Credits

When TNT Productions (Jeff Diewald, Susan Giusto, Tim Lasko, and Barry Tannenbaum) was working on various LARPs like You'll Be Safe Here and The Stigmata of Thomas Enfield, every now and then Tim would cite a fictional LARP to make some theoretical point.

"For example," he'd start, "in Dustpan: the LARP..."

He'd go on to explain his idea, all in terms of this nonexistent and undefined example. We'd argue LARP theory back and forth, and Dustpan: the LARP was used as the example time and time again.

Late in 2003, Jeff had one of those frightening brainstorms, where he just knew what Dustpan: the LARP was all about. He sat down and sketched out the original set of notes for the game.

After The Stigmata of Thomas Enfield and Intercon D, it was time for TNT Productions to choose a new LARP to write. Dave Clarkson was also interested, so Jeff pulled out his notes for Dustpan: the LARP. He pulled out several characters.

They all looked at Jeff like he was nuts. So what else is new? Nevertheless, they agreed to the project. Everyone started contributing characters.

We hold Barry responsible for the singularly brilliant pun that made us all groan. There are other, lesser puns in the game, but you'll know the one we're talking about when you hear it.

Dave had other things to deal with, so he left the effort after producing one character and helping plot several of the others. Lynn Anslow joined TNT along the way, unable to escape the process. Besides knitting all the pieces of fuzz in the game, she contributed more than she knows.

Jordan Diewald read through most of the material and laughed a great deal. Then he said something to his Dad which led immediately to two more characters. Tara Halwes made an offhand comment in LiveJournal which led Jeff to write yet another character. Another giddy moment and really awful pun by Jeff led to number fourteen. Susan Born took her time signing up for the con and the game, ending up on the waitlist. Since she'd said some nice things about the concept, and since Jeff had yet another goofy idea, she got in with character number fifteen. That left one person on the waitlist, which seemed a shame. Lynn and Susan had a brilliant idea, which got morphed into the outline of character sixteen over a dinner with Barry, Jeff, Lynn, and Tim. The character was finished in a mad TNT rush with a little over two weeks to runtime.

And, as we say around here, Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!

For Intercon K, it was karma that we had two people on our waitlist that we really wanted in the game. So, crazy as it might seem, we dusted off our notes and wrote two more characters for the game. That's TNT for you! Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!