Category: LARP

Wow. I really let this slide didn’t I?

To anyone who enjoys my content – sorry! I’ve honestly had a lot going on, but I shall get into that in this post – which will be a summary of what I got up to last year.

Read more: 2022 Summary

Merrolyn: Hecatic Academy for the Gifted

This was my first time crewing an event, and then I was also entrusted the role of Crew Coordinator – meaning I had to organise who was doing what and when. Helping out behind the scenes was stressful, but I very much enjoyed it. I’m a helper by nature and a people-pleaser, so I did my best to ensure that every crew member had roles they were happy with and that they looked after themselves and didn’t burn themselves out.

Going from feedback from the organisers and the crew, I did a great job! Everyone was comfortable, felt that they could back down if things were too much, and – most importantly – had fun!

Wild Hunt

A week after the emotionally tiring stint at Merrolyn, I attended the single evening ball-style LARP Wild Hunt, which is gothic-horror themed. I had been assigned to the Summoned faction, which are essentially elemental spirits in humanoid form, and finished with a concept of “graveyard spirit”. It was good fun, I made some new friends, though I did have a couple of criticisms over the event – partly the ruleset being somewhat too complicated for an evening event (though would work perfectly fine for a weekend or more), but mostly that the three course meal provided were very small portions (I left the game hungrier than I went in).

The main story lines I participated in were mostly concluded – two of the other Summoned had been bound, and we were able to free them – but one of them had technically only just started. Myself and the rest of the Summoned faction helped to bring life to a dragon egg, allowing it to begin incubating. Interestingly enough, the next Wild Hunt event is titled “Birth of Dragons”, so I’m very excited to continue that story.

The next event will be a weekend event, so hopefully the system and rules in place will be easier to learn, and people can delve into character development more.

Betrothal

No point beating around the bush – in April, my partner proposed!

It was around the time of my birthday, and we decided to host a group trip to Herstmonceoux Castle – which, you may remember, is the event site for Bothwell School of Witchcraft, and where Gareth and I met. So, off we went, meeting a fair few of our friends there, and in the rose garden, Gareth asked me for my hand in marriage.

Me being me, and Gareth being about as subtle as a brick, I saw this coming several miles off! I’d even had my nails done a couple of days before in preparation. But that didn’t stop me from crying as I said “yes”, because I’m a hot mess.

As of right now, we haven’t got any solid plans for the wedding, for reasons you’ll understand further down in this post. But you bet it’s going to be medieval / Ren-Faire themed!

Tales Untold

In the spring, we attended Tales Untold, an Arthurian-inspired event set in Camelot. While we had originally planned to go as members of a new realm, we ended up going as Monarch (me) and General (Gareth) of Penmortid, a pirate-inspired nation. Essentially the original monarch was no longer attending the event, and due to plot reasons, the organisers asked us if we were willing to step in, due to the similar concept that our realm had.

We agreed, though I wonder if we would have, had we known that Penmortid was on the brink of war with about three or four other realms! Our game initially comprised of diplomatic conversations and trying to persuade everyone that no, we weren’t like the previous monarch, and yes, we wanted peace, and please, don’t declare war against us on our first event!

Thankfully, we were successful, and we ended up being quite well-liked by the other Realms. What I really enjoyed about the event is the implementation of “vignettes”, missions that are wholly non-combat, which is very important to me as a non-com player. I also really liked the magic system, once I was able to get my head round it! It seemed really complicated reading about it on the wiki, but it’s one of those things that needs actually doing to get the hang of it.

Oh. And I married a goblin.

Second Breakfast

Ah, to live life as a Hobbit, and spend my days making mischief and eating… and at EyeLARP’s Second Breakfast, I was able to do exactly that!

This is the second event I attended with an in-character family, and I really enjoyed having our little group that I knew I could always find game within. My IC sister ran one of the taverns with her wife, so I was there more often than not – and if you know anything about LARPers (or Hobbits!), there’s always something happening in the tavern!

I ate so much that weekend, but every mouthful was worth it. I definitely would love to go again!

Quest of Ruin

Over the last couple of years, mostly during lockdowns when there weren’t any LARPs happening, I’ve been working on making a podcast with my friends. I mentioned it in a previous post, and we launched this year!

A lot more goes into producing an audiodrama than you realise, even after you start releasing episodes, so a lot of my spare time after work and at weekends consists of working on future episodes and promoting current ones.

I’ll do another post going more in depth about it, but you can listen to it on Spotify (or any other podcast provider), visit our website, and – if you want to support us – our Patreon.

Homeownership

Also known as, the main reason our wedding plans are on hold!

As of August, Gareth and I bought our first home together, and are officially homeowners! As you can imagine, a lot of patience, work and tears (from me) went into the whole process of acquiring a house, but we did it.

And pretty much as soon as we moved in, we got a brand new kitchen sorted – the old one was falling apart, and I mean that literally. I opened a wall cupboard and the door very nearly fell on my head.

There’s more work to do and decorating to save up and plan for, but we’re hoping that once the big stuff is done, we’ll be able to do both that and save for our wedding.

Murder Mystery

A friend of mine reached out to me and asked if I would be interested in hosting a Murder Mystery party for her. I said absolutely! And as it turns out, this would be the last time I get to see her before she moves to Australia in January!

I wrote it fully from scratch, tailoring it a little to the people I knew would be attending. It was a fun experience writing it and watching everything unfold after I had “died”. There were a couple of things that didn’t work as I’d hoped but, considering I’d never written one before, I think I did alright!

Everyone involved enjoyed the evening, and they did manage to figure out the murderer, and that’s what matters really!

What’s Next?

That about covers everything from this year. I plan to do another post about some of the events from before this year, though considering it’s been a long time since I attended them, they won’t be very long.

Now that I’ve moved and somewhat more settled into a routine, I hope to keep this blog updated a bit more! I’ve got a few plans for next year, and I’ll probably talk more about my mundane life too. But we’ll see.

In the meantime – Happy LARPing!

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