Archive for August, 2011

Direct hit! ...Oops.

Every so often we hear from our customers who love to Live Action Role Play, or LARP. LARPing is an activity where you actually become your character and physically go to a camp site to role play out the scenarios your character encounters. You even wear Renaissance costumes to help create the atmosphere of a long ago age. Sometimes people share LARP stories that are a bit on the humorous side with us, and now we want to share them with you.

At one LARP, a small army of vampires wanted to attack the tavern where most of the towns members were. Knowing that they were outnumbered, the vampires tried to thin out the town’s numbers with some basic artillery.

As they emerged from the woods in the dead of night, they started launching waterskins full of acid at the town. This is of course what they were called in game, in actuality they were water balloons. As the attack commenced, the vampires sent forth a wave of zombies to help mop up what the artillery was hitting before the main force of vampires attacked. Unfortunately for the vampires, the launcher wasn’t working properly an a number of the water balloons exploded well before they made it to town. Near the end of their ammo supply, one balloon went flying and scored a direct hit, completely dousing one of the players. However, the vampires later discovered that the only dead-on hit they scored was on one of their own zombies.
At least he was already “dead,” right?

Do you have any stories? Share them with us!

If you are thinking about going to a LARP, you are going to need to develop a character. A LARP is a completely immersive gaming experience where you literally become your character and go to a camp site and to act out what your character would do. It can be a very entertaining experience that gives you the opportunity to meet a lot of interesting people.

When developing your character, you will normally have decide upon a character class or a skill path. A common skill path found at LARPs is a Wizard or a Mage. Below is a list of pros and cons that you can consider if you were thinking about playing a Mage, so that you can make an informed decision.

PROS:

-You have access to spells. The further down the path you go, the more powerful these spell can become.

-Spells are essentially a ranged attack, so you don’t have to be right next to the enemy to hit them with the spell.

-You will be highly valuable in specific situations depending upon the type of spells you can cast.

CONS:

-Most LARPs represent a spell being cast by throwing “spell packets.” Spell packets are little squares of fabric that are filled with bird seed, then tied off to form weighted packets. Since you can’t actually make a fireball come out of your wand, you have to throw these packets instead. Throwing these packets in a combat situation makes it difficult to effectively wield your weapons.

-You won’t have a lot of access to skills relating to fighting as they are reserved to fighting classes.

-If you can cast spells designed to protect players, you may be pestered a lot by other characters.

Every class is going to have its ups and downs. So long as you have fun playing the character, you can always work around the cons. If you are in need of a Medieval wizard costume, we’ve got you covered here at Pearson’s.

I was right: It was a trap. We followed Von Ottenhiem back to where he told us his band convened. After two days of travel, we came upon a small outcropping of rocks a short distance in the woods from the road. We all readied our weapons and slowly descended into the dark.

After a while, we were in total darkness. Josephus, knowing his bow would not be useful in such close quarters, made his way back to the mouth of the cave and fashioned a torch and returned to us. We pressed on, prodding Von Ottenhiem to the front of the line.

After a great deal of time, we entered into a circular antechamber. It was clearly made by a sentient being, as it had carvings on the wall with several passages. It almost looked like the courtyard of an underground castle, though the passages radiated out from the middle, as if this were the meeting point of several passages.

Von Ottenhiem said that this was the room where they would meet and discuss plans, though his band had been instructed to only use the passage we had just used to gain entrance. As we investigated the room, we heard Celebryn cry out. As I turned to look, I saw that he was on the ground, his legs bound by rope. Baltus had just enough time to draw his swords to ward off the attack of a man dressed as a monk. I turned and brought my pike to bear just as the head of a mace was swung in my direction. The shaft of my weapon blocked the blow, but splintered in the process. I drew my sword and entered the melee.

Another episode from our palace guard

After a few moments of heated battle, our experienced group had subdued our attackers and had them all tied up for further questioning. This was clearly the band that we had been tracking. Just as Grantiere was about to start his interrogation, we heard footsteps from the passageway. As we turned and looked, we saw a man dressed in a dark Gatekeeper coat appear out of the shadowy entrance. He did not look alarmed and his sword was still grasped in his hands in a non-threatening manner.

He said in a firm voice, “Von Ottenhiem, my child…you did well.”