The Second Week 'O LARP

This weekend was one of nostalgia as I went to Forever's Destiny. FD is the current incarnation of Nothing Ventured, the club I first LARP'ed with all those years ago when I first came up to Manchester. I started a new character on Friday night and had a great dungeon. Although I died in the last encounter (having been turned into a pin cushion by the archers) I had loads of fun wading into the enemy lines as my warrior.

I spent a really fun Saturday monstering in nice spring weather. Due to the large gaps between encounters I got a lot of chance to laze in the sunshine. The Saturday evening double length wasn't quite as warm but I did get to play some cool monsters and give the party a good mashing. After the evening dungeon I spent a couple of hours at the high table and was able to reprise some of my characters from the old days which was entertaining.

I guess a weekend spent playing at your old system makes you compare it with your current role-playing experience. There are some things I don't miss, especially the stop-motion combat that is prevalent in high level parties due to lots of Time Freezes. The rules are still the large and complex set I remember although there have been some revisions. I suspect less is unwritten lore that used to be explained when it was convenient to certain people who used to run the system. On the plus side the production values are a lot higher than Song of Steel due to better organisation. At a minimum all monsters go out in basic monster kit (that doesn't get confused with player kit). The armourer also packs several bags of heraldic tabards and masks to be trucked around with the monsters so there is less description between encounters required. The turnaround time between dungeons is also a lot faster and without the histrionics that used to make monstering a chore.

In summary I can see myself going back again, although probably not that often. I have other stuff to do with my life as well :-D