Why do you play...?

Oh wow.

Much like some of the others, I started out with table top when I was 4th grade (um…. A really long time ago) and I played a lot of rpgs since then.

Then I heard about larp from some of my wargaming friends. The first larp for me was right after I got home from the army- Laire when they gamed over at Thompson Park in Jamesburg. Me and a friend went over to try it and after a quick lesson on fighting and the rules, we became a quick recurring encounter. It was a ton of fun…. And I resolved to go try it again…

Some five years later, I started playing in the Double Exposure larp system… as a Jedi (biiiig star wars fan I am) and I played him for several years. Still have him too… should I ever get the chance to play him there again.

Then Leslie got me involved in Mind’s Eye Theater Vampire where my rather unusual Tremere used to be confused for an Assimite…. A lot. *grin* (Catch me when not IC at game and I’ve got some stories…)
Then after a few years of that and all the hilarity life threw at me, I was convinced to try KR at Dexcon 2013 by Leslie and Geoff. Not knowing what to play other than a Celt due to my Kilt which I was wearing there… I had my race figured out.

When I was handed a Ranger pre-gen, I had a budding concept and a class some of my RL skills would work with…. It was a large amount of fast thinking of background on the fly mixed with a crap- ton of unsureness of my first foray into KR that launched Duncan... And I haven’t looked back.

I’ve had a few wonderful NPC’s to portray since I’ve been here (an Old Merc, Westboro Valosian, Dwarven Ambassador…) and at some point, I’ll field an alt once I figure out which concept I think will be doable. But I’m enjoying Duncan a lot and finding what path he decides to travel down… Because Priest was never something I ever expected to become with him when I started.

I look forward to seeing what comes next.

Knight Realms was my first larp and I started two years ago this May. Once a week on Wednesdays, I go with my friends to karaoke. In early 2013, my friends Rob and Lance (the sneaky Winterdark guys in all black) would tell everyone stories from their experience at KR. It sounded like fun and Rob kept inviting me to come until I did in May of that year.

So, it's the day of the event and I'm supposed to pick up my friend Phil (Gilthu). Rob calls me up and asks if I can also take his friend Eddie to the event, tells me he's "pretty short but he's a cool guy."

Accurate statement.

When Phil and I get to Eddie's house, the guy comes out the door in a kilt, carrying a ukelele. First impressions, man.

Anyway, the minute Eddie hears my voice, he tells me "Dude! You need to play a bard!" The whole car ride from Union to Camp Sac was Eddie in the backseat serenading Phil and me with his uke and some explanation for how KR worked. Except I hadn't thought to bring a costume with me. Whoops.

That turned out okay because Romeo had a spare costume, consisting of a white tunic and white scrubs. I borrowed Eddie's belt--which I still use!--and a sword from Logistics.


(Talk about a Dashing Swordsman!)

Kate DeFranza helped me create my card and I walked out of Logistics as a bard. If it weren't for Eddie, I probably would have started as a warrior. For a good while, I tried to act like one too, but you can only do so much when you have 4 health and you're swinging for 2.

Still though, one of my most valiant KR moments happened at my first event. There was an NPC approaching a girl kneeling on the ground and he was threatening to cut off her head. Here comes newcomer Nalick raising his sword in defiance and shouting "Don't you dare!"

Then I was felled and thrown against a wall.

That was largely the end of that.

I was OOG shy and I like to think that Knight Realms played a big part in putting that to past tense. I wanted Nalick to be the opposite of that, so when I was at KR, I'd enter situations in-game that I wouldn't have thought to enter otherwise. I let the roleplay decide Nalick's direction and development and so far it's worked out pretty well. Nalick fell into the personality of a young Andorran, even before his baptism, which is fitting for a bard, I suppose!

I've always wanted to be a character in a book or a videogame, and with KR I can do both at the same time. In middle school and high school, I had friends who were on stage and I was always behind the stage. KR gives me the chance to do what I was too afraid to do back then, and all of you are like family to me.

I wanted to be a Square Enix character. Achievement unlocked.

Like John, I started in tabletop gaming when I was young. [Date Redacted] Played many many different RPG systems in my days through High School and College. At College I met a girl that got me interested in the SCA, well interested in her and thus interested in the SCA. Things didnt work out, and I graduated and then ultimately enlisted in the Army. At my first duty station, there was an active enclave of SCA. I joined then and was active through my time there and in Korea. My first taste of Larping came when I was in Fort Bragg, a friend of mine had a home run group of larpers, who introduced me to other larpers who introduced me to other games.

I got stationed in Korea, and did some things with the SCA out there, when I got back I wound up looking for larps and found NERO Alliance. Met some good friends and they told me about a Larp in Virginia, called Avalon. I played that for about fifteen years, only taking an occasional look at other larps, like NERO and one called Knight Realms in 2001. I met a cousin, brought her to Avalon and I visited her at KR a couple times. Eventually I drifted and continued with Avalon until 2008. I moved to Louisiana in 2011, played a Larp out of Mississippi called Nexus but otherwise did not larp until I moved back to NY in 2013. I came out to KR again in Oct of 2013 and been playing here since.

I have played straight human in all the larps, with occasional forays into Gypsy types. I like starting baseline, and making a character distinct through role play. Classes I have favored typically were rouge and warrior types. In Avalon I played a knight/paladin, for over a decade, so one could say that is my favored class. In KR I decided to try a little more supportive role, age catching up as it is. However I am still drawn to the idea of being a crusader, Cleric seemed to fit that ideal well for me.

Why larp? I like being with people of like mind, I meet more 'real' people in this hobby than anywhere else, which is ironic since we are all pretending to be our characters, right? Sometimes it takes examining yourself as you wish to be, to know who you are.

I first found out about LARPing when I was watching Role Models while on the plane back from my cousin's bar mitzvah. I thought the idea of fighting with foam swords in the woods looked pretty fun, and I always liked playing a different character than myself. I was insecure due to years of bullying, and I didn't feel comfortable as myself. I started at Amtgard, and found out about Knight Realms during a Comic-con (Like Jason I thought Sean looked pretty cool). I played Amtgard for about a year until I tried Knight Realms for the first time in June of 2013.

My first event was nerve-wracking. It really was. I worked hard on getting ready, but I was mentally unprepared. It was a lot, but what I got out of it was a community of awesome people that I feel comfortable being around. I found friends here that I would never replace and that I could talk to for days without feeling bored. The problem with people at school was that they were all the same. Same talk, same interests, same conversations. I tried to find people who were nerds and had similar interests to me, but they are hard to find, and even then they were very exclusive. Finding a community of open, awesome people who had the same interests as me was incredible.

I come back to the game because I love the world of the game as well as the people there. You're all really amazing people, and it has kept me here. I started a character where I would be kind of in the shadows, sniping people. That changed a lot. Kanas changed on his own as the things around him happened. He grew, and it was incredible to play that growth. He's become the representation of what I've had to deal with in my life: A short guy in a world of giants, facing things that are much bigger than him. Unlike me, who would back away, he would stand strong and be ready to face whatever comes at him. I am amazed by that growth, and I love playing that kind of mindset. I recently brought in an Alt who is the other part of my personality I have realized due to you crazy guys, the sarcastic, crass, and unreserved part of me that has been bundled up for too long. I am looking forward to playing him more and being that part of me that is seldom revealed in real life.

I played KR because I needed an escape from normal life. I come back to KR because of the people I met and the story that I met. I regret nothing.

While I was involved in trading card games and eventually tabletops, my real intro to larp was cosplay, something which I started outside of Halloween in about 9th grade. It was a welcome escape from the ordinary, and I got to be whatever I could make and put on. That was a major hobby for about 7 years before I first heard of larping. Technically my first game was a tiny anime con game, but apparently I did a good job because at the end I was awarded something for leadership and initiative. That was fun.
My curiosity was piqued, and I went to a couple of panels on larping so I could understand what it was and where it happened more. Then in July of 2013, a friend of a friend who I never actually met was throwing a birthday thing at the august KR event, and invited my cosplay buddy Erinn (and me in extension I guess) to come along.
Not gonna lie, I don't remember all the details as to why I started the way I did. We spotted Nyad, liked the thought of playing a race that gave no shits, and figured "eh, we've both painted our skin for cosplay, this should be easy enough." I don't remember why I picked alchemist to start with either, I think tea had something to do with it. The two of us decided to come in together as friends, Clytie and Iona, so we would have a safety net rp-wise.
Her character was killed on the new player mod and she wrote out into Kormyrian, leaving me all on my lonesome in a new game filled with strangers and surprise racism. First weekend I was petrified and didn't really know what I was doing. Suzie made me promise to be back at the next event, though, and in September everything clicked, I started a backstory, and figured out waft sort of tale I wanted to tell.
Larping has stimulated me creatively in a way I have never experienced before, allowing for a living breathing story to unfold with the contribution of a couple hundred incredibly bright and imaginative people. To be able to breathe life into something so... magnificent, it still blows my mind. Not to mention nearly everyone is wonderful and generous, a crowd of people very unlike the shallow masses I grew up around. You guys are my family, I could trust you with my life, and I'm looking forward to introducing my younger brother to this game at the April event.