Maerquin 35 - Consolidatie
Nov. 19th, 2014 10:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
janestarzSuch fun to play a character with a secret, and more so to play in a group that has a collective secret. I guess most people can understand that much -- that our characters might not have been as innocent as they looked -- but our cover identity worked a little too well to most people's tastes.
We dragged our bollerwagen and asses in character and on we went. Wilhelm, Johannes, Betje, Dieter, Steyn and Bella. For all that I tried ("call me Isa") people soon copied my cousins and everyone called me Bella. (Since there's already a "Jacob" time-in, we just need a glitter-vampire called Edward to have the set completed!)
Our group was instantly recognisable, being a splash of colour in the dark inn, and we blended in well. Simple villagers we might be, and not a single hero among us, we each had our trade to ply. Steyn the smith sharpened knives, Wilhelm took notes at meetings, Dieter procured a hunting license, Betje tried to trade (although most players were too busy to even notice) and Johannes spoke at great length to every priest or faithful follower of a God he could find.
I cooked. Quite successfully, I might add.
I started out with beef, some still attached to some bone that was full of marrow. Water and some broth cubes started it off quite nicely. The iron grill fitted neatly in the fireplace and the coffee pot fitted nicely next to my big pan. White radish (rettich, a bit like daikon), carrot, celery stalk, parsley, parsnip and pumpkin followed. I had a lovely basket in my bollerwagen, filled with honest vegetables!
Every time we took a sip of the soup, it tasted differently. After an hour or so, Dieter had gotten the fire so hot the soup was boiling.
When I started serving, the players flocked to my campfire. None of them stayed for very long, and hardly any tried to make conversation. By the time Saturday evening rolled around we were scrambling. Apparantly there was a story to this larp, but nobody was ready to include us. Ingrid the Dwarf had said people often had conversations, which went like this: "Do you remember that thing we wanted to do last time, but we couldn't because it was dangerous and we were still missing that thingy? Well, do you want to try again?" -- and off they went, without telling you what they were about or whether you might be able to help.
Maybe our disguises worked too perfectly, for who would include simple villagers into their heroic business?
But when Hugo returned from one of his quests, saying proudly he'd blown up a bridge, he didn't quite take the hint when I exclaimed "You did what? But why? Did the bridge need blowing up? Are you a criminal? Was it needful? What is going on here?!"
We'd had a good half our with Todo the Zwarte Gardist, who patiently explained what was going on earlier that afternoon, but that was after the declaration that we would each need to do our bit in the war, and that we'd be fighting slaves, and that our mages would be the vanguard. (If it sounds confusing, it was; you have about as little context as we did back then.)
It made it all the more frustrating to play.
I can imagine everyone being busy; it's their fun to come to a larp to have an adventure just as much as it is ours. I was just a little miffed at the fact that so very few people took the time to introduce themselves to us. People just bought the soup, and then they went about their business. I didn't sign up to be the caterer. I signed up and paid to have an adventure too. We brought 30 euro's of vegetables just for five minutes of people slurping a soup they paid for in-character. I made pots of conserved and fruits and jellies nobody even deigned to look at.
So yes, I was surprised to see![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
anastaszia at the Sunday speech -- I hadn't even seen her IT for a minute before that moment, she was so busy with her own things that I never even ran into her!
Yes, I was a little annoyed when Fedor shouted my name through the inn, when he hadn't even taken a moment to officially meet me. (Also: I'm not the tavern harlot you just shout at.)
Even the gnomes, who would have been such wonderful tea-mates, were too busy to drop by and have a bit of a chin-wag. (Although Liesl finding the "bread-making machine" was one of the better parts of my weekend!)
But I also had a good time with good people. My IT family; we worked together quite well. And some other mismatched players who happily joined at our fire and enjoyed our company. One player in particular who saw through our cover identity, and one NPC who heard our whole story and was left with her mouth gaping open. And then there waspolomeus who gave us a big compliment: "You come in with a group large enough to take over the entire setting, but you don't. You make good, small play worth playing."
We dragged our bollerwagen and asses in character and on we went. Wilhelm, Johannes, Betje, Dieter, Steyn and Bella. For all that I tried ("call me Isa") people soon copied my cousins and everyone called me Bella. (Since there's already a "Jacob" time-in, we just need a glitter-vampire called Edward to have the set completed!)
Our group was instantly recognisable, being a splash of colour in the dark inn, and we blended in well. Simple villagers we might be, and not a single hero among us, we each had our trade to ply. Steyn the smith sharpened knives, Wilhelm took notes at meetings, Dieter procured a hunting license, Betje tried to trade (although most players were too busy to even notice) and Johannes spoke at great length to every priest or faithful follower of a God he could find.
I cooked. Quite successfully, I might add.
I started out with beef, some still attached to some bone that was full of marrow. Water and some broth cubes started it off quite nicely. The iron grill fitted neatly in the fireplace and the coffee pot fitted nicely next to my big pan. White radish (rettich, a bit like daikon), carrot, celery stalk, parsley, parsnip and pumpkin followed. I had a lovely basket in my bollerwagen, filled with honest vegetables!
Every time we took a sip of the soup, it tasted differently. After an hour or so, Dieter had gotten the fire so hot the soup was boiling.
When I started serving, the players flocked to my campfire. None of them stayed for very long, and hardly any tried to make conversation. By the time Saturday evening rolled around we were scrambling. Apparantly there was a story to this larp, but nobody was ready to include us. Ingrid the Dwarf had said people often had conversations, which went like this: "Do you remember that thing we wanted to do last time, but we couldn't because it was dangerous and we were still missing that thingy? Well, do you want to try again?" -- and off they went, without telling you what they were about or whether you might be able to help.
Maybe our disguises worked too perfectly, for who would include simple villagers into their heroic business?
But when Hugo returned from one of his quests, saying proudly he'd blown up a bridge, he didn't quite take the hint when I exclaimed "You did what? But why? Did the bridge need blowing up? Are you a criminal? Was it needful? What is going on here?!"
We'd had a good half our with Todo the Zwarte Gardist, who patiently explained what was going on earlier that afternoon, but that was after the declaration that we would each need to do our bit in the war, and that we'd be fighting slaves, and that our mages would be the vanguard. (If it sounds confusing, it was; you have about as little context as we did back then.)
It made it all the more frustrating to play.
I can imagine everyone being busy; it's their fun to come to a larp to have an adventure just as much as it is ours. I was just a little miffed at the fact that so very few people took the time to introduce themselves to us. People just bought the soup, and then they went about their business. I didn't sign up to be the caterer. I signed up and paid to have an adventure too. We brought 30 euro's of vegetables just for five minutes of people slurping a soup they paid for in-character. I made pots of conserved and fruits and jellies nobody even deigned to look at.
So yes, I was surprised to see
anastaszia at the Sunday speech -- I hadn't even seen her IT for a minute before that moment, she was so busy with her own things that I never even ran into her! Yes, I was a little annoyed when Fedor shouted my name through the inn, when he hadn't even taken a moment to officially meet me. (Also: I'm not the tavern harlot you just shout at.)
Even the gnomes, who would have been such wonderful tea-mates, were too busy to drop by and have a bit of a chin-wag. (Although Liesl finding the "bread-making machine" was one of the better parts of my weekend!)
But I also had a good time with good people. My IT family; we worked together quite well. And some other mismatched players who happily joined at our fire and enjoyed our company. One player in particular who saw through our cover identity, and one NPC who heard our whole story and was left with her mouth gaping open. And then there was
polomeus who gave us a big compliment: "You come in with a group large enough to take over the entire setting, but you don't. You make good, small play worth playing."
