janestarz: (Text - Shut up Voices)
De laatste paar weken is het aardig ontploft met roleplay en we vinden dat he-le-maal niet erg. Op woensdagavonden spelen we met de jongens in Engeland Traveler of Dungeon World, en nu kwam Niller ook ineens met een voorstel om een Alien Tabletop RPG te doen op een zaterdagmiddag.
Het plannen van een datum was een uitdaging. Niet alleen Eisirt's planning gooide dit keer roet in het eten, Tim was op vakantie en moet met kids natuurlijk ook een beetje schipperen. Initieel werd het dus Niller, Vincent, Eisirt en ikzelf. Onverhoopt was Tim lekker op tijd terug van hun vakantie en schoof hij dus toch aan deze zaterdag.

De personages waren voorbereid en, zo bleek, Alien TTRPG heeft gewoon echte voorgedrukte kaartjes van de wapens, de personages en een heus DM-scherm waar Niller de effecten kon aflezen. Het leek mij verstandig om een keertje iets verder van mijn comfort-zone te gaan spelen dus ik koos Wilson, een corpo die als speciale vaardigheid anderen kon overtuigen om gevaarlijke dingen te doen zodat hij het niet zelf hoefde te doen. Tim en Vincent kozen engineers en Menno de piloot. De sessie begon al lekker met een speciale briefing op een briefje voor mij, om te benadrukken dat ik toch echt andere motivaties had dan de rest.

Alien werkt met normale 6-zijdige dobbelstenen, (d6) maar heeft zwarte en gele. Zwarte dobbelstenen rol je voor je vaardigheid, en gele rol je voor je stressniveau. Elke 6 is een automatisch succes, en elke 1 is een automatische mislukking, waarbij een 6 een 1 kan opheffen, maar een 1 op een gele dobbelsteen is 'erger' dan gebruikelijk geloof ik. Je kunt een slechte worp opnieuw doen, maar daardoor gaat je stressniveau omhoog en moet je dus meer gele dobbelstenen rollen.

Ons schip maakte ons wakker uit hypersleep en we waren nergens in de buurt van onze bestemming, waar we erg licht ontvlambare vloeistoffen moesten leveren. In plaats daarvan waren we van de koers afgeweken om te reageren op een noodsignaal. Of we gingen helpen...?
De engineers gingen gauw aan de slag om aan boord van het andere schip te komen, en omdat hun worpen niet heel goed waren gingen de stressniveaus al snel omhoog. Waarom genoegen nemen met een mislukking als je voor 1 stress extra nog een keer mag rollen, immers. Go for it!
Mooi moment was toen Vincent moet gooien en aftelde: "Vier, vijf, zes, zeven....en één zwarte dobbelsteen!"
Hij had dus al ZEVEN niveaus stress. Oeps.
Het was een zeer vermakelijke sessie, die we afsloten met een frietje. Een goede middag spel dus.

Op zondag was het ook weer een drukke dag. Er was op de LARP Platform Discord een oproep geweest voor LARP boogschutters om met de training van Bataille mee te doen zodat de kids mee konden maken hoe vervelend en naar leuk en interessant boogschutters een gevecht kunnen maken. Ik kon niet wachten om mee te doen, Oud-collega Willeke traint ook mee bij Bataille en Marc die de training zou geven is een larper en ook een klant want ik mocht hem en zijn viking bruid aankleden voor hun bruiloft vorig jaar. Willeke was er helaas niet, en het begon al goed...

We verzamelden in Utrecht bij de gymzaal maar blijkbaar mochten we er niet in. Er was iets mis gegaan: de gymzaal in kwestie zou voor onderhoud een aantal weken gesloten zijn, en de reservering van Bataille die daar normaal in het systeem staat was verdwenen, waardoor ze ook geen waarschuwing hadden gekregen dat de zaal gesloten zou zijn. Marc klom direct de telefoon in om de noodbeheerder te spreken en ging op zoek naar een alternatief.
Een kleine vloek en zegening van het moderne tijdperk: als de computer besluit dat je reservering vervalt vanwege onderhoud en er geen beheerder meer is die weet dat je komt omdat je met een code een deur kan openmaken en daarmee de menselijke kant en het toezicht wegvalt, sta je voor een dichte deur. Maar aan de andere kant kon Marc via het internet de lange lijst met alternatieve gymzaaltjes bekijken en een andere gymzaal 3 kilometer verderop boeken, en ook die deur met een code openen. Wederom een gymzaaltje bij een spiksplinternieuwe school in onpersoonlijke blokkendooswijk, maar we waren er heel blij mee.

De training zelf was heel cool. Marc verzon allemaal verschillende oefeningen. Omdat ik de enige boogschutter was die had gereageerd had hij zelf ook een boog meegenomen en we konden allebei wel overweg met mijn pijlen. (Ik had er immers maar een stuk of 80 bij me!)
Tussen de verschillende oefeningen door als de jongeren even aan het uitpuffen waren vroeg ik een vrijwilliger om als doelwit te staan, en er waren meerdere gegadigden. Dat was heel tof, want daardoor kon ik ook nog wat oefenen.
Bovendien was het tijdens de training verplicht om een schermmasker te dragen, waardoor het op hoofden schieten ineens toegestaan was. Dat nam niet weg dat ik schoot als een natte krant. Naarmate de middag vorderde werd dat wel iets beter, gelukkig.

Het was een intensieve middag, dus toen ik om half vijf weer thuis was, was de koek wel op. Het bijkomende nadeel was dat Eisirt verkeerd op zijn rooster had gekeken, en moest werken die dag. Ik had hem om kwart voor elf afgezet bij zijn werk voor zijn dienst die om 14u begon, omdat er op zondag geen bussen die kant op reden en hij niet wilde fietsen met een 90% neerslagvoorspelling. Toen ik hem om 22u ging ophalen bleek hoe terecht dat was: het regende al uren en het zou voorlopig niet ophouden met regenen. In de spoorvorming van het asfalt had ik zelfs een beetje aquaplaning dus ik was blij toen we weer lekker thuis waren en ik mijn bedje in kon rollen.
janestarz: (Default)


Whoever shoots like this deserves all the agony they are getting!
Srsly.

Posted via LiveJournal app for Android.

Archeon 3D

Jan. 31st, 2011 09:47 am
janestarz: (Default)
An archery competition in a theme park... that must sound weird. But then, Archeon isn't your average theme parc.

Because of the winter, the park is closed and that made it a perfect opportunity for the Scuttery of Saint Sebastian and the NVVTH (Dutch organisation for traditional archers) to organise a 3D archery competition. It was a good thing there weren't any visitors though, because sometimes the range would just cross a path. And they made good use of obstacles from the park itself.

There were 30 ranges, with 30 animals to shoot. The styrofoam beasties (ranging from lions, bears and tigers to hawks, piglets, an okapi, beavers, frogs and even rats! were sometimes hidden in the scenery. The animals were placed sometimes near, sometimes far away.
Each group of approximately 7 people would start at a different range. We started at range 24, in the Roman arena. From the top tier of the arena we'd have to shoot a tiger that was hidden behind some christmas trees. I started off well with 11 points there!

2011-01-30 10.54.01
NoKey focusing on his shot

The points were arranged a little differently than with a normal competition. There was a "kill" zone on the animal, usually on the torso, which would be 20 points max. Any other hit would just count as a "hit" with a maximum of 17 and minimum of 5 points. Points were awarded according to the arrow used. The first arrow is the most points (20 for a kill, 17 for a hit) and the third arrow the least (5 for a hit).

At #25, (our second target) I immediately lost one of my arrows. Out of a set of six, I was a little dismayed. It probably went through the fence there: plastic with vertical logs and some creeper growth. But I bought another set of arrows at Fairbow later. 12 bamboo arrows with the same colour flights.

#26 was where we had to climb up on some wooden construction in order to shoot over a wall. The wood was slippery and because of the shape of the thing it was hard to keep a proper archer's pose. It was just the first of many intersting conundrums )
Despite not all ranges being as safe as I'd like to see them, the organisers tried their best to make sure we were all safe. With 90 to 99% of the people there being very careful and aware of what they were doing, there were no incidents I know of, but some arrows flew out of the park through the fence.

One particular incident was scary: the "Hunter" target in the Iron Age. The beaver we were aiming at was at the other side of the ice, and when Fred from our group loosed his arrow it bounced off the ice, over the beaver and the boulder behind it, only to land in the road some four meters to the right of the next group.... Scary shit!

Still, it was a wonderful day, made better by our awesome group. Henk, Willem, Fred and Gijs from Helmond, who were marvellous archers and fun to boot. People nagging about points can make or break your contest, and I was glad to see that none of us really cared about the points as long as we had a fun day.

See the rest of the pictures over on Flickr!
janestarz: (Default)
Today NoKey and I will be in the Archeon for the 3D archery contest. Instead of shooting a set distance of 25 meters, like we did in September, we will now be shooting from various points at animal-shaped thingies.
I don't know what to expect, so this will be interesting.

There will be some friends from the last archery competition like Frank, and it'll be a long day outside!

As for our resolution to practise... we didn't quite get around to that. I have a sore shoulder on the left side, so we'll see how it goes! I'm not expecting to win any prizes, because last time I scored the least points of all. But I had a great day back then, and I'll be very happy if today is only half as much fun.

Note: There isn't anything about it on the Archeon website, and I don't think the park itself is open.
janestarz: (Default)
The results are in! I ended up in 11th place in the archery contest of last Sunday. Of course, there were only 11 women in the contest, but have no fear, I still had a great time! The chart is a bit hard to read, but I believe I had 49 points.

Next up is the Archeon 3D archery contest on January 30th. More information here on what bows are allowed and where to sign up.

An explanation what 3D archery is, can be found here. It's larp shooting without larp arrows!

And the rest of Hans' photos of the contest are online as well. Find those here! There's a groovy one of NoKey...
janestarz: (Default)
Tchk! Tchk!
The sound of arrows hitting targets is quite distinctive. It's unlike anything I've heard, unlike the indistinct thuds of larp arrows bouncing off a roleplayer. There's nothing as gratifying as loosing an arrow and being rewarded with a pleasing tchk! echoing the vibrations in the midriff.

NoKey, Keffie and I have quite the reputation when it comes to archery, and now I can say it is wholly undeserved. Shooting a 20 lbs longbow with 28" larp logs is nothing, nothing at all like hefting a 35 lbs taxus and hickory longbow, loosing a 28" oak shaft and missing your target by a meter and a half...

NoKey was shooting in lane three, but I was at the far end in lane seven. I was glad to see a familiar face: Frank of the Raikua, normally shooting a recurve bow but now using a painted longbow and thick arrows with a wicked head. The others from my lane, all men, were as cheerful as Frank and as helpful. After my first round, clutching my painful forearm, they were worried. "It's a new longbow." I explained. "I've never shot with it before."
It took some getting used to. I realised after three rounds (nine arrows, all flying wide to the left of the target) that my longbow was definitely different from my recurve bow. For one, I needed to move my arm bracer further towards my wrist. Meanwhile, Frank unstrung my longbow and twisted the string a couple of twists, so it was shorter and would stay away from my wrist a bit more.

After a round or five I finally had some reward: a single point! Before that, I'd managed to hit the target's legs and wegde an arrow through the blue plastic coating that kept the straw together. It took me a few more rounds but by then I'd managed to grasp the feel of my new bow.

After a lovely and hearty lunch at the cloister, we returned to the range for the second half of the match. Twelve more rounds of archery. In my second or third round I had a lucky shot, hitting the gold center and scoring my first (and only) 9-points arrow!
NoKey's mother joined us at the range and sat to the left of my lane, where she could see everyone shoot. She cheered with me when I hit the blue, red, black or white. During the day, I managed to hit each colour at least once, but often missing the target altogether as well.

And then I saw another familiar face: Hans Splinter. He's one of the photographers in my contact list on Flickr, and he makes gorgeous pictures of the Archeon. I properly introduced myself, and we spoke for a little while. During the match he came over to show me a picture he was pleased with... it's already on Flickr too!

arrow in flight
Photo by Hans Splinter, published under Creative Commons, Attribution, NoDerivatives on Flickr.


In the final two rounds of the contest, I finally realised (thanks to Frank's coaching) what I needed to do. Now that I had found how to hold my bow and release my arrow, I needed to find my inner peace while shooting. I tried to practice this in the last two rounds, and I felt much better after releasing my arrows.

Fun fact: did you know that when I release my arrow and it's a 'good' shot (not a good hit), the twang of the bow echoes in my midriff? It's a very weird feeling, but it does show that despite my wonky grip on the bow, I hold onto it very well.

Despite me only scoring maybe twenty points with seventy-two arrows, I am very pleased and happy I went to the contest. There was a lot of laughter and jesting among the archers, the atmosphere is utterly relaxed, and nothing beats running around in medieval garb for a day. I had a wonderful time.
janestarz: (Default)
After our exercise at the gym yesterday [livejournal.com profile] palanthe carelessly remarked she'd never practiced archery before. This, of course, had to be remedied. Combined with little to no wind that evening and NoKey staying home from taijutsu training, we gathered three bows and a bunch of larp arrows and traipsed down the stairs.

Out the back door, Palanthe spotted a chick with great tits! )

-----
*) This title brought to you by my rather devious mind. Har har har.
janestarz: (Default)
On Friday we visited the big bookstore in the center of Rotterdam where I'd ordered the two hardcovers of Robert Jordan we were still missing. We also picked up several other books. The newest Pratchett, of course (Unseen Academicals), as well as the newest from Jacqueline Carey (Namaah's Kiss). I've also picked up the four books from the Twilight series, as I enjoyed the movies and the books are reputedly better.
So that cost us a nifty € 187,45.

Yesterday we were picked up by the lovely [livejournal.com profile] nathreee and her charming husband and we visited the Midsummer faire in the Archeon historical park. The weather wasn't too great but we dressed warmly. Our motto was "Every victorian lady needs a druid, a samurai and an arab to protect her" or "motley".

Nathreee went shopping for hats and found two lovely hats that suited her extremely well. I just bought cheese, a t-shirt from Fairbow ("There are only two kinds of people on a battlefield: targets and archers"), six historical arrows, and of course my new lovely: a longbow.
It was ex-pen-sive and draws 35 lbs at 28".
Spending this much money on a longbow is a good excuse to go shooting more often. I hope we can still sign up for the Archon open longbow shooting this September...

After returning to our apartment they picked up some chinese food while I tidied up a bit, not having had time to do so earlier that week(end). We watched Little Shop of Horrors which Remco enjoyed far too much. *grin*
A good day and good shopping with good friends. What more can one want?
janestarz: (Default)
A painful lesson is learned most quickly. "Always wear protection" is a very good lesson and this saying can be applied to many different arts, hobbies and trades.

This is what happens when you fail to learn your lesson:



When I was younger, I used to count the bruises after I got home from an event. More often than not there were more than 20. Now that I am older and do not rush blindly into things appear to be more lucky when I blindly rush into things, I no longer count them. Still, it feels like a mark of pride to be sporting such a bruise even if it was caused by carelessness. It feels like the testimony of a good event.

What happened? I was sporting a 25 lbs longbow during the event. My costume does include bracers, but these always slide down over my hands, and start to irritate and hurt, so I chose not to wear them. As my coat has narrow sleeves, this does not interfere with loosing arrows.
In the endbash one of my arrows fumbled - the nock slipped from the bowstring and I loosed my empty bow at full-pull, the bowstring thwacking my arm. Luckily, this means the bow did not take the brunt of the backslash (loosing an 'empty' bow is nigh blasphemy!), sadly: my arm did.
This was a 25lbs bow, and just the one shot. Imagine how it would be with a 50 lbs longbow...or with multiple shots...

The bruise only hurt as it was growing - between 2 and 6 pm yesterday, but the pain stopped when the bruise had fully developed. Now not even my tunic brushing it hurts, though I won't chance fondling that arm for a while.

I also came up with a new plan for some sub-bracers...perhaps it will work.
janestarz: (Default)
From this website:
"From the fourth to the ninth century, close contacts between China and Japan had a great influence on Japanese archery, especially the Confucian belief that through a person's archery their true characters could be determined."
"Kyudo is a highly meditative martial art whose ultimate goals are Shin (Truth i.e. the ultimate reality), Zen (Goodness) and Bi (Beauty). When asked the question "What is Truth?" a master archer would pick up a bow and arrow and shoot it, without saying a word, allowing the level of mastery of the bow to serve as the gauge of the archer's progress along the "way" thereby showing the archer's knowledge of reality i.e. "Truth" itself."


A Japanese Longbow - Yumi - costs about ¥ 36000.--
They also feature Ya, sleek, not necessarily longer but shallower flights/feathers on the arrow. Let's see if we can copy those for next year's Drachenfest. Make about 50 arrows, with sleek flights, cheap. That would be cool.
Thanks to [livejournal.com profile] sneeuw_chan for these links. Let's see if they deliver in Europe *grin*

Also, I updated my website yesterday. And for some strange reason [livejournal.com profile] pasje threw me off her friends list.
Mom will be over for coffee later today. Whee!
janestarz: (Default)
Birgitte is hot. She's got curves. And she didn't even hit me today.

::Pics under here. Beware of highstrung sexy females:: )

Aren't we a hott couple of ladies?
janestarz: (Default)
I was afraid this might happen, and it did. I have been preparing for the Fantasy Fair for the last three months, and when it was finally over and I had recovered from three days hard work (it was worse than larp) the filling of my days, the meaning of my life, sort of fell away. I keep telling myself I have to prepare for the Summoning, but so far I've made one cloak this week, and fixed Marilou's dress and that's it.

But from the depths of my mind a new craving arose. I want to get my bow certificate. It's a slow process, but when you want to shoot bow at large events like the Summoning (I don't ever want to play there) or the Gathering in the UK you need a certificate.
The nice thing about getting the certificate is that you don't have to pay for lessons. It's quite different from driving in that particular aspect. You get a < 20 lbs bow and some arrows, shoot with it for a year (at enough events, ofcourse, you need to practice), and then have your first certificate if the security test guy agrees. After that year, you can go for the second certificate, which allows you to shoot up to 30 lbs bows.

The only problem I've encountered with this wonderful system so far, is that I have a 29 lbs bow at home, which I can shoot in the park here and at some minor clubs who don't use the certificate thing, but that I'll need a 20 lbs bow as well because I have to get the first certificate first.

Also: I still want my lockmachine. Am counting it will be about Eur. 500.--; at my mother's friend. I know, it's expensive, but I want a really good one, which can do coverlock stitches (see the hemming of a regular t-shirt, that's a coverlock stitch; it stitches and zig-zags at the same time which will save me a lot of time). I was also drooling over the Eur. 950.-- Singer machine with the 363 stitches, including decorative snowflakes and leaves and flowers and some lockstitches and 8 different kind of buttonholes.

I have a luxury problem. I can't afford all that.
janestarz: (Default)
My new bow will be named Birgitte. She's not silver, but definitely one of the female persuasion, if only because she's high-strung every once in a while. *grin* Besides. She's got cuuuuuuuurves.
In any case, I'll need a good armbracer and some form of protection for my fingers on the right hand (draw hand). They feel like I've just played two hours of guitar after being out of practice for a year. I probably am out of practice for a year now. Shame on me.

I'll have such a blue left arm for the upcoming I-don't-wanna-know-how-many-days, but it's worth it. I figured out I easily shoot off, tending a bit towards the left. And after hitting myself on the arm with the bowstring for maybe...aw...say, twentyfive times (with an almost 30lbs bow...), I just had to stop. So NoKey shot some too.

So I'll be making myself a nice bracer and fingerguard out of leather in the upcoming while. And then I'm going to practice like hell. And then try me, you fuckers.

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