GenCon - Day 4

Sundays are always kind of bittersweet at GenCon. You're wiped from the last few days (especially if you went out partying Saturday night) but you're sad to see GenCon end. Some people end up skipping Sunday entirely.

Usually Nicole and I take a Sunday minis painting session so that way there is something to compel us to be there, but mini painting classes are not very demanding. This year we couldn't find one on Sunday that we wanted, so a bunch of us at the pre-reg party signed up for a LARP.

Nicole texted me shortly before the LARP, "What was I thinking, signing up for a LARP on Sunday?" Everyone else in our group bowed out, leaving me facing a LARP with 30 strangers, including two guys who took playing female characters *really* seriously... one was wearing a chong-sam and the other a corset.


I decided to give the LARP a go, and I'm glad I did. The setting was in a world where magic and magical creatures existed and most people could do at least a little magic. The timeframe was 1933... cross Vampire with pulp noir. Every character had some special gift, ability or origin as well as secrets.

The climax of the session came when one of the characters had engineered a trap for my character and my character's business partner/love interest. About 15 other players were involved for various reasons, but it boiled down to they wanted to capture Dolly (my partner/R.I.) and needed my character, Charley, to provide the books that would be used as evidence.

After avoiding the poison drinks and scuffle that ended with Charley and Dolly handcuffed to each other surrounded by mob goons with guns, crooked cops lurking outside the door, and various other parties watching our fate. Our captor then produced a torture kit and informed us that he would torture Dolly until I cooperated.

His smug grin vanished when I announced that Charley teleported himself and Dolly away, totally derailing his carefully planned and heavily financed scheme. I had kept my gift secret, and when the flabbergasted player of our nemesis said "I didn't know you could do that" my reply was "that's kind of the point."

The LARP was a serial one, which means if it's back next year, I'll be able to play Charley again. It didn't hurt that Dolly was played by a cute blonde (I don't even know her real name and she has a boyfriend), which made it easier to play than if Dolly had been a guy in drag.

After the LARP I high-tailed it back to the X Hall in time to pick up my artwork before closing. For some reason I always end the Con in the X Hall, it's one of my GenCon rituals.

On my list of stuff I'd buy if I hit the lottery, the makers of the Sultan game table were back with a more reasonable idea. The new table can be built as a coffee table or dining room table and has interlocking slats that game be remove to reveal the game space.

Anyway, another year is wrapped. Hopefully Nicole and I will stick to our resolution to paint more and I stick to my resolution to lose the 10 pounds I picked up since last GenCon.