I love festivals.<\/p>\n
I love the way everybody backstage works steadily for months, but there’s always more to be done. Everybody gets into a controlled and focused frenzy near the end, being sure everything is ready, and there’s always something that’s not, and then something breaks, and everybody says “okay, what can I do? Who needs help?” and pitches in to get that baby back on the rails.<\/p>\n
I love the way players get so excited by all the new stuff, to the point that I’m standing there as a merchant talking to them, and mention that something else has just opened, and they go “OMG WHERE!?” and then take off at a run to check out the new shop.<\/p>\n
I love the way we all get so excited seeing players go “THIS ROCKS!” about our stuff, and there’s also the “THIS SUCKS!” about our stuff and even that’s exciting.<\/p>\n
I love seeing, at this fest, an entire room full of players in hard hats, pounding girders and generally being giant Doozers, all working together.<\/p>\n
I love all the planning and hard work that goes into the lead-up events, and the ways GMs are forced to improvise and change as the players shape the history of the virtual world around them.<\/p>\n
I love the rush of altering and managing a list and a room full of people all whispering to you, “excuse me, but…” because they want to be polite, and they are, but they’re also so excited.<\/p>\n
I love the sense of urgency, and I even love it when stuff screws up in amazing, unexpected ways and we have to adapt on the fly.<\/p>\n
I love the adrenalin surge behind events like this. It reminds me of why I love GMing in the first place.<\/p>\n