenges. First, here's a little bit more about her character: 

Valna is a half-elf babarian. She's not too bright, and is happiest outside in nature (sometimes as herself, sometimes as a bear), stabbing bad guys, and sexing up the local hot guys and girls. She tends to act first and think later (if at all) and prefers to just charge into a room and start killing things. Oh, she also tends to fall into rages... but has learned to limit her anger to the battlefield. 

She's been with Stumbleduck and Kismet for a while now and is very loyal and protective of them in a big (very big) sister kind of way. She's pretty accepting of all these new folks - as long as they also like to kill bad guys they'll get along great.

And here is Maggie's response to the Skill Challenge:

Journey to Brilidien

The hardest part about playing D&D is often finding a time to play. Take six busy adults' schedules, subtract work hours and other commitments, account for travel time and that pesky need to sleep, and you end up with surprisingly few hours to work with. One solution is to do some of the noncombat roleplaying/skill challenges via email. In Mac's current (untitled) adventure, we are working on getting back to the Kingdom of Brilidien, where Kismet and Stumbleduck grew up. Kismet was separated from the party (while I was DM), and so he has to play catch-up. Below the cut is the prompt Mac originally sent. 

Encounters Season 10, Session 0: Character Creation

Yesterday marked the start of the 10th season of D&D Encounters, entitled "Council of Spiders." I usually skip Session 0, aka the character creation session, because I just use Character Builder at home. However, this season is going to be really weird - as detailed below - so I thought it would be important to attend.

Races are limited to drow and drow slaves, and there is a limited selection of classes. For example, only drow can be clerics, but only non-drow can be druids.You also must choose an affiliation that will dictate some of your choices/actions going forward. The three choices are House Melarn (a house whose members rank highly among the Priestesses of Lolth), House Xorlarrin (a higher-ranking house of mages - magic being considered necessary but contemptible in drow society, the houses are essentially equal), or the Bregan D'aerthe mercenaries (predominantly male group of assassins, spies, etc).

I'm playing a drow paladin of House Melarn, named Akneth. 

Another new facet of the game is that the PCs are encouraged to play evil characters and/or betray each other. At first this seemed to run contrary to the shared storytelling experience, also known as "the whole point of D&D." However, with a good DM, I'm starting to see this as a great role-playing opportunity. How will we come together as a group? Why would we stay together? What will happen after the first betrayal? These are role-playing questions that you seldom need to address in a home campaign. My only fear is that some players, especially newbies, might take in-game backstabbing personally.

Nothing personal. NOW, DIE!

Mac, being an awesome DM, had a mini-encounter prepared for after we finished discussing our characters. Only a couple of us had created a character ahead of time, so everyone else used the pre-gens provided by WotC. They were basically the same pre-gens we've been getting every season since season one, except that they were all drow. Our two controllers went first, and because the enemies were nicely clustered they both landed EPIC area attacks. On my turn I leaped across a shallow pool and struck one of them with my broadsword - only to have the few remaining enemies turn invisible and run away... grrr. I also helped the newbie sitting next to me, and he did really well - he cornered the final bad guy, so I was able to swoop in for the killing blow. Teamwork, dreamwork!

Once again, for more detailed/coherent recaps and all the inside scoops, check out Dungeon's Master.

Silver Company: Dunsmere Ruins II

Here is the recap for the home campaign session I ran yesterday, with DM color commentary (DMCC) in italics. If you are one of my PCs and have had enough of my comments for one week, you can skip those bits. Cool?

-- 

When last we left our adventurers, they were investigating a disturbance at Dunsemere Ruins. They found and dispatched a pack of gnolls and their pet hyenas. Lo and behold, the gnolls had captured a pair of half-orc siblings - Bree and Ugarth (played by our friends Dori and David, who were just joining the group this session). The convinced these newcomers to join their group, if not the Silver Company (the oath of loyalty seemed to be a sticking point). The final tower of Dunsmere Ruins opened to reveal a Barlgura demon performing a dark ritual.

Are these guys smart enough to performed a ritual?
Probably not, but whatevs.

DMCC: Not to pick favorites, but our eladrin wizard Aranelle (played by my friend Rachel) was a total superstar this session! In game, Aranelle used her powers wisely and controlled the board like a BOSS. Out of game, Rachel planned her turns beautifully. I use a timer to try to keep things on track - Rachel's turns typically took 15 seconds OR LESS. This is especially remarkable for the controller role, which tends to be more complicated.

Spell-casting with the QUICKNESS.

DMCC: I was also impressed by our new players jumping into the game. David had played D&D in a previous edition, and Dori had observed a game with us a while back - so they knew some basics. I created Essentials characters for them, which are much simpler but just as effective. I also had them come over an hour early so we could cover some game mechanics, do a couple practice rounds, etc.

After defeating the Barlgura and the remaining gnolls, the PCs investigate the site of the dark ritual. They find a level 11 magic item, which they use several skill checks to purify. They also discover that this portal was not meant to bring something here from the Abyss, but rather to send things away. In searching the bodies from the previous battle, they find that they do not bear the primal magic totems that have been cropping up on monsters all over Corbais. Curiouser and curiouser...

DMCC: I find it easier to allow the party to decide who gets the magic item, and then let that PC pick an item of the appropriate level. This allows items to be distributed more evenly - the question becomes, "who needs an item?" rather than, "who can use this particular item?" I think the party decided to give the item to our dryad ranger Iriena (played by Katja). 

On the way back to the Eastern Outpost, the party runs into a humble cabbage merchant. His entire shipment of prize-winning produce has been stolen, and he will pay handsomely to have it retrieved. The merchant strikes a deal with the Silver Company commander, Ingrid, and after replenishing some of their stores the party strikes out once again into the forest. There is an obvious trail where the cabbages have been dragged away, which leads to a graveyard. Of course it does.

The merchant's description of the bandits - gray-skinned with strange tattoos - suddenly makes sense when the party comes upon a group of shadar-kai. The PCs take quite a beating at the hands of the shadar-kai, their spectral panther, and some rot scarab swarms disturbed by the battle. In the end, of course, they arise triumphant. They don't have much time to rest - without a doubt, more trouble is lurking deeper within the graveyard. 

DMCC: I decided gave the PCs an option - if they forgo the healing portion of the rest (they'd still get their encounter powers back), they can get a surprise round in the next encounter. I know this kind of improvisation can backfire, but I just like trying new things. The party opted for the surprise round, so things are about to get a mite interesting. *eyebrow waggle*

Encounters Recap: Session 13

Play this while reading the following post.   

We've slogged through the Underdark, fighting drow, ogres, drow, spiders, drow, goblins, oh and did I mention the drow? We've recovered to two halves of the Pendant of Ashabba and freed countless slaves. We've become stronger than ever before, all leading up to this moment - BOSS FIGHT!

I can't accurately describe the scene for this Encounters session because, due in part to legitimate personal misfortunes, our DM misplaced the map. In previous versions of the game, I gather that maps were not essential - I vaguely remember playing 2nd Edition with my brother and his friends, and we hardly used a map at all. Not so much in 4th Edition, in my experience. Still, we powered through by modifying the map from a previous encounter. Before any fighting - through a magical MacGuffin - we all got bonuses based on our role. I was a "theocrat," e.g. a cleric, so I got to heal my allies whenever I hit. Too bad I never hit with this character. *sad trombone noise*

The task in this session was two-fold: first, we had to defeat Valan Jaelre, the drow spellcaster/BBEG, a couple of driders, and several flying drow baddies. No problem, right? Luckily for someone (either the bad guys or us, not entirely sure) our modified map included a bottleneck/choke point. Our defender stood right in the middle of everything and soaked up damage, and I stood right behind him and kept him alive. I realized later that the flying - excuse me, levitating - drow were actually out of range for us (we were an overwhelmingly melee party) for most of the battle. Chalk this one up to DM inattention, and see above re: legitimate personal misfortunes.

While we were fighting off the drow, we also had to perform a ritual to repair the Pendant of Ashabba - we had to heat it, douse it in water, then bind it with the blood of our NPC ally/heir to the kingdom, Khara. Our goblin scout took his first turn to throw the pieces into a fire, then took his next turn trying to set up step three to save time. Specifically, he ran up to Khara and STABBED HER WITH HIS DAGGER. It was kind of hilarious. He then wiped off the blood with a piece of his tunic and gave both the locket and the rag to our rouge, whose speed was eight. She dashed across the board (thanks in part to the fact that the MacGuffin let her be insubstantial during her turn), dipped the pendant in water, wrapped it up in the blood-stained cloth, and hey presto! Pendant and peace were restored. The peasants rejoiced - yay. What we thought was the BBEG turned out to be nothing but a simulacrum, however, meaning that the real Valan Jaelre is still out there somewhere...

To be continued in D&D Encounters: Council of Spiders!

Is it just me, or does the drow on the right (Valan Jaelre?)
have super weird look on his face?

Encounters Recap: Session 12

I WAS LIED TO. Just kidding - my Encounters DM made a mistake, and told us last week that we only had one session left, instead of two. So THIS is my post about the penultimate Encounters for this season.

This session was kind of painful. First off, we were down two players - Mac was out of town and our friend Ian just moved out of the country (he claimed it wasn't just to get away from us). We got some help from the NPCs we were rescuing, and thank goodness because without her we would've been KILLED.

As it was, we got bottle-necked at the entrance due to the fact that (a) the passage was somewhat narrow and (b) there was a giant web-golem in our way. With Aura 2, "creatures entering or beginning their turn in the aura are slowed until the beginning of the golem's next turn." In other words, forever. None of us had teleport powers, and none of us had powers with the fire keyword (we found out later that he was Vulnerable 5 fire).

Fraaaaaaak.

I finally got away from the golem by readying an action to run as soon as our drow hunter used her attack to push him back. This of course sparked the usual debate about the differences between delaying a turn and readying an action. The main point is that delaying moves you in initiative order - you are holding your entire turn, and can come in (with any/all of your three turn actions) whenever you wish. Readying an action keeps you in the same initiative order, except you use just your standard action out of turn - and you must declare beforehand what exactly will trigger your action. There you go - clear as mud!

Did I mention this encounter also contained three Deathjump Spiders? They've got insane mobility and attacks that cause both immediate and ongoing damage. I remember the first time I used these against my PCs - I was not very well liked by the end of it. This time, one of our party members fell to zero HP, and another was close to the brink when we finally dispatched the last of the monsters. But hey, any encounter you can be revived from... Next week: we come face to face with the BBEG!

Bridge Weekend

Quote of the Week: "Bridge is a social, but not very sociable game. That is if you take it seriously, as most bridge players do." - Ruth Mills Teague

Back on college, a group of friends and I formed an unlikely group: Bridge Club. Several of them (including my BFF Maggie) had studied abroad in Scotland and picked up the game there. I wormed my way in by living in their dorm and knowing bridge from childhood. Along the way (as people graduated, as most of us migrated to DC, etc) we added roommates, frat brothers, band geeks, ex-boyfriends, and spouses. This year, we decided to revive one of Bridge Club's favorite traditions - Bridge Weekend. Basically, we rent a nice vacation home (hot tub a must) and spend several days drinking and playing cards. 

If you've ever played Spades or Hearts, you know the basics of bridge. The difference is that trump changes based on a round of "bidding," where you and your partner try to communicate what you have in your hands and how many tricks you think you can take. Bidding is just about as complicated as it sounds, and is by far the most difficult part of the game to master. When I was a kid, I used to say, "I'm good at everything except the bidding." I might as well have been saying, "I know how to play, but I pretty much suck."  

I've improved a bit since those days, but not much. Which is unfortunate, because I'm something of a sore loser - I can only handle so much before I make an excuse and walk away. Happily, at this particular Bridge Weekend there were several tables going at once - so once I got fed up of losing at one table, I could rotate out and start losing at another table. Yay?

No matter what the outcome of the score sheets (our motto is, "Points Above The Line Don't Count!"), hanging out with my old Bridge Club was a real treat. We get the chance reminisce about college days, catch up on each others' lives, and make a bunch of new memories - all because we play this game. With all due respect to Ms. Teague, bridge (or any game) can be sociable... if you've got the right group!

Encounters Recap: Session 11

At the penultimate session of D&D Encounters last week, our party stumbled upon a drow Torture Theater - and one of the torturers was wearing half of the Pendant of Ashaba (the magic item for which we have been questing). We entered at a very strategic point - we entered the theater at the bottom of a five-foot pit full of dead bodies. Because of this and some pretty sweet stealthiness, we managed to get in a surprise round. Which was completely necessary, since about halfway through combat one of the drow summoned four demons... eep!

Grr. Argh.

An interesting facet of this encounter was the directive to save the lives of the torture victims - half a dozen humans chained up in various placed on the board. It took a standard action and a pretty good Strength or Thievery check to get them free. This served as enough disincentive to keep most of us from even trying during most of the battle. The drow were focusing on us, anyway, so the NPCs were in no real danger. In the end, they were basically just placeholders with no real impact on how the encounter unfolded.

I once wrote an encounter for my home game with innocent bystanders in a tavern - but I asked my PCs to interact with them first, via an informal skill challenge. Once they had bonded with the NPCs, bam! Monster attack. And the baddies weren't picky about their targets (I made all the NPCs two-hit minions). I also gave my players the option of using a minor action to help the NPCs in getting themselves out (e.g. Athletics to boost them out a window - the NPC still had to roll a check). The result was chaotic, but fun. I'm not sure this would work in the Encounters setting, however. 

Next week: BOSS FIGHT! 

Touch of Madness: The Thrilling Conclusion!

After a day and a half of Otakon, a late-night party, an early brunch, and a fringe festival play - all in quick succession - I think it's safe to say I was exhausted when it came time to DM my final "Touch of Madness" session. So I want to start this post with an apology to my players: I'm sorry I was short with you all. It wasn't anything you did, and I wasn't mad. I was just. So. Tired. 

When I haven't gotten enough sleep, I can be a real bitch.
Just kidding - Maggie was dog-sitting that weekend. Meet Max the Dungeon Mutt!

And so you don't think I'm a terrible DM, note that I had just hand-waved them all up to level 11 - Paragon Tier. Dun dun dun! At this point, PCs have (theoretically) slugged their way through ten levels of combats and challenges. They've explored their world, defeating evil and protecting innocence, and have made a name for themselves. Now they're ready to graduate from small-time adventuring and tackle even bigger Big Bads. Part of that transition includes selecting a Paragon Path, which will shape how their character develops from now on.

This choice was easy for Mac and me - we have been discussing our paragon paths for yonks. I didn't realize I'd be throwing some of my other players into something of a conundrum. Here was a character that they'd only played a handful of times, and now they had to make this huge decision. In the end, I'm sure everyone (including me) picked the path with the biggest mechanical benefit. As much as I enjoy the RP in RPGs, I came to win.

I'm glad I did have them level up, however, because the final boss battle was HARD. Two out of the four adventurers died (I let them come back in with secondary characters) and I ended up having one of the monsters just lose interest and leave. They probably could have made it without these concessions and probably without TPK, but again - it was late, I was tired. In retrospect, it feel like the Touch of Madness campaign ended for us not with a bang, but with a whimper. Luckily, I can guarantee the DM is going to be more energetic for next session... because Mac will be taking over!

OtaLARP

D&D players often look down on LARPers like civilians look down on D&D players - because of their choice of hobby, they are considered to be socially awkward, weird, even creepy. Even I am guilty of this At Least I Don't LARP mentality. So when my Best Gamer Friend Mac invited me to join him and his friends at the Otakon LARP, I had some serious reservations. But I figured I should at least try it once (so I could blog about it).

Sadly, I found that only a few people dressed up for the LARP.

But at Otakon, you can't swing a catgirl without hitting a cosplayer!

In OtaLARP, players have the option of role-playing a character from any manga/anime series. The GMs create a character sheet based on each characters' strengths and weaknesses. Not all of these characters are designed for combat - you could be playing anything from a schoolgirl to a eight-foot tall mech - and not all of them are equally powerful. One of the very first interactions I participated in was between my group, the Turks from Final Fantasy 7, and three or four people playing high-level ninjas from the Naruto canon. A fight ensued, and we got our asses handed to us. The most we could do was throw a punch or fire a gun, but our opponents could summon demons and launch fireballs at us.

It kind of amazes me that this system works at all. Supposedly, pure role-playing reasons should be enough to deter people from using powers to obliterate anyone who annoys them. In reality, people are excited about their fantastic abilities and want to use them - just like in every other RPG on the planet. Another sad fact is that some people are jerks who are willing to derail shared storytelling to stroke their own egos.

But I don't want you all to think it was all bad. I had a lot of fun playing my character, who was polite, well-spoken, and worked for an evil corporation bent on dominating the world. The fact that I'm a silver-tongued devil didn't hurt - towards the end of the game, I pretty much stopped making checks (aka playing Rock Paper Scissors, the equivalent of rolling dice) and just talked things out with people. Most of the players at the LARP were easygoing, funny, and slightly silly - in other words, my kind of crowd. And say what you will, this system has worked for over a decade!

During the game, whenever I was dealing with some jerk in a neon wig I thought to myself, "well, I'll never do this again!" Looking back, however, I realize I had more fun that expected. I think the key to LARP, as with any RPG, is to (a) find a good system and (b) find some good people. If I can make sure those are in place beforehand, I'd definitely try LARPing again!