Awesome moments

First off, massive thank you to Anna for organising this. Also, huge thanks to Kim and her minions for feeding us so wonderfully.

I had an absolute blast this weekend. So many great games! I think this was my favourite Chimera so far.

I’m in the middle of work, so I shall post more later, but as a start one of my favourite moments was when myself (the Winter Knight) and Porl (as the Troll) tried to beat up a preoccupied vampire from behind… and both of us losing despite having the highest possible physical stats.

One from me because I’m too tired to post more, from the Flagship:

Porl as Troll comes up to me and asks a GM question [redacted in case we run it again].
I give him the answer.
Porl (referring to Anna as the Winter Lady), looks unhappy: “Ohhhh, she gonna hit me SOOOO HAAAARRRRRD”

[ul]
[li] Watching the Drones recycle the same love-letter three times to ensure everyone got happily engaged;[/li]
[li] Bricks and Water: Mentally cataloging the personality defects of the melancholics whenever I talked to them: “disorganised, unfocused, undisciplined - incapable of achieving anything, let alone happiness”.[/li]
[li] Bricks and Water: Planning to murder the entire larp to keep my wife on top, being persuaded that a less severe solution would work, then being shot by my own secret police.[/li]
[li] Secrets of the Deep: As the Living God, planning on how I was going to express my wrath to my High Priest at the end of the evening. Of course, for [SPOILER] reasons I never got to do this.[/li]
[li] Carnival Arcane: lying there as a corpse, listening to people going through my journal. Also thinking about “Mrs Foster: Monster Hunter”.[/li]
[li] Seven Deadly Virtues: As Lancelot, trying to fake it so no-one would realise what the problem was.[/li][/ul]

DRY SPELL! getting to play such an amazing character as Mr Fish…there was a moment when miss cage (played by Maria) and i had just got a drink and robin started calling us over and miss cage turned to me and said “do you think we can ignore her?” and at that moment someone turned up and told us the he believed the lady wanted to see us i turned to miss cage ans said “apparently not”

When setting up the room for Dry Spell we were given one throne. We put it in the corner and Scott and I had a conversation along the lines of “I wonder which of the faction leaders is going to take it”.

Then Michelle, who of course is in the room first, walks in, sits down in it and doesn’t move from that spot for the next two and a half hours, only standing when she’s just caused an earthquake. SO perfect. “Well,” as she herself said to me when I commented on it at the start, “it’s my house!”.

Also Dave, loved the way you leapt up and struck a heroic pose when Scott told you you didn’t fall over in the earthquake :smiley:

I have been to quite a few Chimera’s now , and have to say this was one of the best…
Martin Clydes game, I played Euchro , lover of Valya, in When the end of the world came … This game was very emotional for me, and hit me right in the feels (Judit, you’re a star “best supporting actress in a apocalyptic themed drama” ) The owl symbol will now forever represent to me a strengthening of two people’s commitment in the worst of situations, and a promise of return… considering our struggle to survive with the raiders ships we could hear in the distance (sounded a lot like a lawnmower) …Dave Agnew, James Cooper and Mani, you were so believable, Courtz, good try, you can’t beat true love
Salem…Mani you are a great writer, playing the Rev Simon Parris in Salem Witch Trials was for me a real Highlight… Leela, you made a lovely arch-nemesis, Shetland, Judge not, lest ye be judged :sunglasses:, Stephanie C, I loved having you as my somewhat nutbar niece, you made the screaming all worth it…Walter , i’ll need to learn to read your face better…Sorry to anyone that got burned…
Supervillains, i Played Count Ivan, It’s hard to say too much without spoilers, but great game guys, lots happening, Iron Horse, put some damned clothes on Paul…Daniel, love ya son, and Jess, you were amazing, From wanting to kill you at the start, I wouldn’t want to have been without you at the end. Our little family rocked… Hell we even converted one of Iron Horse’s men because he just knew who really wielded the power.
Betrayals and Betrothals …what can i say, Anna wrote a great story, and my character had to deal with a lot … really fine roleplaying by Beth St Clair and Derek Tomes (my nemesis) really didn’t make things any easier… Achieved my objective , but way too late…
Dry Spell, I played Simon Petrovich the Russian Merlin, head of the White Council…so right from the start my antagonist confronts me…Cornered and separated from my team of all powerful wizards I had to think up some fairly quick reasons why i wouldn’t speak of certain events right away, (bide some time) …So many folk at war , and alliances shifting quicker than you could poke a wand at…The best thing i found i could really do was stay alive, keep my team alive (that didn’t work out so well, but LOVED your death curse Brent) and keep my head on…some were not so lucky.Outstanding roleplaying by Lucy and Stephen Brough helped my wade through the vampiric mire
Boats against the current, another great Anna Klein success, this time GMed by Jame Cooper in his first GM role, he did very well…great use of 1920’s music and radio announcements…real fine performances in this by everyone involved , i didn’t know everyone to name them, but the guy who played the businessman, great work, Paul Taylor, wonderful, Lucy , you are so talented, and Lucretia , you helped me make some special moments and hit me in the feels,Sorry, I may have drunk a little too much…
So all in all a fabulous Chimera , full of great fun, frivolity, emotion both good and bad, heartwarming, disquieting and sobering… full of pathos and drama, but also action packed in it’s own way… It doesn’t get much better than Chimera 14, I will remember it for at least a year.

I can’t take credit for Betrothals and Betrayals, beyond trying to arbitrate the mayhem :slight_smile: It was written by one of Wellington’s larp writing greats, Donna Giltrap :slight_smile:

“Kiss me.” :open_mouth:

“Kara’s character has offended me. I’m just thinking about it…” Tigger in reference to a question involving licking…

Dry Spell, sitting in my throne almost all night, screaming “FISH” or "CAGE " or whoever it was that Robin wanted at that moment until they arrived, never took more than 2 calls and the characters around her cringing the whole time :slight_smile:
Also causing an earthquake cause people were disrespecting my house rules was great

So, more favourite moments.

Muppets was fantastic to watch. The spontaneous Bohemian Rhapsody was hilarious. All the performances were amazing - thanks to everyone who came up and did a skit, you were all great. I also hope the limbo song will linger long in your minds :smiley:

Thank you to all the Wands at the Ready players - my first (mostly) solo game. Thank you Prema for your help, and Gene and Prema for helping come up with the duel mechanic. You even managed to solve both plots, one by brute force and the other due to [redacted for spoilers].

Boats against the current - many awesome moments there. Loved the argument and subsequent reconciliation/mutual agreement of cowardice between Vanya and Martin’s characters. Persuaded Beth’s character to go on a date with mine, and then when [spoiler], she subtly moved next to me, and moments later so did all the cast. Loved the ending, with everyone sitting nervously waiting if it was them. Also, so much drinking.

Dry spell. So much awesome. Getting in Al Capone’s face twice, having sterner words each time was good fun. Troll was amazing to watch “good troll, good troll” bounce bounce. Anna, you were a wonderful master. Liz, you portrayed your character so well.

Salem witch trials - got the 72 year old nanny of my child convicted of witchcraft. One of the highlights of the weekend for me. Really highlighted the terrible combination of prejudice and power. I think I pointed the finger at about half the players throughout the game. Got a nice coarse voice for my next game, too, which was a plus. Loved the moment when everyone was shut up, and as soon as we were allowed to speak again the “burn the witch” cacophony started right up again.

Seven Deadly Virtues. Got in a fair few snide remarks about the other knights. Won the tournament through barely honourable means. Black Knight vs Green Knight for the final was poetic, and was a really epic battle! Left several hints around the place as to my secret, which no-one figured out but some did come dangerously close to doing so. Cheryl - your moment of realization when you worked out who I was in relation to you was wonderful. Gaffy - in my defense, I did it for sexism (so that benevolent sexism could replace hostile sexism). Loved reading out my oaths at the end, especially when Jonathan kept looking up suspiciously each I emphasized certain words (I was mostly doing it at random). And, of course, being patronized (in both the supportive and the condescending use of the word) by my lovely queen.

[quote=“Anna K”]I can’t take credit for Betrothals and Betrayals, beyond trying to arbitrate the mayhem :slight_smile: It was written by one of Wellington’s larp writing greats, Donna Giltrap :slight_smile:[/quote]You can however take credit for Boats Against the Current, which seemed to go pretty well from what I saw. I did little more than open a bottle of grape juice and turn the radio up and down.

Honestly, the games I participated in had a LOT of awesome moments, but I’ll try to pick out some highlights (in no particular order):

[ul]
[li]Meeting Jess on Friday night, and quickly realising that she was to play my mother in Secrets of the Deep :smiley:[/li]
[li]Every meal time, for the delicious food and great eating company[/li]
[li]David’s choice of revenge against me for ‘stealing’ his drugs in Secrets of the Deep. It sucked IC, but I think was an excellent choice OOC. I was just trying to keep the kingdom safe (and do what mummy told me to)! And every time I got a vision from an object, I really enjoyed being kinda special that way.[/li]
[li]In Boats Against the Current, seeing one of the radio announcements really stir things up when it made specific mention of one of the characters.[/li]
[li]Stumbling across the Professor’s body in Carnival Arcane. And then wondering who had done it, since I knew that murder hadn’t involved me.[/li]
[li]In When the End of the World Came, having Linda sit my character down, and then seeing her take the food bag and bolt for it in one smooth motion. Also, having Steph give me her scarf and refusing to accept it back for the entire rest of the game. And trying to make amends to Yahn, and in the end having to accept trying to do so through Judit - then realising later on they’d probably run off to join Linda, and thus what I had offered no longer mattered in the slightest.[/li][/ul]

I know there are more, but I had better get back to work…

[quote=“MissC”]Dry Spell, sitting in my throne almost all night, screaming “FISH” or "CAGE " or whoever it was that Robin wanted at that moment until they arrived, never took more than 2 calls and the characters around her cringing the whole time :slight_smile:
Also causing an earthquake cause people were disrespecting my house rules was great[/quote]

Sounds like you got to take a totally different direction with the character the second time around. That’s awesome.

[Muppets]
~Pretty much everything.
~Fozzie Bare.
~People liking my take on a human Kermit costume. Letting Miss Piggy know how I felt about her by basically saying that we couldn’t tell anyone, that the show comes first and is more important, that we don’t want to break up the band, and that we can’t have a second wedding next week because we need to tease this out for the audience as long as possible. Yeah after that I’m amazed Miss Piggy still wanted to be with Kermit.
~Making other muppets follow me where I wanted to be by walking a silly walk.
~So. Much. Fun.

[Wands at the Ready]
~Getting 3 girls to make out with me in the forest before looking in [redacted]
~Raj

[Brick and Water]
~You tortured and brainwashed me and now you are telling me you love me.
~How volatile the whole world was and everyone in it.
~Seeing the world in a different way because my emotional makeup had been changed.
~A poignant and sweet conversation with Russ’s character outside on the steps.

[Paragon at the Party Institute]
~Hacking the principal’s dating profile so I could copy and paste some dirt letters she had sent to suitors and send them to a couple of the students who were interested in her.
~Hacking the school accounts to order and airdrop in some cybernetic parts. 5min delivery.
~Deciding that actually I really really wanted to be a spy.
~Playing fumbling teenagers trying to sort out their feelings for one another.
~Sitting on the deck overlooking a swimming pool with a giant [redacted] while discussing with my best friend friend our plans for the future.
~And possibly a ton of other things because there was a lot going on.

[Carnavale Arcane]
~Slow burn game one
~Shooting a feral beast with a Tommy Gun even if my efforts were not required. Then The ringmaster turning to me and saying who the hell are you. Deadpan. “I’m Ralph Malone.” Walk off.

[Angels in the Fog]
~Slow burn game two
~Trying to convince the man I loved, Gallagher, of the beauty in the city and in him and that he could make a difference. Sparks were flying.
~Having another romance brewing with the man who loved me, the poet Sam Cooper. This was a longer drawn out sort of thing, one of those things you fall into without even really knowing that it’s grabbing you.
~Obviously have two different love stories developed in two totally different ways is quite a feat. I choose Sam in the end.
~Being betrayed by the Architect and dragged into the Police interrogation room where the inspector was sensationally intimidating. I hadn’t committed the murder but I may have had other crimes I was worried about. Shortly after the Architect had a change of heart after Sam convinced him of my innocence.
~Having the revelation that I saw the rational world of Fog City in a different way because I had read illicit and beautiful poetry.
~Yeah this game and this character is going to stick around in my head for a bit I think.

yes…certainly kept me moving a lot ,it was great fun

A high point for me was the fight scene between myself (Johannes Bond) and Iron Horse where I got decked by his super strength, went flying, collided with chairs and shattered a plastic “wine glass”. Funny as! The girls loved the games that they played and want to come along next year and participate better than the did this time around. They have learned a lot. On the down side, they got put off by this creepy guy taking videos an photos of them. The were cool with the actual photographers, but this guy creeped them out. Otherwise, we had fun! 8)

This sounds odd. Was it someone from within or from outside the convention, and were the organizers able to talk to the videoer?

If it was Saturday morning, it may have been a misunderstanding about security. I talked to one of the photographers, who mentioned he’d been tagging them for half an hour. He was mortified when I told him they were larpers taking the round off.

Best. Chimera. Ever. Every game I played, every role I was given, I loved. A testament to the awesomeness of our writers, I think!

Muppets
Pure manic fun. Janice was super ambitious. She wanted to be an actress, a solo artist, she wanted more than just to be “the guitarist” even though Electric Mayhem are an awesome band.
Highlights:
Jumping in on half the audition acts.
Becoming human and discovering we finally had enough fingers do the devil horns symbol. ROCK AN’ ROOOOOLL
Sitting through the most awkward declaration of love ever in the history of larp (thank you Lynn, you were an amazing Zoot!).
Having my own heart broken at the same time. Ah Floyd we coulda been great together, but like, I’ll be fine, coz you know, my career is everything, man.
Bohemian Rhapsody.

Sunset in the Silver City
My Angel of Hope found it very hard to keep on hoping when the universe was ending around her, but she managed.
Highlights:
Barachiel, I alternated between wanting to comfort you and wanting to slap you for not helping, but that wouldn’t be terribly angelic.
Dragging a beaten Raphael back into the City after a demon convinced him he should be out in the world “helping”.
Being snippy with demons.
Trying to convince the “old guard” that as the angel of Hope and Destiny I was best option for the future of the universe and that Barachiel was fallen enough (!) to also be included in the triumvirate they were forming.
The old guard self destructing in fire and death! Metatron, Michael and Lucifer all dying. Ariel grieving.
Catching the new universe and grabbing Barachiel and Ariel to hold it with me and make our way to the throne. Others put their hands on it too, and we formed a new God out of the pieces of the old angels and demons. Good luck new universe! It was a good ending.

Dry Spell
Oh wow. Where do I start? I got to swagger around telling people things, asking questions, casting tracking spells, blasting vampires, causing trouble, being the object of a duel. Hell’s Bells. I got to be Dresden! That whole evening was like a dream come true.

I showed up, importantly warning my human police friends about the dangers of the Knights of the Blackened Denarius (it turned out one of them was one! and another was a fledgeling Knight of the Cross) and vamps and weres…( turned out one was a werewolf.LOL. Go me! ) In amongst all of that, I forgot to warn them not to let on that they hadn’t actually had an invitation, but what the hell, I’ll protect them, right?

I talked to a LOT of people about the two killers I was looking for, 1. the White Rose serial killer, and 2. the guy that killed my friend, Finn, who’s spirit was at the party! Turns out I talked to the White Rose killers, handily informing them I had no info at all so far. Sigh. Once again, go me, investigator extraordinaire. I used a tracking spell to locate one of them but it got away from me, and I had to do it again later on. We got one of them in the end though!

This lawyer guy kept coming up to me and asking me not to get involved with the White Rose killers, so of course I started to suspect him. He wanted me to bring him all my information before acting. Right! Yeah, that’s gonna happen.

This happy guy in a red coat was also being suspiciously super helpful, wandering over to ask if there’s anything he can do to assist me. Weird. I used my wizard sight on him and fell over in shock. He was a freaking DRAGON!

One of the White Council members, Oksana, fell over right in front of me. I leaned over to ask if she was alright and I felt something wet swipe across my cheek. Ewwwwwww! The Red Court Duke licked me! Goddamn Reds and their hypnotic saliva!
If I had to pick one moment of the entire weekend for roleplaying gold, it would be that one. Two words from exactly the right (wrong?) person. “Kiss me!” Right there in the middle of the floor, in front of everyone.
After that moment, there were lawyers, accusations, shouting, accords tested, duels fought, relationships revealed, earthquakes summoned and blasting rods utilized! AMAZING!

More please!

Slash
My face hurt from laughing, I’m covered in glitter. We shall never speak of it again.

**Edit: Actually there is one thing. When I first came around the corner to the door into the game and saw the tunnel we had to crawl through to get into the game… I’VE CRAWLED THROUGH THERE BEFORE, NOTHING GOOD CAN COME OF THIS! **

Angels in the Fog
This run has been described as a “slow-burn” game, and I have to agree. Barely a voice was raised in the whole game, yet the angst and drama was no less for the low key feel.
I loved being Martha Malone, exhausted, world-weary, at the end of a long night’s work, underpaid and unable to go home. Singing a couple of lounge lizard ballads in the corner because what else am I gonna do.
Betraying friends and lovers alike (and being played in turn) to try and give myself a life with Tyler, the guilt-ridden bartender, my only regret in that game was not going ahead with organising “one last well paying job” for you, babe.

[quote=“Yahn Nhay”]I have been to quite a few Chimera’s now , and have to say this was one of the best…

Boats against the current, another great Anna Klein success, this time GMed by Jame Cooper in his first GM role, he did very well…great use of 1920’s music and radio announcements…real fine performances in this by everyone involved , i didn’t know everyone to name them, but the guy who played the businessman, great work, Paul Taylor, wonderful, Lucy , you are so talented, and Lucretia , you helped me make some special moments and hit me in the feels,Sorry, I may have drunk a little too much…
[/quote]

Not sure if you meant me, I took your baseball bet… :smiley: - But if so, thanks :slight_smile:

[quote=“theotherphoenix”]Best. Chimera. Ever. Every game I played, every role I was given, I loved. A testament to the awesomeness of our writers, I think!

Muppets
Sitting through the most awkward declaration of love ever in the history of larp (thank you Lynn, you were an amazing Zoot!).
Having my own heart broken at the same time. Ah Floyd we coulda been great together, but like, I’ll be fine, coz you know, my career is everything, man.
[/quote]

you squirmed so much, not wanting to sit down and listen to Zoot’s song - soooo awkward!

Friday Night: Muppets.

My God, Miss Piggy was the role of a lifetime. I thoroughly enjoyed being able to karate-chop people. And all the players KNOWING that would be a thing- as Prema started to explain special abilities and Jarratt as Kermit quietly stepped out of arm’s reach of me. Then deciding to test whether the karate-chop still worked (because I was human now!) and deciding with Janice that I should test it on Sweetums, only to have him back away and throw Fozzie Bear in between him and me…later on threatening Fozzie with my karate hand when he was in the middle of agreeing with Kermit that a sing-off between me and Annie Sue would be a great idea (Not that Miss Piggy has anything to worry about, she’s the STAR after all), and watching Joseph, without missing a beat, immediately start frantically backtracking. Also giving Sam the Eagle a well-deserved HIYAH (OK, two HIYAHs) for agreeing with Waldorf that we were all talentless hacks.

Finally getting my Kermy to admit that he loved me back (Thanks Jarratt for putting up with me in Piggy mode!), and being very understanding and saying he could propose whenever he was ready but really we COULD have had another wedding next week on the show… being the consummate gracious Star and allowing Annie Sue to sing a duet with me (which we know would end how any Muppet act would end), and the look on Michelle’s face as Annie Sue- “I get to be on stage…with you?”- Piggy is nothing if not appreciative of suitably worshipful fans.

This was not the first time that spontaneous Bohemian Rhapsody has happened to me, but it was the best.

Saturday morning: Wands at the Ready

Okowaran is the best house. It’s just a fact. I had so much fun with you guys running around the forest looking for things, convinced it was a test, and plotting how we might be able to get into town- if only by the end I’d got more people in on the plan. The Masters can’t catch all of us, after all! - a moment of triumph and then…well, oops. THE BOX, MAN. Oh, and now that Dixon can I am so reading everything in the library. EVERYTHING.

Saturday afternoon: Napping. And set dressing. Napping is good.

Saturday evening: GMing ‘Dry Spell’. Anna said to me at one point this weekend that I shouldn’t be thinking about writing other flagships because “you go crazy when you write flagships!” but GMing this one was SUCH a treat. I was excited to see how differently it would run in Auckland as opposed to Wellington. Seeing the characters come to life again was a joy, you guys caused so much mayhem and a lot of things went VERY differently to the Hydra run. Dave in his alternate form for a good 10 minutes outside where nobody but me could see him was such fun. Anna’s wedding dress survived the tumble outside. And Linda, I promise, next time I GM for you you and Rob will be a badass couple with no tragedy!

Also that point at which , and I’m lying on the ground deaded, and feel this soft WHUMP on my stomach, and realise that Porl as the Troll has just hit me with his stuffed ROUS. “Troll hit you, you dead, TROLL WIN!”. It’s the second time I have been unable to successfully play dead because I was laughing too hard.

And especially happy-making was how the newer players took to the game. Alexander (Mr Fish) came up to me before the start of the game and said he was feeling awfully daunted by the character- so watching him go in and OWN was really cool.

I wish I could’ve stayed and frothed afterwards, but I was just too tired.

Sunday morning: Slash. Oh Slash. When I saw my players walking up to the Muster I knew I was in for a fun session. You guys are amazing and I love you all. There’s a lot I cannot unsee. And of course as you all know, what happens in Slash stays in Slash but I will share two things: one of my favourite GM conversations happened more than once in the game:

Player: Do you have any more glitter?
Me: holds up GIANT TUB OF GLITTER “What kind of a question is that?!”

Also thank you, I think, to the two players who scored the game as ‘penis out of 10’. I think that’s a compliment.

And, yeah. Sorry about the glitter everywhere, people. It does go away eventually…

Sunday afternoon: ‘Angels in the Fog’. Nothing brings on nihilism like being very very tired, but I did enjoy this game. The conversations with Kara, Vanya and I as the world-weary bar regulars where we bounced off one another (plus the accidental double-entendre which broke Kara and I after having just come from Slash) were a real pleasure. Going on an arc from thinking Beth’s character was far too nice for it to be genuine, then realising she really WAS that nice and just wanting to look after her and get her away from . I was relieved I managed to sort out the payoff. And the looks on peoples’ faces when Russ asked a GM plot reveal question after the game and I quietly raised my hand were priceless- I would’ve revealed that in game but I honestly was expecting the cops to catch wise to my game.

Finally, this exchange with Vanya as Tyler the bartender:
Vanya: F*** me sideways!
Me: Oh, honey, no, I’m MUCH too old for you!
Vanya: lying down on a bench Oh, that’s the final blow!

And one out-of-character moment:

Walter (running down the Road of Pain behind me and sounding urgent as I’m walking to lunch with Gaffy): Ellen! Ellen! Ellen! (repeated until he reaches me).
Me (turning round with Gaffy): Yes?
Walter: Gaffy was looking for you.
Me: O_O

All in all a splendiferous weekend. Need more Chimera please! Thank you to Anna for her tireless devotion to making the convention happen, to all those who kept her going through the weekend, to Kim and team for the fabulous food, to Linda and Rob and the Red Hats, to everyone I roleplayed with or GM’d for, you are all wonderful. Can’t wait for the next one!