LARP fight
Sooo I have been back from LARP for about a week. I would have written sooner but I came back very sore and with a case of the flu that took a bit to get over. Then I started looking for one-way flights and got very distracted from blogging about LARP. So, as promised, here is the low-down on my first LARP experience:
Overall, I was overwhelmed. It was like being in a completely new place. Things were much bigger and complex than I had expected. There were more rules to follow and a total different set of social rules to follow, some of which were very bizarre and hard to follow because sometimes people were in-character (IC) and sometimes they were not. It made it difficult sometimes (mostly at night when people were drinking) to distinguish over when people were talking IC about life or OC (out-of-character) about life.
Thinking about how I should explain it all, I suppose starting from the beginning of the weekend and taking a chronological approach, inserting in-depth explanations when necessary, is the most logical way to go about this event.
We got there on Thursday, a day before the event was due to start. Alex and Grant headed up early afternoon in Grant's car that was stuffed to the brim with things we needed first and Grant#s personal things. Since there was way more stuff to take and no more room in Grant's car, Alan (Alex's dad) drove me up early evening. It took ages for us to get there die to being stuck behind tractor and hitting rush hour traffic. The 40 minute drive the the nature reserve took almost 2 hrs.
When I arrived it was gloomy, cold, and raining. The boys had our sleeping tents set up as well as one that was given to them by a friend in our party. Turns out that tent was a crappy, cheap one and they broke it setting it up, having to duct tape it to the ground. It survived the weekend ok, but the guy who it belongs to is going for a legit tent next time instead of a child's tent. The IC tent was also set up when I arrived. I was pleased about this because that meant I had somewhere dry to sit. As they finished getting tents set up and helping set up some of the things in our faction's various IC tents (each of the 10 factions had a reserved camping site roped off that designated space for their party's tents (both IC and OC) and marked their pretend territory/country for the event). I was in charge of decorating the inside of the IC tent - covering the floor with carpets and rugs, setting up the camping chairs, organizing the food and drink bins, hanging little decorative things such as maps and banners.
The first night was overall uneventful. We took a trip to ASDA to get food supplies and last minute items. Had our last hot, cooked meal for the weekend at a local pub, and then did a small amount of socializing with LARP people before going to be in a freezing cold tent.
The first full day was very overwhelming. There was around 1500 people at this event. The set up had 4 factions at one end (where we were placed, by the manner house), the marketplace in the middle, and the remaining 6 factions spread next to and on the far side of the marketplace. This marketplace did include all of the things I expected. There was a series of tents that had kit for sale - lots of weapons and clothing but also some practical things like hand warmers or random accessories they thought could sell to the crowd. There was also a long row of food vendors - chip shops, pizza, ice cream stand, tea, burgers, stews, ect. It was a bit expensive but we did indulge a few times because warm food was needed and cooking over the baby camping stove took ages with only one small pan and a kettle. There was also huge, circus-sized tents that made up the marketplace. In one tent was a ritual circle, another the brothel and casino, a pub, and a third housed all the guilds and a bank.
We did go see a ritual on the second full day of LARP. It consisted of a nature decorated tent that has a huge circle with a pretend alter in the center and a doorway where smoke and such came out of as well as monsters and things. People could stand around about half of it to watch the ritual take place. Certain people in LARP can contribute to rituals, depending on what skills they have taken and how much power they have left. Anybody can watch, but sometimes if a ritual "goes wrong" (essentially decided literally by the rolling of a dice) then spectators can get harmed or even killed during one. It basically is a 20-30 minute timed performance you work out with other contributors from your faction. The idea is to ask something from a god, which may or may be granted by them. The ritual is graded by the refs on a variety of things - length, relevance, audience participation, etc. They get a 1 - 10 grade which will determine how successful the ritual went. If it is too low then bad things happen, if it is a 9 or 10 then you get granted more than what you asked for from the god. It was entertaining to watch for the most part. The one we watched was sheriffs from our faction asking for protective powers. They were granted what they wished for in the form of channelling their powers into protective amulets they then must wear.
I did not go to the brothel (altho Alex promised me he would pay for me to get a massage in IC money next time, which I am excited for) casino or pub. The pub costs real money and has wooden benches and tables for people to sit at. I peeked in but we brought our own drinks and could sit in our IC tent to enjoy them. The casino takes IC money and has a minimum buy-in which I did not have in order to partake. You put the buy-in in the middle then play various card games. The winner gets the IC money.
I did go to the guild tent several times. There are guilds for many of the things you can do at LARP. To join some you have to pay a yearly fee in IC money so that you can use the facilities it provides and get the benefits of joining it. All of them have meetings and research groups and help provide training for new people in various LARP skills.
Initially, I did have to visit the healers guild because that is what my character card said I was skilled in. We changed it later, but I will explain that later. LOL. So the healing guild was probably the lamest looking of all of them - just a table where people were handing out spells cards to healers. When you are a healer, depending on your skill level, you have a certain type and number of spells you can use a day. You have to visit the guild to get these cards and then keep them during the vent. Each day has a different color of cards and when you use one you have to rip it up. The next day starts over with the same number of cards but in a new color. Here Irene and I also spoke to a really nice girl that explained (OC, thankfully) how to do spells. Basically we had to do this little one lined chant to check people for wounds, patterns (what species/race), diseases, or poisons. They then tell you if they have any of those. The healer then chooses a spell that will fix whatever the problem is and has to chant it for 10 seconds. There are required words in the chant and the rest can be made up and personalized or repeated, as long as the chant is constant for 10 seconds per point of damage they are healing. She explained all sorts of spells and how to heal various things. It was way too much information at once, but I absorbed some of it.
Over the course of the weekend I also visited the bank, where most people keep all of their IC money so that they cannot be mugged for it. Yes, getting mugged happens alot.
I started the weekend being a healer and was not satisfied with it. I don't like the whole casting spells thing. Alex took me to 'god' and got my character card changed. This is an OC tent next to all the showers and first aide and monster tent, etc....all of the OC stuff. Here is where you go if your character dies during the weekend and you need to make a new character. Also, if you want other things changed or added you can do it here. Since it was y first event and they messed up my character card anyways, I changed mine for free of charge. Otherwise it would have cost me pretend skill points. I changed to a physician/doctor that used herbs and created potions. From there I went to joint the alchemist guild with Alex. Since I used herbs, I got to reach into a bag and pick out a number of herb cards depending on my skill level. I got 4. They are used once to do different healing type things with herbs. You rip the card when you use it, like a healing spell. The cards say what the herb is and what it does. Some people actually get some fake herbs so they have something real to show to people or work with.
At the alchemist guild (which was decorated like a laboratory on the inside) you can make potions and poisons, assuming you have those skills. You are allowed to make a certain variety and number of them, depending on your skill level. Alex let me go in with him since I had never been in before. The man in there sat down with me and explained everything OC - how to make potions, how to upgrade them, etc. For each you make you get a little laminated tag with a number on it and you can attach it to a bottle you can fill with whatever. Alex was nice enough to give me one of his bottles. They do supply them for you, but they only have a limited amount of them. The potions and poisons can only be used once and you take the end of it off and throw the laminated bit away when you are done. The potions and poisons do have a shelf life of a year. Some of them you pretend to drink, others are like ointments, some are gaseous. You can ingest them, rub them on things (like poison on a sword) etc. People get very creative with them. A whole tent of people were poisoned by a gas on the first full day, 3 hrs into play.
They also have guilds for other things like people who cast spells or do enchanted things. I did not visit these since I couldn't go in anyways.
Many of the guilds give out free training vouchers to the factions, that are then distributed so that players can get advanced skills for free at the events. They have lots of other trainings you can just attend to learn the gist of what is going on or how to do something.
Throughout the weekend there was several big battles. The end had a huge one in the marketplace area where all 10 factions attended and fought. They fight people who volunteer to be monsters. Each faction has designated monster slots where they ask for people to volunteer for a space of 2 hours to be a monster for another faction. A lot of people do it because other factions are volunteering to be monsters for you to fight as well. It makes it fair and a lot of people like getting to use cool powers and wear crazy costumes for a bit, without caring if their character dies. I did not take part in this due to not wanting to hurt my back, but Alex and some of our friends did.
The factions also are at war, so to speak, with other factions, so often times other factions would try to sneak into other camps and steal things or kill people. Factions also have their own story lines and plot ideas that ar put into place by the people that run the event. I couldn't tell you what all of the ones going on with my faction were. It was all a bit overwhelming to keep straight. I do know that the queen of our faction is pregnant in real life so they had another faction summon monsters and capture her at the last event. This way she could be gone through her pregnancy and not mess up anything. So our faction doesn't like some other ones and wants to work out where the queen is.
Other than the big battles and smaller side missions, individual characters and groups within the factions have their own goals and objectives. One of the people that died with the gas poison in the tent was from our faction originally and he was a close friend of some people in our group still. Therefore, we had to have a pretend funeral for his character. It was a bit bizarre for me and too over the top. We had to travel to the other faction, find his pretend invisible body, collect it, and carry it to a transport circle. The transport circle was a big circle of fake rocks we had to stand in while the leader transported us to somewhere we could bury it at an ancient temple that was part of our group,....or something. No, we did not have to read a eulogy and no we did not have a person in a casket and no we did not have to pretend to carry someone. We did, however, have to kneel on the ground in a circle (designating that we are OC/invisible but sticking up a finger in the air) and then do a pretend role-play thing where the leader described what was happening and people added in what their characters would do. Everyone was pretty quiet and only a few people added things in. It was awkward. Then we had to stand in the transport circle and come back to the present LARP thing.....yeah, it was a bit much for me.
The only other really interesting thing I can think that happened to me was getting yelled at by 2 girls in my faction for not following rules. Our group was about to go to the marketplace for some tea when the kids group (who normally are off in their own area) came to the gate of our faction. They had some story about looking for something, so people let them in and a few of them looked around while the rest for the kids stood at the gate. The kids then suddenly charged all of the adults and started hitting them with swords, etc. I have no interest in fighting children who are hitting me with things, particularly when I have no weapon to defend myself with. Irene and I decided that we would go back to the tent until the kids were gone and we could get passed to get tea. As I was walking a kid hit me in the back with a sword. I kept walking. Some really rude girl I hadn't spoken to and her friend came up to me and started having a go at me for getting hit. She kept asking if I got hit and why I wasn't doing anything about it. I explained that I was going to my tent and that I just wanted some tea, not to fight little kids. She just repeated herself and droned on about how kids count as a real attack and if I get hit how it is real, and counts. I asked her what she wanted me to do and she just starred at me and then went on about if I am OC then I need to continually hold up my finger so that everyone knows. She did a lot more repeating and was a lot more rude than this sounds. I finally turned to Irene and asked her to please heal me. She did. I then turned to the girls and said "there. are you happy? am I allowed to go now?" then turned around and walked away. I didn't speak to them for the rest of the weekend. They are on Irene and my hit list for a future event. lol
Overall the event was cold and wet. It briefly snowed off and on one afternoon, nothing that collected though. We had a good time but I spent most of it observing what was going on and trying to make sense of it. I think then next time I go will be much better, as the weather is supposed to be better and now I know what I am doing. I intend on taking way more photos so that everyone can see what its like and the interesting costumes. Overall, people were very nice and felt bad that my first event had such bad weather, as it hindered people from going all out and having the general parties they usually do at night.
The next event is in a few weeks and I intend on going, even though there will be fewer people I know that are attending. I figure with not knowing when I will be back next., I do not really want to spend 5 days away from Alex when I can be running around in a fun costume with him in a world where I do not have to worry about things. I look forward to it.
