And I would like to thank....

Well this weekends LARPing experience was certainly different. The Crooked House crew did a fantastic job of capturing the flavour of 30's pulp fiction. There where (in rough order): ancient tombs, plagues of locusts, uranium mines, ancient doomsday devices and a Voodoo Witch Doctor. It all built up to a final thrilling showdown with the Undead Nazi General.

The games production quality was probably amongst the best I've seen at a LARP event. The use of Directorial description was saved for things like flights between locations with everything else being phys-rep'ed with fantastic sets and costume. We even had genuine sand dunes to climb as we trekked to our desert dig sites. I particularly enjoyed clambering down the mine to attempt to deactivate the fiendish doomsday device (another fantastic prop). The scene was enhanced by noises emanating from my Geiger Counter which changed as we tried different techniques to disarm the device. After we had succeeded in deactivating the bomb we were captured and tortured by a Nazi Dominatrix before the Witch Doctor proceeded to raise my companions as fiendish unliving. The final battle took place with the backdrop of the castle and a full size tank. The pyrotechnics for the tank shells and the mines(!) added a whole new level to experience.

The only (minor) criticisms I can come up with where that maybe there were too many players. With a party of around 30 people I'm sure some must of felt a bit like a spare wheel at times. Also it was quite a gruelling event, Friday finished at 3 in the morning, Saturday ran from 11 'till 2 with the Sunday finishing at 3 in the afternoon. It was a fair effort to drive all the way back from South Wales after that.

However those criticisms aside the event was very enjoyable, definitely worth the money and a refreshing change to my usual LARP diet. I shall certainly consider attending the next Cinedrama presentation.