Showing posts with label Breeder. Show all posts

Rewinding back before Samhain, at our second Belegarth practice we met a new fighter that we hadn't met the first time, Breeder.  Loptr introduced him as his squire from Amtgard, and that he was currently in the middle of his reign as Duke for our area's duchy.  I had picked up up a bit about Amtgard on the Bel boards; a few guys looked down on them but most begrudgingly respected their fighting ability, even thought they didn't hit as hard and didn't smash shields.  Quite a few even mentioned they cross-gamed.

Loptr and Burke had talked up Amtgard fighter practice a week earlier and Breeder continued the sell, being Duke and all and wanting to recruit.  They mentioned there were women fighters at Amtgard, and more fighters attending period.  I had it stuck in my head that I wanted to fight full-contact Bel and I just wasn't interested in anything else.  We caved and decided to come out the next night for Amtgard fighter practice at the behest of Burke, Breeder, and Loptr.

It wasn't much different from the Belegarth practices we'd attended so far, just a few new faces we hadn't met yet. (Dea, Breeder's Regent Loup, Harpy, and Tuber)  The practice was nearly the same as Belegarth, only with lighter weapons.  At the end of the night Breeder asked if we wanted to come help build swords for a duchy fundraiser.  He convinced us by mentioning they'd have cheap foam shield blanks we could use for both Bel and Amtgard.

I verified kids were cool at the party and we showed up at Roisin and Pancake's place and jumped in, cutting foam, taping, and constructing weapons.  Roisin was even cool enough to provide chili and cornbread for everyone if we hadn't had time to grab dinner yet.  Harpy and Pancakes kept the kids sufficiently entertained by allowing themselves to be chased around the yard by foam-wielding children.  There was a good mix of people there, young & old, "typical" LARPers, but also some folks in their late teens or early 20's that didn't fit the stereotypical image of a LARPer.

I think we ended up making 35 swords total while hanging out and chatting with the group.  Some kept to themselves but most were pretty open and friendly.  We had to drag the kids away at the end of the night, they were having so much fun, but I promised we could all go to park the next day.  Based on my experiences it's definitely a family friendly activity.  I've come to think of it almost like the Boy Scouts, only fantasy/medieval-themed.  It has a sort of "meta" game where you can gain ranks and win awards in various aspects of the organization such as service, leadership, weapon and armor crafting, the arts, and fighting.  You can even eventually be knighted in multiple tracks.

The next day I brought the kids with me to park and the duchy was setting up for a tournament.  There was confusion on my part and I got in line to fight only to find out it was a fund raising effort.  I hadn't filled out a waiver with my information for the O.R.K. so the park member keeping the bracket didn't have any information on me.  I bowed out until enough fighters ran out of purchased lives that we could start ditching. (two lines fighting, winning side sends their first dead to the other side)  We ditched for a while because people kept buying more lives for the last two fighters, Burke and Yoshi, mostly because it was funny to watch them get exhausted.  I was also finally able to meet the great Fitz Caliston, weaponcrafter and garber extraordinaire.


And then everyone started getting ready for the battle game.

In my experience LARPing up to that point it had been straight fighting.  Now people were pulling out sashes and spell balls and talking about classes.  I was starting to get that "lightning bolt" feeling.  Breeder told me not to worry about it and to stick with a straight fighting class like Warrior or Barbarian and I'd be fine.  They couldn't find a Warrior sash so Barbarian it was.  By this point Autumn and I hadn't made any garb so I was just in black jeans and long sleeve shirt.  That wouldn't do for Burke and so he tossed a long rambo-style tabard on me, with Breeder's leather gothic lorica breastplate, pauldrons, and greaves.  By the time they were done I didn't think I looked half bad.


They gave me a quick rundown of the barbarian class, five lives per battle before going out,  and the ability to berserk for additional damage and armor once per game.  Simple enough.  The game was capture the flag and we had to hold both flags at the same time to get the capture.  I think we had five on our side and seven or eight on theirs because we had two magic users and an archer and they didn't have either.  This was a good thing, for me, because I didn't have to deal with wondering what spells were being used on me.  And there were a lot, like rooting people in place, heating up weapons so they had to be dropped, as well as typical stuff like fireballs.

Yes, that's a goblin on the far right.

Having played CTF in Belegarth and CTF in Amtgard I'm going to have express my preference for Belegarth, mostly because of the ease of play.  Bel's rules are stupid simple and it keeps the game moving.  Amtgard's rules are complex, from tracking lives, to number of hits left on armor, to figuring what was just cast on you.  Like I said, I'm glad I didn't have to deal with any magic aimed my way.  There was still nearly the same physicality, chasing flankers and runners, and I got the same rush defending against attackers.  Amtgard may eventually prove more rewarding just based on the greater variety of strategies available in class battles.

But that doesn't mean I have to like the casting mechanic of repeating your spell out loud multiple times... Lightning Bolt!

I'm going to jump out of order for a bit so I can try to get my thoughts up while they're still fresh in mind.  We hit a few Amtgard meetups but I've spent so much time participating lately that I haven't had time to write much about them.

But anyways, back to Samhain.

Reading the Belegarth boards, you get the impression that events are where it's at.  They're the reason the game exists.  Fighting at your local realm is all well and good and you need to start learning somewhere, but events are where you move from dozens of folks to hundreds of folks fighting.  People bring out their best equipment and gear to show off, new and interesting scenarios are set up, the game becomes everything for a small period of time.

I'd been keeping one eye on Samhain during our wedding, wondering if it was toon soon afterward to try and attend.  We were pretty burned out from planning the wedding and I wasn't sure if either Autumn or I would be up for getting everything made and ready in time for the event.  I broached the subject with her and she seemed excited so we pushed ahead with plans to go.

As I mentioned in my last post, my first blues were only a semi-success in that they were constructed properly but were way too whippy and likely wouldn't pass weapons check at an event.  So I went out and purchased some 3/8" inch fiberglass fencing poles from a local ranch store and just to be safe, DAP'ed, strapping taped, and liquid nailed them together into a solid dual core.  I worked on them every night up to the event and we finished the covers at midnight the day before.

We also lacked fighting garb.  We had the pirate garb we bought for our wedding but it wasn't exactly something we wanted to roll around the mud and grass in.  So we stopped by Jo-Ann's and picked up some green, black, and brown trigger cloth, which happened to be on sale at 40% off.  Being pressed for time we went super simple and just made a couple tabards from the cloth based on a pattern Autumn found online, modified with splits and points at the bottom edges.  I got some plain ring-belts off Ravenswood leather to wear around them and we were mostly set.  I would have liked a pair wrap pants for each of us as they look much better than just wearing levis but we ran out of time.  We also picked up safety equipment like a cup for me, volleyball kneepads and speedbag gloves to protect our hands and we were set, game-wise.



We planned for a second camping trip in less than a month, packed our gear into the car and headed out.  Unfortunately because of work, last minute packing, and childcare needs we didn't arrive in Ogden until after dark and missed the Friday evening fighting.  We did arrive just in time for full fledged drunken revelry.  Loptr was already three sheets, Breeder (whom we'd gotten to know through Amtgard) was comfortably buzzed, and there was a nice festive atmosphere.  We quickly got our tent set up and roasted some hotdogs over a campfire for dinner, chatting with our Uruk-Hai neighbors who were also relaxing around the fire.



One thing that surprised me that first night was how many people were walking around in garb, even though they weren't fighting, even though it was a little chilly.  It definitely lent to the atmosphere of the event, enough so that I decided I would toss on my simple tunic and ring belt under my coat.  We stayed with the Uruks for a bit, and I had an educational conversation with Forkbeard about the history of foam fighting in Utah.  The guy was just as big as I imagined and, despite of his internet persona, one of the nicest guys I talked to at the event.  After a bit we wandered down towards the drumming drifting from the center of camp.



We found it at the Black Lions camp and listened to a few folks try their hand, with the dancers trying to keep to the sometimes irregular beat. I'd read about bellydancers at other events so I wasn't entirely surprised to see some at Samhain, though it did seem kind of cold for them.  It was also our first exposure to the larger-than-life Lilith as she harangued the drummers and cracked everyone up as she danced.  I didn't get too drunk, just enough for a nice buzz that enhanced the experience.  Being the old responsible adults with a new baby, we turned in pretty early.

In all it was a nice way to ease into the culture of the group, to meet a few new faces and settle in before the fighting proper the next day.