* Warning - Game Shit ahead. If you've little or no interest in White Wolf LARP, I can't imagine why you'd bother reading any further. There are no juicy details (sexual or otherwise) to be had here.


So, SWRE was awesome.

We left LA at 6am, got to Phoenix at about 1pm. Not good time, but we made it, despite some of the most horrific knee pain I've ever endured due to being packed in the back seat with a crazy amount of equipent. Upon arival, we unloaded and dealt with hotel room issues that it seemed like everyone was having. Got traded up to a very pimpin' suite for our trouble. Slightly larger main area than most of the rooms I saw (or partied in) and a bathroom that was fuckin' huge. Like, the size of my bedroom at home huge. There was a bigass tub with jets in it, a shower big enough to fuck in, and a friggin' bidet in addition to the usual amenities. So that was nice, though most of those facilities were wasted on a couple of gamers and one hostage fiance. *shrug*
Did the opening ceremonies thing, which was cool. The first game was the Garou moot (which was misnamed; they should've called it a concolation) was nice enough with all the being in character stuff, but overall, I was bored stiff. Everything improved once we were done and it was time to get plastered.
Had a good time hangin' with the folks I hadn't seen in a while, as well as the usual suspects from LA. Also made a new friend or two. Did a lot of room-to-room wandering and hanging out until about 5am, at which time I crashed for about an hour before getting up for the free hotel breakfast.

We love the free hotel breakfast.

Later in the morning brought the Pure Tribes meeting. I nodded off during parts of it because I was insanely tired. Sadly, I didn't miss anything of consequence, but it was nice to play my character, even though I wasn't really able to interact with anyone.
I would have loved to have done the "we don't play Changeling" pool party, but I had to sleep. I slept right almost until it was time for Cam-Anarch to start.
Cam-Anarch was ok. Met some cool characters and had a few really nice interactions. I always have a really good time when I can throw out small bits about who my characters really are, regardless of whether the person I'm talking to has any idea. I was very impressed with my personal Writ of Acceptance from the local Ventrue and so was very happy with myself for RSVP'ing. The meeting was small, but stylish. The champagne was good.
Later, I went to the Shadow Lord meeting as my Kinfolk. Was a little disappointed at how small this meeting was, but I did appreciate the prevailing attitude. Somewhere in the middle, I felt badly that I wasn't wearing a Pure Breed sticker; it might have made people's interactions with my character a bit different.
After that was the Glasswalker meeting. Not very interesting, but productive. Also, smaller than I'd have liked 'cause I suspect we were missing people due to the Sabbat game. Would've been nice to get the House issues settled with the locals, but whatever. Dividends were paid in the morning.
I didn't bother with Sabbat. I didn't register my character for a number of reasons, so there wasn't really any point. Besides, it left time for more socializing, drinking, and wandering from room to room.
Caught two hours of sleep before it was, again, time for breakfast.

Did I mention we love the free hotel breakfast?

Anyway, Saturday brought us the big Garou game. We split up into groups, we geared up, we tunnel crawled, we kicked ass. Some characters died. We won. It was all very well done and was, without a doubt, the best Garou game I've ever attended at a convention and I hardly did much of anything (though I suppose I did more there than I've done at past cons).
Afterwards, I caught up with Sidney, who'd finally arrived. We hung out a bit, had dinner (in lieu of going to the second Nos meeting), and then split up to get ready for Cam-Anarch. Started the evening with a Ventrue meeting in our room and it's a good thing we used our room, 'cause this meeting was twice the size of the last one. Everyone showed. The topics of discussion were less interesting, but there was some static between characters, an attempted embarrassment accompanied by a beatdown, and, most importantly of all, a vision from the Founder. That was prety cool, especially because the room barely acknowledged that it happened. Having Pet at my feet the entire time made everything that much better. The looks I got were awesome, as were the comments. After the meeting, people stopped and broke character to give Sidney praise for her costume and RP, while we IC'ly made sure that no one actually spoke to her. I had a few great RP scenes that night, but I was glad to be done with Cam-Anarch. Sadly, I'd forgotten to break out the chess set, since I know that playing chess on Sidney's back would've certainly brought a small crowd. I'm also pissed ay myself for missing the talk-about-religion scene with a certain orange-book NPC. Ah, well.
Party-time was good, though. Not much wandering, but there were drinks and there was jacuzzi time, something I'd been telling myself I'd do since I arrived at the hotel.

I think I managed three hours of sleep that morning before breakfast. After that, we had Nosferatu Photo Time, first in the lobby, then in the Vendors room. That was pretty cool and a lot of fun.
Later, I wandered around aimlessly until it was time to pack my shit and check out. Hanging out with Frank gradually picked up gravity and we were ultimately joined by our illustrious Club Director, which drew a few more people, to the point where we joked he was holding court.
Thought repeatedly I was leaving any minute, but it turned out we weren't out of there until after closing ceremonies, which I was glad to have been at. Air conditioning is a good thing, as are cold cuts, cheese, crackers, and fruit.
We broke out at 6pm and made it back to town a little after midnight. Unfortunately, I fell asleep until right before we crossed the state line, so it was dark for the rest of the trip and I couldn't read at all. On the good side, my knees didn't start hurting until San Bernadino.and the cigarette break took care of that.

All in all, it was a great time and I can't even begin to say how glad I am that I made it out. I can't thank enough everyone that helped make it possible.