Birthing monsters

This is a great site from a German larper who is kind enough to show pictures and explain how he constructed various "big baddies." Most of the pages are translated to English, and the construction pictures are very useful. Most are constructed simply with foam and glue and latex, so no expensive materials. He also includes tips on what can go wrong and how to fix it - such as trying helmets on with armour to see if they fit! well worth a look.
http://larp-monsterbau.de/html/english.html

all rights Alexander Beseke

Buccaneers of the Damned : Review by Georgie Urchin

all rights: Oscar Plummer

Buccaneers of the Damned: part 1: The Ship or Once Upon a Time…

Gather round lads and lasses, gather round!

So I’ll tell you a tale, as best as I can Though it beggars belief both in God and of Man

Of a shipwreck and strangers left in a far land, Of those who would aid them and those with other plans…

Of mystery, adventure and a little romance, Of loss, life and choices made by the seat of our pants!

Of friendship and brotherhood, terror, rum and gold But first we should look to our players some fold:

Of Jack the dual hearted; one coin with two sides A sweet natured simpleton and the fiend that he hides

Of Hans the librarian and writer; The Clerk, With a wealth of all knowledge to light up the dark

Of Alfie whose warnings we heard far to late, Decades rescuing souls for far worse a fate

Of Harry a hero and loon of a hound Without whom our company would not have been found

Of the Man known as Hook and a lady called Pip And this tale of adventure begins and ends with a Ship…

Or more precisely a ship wreck! Which saw us as players dressed in the barest minimum of character kit with which we had escaped the disaster and swum to shore. Given that this was a weekend in mid October after one of the wettest weeks of the year and I was in bloomers and an 18th Century nightgown, the whole thing might have been daunting. Except that what followed has to be the most intense, exciting, frightening and emotionally charged event I have ever played! I've been Larping for 13 years and role-playing for much longer but hands down this has to be my Best. Event. Ever!

The song is about you! EyeLARP or FilmSim is very different to anything I've played before. For a start from the moment you arrive you feel like the story is about you! And not in a lime light hugging prima donna way but through all sorts of subtle and ingenious interactions with characters and situations whether heroic or terrifying. This is partly down to genius writing and high production value hosting (its VERY pretty, more of that later), partly down to the player cap of 100 and partly down to the fact that the EyeLARP crew are integrated seamlessly within the player base. While some characters are obviously NPCs, they all felt real and accessible to anyone. We honestly had no idea we had crew in with us until much later, what we would term IC as “too late!”

Production values or ‘oh my gods they’ve built a shanty town!’ And a fort and a gypsy camp and a fishing village and tavern and, and and…The advantage to having a dedicated site is that you can do many cool things and in the 65 acres of Eversely, cool things have indeed happened! The moment we pulled back the curtain on EyeLarp (it IS actually a canvas curtain separating the car park from the rest of the site, I’m not waxing lyrical here!) we were instantly in 1718. There were shops and the ability to buy food, a Governor’s building with maps, writing paraphernalia, pictures and a stab at civilisation, IC cooking, drinking, gaming or simply sitting enjoying the sunshine/evening ambience with a glass or two of something straight from Morpheus’ own cellar! Even without an amazing adventure going on it is an incredible place just to hang out and be in character. Although quite how they arranged the super spooky, atmospheric mist covering the trees Sunday morning I’m still not sure! Dressed to kill… Initially we had been worried about costume requirements, as no one had 1700s specific kit and we've found some systems to be bullyingly fascistic about this sort of thing. We needn't have worried. While all the kit looked like a very high standard and a few people certainly seemed to have spent some cash on it, you could see the small cheats and nods to comfort and not dying OOC, all of which was accepted and encouraged by EyeLARP. The game had such great variety of characters and people that pretty much anything IC looking was acceptable. Though initially ship wrecked and raggedy in attire, due to the fast forward in game time on the Saturday, we were also able to show our finery or at least a better set of rags as the case may be. All the while the cast and crew looked the absolute picture of red coats, fine ladies, assorted gentlemen, ruffians and scoundrels (some of whom turned out to be the same people!), a surprisingly large number of Celtic types and for my part a little French.

Shivering our timbers! Another difference with FilmSim is the care they take of their players. It was October and while we were exceptionally lucky with the weather, the evenings were chilly. Fires were lit in barrels in the streets, candles and lanterns lined the buildings and tables providing both amazing ambience and also warmth. Hot soup and bread was available the first evening along with a mighty fire pit for when we were running about in our undercrackers. It was all IC and all very much appreciated, and a light port and amaretto booze jacket helped a little too

It’s the world against us and us against the world! And the world was clearly laid out at the player briefing Friday night, and each morning to make sure everyone was good with what was going on and understood everything. This meant there was not the usual Friday rush to try and get IC for one specific time but a gentle insertion of people into the environment, which worked really well and was much more believable. It also encouraged people to be there at time in, there were other IC motivations too but I digress.

More like Guidelines! The rules are simple: there are no hard rules, just guidelines. You have 3 skills, yes 3, which NO ONE will ever really call you on as they are guidelines for your character not a rod for your back. You MUST react to things, being hit, hitting others etc. so it is all as cinematic as possible. Trust me, this is dead easy after what happened at this event! And you have one hit…global. One. Count it! Now hold onto it because your life literally depends upon it! I’m not really a crunch or system buff, but my friends are and they found this concept scary initially but then utterly liberating the moment we started playing because the game was all about what you can do and how you affect what is round you. And boy does it encourage team work! Especially when the player base is so small, you have to survive together. Guidelines can influence and change and as a result everything we did felt like it had an impact and not just because you were the best fighter or the loudest voice but because you had a role to play, were part of the story and adventure and covered in peril!

Adventure! Or be careful what you wish for… And then of course there was the specific plot…Which…I’m not going to tell you, because let’s face it; you’d never believe me anyway! And you never know if you happen to be washed ashore here then I’ll let you experience this first hand…anything I say will lead you to make assumptions and the choices in this one should all be your own and on your own soul be the consequences!

There’ll be no living with her after this…. And currently there really isn’t! I’ve frothed like a loon at my nearest and dearest, at my work colleagues, at my friends, at my pilates instructor (its cool she helped sort my bloomers!) I’ve even written poetry for crying out loud! And I’m not alone! The insane bond that this event has forged is incredible! There are people who I didn’t know Friday morning and who I don’t really know now, but I’d help save them, defend them, die for them even and certainly follow them into whatever crazy is planned for next May! It’s a LARP for goodness sake, how have we all got this much keen?! We played for 2 days and an evening and now we’ve created groups and plots and plans on social media, we’ve got a meet up at the beginning on November, we may even try and run the next 3 years (which is when the next event is set) as a table top game so we know our new backstory.

What’s our heading Captain? And all of this is because of EyeLarp/FilmSim awesomeness and a good friend who said “D’ya wanna come and be pirates?!” So people, if someone asks you that, then you damn well make sure you turn pirate, find a Captain and we’ll see how you fare. After all, to LARP is an awfully big adventure…

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To be part of the next "film-sim" adventure join the facebook group - Norsemen Saga

Flying Lead

Continuing our western LRP theme here are some great pictures from Gunman Airsoft and Wyvern Airsoft - Flying Lead

Interestingly these events authentic western period airsoft guns for battles, so if you are hit you are hit! This is why you can see eye protection in these shots - 

All photos are rights of Oscar Plummer

flying-lead---black-briar

They have also got a really nice authentic looking camp developing as the site owners allow them to build upon the site.

Looking great guys! If y'all fancy playing these there is a Facebook site or website you can contact -

Facebook link

website

Hellish Wheels in Deadwood?

Hell on Wheels LRP ( in Czech Republic)

We are thinking about all things western and wild west in the next few posts as we will be attending the last instalment of the Hillers Ridge trilogy run by Denise Piggin, Martin Gill, Paul Tamlyn and a glittering cast of foul mouthed naer-do-wells.

Here is a link to a rather impressive western LRP in the Czech Republic.

LARP Census

You will just have to forgive them the extra A (because action is a given!) we will publish the results once they are in. Should be interesting to see if rule based systems are becoming less popular, but of course its an international survey, so the results could be heavily swayed in favour of the US due to them having more larpers there.... LARP CENSUS

Anachronisms in Live Roleplaying

By James Tweedie

 An anachronism is a thing from another time which does not belong in the present, or in the setting of a story (or a live role-playing game). A wind-up gramophone record player on the sound desk at a nightclub is an anachronism, as is a mobile phone in a Victorian period drama on TV. The question for Live Role-Players is how many, if any, anachronisms should be tolerated? Some obviously ruin the atmosphere of an event, but ironically others are necessary.

Whilst nowadays we are used to 'lavish' and 'sumptuous' period dramas in the cinema and on film, it is only relatively recently (in the 19^th century) that period costume came to be used in the theatre. Shakespeare's histories, from Richard III to Julius Caesar, were originally performed by actors in the fashions of the day. It's also worth noting that many of Shakespeare's tragedies and comedies were contemporary pieces, and so there's no particular reason why they have to be staged in late 16th – early 17th-century costume.

Anachronisms can also be found in the other arts. The renaissance painter Caravaggio portrayed his biblical subjects in the clothes of his time. Derek Jarman's 1986 biopic of the artist plays on this by including 20^th century objects and sounds in some of its scenes. Alex Cox's 1987 film Walker, based on historical events but a metaphor for the civil war then waging in Nicaragua, is also full of intentional anachronisms.

More commonly, anachronisms stem from a desire not to let the facts get in the way of a good story, or just out of laziness when it comes to research. Many Western films set during or just after the American Civil War show characters carrying Colt 'Peacemakers' – not produced until 1873 – and Winchester model 1892 rifles (not even Winchester '73s!). But who cares? It doesn't get in the way of the story. Only pedant would worry about such things.

While a great film,  El Cid (1961) plays fast and loose with both history and fashion: costumes, scenery, weapons and armour are all in a generic high medieval style, when the real Cid lived in the 11^th century and was a contemporary of William the Conqueror. The Moors wield curved scimitars, which in reality they didn't adopt until hundreds of years later – but then audiences would have complained that straight swords were 'unrealistic'. El Cid is shown dying in the successful defence of Valencia from the Moorish king Yusuf ibn Tashfin (who is himself killed), when in fact the two never fought: El Cid passed away a year before Yusuf successfully besieged and captured the city.

Closer to home for most LRPers perhaps, our idea of the legend of King Arthur is largely shaped by Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, first published in 1485. Malory's version is anachronistic: Arthur and his late classical/early dark-age Celtic Briton followers are portrayed as medieval knights in shining plate armour, jousting with lances on horseback.

LRP is not re-enactment, which is concerned with maximising historical reality. LRP is more about free-form storytelling. However, although most LRP games are set in fictional fantasy worlds, these settings draw a lot of inspiration from history. Many games are set in real-world historical periods or close allegories of them.

The worst kind of most anachronism is obvious modern items in a medieval or other historical or fantasy game. Watches, trainers and hiking boots, beer cans and the like all spoil the suspension of disbelief necessary for immersion in the game world. They're an obvious no-no and shouldn't be tolerated by organisers or players.

Language is a more complicated problem. How should your character speak? Can you stop yourself from using modern phrases like 'OK'? Again, historical accuracy is nigh-on impossible. Modern Greeks may be able to claim to speak the language of Homer, but ancient Romans spoke Latin, a dead language. The contemporary peoples of the British isles spoke a family of languages from which modern Welsh, Irish and Scots Gaelic are descended, but which were probably very different. Elizabethan English is easy to understand, but the Medieval form is much more difficult and Old English is a completely different language. A common fudge is to pepper your sentences with archaic words, or to talk in Ye Olde Mocke Byblycalle Speecheth. But since you'll never sound like the real thing, why bother?

Is swearing OK? Apart from the question of whether you're at a 'family friendly' event, you might want to consider whether dark-age barbarians turned the air blue in the same terms you use at the dinner table. An attempt at using real Old Norse words at a Dumnonni Chronicles event a few years ago rapidly degenerated into a Viking swearing dictionary, but at least we could claim authenticity!

Comfort and human necessities mean a few anachronisms are unavoidable. You probably don't want to spend hours boiling dried beans or unrolled oats over a wood fire for your dinner, or wipe your arse with a manky rag on a stick. Quite a few LRPers have reproductions of historical tents for in-character camping, but they say you have to be quite brave and hardy to sleep out in them in bad weather.

However, the area where anachronism is really necessary is in social structure. The hobby is just as popular among women as men, and it wouldn't be much fun for the ladies if their character and role-playing choices were limited by a historically-accurate portrayal of women's rights and prevailing attitudes. Similarly, a faithful recreation of the class system might add great depth to the setting, but it might also turn a lot of people off. Feudal serfs were their aristocratic masters' property as much as ancient and dark-age slaves were.

Apologies if this sounds like an essay in the bleedin' obvious, but it bears thinking about. If you crave realism and authenticity, how far are you prepared to go? At what point do the returns start to diminish and the inconveniences mount up? The answer always lies with you and the games you play.

LRP Art - Myke Slater

Myke Slater

Myke Slaters LRP Comic Strips are really funny and extremely well drawn. Myke has given the new scribe permission to show his fine work here.





Enjoy !

Art by Myke Slater

New Old Scribe Magazine Images added to our Archive Section ! Go take a look at a younger version of our very beautiful Editor Sam and the some might say ever prettier Steve Emmott !

Does LRP need rules to work?

With thanks to Larpers Bazaar for the great blog post which got me thinking!

When I first started live roleplay , at the Keep there were a hella lotta RULES for everything, you had points to spend on skills, very limited at first and these written onto your character sheet; after every fight a man (invariably) would write things down on a clipboard and tell you whether to fall over or not. Now as all of this was new to me and I saw it as an extension of tabletop roleplay it made sense at the time. I imagine in much the same way that it felt perfectly reasonable that the first cars needed a man in front with a flag to prevent all hell breaking loose and our brains bleeding at astonishing speeds of 30 miles an hour plus.

But as time has moved on we learn new things, experiment, gain confidence and make the hobby better. Thankfully no-one battleboards any more (or do they?!) but we still have rules, and some events have waaay more than others. Some in fact have rules which have no actual bearing on whether it makes sense in character, or have any impact in game. Some rules are for skills you not only have no chance of doing "live" but you have no chance of effectively roleplaying either.

We have hits and armour points to give people an indication of how to react in a fight...why?

We have skill points to show what you can do...why?

art by Myke Slater

Ok so I am being contrary there, but honestly what is roleplaying about for you? If it is about winning and being the best - even amongst other players then it's competitive...oh yeah you need rules and lots of them.

But if it's about entertainment, being part of a spectacle, acting a part and in turn adding to the enjoyment of the event for others by you playing that role...why do you need rules that make it a board, wargame or tabletop rp game?

As you may have gathered I don't like rules.


Larpers Bazaar blog

Just how important IS the kit in lrp?

Brilliant article by Caz on his blog - Larpers Bazaar
larpers bazaar

I have to concur about the importance of kit and background scenes for my immersion. It does NOT have to be expensive kit though, learn to use a sewing machine and get some patterns off the web and you have all you need to be believable. 

I am sometimes dismayed when I see that a player has spent a lot of money on bad taste black studded armour (my opinion of course) and then pairs this with black jeans a bad shirt and the latest bad kit - a "faux fur" waistcoat. The overall impression of being in character could have been more cheaply gained by skipping the pricey armour and buying a good tunic trews and belt and maybe a hood...but the shinies of armour and weapons must bear a terrible lure!

I applaud Dumnonni for being the first to produce a guide to what you could and could not wear at their events, this was years ago now. It has led to their dark ages village scene looking exactly as it should. Some events have never limited kit in any way,  very much to their detriment I think.

I am reminded of a recent discussion board where a new player posted a pic of his mainly good kit and a "dysabone" jacket on. When folks asked why he insisted he loved the coat, despite many voices to the contrary. And I actually saw him at the event In that very coat! Takes all sorts in LRP  and thankfully there are events for all of us

Rights Roy Smallpage -  Caz =GOOD KIT

See page 11 here for BAD kit in the form of Damien the Destroyer! Dumnonni Crew Guide