Becoming a Player Again!

Last night, for the first time in a while, I became a player again. I showed up to a Friday night gathering of costumed miscreants without my HST hat in tow. That's right, I went to CBN. It's been almost five years since the last time I played at CBN--kind of remarkable when you consider that it was my first LARP experience. But, I went. I got to be just another player. And let me tell you, it was awesome!

After years as an ST, LARP nights become associated with stress, worry, and very little sleep afterwards. The rush of declaring "Game On!" and seeing 30 or 40 costumed players act out stories that you helped facilitate is nothing short of amazing--but it wears on you. "Breakfast," as we call the trips to IHOP after game, is all the release you get, chatting with players about nothing and everything, everyone just hanging out without the ST-player barrier being enforced by the game's rules. But then it's back to planning the next game, keeping track of the consequences of fights, politicing, and xp expenditures, and reading hundreds of emails.

I've always known that more release could be found by playing in other LARPs. No pressure. Only your own fights, politics, and xp to worry about. Five emails, instead of hundreds. I just haven't been going, for no good reason really.

So, when "The Poo-Flinger" proposed a paired-anarch concept for his long-awaited return to CBN, I (finally!) decided to go along and see what would happen.

Over dinner, we finalized our characters and their relationship, talked about our plan, and Esteban (his) and Sean McDermot were ready to contact Trent (the "leader" of the anarchs) and enter the wild wacky world of CBN.

Highlights:
* Finding my character within 10 minutes, and developing him as a personality I can represent theatrically.
* Trent's introduction to Cleveland as a place where sometimes nothing happens, and sometimes there are houses that eat people.
* leaving a club where Vampires were hanging out and hearing "Heh... There go Trent and his dogs." Not even half a game and we've already been accepted by everyone for who we are. Sweet!
* Seeing 7 or 8 anarchs do what they do best: get all riled up about some Camarilla law nonsense.
* Arguing with a very majestic Toreador about said nonsense in front of a club full of non-plussed vampires.
*Seeing Leah's character Laura inhabiting a cat, Chuckles (who was sort of named for me, I think), and being unable to stop swatting a wiggling bone wiggled by a Ravnos.
*Finding out that Xavier might be stopping by next game to check on the squabbling Neonates.
*Seeing my girlfriend have a good time at her first CBN, impress some people, and get nominated!

By wrap-up, I realized that Sean probably wasn't the best name for my character if I want him to stand out, since several players bear the moniker in real life, so next time I might have him go by McDermot instead.

Of course, even with a five year gap I was able to keep up my record of being nominated for extra xp (a reward for good roleplaying) in every game session I've ever played at CBN (all two!), though I felt bad that it came from "The Poo-Flinger." I don't want to give everyone the impression that we're just chumps who want our coterie to have more xp to whomp on people with. If it happens next game, I'll turn down the nomination if I can.

After wrap-up, it was off to Dmitri's, for a CBN tradition: breakfast! The buttery Dmitri's slam sitting heavily in my gut, I hung out, ran some post-scenes, and realized; "hey. I don't have to worry about ST stuff for this game. I'm free!!!!"

All in all, it was a great night, and I'm glad to say that Sean's is a story I will keep telling at CBN.

First Post

A storyteller in every sense, huh? Just what does that mean?

Well, I'll tell you.

Those who know me personally will recognize the word as a title.
The "Storyteller" is the guy (or occasionally girl) who runs the LARP.


I run a LARP that tends towards the improvisational theatre side of things. But a storyteller can be other things too.

I am also a writer. Perhaps later I will link to some of my work. Perhaps not.

I also tell stories. In fact, I realized recently that stories are my whole life. Everything I'm interested in, everything I want to see in the world, and everything I do is at the very least closely tied to stories.

Not just fictional stories, either. Human stories. Funny stories. Inspiring stories. Stories about what is happening in our world, in our country, and in our backyard.

This blog will be about sharing stories from my life--my life of shared stories.

Pay attention to stories. They're important.