CONfusion (RPG Con)

This past Saturday I ventured out (despite recovering from a nasty cold and it being semi dreary) to Wellington proper to attend my first CONfusion. What is CONfusion? It’s a one day gaming convention held at Turnbull House.  It consisted of three rounds each roughly 3 hours long.  Each session had 4 games you could play in.  So I look at the options for the first session and I see three things I haven’t played and then there is The Silver Kiss of the Magical Twilight of the Full Moon, which I have played both tabletop AND Larp before. I’m predictable as much as I like to do new things I’ll default with something I know I’ll have fun playing, that meant Silver Kiss.

I was the human love interest to Bryn’s Vampire, Thomas, ZOMG WAS HE CREEPY. My character was popular but geeky, she was really into kung fu. She also had a boyfriend and thus I was expecting angsty drama, which one do I choose, etc. Nope Thomas broke his neck within 20 minutes of meeting him. He then proceeded to stalk, kidnap, and force me to either spend eternity with him or die. My character liked living so she was turned, as was her bff. Then we all went to New York where I became an awesome kung fu teacher.

Next round was all about Fiasco. I’ve heard so many good things about Fiasco like SERIOUSLY good. So I signed up for that, but my deciding wasn’t done yet, With Fiasco comes many play sets do I play the Cthulhu set or Regina’s Wedding? I decided to go with Regina’s Wedding, and I’m so glad I did. I played with Jenni, Thomas, Paul and Mike. In Fiasco you don’t really have a GM as more a facilitator who plays just as equally. My main char was “Televisions Margaret Wakefeild” who we determined had a Bridezillas type of show. Jenni was Regina, who though she was marrying the heir to Baroness Something or Another, but was in fact a con-man. The photographer was my crazy ex, who ever since I deserted him at the altar has been Hell bent of destroying ALL OF THE weddings. Turned out good for most people including Margaret Wakefeild who ended up with  her own wedding CHANNEL.

The final round I played Shadowrun. I didn’t know much about this system, I think I would have preferred to have play Fiasco another time. I find while I like classic skill based games that use dice rolls to determine passes or fails, for day games I prefer more free form indie games I think.  I ended up having fun in this game and it went rather fast, mostly cause there were only two players. It took awhile to get used to the system it uses. The game is odd in that it is Science Fiction and Fantasy combined, so you have both magic and advanced tech. The goal of the game was to stop this Terrorist which we did. Dunno if I will play it again but it’s a possibility….

Over-all I played in two new to me systems, and had lots of fun… When’s the next one?

Things I Like Thursday

To start off things I don’t like: Accidently deleting two posts from existence by forgetting to check how recent my database backup was when upgrading my database.

—-real post begins here—-
My new blog theme thanks Sam of Rooster Tails for the cool graphics. I’m probably not done yet… I’ll still be doing a few tweaks here and there.  Also there are a few bits of content that I really need to add to the pages…

Web comics… I mean they are comics and I read them on the internet… for free!!

My top 5 are(in no particular order):

  • PVP Player vs. Player is as very nerdy comic mostly aimed at gamers.
  • XKCD how do you explain this comic to those who don’t know about it… All I can say is when me and my husband talk about it we never seem to get the letter right we have called it XFCE XKFC and XKFD among many other things….
  • Rooster Tails an awesome New Zealand trans/queer comic written by a talented trans comic artist
  • The Knit Princess really funny knitting comic, probably only funny to knitters and maybe those close to knitters.
  • Oglaf NSFW enchanted sperm, naughty stories, and irreverent humour
  • and as a bonus Khaos Komix more Trans/Queer comics, this one tells several stories from lots of viewpoints, not so much funny like Rooster Tails, and more heartbreaking in bits.

 

Audible.com how I love thee… I love to read I read probably about 20 hours a week maybe more, which has always meant that my reading competes with my other hobbies(which I seem to have a lot of) meaning that I can either read or knit, read or embroider, read or cook dinner(okay not so much a hobby). You get the picture… About a two and a half years ago, after hearing on every single one of Brenda Dayne‘s podcasts about audible, I decided to give it a go and get a free audio book… Well I never had an audio device it worked with so I cancelled it.  Fast Forward 6 months I got an android phone , and guess what it had an audible app which meant I could download the books directly to my phone. Now I use audible constantly… I still read actual books but my reading time has increased massively cause I can read and do other things like knitting and cooking.

cover image of Syren by Angie Sage

Related: The Septimus Heap books… I’m halfway through book 5 and I absolutely love this series… They are like Harry Potter but yet not at all like Harry Potter. They are well written engaging and amazing to read.

Honourable Mentions:

Getting a postcard from Jenni… I love mail that’s not bills.

Larping (of course)

The Guild (they are back yay!!!)

Things I Like Thursday

Okay I really meant to post in this blog before now… but anyway here we are a week later.

Things I like:

Slut Walk: The march was awesome, getting up and speaking in front of such a large amount of amazing people was terrifying but worth it. Seeing everyone cry as I read my speech was heart breaking, and heart warming all at once. I feel bad that I had to leave so soon afterward. It’s also great to hear that so many people appreciated my speech… ( I have since this posted  my speech up here)

The Reason I had to hop off so soon after slut walk was so I could get ready for the Midea High School Prom LARP being held by The VUW Roleplaying and Games Club which was a blast! I completed all of my character goals and got into my secret society! YUS!!!!!!! It was a lot of fun. and I got to wear one of my Victorian gowns! (it was a Victorian masquerade themed prom).

And THEN the next day I had my Dragonlance table top game! so a very VERY geeky weekend.

This week has from then been filled with Game of Thrones, I’m almost done… I rather like Cersei, but also rather adore Daenerys…

While watching GoT I have been busily sketching costume ideas for my Teonn character…  which is useful, I love designing for medievalesque fantasy, you can pick and choose the best from everything really…  I love a lot of what Cersei wears, and this am drawing a lot of inspiration from her.

Knitting wise I’m working on the Dino Hat for a friend of mine!

Things I Love Thursday

I’m totally stealing this awesome idea from Jenni who does it regularly…  Now I’m hoping this won’t be my ONLY blog post. but I fear there will be times that this will be. Oh well. On to it I should go.

Homemade Gluten free Peanut Butter cookies

Spoonflower fabrics esp Doctor Who fabric!

Madman in a Blue Box

 

Keyka Lou Patterns – I love these and have made several of them… I need more cute fabric to make more cute things for more fabulous people. (I really must blog about the things I’ve made)

Teaching fabulous friends new crafts, like knitting and sewing!!!

and finally the latest episode of Urban Numina

busy, busy, busy, girl!

I fully took advantage of the public holiday and stitched all day(as I plan on doing all weekend) and wow I finished a bunch of things…

First off I did the construction of the needle book not because I was particularly excited about it. In fact the construction stage is usually where all of my crafts go from WIP to UFO’s, this is something I’m trying to work on. For the needle book tho it was pure need that propelled me further. Since the discovery of a rust spot from a needle in my wedding sampler(something I think I can fix) I have seend the need for a book to atleast put the needles of my current projects… so I cranked this out and am very very happy with it!

With that completed and needing something to do in my hands while I watched telly I sought a project to do. Yes I know I have 8 million knitting UFO’s but I just couldn’t get into my knitting I wanted to do some stitching. Then I had an idea (I know a scary thing around this house, my husband practically cringes when I say I have an idea. Not because my idea’s are dumb, or even out right crazy, just usually very very complicated, bizarre or next to impossible feats that I imagine I can accomplish, usually in a short period of time).

Since I have been wearing more Victorian clothing lately I have wished I could wear my great-great-grandmothers cameo brooch of her mother as a young lady that was made for when she sailed over to the states from england in 1879. But the hand carved bone is so delicate it was sheer to begin with in nearly 150 years has not been good to it. What if, I copied it in stumpwork? What if? Hmmm I’ve never done stumpwork before. It’s okay tho I have a book on it! So I sat down with my husband and season 2 of Battlestar Galactica (we have just started to watch this series) and stitched away. a couple hours later I had this. Am i completely happy with it YES! Is it perfect hmm not really but pretty darn good for a first try.

So that was done and we still had more BSG to watch, what is a girl to do? I know I might as well work on my wedding sampler. I know I put this aside for more interesting techniques but simple one colour cross stitch can be really fun. seeing the design come to life before your eyes. Although I think I might unpick that bird on the ground just a bit crowded for my taste. I’ll be adding more green in to the sampler in the future.

Well that’s it for me everyone enjoy the long weekend. Next post I’ll talk about the mystery project that I have needed all the appliqué practice for! As for now I might go do some knitting or stitch more on that wedding sampler who knows!