Origins 2007

Write Ups

Call of Cthulhu: Unsung Saga (ae192)

Call of Cthulhu: Setting Sun, Rising Tide (ae192)

Pendragon 2007: A Knight to Remember (ae192)

Unknown Armies: Throw a Penny (ae192)

octaNe: Against the Reich: Reign of Blood, Parts I and II (ae193)

Cat: Toccata and Fur in A Minor (ae193)

Overview (ae191)

I've registered for 10 events at Origins, which is probably slightly insane. That's 40 hours worth of gaming over 5 days, with the bulk, 32 hours, over the middle 3 days. I may punk on a couple of the late night CoC games, and if I do, I'm sure they'll fill my spot, especially as I'll give the gm a heads up. Line up looks like this:

Wednesday night (Jul 4): CoC Dark Ages: Unsung Saga. Vikings going araiding run afoul of mythos, I think. Poor vikings.

Thursday (July 5): Nothing scheduled before 6 pm, so I get to sleep in and shop. 6-10 is Hands and Faces, a new thing that I think comes out of the indie game crowd, and I -think- is run by a guy I've gamed with at a previous Origins, who scored mental points from me by saying that I was quite right and the seemingly simple indie games really are a challenge to learn and run. Then, 11 pm - 3 am is Oscar Rios's CoC game, Setting Sun / Rising Tide, I think -- Japanese in WWII plus mythos.

Friday (July 6): 10 am -2 pm is the Pendragon game, where I expect to be playing Sir Myron, the Jewish knight in fuschia armor. I still have a d8 of exactly the right shade to represent him. 6-10 is Dogs in the Vineyard. 11 pm -3 am is another CoC game, something in the Burke University Saga, which I've not played before. The Dean in Yellow. I may punk on this if I get too tired.

Saturday (July 7): 1 pm -5 pm is Thy Will, which sounds like a fairly intense game of Unknown Armies. The description warns that folks will be expected to talk about religion in character. I trust the gm, Todd Furler. He's also running the 6-10 game of octaNe, a silly pulpy thing about Nazis and South America and stuff. He's the one of whom I've said, "He could run Phonebook: The Dialing, and I'd play." Scarily, this got Josh and Michael Miller looking thoughtful about writing such a game. And, another late night CoC game, 10 pm -2 am, The Convicts, about prisoners in the 1920s sentenced (rightly or wrongly, says the description), among other things, to be sterilized.

Sunday (July 8): 1 pm - 5 pm is Cat. I'd thought at first, "Okay, cute for beginners, but, like, I already know how to play a cat." Then, I found out that it's about magical cats. Well, all cats are magical -- chasing sunbeams and stuff like that is Important Magic that keeps the world in order. Josh noted that this is in keeping with the usual rpg trend: It's a game about X -- and there's magic.

Arrival (ae192)

Caveat: Where I list player names, I may not always have gotten them correct. My apologies to anyone whose name I misread.

Tuesday

Josh emailed to tell me that Delta thoughtfully changed our flight from 7:59 am to 9:15 am and added a Cincinnati stopover. He called the airline and got us on a 6:15 am flight with the same stopover. I groused about this being part of the new strategy to defeat terrorists by randomly rearranging their flights.

Who, me, grumpy?

We met Lizard, aka Ian Harac, for dinner, along with his wife Elizabeth, and Avram Grumer. Then, we made our slow way home, and did the not going to bed trick.

Wednesday

Note to self: When you know that the car sevice verifies your address via your phone number, it really is better to call from home phone, even if it's only a few hours before original pick up time, to change the timing. I had called from work, and though I specified our address, there was some confusion. Nevertheless, the car service did get a car over there, and we did get to the airport in plenty of time to catch the flight.

We dozed on the plane to Cincinnati. Then, we got put on a shuttle bus to go to the terminal for the second flight. We got to our hotel, the Crowne Plaze, checked in, and crashed hard for a few hours. Beth arrived, and Marc, Keira, and Julian arrived and claimed the second room we'd reserved. There was a thunderstorm while we were napping.

When Josh and I woke up, we got on the various lines. We picked up badges and generics, and I got my event tickets. Josh signed up for stuff.

I said hi to Spike, Mary, and Miranda, who were all looking good. Spike said that the Washington DC mall was evacuated due to a tornado warning. I tried to remember the signs of this. Sudden temperature rise or fall of c. 20 degrees. Green skies. The third's what, wind? Spike said screaming people, but I think that's the fourth.

Spike said that Christina Stiles ran into the storm a few miles out of Columbus. She arrived safely, but that was not, I think, a fun part of the drive.

Josh went out for Italian food with the Looney Labs folks. I confirmed that Siam Express was still in the food court, bless 'em all. That place is a major life saver.