Monthly Archives: September 2024

The Voyage North 2024 Review

LARP, Review,

This is part two of my review of my trip to Bicolline (Bico). In the first part I talked about Bico itself. However, I didn’t have any idea how to get there. Then I found The Voyage North (TVN). A group that helps people new to Bico with just about everything. I had experienced with such a group when I attended Germany’s Drachenfest and Conquest of Mythodea in 2015 called The Grand Expedition and I realized that I’d have had 90% less fun going there alone, without any knowledge in a game in a different language. So, I signed up – as did around 350 other players. Here’s my review of it.

TL:DR

TVN worked great for me, and they offer a great service for attending Bico. It’s a bit expensive, it’s comparable to attending some major gaming conventions and if you’re someone who is fine with sleeping in a tent with people you met on Discord, it will work great.

Signing Up

This was a simple enough process. I contacted the head of TVN in November (the event was happening in August), Jordan via email. He sent me a reply with a short, personal greeting and asked me to sign up for a phone call discussion about the company. A couple weeks later, we had a long conversation about our love of larping, games that we have played in, what I was looking for in attending the game and all in all a very calm, friendly and reasonable person. We then discussed what TVN had to offer and finally the price for it all, including extras. I decided that it was worth it to me, signed up. He offered me a payment plan, spreading out the payments over the remaining months but I had put away money for this trip and just paid it all at once.

What TVN offers

There’s a lot an established group can offer for any larp, but this went above and beyond any that I have attended before. Here’s the list:

  • Four guilds that would create plots, quests and events of their own and between one another
  • Same guilds with ties already into the community and political aspects of Bico
  • Pickup and Dropoff at the Montreal Airport
  • Pavilion and a cot
  • Two meals a day
  • Bimonthly Discord meetings to prep for the game
  • Bimonthly Discord meetings for your Guild mates after being sorted
  • Discord community to help with any and all questions from veterans
  • Website with information in English, links to larp shops with discounts and other important things
  • A stop on the way to Bico at a brick-and-mortar larp shop
  • Ticket for the event

All you had to do was show up at the airport on time with your kit. And if you needed anything, you could buy it at the larp store at a 10% discount or buy it from one of the couple dozen merchants there. TVN had some extras you could add on, and I rented a pillow and sleeping bag from them which saved me about two thirds of a suitcase worth of space with it. I also spent a bit of money so that I could have a pavilion to myself (I have issues sleeping in places with people I don’t know). It was of decent quality and kept me dry and warm when it was raining outside. Rather spacious too. They had a deal with one of the vendors for the two meals and by having lunch left open, it allowed me to try other food.

Larp Store
Half My Pavilion

And, really, there’s nothing like going to a game with people who are already steeped in the knowledge of the game and during the Discord meetings, we got a lot of briefings of the current political climate, the relations each guild had with other guilds at Bico, what was to be expected of us and other such things. Anytime I go to a new larp, there’s a good portion of my time trying to figure out what to do and where I belong, and I often have to fight through the established groups (some might call them cliques) to get into the meat of the game. This was all taken care of months beforehand for me. A lot of the Discord meetings were repetitive as waves of new people would sign up and need to get briefed on what the rest already knew but there was always something new that would drop.

Houses

Within each guild, there are ‘houses’ – groups that focus on certain aspects of the game (soldiering, thieving, religion, etc.). These were created and run by players within the guild and the leader was responsible for creating two events for the week and as much plot as they wanted to for the rest of it. It helped reduce the large number of people in the guild to a smaller, familiar group to work with. Even first-time people were allowed to write up a house proposal and could run it. All the house leaders within the guilds would meet and work and weave games, events and plots with one another. I joined House Parliament which was a messenger service and spy network which wound up getting a whole lot of information from all the guilds at Bico and helped to establish some better relations overall. I messed up the first quest our leader was going to put us on as he had a wooden puzzle box with a message inside. It had four sliders with ten runes on each slider and a sixty-four character rune cypher on the back of it. Before he finished explaining how we’d need to research the runes, I had unlocked the combination and handed him the note. (I love playing rogues).

In truth, I’d say that more than half of my engagements at Bico came from the plots that were being run by TVN. They really did their best to bring more RP into the game.

The People

last engagement, I severely injured myself. It was the second worse pain I ever experienced in over half a century and I rated it a nine out of ten only because I didn’t pass out from it. Within seconds, there were three players who were paramedics in their real life next to me. One was letting me use them as a pillow, another was doing a very basic mobility check of my leg and the third was giving me some nice pain/anti-inflammatory meds that you can’t get in the US. The person who was instructing us in the combat came over and we had some playful banter back and forth that really calmed me down.

After the Bico medics cleared me, one player took my gear back to my tent and another two were my living crutches as I limped to a nearby camp – which happened to be one of our Guilds, where I recouped out of the sun. I was given as much water with some kind of electrolyte powder popular in Canada until I could hobble the rest of the way back to my tent. Everyone was accommodating and although I knew I was a burden, I didn’t really feel like I was. When I decided to leave a day early, I found Jordan and told him I had to run to catch a cab, and I didn’t fully clean up my tent. He said not to worry, do what I had to do, and he’ll take care of everything.

All in all, a good group of people.

The “Negatives” of TVN

There were two things that most people see as negatives, but I don’t as I’ve not only larped for 30 years but have also run my own game and been behind the scenes for many others. So, I can see where these perceptions would land but taken as a whole, I feel they’re slightly skewed. First off, the big one: The price. TVN was not cheap. For 2024, it cost me $2,100 plus another grand for my own tent. Now once you’re done gagging, allow me to tell you that a room at GenCon in 2023 costs $330 a night IF you’re able to get into their housing system. Otherwise, I assume, you’re looking at higher costs for hotels outside of their network. Make that for seven nights, add in the cost of food, entrance fee, etc. and it comes out to over the standard cost of the TVN and if you add in all the alcohol that I drank for free there, it would more than match what I paid. And that’s for four seven days of larping in a bloody medieval town.

When I told people at Bico that I was with TVN, half of them rolled their eyes and said one of two things. The first was that their pricing was too high. That they came here first with TVN but quickly found groups that charged less than half that. Some even met at TVN and started an offshoot guild the next year.

That’s great! They used TVN to get into the game without worrying about the logistics, found like-minded individuals and joined up. I’m sure with some Google-fu and Reddit chatter, they may have been able to find those groups beforehand and maybe they’d have let new people into their group without meeting them in person first. I don’t have the personality to do that, and I feel the extra cost was worth not having to deal with the stress of finding a group of strangers to sign up with. Granted, some friends of mine attended but I hadn’t known they were going until after I signed up with TVN.

As for the cheaper cost, I believe that has to do with the scope of TVN. It is a business. Dealing with three hundred plus participants, I would imagine it’s a full-time job yearlong dealing with the logistics, all the new people, getting things together and holding many of their hands. Whereas most guilds at Bico (I assume) are a couple dozen individuals comprised mostly of people who have attended before, at least half of TVN this year were new players due to a media boost from 2023. I didn’t ask him but I’m pretty sure that TVN is Jordan’s full-time job and he’s paying at least two other people that I know of to help with the administration of all the cats they need to herd. So, yes, the price is probably a bit higher.

But if anyone knows a group that will take an old entertainer in and give him a private sleeping arrangement, please let me know.

The second thing that I heard was that TVN was very insular, only playing among themselves and not making an effort to be part of Bico as a whole. There is a lot of story and even rivalry that goes on between the four guilds of TVN, but I saw guilds outside of TVN inviting our people to their guilds, TVN heading to other guilds to learn more about them and ask them how they could be of service. I get the feeling that since TVN guilds have planned so much to do with one another for the months before the game, it just seems like they only want to interact with one another. But I wasn’t looking in so I really can’t be objective in this.

Conclusion

In the end, The Voyage North was a good fit for me. I didn’t have to worry about any of the logistics, I got housed and fed, had my own personal medical team checking in on me from time to time and had plenty to do among the guilds due to the plots they had worked on. Would I recommend it? If you’re comfortable sleeping with people you meet with over Discord or bring a couple of friends to fill out the three people per tent (I think there’s a lower added price for reserving a tent for two), I’d say it was worth it. Definitely worth it if you don’t want to deal with trying to find a group online that will work with you. Consider the price an investment to scope out the place, find those that you’d like to be part of (you got a week to do so) and then see about joining them.

Will I go back to Bico with TVN? I’m not sure. If I go back next year, I’ll only have to pay $1,900 (plus the grand for my own tent) and that price will be locked in for me for life. But for that same amount, I could attend a larp anywhere in the world and I’m all about new experiences these days. Not to mention I already have planned to attend the US Drachenfest five weeks before Bico 2025. I’d like to return though as I feel my injury stopped me from experiencing all that Bico had to offer. So, I’m going to think about it for a while, as well as see where my expenses are in 2025.

The Wounded’s Review of Bicolline

LARP, Review, , ,

Standard Caveat

This is my opinion on what I experienced.  Others will have had different experiences (especially for this event).  If I am not certain of something (aka – do not know it for a fact), I will start it with “I think…” or “I believe…” If a reader knows something I said is, for a fact, not true, feel free to correct me in the comments.  I truly welcome it.

TL/DR:

  • Went to Bicolline 2024 and hurt myself so I couldn’t fight.
  • Delved into the world a bit more where I could.
  • Had a great time.
  • Would go again if I could do it cheaper

I went to Bicolline 2024 with a group called The Voyage North.  I will review TVN in another blog post as covering both of them in one article would make it quite a slog to get through.  For the short of it, I doubt I would have had nearly as much fun as I did if I had tried this alone.  And their support especially for this event for me was invaluable.

But this post will be about Bicolline the entity itself.  The title of this review is “The Wounded’s Review of Bicolline” because on the very first day of the weeklong event, I wound up injuring myself that reduced my mobility and forced me to opt out of all combat.  For me, though, combat is more of an accent than it is the main course of larping, so I did my best between needed rest to throw myself into the world.  And with that, let’s throw us into this review.

Bicolline In a Nutshell

Bicolline is a larp that takes place 162km from Montreal (that’s two hours away in US distance). The site was developed specifically for fantasy larping.   It is situated on 100 hectares of woods as well as cleared areas and has hundreds of permanent buildings including a fully functioning inn, churches and countless cabins.  They hold monthly weekend events as well as workdays to improve the area and even some in-game geopolitical events.  I believe there’s also a huge online aspect to this as well.

One a year, they have the “Grande Bataille” which is a seven-day event.  Three days have major engagements that the entire attendance can join, with the major battle being around 4 hours long on Saturday.  In between, there is political intrigue, quests and other things to do while there. I think there are also some minor battles that happen that are set up between the various guilds.  Most of the RP and action that happens is player driven.  In fact, I don’t think there’s any NPC’s in this game unless you count the people who play monsters (usually very tall costumes with referees helping deal with the fights) from time to time.  This year, it was reported that they had 5,300 attendees.

The Site

This was the main selling point for it and I seriously doubt that you’ll find any other fantasy or medieval larp site that has the size and look that this one did.  And I’m including the two yearly German larps: Conquest of Mythodea and Drachenfest.   I already mentioned that it was huge.  Because of my injury, I was told to keep moving to help it heal so I’d spend about three to six hours a day just walking around and seeing what there was.  And I still think I didn’t see it all.  But that’s not the most impressive part.  For me, it was the authenticity, what they call ‘Decorum’, of the place. 

Other than half a dozen of those large, white plastic tents with plastic windows that you often see at outdoor weddings (and all of them were for vendors), everything fit in with the setting of Bicolline. They have buildings that reach up to four stories, an area with vardos in it for a Romani themed guild, standing stone circles, Fae woods, military barracks, functioning forges and I could on. Other than when someone was taking a picture of me with a beholder mask hiding the lens, there were only two times that I felt I wasn’t in a medieval setting.

The first is whenever I had to deal with personal issues.  The food on site was incredible but most of it was served in modern containers, which is understandable as it probably has to do with health codes and cost.  There were also hot showers available in out of sight areas as well as the porta-potties that I believe were cleaned twice a day.  There is also an area in the woods for non-decorum camping so you can bring your modern tents, they’re just a distance from the main area.  The second thing that pulled me out a bit I’ll get to later.

Fighting At Bicolline

First, although there is magic in the world, there isn’t any during combat.  Magic here brings tsunamis, locus plagues and other “natural” disasters.  It isn’t another way to beat someone down.  And I like that idea. There are healers who can bring people back up from the dead on the field but it is a timed system, so you have to protect the healers.

As for the fighting, it’s very simple.  All weapons do 1 point of damage.  If an area of your body gets hit, it can no longer function (a hit to the upper arm means that entire arm is useless).  If you get hit in the head or body, you die.  If you have flexible metal or rigid leather, you get one point of armor on that area.  If you have overlapping plates or significant rigid metal covering (such as a helm) you get two points in that area.

You can have a shield which is considered indestructible.  As such, I believe you can strap it to your back and any hit on that shield will be ignored.  Unless it’s hit by a siege weapon.  In which case you die.  Siege weapons are an insta-kill. 
 
All weapons need to be approved by Bicolline via Homologation – basically a weapon checking site that then tags if your weapons are good.  They strongly recommend store bought weapons as they often will fail home made ones.  They allow flat headed, open cell archery and specifically crafted javelins.  Smaller thrown weapons are not allowed on the field. 

I did not see any fighting happening outside of the major fights unless it was an assassination attempt, but it was a big place, and I could have easily missed them.  Oh, and I didn’t go to the big fights as they seemed to be out in the open, the sun and I had issues with just standing around.  But I felt having been to other similar events, I figured I knew what it would look like. 

Not Fighting at Bicolline

This is what I want to focus on though I’m not certain I’ll do it justice. 

As there are days where there aren’t any battles scheduled, there are other things to do.  I really can’t list all of them but when I went out, I always found something to occupy my time.  Whether it was figuring out how to open a wooden lock box for my house to searching for some components for people on quests from the Mage Tower (a literal four-story building).  There were many food vendors there, from pizza to more interesting meals.  I found a Performer’s Guild that allowed me to create contracts with other guilds to perform for them and not only would I get paid for it but upon completion, I received a Population Card (Pop Card) that has some major power to sway political angles, and they would pay a good amount for it.  The Performer’s Pop Cards were going for 50 Solars (the currency at Bicolline).

I should note that when guilds would create events to happen, from the Most Impressive Beard competition to a talent night at the tavern, Bicolline would supply the coins and Pop Cards for them. They really support the players in their creativity and help make the experience enjoyable for everyone.
Then there was watching a couple games of Troll Ball (Google it if you want as I think it is what you probably think it is), music concerts on the stage, attending a summer court meeting of the Fae, being given tours of one of the larger buildings on site.  I stole from neighboring guilds in a consensual thievery game and gave someone a set of Japanese stone carving tools that I have had for three decades and never used.  They used them as an introduction gift to a Feudal Japan themed guild and they absolutely went crazy over them – in a dignified manner. Had a travelling seamstress stop by and fix a hole in one of my pouches.

  I did more, which I’ll discuss in my TVN review, and I’m sure I forgot some things while writing this, but I was never bored when I was about.  There was always something new to see or explore.  There were even more things to find out there to do, I just didn’t have the mobility or the time to do it.  I even got a fantastic massage to help my injury and my sore feet but had to first do my fire performances to make enough solar to pay for it.  This required me to go to the fire department (yes, they had actual fire fighters on site), fill out forms and I was required to find a fire safety person to be at my shows.  Speaking of which…

Staff at Bicolline

I have nothing but good things to say about these people.  The medics of course were fantastic, and I went to see them a few times thanks to my mild hypochondria but each time when I apologized for bothering them, they said, “No.  Please, bother us!”  When I decided it was best for my health to leave a day early, the staff was happy to call me a cab (as my phone coverage sucked).

Attendees at Bicolline

Have to mention them as well.  Everyone was fantastic to me.  There were a couple of people that I felt were giving me a little American bigotry, but it could have been because they didn’t have all of the information at the time and thought I was trying to be a Kevin about things.  However, in both cases, the issue was quickly fixed by someone who knew what was going on.  I did hear of an incredible case of “Karen” that a good friend encountered which might have had me permanently ejected from Bicolline if I had been there.  Though I’d like to think Nigel (my character) would have found a better way to humiliate them. And this is where my second pull from the setting would happen.  Although the vast majority of people were in Decorum kits the entire time, there were one or two people that would be wearing something like black drawstring pants, flip flops and wrap around sunglasses.  One such person was in my guild, and I would see them regularly like this.  I don’t know if they had an eye or foot issue or not, but it felt more like a bro kegger whenever I was around them. I suppose that’s a risk with larps that focus on fighting all day and drinking all night.    

On another couple of occasions there was a language barren (including with the fire department) but nothing that couldn’t be overcome.  But anywhere I went and anyone I talked to was more than happy to chat with me, with a smile and, quite often, offering me a drink of my choice.

Conclusion

This was a great event.  I’m sure I would have boosted this up to ‘fantastic’ if I wasn’t limping around and catching a cold (not the ‘vid) at the end.  I got to see some old friends there who I had no idea were coming until after I started posting on Facebook that I was going.  I hope to attend it again when I am healed though I do have a bit of a schedule already planned out for a couple of years of other larps to attend.  Also, this trip was rather expensive for me, which I will explain in more detail in my TVN review, so I would like to find a cheaper way to attend while still being able to have my own place to sleep. I’ve heard that Bicolline rents out tents, but I haven’t found that anywhere.