So I go to get the jacket out of the pocket in which it and the backpack rain cover usually reside. I had used the rain cover recently during the Tropical Depression Javier visit, but had not noticed any patchouli smell. However, I did notice it when I pulled the jacket out just now. Too bad I haven't had time to journal before now. I could have washed the wind breaker sooner.
Anyway, enough of laundry and lawncare for this afternoon, back to my CopperCon recap. Saturday I also offered more help to Program Ops, and was asked to go get some low-stick masking tape for the demo room from Con Ops. So I went over, had a few conversations on the way there, talked and ate in the Staff Lounge, and talked to some more people on the way back. Then I retaped the falling plastic in the demo room. Easy enough. I really enjoyed not having any real responsibilities at-con. I may have to start doing that for CopperCon each year. It's the convention I like to attend the most and work for the least, so it would make sense.
Then I finally bought a copy of Chris's first book,
The Guildshelm Legacy : The Second World Chronicles, and got it signed by both him and the cover photo model. He only had paperback copies available, and didn't seem to have any copies of the sequel. That was OK by me, I didn't have too much money to spend. I had enough money on me to pay my
Trollhalla dues for 2004 (like three quarters of a year late) and buy his book if he had any copies, and luckily I was able to do both. My mission was acomplished.
Another mission acomplished was getting
Mike to finally sign some books I had wanted him to sign
a long time ago, before I actually got to know him as an aquaintance. I've carted these books to several cons since then, and only finally got the chance this time. I also got him to sign the
Jack Donovan card from Shadowfist, as he's the model for the character.
That reminds me that I also accomplished another mission on Friday. I had Alan Dean Foster sign some of my Star Wars novels, including the A New Hope novelization he ghostwrote for Lucas. We talked of his experiences writing for various movie franchises, and were having an interesting conversation until
Adam decided to turn the conversation around to being about him. He loves to do that, just as he loves to go to the biggest name in the room to hang out. Not surprisingly, he combines both of those activities together at every convention. I like Adam. I owe Adam a lot for introducing me to classic genre authors I wouldn't have normally tried when I frequented his book store as a child. But when I want to talk to a famous author I may not get the chance to talk to again, I'd like the conversation to remain about that author! *sigh*
Ken, Corey, a Phoenix librarian whose name I don't recall this late after the con, and I went to
Streets of NY for dinner Saturday. It was my first time there and I enjoyed it despite all of the negative and possitive things I have heard over the years about it. It was better than most pizza joints, but not as good as
NYPD Pizza. I would definately eat there again and again if people wanted. The cool thing was that Ken treated, so I didn't have to spend the last of my cash as I had expected would happen. I still didn't spend any of my cash in the dealer's room, not because there wasn't cool stuff, but because I have greater willpower against material goods other than food.
I decided to try the
Tithe of Souls vampire LARP, despite having avoided the vampire LARPs for some years. I usually find that vampire LARPs become the same after a while and lost interest. I really prefer their changling LARPs, and attend those as often as possible. This was to be the third installment of a continuing Vampire by Gaslight campaign set in Hayden's Ferry. The last session was held at
Hexacon XIV, which I missed but don't quite recall why.
Typical for the Tithe, the character sheet only gave game stats despite the fact that there were story elements attached to each character. So sometimes people would be role playing when suddenly a storyteller would contradict them to explain something they didn't know about the character. I understand that the folks at Tithe don't get paid to put on games, but players should be given all relevant information for their characters to start. Either directly on the character sheet, on a separate sheet, or in one-on-one briefings from the storytellers before the game begins.
I ended up staying to play once I found that they were going to let me play a Lasombra mole whose previous player had managed to set up as the Brujah Primogen. The rest of the Lasombra had been discovered and killed, so no one knew his secret. He had successful explained his lack of reflection as being a curse passed on my his sire, a remote possibility due to the fact that it can be bought as a flaw by members of other clans. Funnily enough, when I came back to the group and told them that I was told that I couldn't play a Lasombra due to the fact that they were only supposed to be involved for like ten minutes of story, everyone bought that as the reason I came back with a Brujah after asking for a Lasombra character and being taken aside.
I think we Lasombra and the Ravnos ended up breaking their game, as at the end of the night Lasombra where either in all of the possitions of power or were the strings behind the possitions of power. Tithe said that was going to be the end of the storyline. The two previous sessions had ended with Camarilla victories, while this one was a success for the Sabbat in infiltration. I never even had to use a single discipline, and only entered combat with myself (of course I relented to my own challenge, amazing how people feel for you when they think you're a victim of a Lasombra attack!). We killed all of the threats who suspected the new Lasombra had brought into the community, and at the end reveal everyone was shocked to discover I wasn't who I claimed.
There was a tie for first place in the best role player votes, but I came in right behind them (and the votes were taken before the end reveal!) and won a
Clan Lasombra novel. How appropriate.
During the game Vicki (who was playing in the LARP, I guess because she thought that program during and after the Masquerade would be light enough for Sue to take on alone) ended up getting upset that the Masquerade halftime caused people to spill into the area and be disruptive to the LARP environment. She felt that she had scheduled the two items in separate areas and that the Masquerade attendees needed to be polite and respect the space set aside for the LARP attendees. Eventually, it ended in a shouting match with the con chair, Bob. Afterwards, I noticed she seemed extraordinarily blue, so I tried to consol her. She urged me to go back to the game and have fun, but I stuck around to tell her some of my conflicts with Lee, the con chair for
last year's CopperCon and some of the conflicts I had seen other previous program directors have with their con chairs. It's something that just happens. I bet even Larry and I will have conflicts in regards to
LepreCon XXXI, despite being friends. It's the nature of the beast. She eventually came back to the game, and slowly seemed to lessen her blues as the night and the game progressed.
At one point I ducked my head into the Participant Green Room to see about getting something to drink (despite my character not having the Eat Food merit). I noticed SG-1 was on, that it was season six, and that it was on UPN45. That seemed rather odd.
After the game, I went to the Modern Dance, which was pitifully crammed into a small room in order to place an inordinate amount of space for the mature audiences Latex Body Painting demo. In my oppinion the spaces should have been swapped. Most people were disappointed that the dance didn't feel like it was in a dance hall, but instead in a closet. It certainly gave it a different feel from other years. I still had fun, but then again I believe that you can have fun doing almost anything as long as you have the right attitude.
After the dance I checked out the remaining party, the Pirate Party, but it was basically dead except for
Pete and some others. So I went to have breakfast in the staff lounge, only to discover from Stephanie that Vicki had quit during her altercation with Bob earlier that night. I was asked if I was taking over, and admitted that no one had asked me to do so. Considering the fact that not much program was scheduled for Sunday, I was willing to bet that they hadn't asked because they wouldn't need me.
Sunday saw me attending morning mass again. The unannounced older priest was there again and I noticed a new associate pastor, a Reverend Edmund Bennedetti, SJ, listed in the bullitin. So I put two and two together. He seems to lack any sort of involvement in the masses he presides, so I suspect that he's a burnout waiting for retirement.
Sunday at-con saw the same question Stephanie asked the night before come up again and again, and I had the same answer every time for people. I peeked into Program Ops and Sue seemed to be handling things just fine. Because there wasn't much program, I played some demo games of Shadowfist with people. I talked up the Game Depot tournaments, but when I was there yesterday no one from CopperCon showed up. Maybe the next session they will.
After that I went to Tithe's changling LARP, but it was the first one that they had put on that wasn't very fun. I mean, some of the players made the experience enjoyable, but I just couldn't get into the plot. In fact, when Ken eventually found me we ended up discussing a possible future
T&T LARP which sounded immensely more fun than the game I was missing at that point. In fact, I missed the entire end part of the game, but they still gave me a parting gift for playing as little as I did.
After that, I was going to play some Shadowfist with Ken, but he kept disappearing and reappearing on me. I gave up and went down to the Compliments and Complaints panel and wrote some notes down for use at LepreCon XXXI. Some people gave me a hard time about taking notes, but I find the post-con panel to be very informative for people like me who actually work these conventions. Eventually, after a few final conversations with people, I left around six o'clock.
That night I watched Buffy, then Angel. But when I went to watch SG-1 on FOX10, The Practice was on instead! Without warning, SG-1 apparently switched which station it was to be broadcast on in syndication. There were no commercials, nothing to indicate that such a change was coming. So then it seemed that SG1 was to be out of reach to me again, as I'm usually busy during Saturday primetime.
The 15th saw our archiving session for Diagon Alley Live. All of our work was organized and put away for future reference.
The 16th saw me getting a ride from Shane to Joe's place for their D&D game. Because I was told to make a seventh level anything I wanted, I thought about making the ninja centaur I've always wanted to do. Well, no one had any d20 stuff on ninjas, so I made a half-gold dragon/half-centaur. Next level he'll reach large size, gain hit points, gain a fly speed, and increase his bite, claw, and hoof damage. I gave him multiattack and improved multiattack as his two feats, so he can bite, claw, claw, hoof, and hoof without any multiple attack penalties. The dungeon master told me that he was probably the most powerful player character at the moment, which is scarey when you think about the fact that the party includes a paladin, efreeti, demon, red dragon, and felinoid among others. Apparently, these folks are still feckless power gamers despite the change in makeup.
I learned that the paladin had taken damage from the red dragon before for rather minor reasons (not surprising when you consider the required alignments of each). That session he slapped the dragon on the nose with the flat of its blade for something it said and he was eatten. All of the players were shocked he had the gall to do it, and knew he was dead as soon as he declared his action. Poor Joe, seven years later and everyone else at the table still knows better what he shouldn't be doing than he.
There's wasn't much plot. The paladin had a gem which made him not suffer while on the plane of fire. It was stolen by the party thief (who while good suffers from a curse which requires him to make Will saves to avoid stealing anything valueable which he sees. Good thing my character's valueable assets are a magical might composite bow and horseshoes of speed. I don't think I'll be losing those anytime soon.). The item was then fought over by the party before being tossed into the lake of fire. That froze the whole lake, and my character was sent by the nearvy city to investigate. I arrived in time to watch the paladin die, the effreeti leave now that he was no longer soulbound to the paladin, and join the party as it traveled to another plane of existance.
On the 17th Harley invited us back to his place for a spagetti dinner he was making. The whole group was back together, which was good. We chatted, watched
Curse of the Black Pearl, and ate. A good time was had by all.
On the 18th I started catching up on email and stuff put on the backburner for the convention and other recent activities.
On the 19th was Bailey's Paladium campaign. I explain that story later, too. Afterwards I attended mass, where Father Gene presided. Unlike most times he presides over the evening mass, he actually seemed to be in the spirit of it. Most times it seems as if he can't rush through it fast enough. So maybe he's warming up to having an evening mass. It has been almost ten years now, I think. After that I watched Buffy, Angel, waited awhile now that nothing is on until 0200, then watched Buffy and Angel.
But you already knew that.
On the 20th we held the LepreCon XXXI Program Team meeting. I found out about a hotel walk-through held on the 18th (while I was at work).
On the 23rd Shane picked me up for their
Eberron campaign. Unfortunately, the DM for that was sick, so I made a character for Joe's upcoming BESM cyberpunk campaign. I made an old street doc with a shady past who's looking to redeem himself. I'm hoping that I can try teaching them the role-play part of RPGs. I had started to see some progress the last time we gamed together, before the stress became too much. I'm willing to try it again.
On the 24th, Kitty and Rusty invited us to their place! The kids and grandkids were out of the house, and we had chili dogs. Eventually Rusty was able to talk them into a game, so we played Nautilus. I had played it at GenCon, and Rusty had read the rules since buying it on sale at Game Depot, but the others learned as they went. It was fun, and a different game four player instead of two player.
The 25th saw another of Steve's campaign nights with Smitty making spagetti for everyone. It was good. I'll recap the adventure later.
Yesterday I went to mass in the morning again. Suddenly the bullitin no longer lists either associate pastor, so who knows if Father Gene is on his own again. They don't tell us before or after mass, so I guess if I want to know what's going on I'll have to ask.
After that I went to Ken's. From there we picked up one of Corey's friends and went to the Arizona Proving Ground at Game Depot. It was a final brawl dueling tournament, with no requirement to keep the same deck each round. My first opponent was Corey. I suspected that he would play his Purist deck again, so I pulled out a Lotus deck I thought could stop it. He did use that deck, and he had one site remaining when I won. My next opponent was Harley, who I suspected would play his Dragons with guns deck which always wipes the floors with me. Ken suggested fighting fire with fire, so I pulled out one of my Dragons with guns decks (the one with the chi and tech). He did use that deck, and I finally wiped the floor with him for a change. Although, to be fair, he did this awesome play where he only lost an undamaged Everyday Hero while killing my wounded Everyday Hero and an unwounded Karate Cop. Then, I was up against Ken who I suspected would be playing his usual Four Monarchs with everything and the kitchen sink deck. I chose a Jammer deck, and I was losing until he used the Thunder Sword. Because the wielder cannot attack sites I just played sites and no characters until I amassed enough power to afford enough characters and other cards to get past his lone Darkness Warriors. From there on, I was back in control like the other games. So I won the tournament, my first ever first place! Trav had forgotten the prizes, but he wrote first, second (Harley), and third (Corey) down to award the prizes next time.
We then planned our teams for the Assassins in Love tournament in two weeks before departing Game Depot. Ken wanted to team up with me, so we started planning our strategy over ice cream at his place.
Sunday was also a day for phone calls. I spoke with Merlevic and Charles about the upcoming eleven year high school reunion (they forgot to actually place the tenth anniversary in the tenth year, pretty sad if you ask me). I wished Meera a happy seventieth and appologied for not being able to make it to her party. I spoke with my mother about how tough the job search is for her and her husband, my step-brother's upcoming wedding, and my parents' possible move to Oklahoma if they can't get jobs here. Wayne and I had our usual postweek discussion and he wearned me about a switch in broadcast schedules for UPN45. I watched Buffy and Angel at their usual times, but they were the episodes that followed last week's 02:00 and 03:00 airtimes. Apparently, the episodes that followed last week's 22:00 and 23:00 airtimes were broadcast on Saturday evening. Once again, no commercials, no scrolling message bar at the bottom, nothing to warn us about the change. Now the 02:00 timeslot is SG-1, so I get to watch one of each show again. It's not perfect, but it'll do I guess.
Today was a catch up day, as stated before. I've done laundry, mowed and weeded the lawn, journaled, et cetera. Next time, I still have Hexacon recaps, and several gaming session recaps due. Let's hope I remember something.
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