What I did at my LARP event.

Inspired by a comment by my mate Martin, I have decided to post about what I do in an LT mainline event. In an effort to show people what my game (how I play) is like.

The Lorien Trust is a massive sprawling system with ten factions and ten ish guilds all of which support very different styles of play.

For the last 10 years or so I have played in the Scouts Guild. For the last 5 years I have been writing plot for them and have been leading the Guild. This year I have a new role and am in the process of stepping away from that bit of the game which I have played for the last decade. I’m finding it quite tricky, so in addition to talking about my game I also want you to talk to me about yours.

Some of the things I did at the Moot (this is a brain dump so bear with me):

I arrived IC at the event ‘live’ from a plotted fight and dropped a load of plot on the scouts. I was then sent to a mind healer.

I watched a Ritual that Rath did for the Harts. As the ritual finished the mythical White Hart of Albion showed up, not so mythic it seems!

I bought some scrolls which I put in a pouch in order to forget about them for a year, its not like I think they age well like wine or anything its just that its become a tradition!

I binned 4 expired scrolls because I had put them in a pouch a year ago and forgot about them.

I went to all the NPC meetings (normally I miss a couple).

I chatted to NPC’s and players from the various Martial Guilds to see how they were doing, I listened to a great conversation about Elemental Forges at the Armourers.

I chatted to Sparkey about how hard (tough) he was.

I got in a good scrap with some Caligar worshippers and tried to Save Wellspoken’s Character with 12 other brave/foolish heroes.

I hid from the Archon of Good under a tree (he is unreasonably peeved with me).

I made the Scouts Guild Linear more complicated by sending an hysterical, unarmed woman in love with the bad guy along.

I had awesome roleplay with the family of said hysterical unarmed woman as well as the liability in person after the linear.

I listened to players open a complicated, heavily trapped puzzle box before watching them pour over clues.

I watched the result of the ritual warning bells tolling and Satuun (MAJOR, HUGE baddy) doing a ritual. Then nodded to Dark Reaver who is less unreasonably peeved with the Scouts and I.

I watched Sai and Promethean Dave have a fight while I provided commentary about it to the guild.

I nearly died laughing thanks to K8, Nick and Becca

I got involved in the big final fight, I borrowed a pole off Donk and had some really good scraps.

Thanks to Dave for a great pole/knife fight, Brian for keeping up with me for the first half of the fight, the five factions that charged to my rescue when I got dropped by Becca and Slieve for turning up to help me when I was fighting near the Harts camp towards the end.

What do you do for the 3-4 days you spend at an LT mainline? Pick five things you do at most events and let me know here.

I wrote a post after the Gathering last year about levels of live roleplayers it’s here: in it I awarded levels for trying lots of different parts of the game. People also suggested other things that could award levels.

http://tohitarseclass0.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/new-targets-and-levels-of-live.html

As of Right now I am level X so at the Gathering I am going to level up!

2013 Dreamlines and Diet update.

Today I weigh 14 stone 3 lbs, I have lost a pound, which is pretty good as I have had my work Christmas do this week. Next week start on Total inches and more exercise increases.

I’m also working on Dreamlines for the first 6 months of 2013. these are not set in stone yet but the four that I think I want to focus on immediately are:

Top 4 for the first 6 months of 2013

Play Games - I’m currently torn between running a massive sweeping epic campaign and running a series of smaller self contained campaigns letting me scratch my other systems itch.

Go to Gen Con US with the girls. This is on the cards for August.

Help People - Similar to my Gaming Self Help Post I’m looking into the field of Life Coaching.

Physical Improvement - Slimmer, Fitter Stronger and more agile. The Goal for Slimmer is under 13 stone by end of March. I need to set targets for the other three parts and start working towards them.

Top 4 for All of 2013

New Car - As per my last Dreamline, This is probably one for the 4th Quarter of the year.

More Dwarven Forge - The Cavern Chasms set is now available in the UK and the Catacombs set looks amazing.

A House - At least as Nice as where we currently live. The first step of this is to save for a deposit.

Best Larp Fighter - This one has dropped off a little but I’m sure it will come back as the Larp season begins.

Cool stuff again and Diet update

This week I Weigh 13st and 5lbs which is my joint lightest so far. I am planning to have a relatively light binge day this week and we have a weapons practice lined up for Sunday Morning.

We have been doing a lot of gaming this last week with 4 Sessions of This is Thracia (say it like you are kicking someone into a pit)  and another lined up for tomorrow evening. The players are currently hell bent on exploring a new dungeon they discovered that I put on to the map after it won a competition on the D&D Website. The map is here and I am busily filling it with Treasure and Monsters from a bunch of sources. I am also toying with the idea of trying to render it using Dwarven Forge but i suspect I would have to improvise too many pieces.

We Also played a session of Gavin Smith’s Epic Scotland themed D&D Game. We are now 19th level and explored an appropriately epic feeling Dungeon.

I also found two excellent reviews of 13th age on EN World. The Review is in two parts,  part 1 talks about the Character options and part 2 talks about the general rules and combat options in the book. Also on EN World this week my Favorite Story Hour (a story of someones game) has started updateing again. Sagiro’s Story Hour can be read on the boards or far more conveniently from StevenAC’s collected PDF’s. That story hour has provided countless inspirations for my own games.

At some point I am going to use this post from the creator of xkcd to make a fantasy world. It is a What if Scenario if our poles were 90 Degrees from where they are now.

Then finally I have booked for the upcoming Hearts of Albion Larp event and it looks like it is going to be awesome. It is rapidly getting to the point where there will have a hundred monsters and a hundred players making it one of the largest Sanctioned events recently. If you fancy coming along the booking page is here: http://albion.leynexus.net/booking/eventdetails.php?EventID=7






What have you been up to this week?

New Targets and Levels of Live Roleplayer

I ended up taking the Gathering off the diet and then agreed a penalty points reset with Ant. I Weight 13 stone 7lbs having been up to 13 stone 10lbs immediately after essentially a weekend long feast. Ant and I have new 1 year targets we both want to be at  <15% bodyfat by this time next year. My next short term goal is under 13 stone by the end of the September.

Levels of live roleplayer

I originally wrote this list quite angrily several years ago, dissapointed at how much of the game I felt people were missing out on. I have since though a lot about it and have rewritten it as a list of ways to try and make your events better. The list is fairly specific to the LT as that is the primary system that I play in.

Things that cause you to level up as a live roleplayer: (so gain 1 level for each of these that you have done)

Go to a Live role playing event
Gain a position of authority within your faction
Leave your faction camp more than 3 times in a weekend (going for food, monstering, with the rest of the faction, doesn't count)
Have Friends in another faction
Go to a sanctioned event
Go to a Sanctioned event run by another faction or Guild
Go to ten Sanctioned events in one calendar year
Have been in more than one faction
Have been in at least half the factions (at least a year in each one)
Have been in all the factions (at least a year in each one)
Go to more than one system
Join a Guild
Earn a position of Authority withing a Guild
Contribute to a ritual
Perform a Ritual
Own a Lammie
Help to organise or Run a Sanctioned event
Be considered for a DPC or NPC position
Have a Faction Hate you
Solve a plotline
Make a decision as to be PVP flagged as a Character or not
Get assassinated by other players
Make girls cry because of Roleplay (can also be written as provoke an powerful emotional response)

Thanks to the people that helped me compile the original list.

What level are you? What would you add to the list to grant someone another level? (i’ll add the best suggestions to the list.)

Diet update and how far I have come

This week I weigh 13st and 6lbs, I want to lose another 6lbs before this time next week.

Posting these weekly updates has really helped me stay on track with the changes I am making. Talking about them and having to make a post about it each week keeps it fresh in my mind and makes me less likely to cave to temptation. Speaking of temptation Tim Ferris’ Blog has a very interesting article this week on Ego Depletion.

The rest of this week's post is inspired by this post from Ant, where he gives an update on how he is doing.

I started this blog on Monday the 2nd of April and at that point I weighed 15 Stone. Since then I have made 40 Posts.

I have gone from wearing 42” waist Trousers to 36” Waist. Medium T-Shirts now fit me.

According to my massively unreliable Scales my BMI has dropped 5 points.

I have a Plan of what I want to do, even if I am still fighting with exactly how I am going to do it.

I am working towards my Dreamlines and I have a Bucket List.

I am reading The 13th Age Escalation Edition (I pre ordered and they send you a pdf of the current rules) which has a lot of very interesting ideas to add story elements to the typically more fighty D20 games. I am also reading The Education of Millionaires and some comics and graphic novels I got while at the Travelling Man 21st party up in leeds at the weekend.

This weekend I am going to Eclectic Games for the launch of the Dr Who Card Game, and then on Sunday there will be some more Fighting Practice.

All in all everything is going well. What has been cool about your week?

A Plan and Diet Update

This week I weigh 13st 10lbs my weight has been staying constant so if my inches haven't changed considerably by next week I will have a hard look at the diet to make sure I am sticking to it.

When I became the head of the Scouts Guild in the Lorien Trust Live roleplaying system, I said to myself and my team that everyone who comes into our guild goes away better, whether it was their stats in the system or real applicable skills. Now I am wondering if that can be applied to the real world as well? (or at least the gaming section of it) What would you like to do that you can’t do now? How can i help you do it?

This blog is one of the ways I want to do it.

Better is a very subjective term, which was deliberate when we applied it to Live Roleplaying. If I want it to work in the real world I think it will need a better definition. So the first thing I am going to work on is defining my goals of “Better” into something measurable.

I got better by defining my Dreamlines and starting to work towards them.

I am Beating Depression by making changes to what I do that have measurable effects.

If I can do these things then I can help other people do the same or similar things.

Chloe who i interviewed about Becoming a Photographer recently posted a one year on summary. In the next 12 months I intend to have achieved as much (but about making gamers greater rather than photography).

I also want to help make Game Shops better, through my work at Esdevium and through helping them directly, because Games Shops make more gamers and are a great way to talk to lots of gamers at once. This also need some slightly better definition.

This post  at The art of Nonconformity along with several other bits and pieces have informed these ideas. The Questions in The Tower really resonated with me:

What are you going to make today?
Who are you going to help today?

That is what I want to answer next.

Interview with Dan and Diet Update

This is a Zombie not Dan

This week I weigh 13 st and 13 Lbs again. I dipped belw that last Friday and am expecting to again this week. The most I have lost so far is a total of 16 lbs. This week I have been exercising in earnest with Pilates, Tai Chi this evening and the Kettleball swings I linked to last week. It has shown a marked difference and I lost the weight from my binge day much faster this week.


After my weekend excursions of Fighting and Zombie related activities I have been thinking alot about larp Fighting again. One of the people who I emailed asking for tips came back to me slightly after my last post but his response was interesting and detailed enough that I asked him if I could post it here.


Dan is the Raptor as featured on This blog occasionally and also plays in the the Jackals faction of the LT (http://www.lorientrust.com/Homepage.aspx).

Me: Hi Dan

I am writing a blog post about Larp sword fighting (and trying to get better.) If you have time please could you answer these questions for me.


Dan: Hi,

Wasn't sure how much you wanted...let me know if this isn't what you're looking for or also when/where it goes up.  Tried hard not to sound too know-all about it (faux modesty of course).

As a disclaimer though, I'm a moderate fighter who used to be better.  However I
have had the opportunity to learn through structured regular practice away from events and the pleasure of having my ass handed to me by a variety of excellent fighters, many of whom were kind enough to point out how they did it.  

It’s also worth pointing out that a lot of people don't like how I fight.  It can be considered 'tappy' or 'unheroic' by some, but for me the competition elements of this style are more important than my opinions on what faux-medieval combat 'should' look like.  I'd also like to be clear that opinions are my own and not necessarily those of anyone who's taught me over the years.  Finally, I would in no way say that my style is definitive - there's loads of different stuff out there that works well and I think it's important to find what works for you.   


What do you do that you don't see other people doing?
Thinking about fighting in terms of discrete moves and sequences.  I think this lets me plan
things a bit more if I'm trying to open up a difficult opponent/fighting several rounds.  At the
very least it’s a great way of reminding yourself that you've become a little too static in your
current fight and you've got a lot more things you could be trying.


What tips would you give a rank novice?
I'd say there are 4 main things for a beginner to try and get their head around:


- 'L' parries
Nearly all basic shots can be parried by a surprisingly small range of motion on the part of the
defender.  From a basic ready position, with a small sword movement right you can block shots to  your sword side, quickly move your sword a foot left and that side is covered.  Finally you can push your sword arm up with a twist of the wrist to lay the sword horizontally flat above your head to guard shots coming in from above.  If you were to use all three, your sword  hand would be drawing roughly an L from your opponents view.  

With practice, this can quickly make most of your blocking automatic and it can really give a confidence boost to those just starting out as it shows results with only an hour or so of practice.  For clarity - don't parry shots to your legs, step back.


- Punch attacks
A lot of my techniques have little to do with real sword use.  In larp I don't have to worry
about penetrating armour, weapon grabbing and well-timed kicks.  I do have to worry about the speed and the safety of my blows though.  A lot of people naturally want to swing a larp weapon when they first pick it up.  This can be slow or hard to control and takes time to get back to your guard.  Instead, the basic strike should be a flat punch starting from midway between hips and shoulder.  You're trying to cover the distance as quickly as you can so make that punch as flat and fast as you can.  When you reach the end, your sword will naturally drop downwards so its easy to anticipate and pull the blow for the opponent with no loss of speed.  Just keep throwing shots out like this, make them as simple a motion as possible and you will speed up immensely.


- Let them come to you
Patience is probably a great thing to learn when you're fighting - you need to be calm and in
control so you can assess the situation more accurately.  One of the best ways to rack up some early kills is by letting people attack you.  Attacking often leaves you very open so a quick riposte will often work if your parries and shots are fast enough.  In an average fight,
advantage will generally be with the person responding to an attack.  This doesn't just mean
against you - in a line fight you can often end up attacking people 3 down to your right if they
aren't paying attention.  Learn to snipe when you get the opportunity and attack to your sides
in a line fight.  


- Fight Everyone (but don't listen to everyone)
This one seems obvious but its very important.  People have very different techniques,
peculiarities and tells - you really want to experience as many of them as possible.  One of the
difficulties of trying new techniques or sparring against new opponents at events is that
everyone watching is inevitably an expert.  Many will offer pointers, convoluted anecdotes about how great they are or complete misunderstandings abut what is going on.  Learn to ignore most of this - stick with your instincts about what you're doing wrong and focus on fundamentals rather than assuming every random spectator will be able to give an insightful critique.  

The ideal though is finding someone you trust and knows a bit about fighting - someone to spot where your technique is falling off, what you might like to try etc.  Try it all and keep what works for you.


What tips would you give someone who is good but trying to get better?


- Lateral motion
I remember one revelatory session in Durham where I was shown how I was actually fighting
someone in a massive field rather than the 1 metre wide strip I was restricting my movement to like a fencer.  Remembering to include sideways motion in your fighting (particularly sword and shield) can really help you crack a difficult opponent or just loosen you up if your style is
becoming too stiff.  There's lots you can do around passing moves, more involved feints and
wraps around the opponents guard - its something to experiment with.  Not always recommended if you're currently part of a shield wall as your buddies won't necessarily appreciate you running off.



- 1 hit per contact
It's easy when doing a lot of sparring to end up doing just contact/1st touch style, where you
each point out when you've been hit.  A lot of combat bears no resemblance to this though, so
it’s important to keep throwing in variation - mainly setting arbitrary rules such as 1/2 hit per
location.  This totally changes the dynamics of a fight as you now have more valuable locations to protect and you can't commit as much to each attack - you'll need to be able recover much faster.  This can really sharpen things up and help you practice cutting down the hordes of one hit goblins all players desperately wish to face at least once in their career so they can feel like Conan.
 


Why are they different?

I think a big chunk of gaining confidence at fighting or any sport is getting to the stage where
lots of it becomes muscle memory and reflex.  When you can trust that you'll handle the basics
without thinking too much about it then you're free to start exploring more complicated and
exciting things.



Who is the best 3 sword fighters you know?


I'm only going to give 2 because they've been my tutors.


Si Wright - he teaches fighting to Durham University students through the Northern Fight School.  Not only a magnificent fighter, he's also a great experimenter with technique.  Critically for me though he is an extremely perceptive teacher, capable of explaining a technique in a dozen  different ways until it clicks for the student.  He has a predilection for naming his moves
which does help you sound like a ninja when discussing fighting which is no bad thing.  His
book: http://www.lulu.com/shop/simon-wright/the-sword-book/paperback/product-4815377.html is a  great explanation of his larp fighting and he makes a great job of explaining very complex
moves.  It is specialised to larger UK fest events and competition fighting (rather than
'heroic' styles) and has a bias towards single sword and sword and shield (but so do I).


Mark Gilbert
I learned under Mark for some time and he's another brilliant fighter.  His style is very
different, very fluid and comfortable engaging at all distances - his head-shots are also
supernaturally fast.  He runs The Riddle of Steel fighting club near London.  One of the traits
he instilled in me was an understanding that teaching was a great way to learn and that you can
always take something away from each fight.