Aug 18, 2009
Per: Shane, Dave and Oisín are joined by veteran rubber-sword LARPer Brian (not that Oisín isn't a veteran in his own right) to introduce us to the magical world of rubber-sword LARPing in general, the Lorien Trust in particular and The Gathering specifically. It's a long one (fnar fnar) but very informative and worthwhile, and it was fun to record. Features:
- A game where you act out the actions of your character!!
- Camarilla
- Suspicious denials
- Real-life experience points
- Incredibly complex terms
- Lorien Trust
- A certain epic fantasy novel series
- Personal spmace invasion
- Dave's impeded magical abilities
- Derogatory terminology
- A card-rippingly good time
- A system for looting the dead
- Actually, it's physical representation, isn't it?
My first rubber sword larping event was at the gathering in 1995. It was also the first time I tried tequila, mead, and getting stung by nettles on my lips. I still have my rubber swords and an enormous necromancer\'s staff thing I bought while I was there. My memory of the event was that there wasn\'t enough GMs, monsters, investigation stuff and that newcomers were shunned by the super-cliques that had evolved over the years. However, it\'s been 14 years, so I guess they\'ve probably made some improvements. If you\'re going, plan on meeting many smelly people, and being smelly yourself. And bring loo roll.
I saw this comment a little late to respond in time, but I would like to say that the easiest way would be to dome along with one of the Irish larp groups is the easiest way to break into the game and get around the cliquishness.
There are a large number of refs of various stripes, and quite often there are more around than you know, as many are players who can step up to the job of dealing with a situation if one develops.
Lots of people exercising does have predictable results, but there are usually showers on site in various states of repair.
Bringing loo roll, sadly, can still be necessary.