I was going to blog about my paintball trip, but now I don't want too. Instead, I'll blog about the last LARP experience I had. Cause maybe I'll just convince 1 or 2 people to come play pretend with me.
LARP: Live Action Role Playing!
I'm sure most my readers will hear "Role Playing" and think whips, chains & spanking. However, we're not all like me!! LARP'ing has been around since the 70's, inspired by table top roleplaying, dungeons & dragons etc. I won't go into the intricacies here, but you can check out the Wiki Link for some interesting facts. There are a few different types of LARP, from 3 hour games, through to weekend long campaigns that run for years. Pregenerated characters or make your own. Combat or Theater Form. That is what makes LARP'ing fun, so many types of games.
This blog entry will go through my view of a weekend game. Starting on Friday Night and finishing on Sunday Morning. I was part of the NPC Crew, meaning I was going to play various different characters throughout the weekend.
After hectically throwing all my LARP costuming in to the back of the car on Friday morning, along with sleeping bag & blankets, I spent the day relaxing at work, watching Thursday Night Football on NFL.com, trawling Diatribe RPing threads and watching Facebook updates about all the Players that were looking forward to the game. After work, I picked up Daena, we grabbed some food from Pak'n'Save, Petrol from Z, dinner from MacDonalds & headed to the venue. It was dark and I had to lug a crap load of gear over to the Crew Room, picked a bunk and got ready to get into character.
The Scenario: 33 AR (After Ragnarok) - Demons are invading from Hell and the world is in disarray, Queen Victoria II rules what is left of England. An airship full of refuges from London is on its way to the Isle of Skye, off the west coast of Scotland.
I started playing a nemesis of a character, a scottish highlander who butchered a players family (wife and child) the idea is that I talk to people about my background, that I'm a scotsman, used to be a hillsman, but turned into a mercenary. I would "befriend the players" so when the time came to confront the player, I might have some back up. The evening went well, the player who's family I butchered, paid me to help protect the tavern. Quite a hilarious outcome, he saw me as a fellow scotsman & I built upon it! Planning my steps carefully, the showdown would be Epic when it arrived.
Following along with almost everything that was said, trying to steer some people into certain plots was interesting. We had 2 people 'kidnapped' by cultists, the fact that one player was happy enough to walk into the darkness with a cultist made it easy. The crew waited 10-15 minutes and no one had noticed they were gone. Dropping subtle hints didn't work, so I had to go full force, asking specifically for one of the characters, knowing she wasn't around, sparked a flurry of activity when they realised she had walked off into the dark!!
The Players led a rescue, I planned to run in and be completely in-effective, this worked well as it seems like the players weren't too keen on running in. I got a bit caught up in the action, ran in, picked up Nik in one arm and carried her off. Although I managed to "rescue" the hostage,not sure if it was cause I was pumped up, or cause she is small and light. Anyway, I got cut down soon afterwards, had my hand trampled by someone (yeah yeah, its dark, should have kept them on my chest) and all was victorious... cept that guy, overthere, who was dead. Yes, that is right, first night, less than 3 hours in, we had a body. I "carried" him back to the Tavern but actually carried him in and put him on a table. Good times!
Saturday morning I played "Fluffy" the domesticated demon, who had eaten a cat called fluffy, so my captors figured there was some fluffy essence in there somewhere. I was used as a training dummy, got a few beat downs, ripped and gored a solider (te he he) a couple of times I got a hanging, but it wasn't too bad... really gave the whole performance a good feel (hopefully I didn't yank Ellen's arm too much). Sniffing at a Gypsy was a highlight, he got so freaked out he hacked at me!! Unlock Plot Achievement!!
Saturday afternoon was mixed bandit / villager / solider time. Although I reprised the role of James "Jim" McAlistair of the Clan McAlistair. I conversed with a few more players and then decided the time had come. I would confess to the player who I was. I played the "I've done some bad things, but I'm a better man now" card. BOOM! LIKE A BOSS!! He said once the war was over, he'd come for me, but for now, we'd work together, as swords are what we need the most! Oh yeah!! Until dinner time, when he poisoned me. Damn it. Lucky the poison was neutralised by the Dr, who I'd obviously impressed with my witty charm etc, over dinner. Jim will be back for one final showdown, where he will call out the scotsman for a duel at dawn! (well, hopefully)
With a lack of concern by the players for bandit action, or perhaps the awesome diversion by the bandits, the group that came to take the stolen stuff back (most of which wasn't known to be stolen) was turned away with a battle of words. Plus the fact that they were outnumbered. SO we played around with rafts and rope swings, then went back. Since we needed some bandit / player interaction, I figured I'd spice things up with NO PANT MAN!!! Yes, thats right, I ventured into the player area without pants, pleaded with the players to meet with the bandits at sundown to tell them more stories. As they only had 1/2 the story of the Gypsies & they wanted to know the outcome. They would give me back my pants if people had stories, plus for more stories, more stolen stuff would be given back! After dinner, we had a campfire, some awesome stories and songs. The bandits laughed, booed, cheered and cried.
In the evening, we were zombies & demons. We had discussed a plan of attack, follow up scenarios and what if situations. getting zombied up with facepaint and blood we snuck along the tree line to set up out zombie shuffle out of the trees (think walking dead finale) as we walked, I could barely see people in front of me, as we were all in black. I can only imagine the view the players got of us shambling out of the woods. I know a few people really enjoyed it, so thats the main thing. We weren't exactly hard to put down, but we were organised, something people don't always think about. After the zombies came demons.... during the zombie attack, we had taken a weapon, which caused some in character drama & the head demon would wield it. There were waves upon waves of demons against the holed up players. I think the best part of this, at least for me, was walking up to the door, knocking on it and have it actually open! Thanks Jon for this, as I could then call out in my best demon voice, "One more for dinner!!" The look of surprise when he realised it was a demon knocking, HILARIOUS!
Eventually we were defeated, casualties abound! Lots of taunting about gods etc. The demons really are assholes!! We finished the night talking, singing and dancing as bandits welcomed into the Tavern. We had Gypsy yum celebration for Flint (birthday cake for Bryn) which was super awesome!
I had to leave Sunday Morning for Pathfinder Game, but Really looking forward to the next game in March next year.
IF you want to be a zombie, demon, solider, bandit, mercenary, farm hand, grieving parent of a missing girl turned zombie, then you too can play in 33AR! Or if you want a shot at playing a character all weekend in your own way, then create a character and join in the fantasy world of 33AR!
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