Joshua Kronengold

I need to remember that if I want to see more content from other people on Dreamwidth, I really should post a bit more myself.

Our con activity has been -way- down since 2021 for the obvious reasons, so it was something of a trip (as it were) to do two cons in two weeks.

Dexlite was a dizzying array of games, separated by semi-scheduled bits of relaxation. Lisa and I volunteered to run our Good Society hack, Dangerous Refuge, twice -- once on the official schedule and once for Sparks (the rebranded "games on demand" non-scheduled games system); drcpunk ran one session and I ran the other. Interestingly, both of these sessions differed from our core concept and how our previous sessions have gone, in that the players constructed a world and session that was replete with external threats/problems and light on internal ones.

On the one hand, we could probably reduce this frequency by writing a deck of suggested Desires that pushed players towards internal tension. And should; not only can we not, in fact, use the base desires without either permission or referring to them by number (and I'd rather have the option to publish a complete game rather than a supplement, since I really like how playtests have gone), but obviously, dark fantasy school adventures do have notably different core motivations, typically, than regency romances.

On the other hand, it was really fun seeing how, despite the PC group being less strive-driven and more focused on external dangers and threats, whether they were from the Connections (who are, in fact, intended to do exactly that and the players were brilliant at bringing that) than our core setup, the games worked quite well -- in Lisa's game, the players dreamed up a Problem where the previous graduating glass had all failed to graduate, and in less than four hours, played themselves into a stunning conclusion where the PCs had to, despite difficulties, graduate One Year Early, freeing the school from Doom.

And in my run, the players doubled down on YA Dystopia, building a school that was a prison/indoctrination camp for teenage psychics the entire world was afraid of, whose greatest enemies were the faculty themselves and the school building itself, and whose allies were...well, the school building itself and and one another--if they could be trusted. The game climaxed when the players decided that the Newcomer PC would allow his connection to DIE in a challenge set for both of them (while she saved him; the player playing the connection signed off on this, of course), and that the faculty would decide, after the telekinetic PC intervened to save the matter-transmitting PC from a humiliating pop quiz, that she needed to die, resulting in a Danger phase full of menace and culminating in the students BREAKING OUT OF THE SCHOOL to be airlifted to a secret rebel base. I'd definitely read that first of a trilogy book!

I also played a small array of board games, other RPGs, and even a LARP of course, including getting to try a session of Daggerheart, but I think RPGs were thinner than they've been at previous Dexlites (not to mention Dexcons). In order to reverse this, we'd need more larps I like on the schedule--having some on Sparks is great, of course, but those serve as an outlet for players that don't have enough games to play--for the players to even be there there need to be games for them on the schedule.

The following weekend, I went to Summer Larpin', a rocking, larping convention, which I've been doing as an extra larping convetnion for...quite some time now. I was signed up for three games and played in four (sunday is unscheduled for SL); S.U.F.I.E.T.R.A, a fighting game-themed game (this time using a Street Fighter playset complete with a martial arts tournament) with a solid plot core that got elaborated on a bit with workshops where I played The Monster (character names were workshopped here so my name was unique to this run and ended up inspiring an extra relationship, though I forgot to get resolution there but did use one of my flashbacks on that), Shadow Soiree, a dark fantasy secrets and powers and quests game with solid inspiration from the Witcher, among others, where I played the Flame Reader (character names actually were usually titles here, which honestly made them way easier to remember; the only "names" I remember were Prospero and Pandora, both of whom were exactly what it said on the tin), Arabian Days where I played Aladdin's Djinn (which means I'm not going to say what name was on my badge, as that was not public information at the start of the game, although that Aladdin was in the game was)--which was also a secrets and powers and quests game, and as my one "signed up at the con becauese the game had lost players game, also played in Jubilee, which was an interesting psychological game--you played both your own character, who had two "voices" governing your behavior and future, and also were one of the representatives for those voices for the other three players who had the same voice as you had. It was a fun experience!

I also showed up late to the Dance, but still got to dance for over an hour, which just goes to show how much my endurance has improved--I did take breaks, but mostly not because I was tired but because the pairs people had formed didn't include me--or just because my face was running with sweat and I wanted a chance to cool off a bit.

Another Dexcon come and gone. This time with less stupid sleep deprivation and more late mornings, due to not wanting to put my brain on the fritz.

I came down late Wednesday, somewhat against my original plans, as something came up at work I couldn't easily skip out on--but due to trains being fast, still made it to Morristown well before 9 (games start at 10), doing an Ingress mission on the way and catching up with drcpunk for dinner.

( A longish con report with included song follows )

When your friendship's on rails 
To be much more than pals,
That's amore.

When you cook up a dish,
Of an 'eel' of a fish,
that's a moray.

With a pattern that fades
Smoothly between two shades,
that's a moire,

With two letters that come
As a version of "mom"
That's 'M' or 'A'

( more con report! )

drcpunk has been running a Kerberos Club game since some time last year, using Fate. The game world is sort of a superhero Victorian setup, so in the game are a speedster Sherlock Holmes, Abraham Lincoln as a two fisted hero, a shape-shifting nobleman, my telekinetic but socially powerless noble ward, and Kristen's clockwork fairy, Sophronia. Sophronia is a clockwork fairy, made intelligent and well (and six inches tall) by her creator's art -- who, frustrated that he couldn't make a device of brass and silver fly, made a deal with the Fey that he would enter fairy and serve them, while his creation would be endowed with fairy powers and, thus, flight. Sophronia, not unreasonably, is rather upset about this deal and thus has the aspect "Take me as I am" -- which for some strange reason, inspired this song (back in early January -- I wanted to spring it on the Sophronia's player (And Heather) so hadn't gotten around to posting it...until now.

Sophronia's Song
ttto Heather Dale's "As I Am"

I suppose I might seem different from the girls of gentle birth,
When my head rests at their ankles, it is hard to reckon worth.
(And) my anger makes me fearsome, when they're gentle as a lamb,
But I only ask you take me, take me as I am.

I didn't ask for magic, I didn't ask to fly,
I didn't ask for clockwork, though without it what am I?
I only ask for friendship, to rest upon your hand,
And I only ask you take me, take me as I am.

I offer you a look inside the clockwork of my heart,
The gears that turn and interlock, the magic that's a part,
Of everything I think and feel, I need your help to see,
What part within is fairy, and what part is just me.

I do not need a partner, I already have a cat,
I do not want a sacrifice, there's been enough of that.
I make my own illusions, I want no other shams,
I only want a person, who'll take me as I am.