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| all rights: Oscar Plummer |
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
NO. NO ADVENTURES. NO. Nonononono.
ReplyDeleteAgree with every word!
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