Long Write Up of Musical Larp, part one

[drcpunk.livejournal.com]

Last year, Andrew Zorowitz told Josh and me about Mike Young's trilogy of weekend long larps based on conglomerations of Broadway musicals. We signed up for the first game. It ran September 19-21, 2008, and was a success. We had a blast.

Mike used an interesting process to create the game. He through the whole thing wide open, having players vote on which of the musicals he was considering using for the larp. He let players and non-players alike suggest plot elements and ideas. He set up chat groups. If I did not have as much influence on the game as other people, it is because I did not choose to get my act enough together to participate in this process.

This is not to say that we knew everything about the game. Mike did not make the character sheets public, for example.

In March, I sang Mike a verse of "Sue Me" from _Guys and Dolls_. I figured I had the accent for Adelaide. He cast me as Dolly Levi, which was a better fit. Dolly also also incorporated characters from _Annie Get Your Gun_ (Frank Butler's assistant is also called Dolly), _How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying_ (Mrs. Johnson, the secretary of the president of the company), _Annie_ (As the company was run by Mr. Warbucks, Grace, his assistant from Annie, was folded into Dolly), _The Pajama Game_ (I had the key to Warbucks's logbook, which the workers at World Wide Wickets needed to prove that Warbucks could afford the 7 1/2 cents raise they wanted), and _9 to 5_ (a nicer version of the woman who overhears the secretaries fantasizing about killing their obnoxious boss -- here, Dolly misunderstands and warns the guy pre-game, and is a bit worried when she can't get a chance to speak to him for weeks after that, but -- gee, worker satisfaction sure is up in his department!).

I'm really glad that Mike made Dolly richer than she was in the show. Having to go around trying to con folks out of money would have been no fun at all for me.

Josh, as Horace Vandergelder, was simpler, incorporating a minor but important character from the movie _Babes in Arms_ (skip said movie. Trust me.) -- the father of the child star who is horrified at her acting in the kids's show and pulls her out, letting Judy Garland's character take the lead. In this case, instead of a daughter, the child start was Vandergelder's niece, Ermengarde. He was also running for mayor of the Small Town. The game was set in the Small Town and the Big City.

Dolly was an excellent match for me. I had a 7 page character sheet full of things to do, and it was clear that, just as in the show, Dolly has her fingers in everything. Any time I found myself bored, I reasoned, I could just join the next group musical number. Josh was a little concerned about how much Horace would have to do, and more concerned about the songs Horace had to sing. He's not really a lead in the musical, despite appearances, and he only has one song. But, Mike said inventing songs was fine.

At this point, I could see four of the group sheets -- Small Town, Big City, World Wide Wickets, and Turf War. The only problem with this is that there wre characters who were not on these sheets. The full cast was only available in an email. This caused me a bit of confusion about who was and wasn't cast, because I kept expecting the full cast to be somewhere on the website for the game.

The rules were 12 pages, fairly simple. The romance mechanic was of most interest to me, both because I was playing Dolly and because the weekend long larp we've been working on for over a decade will probably need romance mechanics. As Mike said, he shamelessly stole the romance mechanics from another larp, The King's Musketeers.

Characters open to romance had a heart score and a list of tasks. If asked for a romantic task, they had to give one of the tasks on their list. When a character completed as many tasks as his or her beloved's heart score, the character won the beloved's heart. Anyone attempting to steal the heart had to perform a number of tasks equal to the heart score plus one. If two characters won each other's heart, they had True Love. Their hearts could not be stolen, and they could not court anyone else.

There were some other rules, such as how often tasks could be given out, and certain characters had abilities that modified the rules. Also, Mike ruled that there was to be no Adult PC - Child PC romance or Adult Player of Child PC - Child Player of Child PC romance. Teenaged PCs (I think this meant 16+) counted as Adults for these purposes.

As the game got closer, there were several drops and joins, making things a wee bit overly exciting for everyone's tastes. And, we got the 44-page lyrics book. Before I start bitching about it, understand that it was invaluable, especially since we got it before the game, in enough time for me to realize that there were a few more songs I needed to learn.

The lyrics book was terribly organized. It was not organized by the probably order of songs in the game. It was not organized by show. It was not alphabetically organized. In fact, I do not think there was a single coherent scheme of organization. This meant finding any given song was a pain in the butt.

It did give me a heads up about a number of songs to prep, including

"Colonel Buffalo Bill" from _Annie Get Your Gun_, which was also the first sung number of the larp
"Put On Your Sunday Clothes", from _Hello, Dolly_, which was unscheduled, and we actually sang it early Sunday
"Coffee Break", which I had not realized was missing from the version of _How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying_. I had thought that the unsung musical number with the secretaries doing their hair and nails was the song. This was the heads up I needed the most.
"I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here" from _Annie_, which we didn't sing
"Brotherhood of Man", from _How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying_. This was the one that worried me, because I had to go against years of training myself out of singing loud and high.

Josh's song was, "It Takes a Woman", which was unscheduled, but we fit it in.

We booked a hotel room, then decided to extend the reservation back to Thursday. This went oddly. The man I talked to in the hotel said we'd have to have a king bed rather than 2 double beds for Thursday. Then, he said the initial reservation had only been made for Friday into Saturday. He said he could give us Thursday through Sunday, at the convention rate, but that we'd have to take a king sized room for the enitre period. We decided that we could live with this.

When we arrived, we were given a room with two double beds, and a full-sized fridge, a stove, and a microwave. This was fine with us.

We made train reservations, and it was a really good thing that we got a lift to the station early on Sunday, because somehow, Josh had made the return trip for Monday. Oy.

In any case, we took the train to the light rail, then walked to the hotel from there. As before, i.e., the 2000 Intercon, I was not impressed with the lighting in the room, and as before, one of the lights died over the weekend. The staff was very nice, though.

We woke up around eleven on Friday, and went to Bob Evans for breakfast. There, we bought a pie for Saturday evening, and a small bit of kitsch labeled "Coffee Break" for the coffee break song. We paid about three bucks for it, and it had been discounted twice to reach that price. I gather it started at nine dollars, which I would not have paid. The folks at Bob Evans said that no one else would pay it either, which is why the price went down.

After eating and buying pie, we went to help out with set up. Mike gave us tasks that didn't involve our parts of the game, such as setting up the public enemy list. Things were set up a bit early, and we had a quick dinner before changing for the larp.

We opened in the Small Town with the Wild West Show, and the initial shooting contest between Frank and Annie was delightful. I delivered Annie to Mr. Warbucks as planned. He was, of course, surprised to see a girl, but we both assured him she'd be no trouble, and Dolly quickly said that she had, er, ideas about helping company satisfaction by, er, watching uplifting movies or newsreels together.

Some time later, Mr. Warbucks called for Dolly.

Warbucks: This girl has never even seen a movie!

Dolly: Why, that's terrible! You should take her to a movie at once! Poor dear!

So, Warbucks and Annie went off to see a movie.

Conrad Birdie traveled from the Big City to the Small Town with two songs and a very enthusiastic cheering squad. This is probably why it took me a while to figure out that one character was Sally Brown, as she wasn't acting like a child when she did the swooning thing. I'm guessing the player was being a somewhat older NPC at that point. Lovely job of swooning.

Dolly asked Roger de Bris to be one of the judges of the next day's dance contest, and he was delighted to agree. He asked about a female escort, and Dolly suggested Duchess Eliza Doolittle. I don't know what happened with that, but Roger thanked her later, saying it had worked out well.

The players of the PCs from _The Producers_ were spot on. Ulla did an amazing dance number. Leopold Bloom did a total freak out in Irene Molloy's shop when he saw his blue blanket attacked to Mrs. Shinn's hat. Max tossed a cup of (imaginary) water in his face.

Bloom: I'm wet! I don't have my blue blankie, and I'm wet!

Probably not as well noticed was Ambrose Kemper's desperate attempt to hide the (imaginary) rip in his pants until Irene Malloy could do a quick emergency repair job. Excellent job of keeping his back to the wall and sort of scuttling. And then, Ulla tried to talk to him as he pressed against the wall. I gather that Irene repaired the pants, but he left before reclaiming them.

Mrs. Shinn was very concerned about whether her husband still loved her. She was standing for mayor because she hoped it would at least get his attention. Dolly tried to mediate between the two.

Dolly also tried to find a suitable wife for Mr. Wickets. Her first choice was Widow Paroo. Unfortunately, the widow revealed that Oliver Warbucks was her adopted brother. No blood relation, true, but it would be awkward. Mr. Warbucks agreed. The widow was interested in Max Bialystock, poor lady. Dolly decided to talk to Max, and to see if she could pair up Mr. Warbucks with the duchess, even if the duchess had atrocious table manners.

Big Jule started his protection racket, pulling a gun to make Irene sign his contract. Dolly and Horace agreed that something needed to be done. I think that somewhere around here, Big Jule asked Horace to sign, and when Horace refused, had goons steal Horace's mailbox. I have no idea if there were anything in the mail box.

Dolly asked Pawnee Bill if he'd talked to Buffalo Bill about merging their two Wild West shows.

Pawnee Bill: He was a little strange.

Dolly: Strange how?

Pawnee Bill's player: Not wanting to cave too early in the game.

That was fine, so Dolly and I came up with A Plan: Early Saturday, Dolly suggested to Buffalo Bill that he and Pawnee Bill discuss the idea of a merger that evening at the Harmonia Gardens. As I expected, Buffalo Bill liked that idea. The timing was correct.

Mr. Warbucks decided to put an ad in the paper to try to find Annie's parents. The reward offered was three grand, but the parents would need to provide proof. He deliberately kept out of the papers the fact that Annie had half of a locket and that her parents would have the other half.

Dolly was looking to find a replacement for Leopold Bloom, who'd been an accountant for World Wide Wickets before he left to become a producer. Cornelius Hackl was an accountant. Mr. Warbucks was willing to hire him, but Cornelius was deathly afraid to tell Horace he wanted to quit. Horace would yell at him!

Cornelius was also concerned about Horace's account books. He thought one of Horace's suppliers was cheating him. He asked Dolly to help him prove this.

One of Dolly's heart tasks was, "Impress me with your knowledge in a subject of my choice", so she asked Horace to tell her all about the feed business. This had a real purpose beyond that, given Cornelius's concerns. Horace explained that he had three suppliers:

1. Fred Graham, who made sundries for half a grand, charged a full grand, and had recently raised his prices to a grand and a half, which Horace flat out refused to pay
2. Ulla, who owned a feed shop, and who had given him a deal: Two units for a grand and a half
3. Nicely Nicely Johnson, who sold Horace tools for a grand.

Dolly convinced Horace to have an accountant look over his books, to make sure no one was cheating him. Horace refused to use Bloom for three reasons.

1. He and Max had backed out of a sort of agreement to let Ermengarde star in the Hot Box show.
2. The man was a Chipmunk! A good Old Ivy Groundhog like Horace couldn't hire him!
3. Horace just plain didn't like him.

Dolly got Mr. Warbucks to agree to let Horace, a fellow Groundhog, use one of the WWW accountants, and have Cornelius standing by.

The Peanuts gang complained that Horace took their softball. He refused to give it back, as it had broken the window of his house, and anyway, none of the kids had let him play softball when he was growing up, so he had decided that softball playing kids wer just plain mean. He'd need a change of heart to give them their ball back!

Well, I couldn't effect a change of heart that early in the game. Josh explained to me that there was another way -- have the kids ask him to play softball.

Dolly explained to Schroeder that Mr. Vandergelder had been cruelly treated as a child -- none of the kids had let him play softball! Schroeder took the hint, although it didn't come into play right then. He and the other Peanuts agreed that this was mean of the kids.

Horace eventually gave back the ball when Josh realized the kids could do something else for him. They could attend the Big Game and root for Old Ivy. They agreed to do that, and Tommy offered to paint the stables in return for the softball. Horace agreed, and gave the ball back, but also paid Tommy for the work.

Horace got Dolly to agree to go to the game as well. Hey, her boss was a Groundhog too!

Just as Josh and I were ready to go to sleep, Charlie Brown and Randolph Shinn approached.

Boys: Um, Mr. Vandergelder, what's your combat score?

As we looked suspiciously at them and explained that a) we were about to crash and b) we weren't sure if they could tell without attacking, they explained the situation: Could they please just knock Horace down so they could get a merit badge from Big Jule? They promised not to do anything more.

Josh agreed, and the attack proceeded, with Dolly shouting at the hooligans. Mike came over and asked if we wanted to call the police and have them go after the boys.

Josh and Lisa: Police?? There are police?

Mike confirmed this, explaining that everyone had been going to the mayor about criminal activities, assuming that they mayor was supposed to do something about this, but they should have been asking for NPC police. This was the first we knew about that.

We decided that we didn't want to drag things out, so we would crash and maybe call the cops in the morning.

Off we went to our room. Josh was too wired to get to sleep before 5 am, so he slept through breakfast, arriving at the game between 11 am and noon. I had the continental breakfast, which was okay, but I was glad we'd done a big breakfast the day before. I would have liked non-glazed chocolate donuts and maybe croissants, but I appreciated the bagels and English muffins, the peanut butter, and the hot chocolate.

By now, Josh and I had done some metagaming, feeling that this would help keep the timing good. We looked at each other's heart tasks and heart scores, and I showed Josh my special abilities. Horace had some demeaning tasks and one very difficult one -- vote for him for mayor. Dolly couldn't vote, and wasn't about to move to the Small Town. But, Dolly could turn three of his tasks into her own tasks. Josh reminded me that I needed to have Dolly ask Horace for tasks.

I showed him my heart ability, which he needed to know, but he correctly decided that I didn't need to see his. His was a way of putting more money in the game, whereas mine was justification for a change in character, ending one's miserly ways. We opened our Saturday Morning envelopes, both of which gave the gossip about the bad things Conrad Birdie had done.

I arrived on time to help with the Sandlot Submissions. There were six teams interested in getting the rights to a sandlot in the Small Town.

1. Finch's team from World Wide Wickets, wanting the sandlot for a new WWW office
2. Frump's team from WWW, wanting the same thing
3. Colonel Buffalo Bill's team, wanting the sandlot for the wild west show
4. Pawnee Bill's team, wanting the sandlot for the other wild west show
5. The Peanuts team, wanting the sandlot for a softball field
6. The Bialystock-Bloom team, wanting the sandlot for a theater

Dolly had decided not to participate in any bid, because she worjed for both WWW and Buffalo Bill, and she wanted to avoid a conflict of interest. Horace had tried to get her to support the Bialystock-Bloom team, as he wanted them to help Ermengarde stage a comeback, but Dolly held firm, and later, Horace learned that one of the backers of the producers had an objection to Ermengarde or had some other star in mind or something, so he became less interested.

I looked at the Bialystock-Bloom paperwork, filled out by Ulla. For name, it said, "giraffe", and there was a picture of a smiley face with the words "Ulla sorry about doodle". It got worse from there.

Andrew: I feel that the mayor's office would be deprived if it doesn't see our paperwork.

I could only agree.

Folks with the paperwork had to run a multistation race. There were six stations, each with odd tasks to do. These were timed, and if a team hit the 10 minute mark at a station, the clock was stopped, and they'd go on to the next station. This was a really good rule.

I kept time for the bakery station. The first team was Finch's. He and Rosemary accidentally started in the library, and tried to do some puzzle there. But, they soon realized their mistake. We stopped the clock for them at one point because the supplies were not set up.

The task here was to make 5 cakes using wafers, cream, and icing, following the instructions for the type of cake. E.g., This is a birthday cake. Use orange wafers, white cream, and brown icing. Rosemary and Finch did this.

I think Frump's team came next, followed by Buffalo Bill's team, which had only George Marcellus Washburn on it. I saw Annie Oakley and Frank Butler, and suggested they help, which they were happy to do.

Dolly: So, I meddled a little.

I think the Peanuts team was the last to hit our station.

One station had dolls that had to be dressed or undressed, and then sung to sleep, as they simulated babies. Then, there was a Concentration-like game involving matching socks. Frump's player thought it was not completable in 10 minutes, but Finch's player told me that he and Rosemary's player had completed it early. He agreed that the sock representations were too small to be easily recognizable. I gather it would also have been nice to know how many wild cards there were. I don't know what the other stations were.

As the cakes were done, we moved them to the library. Professor Hill said that he was sure Marion would be delighted to see cake on her arrival at the library.

Then, the Wells Fargo Wagon arrived, and Professor Hill handed out the instruments for the band. Various folks who weren't Hill taught the kids how to play. This delighted Josh, who has the theory that Marion taught the kids on the sly in the movie.

Then, the long awaited "Coffee Break", with the horrifying realization that there was no more coffee! A World Wide Wickets crisis!

And, it was indeed a crisis. Running the bureacracy would be much harder with demoralized uncaffeinated workers. So, the company tried to buy coffee from Horace. Dolly suggested coffee in return for the attorney they'd loan Horace, but Horace refused that. Finch offered a marker for a grand, and Horace agreed. Finch paid him back later. Josh was glad to have a contingency envelope for this -- "If Someone Tries To Buy Coffee From You". It confirmed that he had it and told him how much to charge, all without the need to run to a gm.

Finch made sure to give Dolly a rose for Secretary Appreciation Day. Mr. Warbucks, Finch, Frump, Horace, and Dolly all sang "Grand Old Ivy", which was so much fun that Finch wanted to do it again. We agreed that we'd do it right before the big game.

I got to play the bureacracy game. This was fun. It was exactly the right level of complextity. It had a 10 minute time limit, but took much less time than that, like a minute or two. There was a pyramid of 10 obstacle cards in 4 rows. Up to three people could draw cards to try to overcome those obstacles. E.g., Signature Required could be solved with Expedited Memo. The number of cards drawn depended on a PC's skill at World Wide Wickets Bureacracy, and up to 3 PCs could work together. Usually, only 6 cards needed to be removed. Each had a point value. The total number of points could be split between Worker Satisfaction and Worker Productivity. Any given PC could only play this game once per hour.

If the coffee had not been acquired, an extra card would have been added to each row of the pyramid, and at least 7 cards would need to be cleared.

I approached Mike about the accounting problem. He asked if we had a PC accountant, not just an NPC from WWW. I said we had Cornelius. He said that he'd give us the first piece of information if we ran a bureacracy maze, and that, for this test only, Horace had a skill in it, as these were his books. We succeeded, learning what Dolly, at least, already knew from Cornelius: Someone was cheating Horace.

Dolly and Horace suspected Fred Graham, the actor who seemed to have mob connections. Fred had raised his price, he told Dolly, because he was insulted when Horace tried to pay him less than the sundries cost to make and wanted an apology in money, not merely words. Horace claimed he'd just been bargaining, and anyway, how did he know Graham was telling the truth? The actor offered to show his books. Dolly told Lilly Vanessi, who had offered to help, that she no longer had to sneak into Fred's dressing room to find them, and Lilli was glad to know this.

Cornelius looked at the books.

Cornelius: These books are terrible! I can't make heads or tails of them! The accountant who did them was terrible!

Fred: But... He wore a nice suit!

Excellent, thought Dolly. Fred easily agreed to let the accountant figure out what was going on, as Fred's accountant might have cheated him.

Cornelius enlisted Leopold Bloom's aid, Chipmunk or not. The books were represented by sudoku puzzles. Cornelius's player had never done these, and he bent over backwards to be fair, refusing to consider asking for out of character player help until I confirmed with Mike that this was okay. By the time I'd done that, the player had discovered that he liked sudoku puzzles, so I don't know if he and Bloom's player needed help.

As the player suspected, the accountants could not possibly figure out who was cheating Horace without seeing all 3 sets of books and solving all the sudoku puzzles. This makes little real world sense, but we were in a musical.

Dolly taught Annie Oakley and Cornelius to dance. Mrs. Shinn made Annie Oakley part of her eurythmic dancing group.

Dolly asked Horace what a woman would have to do to impress him. He told her that she'd have to clean the shelves of his store, top to bottom. Dolly convinced him she should, instead, impress him with her skill at, say, dancing. And, would Horace be the third judge of the dance contest? This, of course, required Dolly to teach him to dance. This, in turn, provided Dolly reason to be impressed with Horace's dancing skill. Yes, we were shamelessly gaming the system, though we did check in with a third party. Our reasoning for the heavy metagaming was that we would delay in the actual heart exchange, if need be, saying that the two had fallen in love but not realized it, and we would not get tripped up by the heart mechanic when it was time for the heart exchange to occur.

Eliza Doolittle asked for a dancing lesson. Dolly set her to dancing with Horace, and I explained that Josh was the better dancer and dance teacher, and please to pretend that his words were coming out of Dolly's lips.

Nathan Detroit asked Horace for a grand to sponsor a team. If the team won, they'd split the profits. Now, he wasn't going to use force on Horace. That was Big Jule's style. But, if he did not get this money, he'd have to divert other resources, such as resources he might otherwise be able to use against Big Jule, who was annoying Horace. Dolly asked Horace to do this for her. Josh laughed, knowing full well that one of Dolly's heart tasks was "Perform an act of charity in my name". Horace figured he owed Nathan, though, so he did as Dolly asked, and said to put the donation in her name. It's little wonder that George Marcellus thought that Dolly was already Horace's wife!

Dolly asked again what Horace wanted from a woman, and we took this opportunity to sing "It Takes A Woman" on the stage. There were only a few folks watching, but they seemed to like it. I know someone took a picture, and we'd like a copy!

After the song, Horace said he wanted a woman to muck out the stables. Dolly told him he really wanted her to accompany him to an event of his choice, and he chose the Hot Box show, since, by now, Max had bought out his sponsor and could put Ermengarde in the show.

Horace felt he owed Nathan because Nathan and his boys had protected Ermengarde before the game started. She had defended the goal posts when the Chipmunks tried to steal them after losing a game to the Groundhogs. There had been something about them beating up a guy named George who had apparently been Ermengarde's fiance, but I don't know what the story behind that was.

Miss Adelaide was most vexed at Nathan, who still hadn't married her, and he protested that a wedding needed all sorts of things. Dolly happily listed them, and agreed that this could take some time, so there was no reason Nathat couldn't start now. Dolly also helped out Annie Oakley and Frank Butler. Annie couldn't bring herself to ask Frank for tasks, so Dolly asked what a woman would have to do to win his heart. Be soft and pink? Why, Annie was doing that. Frank said he always liked excellent gifts and being asked for his autograph.

Dolly talked to Annie, who, as she suspected, could not afford an excellent gift. She could ask for Frank's autograph, especially now that she could read it!

Later, Dolly went to Frank again, and I looked at the task list, seeing "Lose to me in a contest of shooting". I used Dolly's ability, "Cupid's Arrow", to add "Be Annie Oakley" to the task list. I gather other folks were helping these two lovebirds. They really needed all the help they could get.

Mayor Shinn approached Dolly.

Mayor Shinn: So you're the one to blame! Or thank!

He and his wife had received notes, supposedly from each other, saying to meet each other at the footbridge.

Dolly: I wish I had thought of that, but you remember I hadn't even heard of the footbridge until last night.

Dolly said maybe Widow Paroo had done it. Actually, it was Zaneeta and her friends, doing the Parent Trap plot.

Dolly also helped Ermengarde and Ambrose. Ermengarde was trying to fulfill a heart task of selling one of Ambrose's painting. She only had Excellent paintings. Dolly could only afford Above Average paintings. She told Ermengarde she was paying to commission an Above Average painting from Ambrose. Ermendgarde said that one of her tasks was to have someone give her an Excellent item. Ambrose had given her an Excellent painting. Did that count? Dolly thought that it did. (Lisa would have had to recuse herself if this were an out of character question, as she was not an objective third party.)

At Mr. Warbucks's' suggestion, Dolly went to see Lucy for psychiatric advice. Lucy listened, then said it sounded like the person who needed advice was the friend Dolly was interested in, i.e., Horace.

After the game, I heard that Big Jule had come to see Lucy, putting his hat in front of his face, and saying, "I don't usually do this sort of thing, and I'm only here because a friend -- who isn't me -- needs some advice." Lucy's advice was quite good, and conferred a game benefit if followed. Alas, Horace and Lucy never did manage to find time for a session, although Dolly did convince Horace to give it a try because Lucy was being such an enterprising girl!

After the game, I learned that Finch's paperwork had vanished Friday night, and that he had assumed Frump was responsible, and gotten more paperwork. After the sandlot race, the missing paperwork was on his desk with a note, saying "This may not have happened if you had protection from Big Jule." Mr. Warbucks was not impressed, and informed Big Jule that he could get J. Edgar Hoover with one phone call.

Meanwhile. Bolsheviks were active! Yes, they kept trying to kill Mr. Warbucks. There were many bomb-carrying Bolsheviks, all played by Gordon Olmstead-Dean. The mayor's son, Randolph Shinn, grabbed one bomb and defused it. How was this possible? Turns out he's a scientific genius, because he's also a character from _Bye Bye Birdie_ who is a scientific genius.

Ambrose arranged a fake Bolshevik attack on Horace from which he then saved Horace. His player, Chris, explained that this was originally supposed to be followed by a real Bolshevik attack, but Gordon was busy playing Sitting Bull at the time, so that didn't happen. Josh thought Chris was pushing for too quick a resolution, but in the long run, it wasn't a problem.

Why were there bomb-wielding Bolsheviks? They were trying to kill Mr. Warbucks. I gather they do that sort of thing. Warbucks has two guardians, Punjab, represented by a name badge taped under the badge of the person he's protecting, and the Asp, played by someone in a black mask. That someone was Dirk, and Frank Butler was secretly the Asp, something I did not realize until Saturday night, even though I saw Dirk without the mask and with the Asp name badge. I just assumed that the Asp was an NPC being handed to whomever was available. This was just as well, since disguises are, of course, perfect in musicals, and Dolly had no reason to know that Butler was the Asp.

Just before lunch, Mr. Warbucks privately told Dolly that Annie had been kidnapped by Big Jule! I'm not sure what happened, but I gather that Lucy and Annie managed to escape by throwing something heavy on top of their guards. I'm not sure how Lucy got involved, but she did give Annie a Merit Badge for beating people up. When Dolly learned about that, she decided that it was okay to beat up kidnappers.

After lunch break, the two Little League games were set to begin. So, when another Gordon-shaped bomb-wielding Bolshevik showed up, the Asp called for a bat and swung it at the bomb. Mike ruled that it hit the pool hall, blowing it up, to the dismay of the mayor and Big Jule. Earlier, there had been a fight in the building, damaging the pool table, but this was a lot worse.

There were two games going on at the same time. The Peanuts won the Very Little League game. Horace's team won the Little League game. This meant that the next game would be between those two games. Mr. Warbucks went to the game to see Annie play. The game mechanics were good in isolation, but took more time than was desirable in the larp. It helped that the game was held in the main room, as this meant it was possible to interact at least a little with PCs in or watching the game, and it allowed the watchers, if not the players, to have a better idea of what was going on elsewhere in the game. But, the game is one of the main reasons that Horace never got his therapy session. On the other hand, Josh noted that the Sunday League Game gave him something big to do after his main plot had been resolved.

The Ascot Races came next, and the appropriate song was sung. There was also a lovely performance of "Fugue for Tinhorns", sung by Mike, Nicely-Nicely, and Billy Dane. Once all of that was dealt with, there was a secretary protest.

This was a blatant excuse for the performance of "A Secretary Is Not A Toy", which was fine, but the scene felt over scripted. It went like this:

Okay, here we all are with protest signs, ready to sing.

Nope, says Mike. First you protest.

Okay. We get on the stage and protest for a bit. Time to sing?

Nope, says Mike. Finch and Frump have contingency envelopes to open.

Okay, they open them. As far as I can tell -- I may be wrong -- the envelopes say, basically, "Get the NPC played by Mike so that he can sing this song too."

So, they get him. Time to sing?

Nope, says Mike. First, this NPC has to draw this all out to say, "You want me to mediate, but will the leaders of this protest accept my mediation?"

Vey is mir. Can we just sing, already?

Even given that I knew a lot was scripted, this seemed excessive. I think one of two things would have helped.

1. It not being Mike doing this. That would have removed the sense that the GM was using his position to have the scene he wanted. But, there is a better solution, especially since, really, our hard working GM deserves a couple of songs of his own, complete with staging.

2. Getting a copy of the script Mike had in mind. This would have removed the impatience and also given me a sense of being part of the whole thing, rather than feeling, "Huh? Can't we sing yet?" This would have been about a page long, and could have been given out at the game or in advance. At the game has the advantage of not having to know who'll show up for the scene. In advance has the advantage of increasing the odds of specific people showing up, but the fact that the song was on the schedule probably sufficed for that.

Once the singing started, of course, all was well. Ulla joined in, her player loving the irony of the Secretary Who Is A Toy singing this.

Then, Bud Frump and J. Pierpont Finch were competing to write the best memo about adding 10% more Excelsior to WWW's wickets . Dolly, Mr. Warbucks, and Mayor Shinn were the judges. Our instructions were to rate the memos on a scale of 1 to 10, taking into account:

1. The memo had to be typed
2. Grammar and sentence structure
3. Humor
4. Corporate doublespeak
5. What PCs felt about the competitors
6. Whether or not to accept bribes

Since I wasn't looking at the actual quality of the typing, but at the secretary's stated skill level, Finch won on #1. Frump had a grammar error. Finch's memo struck me as mildly funnier, while Frump's had better corporated doublespeak. Dolly liked Finch better, but Frump had actually been cleaning up his act.

Max pointed out that a tie was permissible, so Dolly gave both memos a score of 7 and tried to pair Max up with Widow Paroo. This would have been a long shot in any case, but was not helped by my saying "Marion Paroo", which I hadn't realized I had done until Andrew told me, after the game had ended.

Mr. Warbucks also gave both memos the same score, but he only gave them 5 points each, which was actually more accurate than Dolly's 7. He didn't find either memo funny. Fortunately, Mr. Shinn had scored one memo higher, Frump's. The more I thought about it, the more sense it made. Frump's was shorter, which is always good, and more positive. Frump's player said that, in his mind, he heard the memo in Shinn's voice.

Mr. Warbucks also said that there had been a break in at World Wide Wickets. Nothing valuable seemed to be missing, but he was having Frump and Finch do inventory. Finch and Rosemary asked Dolly for help with the bureaucracy maze for this task, as Frump had demoralizkd Rosemary, lowering her skill. Dolly was glad to be of assistance.

She was also glad that Mr. Warbucks had gotten his briefcase back, especially as it had stocks hidden in it. Now, if she could just find Mr. Hart to tell him that Mr. Warbucks wanted to ask how he'd achieved a 4% raise in worker satisfaction -- oh dear, poor Mr. Hart had already left, sick with the flu!

Professor Hill wanted to talk with Mr. Warbucks about the union workers' demand for a 7 1/2 cent raise. Warbucks remained firmly against that, but did agree to consider a wicket discount program for employees.

Hill noticed the key around Dolly's neck. She explained that it was the only key to Mr. Warbucks's personal log book. Some time later, he tried to convince Dolly that the key might be a South American artifact, worth quite a lot of money, and that the key should be appraised to see if it were indeed an artifact, rather than merely a reproduction. This seemed a little too absurd for Dolly to buy, at least without Hill's player using an ability or card, which the player doesn't like doing. Dolly did ask Mr. Warbucks if it might be possible that the key was an artifact or reproduction, but he dismissed the whole idea, and that was good enough for Dolly.

Then, the electoral caucus for the positon of mayor began. Shortly before, Mrs. Shinn had complained to Dolly about Mr. Shinn. They had gone to the races as a date, but then he had chased away some kids. Granted, the kids weren't supposed to be there, but he had left her alone, on their date! She had to walk home!

Dolly tried to find the mayor, but he and Mrs. Shinn were nowhere to be seen, including the room with the caucus. By the time Dolly spotted Mr. Shinn, his wife was in the room with the caucus, and he was on his way there. Naturally, she followed him.

At that point, there was a four way tie for mayor between Patsy Barton, Ambrose Kemper, Lucy Van Pelt, and Mrs. Shinn. Horace had withdrawn from the race. I'm not sure about Pawnee Bill. To my surprise, Widow Paroo had not a single vote. Josh explained that this was not a surprise because she was neutral on everything. Anyone voting would almost certainly pick a candidate with an opinion that matched his or her own.

The situation was explained to Mr. Shinn, and he decided that he wanted to ask each of the candidates a question.

Mr. Shinn's question for Ambrose Kemper: Do you support the Wild West show?

Ambrose explained about how he felt the Wild West show would be good for the town.

Horace: He means "Yes".

Mr. Shinn's question for Patsy Barton: Do you support the theatrical production? (I think -- I'm not sure of the wording, and there were lots of theatrical productions.)

Patsy said that she did -- and that there could be a part for Mr. Shinn!

Mr. Shinn: Miss van Pelt.

Lucy: Yes, Mayor Shinn?

Mr. Shinn: What is wrong with kids today?

Lucy: I can give you the full lyrics sheet.

Mr. Shinn: I have the lyrics memorized!

Lucy: What's wrong with kids today is that we are idle, sir. We don't have enough to do. If you vote for me, that will change!

Lucy actually made a pretty good argument, saying that giving kids more of a voice in their community would give them more to do and ensure that they were not idle.

Finally, Mr. Shinn turned to his wife.

Mr: Shinn: Mrs. Shinn.

Mrs. Shinn: Mr. Shinn.

Mr. Shinn: What will happen to me if I don't give you my vote?

(much laughter)

Mrs. Shinn: Look into your heart, George.

I swear, you could feel everyone on the edge or their seats.

Mr. Shinn (looking inside his coat): I think I left my heart in San Francisco.

Mike: I can print you out another card if you need it.

Someone: Do they make cards that small?

Mr. Shinn: After careful consideration, I throw my voice and my vote to Mrs. Shinn.

I missed the Spelling Bee and book reports, but I understand that Marcy Parks saw Jesus. I don't know if she was a PC or an NPC. Mr. Warbucks made plans to adopt Annie if her parents could not be found.

At some point, Conrad Birdic started singing. I'm not sure if this was the sequence where two guys dressed up as Jake and Elwood Blues to break Harry Dane out of jail while Conrad distracted everyone by singing Jailhouse Rock. But, I grabbed Josh because, while I've no objection to a good waltz or polka, I really like swing dancing. So, I started at least one spontaneous outbreak of dancing.

Now, swing dancing is vigorous. I put down everything I was holding. And I took off the key I was wearing around my neck. It was a long and heavy key, and I had no desire to be thwaped by it or to be throttled by the cord I'd strung it on. As the key needed to get to Hill if he were to have a chance at helping the workers get their 7 1/2 cent raise, I tried to flourish the key as I was taking it off, but during the few seconds it took me to do that, none of the interested parties happened to be watching.

Still, this gave me the idea of talking to Hill's player and noting that Dolly would simply have to take off the key at the dance contest. There were some vigourous dances there, and it would simply be too much of a hazard. I also gave the player the extra key I'd brought with me. I had purchased two copies of the same skeleton-headed key some time ago, with, if not this specific larp in mind, the idea that, some day, I might need them for a larp.

I missed the World Wide Wickets press conference, but I gather that someone had asked if Miss Adelaide were having an affair with the elusive Franklin Hart, Jr. Finch denied this, but somehow, over at the high stakes poker game, Nathan Detroit misheard, and thought that Finch was saying that Adelaide had indeed had this affair. The GMs, understandably, had no intention of correcting him. So, he sent a couple of his boys over to express his displeasure.

By the time Dolly arrived, Finch had a black eye. He and Dolly were sure that Nathan would never have sent the boys over; they must have just gotten a bit overly enthusiastic. Dolly went to talk to Nathan to make sure. She explained that it was good to have friends, but that, sometimes, they got a bit, ah, carried away. Nathan said that they'd misheard what Finch had said, which was true, and that he could assure Dolly that this would not happen again, which was also true. He merely left out the part about being the one who sent them over.

Horace and Dolly went to the Hot Box show, where Miss Adelaide and Ermengarde performed "Take Back Your Mink", to Horace's delight. He wanted Ermengarde to make a comeback. Reno Sweeney sang "Anything Goes". Shroeder played the piano, but he had to face away from the stage so that he wouldn't see anything one of his tender years shouldn't.

We had planned to see Kiss Me Kate, but there wasn't even standing room for that. And, Josh and I had planned to get to Bob Evans as quickly as possible. We'd even changed into civilian clothes at about 5 o'clock. So, we took advantage of this and went to dinner with Lynn and Barbara, who played Irene and Ermengarde respectively, and discussed how we wanted to hand the Harmonia Gardens scene.

We came back from dinner, showered, changed, and went over last minute details with the rest of the Dolly group. Josh had read his "End of Dance" contingency envelope early, and was pleased to see that it was exactly what he had expected. More on that in a bit.

The Dolly Arc Agenda:

Cornelius and Horace exchange wallets
In the final dance, Dolly and Ermingarde accidentally change places, so that Ermingarde is dancing with her uncle, Horace
Play out the obvious wacky hijinks and songs after the dance ends

And thanks to Mike for making it clear that no disruptive wacky hijinks would occur during that dance and that "after the dance has ended" included the final round of applause for the wonderful band.

I did my Grand Entrance, and had a fortuitous eyeslip, which meant that I cut one verse of "Hello Dolly", something I'd meant to ask Mike about doing, but had forgotten. Three verses of adulation in a game packed to the gills for that hour ought to be enough for anyone.

Michael Moran's player showed Josh and me his card with five uses of "Excellent Plus". Josh and I eyed it dubiously, not wanted Mickey to win by card fiat. The player said that the card didn't guarantee him a win; it was just something to be factored in to our decision.

I made sure to remove the key, putting it on top of my wrap, and making sure that Hill knew where it was. I'm not sure if he ever approached it physically, but I'm guessing that the clever professor did what he had to, which may have involved making a duplicate key.

During the last dance, we worked our partner swap without a hitch, and Chris picked up his cue.

Ambrose (realizing he's no longer dancing with Ermengarde): Oh! Hello, Dolly!

Dance Contest Results:

Men: Dolly favored Ambrose, but Horace and Roger said Mickey was the best. If I had been looking only at player talent, George Marcellus, aka Dan, would have taken the award.

Women: Dolly thought either Reno or Ulla, and Horace and Roger both agreed that Reno was the best, despite being handicapped by her dress. If we had been looking only at player talent, Marion, aka Dorothy, would have taken it.

After the dance, I think the first set of hijinks was the confession of Harry Dane. If I understand it correctly, he was innocent of having murdered the security guard at Irene Molloy's shop, but guilty of not having come forward about his part in an accidental death involving a drag race at Dead Man's Curve, years ago. Instead, Harry the Horse was arrested for the crime, and this launched the Horse on his criminal career. In a lovely bit of drama, Harry the Horse did consider shooting Harry Dane in front of Dane's love, Reno Sweeney, but instead confessed to the crime of murdering the security guard, as he didn't want Dane to pay for a crime Dane actually hadn't committed.

Policeman (played by Gordon): Then, I'm arresting -you-!

Harry the Horse: I'm taking it on the lam!

And he fired his gun, and Gordon died yet again.

Due to musical logic, Harry Dane was not arrested for the business at Dead Man's Curve (well, okay, that one makes sense) or for anything illegal he had done during the game.

Horace yelled at his niece, fired Cornelius, and tried to pay his restaurant bill. Alas, his wallet was empty! Cornelius's wallet was full.

Cornelius and Irene sang "It Only Takes A Moment", and then Cornelius quit, took his back pay from Horace's wallet, paid his bill, and, so as not to inconvenience Dolly -- isn't he sweet? -- and to rub Horace's nose in it, paid Horace's bill as well.

Josh and I had wondered whether I should sing "So Long Dearie". Under the circumstances, I sang just the first word of the song, "Goodbye!" We agreed it could stand in for the whole song.

And, as instructed by his contingency envelope, Horace found a flyer about Michael Moran's show, staring Ermengarde! Indignant, Horace pulled his niece out of the show, determined to stage her comeback properly!

Barbara had a contingency envelope as well. Once she and Ambrose had exchanged hearts, she could stand up to her uncle. However, if this happened before she was pulled from the show, her contingency envelope said that the one exception to standing up to Horaces was when he pulled her from Michael Moran's show.

That's a "when", not an "if". As those who suffered through _Babes in Arms_ know, the child star must get pulled so that Patsy Barton can take over the leading roll. She must get pulled, or other people's game will suffer. I don't know what that left for Ermengarde to do for the evening.

I got to see part of the show, and it was hilarious. I'm not quite sure why. There were three rows of people, marching in time to the music of "Babes in Arms", while Tommy's player mouthed the words of the lead singer. For those of you who have not seen the movie, the lead singer of the title song is a tall, strapping man, at least 20 if he's a day, and more likely 25 or even 30, and he has an improbably deep voice.

I had no idea about the enmity-turned-friendship between Tommy and Michael, including the "Oh, if only I had a tenor!" exchange. I had no idea what Gordon was up to when he started pulling orange wool from his midriff, until the latest Bolshevik bomb went off. Exunt omnes, with much panic.

Someone: Did everyone get out?

Someone else: Everyone but the Bolshevik.

Someone: Is the Bolshevik dead?

Big Jule: I'll check. (goes back inside the opera house and fires a couple of shots into the Bolshevik) Yes, he's dead.

One of the other gangsters tried to explain to Big Jule that this hadn't been necessary. I dunno -- making sure a guy who tried to blow up a building with kids inside is dead seems reasonable.

Somewhere around here, I think, I was asked to help Eliza Doolittle learn Bureacracy. I worked with Rosemary and Rosie de Leon. Rosie activated her one use ability to be Above Average. We figured that, because we'd been successful, Eliza now had a Below Average ability, but because she had the Quick Learner ability, she had acquired Rosie's special ability and could, once during the game, use World Wide Wickets Bureaucracy at Above Average.

Dolly had tried to push Eliza and Mr. Warbucks together, but nothing seemed to be clicking, even though Eliza had said that she was considering staying in America. Dolly resolved to talk to Mr. Warbucks again at the Piescream Social.

Alas, Mr. Warbucks explained that Eliza was in love with Mr. Higgins after all, and would be returning to England with him. And, while WWW wanted to open up an English office, Higgins was totally unsuited to running it. Eliza was learning, true, but probably not enough to run the office, even if England wasn't as old fashioned in its attitudes toward women as Mr. Warbucks believed. (Did anyone other than me slip and call him Mr. Wickets?)

Mr. Warbucks also had to award a grand for Secretary Appreciation Day. He gave it to Rosemary. I think Dolly was intended to campaign for it herself, but Warbucks made it clear that he was concerned about charges of favoritism, so he was awarding strictly on merit. And, really, Dolly was a lousy secretary. Her top priority was: Marry Horace. After that? She wanted to get a few couples together, folks who had clearly found their true love, but just didn't know it. After that, she wanted to find someone for Mr. Warbucks, which just wasn't happening. WWW business took a distant fourth place to all of this.

The pies were delicious and varied, and the pie fight was fun. Dolly and Horace slung pies at each other, and I think Ambrose got in on the action. I did need to remind Josh that pies were to be pressed into the chest, not the face, especially for those of us wearing glasses. I also gather that there had been an earlier Secret pie fight.

Schroeder watched Dolly and Horace at the pie fight and put one and one together.

Schroeder: Dolly? Do you have a -crush- on Mr. Vandergelder?

I forget exactly what I said, but it boiled down to, "Yes, and he will soon realize that we are going to be married." But the question was absolutely priceless.

After that was Mayor Shinn's Eurythmic Dancing, which was not only mercifully brief, but also actually almost worked, and certainly looked less silly than it did in the movie. Next was a lightning quick Shipoopi. I understand why it had to be so fast, but it would have been nice to have more time to dance that.

Then, Conrad Birdie sang "One Last Kiss" and prepared to kiss Zaneeta. I fully expected someone to punch him out, but it seems that this was by no means guaranteed. Akira, who played Tommy, hadn't seen _Bye Bye Birdie_ and, in character, had agreed that this kiss was fine, and not a personal thing for Conrad. But, Michael Moran thoughtfully egged him on, saying, "Are you going to let him do that?", and Akira decided that actually seeing his girlfriend kiss Conrad would make him snap, so he stormed the stage and punched Conrad.

The World Wide Wickets Treasure Hunt Announcement did not feature a Bible, but did go disasterously wrong, as Lois Lane announced not the clue, but the actual location of the treasure, which was inside the WWW offices in the Big City. Everyone stormed the building, looking for the treasure, making a terrible mess. Mr. Warbucks fired Finch, who insisted that the only two people in the world who had known where the treasure was were himself and Mr. Warbucks.

When the dust settled, there were two attempts to clean up the offices enough to open for business as usual the next day. I don't know who tried the first one, but for the second, it was Dolly, Rosemary, and Mr. Warbucks. They had to clear all ten obstacles in the pillar, and almost made it. They simply couldn't work around one final Phone Tag obstacle -- the same thing that had happened in their last attempt!

Meanwhile, Annie's real parents had surfaced -- or had they? Actually, they were the gangsters Rooster Hannigan and Lilly St. Regis, who tried to kidnap Annie. The Asp fired a shot that only a sharpshooter could make, and hit Rooster, freeing Annie. Lilly got away.

Dolly asked Mr. Warbucks how they had found out about Annie's locket. Was that what the break-in was about? Mr. Warbucks explained that they had found out from Mrs. Hannigan at the orphanage. The break in had been Linus and his friends trying to find out about Annie's parents. They wanted to help her. Linus had confessed all of this to Mr. Warbucks.

The livery stables caught on fire. I'm not sure why. Folks formed a bucket brigade in first one line, then two, then a circle that took a while to get the directions right. Even Big Jule helped, assuring Horace that this wasn't his doing. After all, the mayor, Mrs. Shinn, had signed his protection racket agreement.

Josh and I decided that we wanted to sing along for "Luck Be a Lady", so I asked about where the craps game was going to be.

Harry the Horse: I don't see a red carnation!

So that's what those were for. Good to know. We explained that we just wanted to be NPCs for the scene, and he told us where the game would be, then asked if Josh could go back into character. Josh did. I came in to hear this:

Horace: But, I'll walk very slowly to the phone to call the police.

Harry the Horse: I appreciate that. On your way to the phone, could you sign this?

Harry and Big Jule wanted Horace's signature for their protection racket contract. Horace refused, and was not happy about the new mayor signing. The mobsters said that Horace would find his own business was an exception to the rule.

The mayor joined the discussion, and made it clear that she did not want any "exceptions" made in her town, and, I think, was kind enough to make it clear that this included roughing Horace up -- in town. She was not pleased with Big Jule for not protecting the opera house, and was even less pleased when he responded by explaining that the contract did not cover Bolshevik action.

Horace talked to Mr. Warbucks about borrowing The Asp when he went to the Big City for the revival meeting on Sunday. Mr. Warbucks was happy to help out a fellow Groundhog. Mr. Warbucks had also given several people jobs. Cornelius was the new accountant, replacing Bloom. Zaneeta and Tommy were starting in the mail room. Of course, given that the company was a shambles, the teenagers offered to help clean up the mess.

The Secret Craps Game met not in the sewers, as it does in the movie _Guys and Dolls_, but in an even more unexpected location: Mrs. Hannigan's orphanage in the Small Town. Big Jule won back some of his markers with his No Spot Dice; then, Sky Masterson bet one grand per person in exchange for their promise to attend Sarah Brown's revival meeting on Sunday. He rolled the dice at the end of "Luck Be A Lady", winning, of course, as Nathan's player quickly adjusted one of the dice to turn a 6 into a 7. I reminded folks that Dolly would handle train tickets for anyone who needed this.

As Mike went offline for the night, I got his okay on one final attempt at running the WWW Bureaucracy pyramid. I couldn't find Rosemary, but Frump told me that he'd had a therapy session with Lucy, and had realized that, if he didn't use nepotism, he had a one-time boost to his skill. He also said that Mr. Warbucks could still deal with any memos requiring his signature, even if he wasn't one of the team of 3, so long as he was physically present. This meant that our best combination was Frump, Rosemary, and Dolly, each with 4 cards, as Mr. Warbucks only received 3 cards. Dolly found Mr. Warbucks, who agreed.

Dolly resumed the search for Rosemary, but, fortuitously, found Finch instead. He asked for her to listen and promised to bring her to Rosemary. As they went, he swore he hadn't revealed the location, and said that he could help run the bureaucracy, as he was now drawing 6 cards. Rosemary explained that she now drew 5 cards, as Finch had been teaching her. The three went to Mr. Warbucks, and Dolly convinced him to let the fired Finch at least help clean up the mess he'd made.

So, Finch got 6 cards. Rosemary got 5. Frump and Dolly both got 4, so we decided to let Frump play, as Dolly had plenty of plot outside of WWW, whereas Frump's Sunday was tightly scripted. And, after two near misses, with the same danged phone tag, Finch and Frump working together, aided by the employee who'd been with Warbucks the longest, with Warbucks on hand when an item requiring his signature came up, in the last possible attempt that evening, WWW cleared the pyramid! This was a completely unpredictable edge-of-the-seat dramatic scene, from first attempt to last. So, while the Chairman of the Board would be demanding answers on Sunday, at least business would open as usual.

After that, we chatted for a while, and Josh and I decided to try to get up early enough to wrap the Dolly arc and sing "Put On Your Sunday Clothes" before the revival meeting.

Comments

[drcpunk.livejournal.com]

So, here’s what was up with the secretary protest. Finch and Frump had a number of challenges to overcome during the game. These challenges were delivered in the way of contingency envelopes for the two of them. The protest was a challenge. They had to *both* convince Mr. Bratt to sing AND convince the leaders of the protest that it was ok.

But they were late opening the contingency envelopes, and it felt like you were trying to sing without giving them a chance to resolve the issue. From my point of view, it felt like you were rushing the scene without giving Finch and Frump a chance. And it had to be me doing this. I was the only person on the cast/GM side who knew the song.

In any case, I’m sorry about the crossed signal wires. There wasn’t so much a script per se, but there was a series of events that needed to be done, and that information was in the hands of two people who didn’t have enough time to absorb it all.

Ah! We had no idea about all of this. I think we did need a script. Now, this script could be:

Order of Events
Secretaries Protest
Frump and Finch Open Contingency Envelopes
Frump and Finch Get Bratt
Frump and Finch Convince Leaders of the Protest
Bratt Starts the Song

This version assumes that the song will be performed no matter what, and that the "contest" is actually a forgone conclusion.

Now, if you didn't want the contest to be a forgone conclusion, you needed to tell the protesters what was going on, i.e., that there was a mechanical challenge for Frump and Finch, what they had to do, and how to decide if the leaders were convinced -- and, quite possibly, who the heck the leaders were.

In other words, do what you did with the memo writing contest. Hand the people "judging" the rules: This is what the contest is about, and this is what you base your decision about whether you're convinced on.

Otherwise, all we know is that we're supposed to sing this song -- it's not just that it's a fun song to sing, but it's on the schedule and all -- and we're being told not to sing yet, and we don't quite know why or how to tell when it's time to sing or how long it's likely to be before we sing (a crucial question for those of us with small bladders).

Marcy Park was an NPC. She was one of five PCs who were downgraded when we didn’t reach 60 people.

Ah. Makes sense. I was pretty sure I hadn't seen her around.

Re: Protection racket: It was suggested after the game that people should have been able to get 1 influence for 4 out of 6 and two influence for all 6. I agreed, but it was alas too late by then.

Ah well. That would have been a good patch.

I’m glad the bureaucracy mechanic worked well. It was generally agreed in playtesting that it went too fast, so we slowed it down a bit for the game. Luckily we didn’t make it too slow. I’ll probably release it as a standalone game mechanic (like MENKS) as one of my free monthly downloads.

Oh, cool. It is wickedly warped to be able to say that I loved the bureaucracy system in the game.

You also said that there's database software available -- did I miss where that was on the website?

[ambug666.livejournal.com]

Database software: http://www.interactivitiesink.com/mechanics/index.html

Second item from the top. Brassy's Database.

[drcpunk.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I've downloaded it and will see if I can figure out how to use it. Given that the weekend long game we've been working on for over a decade has lots of characters getting a name change, this could prove really useful.