As usual, it's taken me a while to write the account of our trip to Origins this year. Just like last year, it's been nearly a month or so since we've returned. But hey, I've had a lot going on in my life. Got a sweet new job, and had to finish my time up at the last place of employment. Oh well.

Origins was a good trip as usual. We took a van again, being the hardened road warriors that we are. We had a larger group this year than before. One of our boys wasn't able to go this year, so we replaced him with three others. Heh. Actually we wanted more people to go, but last minute plans and that inevitable lack of money that strikes us all kicked some of them out of the running. But they know about next year. Soon, we'll just be able to mount up a large posse and take the convention completely over.

We pretty much took over the Larp we played in. A Dark Duality production, this was our first time playing under this group. They've been at Origins for years and years, longer than some of us have been attending (I really wish they still had the old badges that would say it's my 6th year attending). We always heard that they were the 'Powergaming Larp' or the Larp for Twinks, as it was. For explanation, we're talking about high level characters that shouldn't be involving themselves in mundane affairs that much. Characters far more powerful than we would ever (and I mean Ever) allow in our Larp. And to a degree those notions were right. But the players weren't as whiny or combat-seeking as we feared.

Sliding in there early, the characters we got were quite powerful. But we asked for integral characters. Not powerful, mind you, but integral. I wanted a character who could push a storyline, a character who was woven into the background of others, who could deal with his own agendas. Many of my companions wanted this as well, and we received. What I thought was the best part was that I got a character with an agenda aligned against my fellow players. I was sweating over parts of it, but I was happy knowing that I had a good challenge ahead of me. Some of the other players there, bah, they would have proved no match for my skillz... I should mention that some other friends of ours were there. Rick, Cassandra, Goat, and some others that we've been lucky enough to Larp with over the years. It's a good feeling to have made friends that you see almost without fail when you go to these events.

Now about the Larp, there were parts that I would consider flawed. First off, the inclusion of Mages and Werewolves in the game. I admit that I'm a purist, and that I gravitate towards Vampire games. But just like in the game we run, I don't feel that you should include the other races to play. Yes, I'm sure they want options for all of the players (and let me tell you, their numbers were huge), but I think it is a mistake to allow players to choose between two factions that are so diametrically opposed to one another. Werewolves seem to have one overlying goal in this game - to destroy vampires. Their laws tell them to, there's not much way around it. And to 'make' a way for them to work together is contrived. You want players to go head-to-head in a Larp setting? News flash: they're going to do it anyway. But let them come up with reasons other than 'our existence is to destroy them'. That's the reason with the restart that we excised the Werewolf section of the Deadman game. We liked Thomas and all of the Garou players, but it was a hassle that we didn't have to worry about if we set the rule at the start.

And well, for the Larp crew that ran it, they were great. Personable, many of them. And they knew what they were doing. They get a big round of applause for taking on this endeavor year after year. But... We mean no disrespect by this, but the Deadman crew who went this year felt that we could do a better job. Seriously, the group that we played under the previous year had a lot of advantages over this one, with detailed character backgrounds, plot threads interwoven between characters, many things. And we can do that. So in our mild arrogance (and insanity for tackling anything this large), we're trying to put our names into the hat for the Larp next year. We'll need some help from our friends that play with us, but we can do it. So who knows, you just might see us in the Pre-registration booklet for 2002. [Someone was supposed to get us pictures for the Larp, but they've never posted the pics - grumble]

Other stuff about the Convention. I played in some good games. We tried out the Deadlands d20 system game. Honestly, even though some of it was quite deadly, I like the original Deadlands system better. I run a Dungeons & Dragons d20 campaign, and that's great. The rules work fine. Heck, they actually make a lot of sense and are easy to use. I don't want a Deadlands game to feel like I'm playing Dungeons & Dragons with pistol-wielding cowboys and indians. But we still had fun - my character blew up! The flamethrower on my back exploded and killed me dead. It was great! We also tried out the new Exalted game from White Wolf, and it was a lot of fun. It's like playing characters out of an anime cartoon, and it has lots of promise. So much so that a few of our guys talked of running campaigns. Of course, when we find the time to do all of that, it will be a great thing. In the meantime, it becomes so much reading material like most of our other Origins purchases.

The guests were okay, I suppose. Adrian Paul, the Highlander from the television series; Armand Shimmerman, Quark from the Star Trek: DS9 show; and once again Julie Caitlin Brown, the female who played the Narn Na'Toth from Babylon 5. The only one I saw was Julie, and she was pretty cool. Okay, I found her rather attractive, very tall, and an aggressive personality - All good traits for females in my book. Still doesn't mean I want to hear her sing. I was too busy to go meet the other guys, although I did play Wraith with a kid who won dinner with Armand Shimmerman. What do Phyrengi eat when they're not on-show, anyway?

Overall, I speak for the group in general and say that we had a good time. There's never enough cash when we go on these trips, but that's probably good. It's scary the amount of stuff we walk away with when we're 'broke'. There was a bit of drama between some of the people in the group, but we worked past it. I think everyone knew or realized that this was a vacation and we should leave all that behind. And really, we always seem to have a minor tiff between someone on the trip - it's that human nature of ours. That aside, it was a great trip, and we'll look towards the next year.