The Lonely Life of a Hotel Desk

[BlackSwan317]

Here I sit, quietly, at my lonely hotel desk all night. I work the graveyard shift at a small town, big chain, middle class hotel, and see more than my fair share of freaks, jack-a's, hookers, lookers, and crooks. Sometimes I need to vent about it, sometimes I just feel something is to amusing not to pass it along to the world of the vaguely ambiguous in cyber space, and sometimes I just need people to talk to for company. At any rate, this thread is designed for everything from your horror or happy stories of hotel stays/work, questions about it, or just if you feel like chatting at a bored lonely desk clerk ^_^ Please, stop by and say hi won't you?

[Hy3na]

Here I sit, broken hearted... thought I'd-


Wait. I should stop before this becomes another hour-long conversation about bodily functions.

[BlackSwan317]

Holy crap! Love the Martin with the upright bass picture. Uprights are sooooooo freakin sexy. *drools over the bass* (I'm right aren't I? That is him with an u.b.?)

[Hy3na]

Ohyes.

Didn't I tell you that he plays UB? I have a plot in mind where Jordan's gang (which I think I have decided should be henceforth known as "The Flock" at least for now) has to pretend to be a jazz band for some kind of dealings (still hammering it out in my head. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it). And Martin really likes music, so he's all "I call bass!" Carlos gets a ukelele. I've got an image of it somewhere. Their band name is "Folkenstein."

[BlackSwan317]

You mentioned he played bass, but I didn't know it was upright *drools some more*

You know... it frightens me how much you managed to create a character that is fitted so terrifyingly perfectly to my very peculiar taste in men before you and I ever had any idea who the other was. 0_o Not even kidding... you pretty much made him 90% of what my ideal guy would be. It's almost freaky.... on no, it is freaky... *hides* are you in my head?!?!? ARE YOU WATCHING ME?!?!?! AHHH! *runs away flailing*

[Hy3na]

You know, I was just thinking about that. It seems to be defying statistics. I mean, my characters almost always infallibly click with at least someone, but between the cute-awkward, the long hair, the bass, and the ungodly tall... its just uncanny.

I'm watching you all the way from Indiana, Swans. I have CRAZY-powerful binoculars.

Also, I think that if I didn't include Lixi/Allison in the next story arc I would be missing out on some serious character development. So perhaps our characters click on an otra-planar level. o_o

This shit is way over my head sometimes.

[Hy3na]

HAHAHA. Martin summarizes what he thinks of the whole situation.

https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=101613.0

[BlackSwan317]

Don't forget dark, broody, french (at least in the rp) and posessed.

EEeeeep! Can't wait to see how you portray them ^_^

[Hy3na]

I wouldn't call him so much broody. Just... quiet. For the most part. Some things just get to him more easily than others.

[BlackSwan317]

Still, there's just something sexy about a guy that doens't have to constantly be one up-ing every story you tell (as I've noticed so many guys do)

[Hy3na]

He's a rare breed. Just enough self-image problems to be amusingly awkward, and just enough confidence in the things he IS good at to not be a doucheburger. =D

Oh god... at SPACE this past weekend (did I tell you about this? I forget who all I told) I had this one guy drawing on my table. He said that what he drew was ridiculous and I said "Eh... one of my main characters is a cannibal. I embrace the ridiculous." So then he decides its time to play "my penis is bigger than yours: imaginary friend version" and starts rattling off all the weird characters he has. He ends with "time-traveling viking."

My response: "I read a romance novel about that. Its called 'The Viking Tempest' by Ashland Price."

The look on his face = priceless.

[BlackSwan317]

Haha :-p that is quite amusing. gotta love the I'm weirder than you game xD

[Hy3na]

I'm used to it. There was a girl named Kristen I used to hang out with who would play that game all the time. At one point I had to stop her and say "wait just a minute: you're bragging that you have delusions of grandeur?" She was a LARPer and that apparently gave her entitlement to be 'weird and artsy.' Too bad she wasn't any good at the 'artsy' part. >>

-writing response post-

-slow tonight- >____>

[BlackSwan317]

*shutters* larpers... I had a really REALLY bad experience with a larping crew once... it was scarring... at best

Take your time -pat pats- you know I don't mind

[consortium11]

LARP'ings one of those things I can never quite make my mind up about. I'd imagine with the right group of people in the right location it would be something that could be genuinely fun... from what I've picked up there's some Continental Europe and Scandinavian LARPs which more resemble full on historical re-enactments than what you'd traditionally think of as a LARP.

Then you get stuff like this:

Lightning Bolt!

I'm sure they had fun (and after all that's what matters) but it just looks so... well... I'm afraid to say... stupid.

I'd also guess that the issues some people have with any form of RP in separating IC and OOC become far more apparent in a LARP'ing environment.

[BlackSwan317]

Weee! Someone else came into our thread! YAY!

Hi there, by the way.

My issue wasn't so much with larping as it was with this particular group of larpers. They almost seemed like they were trying to be the stereotypical, delusional larpers that most people expect all larpers to be, making jokes and laughing about how they had trouble discerning reality from the game as though it were something to brag about, and they never seemed to switch off, which I know is allot of what you just mentioned as being an issue. It just got very troubling very fast to be around them, and they'd commissioned me to make their costumes, and hence asked meto come spend a weekend at their little larping camp thing that they did every summer. I only stayed 2 days before I left, more because I was the only female there and that got very uncomfortable very quickly.

[Hy3na]

The deal with Kristin is she just would not shut up about it. Her life revolved around it and how it made her so freaking special. And its like... "That's nice Kristin, uhuh... yeah. That's NICE Kristin. Say, did you get that project done for Scott's class yet? Of course you haven't. Because you were too busy pretending to be SPECIAL." -twitch-

I mean, there are plenty of nice LARPers out there that are sane and have more than a tenuous grasp on reality, but she kind of ruined the device for me.


consortium: LIGHTNING BOLT! LIGHTNING BOLT!

[consortium11]

I understand why the guy had to scream it (but 7 times... really...). It's the having to throw something when he does it, especially when it unintentionally hits one of his comrades. As a standard rule I'd imagine that when something in a supposedly deep combat scene makes the onlookers laugh out loud you should probably rethink your system...

[Hy3na]

That is true. But I assume that's why they usually have these sorts of meetings deep in the woods. Or I guess "ambiance" or something.

You know, as lame as LARP sounds, I suppose it could be fun with the right people. Unfortunately, it seems like a lot of the people who are attracted to LARP are the sort that I'm trying to distance myself from. I'll stick with Ren Faires and occasionally dressing up like a pirate because I can.

[BlackSwan317]

I adore ren fairs :-) I go to the pa one at every given chance.  :-)

[Oniya]

I understand why the guy had to scream it (but 7 times... really...). It's the having to throw something when he does it, especially when it unintentionally hits one of his comrades. As a standard rule I'd imagine that when something in a supposedly deep combat scene makes the onlookers laugh out loud you should probably rethink your system...

Well, having to throw something when you call your spell ensures that you define your target.  It's no different from waving the big padded swords around to hit the right people.

And who hasn't been in a tabletop party where someone called 'Fireball' in a 10' corridor?

[consortium11]

Well, having to throw something when you call your spell ensures that you define your target.  It's no different from waving the big padded swords around to hit the right people.

And who hasn't been in a tabletop party where someone called 'Fireball' in a 10' corridor?

Wouldn't shouting "lightning bolt troll... lighting bolt guard on left... lightning bolt guard on right... lightning bolt that guy * and point* etc work better than throwing something? It defines the target without the unintentional hilarity of casting Footstomp of Doom + 4 but the tennis ball (?) hits a tree, bounces off and whack your rogue who's sneaking up on the back of the head.

And I think there's a difference between this... where a player's hand eye co-ordination fail him when he tries to throw something that is essentially a "helpful" prop and the fireball situation which is a terrible (if funny) tactical decision.

The leads on to another point with LARP'ing that I've never quite gotten my head around. How much is actually roleplaying? From the rulesets I've glanced over weapon-to-weapon combat in most of them seems to basically be a case of hitting the other player as often and quickly as possible below the head without getting hit yourself. Fair enough, that's part of the live action aspect... but in that case isn't it entirely possible that generic superbadass awesome warrior number 2... played by a physically unhealthy player with terrible reactions, fitness, hand eye co-ordination or talent for bashing things gets beaten (and beaten badly) by untrained librarian number 6 played by someone who's in great physical shape, with all those attributes and is good at bashing things?

Which seems to make it hard to role-play at least one key aspect of what makes something a role-playing game to me...

[Oniya]

I could point out the 'random critical failure' that's built into most systems, live or otherwise.  Lightning-bolt-guy apparently rolled a 1.  ;)

The amount of actual role-play varies dramatically from group to group.  Some groups put a great amount of stock in plot elements, with story arcs that extend from one 'adventure' to the next, over the course of the season, where others are an excuse for grown people to whack each other with reinforced pool-noodles (colloquially known as 'boffer groups') - not that there's anything wrong with that, if you need to blow off steam.  There are even some that eliminate the foam combat entirely, and use other means of determining who 'wins' a given confrontation (I've seen sealed boxes with d6s in them, RPS, and I vaguely remember one involving marked popsicle sticks).

[Ebb]

(Maybe a thread about larping misconceptions would be useful.)

There are also huge numbers of larpers who have nothing to do with the 'dressing up in semi-medieval costumes and having fights in the woods' (not that there's anything wrong with that). In essence larp is just roleplaying where you act out what your character is doing physically and speak in character most of the time. I've been involved in various larps that:
- had no combat
- used no random elements
- took place in the "real" world
- were played out in "normal" settings (a bar, someone's house, a hotel)

And in addition to the genres that people normally think of (D&D-ish, Vampire), there are larps set in science fiction universes, Cthulhu, modern day spies, Victorian England, superheros, suburban PTA meetings, Old West towns, etc., etc.

There are certainly drawbacks to larp as a medium for play, just as there are for tabletop, or forum play, or IM, or what have you. But there are also advantages that are harder to get in other forms, including a real sense of "being there". Which, yes, sometimes leads to some players blurring the lines a little more than one might like.

One big problem is that most larp groups are local; there's not a common world-wide infrastructure to tie people together, except for some cases like Vampire. So whereas you can talk to anyone in the world about your D&D 4e game and have not have to cover all of the basic concepts first, it's a lot harder to find common ground for the 10 person game you played last weekend that took place in the last four hours of the Titanic sinking, and which might never be played again because it was run completely off of 3x5 cards with rules that the GM made up the week before.

[BlackSwan317]

Well here I sit, back at work on what should be my usual night off. I love only having 1 day off in a week. Makes being a single mom fantastic.

Ahh well, enough of the bitching about work, I'll bitch about something else instead..

On to a topic that's game related and NOT ABOUT LARPING, (no offense to any larpers, I just don't wish to continue discussing it further as I have no input in the matter.) Last night (Thursday night) was my only night off for this week, so from sunday last week till thursday upcoming. Usually thursday night some friends and I participate in the table top roleplay Hunter The Gathering from White Wolfs WOD system. Well, I asked my friends if they could either write me out for the session or if we could just skip a week (which happens. We're a 7 person group, and people have lives, so we occasionally reschedule if one of the guys who is in a band has a gig or if Jenn, the other girl in the group has to work, etc, etc) as it was a very bad week at work for me, I wanted to spend my only night off with my child rather than having everyone else around distracting me from her, and I was sick with a nasty cold that made it hard for me to even talk. They got upset and through a hissy fit till I agreed to go ahead and have everyone over to game, then complained all night that they didn't want to sit near me because they were worried I would get them sick....  >:( I love my friends and I love the game... but my god... come on people, pick one or the other.


On that note, mini bitching rant out of the way.