Why do you play...?

Larping... well, I've been doing it since college as various Vampires, Anime characters, and GMing a LARP with Jason and Ree since 2006. We decided we were gonna go have fun somewhere in the woods where we can hit nerds with sticks.

As for why I chose Barbarian, I chose it because I wanted to play Jason's brother, since I consider him basically family in the real world, and we've known each other for a long time so I knew he and Ree who I also consider family would be able to make it work. Also, I happen to love the quasi-Norseman feel the KR barbarians have, and I've really tried to work that in.

Why I chose Berserker is a different story. As some folks may know, I'm a real life Pacifist. I don't fight, I don't hurt people, but I find conflict and war really interesting in the intellectual sense, so I study and examine it. The idea of a man who is rage unleashed is intriguing. Also, I really liked Berserk, the Get of Fenris, the Space Wolves, The Firstlaw Trilogy and a bunch of other things in fiction that featured Berserkers, but more than berserkers, they featured layered characters who had a destructive anger problem. The classes since then have all been roleplaying choices as Grimkjell's character has developed from unhappy keeper of his brother, to bright eyed fanboy to Magnus, to exhausted master of battle who just wants to keep his honor, and that of everyone else, as clean as he can.

Grim's archetype is the classic unchosen one. He has a harsh fate, always has and always will, and he was destined from the start to be outshined by his brother. He's always a little resentful and unhappy and dour, but he tries to do the right thing by everyone, and for a moment just be the Hero that he'll never acknowledge himself to be, instead of the Monster that he fears he is. What he's become since then has been as a result of roleplay. It all branches from his basic outsider-ness as barbarian. his unfamiliarity with culture, and his sense of standing aloof even in his own family. He's been willing to be used as a weapon, but instead has been given the task of becoming the one that guides that weapon, and I'm interested to see where that story takes him.

I was first invited at 14 by a friend of mine, as well as Luis (his karate teacher at the time)... I was going to go but got talked out of it by my dad, a couple months later they talked me into it, (i was 15 by then)

As far as character and class that was all decided for me my first event by my buddy... though the progression wound up being heavily influenced by the people i met my first couple events

Why I keep going... First off the people, I've met most of my closest friends through Larps, as well as my girl friend, my roommates and many others...

Why i still play Magnus... all i ever wanted to do since before i could walk was be a super hero, plain and simple.

This...is an odd question for me. My answer is bound to be as unconventional as I am.

I have been interested in acting and movies since I was six. that was when my parents took me to the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia for a show on movie special effects. I saw the power loader and queen alien from Aliens, and the Shark from Jaws, among other things. Add to this the copious documentaries on different aspects of special effects. I loved the ingenious ways that the effects were reached.

I got into LARP a few years later. The group was not good, but I met Leslie and John Tinney, as well as knowing of Larry Wile and Joe Hines. Leslie started working on getting me to KR but life had a roundabout for me, and I went to the University of Parris Island for my dual bachelor's degree in warfighting and making compost. This later led to a six month vacation in sunny Al Anbar Province, Iraq, where I had a crazy way of enjoying things- driving a truck loaded with flammable liquids in a place where people put bombs in the road. This was not a good choice, and it was decided by people who had shiny rank insignias on their collar afterwards that I should retire before my bad choices caught up with me. Those two things explain a lot of my eccentricities. I did take another detour into the Military Simulation/Airsoft community, and did that till it was no longer feasible. During my time back home, Leslie brought up KR again, and I was resistant, partly due to past bad experiences on the show Geeks Behaving Badly, part due to a rewired brain housing group. But I finally relented.

so Leslie and John worked on grinding those eccentricities down a bit, and I finally went in July of 2014. I opted for a Celt Warrior because, well, I already had much of the costuming and some ideas on how it should go (though I play the brooding Scotsman rather than the more sociable Irishman).

Where to begin… I started playing table top games (Warhammer) in 2002. I met John Tinney and Leslie a few years later and made a lot of friends through the Berks Gaming club. When a bunch of them started talking about KR and where interested in going I wanted to start into another hobby.
I figured with my knowledge of fighting, between studying traditional styles of fighting, fencing for a good 5 years of my life and having decent agility I would enjoy myself at Knight Realms. At a local comic book shop in the summer of 2014 I started looking at the rules and made a character based on what I thought was a good idea and what appealed to me. That night I went home and started looking for weapons and gear to use for LARPing as all I really owned was piles of camping gear. Two weeks later, I attended a fighter practice hosted by John and Leslie. Here I met a few people from the game, had conversations about the game and thoroughly enjoyed myself. I was pumped for the first event.
My first event I learned so much from not walking alone when you don’t have physical defenses, always have healing supplies on you and as a new player run from zombies. I am now happy to say I cannot wait to go to camp every weekend there is an event to be with my friends and enjoy beating the crap out of everyone with foam weapons too. I now have a few friends from college who are interested in coming up and should be on the May event. I can’t wait to see everyone at the April event as I am unable to go to the Alt Event.

First of all this is an amazing topic thank you Jeff.

So my LARPing story seems to echo a bunch of other people out in game world.
I started playing Table Top in 1999 (8th grade) with my bullies so they would stop beating me up. Being a theatre kid who was in school, acting class, voice lessons, and dance class for 18 hours a day was tiring and the only down time I got was at lunch. In 2000 I started to do some backstage work at the theatre I "lived" at. One of the people who I was working with overheard that my friend and I played in a Vampire: the Masquerade game and invited us to the official Cam game.
The problem was I was 17 and you needed to be 18 to play in the game or have parental consent. My wonderful father sat and watched as a group of "weirdos" pretended to be Vampires from 8-12 on Saturday night. And thus my LARPing career started. I played heavily in the Vampire game. Starting a gaming/LARPing club at my high school. I played until the game ended and I moved to Vegas.
Vegas I played a single game of NERO and the people at the game were very stand offish and I swore off boffer LARP's.
I joined a group (The Kingdom of Adrian) that was SCA like but not SCA with live steal and worked at the Las Vegas Ren Faire were I got to camp out and live the life for a bit. It was awesome and I really liked it.
After I moved from Vegas to New York I was firmly in the grasp of being an über nerd. I was looking for anything to meet other nerds as I was here by myself. I went to NYCC and talked with James, Joe and MaryBeth for hours dressed as a Power Ranger. The thing that made me want to try KR was the fact that you could ACTUALLY shoot archery.
I dragged my then girlfriend to the game, much to her dissatisfaction, and fell in love with it. I kept coming to the game and the ex stopped coming. (Funny enough when we broke up she took my sword and shield) And I think the rest is history for me.
I play Anhil because I wanted to be an archer and I enjoy Elves. His name came from a random Elf name generator on my first ride to camp.
And no you know....the rest of the story

I got into KR In January of 2013 courtesy of Ashley and the Rochester Crew. KR is my first LARP and I didn't do a whole lot of Role play before that.

When it comes down to how Sébastien came to life....Uhh.

For his name...'Sébastien Noire' is the name of a character in a PS2 game called Destruction Derby Arenas. His middle name is Orphéus because it started with an O and he has another last name (the one his birth mother had) which is Télus. Put it all together and you get SOTN which is my favorite of the Castlevania games. I actually came to game requesting to be called SOTN (So-tin) but then later dropped that to just being called Sébastien.

Once I stared realizing that he is nothing like the typical Coast Havener, I decided to write his story to imply that his birth parents are Kormyrian but his adopted family and the life he knew was in Coast Haven...It was as far away from the coast as I could make it...But technically...Still Coast Haven. "What's a nautical term?" "Why do I know so much about the sea..?"

I play Sébastien as a rogue/assassin because of all the RP games that I have played, the role of assassin was always my first choice...And it just so happens to be what I'm good at. Still haven't multi-classed..

I am truly grateful for everyone whom I've met at KR. I'm proud to a part of the Rochester crew and I plan on staying as a part of KR for as long as I possibly can. This game and all of you people have affected me greatly and I thank you all for that.