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Puerto Diablo
Sep. 14th, 2008 06:14 pmPuerto Diablo is certainly a very different kind of live roleplay. I like to talk about how even something as complex as live roleplay only has two layers. In the Netherlands at least. It can be divided into the low-boundary easy-acces events and a few "adult" events. Puerto Diablo is one of the most adult larps I have ever visited, and definitely is at the top of the second, smaller category.
Scenery
Puerto Diablo is a small subevent of Arcana and is run, besides others, by two very motivated men: Renz and Sander (not Malor). They are colleages and have a job as scenery-builders for theatre. As such, they have spent three months preparing for this event and have successfully built a real New Amsterdam with tiny houses with real, working locks. There was a windmill at the docks, a gallows, a town hall, Levi the Jew's pawn shop, a real tavern (het Wapen van Amsterdam) and a shady brawlhouse (het Dorstige Hert), a tiny wharf and two small houses, one of which I occupied as one of the most important merchants of New Amsterdam. Three small rowing boats are part of the scouting club's assets and are used as well.
Puerto Diablo is an event that runs in the 17th century and in this time period, the switch from rapiers to blunderbusses and muskets is very imminent. Renz and Sander and the other organisers have managed not only to create real working (safe) cannons that produce a loud bang and a lot of smoke {woe be upon any pirate trying to sail into the New Amsterdam harbour uninvited!}, but also have working muskets that are armed with larp arrows that only have two feathers in stead of the usual three. Smaller pistols are also used with some firecrackers to add the loud bang should it be used.
Setting
Still, Puerto Diablo is a very low-combat setting. As in real life, there is a lot more law enforcement going on and the most important law enforcer is the fact that once you get wounded either by cutlass or rapier or musket, the wound will soon fester and the nunnery with their excellent bedside manner is your best hope, though it is still a minute chance you will actually survive. Bar brawls are usually fistfights and if (and it's a big if) a knife is drawn, usually one or all will be dead very soon. I did mention the gallows above, didn't I?
As for skills, there are indeed such skills as "Knock Out", "Street brawl", "Knife throwing", "Rip off", "Negotiate", and "Gossiping". I personally admire my very own special skill of "Pigeon handling".
Take the Gossiping skill. There is a box with small gossips, and if you have this skill you can take out one of the papers with a gossip on it and use it in the game. Components work the same way. Trappers get animal-shaped pieces of fake fur they can sell to local merchants like my character. If you think you've been chopping wood long enough, you can take a wood component from the box. And they actually plant long, pre-chopped pieces of wood in the 'jungle' so you can play to your heart's content, without having to involve the GM's at every turn.
Costume and Play
We arrived late on Fridaynight and so many people were already in costume when we did, but I can tell you this: I was blown away! It was like walking into a Vermeer painting. It was The laughing Cavalier, the Nightwatch, and The Salem Martyr all rolled into one. There were Puritans, with their characteristic hat and collars. There was a man with a large ruff and long brown hair and a small pointy beard. There were sailors and trappers in bleached and mended garments with caps. The Jew Levi wore a rich, yet modest attire. I only saw two women without headwear: the French prostitute and Babbe, the innkeeper of het Dorstige Hert (who also wore my old red kirtle backwards!!! That really, really hurt my feelings!)
It was really hard to get in on the action though. This Puerto (event 5 of a total of 10) had a lot of players who have been playing there since the first event. I knew only 7 or 8 people out of the entire club and sadly it was a close-knit group of people. However, as soon as people saw what I had for sale and that I would buy and sell in character stuff as well was really a drive for play.
What impressed me most was the seriousness that the normally noisy Dutch adopted while approaching this era. "Men vloeckt hier niet" ("Onhe doest not curse here") said the sign in the tavern. The puritans frowned on the cleavages that were displayed and women without a cap were told - in a friendly fashion - to please cover their heads. Unmarried women, like Harma's character, should not sleep in a tavern, so I offered one of them a place to sleep in my house. The daughter of the miller, already 18 years old and not yet married, was a happy subject of discussion and despite the fact that I could not have her married off (and indeed I was nearly driven into marriage to the miller himself, who lost his wife like I had my husband) I did manage to marry Ragar's character to Harma's character on the Saturday night. Sadly, I failed to land the Marquis' hand in marriage, possibly because I refuse to undertake action on this myself and Jean-Patrique could not be persuaded to speak on my behalf.
It was my first Catholic service, my first confession, and all of it was approached with a seriousness I am not used to seeing at Live Roleplay. Usually, people approach their roles with a good-humoured cheer and jeer. On Puerto, portraying it right is nearly as important as it is to brush your teeth once a day and have a change of underwear.
I had a lot of fun, and have great plans for the next one.
Scenery
Puerto Diablo is a small subevent of Arcana and is run, besides others, by two very motivated men: Renz and Sander (not Malor). They are colleages and have a job as scenery-builders for theatre. As such, they have spent three months preparing for this event and have successfully built a real New Amsterdam with tiny houses with real, working locks. There was a windmill at the docks, a gallows, a town hall, Levi the Jew's pawn shop, a real tavern (het Wapen van Amsterdam) and a shady brawlhouse (het Dorstige Hert), a tiny wharf and two small houses, one of which I occupied as one of the most important merchants of New Amsterdam. Three small rowing boats are part of the scouting club's assets and are used as well.
Puerto Diablo is an event that runs in the 17th century and in this time period, the switch from rapiers to blunderbusses and muskets is very imminent. Renz and Sander and the other organisers have managed not only to create real working (safe) cannons that produce a loud bang and a lot of smoke {woe be upon any pirate trying to sail into the New Amsterdam harbour uninvited!}, but also have working muskets that are armed with larp arrows that only have two feathers in stead of the usual three. Smaller pistols are also used with some firecrackers to add the loud bang should it be used.
Setting
Still, Puerto Diablo is a very low-combat setting. As in real life, there is a lot more law enforcement going on and the most important law enforcer is the fact that once you get wounded either by cutlass or rapier or musket, the wound will soon fester and the nunnery with their excellent bedside manner is your best hope, though it is still a minute chance you will actually survive. Bar brawls are usually fistfights and if (and it's a big if) a knife is drawn, usually one or all will be dead very soon. I did mention the gallows above, didn't I?
As for skills, there are indeed such skills as "Knock Out", "Street brawl", "Knife throwing", "Rip off", "Negotiate", and "Gossiping". I personally admire my very own special skill of "Pigeon handling".
Take the Gossiping skill. There is a box with small gossips, and if you have this skill you can take out one of the papers with a gossip on it and use it in the game. Components work the same way. Trappers get animal-shaped pieces of fake fur they can sell to local merchants like my character. If you think you've been chopping wood long enough, you can take a wood component from the box. And they actually plant long, pre-chopped pieces of wood in the 'jungle' so you can play to your heart's content, without having to involve the GM's at every turn.
Costume and Play
We arrived late on Fridaynight and so many people were already in costume when we did, but I can tell you this: I was blown away! It was like walking into a Vermeer painting. It was The laughing Cavalier, the Nightwatch, and The Salem Martyr all rolled into one. There were Puritans, with their characteristic hat and collars. There was a man with a large ruff and long brown hair and a small pointy beard. There were sailors and trappers in bleached and mended garments with caps. The Jew Levi wore a rich, yet modest attire. I only saw two women without headwear: the French prostitute and Babbe, the innkeeper of het Dorstige Hert (who also wore my old red kirtle backwards!!! That really, really hurt my feelings!)
It was really hard to get in on the action though. This Puerto (event 5 of a total of 10) had a lot of players who have been playing there since the first event. I knew only 7 or 8 people out of the entire club and sadly it was a close-knit group of people. However, as soon as people saw what I had for sale and that I would buy and sell in character stuff as well was really a drive for play.
What impressed me most was the seriousness that the normally noisy Dutch adopted while approaching this era. "Men vloeckt hier niet" ("Onhe doest not curse here") said the sign in the tavern. The puritans frowned on the cleavages that were displayed and women without a cap were told - in a friendly fashion - to please cover their heads. Unmarried women, like Harma's character, should not sleep in a tavern, so I offered one of them a place to sleep in my house. The daughter of the miller, already 18 years old and not yet married, was a happy subject of discussion and despite the fact that I could not have her married off (and indeed I was nearly driven into marriage to the miller himself, who lost his wife like I had my husband) I did manage to marry Ragar's character to Harma's character on the Saturday night. Sadly, I failed to land the Marquis' hand in marriage, possibly because I refuse to undertake action on this myself and Jean-Patrique could not be persuaded to speak on my behalf.
It was my first Catholic service, my first confession, and all of it was approached with a seriousness I am not used to seeing at Live Roleplay. Usually, people approach their roles with a good-humoured cheer and jeer. On Puerto, portraying it right is nearly as important as it is to brush your teeth once a day and have a change of underwear.
I had a lot of fun, and have great plans for the next one.
