All our Yesterdays
Dec. 27th, 2009 09:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cyranoIt's the end of the year, and what you do at the end of anything is reminisce about the past. Not this year, for me. The first half I have very little interest in remembering, and the last half is too close and really still too much in media res to reminisce about. But between a letter and the smell of cloves, I've had a couple of memories taking up quite a few cycles.
Cut for ramblings that go on for quite a long time....
Erection!
Last year I attended my first AmberCon--it's a collection of wickedly clever, intelligent, and twisted people who get together to drink beer, stay up far too late, and play as many games as they can cram into a weekend.
One of my slots was a game called Central Casting, an RPG about being in a television show. Our show was Erection!, kind of a cross between Scrubs and Ally MacBeal taking place in an architectural firm. The game is very co-operative (everybody gets a share of director time--if you're not acting in the scene you can make suggestions on its direction), and I ended up as the star of this episode. I was Ravyn Murphy, the androgynous black-clad goth who spent the entire episode trying to make certain that nobody in the office found out about my concert, with big talent scouts from record labels, because then they'd show up and suck all the cool out of the room. Of course, they did.
The climactic scene was me in my darkened office smoking a clove with my hands crossed over my chest. I hyperventilated while our 'audience can relate to him' character tried to convince me that I should go play my concert. And instead of the usual "your friends are your friends and they love you" sort of ending that would utterly not have worked for this character, we managed to work out a different ending, where I suddenly realized that I didn't care if they came to the concert because I didn't give a fuck about any of them and I was so cool that even the entire office being there couldn't touch me.
It was some of the best gaming I've done in years--people coming together to tell a story, things clicking and falling into place, everybody having fun even if they weren't in the spotlight. I've got a new game starting in a week, and the pressure is on. I'm not ready, but if I hadn't set a deadline then it would never have started.
Camp Chief Ouray
I got a letter in the mail before Christmas, announcing the twenty year reunion of the summer camp I worked at the year I turned 21, up in the Rockies by Snow Mountain Ranch. At first I thought it was from Jim Baer, the big good hearted quiet man mountain who used to move recalcitrant horses by tucking a shoulder under and heaving them over a little bit. But I think this "Big Jim" is the guy who listened to Ted Nugent and wore shades.
I'm highly ambivalent about whether I want to go back to that place, emotionally and temporally. Geographically, it's a gorgeous site. It was a learning experience. But I'm not sure I want to revisit that part of my life, and have those people remind me. I'm not that person any more. I don't know how much I like that person.
I think I already have plans for that weekend, so the choice may not even need to be made.
Cut for ramblings that go on for quite a long time....
Erection!
Last year I attended my first AmberCon--it's a collection of wickedly clever, intelligent, and twisted people who get together to drink beer, stay up far too late, and play as many games as they can cram into a weekend.
One of my slots was a game called Central Casting, an RPG about being in a television show. Our show was Erection!, kind of a cross between Scrubs and Ally MacBeal taking place in an architectural firm. The game is very co-operative (everybody gets a share of director time--if you're not acting in the scene you can make suggestions on its direction), and I ended up as the star of this episode. I was Ravyn Murphy, the androgynous black-clad goth who spent the entire episode trying to make certain that nobody in the office found out about my concert, with big talent scouts from record labels, because then they'd show up and suck all the cool out of the room. Of course, they did.
The climactic scene was me in my darkened office smoking a clove with my hands crossed over my chest. I hyperventilated while our 'audience can relate to him' character tried to convince me that I should go play my concert. And instead of the usual "your friends are your friends and they love you" sort of ending that would utterly not have worked for this character, we managed to work out a different ending, where I suddenly realized that I didn't care if they came to the concert because I didn't give a fuck about any of them and I was so cool that even the entire office being there couldn't touch me.
It was some of the best gaming I've done in years--people coming together to tell a story, things clicking and falling into place, everybody having fun even if they weren't in the spotlight. I've got a new game starting in a week, and the pressure is on. I'm not ready, but if I hadn't set a deadline then it would never have started.
Camp Chief Ouray
I got a letter in the mail before Christmas, announcing the twenty year reunion of the summer camp I worked at the year I turned 21, up in the Rockies by Snow Mountain Ranch. At first I thought it was from Jim Baer, the big good hearted quiet man mountain who used to move recalcitrant horses by tucking a shoulder under and heaving them over a little bit. But I think this "Big Jim" is the guy who listened to Ted Nugent and wore shades.
I'm highly ambivalent about whether I want to go back to that place, emotionally and temporally. Geographically, it's a gorgeous site. It was a learning experience. But I'm not sure I want to revisit that part of my life, and have those people remind me. I'm not that person any more. I don't know how much I like that person.
I think I already have plans for that weekend, so the choice may not even need to be made.
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no subject
Date: 2009-12-28 06:18 pm (UTC)(And, the game was Primetime Adventures, fyi.)
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Date: 2009-12-28 06:39 pm (UTC)