Category Archives: Empire

#rpgaday2015 day 1: forthcoming game I’m most looking forward to

Dune, Empire, LRP, Roleplaying,

The forthcoming game I’m most looking forward to? Probably Demon Hunters: A Comedy of Terrors. Possibly Beast: the Primordial.

At least if you’re talking solely about tabletop games that haven’t been released yet. I actually have Demon Hunters already – a pre-release copy, but it’s not formally released yet. I’m planning on running a game online once I’ve gone through the book properly.

In LARP terms, I’m looking forward to our upcoming Dune LARP. I’m listening to the Dune audio book, ear out for terms that can influence the game.

In terms of games that are ongoing, I’m looking forward to the next Empire event, but nerves kick me about as well. We’ll have to see.

On the way home

Empire, LRP

Currently in the Lake District on our way back from Empire. It was a tiring weekend, but a good one.

I’m finding that I really like being recognised by people, even if they don’t necessarily know who I am. Senators, Grandmasters, Archmages, and Generals are now on my frequent contact list. Well.. some of them have been on that list for a while, but now it’s business as well as pleasure.

Hearing people recount the story of the Booze Snake is also gratifying, as it’s a nice bit of fun.

The car is packed to the roof and no one really has any room but we are all in it, which is the important part. Should be in Edinburgh not long after midnight and while I’m not looking forward to work in the morning, it shouldn’t be too much of a trial to get up in the morning.

Empire 379YE Spring Equinox

Empire, LRP,

My Good, Bad, and Ugly from the the Spring Equinox, 379YE. This was far and away my best Empire event (and my best event as a player of anything, I reckon) and being away from the office for nigh-on a week was something I desperately needed. Having as much fun as I did was just a bonus.

The Ugly

  • Nothing!
  • The Bad
  • Selling half of the salted caramel cream liqueur (that stuff was really really nice)
  • Aching heels from walking around the entire site several times organising rituals
  • Forgetting the names of runes partway through a ritual
  • Rituals could use some flash and pomp
  • Left my make-up at home
  • Blister on my palm from hammering tent pegs – betadine stings!
  • Barely being in Wintermark
  • Barely seeing friends on the field

The Good

  • BEST CONCLAVE EVER!
    • Fighting Heralds of Arhallogen in the Hall of Worlds
    • Pulling both Pavul and Jessica out of the fighting to Gudrun and realising afterwards that I might have just saved Jessica’s life
    • Running the timers after the civil servant had to run off because of the Empress election
  • Being the lead ritualist in six rituals
  • Becoming known by archmages, the warmage, and grandmasters
  • Making a name for myself in the Shuttered Lantern
  • Making three crowns from my booze
  • Organising scrying rituals for the military council
  • Finding a rhythm for my rituals that meant I was pretty much perfect on timing
  • Lights in the regio stones
  • Enjoying every minute of Conclave (I must be getting weird)
  • James managed to pick up my make-up
  • Arriving on Thursday makes everything else so much more relaxed (being on site 28 hours before time in was weird)
  • Feeling so much better after being away for the weekend
  • Froth lunch at Buddy’s with the Glasgow lot
  • Salted caramel cream liqueur
  • First magical traumatic wound
  • Mhorish
  • Holtoberfest sausages
  • Team Human Centipede!
  • Stab-safe mage staffs are big and clever – I need to make myself one
  • Learning how to make Cesare speechless
  • Witnessing Astrid’s joining the League ceremony
  • Cunts and first kisses in the pub

 

I have a few IC letters and some reports to write, and I’m resisting the urge to talk in TLAs about everything that happened[1].

Footnotes   [ + ]

1. ↑ TRV did ESM and EHP on various locations. Fighting HoA in HoW was awesome.

Music from when I was a teenage dirtbag

Empire, Music, Musings,

I appear to be appreciating the music of my teens quite a lot at the moment. I’m blaming the drive to and from Empire last weekend. The CD I pulled out of the glove-box to listen to was CD3 of Now That’s What I Call Running 2014 (which I may have to get a copy of). The reason I picked that one (other than it being one of the only non-folk CDs in the collection) was that it had quite a bit of nostalgia on it for me.

The drives to and from Spernall were augmented by songs I’d last really heard in the early noughties when I was a teenager – guilty pleasures and open alike – as well as tracks from the eighties. A selection of the “best” tracks are below:

  • Britney Spears – Toxic
  • Alien Ant Farm – Smooth Criminal
  • Avril Lavigne – Sk8er Boi
  • Wheatus – Teenage Dirtbag
  • Elvis Presley vs. JXL – A Little Less Conversation (JXL Radio Edit Remix)
  • Blink 182 – All the Small Things
  • Sum 41 – In Too Deep
  • Journey – Don’t Stop Believin’
  • Soft Cell – Tainted love
  • Blondie – Call Me
  • Frankie Goes to Hollywood – Relax
  • The Knack – My Sharona
  • Snap – The Power

This, amongst other things, has inspired me to listen predominantly to tracks from my teen years this week. I’ve listened to a lot of Avril Lavigne, which has led into listening to a lot of Pink. Thinking Sum 41 may have to be on the list somewhere.

What’s actually surprised me is the number of these groups who are still performing and putting out music today. I stopped paying any attention to them after I went to university, and they’ve continued to write and produce. I like a lot of Avril’s new stuff, and I want to see how Sum 41 was evolved in the last decade (I own their first three CDs, one in two different versions[1] so knowing whether they’re still someone I’d like to listen to would be interesting.

I’m already thinking I might need to buy Avril’s latest album just based on the main singles from it. Something to consider when I have more money.

So that’s what I’ve been listening to recently. Have any suggestions for other things I might enjoy?

Footnotes   [ + ]

1. ↑ All Killer, No Filler. I have both the UK and US versions because one had a bonus song

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The Winter Solstice

Costume, Empire, LRP, Me, Musings,

This weekend I’m off to Empire. First Empire event of 2015, first of the Winter events I’ll have been to. It’s also my first field LARP event as a player this year.

Currently I’m fretting a little over the things I don’t have. I can’t find my scaled brow prosthetic, so I might be reduced back to just make-up, which I’d really prefer not to do. I can’t find my rune bag – but that’s an accessory I can live without. I don’t have as much in the way of Demijohn liqueurs as I normally do as I’m a little skint right now. I also don’t have the final piece of my mage armour[1], so I’ll be throwing something together in a hurry – possibly just by wearing my big coat on the battlefield.

The idea of using some of Jeremy’s cast-off skin for my Naga scales has just occurred to me, but I think that might not work as well as the idea suggested. Might be worth an experiment though – I can see if it’ll take make-up to colour it. My worry is that it would tear easily, but Naga probably shed scales as well, so I can find an IC reason for it.

I’m not as revved up for the event as I’d like to be. My keen is low, and I’m not sure what I’ll be doing on the field as Sólsetur. I have a letter to deliver, some people to see, and some rituals to do, but I don’t really know what I’m doing as a whole. I may angle towards taking over as Thane for something to do besides sit around and occasionally do a ritual.

I don’t know. Playing events can be odd for me – I feel more comfortable in a ref/crew role in the main, and while I can write my own characters and play them, finding goals and things for them to do can be tricky for me. I don’t know why I find it easier to do that for an NPC I write than for my own characters, but I do.

Tonight we’re packing the car, and tomorrow morning we’re off to the new Empire site. Hopefully without getting mired in traffic. We’ll see.

Footnotes   [ + ]

1. ↑ I didn’t think I’d be coming to this event, so I didn’t commission it and by the time I knew I wasn’t coming, it was too late

Empire Summer Solstice

Empire, LRP

This has been a while in coming, but I’ve been busy and tired and updating this blog was far from my mind. Which may be a mistake, all things told, but that’s a different story.

I enjoyed the event, even if I didn’t feel like I did a lot. (It was very hot.) Had fun in the battles, though I did come very close to dying – far too close for any kind of comfort.

My makeup plan worked out alright and my kit worked out quite well. I found out on Sunday that apparently I’d been being referred to as “that Suaq guy” all weekend by other people so apparently I portrayed being a Suaq better than I thought – might have been the hood I had up all weekend.

Need to work out what I want to be doing with the character. Didn’t do any rituals with the character, and felt the lack of spells when I was doing combat. May shift from two weapons to rod and shield and pick up a healing spell.

On the bright side, I’m well on the way to memorising all of the runes now.

Empire redux

Empire, LRP

Last Saturday, I went to a IC gathering being hosted in Glasgow by a mate of mine. I had to scrounge up my costume from my Up-Helly Aa gear and a quick trip to A-Ha-Ha for new make-up but I got something together. It was a good evening though I didn’t do much. I need to revise up on my histories and so on, but I knew that anyway. I got to play a stereotypical Naga (lounging on the sofa for most of the evening paying little heed to anything but my own comfort) and I had a couple of bottles of Demijohns’ finest to help with that.

I’ve now got a hood and tunic in the works and I’ve booked the upcoming event. I’ve also bought even more costume and camping supplies. Transport may still be an issue, but I’m hoping that the minibus idea that got suggested pans out. I’m not sure I’ll look exactly how I wanted, but I’ll have kit, and I’ll have the right kind of look, I hope. It should be fun.

Empire

Depression, Empire, LRP

I’m currently feeling quite a lot of apathy towards Empire. I kinda want to go, but I haven’t booked holidays for it, and I haven’t got costume and I have a severe case of “can I be arsed?”. It’s not that I don’t have other friends going or anything, but I just don’t feel connected to it in a way that makes me want to get organised for it.

It’s odd. I can get excited about Empire at times, but other times – like now, when I’ve just had an email telling me the early booking deadline is coming up – I just don’t know if I can be bothered with the effort of getting myself organised.

It’s a reflection of my depression, I’m aware, but I feel like everyone else is more involved and invested in it than I am and I can’t catch up to that. I feel like I’d be lost and not know what to do, like I can’t possibly get myself organised in time so why bother trying?

It’s hard to describe, but these things are rarely easy.