My friend Charlie McCutcheon says that I get "cranky" if there's a long time between LARPs for me. He's right. I've made so many friends through LARPing, and we've done so many strange and wondrous things in the process, that I miss it too much when I don't get the chance.

For example, several of us were on the cover of the Boston Globe Calendar magazine back in December of 2000. We went down to the Globe offices, got into costume, then walked through the various departments as they were working on the next day's paper. We got some odd looks, but, then, we're used to it! Besides, I'm in the picture with five other role-players who I've had such amazing experiences with, in and out of game. Each one of the people in the photo has given me several memorable moments. That's what LARP is all about. (Sure, it would have been nice if the article in the Globe had talked more about Intercon but other news articles did.)

The current Me, as of March 2024! It's good to be the Queen!

Picture from inside the Globe article. From left to right: Charles Sumner, Mark Waks, ancient 2000 Me, Jeff Ogorzalek, Anne Cross, and Katherine Journeay.

Different roles, and different people, all of whom are very special to me. I've played so many different parts, in so many different games, that this page is the only way for me to keep track of them all! Whether it's science fiction, fantasy, murder mysteries, historical dramas, or whatever, it's all taken me to wondrous places. And, when I think about some of the things that people have asked me to do for them in game... Well, there are too many people who know I'll go (probably) too far, if they ask.

As a result, I've LARPed many times in the UK. I've LARPed virtually in an Italian LARP, and have had several international players in my own in-person and virtual LARPs. Many of my LARPs have run on two different continents. The Tales of Irnh has run on three!

This is when I was a Professor of Alchemy at a Wizarding school in Czocha Castle in Poland, where the Alchemy class was taught in the original wine cellar of the castle. I've taught Alchemy several times since then, at New World Magischola back in the US. The Alchemy Lab is one of my real life Happy Places™!

LARP has also given me a chance to express my creativity in very unexpected ways. Who'd have thought there was a poet or a painter lurking underneath? I have a series of acrylic paintings done in character as a Toreador vampire; the Vortex of Chaos Gravatar I use is the last in that series. I've stood up in front of LARPers performing angry slam poetry. I spent an entire LARP doing artwork with my Apple Pencil on my iPad. I keep discovering talents that I never knew existed, just because my friends are willing to let me take risks and try new things in game.

The confidence, experience, and knowledge that I can do this has been instrumental in my real life. I've given technical lectures at MIT, in front of a lecture hall filled with brilliant people. (One was between lectures by two Turing Award winners. No pressure!) It's definitely the reason I've been confident enough to just be Jennifer in public.

I'm also grateful to the LARP community for their tremendous response to my coming out as Jennifer. Their congratulations, acceptance, and support have been overwhelmingly joyous for me. It's been wonderful to dress to the hilt and chew the scenery as the intense women I've gotten to play. My first in-person role as Jennifer was in the amazing weekend-long On Location LARP, organized and run by several incredible women of the Wilmark Dynasty. It was the first of several coming out events for me, and the people could not have been better.

Gwendolyn Mayfair was the Grande Dame of Hollywood in 1932, the On Location long time leading-lady of the silver screen. I had four amazing costume changes, one for each game period, with this being the third. I 💜 Erica Clement, my amazing hair stylist, for making me feel gorgeous and very purple.

Costuming is important whenever I'm in or around a LARP. I always dress appropriately for a game, even when I'm running it! This was what I wore as the GM for the Intercon V run of Adrift on the Starry Sky! Basic black, a size I never expected to fit into, found on the clearance rack at TJ Maxx. This is also why I carry so many suitcases whenever I go to a LARP convention!

There's eighteen months of hormones between these two pictures. Estrogen is ✨magic!✨ Slow magic, to be sure, but definitely magic! ✨💜 Losing a hundred pounds also helps tremendously.

Hair is costuming. One year after Gwendolyn, I played Ada Rushmore, the new American goddess of drugs, in Wilmark Dynasty's On the Rocks. It was my 500th role, and I really wanted everything to stand out, because that's just who Ada was. Once again, I had four amazing costume changes, with some amazingly shiny, sexy, (mostly) very short dresses. This was the first. Once again, Erica really created the look with her wonderful hair styling and coloring! Note the real actual long fingernails too!

The same dress, six months later. I wore this for the Trans and Nonbinary Meetup at Intercon V, on the second anniversary of my transition, my birthday, and celebrating being in the healthy weight range for the first time in decades. It's quite a different fit, and a little large. I still love the dress, though.

It's not much of a surprise that I have an entire closet dedicated to costuming and other incredible outfits! And a closet and additional clothes rack for day to day wear!

All the LARPs

This is the list of all the LARPs I've played, even if there are still a couple of missing character names. I do know those characters are not from the list of unknowns above.