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Criminy. The last time I flexed my mythology muscles this much was . . . .

. . . um . . .

Let’s start that one over.

Criminy, I’ve never flexed my mythology muscles that much before. From trying to dredge up enough underworld/death/destruction/evil gods to cast a 40-person LARP, to remembering what all their stories are, to figuring out what kinds of plot they might have with each other, and then crowning it all by gear-shifting continuously throughout the game itself — do you have any idea how brain-breaking it is to explain Sumerian me to someone, turn around, decide what to do about Odin’s eyeball getting passed to a mortal, turn around, and answer a question on Hindu metaphysics? (Hindu metaphysics can melt your brain all on their own; they don’t need help.)

But the Parliament of the Apocalypse game appears to have gone well. At least, everybody who came to Chili’s seemed reasonably happy ranging up to giddy with residual glee. Costuming was fan-frickin-tastic — as usual, which is one of the reasons I love LARPing with this group. With the high-dress Concordia game just two weeks ago, people still managed to show up with some truly phenomenal stuff. I was pleased by such depictions as the Thoroughly Modern Morrigan (think Irish war goddess as IRA extremist), but I gotta admit, my anthropological snobbery pretty much drooled itself into oblivion over tour de forces like our seaweedy Sedna, Mictlantecuhtli’s regalia, the 11-layer Heian-period junihitoe of Izanami, and more.

What, you want pictures? You may find some here and some here. The former are more posed shots that show costumes clearly, while many of the latter are in-game shots that show the atmosphere of the game. Oh yeah, and though you can’t see it clearly, set crew blew us away, turning the IMU Kiva into our cavern setting, with black tablecloths covering the walls and roots dangling from the ceiling. It’s just a pity that I don’t think anyone got a photo of the anchor of reality that was sitting in the middle.

I’ll stop burbling now. It was my Very First LARP that I’ve co-run, and while putting it together in what functionally speaking was about three weeks was really not the smartest thing I’ve ever agreed to, it was too tempting of a mythology challenge to turn down.

0 Responses to “”

  1. princess706

    I’m *so* sorry I missed it! All reports are that it was fantastique.

    • Marie Brennan

      Had you been there, we probably would have had a plotline wherein you could’ve bargained with Coyote for information on where Osiris’ phallus was. ’cause that just would have been funny.

  2. coyotewatches

    Thanks for the link on that other set of shots! I saw the fellow in the crowd and was hoping to pick his brain a bit more about his equipment, settings, etc. Nicely done stuff considering the difficulty of the environment; low light, a bit crowded, etc.

    Anyway I could get contact information?

  3. occultatio

    I am so amazingly jealous, because this sounds awesome. If I had to write a LARP for 40 people, I think I would probably die. I’m also envious of how much effort your players put into their costumes.

    I’m also curious: Coyote is an “underworld/death/destruction/evil god”? Or were you bending the rules a lot to come up with forty of them?

    • Marie Brennan

      No, Coyote is a trickster god who jacked the Book of Life and the Book of Death from a Chinese underworld/fate god when he was being killed off by the Cultural Revolution, and who then gate-crashed the Parliament disguised as said god. ^_^

      And if I’d had to do this game on my own, I would have died. Kyle was my co-ST, and we had three others working on it with us, including the two people in primary charge of the regular Changeling game, for which this was a special event. (So they were the ones handing us our general metaplot.)

      • occultatio

        Ah. That makes me very happy. Yay Coyote!

        BTW, if you’d ever like to come NPC for City of the Gods again, we would LOVE to have you. I’m sure you’re fantastically busy with other stuff, but if you were in town on, say, March 18th, you could totally join us for the night.

        • Marie Brennan

          <lol> Alas, I don’t think I’ll be in Boston again until the beginning of September, when eclectician’s getting hitched. More’s the pity, since as you can tell, I’m clearly a sucker for god-related gaming.

        • coyotewatches

          *bow*

          • occultatio

            Hee. I played Coyote, also, for the first season of City of the Gods (when was running it), so I have a very deep and fond attachment to the character. I’m happy that his other incarnations are also doing cool and Coyote-ful things with him.

          • coyotewatches

            I talk about it a bit more over on my journal but it was a real gift to have the opportunity. Go Go Coyote power!

  4. d_c_m

    And let me just say that your mythology muscles are might and your arm is long and strong and wisdom springs from your brow!! It was GREAT!!! I love being around people who the know the God/Desses even better than I do! WOOT!!!! It was sooo much fun. Love to you all!!

    • Marie Brennan

      Glad you had fun. The Baba Yaga costume change was a great touch, btw.

      • d_c_m

        Thanks. I am glad so many people liked it even though I wasn’t that impressed with it. Thanks for adding the bit about the blue rose. 🙂 That helped!!

  5. unforth

    I saw that dude with the camera taking pictures of the Anchor. (at least I’m pretty sure I did – he certainly *framed* them – he may not have shot them) – so I’d say ask him if he’s got um.

    Anyway, thanks. It was totally awesome and much fun. Any game where Izanami can become like best buds with Persephone…yeah. 🙂 You guys did a great job.

  6. tiamat360

    Wow. That looks fantastically gorgeous!

    The cameraperson for the second set of pictures is amazing. A lot of those shots look almost as though they’ve been taken from a movie :).

    • Marie Brennan

      Given that the lighting down there was craptastic (from a photography standpoint — great for atmosphere), I’m impressed by how well they came out. Now I want to see what could do in decent light. 🙂

  7. lowellboyslash

    Glad it went well.

    How long is the ph.d. out there?

    • Marie Brennan

      If you have a master’s degree when you get here, it doesn’t take too long at all . . . ^_~

      BTW, on a non-apocalypse-game note, I did in fact put it in the middle of the Thames. It seemed the most fitting answer.

  8. prosewitch

    You ran a marvelous game! 🙂

    • Marie Brennan

      Muchas gracias! Being told that helps salve the disappointment of not being able to play in it. <g>

      • ninja_turbo

        I was saying this summer, while planning the Days of Future Past game, that a good indicator of whether you have the right person running a special event game is that, more than anything, they wish nothing more than to be able to play in the game themselves.

        So I’ll take that as a good sign for the Parliment game.

      • moonandserpent

        You know, if there wasn’t that pesky timestop, certian people’s PCs could get to work on acting on it much sooner. Hint. Hint.

        • Marie Brennan

          I don’t think it’s a timestop so much as a warning that people should not publicly divulge non-public plot — but I could be wrong, so you should ask somebody whose ST status was not temporary.

          • moonandserpent

            Errr… last I checked, my PC (and others’) was surrounded by the forces of Hell with no way out and no resolution given.

            Hence: Timestop.

            If he wasn’t in a time stop, the PC of a certian ST would already have incoming email 😛

          • Marie Brennan

            Hmmm, odd — somehow my thought about that didn’t make it out into the comment. <lol> I’m not sure how that’s going to be handled, other than to say that I assume you all aren’t, y’know, going to become chew-toys for demons, and that you will be able to get back.

          • moonandserpent

            Well, yeah… I would hope so. *peers suspiciously at you*

            But until something IS said about that, officially… we’re in a scene with no end. Hence: Timestop.

          • kniedzw

            Dramatic appropriateness is a pain in the patoot sometimes. I’m seeing if there’s anything I can do to help speed that timestop along….

          • moonandserpent

            It WAS a fine point to wrap things on, however.

            And much appricated.

  9. squishymeister

    I just want to say that your friends pictures are AMAZING!!! Can he come take more pictures??? Does he have any others from that game that we could convince him to post? Cause, wow!

  10. nconstruct

    found ya. Thanks for the heads up and sorry for not switching the usernames over sooner.

    • Marie Brennan

      No prob. Incidentally, were you the one I was talking Changeling to at the New Year’s party? If so, then my post about the Concordia game I’d been talking about is a couple of weeks back on this journal, should you care to see how it turned out.

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