Friday, June 27th, 2008

Oh my gosh... So, even though I stayed up late the night before (as we always seem to do during the con... I think I usualy average about three to five hours of sleep MAX), I knew that Friday was gonna be a huge day for us, so we both got up bright and early.

 We got up around 8, got ready and grabbed a bite to eat from good ole FAME'S DINER.  (sigh... :) )

On this day, I was very very very apprehensive.  It would either be an awesome day, or a really jacked up day, because I was trying new games that I had never played before.  Hubby talks to me about games all the time that he is very interested in, and when he describes them, they seem like they would be awesome to play.  But we never get to actually play them at home due to our lack of a regular gaming group, so the only possibility of playing them are at Origins. 

Our 10:00am game was Nobilis.  Soo... here is the description of this game:

In Nobilis, players take on the roles of the Sovereign Powers, each the personification of one single aspect of reality: night, roads, ecstasy, chains, time, water - whatever the players can conceive of. Once human, each character has been forever changed, imbued with awesome power and terrible responsibility. Heaven and Hell, angels and devils, the Giants and the Old Gods - in Nobilis, all are united in the Great War against the Excrucians, whose goal is to destroy all Creation - but all are divided by their own plots and ancient rivalries, as well. 

Yeah... a really high-concept game, that is diceless, and sounds completely awesome, yet complicated, to play.

I was so intimidated and over-whelmed by the time we got to the room we'd be playing in, my palms were sweaty and my forehead had gotten a nice sheen to it.  Hubby kept trying to calm me down and explain the background to me, from the hotel room to the game room, but I could not be comforted.  

Little did I know that this would prove to be one of the most terrific and eye-opening experiences of my gaming life!  Jessica and Chris are a young couple who co-GM'ed the game (WAY COOL concept, they were both great actors who were ultra-excited to describe the scenario and super-encouraging when I would ask questions), and we had the pleasure of playing with several terrific gamers at that table as well.  The gentleman who played Ryu in our game played his character PERFECTLY, and I loved Abby, who played Goldie in our game:
  <-----Abby

  I was Malena, the Power of Indulgence (sex/happiness), represented by a gorgeous woman who wears a slinkie fashionable dress and heels.  She is quite literally, irresistable.  Abby's character, Goldie, is the Power of Luck, and she is a Las Vegas Showgirl.  'Nuff said.  We hated each other's guts. lol Fought like alley cats all throughout the game. I remember saying to Goldie at one point, " Why don't you just bend over and pick it up, then?  I'm sure you're used to that - bending over, that is!"

Abby and I played off each other really well.  Tons of fun.  

I thought everyone played their roles really well, and I can't say enough about Jessica and Chris.  Aside from both of them being HOT LIKE FY'UH...  (oops, did I say that?)  they are the most awesome GM's.  They are so dedicated to bringing Nobilis to the masses and making the game unintimidating for those scaredy-cats like me out there.  They live in New York, and I swear, hubby and I considered moving - if only for a few indulgent seconds - just to be near them and their regular gaming crew (which includes Abby and Amy, who actually created the character Goldie, and who I would meet later).  

I dunno though...  I gotta sneaking suspicion that I could get in a lotta trouble up there with that group.  ;)

So, needless to say, I was absolutely stoked about having tried the game out, overcoming my fears about the unknown, and getting to meet such awesome people.  (I know I use the word "awesome" way too much, but I can't think of another fitting word to describe most of my experiences at Origins! lol)

Jessica was nice enough to invite me to their Nobilis LARP, and when Abby mentioned that she would be there, along with aforementioned Amy, who created the Goldie character, I was like, "Whoa... Hon... we HAVE TO go..." lol 

Clarence isn't much for LARP's, so  I had to buy the ticket on my own, but after conquering one fear, I figured what the heck?  The LARP was Saturday evening at 8pm, and I didn't have anything planned at that time!  Awesome.

So, I was on a high after that game, and we had to go straight to our next one, another game Clarence loved to tell me about, but that I had never played, and that seemed really difficult:  

  Here is the description for EXALTED:

Exalted is a game of epic fantasy set during the Second Age of Man, a time before our own. It is an age of magic and adventure, when heroes of legend are reborn into a time of woe.

At the dawn of the First Age, the gods gave power to men that they might slay the gods' Primordial enemies. Anointed by the gods, these beings were thereafter known as the Exalted.

The greatest of the Exalted were the Solars, the Chosen of the Unconquered Sun, the mightiest of the gods. So great was their power that, when a Solar died, his power was quickly made manifest in a new individual - a reincarnation of sorts, but into a mature adult rather than a newborn.

The Exalted triumphed over the enemies of the gods, and in reward, the gods gave the Exalted dominion over the Earth. For a timeless age, the Exalted ruled justly over Creation, and their kingdom was invincible.

But the enemies of the gods had pronounced a terrible curse against the Exalted. This dark magic ate away at the hearts of the Chosen. The benevolence of the Solars turned to tyranny, and peace turned to civil war. It was prophesied that the madness of the Solars would bring about the destruction of the world. Seeing no other alternative, the lowliest of Exalted, the Dragon-Blooded, murdered the decadent Solar Exalted and locked their souls away.

And so, a Second Age descended upon Creation.

The greatest of the gods' servants no longer walked the earth, and the Realm of the Dragon-Blooded was but a shadow of the lost old Realm. Solar Exalted whose power escaped to be reborn were slain by Dragon-Blooded inquisitors known as the Wyld Hunt, and the Realm claimed dominion over Creation. For more than a thousand years the Solar Exalted remained imprisoned and defeated - until now.

The Scarlet Empress, the Dragon-Blooded ruler of the Realm and controller of the Wyld Hunt, vanished five years ago. Without her might to enforce order in the Realm, the Great Houses of her Scarlet Dynasty have fallen to squabbling over the reins of power. And in this time of crisis, the Solar Exalted have returned. It is as if a gate was opened and the heroes of old rushed through it and returned to the world.
Your character is among those individuals who have become Solar Exalted. You are a being of legend, as mighty as a demigod and as cunning as an asp. Will you be the savior of Creation or one of the terrible menaces that beset your world? 

Yeah.  Sound difficult?  Well, it was. lol The game master was great, and he really tried to make the rules easy for me, being a beginner.  He was also really good about explaining the history and background setting of the game to our group, which was interesting. 

It just seems to me that this game has a terrific concept, and a great background setting, and it has all of the potential to be a really amazing game... but it all gets lost for me in a sea of dice.  There was a moment in the game when my character (who, I will remind you, is an Abyssal EXALTED... I am super strong and powerful, right?) comes into contact with a couple of mortal guards at a monastery.  SIMPLE.  I ready my bow and start firing away, figuring I will kill them, no problem.

Then the dice rolling began.  I literally ended up grabbing HANDFULS of dice and rolling them, not once, not twice, but maybe three times, was asked to add this to that subtract this to my whatchamacallit, multiply it by my shoe size, half that by my blood type, and the end result was that I hit only one of them, and did 1 pt of damage.  WHAT?!?!?!

Yeah.  Not my kind of game.  But, I was better having played it.  Because I now know how it plays, it's no longer an enigma for me, my hubby got a chance to play it, and it was an experience that allowed me to appreciate my other games even more.  It was no fault at all of the players (they were great), or the GM (who was very accomodating to me as a newbie).  It's just not my style.  I like to ROLEplay... not ROLLplay.  ;)

That night was the Club Carcosa Cthulhu LARP, put on every year by the AMAZING crew over at Rogue Cthulhu, headed by Marx Stead.

<------------Marx as the DJ at Club Carcosa



It's the last night on earth, and you decide to spend it at a club.  I was "Britney", a famous pop singer, and I was accompanied by my body guard, Kent.  

Guess who ended up palying Kent, on a lark, without knowing we'd be paired together?!

<----  My good friend, Nate, AKA Kent the bodyguard (sorry for cutting your head off, Nate!)

I was so thrilled that I got to play with him again!  He was the awesome player from the Victims Ball game, who played the fashions designer.  We played off each other so well, and because we were so comfortable with one another already, it was great, because we pretty much had to be inseperable all night (until he got killed, and dragged away from me, of course).  We did such a good job.  I got to sing to the crowd ("I'm Too Sexxxy" by Right Said Fred, and YES, I DID REALLY SING... I was told that of all the years that Club Carcosa has been run, I was the first one to actually have the guts to sing Britney's song! Yay!!! Go me!), and Kent did an incredible job of keeping the public out of my face and keeping that crazy stalker of mine away from me (eeew.... Kirk!! lol Shout outs to the player who played Kirk... man, you had me spooked.  I totally bought the stalker thing from you, dude. lol  AWESOME!).
<--- me as Britney
<---- Britney with Cthulhu lol

So many great things happened in this game, like when Nate finally got killed and turned into a zombie, and I went to go hide by the mens bathroom near the Cthulhu room, in a little niche in the wall where I figured no one would find me.  Brian Martin, one of the GM's from the Shoggoth.net room, who hubby and I played in one of his games last year, walks past me and stops. lol I was standing there praying with my hands together that no one would find me.  He was playing Nyarlethotep, who just so happened to own the club! lol

Man... Brian Martin is a cutie too.  Whew.  I think I have already established that gamer guys give me a woody, right? lol Sigh...

Anyway, I got to hang with Nate a lot that night - hubby was no where to be found, once again, as I've said before he does not do LARP's.  I just came to realize how much a love that guy.  Nate is not only a terrific gamer, who really gets into his characters completely, but he is just a nice guy overall.  Not to mention being mucho hotto as well! ;)

Go NATE!  You just don't meet good people like that these days. Hubby and I just clicked so well with him.  He is a software program consultant, and he and hubby have a lot in common regarding their jobs, etc. so it is just neat to meet someone that we can both talk to one that "other level", ya know?  Yeah, I know, I'm going on and on, but I already told you that he wins the vote for my Origins 2008 Gamer Crush, right?  So expect more of the same, because....

We agreed that we would meet up Sunday and try to hang out... maybe catch a movie or something.  I was stoked!!! :)

I ended up going to bed around... oh... 6:30am in the morning, after staying up all night talking to hubby and our good ole buddy, Matt Wiseman AKA Trollboy:

<--- Matt is the exceedingly TALL one (7'1") whose head can't even fit in this picture! lol

We stood outside and talked about everything and anything with Matt and also Tom Arnott of the Rogue Cthulhu group.  It was a lot of fun, once again, just to hang with cool people. 

So once we got back to the room and I went to sleep at 6:30am, I ended up flaking out on our 9:00am game of World of Darkness, Innocents Lost (which SUCKED because I REALLY REALLY REALLY wanted to play that game, damnit!)... We ended up just sleeping in and going to the 1:00am game of Waverly Hills in the Shoggoth.net Cthulhu room instead.  More on that next time!! Whew... I never thought I would get through with Friday... lol

Nay

Thursday, June 26th, 2008 

Our next game was Still Waters (Call of Cthulhu) at  1:00pm.  The game was run by Tyler Hudak. 

Clarence and I had played in one of Tyler's games previously, a Cthulhu game he ran at Origins called "Castaway Island".  He is an excellent Keeper, and we love playing in his games.  Still Waters was a game set in the bayou of MIssissippi, where the group was called on to retrieve some valuable artifacts and stumble upon the library of a bibliomaniac that is the possession of a rare and collectible book.

Unfortunately, I do not have any pics from this game, but it was excellent, and the background and storyline was impressive. We had tons of fun, and we look forward to playing in more of Tyler's games in the future.

We rushed away from Tyler's game at about 5:00pm, eager to grab some grub before our 6:00pm game of Victims Ball, ran by Kevin Kreiner, of the Rogue Cthulhu group, who we absolutely LOOOOOOOOVE.  The game was amazing.  I was invited to a ball celebrating the survivors of the Terror of the French Revolution. I must admit that I was very intimidated by this game, mosty due to the fact that I am HORRIBLE at history, and having to play in anything that was supposed to be taking place in the 19th century was extremely difficult for me.  I don't think it affected much, in the long run, though.  I loved it, mostly because of some excellent roleplaying done by all players involved, including a woman that played Ms. Goddard (sorry, can't remember the players name)!  She led me off to the island of Dagon, and convinced me to commit my service to it! 

This game was the one where I met my new bestie friend (and subsequent ORIGINS GAMER CRUSH #1 2008), Nathan.  Sigh.... (More on cutie Nathan later, I promise!)  He amazed me with his excellent roleplaying.  He was playing a female fashion designer, and the thing she came up with were hilarious (like, when Ms. Goddard and I were headed to the bathroom in game, and his character followed.  We were so intent on escaping the ball that we went to the restroom to search for additional windows or doors to assist us in getting out.  Goddard asked his character if she had a pair of sewing scissors, so that Goddard could trim the bottom of her dress and tie the material around her neck for protection.  Nathan insisted on dousing the cloth in rosewater from the bathroom's toiletries, to make the material smell better and she insisted on hemming the bottom of the dress before giving Goddard the material, to make sure it was even and beautiful, so not only did we have a protective neck piece, but it smelled exquisite and made a charming fashion statement!)  He was definitely the best gamer I have come across to stay completely in character throughout the entire game. 

We ran into Kevin later in the con, and he mentioned to us that many people had told him that this game would be an excellent LARP.  We totally agree!  There was so much awesome opportunity in that game, and it really did play liek a LARP.  Kevin, I know you normally don't do LARP's, but if you organize it, I promise I will attend next year!!!

After the game, I told Nathan about the Club Carcosa Cthulhu LARP being held the following night, Friday, and begged him to attend.  He said he would, and I was ecstatic!  

Until next time, when I will go over what we did on Friday! ;)  I know, I know... I am dragging this on and on (and probably missing out on some cool stuff that I did because I can't remember now...) ... but coming home from the con, I realized that I may have overdone it while I was there.  I have been taking the meds, and they keep Naynay vewwwwy sleepy!  ;)

I will continue soon!

Thursday, June 26th, 2008 

Thursday morning, we got up at 6:30am and got dressed quickly.  We had an 8:00am game of SERIAL, published by Incarnadine Press, with Mike Miller.  Last year, we were able to play games of With Great Power with Mike and his wife Kat Miller.  Kat was the creative genius behind SERIAL, a game about a serial killer.  None of the players plays the serial killer, but everyone plays potential victims.  Kat's purpose behind creating this game was to do a game like CSI, Forensic Files, and Law and Order, but without glorifying the serial killer.  She wanted to focus on the victims and their lives.  I was so eager to play this game.  It's not yet released, but when it is (Mike told us it may be by the end of the summer - one can only hope), it will be packaged in a DVD box with everything needed to play the game one time.  The PDF files for additional materials for subsequent games, along with a CD with an essential "GM in a box".  The CD has tracks to be played while playing for the first time, and it is meant to be as if you have Mike Miller right there in the room with you, guiding you along in the game.  An incredibly innovative idea.  I couldn't wait to play it; I love playing indie games and storygames,where roleplay is strongly encouraged, and Mike and Kat are amazing game designers.  Here is the rough draft version of Serial:



Our game was so much fun!  I ended up playing a contestant of Ameria's Next Top Model, Ms. Casey Krstaal.  Hubby played Greg Diamond, an aspiring soap opera star, and Mike played a prescription Prozac sales rep (no matter how I hit my head on the wall, I can not remember the characters name!! argh).  After much investigation and discovery, we ended up bringing the killer to justice - a fellow jealous ANTM contestant who would go to the insane asylum that all of the potential victims' siblings were committed to, and tie up her victims before killing them.  This game was so many levels of awesome, hubby made fun of me for hours afterwards because I just swooned and gushed about it so much.  Here are a couple of pics of Mike Miller, Me, and hubby discovering my characters body as the next victim.
 

I am just amazed by Kat and Michael Miller's ability to create these highly fun, well-thought out, incredibly interactive and innovative ideas for independent gaming.  He has two guaranteed sales when the game is released!

If you want to here a great podcast interview of Mike and Kat Miller, discussing Serial in detail, conducted by RPG writer Robert Bohl, of The Independent Insurgency, interviews from the world of independent tabletop roleplaying game design, go to:

http://independentinsurgency.com/index.php?post_id=339453 

More on our other games played on Thursday later!  (Pain meds kicking in again... lol maybe if I draw out my write-up, it will make Origins live on and on for me... lol)

Wednesday, June 25th, 2008 
(continued)

Okay, so where did I leave off?  Ah yes, so we ate our food at FAME'S DINER (yes, it's so great that I must capitalize all the letters).  This was likened to the experience I get when hubby gives me fantastic sex.  Yeah.  Really.

Off we went to get our badges and our tickets.  We were happy about the efficiency (only stood in line about 10 mins, and all our tickets were correct), but grossly unhappy regarding the SWAG bag.  Wow.  Could it have sucked more?  The best thing in the bag was the Origins die for this year, and it was purplish, so it matched my purple silk oriental food box dice bag, so there was that...

We went back to the front desk, and after schmoozing the front desk guy, "Awww, c'mon, can't I check in early?  Pweeaasse?  I'd looove you.  Can we get two beds instead of the one you have us down for? Pweeeeassee??" <<blink blink, blink blink>>   (Yes, I said it, just that disgustingly sweet.  I have no shame.)  He let us check in early and gave us a room with two beds! Wooo hooo! He was blushing when he gave me the keys.  Yeah, I still got it!  lol

We headed to the room and called our friends Michelle and Justin.  We met Michelle a few years ago when we came to Origins and she ran a couple of awesome Call of Cthulhu games for us.  She is an awesome gamemaster.

Pics from our previous games with her:


They were only staying for two days, so we had offered our room to them to crash in.  This was our first time meeting her boyfriend, Justin, and we were glad that he turned out to be such a cool guy.  Michelle deserves the best, and she deserves someone who will love her like she should be loved.  Justin fits the bill.

I pointed out the fact that there was a strange stain on our lampshade that looked like someone had came all over it and squirted on it in the shape of a happy face.  lol Had to take a picture of that!!!  Don't know if you'll be able to make it out, but it was gross.

 And here is Justin, taking credit for it:
  LOL!

They mentioned how there is a great pizza place in town called Donato's, that offers vegetarian pizzas.  Not that we are vegetarians, but it was something different.  You could order meat on your pizza, but the cheese is made from soy products, etc. so it gives it a different taste.  They said that it tastes so good, and we are always open to yummy pizza, so we ordered two large meatlovers and some chicken strips.  Ordering it and trying to pay by credit card over the phone was such a hassle that I almost peed on myself laughing at Michelle trying to repeat over and over again what we wanted and how we needed to pay for it.  It was hilarious.  

They ran out to go grab some liquor for us :) and Clarence and I waited for the pizza which came REALLY fast.  I was so bummed that they forgot my ranch sauce for my chicken strips, but once I tasted how yummily seasoned they were, I realized RANCH BE DAMNED! lol 

We ended up with some yummy sweet drinks (Smirnoff Ice, Smirnoff Twisted Green Apple, etc.) and DELICIOUS pizza, and we all decided we would stay in and play Munchkin Cthulhu and Munchkin Bites, which was SOOOO much fun.  



Clarence ended up sleeping the night away (catching up for a couple days of NO SLEEP, pooor baby), and the three of us played until about midnight, when we finally crashed.  Michelle and I had so much catching up to do, so it was nice to be able to talk and relax. We didn't get to play the Cthulhu game that Michelle had arranged for us (creating pre-gen characters and everything), but we decided taht we would play her game with the "play by post" after the con.  

That was our Wednesday.  I will do yet another installment later for Thursday... which was a really busy day for us!

Wednesday, June 25th, 2008

So, our flight left at 6:18am from New Orleans, LA, and we arrived into Columbus, OH at 11:10am.  Once again, we made sure that we left tons of food for the chinchillas, which, I may add, have NOT lost forty pounds since last year! lol The baby, Kizzy, is just as big as her Mama.  They are two greedy, greedy girls.  We left tons of food and water, set our digital thermostat at our house to maintain a cool temperature for them while we were gone, and we were off!

For the first time, when we arrived into Columbus, it wasn't raining, and we weren't caught in some God awful hailstorm.  It was bright and sunny.  Good omen?  Maybe!

When I called the hotel (Crowne Plaza, right across the street from the convention center, conveniently) to ask about early check in possibilities (they weren't supposed to start checking in until 3pm), the lady told me that it would be impossible.  She said that the convention had started, and everyone was checking in, and there were no rooms available.  We would have to check our bags with valet and walk around for a bit.  So, we took the shuttle bus from the airport to hotel, and checked the bags.  We headed down to the food court, cause I was HHHOOONGRY!

Let us take a moment of silence to honor the great FAME'S DINER.

....
....
...
..
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Okay. I can not write up an Origins con without saying how much I LOVE FAME'S DINER in the foodcourt.  I said it last time, I know, but you just don't understand.  So this year, I noticed that the Greek family who owned it before was no where to be found, and there was a new Indian family instead.  I was a little apprehensive, wondering if my food would taste the same, but as I found out from one of the new owners later on in the con, they kept all the old (Mexican) staff, who have been working there as cooks for 14-15 years!!!  Needless to say, the food was amazing as usual.  I had an order of French Toast with bacon and a side of fried mushrooms with ranch.  OH MY GOD, it was Heaven.  To try to keep somewhat on my diet, I drank bottled water and made sure we did a lot of walking.  :)

We were looking all around for Matt McFarland, aka Black Hat Matt, who we met up with on our first day of the con last year when we made the food court stop, but he was no where to be found.  

That sucks, because he is my first Origins gamer crush.  It never fails... every year, hubby and I meet someone incredible (and I am equal opportunity, so it can be a guy or a girl, doesn't matter).  I end up with a huge gamer crush on them.  This means that they showcased their awesome gaming ability in one of our games, and I was intrigued.  Then they showed themselves to be a totally cool person outside of the game too, and I start to crush on them.  All of a sudden, even if they may have started out as a 2 or 3, by the end of the con, they are a sexxxy Mf'ing 8 or 9! lol Not that Matt was a 2 or 3 to start out with (heavens no, what a cutie!)  Hubby is always very aware of my "crush de'zour", and he finds it amusing.  It is completely innocent and harmless and just involves a lot of fantasizing and daydreaming... lol

So Black Hat Matt wasn't anywhere to be found, and we think it is because his wife is very pregnant right now and may be very close tohaving their second baby anytime.   

Woooow... I just jumped over to Matt's livejournal on my other page (http://innocent-man.livejournal.com/) and GUESS WHAT?  He was at Origins, but only Friday, during the day, and only in the dealers room... and do you know why!?  THEY HAD THEIR BABY!!! Yay!!!  Cael was born on June 3rd!!  Congrats, Matt and Heather!  Those folks have a knack for finding absolutely tremendous baby names... Their baby girl's name is Teagan, and now their boy is Cael.  You rawk.  I wish I would've scoped you in the dealers room, cause you're still my first gamer crush, and you never forget your first! ;)  We both missed you!

See why I have to write this up in installments?  I tend to go off into tangents.  I think I will continue later... I feel sleepy.   I think the pain meds are finally kicking in.  Getting harder to type.  :)  I'll continue tomorrow! :)

   Wow..  How can this be?  Origins has come and gone again this year, and once again... it will be another year before I can see all of the amazing people that I meet at this convention.  Awesome news!  I am about forty pounds lighter this year at the con than I was last year!  I've been dieting and working my butt off, going to the gym for about 2 hours a day for 5 days a week.  Lost about 8 pants sizes and forty pounds!  I actually feel cute and sexy this year, and plan on wearing a lot of cute clothes to celebrate! :)

Not so awesome news, I got in a car accident on June 12th, 2008, just a couple of weeks before the con.  :( Totally wrecked my vehicle and my face and body at the same time.  Here are some gorgeous pictures of the carnage for your viewing pleasure:





But nothing is stopping me from going to the best damn thing that happens to me every year!  I pop my Percocets and head on out with hubby.  :)  BIG deal for me on the plane this year :  every other year, when I get on the plane I get a big enxiety attack because I can never fit the seat belt around my fat ass.  Guess what?!  This year, the seat belt fit, and I pulled it about five inches tighter!!!! WOOO HOOO!!! You really have no idea what that felt like to me unless you've been through it yourself.  It is humiliating to not be able to clasp the seat belt on a plane, having to hide the end of the belt under your shirt or put a blanket over your waist, praying that the flight attendant doesn't ask you to show her your belt.  This year, no worries!

It has taken me a few days since we've come home from Origins (it was Wed. - Sun. , June 25-29th this year) to start my write up.  I keep telling myself to hurry up and write it before I forget all the AWESOME that was experienced, but at the same time I have been extremely busy tying up loose ends since I have been home.  That, along with being tired from the pain meds and also fearing that writing about it will mean it is REALLY REALLY OFFICIALLY over...  :(  Pout.... Sigh... You guys think I am exaggerating, I know, but I really get depressed when Origins is over.   It is the one outlet hubby and I get to go to and totally relax.  We get to do something that we both love, without worrying about any other responsibilities, and hang with people we adore, for five whole days... It's just AWESOME.  

So what I will do is do my write up in pieces.  This is the first one, just to let you know what I was going through before I actually left for Origins, and the next one will talk about our first day, Wednesday.... I will just see how much I feel like writing everyday (trying to not think about the excruciating rib cage pain... fractured, bruised and possibly broken... we'll know for sure next week).  Sorry this part is so short, but the next one will be better - I promise! :)

Stay tuned! :)

Dude... does anyone else get the "Origin's Is Damn Near A Year Away" Blues? Sigh... Origins happens to be the one time a year that hubby and I get to leave life here in Louisiana for a full 6-7 days (yes, we usually leave Tuesday and come back late Monday lol).  It is the only time he gets to leave his ever-present pager behind, and we turn off our cellphones to dive headfirst into geeky gamerdom.  

Alas, it is now 10-11 mos. away, and I am yet again counting down the days until I shall meet up with my like-minded friends in Ohio.  Unfortunately still no luck finding the same caliber gamers here in Louisiana... sigh... 

And I repeat.... sigh....  

Nay

Current Location: Baton Rouge, LA
Current Mood: depressed

"... and just that quickly, it's as if it never happened."

Ahhh... Origins.  What can I say?  Each year, the day after the con is more depressing because of how awesome the convention itself turned out to be.  Hubby and I decided to both take the day after the con off this year to help us recuperate before getting back to the daily grind.

The following is a breakdown of the incredible fun we had during the past few days (as well as I can attempt to recall it all!):

Wednesday, July 4th, 2007

Clarence (hubby) and I stay up from 1:00am CST to pack, clean the house before we leave, get our three chinchillas settled for the long weekend without us (think loads and loads of hay cubes, chinchilla food, honey and fruit sticks, etc), and prepare for the trip.  

Kiko, the mama Chin

Kizzy, the baby Chin, and Pika, her daddy

Our flight leaves at 9:20am, so we figure we need to be out of the house by 6:45am to allot plenty of travelling time to the New Orleans airport during morning traffic.  Needless to say, as always, we end up getting out late.  We leave about 7:30am.  Oh well.

Anyway, we get there on time and the flight goes well.  With a brief stop in my LEAST FAVORITE AIRPORT OF ALL TIME, the Dallas, TX airport (ask my hubby sometime about the crying fit I had during a particularly stressful layover in Dallas when they changed my gate twice, forcing me to walk all OVER THE FUCKING AIRPORT trying to chase down my flight.  Yeah... I ended up missing it... but I digress...).  This time all went smoothly, and we got to Columbus around 3:00pm.

Taking a cab to our hotel, the Crowne Plaza, which is connected to the convention by a walkway (which is pretty useless because of how far you have to walk to use it... take our advice, just walk across the street.  Much faster!), we check in without a glitch.  After getting everything settled, we head downstairs to grab a bite to eat at my FAVORITE food court restaurant - Fames Diner.

Here, we must take a moment to honor Fames Diner.  Moment of silence please.

Thank you.  Fames is AWESOME.  Do you hear me?  I could live off Fames food for the rest of my life.  I'd be happy.  FAT, mind you, but exhiliratingly HAPPY.  I got my customary Philly Cheese Steak sammy with a side order of (...droooolllll...) fried mushrooms and ranch sauce.  You probably don't want to hear about that, but fuck you.  It is one of the highlights of my vacation, so if I feel like writing about it, I will! :)

As we sit down and start conversing about who we might see this year, who happens to walk up, but our good friend, Matt McFarland!!!  Yes, it's Black Hat Matt, of White Wolf fame. You know... Promethean, World of Darkness, Changeling, etc?  (... again, droooolll...)  Matt is the white version of my hubby.  See for yourself - you make the call :



Uhm... yeah.  Maybe it's just me? Lol What can I say... Nay's got a thing for bald men with goatees who roleplay.  :)  

So, Matt graces us with his presence, and we sit and chat about what games we have lined up for the weekend.  He was running a ton, and playing in a few.  He mentioned that he was staying with a friend, also named Matt, and that his daughter, Teagan, and his wife, Heather, would be coming the next day.  Coolness!  We were so glad to see him, and he made a cool boat while we were at the table from the cards in his swag bag.   :)

Next, we headed into the convention center to get our badges and game tickets.  The pre-reg line was minimal, and FOR ONCE, they got all of our tickets and badges right! YAY! Hubby had made sure he bought our tickets separately instead of both at the same time.  We don't know if this helped, but it's the first year we didn't have problems.  Did anyone else find that this year was much more efficient and organized?

Wednesday night we pretty much hung out and relaxed in our room.  We had an early 9am game in the Rogue Cthulhu room the next morning, so we called it an early night.  It would be the last early night we had during the con!

Thursday, July 5th, 2007

Waking up wasn't a problem, and we headed down to the Rogue Cthulhu room.  Our keeper for this Call of Cthulhu game was Justine Wiesinger.  

It was called Bride of the Shadow King.  The scenario was interesting, and there were some stellar players involved in the game.  I enjoyed the Rogue Cthulhu "Rogue Points" system, where players get awarded poker chips of varying denominations for good roleplaying skills during the game.  It is reminiscient of the "fanmail" system in Indie games, like Primetime Adventures.  My hubby and I discussed how this type of rewarding system really boosts a players confidence and encourages them to try harder and play better.  We are interested in bringing this feature into our own games at home, but instead of the Keeper giving it to the players, we would like it to be more like Primetime Adventures, where the fellow players would give eachother the points during awesome gameplay.  My character was the flamboyant leading lady, Aimee Adoree, in a movie being filmed on location in Mexico.  I enjoyed playing against the film's director, and the gentleman who played my sister, and personal assistant, Sarah. 

At 1:00pm, we scurried on over to the Shoggoth.net groups room (C114, bitches!) to participate in our good friend, Matt Wiseman 's CoC game, Milk and Cookies.  Matt, otherwise known as Trollboy, never disappoints when he runs his games.  

I love his highly animated depiction of the NPCs in his stories.  It's like watching a terrific play.  :)  If you ever get the chance at the next con, sign up for one of his games.  Matt flies in from Las Vegas every year, and we have a kinship, since Vegas is my hometown.  My whole family still lives there, so I get there a few times a year. You can't miss him.  He's 7'1" of REAL man!!  In this pic taken at last years con, neither of us is standing on anything.  I am about 5'4" tall.  HE IS HUGE!!! :)

 
There were many notable players in this game.  The story followed a neighborhood that seemed to be overrun with cats.  The smell of stale cat piss and sweet cookies are all being traced to one particular house.  My character was a dentist who thought the world of himself.  He was boisterous, loud, and thought he was God's gift to women.  He had the hots for the housewife and took every opportunity to express his feelings towards her.  :)  The housewife, the German (or was it Argentinian? lol) doctor, and the stoner dude (go, Timmy!) were great to play off of.  I enjoyed the game immensely.  But then, you can't go wrong in the Shoggoth.net room.  Those guys are always incredible.

After this game, we had plenty of time until our next one, at 11:00pm.  We made good use of the food court once again, and headed to the room for a quick nap.  Thank GOD that we did, because our 11pm game, Kiss of Zelzah, run by Brian Martin, did not end until 6am Thursday morning. NO THAT IS NOT A TYPO!  6am!!!! Damn!!!!!!!  It was part 2 of a 6 series story that Brian has created about Burke University.  It is intended for mature audiences only.  Once again, I was not disappointed in the GM's fabulous ability to portray his NPCs.  Brian, if you're reading it... I told my hubby that when you were playing the part of Warren, the studly senior who got all the girls, I was strangely attracted to you. LOL  My character was Helen, the older school archivist, that was to lead the student investigators in finding out why their friend died suddenly of a bleeding penis.  OUCH! lol  I must say, halfway through the game, I got distracted.  

Lol Someone said something about two of our players being cops in real life, and I don't know why that made me nervous. lol I am a law-abiding citizen, after all, and I have nothing to worry about... lol I thought that was funny that I reacted that way.  But I loved the way both of them played their characters, one being Vlad, the Russian med student, and the other being Shaun, a twin who was a sports jock.  We were having so much fun playing this game that we totally lost track of time.  The players voted after the game on who was the best roleplayer, and they were sweet enough to vote me!!! (Guess all that man-hating feminist ranting I did was pretty convincing lol)  I claimed my prize off the prize table (the book, Arkham Tales, which I am fully enjoying, by the way... thanks guys!!!) 

Hubby and I stumbled back to our room at 6am and crashed.  HARD.  



Friday, July 6, 2007

Okay, I admit it.  When my hubby nudged me at 9am (mind you, I didn't get asleep until about 6:30am-ish) and whispered, "Hon... hon...?  We have a 10am game.  Are you going?"  I shook my head.  I'd be damned if I would be getting up and going to any game this early in the morning after staying up all night fighting Cthulhu mythos creatures.  He got up, though, and went down to play our scheduled 10am game of With Great Power, run by the creator, Michael Miller.  

Clarence has been so gung-ho about all of the Indie games lately, and he couldn't pass up playing in a game run by the creator.  Last year, the two of us had the pleasure of meeting Clinton Nixon (creator of Donjon, The Princes' Kingdom, and the Shadows of Yesterday - also star of the podcast, The Durham Three, which hubby and I listen to religiously), Brennan Taylor (creator of Bulldogs! and Mortal Coil), Jason Blair (creator of Normal, Texas, Villainy, Little Fears, Wyrd is Bond, and Frankenstein's Children), and the MOST AWESOME Caz Granberg (creator of Covert Generation ). We played in an impromptu pick-up game with the four of them, playing Brennan's Mortal Coil, and we were so thrilled with the whole game system, we both bought a copy of the book from their booth.  (Side note:  Clinton's hot.  He's the one in the black shirt.  Like, whoa.  Brennan in the blue shirt and jeans, Caz in the green shirt on the left, and Jason in the yellow collar and hat behind them.

Uhm.  They're all kind of hot.  Clinton's The Super Hot, though.  Indie gamer guys give me a woody.  Okay, let's move on.)

So, hubby dragged his ass out of bed after sleeping a whole two and a half hours, and hauled it over to the With Great Powers Game.  I slept in until twelve noon. LOL I headed down and we met up at Fames Diner (where else would he think he would find me around lunch time?).  I must say hubby was looking mighty fine - especially for someone who had barely slept!  ANYwhooo...  He went on and on and on about how wonderful the game was.  He told me that I would have loved it.  It was roleplay heavy, and encouraged a lot of player interaction and player involvement in creating the scenes, just like our game of Mortal Coil last year.  He told me how impressed he was with the way Michael ran the game, and that he really enjoyed playing it with a fellow gamer who happened to be a young teenage girl who was a stellar gamer herself!

We agreed that we may have to buy some generic tokens and join the next With Great Powers game the next day so that I could experience it.  Kat Miller, Michael's wife, was supposed to be running it, and Michael had gone on and on about how wonderfully she ran it.  Here is a pic of her below:

After eating (yeah, you guessed it... FRIED MUSHROOMS!  With a grilled reuben sammy this time... yummy!), we perused the dealers room for awhile.  I bought my obligatory copy of the latest Dork Tower comic compilation from the guys at Steve Jackson games.  

We demonstrated tremendous willpower, knowing that our budget was tight this year.  

At some point, hubby dropped his Origins badge.  We think the knot in his cord came loose and the badge fell from his pants.  In a panic, we tried to figure out where it could have been dropped.  Hubby backtracked all over and some very nice people let him back into the dealers room to seach for it.  Nothing.  Hours later, he went back to the Lost and Found, and thank GOD someone had turned it in.  We were so relieved.  Can you imagine having to buy another one?  We asked, and apparently, if you lose it, you have to pay full price for a replacement.  We were so grateful that some unknown good Samaritan thought enough to turn it in.  Thank you, whoever you are!
  
After grabbing a DELICIOUS Orange Rumba smoothie from the Java place next to the Cthulhu rooms, we headed to our final game of the night, the 6pm game of A Family Way.  This was a Cthulhu setting written and run by Oscar Rios.

As we were making our way to the room (C114, bitches!), we noticed the flyers and signs about Club Carcosa in the Rogue Cthulhu room.  

"Dancing!  Prizes!  Fun!"  We wondered if it would be interesting to participate since we never have before.  I remembered that Brian Martin had asked me to try to make it back to his 11pm game that night to play Helen in part 6 of the Burke University series ("If you play Helen the way you did in Part 2 for the Part 6 game, Commencement, it will be great!").  It would have to be either Club Carcosa (new experience), or Burke University (Brian's hot when he plays arrogant college students).  Hmmm... lol

We made it to Oscar's game.  Oh my goodness, this game was great.  I don't know what it is about these guys in the Shoggoth.net room, but I haven't had a bad Keeper yet!  Oscar was terrific, and he played his NPCs wonderfully as well.  I played a dancer, turned nursing student, with stifled dreams to become a Rockette.  The story was about our friend, Catherine, and how she was mistreated by some men and subsequently got pregnant by one of them.  It was for mature audiences only, and with good reason!   I thought it was an awesome scenario.  Everyone was very much into their characters, and I enjoyed everyone in the game.  My hubby played Chaz, a med student who is asked to do something he would never do under normal circumstances.  I loved the guy who played Fanny, a pistol wielding girlfriend of ours with a steady head on her shoulders.  I also enjoyed immensely the guy who played Abe, the pre-law student who had an undying love for Catherine and would stay with her "no matter what"!  We survived (which is unusual for me in any CoC game I play lol  I like it that way!).  Well, all of us but for poor Chaz, who took his own life because of the trauma he had been through.  The players voted, and we all deemed my hubby, Clarence (aka Chaz) as the winner!  Fitting, since it was his birthday (in real life).  He picked his prize, the sourcebook Secrets of Kenya.  We're doing pretty good for people on a budget, eh?! :)

Hubby finally started to hit the wall.  He was exhausted, and it was about 10pm.  He wanted to head back to the room to catch some Zzz's.  I headed back with him to take a quick shower and freshen up.  We grabbed something to eat to bring up to the room (guess where we went? lol) and took awhile to relax.  I decided to go to Club Carcosa after all.

I am so glad that I did!! I had no idea that it was a Live Action Role Play (or LARP).  I was very nervous as I was handed my characters envelope and told by everyone how quickly I would pick up the rules.  I began to read my background and beads of sweat were collecting on my brow.  Evil Shandor?  I was a cult leader?  I had a weapon?  I could create zombies?  Whoa... all the modifiers and rules jumped out at me from the page.  How was I going to play this character, not understanding the rules?!  I swear, I almost left.  

Suddenly, I hear a woman speaking to the Rogue Cthulhu people.  "Can I trade in my character?  It requires for me to sing in public, and I am incredibly shy.  I can't do it.  Can you give me something else?  Or I could just play an NPC or something... sigh..."  Jokingly, one of the GMs says, "We should give you the exotic dancer... no, just kidding."  My little naughty ears perked up.  Did he just say exotic dancer?!  I asked them if I could trade mine in for the exotic dancer, and they readily agreed.  

I mean, hey, I write erotica novels.  This is right up my alley!  

For the rest of the night, I channelled "Candy", my character from Second Life.  

The goal on my sheet said that I needed to make $1500 any way that I could before my pimp beat my ass, pretty much.  I approached everyone.  Male and female, alike.  
"Hey!  How you doin'?  My name's Candy.  You know, like Candy Cane?  (insert giggle)  Are you here to party?  Wanna party with meeee?  Show me yours and I'll show you mine.  What do I mean?  Well, how much do you got?  Okay, well, that will do just fiiiinnne!"  :)  I started to realize there was opportunity to make money other ways, too.  Like ratting people out, distracting vampires while hunters staked them, telling people who the Evil Shandor was, telling the Evil Shandor who was looking for him, etc.  Mad fun!

The night ran long, and before I knew it, zombies surrounded me and ate my brains.  I died right before the King in Yellow showed up and ended it for us all.  :)  At the end, our friend Timmy (who played the stoner in our Milk in Cookies game earlier), was protecting me from the zombies, but then ran and let me get eaten.  In the process of running, he stepped on my shoe and broke it, which was a bummer.  lol Cost of doing business I guess.  :)

I had never LARPed before, but my first experience was an awesome one, and I will definitely be looking into some more Cthulhu Larps next year! :)

I hobbled back to my room around 4am (with a broken sandal strap - thanks Timmy!), and when I came in to the room, Clarence was waiting up for me.  :)  I laughed, handed him my $1500+ dollars (play money, of course), and told him, "I had to suck a lot of dicks for that money." lol He cracked up laughing and asked what happened to my shoe.  LOL  I love that man.

Saturday, July 7th, 2007

At 10am, Clarence and I headed over to the With Great Power game in D143.  Hubby really wanted me to experience the system, and we'd been Cthulhu whores all weekend, so why not?

I thought it was a terrific system.  Kat Miller was a great GM.  She was very helpful in explaining the rules to us, and making sure we understood the mechanics.  My character was Snow, a superhero who used to be in the KGB in Russia, but was now a part of the mutant academy.  She had a secret love interest in Nature Boy, who was played by a great roleplayer who gave me a lot to work with.  My hubby played his character flawlessly, The Champion - Numan Pax! I thought he was the true super hero during that game.  He made it so much fun.  We spent some time chatting it up with Kat and Michael after the game, and Clarence couldn't suppress his excitement at being able to finally meet them in person.  It was refreshing to do something different, after all the CoC games we'd been playing.  But we play them because we love them, so what can I say?!

During our walk back to the food court, we were bummed that we didn't have anything else set up for the rest of the day.  Suddenly we bumped into Matt Wiseman (Trollboy), who invited us to a "top secret" Cthulhu after hours get together at an undisclosed location.  We were thrilled!!  We had been invited to the official non-official Yog-Meet!!!  He asked us to get together with him and the other CoC GM's around 10pm for some crazy drunken Paranoia!

We headed to the room to rest up again, and before we knew it, it was 10pm!  Josh Marquart, of Rogue Cthulhu, came over and ran a rousing game of Paranoia for us.  

I'll just say that it involved stading on tables, running around the room chanting and dancing, and Matt Wiseman speaking to me in perfect Chinese ("Wa bo ai Gibb-R-ING!")  lol I love it!  Hubby and I discussed how much Trollboy was DA MAN, for reasons I shall not go into here.  He knows why.  :)

Once again, we did not get back to the room until about 3am.  Loving every minute of it.  We were starving, so we asked the front desk if they had a menu for a place that delivered 24 hours.  They did.  We had chicken wings, chicken tenders, a calzone, onion rings, and cheese fries to go with our wine from the Barley's pub across the street.  We passed out shortly thereafter.

Sunday, July 8th, 2007

The last day of the con.  So many people are checking out and leaving that the elevator down from the hotel is packed and running slowly.  We walk down to the Starbucks Coffee down the street (I am DYING from the heat, by the way... my hubby has no sympathy for me).  I get an Orange Creme Frappucino and hubby gets a Raspberry Mocha Frappucino.  They melt on our way back to our 11am game.

Rogue Cthulhu runs a series of games called their, "Shubby Sunday".  They are mature themed games run on the last day of the con.  We had signed up for AC/DC, written and run by Marx Stead.  BEST DAMN GAME OF THE CON.  The Keeper was terrific, every single one of the players were amazing, the scenario was KILLER, our pre-gen characters were AWESOME, and we played it from 11am until 8pm (NO TYPO!!! 8PM!!!!), when we were forced to cut it short due to Marx needing to tear down the set and get everything packed up.  A player named Eric Gerlach played his character, Andy, PERFECTLY.  The most hilarious thing said during the game was when Eric's real life fiancee', Kristie, was playing a submissive "bottom" role in a swingers club, and was doing a very good job of it.  She asked the head swinger whether there were other places we could go to get into more kinkier things, etc.  Eric looked over, and out of character, asked, "You are roleplaying, right?"
LOL!

We just could NOT stop this game.  Everyone was so into their roles!  I loved how the pre-gen characters were designed to all play off one another perfectly.  I was Rosie, Dom's little sister.  We were an Italian brother and sister from the bad part of Chicago.  He was over-protective of me, and I wished he would let me grow into the woman I wanted to be!  I loved the interaction between Misty Fortner's character, Stephanie, and her boyfriend, Craig, played by Tom Arnott.  Eric's fiancee', Kristie, who played Christine, was so very convincing in her role as well.  Never have we had such an ideal gaming group that gelled so well.  Hubby and I have been talking about it ever since, how we wished that we had gamers like that in our town, or that we lived nearby that group of people.  You guys don't know how lucky you are to have gamers like that close by.  :)  You would think that 9 straight hours of gaming would be taxing on most people, but all of us were having so much fun, we had to drag ourselves away! Tons of Rogue Points later, I traded my poker chips in for two more books on Cthulhu Mythos Fiction.  Yay!!!

Hubby and I headed back to our room, bummed that our vacation was almost over. We grabbed something to eat and headed to the bar inside of the Hyatt Regency hotel, connected to the convention center.  We were hoping to meet up with some of the GM's and dealers from the dealers room who would be staying the night and leaving out in the morning, like us.  We did see Tom Arnott again, and were lucky enough to chat for awhile and get his contact information.  Once he left, we sat around for awhile drinking, then retired to our room once again. 

Monday, July 9th, 2007

Flight leaves at 9:10am, so we hurry and leave the hotel around 7:30am.  We are bummed. We lament over the fact that we both forgot to pack our digital camera, and we don't have any pics of the con.  :(  If anyone happens to have any pics of us, please let me know.  My email addy is naiomipitre@hotmail.com .  I know that they were taking TONS of pics at Club Carcosa.  I wonder if they will post any of them somewhere?  :)  What about all of those "Girls Gone Wild" pics we took!?  :)

We get home after a lengthy layover in St. Louis, and our chinchillas are alive!! They survived the weekend without us!  Now, to commence with the cleaning up!

Tuesday, July 10th, 2007

I woke up this morning and headed to the hair dresser.  It is the end of my bright platinum blond streak.  :(  My boss commented that it may be distracting to some of my older clients (I am a licensed banker at a well-known banking institution, and I handle investments and annuities, etc.).  I had it toned down and re-dyed today.  The result:   




Sigh....  I'm such a sell-out.

Back to the grindstone tomorrow... back to counting down another year until my favorite con.  :)

Hubby and I are inspired to reach out yet again to find gamers in our area who are into heavy roleplay and things like Cthulhu and Indie games.  No luck so far... only D&D players in our area.  But we are going to try again!!! :)

Until next year!  Thanks to everyone who made it great.

Current Location: Baton Rouge, LA
Current Mood: bouncy
Current Music: Midnight Syndicate