Dreamation just wrapped up and I had a great time! I squeezed in eight games, which was ambitions, but I’m glad I did. This was my fourth Double Exposure convention and it was great to see familiar faces and to catch up with old friends.

Here are the games I played and a memory or lesson from each:

Those who Remain was a fun larp about magicians and tarot. It’s one of the few games I’ve played that emphasize secrets and special abilities. One of the characters was vastly more powerful than the others and I enjoyed seeing the play that emerged from an asymmetric start.

No Further Questions was a silly game about rapid fire press conferences on silly topics and it’s a perfect first time larp for someone to dip their toes into the hobby. It’s also a great game to fill in time gaps or warp up for a different game. For my turn in the spotlight, I played a stressed out PR rep for the Mayor who had recently claimed that “Trains are made up, pure fiction” – despite the town having a major train station. The Mayor (played by Alex Roberts) was on stage with me and undermined my attempts to cover for her – it was a beautiful train wreck.

Jane: The Front was a serious RPG about the network of women who provided safe abortions before Roe vs Wade made them legal. It was heavy full of intensely emotional scenes and I’m very glad I played it. The game did a nice job of weaving the historical facts in as we played rather than front loading the information.

Event Horizon – Stowaways was a 20 person scifi larp where the players were hiding in a storage section of a spaceship while inspectors searched the ship. It did a great job of ratcheting up the tension in real-time and made great use of an audio track (representing the captains messages over the radio).

Guest Suite had players take on the roles of famous panelists at a pop-culture convention and split time between hanging out in the guest suite / green room, answering questions on the panel, and then sitting in the audience asking questions (as anonymous fans). I got to play an extremely obnoxious blogger who was on a panel with an author whom he had repeatedly trashed – it was fun playing someone I’d usually despise!

Public Memory was an educational larp that delved into the controversy around removing confederate statues. It played out in three acts with us taking new roles each act – opinionated citizens, city counsel members, and then reporters. I think that format has a lot of potential and can definitely see use in other genres and settings.

Xenolanguage was the most requested game of the con and I was lucky to snag a slot. It’s a game about making first contact with Aliens and trying to communicate with them. It’s still in early development so I don’t want to share too much but it was absolutely magical! I look forward to seeing how it evolves.

I finished with Behind the Magic which is my fantasy mockumentary larp. I had a phenomenal group of players who succeed in rescuing a prince from a dragon... but only by accident. I was watching from the side and taking notes but I spent most of the game doubled over in laughter. Once I incorporate notes from this session I think the rules are done – I’ll start work on the final, high fidelity version soon!

Overall a great con and I look forward to playing with everyone again in the future! Hopefully I’ll see a bunch of folks at Living Games this May...