.....
A few days later, the LARP session begins with all of the players waiting outside the front door in the dark. Gary Dodd's "Train Summoning" has likewise summoned several of the vampires to his presence though he doesn't realise they're there until after they enter. As he steps onboard, I signal for the Conductor NPC to come and speak with him and he does so, striding enthusiastically and making demands in a very loud and officious voice while carrying a clipboard. Initially he had on Novichkov's moustache (prop from another character) but it fell off so he spent the rest of it without moustache. He read out the thirteen rules quite loudly and then called for the Maid to provide him with his tokens.
The Maid came rushing down, waving a hand vigorously as she went to catch his attention. She carried one of those poker chip cases with her and then stood to one side in the corridor, drawing the tokens out one at a time with wonderful flourishes and dropping them into Dodd's outstretched hand before letting him move further in while she awaited the next "guest".
I stayed out-of-character, describing what he saw in terms of sleeping car compartment doors, and he ended up first in the Bar Car where he ordered a drink from the bartender. Our venue thankfully has one of those wide counters (all-in-one living / kitchen / dining area) which worked a treat for this with four chairs pressed up against it. While he chatted to the bartender, I dropped into character and came rushing down the corridor to berate the Conductor for reading out the rules to each individual.
Since we all had one Rival that we had to undermine (the Cast, that is), I was waved away by the Maid as I, the Doctor, was her Rival. My own Rival was the Oracle and I made a point to describe him as a Charlatan here and there. I did that so often that some people started to think that was his name and started calling him the Charlatan.
The Cast were fantastic. I told them to really go to town with their characterisations and gave them all quite brief summaries of who they were and their motivations so they built on it quite a bit. The officious Conductor took the first line directly beneath the header and really ran with it:
THE RULES
All may be disobeyed.
You have free will. Disobedience
is ill-advised.
So he kept making up new rules to suit himself and the situation. Only three people in any one of the compartments at once - which was good because the compartments were separate rooms and it made it more interesting to keep them moving and force them to negotiate who could remain.
The Oracle shifted his position a few times until he ended up in the Dining Car, running his Secret for a Secret games in a quiet corner. I'd given him a large Halloween porcelain pumpkin full of optional questions he could ask as well as a few sheets with PC names listed on top that held up to 7 secrets they could gather by giving him a few of their own. Funnily enough people generally respected the privacy of that car and it was mostly the Cast who occasionally tried to listen in.
I had a large Doctor's Bag with me that had a few ink blots and some of the Dr. Kaupfmann puzzles (Dead or Sleeping? and Pairings) from Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. I only really got to use one (Pairings) before the Maid convinced someone to throw the doctor's trunk (and my fetter) out the window into the bleak abyss as part of our rivalry. She didn't know my fetter was inside (we weren't playing for that kind of high stakes ICly) but luckily I got chosen at the end so got to survive.
At least Gary Dodd gave me some interesting hints into his psychology from the Pairings angle, so that's something. Without my Doctor's Bag I basically just went around trying to convince people to use up their Stones, explaining that there's no real catch to the resurrection of people into mortals, and also trying to get suitable characters to bed her. At one point, Prince Saeed used her as a foot stool and I happily got on all fours for five minutes before the player felt so bad he insisted I get up and rejoin the others.
The Conductor soon came around to each of the Riders to convince us to lie (again, a Cast Member decision and a good one) but my NPC wasn't too sure of trying her hand at that. Instead she would deflect certain questions or encourage people to seek out the Conductor for the truth.
The Bartender lit people's marijuana joints on fire, set the table when the Dinner Bell rang and gave a listening ear to those who wished to drink. He did really well at spending most of his time behind the counter so I applaud him for his patience.
Finally there was the unnamed Skull NPC who was literally a floating skull. Naturally we had a Cast Member who was responsible for carrying the Skull around and talking for it. Funnily enough it became very easy indeed to ignore the person in favour of talking to the skull who gestured, and flirted, and tried to prostitute the Maid (who fainted dramatically at the very idea!).
Eventually the Skull got the name Skully and people advised him to seek out Mulder for a dynamic duo.
