Let the Games commence!

You wait your whole life for a single moment and then suddenly it's tomorrow.

 That's an appropriate quote for this evening.  Allow me to explain:

It starts on Sunday, which is the day I make my usual call to my parents just to catch up.  After a few minutes, the topic of conversation turned to whether or not we were still having our "big Monday game" as its come to be known.  This was somewhat of a surprise, since initially my mother was against the idea of role playing games completely.  Eventually, that difference was resolved and now I think she's genuinely impressed by the fact that a game can draw upwards of 30 interested players.  To be fair, it impresses me too.

As we were talking, I began to illuminate how running a LARP is a rather interesting "job".  People who've never done one before usually assume that its no different than running a tabletop role playing game, but that's not the case.  Running a LARP is a combination of the following:

- Being a Storyteller (or Game Master depending on the system).
- Being a book keeper since player characters need to be tracked for a variety of reasons.
- Being a stage manager, since you're responsible for most of the essential "background" stuff like non-player characters and setting.
- Being a mediator, since sometimes disagreements happen.
- Being a "chaperone" since game is such a creative medium that sometimes you need someone there to set boundaries.
- And last, but certainly not least, having creativity and patience.  More on these below.

We took a while away from the weekly chronicles due to a schism within the troupe itself.  Initially, I was somewhat depressed by this but in hindsight its given me a chance to recharge both my creativity and my patience when it comes to dealing with people in a gaming environment.  To give you an idea, at the start of the previous game, the first one after the schism, I really had no idea for plots and non-player characters.  I was as tapped out of creativity as I've ever been.  Also, the events surrounding the schism and the fall out afterwards left me with little patience for dealing with people, meaning that I was less than forgiving/lenient when it came to things related to game.

A friend (and the person I'll be running the game with) approached me in March of this year with an idea for a game.  At that point, I told him I'd be happy to offer feedback and ideas but I was still feeling the pressure of a waning game so I was doubtful that I'd be able to help run it or even want to.  Once that previous game went under, I gave more of my time to the idea of the new chronicle and we started making a lot of headway.  One of the best decisions we made was to set a starting date several months into the future so that we had plenty of time to develop the setting, plots and non-player characters.  It gave us the opportunity to really explore a lot of territory and it gave me, in particular, time to recharge.  I started having little creative sparks occasionally, which changed into full blown ideas and concepts.  Once more, I was experiencing the joy of helping create a game.

Fast forward to tonight, Tuesday July 31st.  Our biggest obstacle was a place to hold the game but we're heading down to ECC (Elgin Community College) tonight to pitch the chronicle to the gaming club there.  While this chronicle has been in its planning phase, word has got out and there's already a lot of interest and enthusiasm from prospective players.  Enough that, presuming everything goes well with the "sale pitch" we're looking at down a Q and A sessions and character creation tonight (for those people who attend).  Since its somewhat spur of the moment, I expect that we won't get the attendance we've been expecting, but word of mouth will spread quickly.

Now I return to my starting quote:

You wait your whole life for a single moment and then suddenly it's tomorrow.

Game beckons once more.