Category Archives: Review

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. 

Dystopia Rising Northern California, Season 2 Opener Review

DR, Dystopia Rising, LARP, Post Apoc, Review, ,

TL:DR

  • -Fun game. Planning on going back
  • -Player base is still great
  • -Working well under new ownership
  • -Site could be better but in Northern California, options are very limited

[Note: As this is a review about my experiences at a game, it will focus a lot on my headspace and feelings as well as what actually happened. Writing this, I have found it to be a bit of a guide to how to get involved in a game so sorry for combining that with a review. If you want just a synopis of my thoughts, scroll down to the section under the bunny. The reading time for the whole thing, including this, is roughly 13 minutes.]

Before I begin there needs to be a little history. If you want to read my review of Dystopia Rising NorCal’s first season opener, read it here although it’s not germane to this review. Season 1 ended and plans were being made for Season 2. It was an incredible game with a well running team, some of whom are professionals in the practical effects and prop making industry. The site was an abandoned military housing complex with two dozen two story barracks which was an amazing setting in which to play.

However a series of events at the end of 2019 had the site unavailable, the owner had to sell the franchise to someone else – with the core 3 people at the top also retiring from it – and a massive rules change was made at corporate headquarters that was used to run over a year’s worth on online games due to the pandemic. Comparing the old chapter to the new I do not believe would be fair. My opinion about the old chapter is seeded in a year’s worth of memories that definitely highlight the positives without remembering any of the negatives and a huge amount of nostalgia is there.

As always, this is my opinion from my observations and experiences and I will be drawing on 30 years of experience in the US larping community, having run a very successful game in Northern California from 1994-2001. If others remember events at DRNorCal differently, feel free to comment but these are my recollections. So enough preamble, let’s begin:

The event took place at Kowana Valley – 160 miles/4.75 hours from my apartment near Berkeley, CA. The DRNorCal community spent over a year looking for a new site for a post-apocalyptic game but with the US’s litigious tendencies and the home office of DR setting the prices on tickets without taking into the costs for renting property in California, pickings are slim. This place had very little in the way of natural shading from the sun, no buildings available to the general player base (with the logistics department working out of two large carports) and site lines that sometimes had encounters happening within view of the town camp proper. However, it had been a long time since a game was run, the players were resourceful and we soldiered on. The drive, though long, was a beautiful one and I even got lost on the trip home as I was following the scenery more than the roads.

One of the views I had on the way to the game

I set up my canvas tent, got myself checked in and then headed over to the settings department where I handled makeup and costuming for the NPC’s from 9pm-1am. We had very few NPC’s but they did a terrific job of heading out into the game and starting the ball rolling on the stories for that weekend. I had worn 4 layers that night but I had not brought a winter coat. So even with thermals and a hoodie, by the time my shift was over, I had to make a conscious effort not to have my teeth chatter. I was looking forward to my cot, sleeping bag and blankets. Though I had forgotten something about group camping and I spent the night awake until around 4am due to the snorers nearby until I finally passed out. I have trouble sleeping for any period of time normally but this had me up every hour, realigning my covers to fix the cold spots and try to get my phone with its white noise generator near my head. My morning came around 10am during this fitful night and I ate ‘in genre’ which meant a cold can of Beanie Weenies (not a sponsor) and some crackers. Got dressed in my kit I made during the downtime and headed out into the game world.

Proud of the kit, not of the background

Most of my time was spent saying hello to old friends and listening to what was going on around town. I’m not a very ‘in your face’ type of player and prefer to just listen. There were the zombie (zed) raids hitting the town from time to time but I wasn’t really finding a story. Granted, I probably could have asked but between the drive, lack of sleep and doing my best not to freeze that night (I should note that the weather service had said a low of 47 F so it was only around that), I wasn’t in the best of moods. I decided to head off on my own, do a little exploring and gathering of in-game resources to try and get myself realigned in a better frame of mind.

I got back just in time for the town meeting. Normally I avoid these but this time I felt I needed a refresher on what this town (which had been played via online Discord (not a sponsor) games) was facing and all about. Found out there was a mining operation not far from town and that this was most likely the source of not only the uptick of zed but also some minor tremors as well. They did a sort of roll call of “Who can do this?” and people raised their hands. I put up mine for the two things I could do then talked to some people and said, “Hey, I can help you with X, just let me know when.” I got the head bob and then was left to my own devices for another hour.

I could not salvage anything more due to my character being out of mind energy so I headed back to my (now too warm) tent, plopped on my cot and began playing a game on my phone. I had begun to regret coming to the game. My head was going through all the costs – gas, food, kit, ticket, etc. – that got me here and how I’d be more comfortable in my climate controlled apartment and probably have more excitement playing on an MMO. Then I remembered one of my rules of larping: You get out of a game what you put into it. I had always played with increasing the experience for others above my own and had found that that really increased mine as well. So, forcing a mind shift that I knew would only last for perhaps 30 minutes before my old friend apathy came back, I headed out.

Every game has a few of those players/characters who everyone likes and tends to be in the middle of the mess. The character I targeted is called Del. I told him my skill set and I wanted to help the town. He told me he had been looking for a proficient salvager to teach the trade to a new arrival at the town. He introduced me to the character Ahti and we spent the next half hour talking about the differences of salvaging on land versus that at sea (our area is known as the Broken Coast – basically the west coast of the US that succumbed to its tectonic ways and fractured into a massive archipelago). With the new skill, Ahti headed on out, hopefully to make a fortune. I found Del again and told him everything was done. He nodded and told me that people were looking to copy some prints and as I was a master educator, I could help with that. So I got paid to make some blueprints then worked to gather enough supplies for someone to make a special med kit and suddenly I was back into the swing of things. Meeting people, using my skills where I could and helping others use theirs to get to their goals.

Del, the man who knows what’s happening some of the time


Now that I had my groove back, I began to talk to people with more confidence. That night, I was asked to help with a couple of NPC’s. There are plans for a railroad to be built near the town and two different factions wanted to do it. There’s a lot of stuff about the two but either one sounded to me (at the town meeting) like a good deal. So I was going to let those in charge decide. However, none of those in charge were around that night. Apparently my work that day had given people the idea that my character was higher in the pecking order than I expected. And, being the helper that I am, I went to help. Unfortunately, I negotiate like a brick negotiates with a pane of glass. So I left there thinking either I gave the leaders some time to come back into game, learn what was said and get things ironed out or I just started a railroad war. Either way, I was nice to be ‘in charge’ even for a short bit.

The rest of the night consisted of a revel, tremors and a massive push of zed wearing our arch nemeses’ armor and using their tactics. I’m simplifying as I looked back on this review and realized I am already over 1,500 words into it. Suffice it to say, I was having fun. Though I do have to mention one more thing. A son of an owner of the above train company came into town to talk. I cannot really put into words the emotions that happened during this though it struck me as a little savage. The way they talked to him slowly became more of an interrogation to the point of torture. It was one of the more heavier things I’ve seen players do at a game.

The part that really got me is that when he was leaving, a small group of zed ‘kidnapped’ him. While most of the older characters there simply shrugged a ‘good riddance’ to him, the new players leapt after the guy, realizing that we’d be blamed for his death. Despite the odds, they managed to bring the son back alive. Kudos to the new players. Not sure how much goodwill that will bring as baddies are notorious for twisting a good deed into a bad thing but still – well done.

I decided to sleep in my car that night, having moved all my bedding to it earlier in the day. However, my final trip was cut short when I was jumped out of nowhere by an NPC that took me down in under two seconds. One bad thing about my new kit is that my peripheral hearing is dampened. I was eventually rescued but every time I wanted to go to bed, I’d get part of the way there, see that little stinker hiding in the shadows, and I’d run back to the safety of the group. Though I finally made it to my car safely and slept a wee bit better than the night before.

The next day there were only 3 hours before game was to be called but I was asked to help research the tremors that had opened small fissures in the ground and were producing flammable gases that could blind and make people lose their mental strength (needed to perform most tasks that weren’t simple). After working with a group for almost an hour and coming up with the questions we could ask, we found out that there was most likely a snake-like creature burrowing under the ground and that perhaps the mining activities have pissed it off.

Side note: When given new information about a plot hook, don’t immediately say, “Oh, just like X.” Maybe the writer intentionally or subconsciously was influenced by Tremors but it’s never nice to make that comparison in front of the creator. Show some tact.

The rest of the day was spent saying my goodbyes, breaking down my tent and doing a quick cleanup of the site. Then it was a 5 hour drive home to say hello to a very ignored and irate rabbit.

Don’t care about game, give me treats!

So there’s my journey. What are my thoughts on the game? It seems to have a good structure. There was more fighting than I prefer but that’s what most people are there to enjoy. The story lines I encountered seem solid with just enough mystery to keep things interesting and it’s always nice to see a game where they put a reason behind the plethora of attacks on the town. As always, the player base is the most important part of a game and this one is very helpful and inclusive. Unlike a lot of other larps, they understand knowledge is power but only if that knowledge is shared and put to use. I have yet to encounter a player who wasn’t helpful and welcoming (in their character’s way).

Would I recommend the game to a new player? Yes, though I will point out that this was the first event under a new story group and owners. Also need to take into account the travel time and costs related to that. It usually takes a couple of events to get all the bugs worked out. It’s also why I rarely do a review of a first game but as it was run by people who have a lot of experience within the game world, I figured it was fair to do it. I know I plan on returning to the game next month.

Review of Dystopia Rising – Hell Dorado

DR, Dystopia Rising, Hell Dorado, LARP, Post Apoc, Review

I attended SoCal’s Dystopia Rising (DR) event this past weekend (March 13th – 14th, 2015) and here’s what I thought of it.

TL:DR
Rating it a 7 out of 10. Will play in a chapter that opens locally to me. Has its ups and downs like most games.

BULLET POINTS
Pros:
– A game with real fear of death
– A lack of any obvious power gap
– Community building built into the game setting
– A pleasant mixture of combat and non-combative encounters
– A good number of players working on making their own entertainment

Cons:
– Incredibly long time to check in
– Unimportant encounters
– Encounters that could only be completed if someone had a specific skill
– Unable to leave early without permission
– A way to engage new players into the world/setting
– A few other things that most US boffer LARPs suffer from

DETAILED REPORT

I want to put in the following caveats:

1) I attended this game as a new player with the mindset of not knowing a lot about LARPing. I only read areas of the rulebook relevant to my character. I didn’t pre register nor did I have a character sheet in hand. I wanted to see how things went in this way as I’d say half of people attending a game for the first time arrive at the game this way. Many things I recount could be lessened or avoided entirely with pre-registration, reading the rulebook multiple times and researching all data online.

2) These are my opinions and observations made at one chapter of one game in one 24 hour period. There may be things I did not know about, things that I missed and so on and I’ll stipulate to all of them. However, this is what a person playing a game for the first time walked away with – for good or bad so no matter the reasons for what I gleaned, I gleaned it.

3) I tend to be more critical about LARPs than others. I’ve been doing this for over 20 years from building my own game to attending dozens of different systems and hundreds of different events. As such, I try to look for things that I don’t see at other games as the only real positives while pointing out continued errors that all other games seem to make. Call me an elitist or hard ass, but at 47 years of age, my time and funds are limited and I don’t have either to waste on things I don’t enjoy.

Timeline Of My Game Experience and a Few Thoughts With Them

After a 7.5 hour drive down from San Francisco, I arrive at the address at night for the game (15 minutes before the game is scheduled to start). As the area seemed like a vacant alleyway, I wasn’t sure I was in the right spot. But I find a sign saying “Event Center” and an open gate so I’m assuming this is the place and begin driving in. After half a minute driving, I see a singular tent lit up and find out it is the OOG/medical area where people set up when they have to (for medical reasons) be away from the action. The person there instructs me to continue down the road further and there I find over three dozen cars parked. It turns out that the location is actually a site for a Renaissance Faire. But a few DR signs at the gate and along the way would have helped out a great deal.

I get into costume and head into the place but as most people know about fairs, it is big and there isn’t any light. So once again I’m hoping I’m heading in the right direction. I finally home in on some talking and light and find my way to the main meetup area. Once found, I head out to find a portajohn (I did just finish driving 8 hours) and on my way out, a person in what I felt was somewhat of a gruff tone yelled at me “Hey, you. Human. Listen up. Move it.” So I head into the listen up. This is a 20 or so minute talk about the game. Some of the important parts covered were:

It is an adult game
It is a game that will push you to some limits – emotionally, physically, mentally
It is a game that will kill your character
It is a game where running away is not only an option but often the first option
It is a game that will not tolerate any sort of harassment or discrimination
If anyone has any issue at any time to contact the staff immediately

I felt that the talk took a lot of time to say “Act like an adult and don’t be a dick” but these days it is something that apparently has to be told to people… repeatedly. Then with a wrap up of where the various important stations were (medical, logistics, NPC areas, etc.) and sending off all the old players to their beginning areas, all the new players were taken away to go through new player orientation.

The orientation covered basic combat and basic rules, some history of the world around us, how to get explanations of effects while in game and that the game was a very lethal game. That when dropped to zero, you are still conscious, can still talk, scream, yell and that you should do so all the time. We then went off to participate in a new player module. A little less than an hour of 35 new players walking into town with a little bit of combat happening so we could get used to the way things flowed and so on.

Then, just as we entered the town, we got hit with a big bad guy. This thing was swinging enough damage to drop any new player outright. Old LARPing programming kicked in to the players and people began to try and take down the creature. It took three people being dropped and my screaming from the ground, “Run, you fools!” (yup, turned into Gandalf for a moment there) to get the rest of the new players to turn tail and run.

Luckily I was picked up by someone and pulled into the town proper. There someone else ripped open my button down shirt and began using a real staple gun (sans staples) on me to close up my wounds. That alone was an amazing experience and adding to the triage that was happening around me, it really got my blood pumping. For clarification purposes, I had an undershirt on and sheasked if I accepted physical roleplay – which is something else people take seriously – and in my opinion, sometimes to extremes. One person asked if I accepted physical roleplay just to shake my hand and, while doing so, heal me of my wounds. But I feel it is better to err on the side of caution then to violate someone’s personal space.

Shortly after this initial encounter, I had to go and register for the game. It took nearly an hour for me to be processed with three other people due to some issue with loading the database, speed of the computer, etc. Once it was up though, I was processed quickly and the people were very helpful. So now with my weapons approved and a character sheet in my pocket I was ready to get back into the game.

I quickly learned that night that this is a game of community. If you were out on your own and came across a bad guy, your chances of surviving were slim. This is not a game of being the lone hero mowing down several baddies – it is a game where if you manage to find someone to drag you back to a healer before you bleed out, you had a good day.

In addition, there will be creatures that require a specific skill to defeat. During the first night, a group of creatures could only be defeated by someone with the “Refuse” skill. Others required an “Awareness” skill to see them coming and yet another required the “Double Tap” to keep them down permanently. In addition, I came across a skill that made no sense where a ‘feign death’ made it impossible to kill the NPC. In my mind, I was thinking, “Feel free to fake that you’re dead, I should still be able to slice you up into little pieces.”

I went to bed around 2am and got back into it around 8 (I slept in my car so I missed out on any terrors of the night). The day was fun. I’m not going to list all of the encounters I had during it as there were many. However, it seemed that there were three basic types of combat encounters. One was the crunchies; where there were just a lot of things that everyone could kill. The second was the toughers – took a lot to take down or had the singular skill to kill them and I tended to run from those. And the third were those that everyone simply ran away from because unless you were able to defend against multiple special attacks, knew the rules really well and had the right people with the right skills with you, you were all doomed. Unfortunately my character’s strain (a strain is like a race in other LARP games) was one that was always happy to jump to the front and that’s what I did a lot.

But it wasn’t just combat. There were a lot of interesting diplomatic situations and situational puzzles to figure out. In addition, there were a couple of parties held, presents given out to players by NPC’s at them and, in one instance, enough cookies to even make Cookie Monster say, “I’m full.” Most of the ones that dealt with long term plots/plans for the chapter I opted out of since I wasn’t going to be a recurring player in the chapter so I didn’t want to become too engrained into it.

There were also plots that happened between players. And that’s a second part of the community aspect. The various strains have built in likes and dislikes of other strains and communities of the strains begin to pop up. The Vegasians have their own gambling house and area, the ‘Mericans have their campsite and so on. So when a Red Star walks into the bar with his Russian accent, all the ‘Mericans begin to tell “How many Red Stars does it take…” jokes, somewhat loudly. ((BTW, the answer is always Zero because Red Stars can’t do jack!))

There were also a few encounters that didn’t make much sense to me. Two I recall were first an NPC worshipping bombs and blowing themselves up and the second was duel between two NPC’s that, to my knowledge, had no significance to the group or game.

At noon came my mandatory 4 hour NPC shift. I am of two minds about this. I am normally strongly against it. I am paying a price to be entertained and I hope my normal PC interactions help increase other player’s entertainment. My travel is 15+ hours of driving round trip, paying $45, I’ll be lucky if I can get a total of 30 hours of game time and 4 of that has to be as an NPC. However, when your game has over 100 players in it, it’s hard to have an NPC staff large enough to handle those numbers effectively. I went out as a zombie twice and was one of the dueling NPC’s I mentioned before. Then I headed back into game.

I had a great time meeting the other players/characters, interacting with them and learning about their town and how things worked. Then Saturday night came around and once again there were some very tough NPC’s pulling players off into the dark and killing them. Meanwhile, the PC’s reaction to it was to sit in the well lit tavern area and not help out. Fair enough but unfortunately not my strain’s way of doing things. Went in to help and when I was dropped, I decided to go ahead and keep quiet and die – unless the PC’s decided to actually help out which they didn’t. I don’t hold it against them as it is a survival game and one way to survive isn’t to go towards the thing eating people but at the same time if you don’t offer help, help won’t come to you either.

Death was done rather quick and simple – met something called the Gravemind and had a little chat about her feelings about the people in the town and what it was trying to accomplish. Lasted maybe 10 minutes and then I was sent back into game at the graveyard. My character’s background felt that if no one was willing to back him up, he wasn’t going to risk his life any longer backing them up and I left. I also decided that the strain I chose wasn’t fitting with my play style so it was a good time for me to quit until I could read the rules better and get a character concept I could use better.

I went to turn in my sheet and leave but I was informed that I couldn’t leave early without authorization from a director. So after 15 minutes, they assigned me a cleaning task to clean up the NPC area and then could check out.

Some Further Thoughts

Power Gap – Although there are different levels of power in the game, it doesn’t seem too obvious as it does in other long term games.  Some people inflict more damage, some people can take more damage.  However, this isn’t always character level based.  Weapons can be modified, armor can be reinforced, etc.  To me, it wasn’t as noticeable as it tends to be in other games.  Sure, there’s a difference between something swinging 20 instead of 2, but because running away is acceptable in this game, it isn’t as huge of a hurdle as long as you stay ahead of them.

Resources/Building – This is one thing that should make this game fly.  I didn’t get a chance to experience it since I wasn’t going to be playing in the chapter anytime soon, there was no reason for me to begin gathering resources, making deals, increasing the abilities of items and powers and so on.  This is where real community will begin to build and where I feel the crafters are really necessary for the game to be at its best.

For me though, two of the major issues in a post apoc game are food and ammo.  In DR, you don’t have to worry about going hungry (although some food stuffs can be turned into special healing items) and for every combat, you have 20 bullets.  When you pick them up after the fight, you’re considered to be repacking your rounds.  To my knowledge, there is no end to the supply of bullets.

This can be a good thing though since no one would play with a major skill that could possibly be useless for the entire game.  Just wish I had known this beforehand as I spent all of Friday night without any bullets.  But still having something simple like a ’20 bullet’ tag that needs to be built by the builders would, IMO, go a long way for things.

Encounters without meaning – One thing about writing a good story is that you don’t put anything into it that has no relevance to that story. Even without having any impact upon a story directly, some things are put forth to help create the atmosphere or clarify a character’s personality or disposition. So whenever something happens at a LARP, I wonder “What bearing will this have on telling the story?”

This is something that has plagued me from day one of LARPing. Back in my original days, it was tiny bugs that bit you to make you relive your worst nightmare to everyone shifting suddenly two feet to the left. These things never happened again nor were they ever explained as a byproduct of something else happening. So when I attend games, I am on the lookout for these things. Putting forth effort for something that doesn’t impact the story in even a minor way is wasted effort.

So when it was announced there would be a wet t-shirt contest, I did a double take – not only for what I was assuming was a useless encounter but a step towards some inappropriateness. But as things progressed, I found out that the NPC’s hosting it were asking for “Men, Women and anyone else! We don’t care, we just want you to strut your stuff!” I thought, “Well at least it was being universally sexist.” But then it hit me. This was happening in the middle of the day, during 90+ degree heat and the staff was finding an IG way to cool people down. OK, kudos to them for completely snookering me on this.

Then someone came in worshipping a bomb. Telling us all about how we must work for the bomb and once we complete the work, we will be rewarded with a transformation to greater power through explosion. And then boom when the dynamite. I asked a couple of people if these types of worshippers were around often but they said it was the first they saw it. So I shrugged and assumed that there is a demo cult out there but in my mind, it will be a short lived one since, well, they’re blowing up their own followers.

Next was the one I NPC’d in – an honor duel between two NPC’s that a PC had to judge. We did it, left and that was it. I was never instructed as to any sort of family I came from, what my character did for a living, etc. so I assumed that there was no purpose for this other than to use up a required slot for the Story Teller.

I found out that the Story Tellers (ST) have to work a six hour shift and in each hour, they have to produce one combat, one skill based/puzzle and one roleplay mod (not every one may be used but they still have to write them up). Although I applaud anyone for trying to keep the players entertained, I also feel that having a quota causes completely irrelevant thing happening within a game. Quality should trump quantity. I had actually thought about volunteering to help with a chapter if/when it opens up in the San Francisco region but I’m not keen on the idea that all of my stories have to take place during one 6 hour period of the day.  I like to have them build over the weekend – a tease Friday night, a couple of encounters Saturday building to a climax that night and then a resolution on Sunday with perhaps some teasers for next event.  I feel that this restriction hampers things unless other ST are willing to use some of their time and work to further other ST’s plots.

And yet it can also be a boon.  Besides having a lot of entertainment put forth, if the ST’s shifts are known, PC’s could schedule their NPC time so that they are NPCing with ST’s they like to work with and also be free for the modules of the ST’s that they like to play in as PC’s.

Community – The community aspect with the game I feel is one of its biggest strengths and weaknesses as well. The strains do begin to flock together and when the crap hits the fan, everyone throws in to get things done. Looking at the casino that the Vegasians had set up and the ‘Merican’s camp and their own society they’ve created makes me realize that this is a great way to get people into the game, have a good support structure already in place and help build the community at large.

But this only works if the groups are open to others of their own strain. New players may not know people, be a bit shy about approaching and so on. And the strains tend to have some rather identifying traits to them. So such groups should invite others into their fold – which is somewhat counter intuitive since in such a setting, resources are low and suspicion is high.

I entered the ‘Merican camp but was never welcomed as a ‘Merican – although I was quite obviously dressed as a ‘Merican.   Only NPCs ever noted I was such and offered the hospitality that ‘Mericans (from what I read) offer to one another.   I was talking to one “Natural One” who was left out of the Spirit Walk that every other Natural One was partaking in.   And the only reason he could come up with was that he was a new player. I didn’t investigate the other side of it but if indeed every Natural One should have partaken in this religious event, simply because they’re a new arrival doesn’t mean they should be shunned from it. And now a new player has missed out on what I assume would have been a major part of his character’s background/belief system.

Adult game and acting like an adult – There’s a difference of course. An adult game means that there will be themes and actions of a nature that may not be suitable for younger people and/or some more sensitive ones. But this doesn’t give people carte blanche to throw away social etiquette. Here’s an example that hit me just as I was leaving that night. I came across three people dealing with a female NPC. I’m not sure what type of monster she was but I’m pretty sure she was some sort of powerful zombie type. I came into the middle of the encounter so I’m not sure what transpired before but what I heard as I approached was one female PC saying to the NPC, “Let’s try another tactic. Hello you ugly, little whore. Well we tried saying how pretty you are but you attack us, so if we say the opposite, maybe you won’t attack us.” (this may not be the precise words used so will apologize in verbage but not in intent/energy of the conversation). While I was stunned by this, something happened and she ran away (I’m assuming IC and not due to the verbal exchange) and had another player running after her screaming, “Come back here you bitch!”

Now I’m all for the rough, gritty life of a survivalist world but that world doesn’t exist. Our present does. And that other world will disappear in a few hours. Other words could have been used, or not said at all. “Come back here you corpse!” could have worked just as well.

Conclusion

Despite what may seem like a mostly criticizing review, I did enjoy this game – much more so than what is currently available to me out there. But I found it still has many of the same trappings other LARPs have that I feel is holding back the possibility for some really incredible experiences and events. I want to say it has potential to get there but all games out there have that potential.   I feel that this is due in part to what the majority of the LARPing community wants and expects from games and that’s understandable. You have to tailor your product towards your consumer.

In the end, I’d give it a 7 out of 10. It is a game that I will play in if/when a chapter opens up in the area – assuming of course that I’m not banned from that game due to this review.