Between The Staples

I make this announcement now: I am done with Live Action Role-Playing!

I make this announcement after a weekend where I am sure I could have gone to a great troupe Mage game and followed it up with some D& D playing on Sunday. Did I? Nope.

Why? Well a number of reasons but none of which any LARPer would understand or maybe only a few would.

I have made the decision to be done with LARPing based soley on the fact that I never have the time, energy or want to play. By the time I am ready to go, it is often almost 10pm and for many LARP games that is an hour away from being over.

Was that the case this past weekend? No, it was not the case but it very well could have been. I found myself working from 7am till 6pm straight on a number of projects and then having to wrap things up and do things around the house which took me to 7pm after which I had no cares to packup and go to the game. By the time I would reach the game it would have been closer to 8pm and then I would need to get things approved and whatnot, likely not play until 9pm for maybe 2 hours. Nope. No thanks - that has no appeal for me whatsoever. Regardless that I sent all information ahead of time so maybe I could have started around 8:30pm - I still had no real clue of what I was playing, a new character for a new game for me is always daughting, plus I wasn’t feeling it. I had this sense that maybe its time to let go. Maybe its time to just walk away.

So that is what I plan to do now. Walk away from LARPing but not from the people I know. I could have gone out on Friday night and meet up with people at the Afters, the after party of any good LARP, but I just had no cares to hear about a game I missed and wouldnt have come to anyways so I stayed home.

I do wish LARPing well and maybe I will come out and see certain people when CAiNE approaches, it is to be in Vancouver next year (like anyone cares), but likely I am not doing any more LARPing before then. I will let my Camarilla membership lapse. I will never say never but for now, I got other things I would rather be doing with my time!

So tonight I went and played some Dungeons & Dragons! Its been almost 30 years since I last played this game. At least 9+ years since I played any sit down roleplaying games (last was Cyberpunk 2020).

So I get to Mos Eilsey in New West. Jason, Neil and Bill are all ready to go. Slowly I build my Elf Ranger. Its been like forever since I played D&D and things have and haven’t changed much. A bit more complex and yet not. Gods I loved rolling the dice again.

So here we go and it is so unlike the times I played 30 years ago. I didn’t hobble my way to my friends house w/ bags filled with junk food and a zillion D & D books. No flip flopping through a dozen books, tons of papers everywhere, graph paper EVERWHERE. Nope - this was cheez geek! Laptops all around except for William S. didnt take my Mac laptop even though I brought it along. Ah well.

So an excel spreadsheet later w/ almost all calculations done and we are set. I plug in a few numbers here and there, the spreadsheet does much of the rest. I pick some abilities, grab a dagger, long bow, arrows, sleeping roll, bag of misc nothing stuff and away I my character - Davroar the Level One Elf Ranger goes.

So I live in this strange land which has these terrible storms and adventures and monsters often seek out shelter and most of the time will huddle together under “storm peace” and share a shelter and not attempt to kill each other. Most of the time (you see where this is going!). Well it doesnt take long for all our characters to meet, greet and share space and then perhaps try adventuring deeper into the Tor (tower) that we are in under “storm peace” for shelter.

So after a few rats gnaw away at our bones and almost kill both Willian S. and my character, we continue on. I pound back a cure light wounds potion and ready for battle while the head of a statue flies off and goes to attack us. Before Neil or my character can do anything, William S. ’s Elf wizard shoots a fireball and blows it up. Oh and yeah, William S has an Elf Wizard and Neil has a cat-person Rouge.

So we continue further and win a great battle over two hobgoblins Yay Us! We think we are hot shit so we venture on and run into the Shambling Monster of DOOM! With one hit it takes my character to almost death to which I was out for that remainder of that scene.

Now understand that here we are all with our laptops sans William. I was having a conversation with a co-worker, Gord Withers, about many things on IM (instant messenger) and I was giving a short play-by-play of what was going on for fun. So here is what he saw, we both laughed at this - I know I did. I even showed everyone at the game. Very funny!!

To continue on… William’s Elf just pisses the Zombie thing off and then William’s Elf gets knocked out of the picture but not to death. Neil’s cat person saves the day and we all hobble outta there barely clinging to life like 99% of all First Level characters should do.

We wrapped the game when we saw a room w/ spider webs and thought, “F**K that! Lets get some rest!” so we bunked down in another part of the Tor where we could bolt the door. I am SURE that when we open the door we are going to be eaten alive by the f**kin spiders but oh well. Least we got time rest.

So YAY! Good fun tonight - Thanks Jason, Neil and William!

I was reading a title and it mentioned in it how a drug addict feels after they get that first high, they are always searching for it again. Well I have mentioned that ad nauseum to all the LARPers I have gamed with.

It wasn’t long ago that I used to smack my inner arm like a junkie when I talked about LARPing and in the old game / world of darkness you used to say, “WIN!! WIN!!” because the majority of what people felt they needed to do in the “game” was to WIN!

Why “WIN!”  ? Well as I mentioned, “the game” was how people still refer to the events. They do not say anything else, not so how was the larp? or how was the last event? Nope. Its always How was the game? I say it so I know. I wish there was another term but there isnt or not amongst these players. So yes, it is a game and in the majority of games built, they are built to WIN!

So Winning and Addiction. I am jonezing a bit for the game. I am not all “Whatever” but more “Okay, lets see…” now because someone who I think *may* get the game going again as taken the fiction role as “Domain Storyteller” which means after he jumps through the hoops for National (you need to take stupid f[censored]king tests to have some brainless idea that you then know what your talking about when reality few ever do! No one wants to admit that the system is broken and each time I open my mouith about it then shush me - those f[censored]kers!) then he can run the local events / venues.

This is good. This is like knowing that a dealer has finally come to town and maybe one of these nights were can all get together and open a new shooting gallery for just one night!

Yes that is a grim and callous thing to say and equate to. Drugs and Larp. Its not the same - you shouldn’t talk like they are!!

But it is my addiction just like comics are my cigarettes! The patch doesn’t work on me, byatch!

So right now the choices for me are narrow. I plan to give the new Vampire: The Requim venue a try again but this time with a new character. I am down to two new ideas:

Name: WESTWOOD
Fast & the F[censored]kin Furious!
This Vamp runs the local slick street racing in Vancouver. He is the street level hoodlum who stumbled into the wrong place at the wrong time and mixed into something he shouldn’t have which in the end gave him a bite to the thigh, eternal life and a thirst for blood next to his thirst for racing. He moved up the ranks and now runs the races, steals the cars, strips the cars and moves guns,dope and whatever else he can. He is the Vin Disel-like character who zigs when he should zag and is not afraid of no one else the Sun!

Name: DJ Gee Stargrave
Music and magicks. One voice. Who’s listening!?
This Vamp runs a local online internet radio gig the week nights. He is a voice echoed in tarot readings and mixed from 50cent to Marilyn Manson. He slides into focus when he wants to and out of range when he doesn’t. This is not someone you can trust with your life but someone who can spread word like butter on toast. Who are they all talking about and why? There is something beyond his blood that makes you feel like your skin is crawling and not in that good wet groin feeling way. Why is he covered in runes? What is always hiding? Why does he almost crawl about? Why does he have that voice and look at me that way in me being his next dinner? Quick, kill him and be done with it!

Both would be two different sides of the same Covenant - The Circle of the Crone. Westwood would likely be a Gangrel and Stargrave would likely be Nosferatu although as I believe and should happen, the blood doesn’t matter anymore. It doesnt matter if your Gangrel or Ventrue - its what you believe in that should matter although I think because the entire “game” is not clicking with people, White Wolf (The Publishers and company behind the world wide community I LARP in) may need to consider those as options for upcoming books to keep fans happy.
I still have this feeling like this fad will soon die out. I have not played in a local venue for over 5+ months so these are vague ideas for characters I may or may never play. Who knows…

The addiction will always be there regardless because I will NEVER play in a venue / game / event like I once did. NEVER but you always hope for it… always.