"Jenny Sparks is talking about us again, and she's smoking those foul English cigarettes that smell like the bottom of an oil drum"
So, I spent the weekend in the hellhole of a town they call Reading attending a pretty amusing Camarilla regional event. Why is Reading a hellhole? Well, to be fair, its probably a rather nice town when you're not trying to navigate their bus system. A bus system that makes Oakville seem convenient. At least Oakville sees it as sensible to tell you when the buses come and go. Reading does not. As far as I can tlel, in Reading you find out when the buses come purely by word of mouth.
Similarly, their hotel, the Moat House, where the game was held does not have an actual telephone number listed on their booking page. Its a link to a general Moat House chain booking call center. The important thing here is that the call center is not allowed to tell you the phone number of the actual hotel, under any circumstances. Still trying to figure that one out.
Anyway, I got to the event by the total kindess of strangers. Some girl on the bus overheard that I was trying to get to the Moat House, and asked her mother on the phone...and her mother spontaneously offered to drive me. Hot damn. So I got a ride from a rather good looking girl and her mother...in retrospect I should have got her number. Ah well.
My biggest complaint about the weekend is the fact that the English have no ban against smoking in restaraunts, or hotels, or anything like that. And their ciggarettes, just as the Midnighter said, smell like the bottom of an oil drum. They're foul. More so than American ones. So I was exposed to THAT shit for four hours a day for the last three days. I had to invest in a bottle of Febreeze and shower after every game.
The games were pretty good, though. Werewolf was a bit too plot driven rather than RP driven, but given that the game's only been an actual LARP venue for a month or two this is actually pretty understandable. Still, it was fun. I got to play a sleazy Pure, and through some rather useful RP, and rather badly done social interaction on the part of the Forsaken, we managed to achieve all our objectives. Including a rather amusing scene where I beat one of the local pack alphas upside the head with a crowbar. Literally. As he was beating on one of my packmates I caught him underneath the chin with a crowbar. Just a great image considering that I was playing the Pure alpha, who was kind of a sleezy Cockney grifter type of guy.
Mage was better. I was semi-NPCing a Celestial Choruster who, to make a long story short, was the humanist embodiment of the Holy Grail. Britain's Mage plot is steeped in Arthurian lore, so it really fit. We found Excalibur buried in the stone (not REALLY Excalibur, since that was given to Arthur by Nimue after the first sword of the stone broke), and we each had to attempt to draw it, at which point it asked us why we were worthy to draw it. Most people gave stupid answers like "I'm not worthy", which the sword didn't like. MY answer, however, wowed the ST and genuinly gave everyone a good direction to go in. My answer? "I seek the sword to seek the Grail", at which point it promptly teleported me to a bunch of Traditionalists who were planning for an assault on a Technocracy stronghold to, among other things, free the Keeper of the Grail. It was a fun scene of madcap mayhem where I got to use my Blessing (I have a 3pt Background that functions as a built-in Wonder that lets me use Life 3 to heal epople with my blood) on two or three different people, and got to Life heal myself, as well as chop at some robot drones with my magic sword. It wasn't as fun as playing 7r4d3m4rk, but it was a good day's play.
After Mage I got to hang out with Bex and Ian, a pair of UK Mage players (OK, Bex is UK Mage ST), and we got to talking about a lot of stuff and trading stories back and forth. It was, honestly, an INCREDIBLE time. A well spent two hours.
Sunday we did Changeling. That was the BEST. I played Innis instead of an NPC, so I got involved in a lot of shit, including a quest for a magic book to keep England's chimerical landscape from tearing itself apart thanks to having multiple people claiming to be King and/or Queen. I was honestly helpful. Then I got to ask the King and Queen of the UK Fae for a favor, the real purpose of my trip. The magic chains that had washed up on the beach, so that we could use them against the Fomorians. And they GAVE IT TO ME! Fucking A! So yeah...I was rather impressed and amazed by that. So yes, everything's gone well.
I am absconed at Jesus College now. I should have internet access on my laptop by tomorrow I'm told. At which point I'll do a more in depth post, as well as posting some pictures from the trip, including one of my current accomodations.
Excelsior!
Similarly, their hotel, the Moat House, where the game was held does not have an actual telephone number listed on their booking page. Its a link to a general Moat House chain booking call center. The important thing here is that the call center is not allowed to tell you the phone number of the actual hotel, under any circumstances. Still trying to figure that one out.
Anyway, I got to the event by the total kindess of strangers. Some girl on the bus overheard that I was trying to get to the Moat House, and asked her mother on the phone...and her mother spontaneously offered to drive me. Hot damn. So I got a ride from a rather good looking girl and her mother...in retrospect I should have got her number. Ah well.
My biggest complaint about the weekend is the fact that the English have no ban against smoking in restaraunts, or hotels, or anything like that. And their ciggarettes, just as the Midnighter said, smell like the bottom of an oil drum. They're foul. More so than American ones. So I was exposed to THAT shit for four hours a day for the last three days. I had to invest in a bottle of Febreeze and shower after every game.
The games were pretty good, though. Werewolf was a bit too plot driven rather than RP driven, but given that the game's only been an actual LARP venue for a month or two this is actually pretty understandable. Still, it was fun. I got to play a sleazy Pure, and through some rather useful RP, and rather badly done social interaction on the part of the Forsaken, we managed to achieve all our objectives. Including a rather amusing scene where I beat one of the local pack alphas upside the head with a crowbar. Literally. As he was beating on one of my packmates I caught him underneath the chin with a crowbar. Just a great image considering that I was playing the Pure alpha, who was kind of a sleezy Cockney grifter type of guy.
Mage was better. I was semi-NPCing a Celestial Choruster who, to make a long story short, was the humanist embodiment of the Holy Grail. Britain's Mage plot is steeped in Arthurian lore, so it really fit. We found Excalibur buried in the stone (not REALLY Excalibur, since that was given to Arthur by Nimue after the first sword of the stone broke), and we each had to attempt to draw it, at which point it asked us why we were worthy to draw it. Most people gave stupid answers like "I'm not worthy", which the sword didn't like. MY answer, however, wowed the ST and genuinly gave everyone a good direction to go in. My answer? "I seek the sword to seek the Grail", at which point it promptly teleported me to a bunch of Traditionalists who were planning for an assault on a Technocracy stronghold to, among other things, free the Keeper of the Grail. It was a fun scene of madcap mayhem where I got to use my Blessing (I have a 3pt Background that functions as a built-in Wonder that lets me use Life 3 to heal epople with my blood) on two or three different people, and got to Life heal myself, as well as chop at some robot drones with my magic sword. It wasn't as fun as playing 7r4d3m4rk, but it was a good day's play.
After Mage I got to hang out with Bex and Ian, a pair of UK Mage players (OK, Bex is UK Mage ST), and we got to talking about a lot of stuff and trading stories back and forth. It was, honestly, an INCREDIBLE time. A well spent two hours.
Sunday we did Changeling. That was the BEST. I played Innis instead of an NPC, so I got involved in a lot of shit, including a quest for a magic book to keep England's chimerical landscape from tearing itself apart thanks to having multiple people claiming to be King and/or Queen. I was honestly helpful. Then I got to ask the King and Queen of the UK Fae for a favor, the real purpose of my trip. The magic chains that had washed up on the beach, so that we could use them against the Fomorians. And they GAVE IT TO ME! Fucking A! So yeah...I was rather impressed and amazed by that. So yes, everything's gone well.
I am absconed at Jesus College now. I should have internet access on my laptop by tomorrow I'm told. At which point I'll do a more in depth post, as well as posting some pictures from the trip, including one of my current accomodations.
Excelsior!
posted by Derek the Bard at 8:10 a.m.
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