#odyssey larp

[anonymousblueberry]

More vague Odyssey related rambles. I think I’m putting them here because I’m too scared to put them on facebook; my friends are actually good writers, and I’m too terrified this is all self indulgent fluff.

"I would say that's not appropriate, but..." Phoebe looks at the remains of the chaos in front of her and tries to hide a smile. There are chitons strewn all over the place, jugs cracked on the floor and cups scattered all over. If she didn't know better she'd think she was looking at a temple of Dionysus. The two boys awake enough to be cleaning up, half heartedly remind her so strongly of Meander it hurts. The older Ithican is still around, still seems to spend half his life clearing up after his kin, but to see the next generation doing the same is strange.

"Priest," one of them manages, holding out a jug of wine to her. "Will you join us?"S

he shakes her head, "Too early for me, but don't let me stop you." She picks her way past them, picking up the odd bit of detritus, and makes her way to the central altar.

"You'd be pleased, I'm sure," she says to the empty space. "Everyone drinks in your name, tonight there'll be all kinds of trickery and chaos in your name."

Priest of Cleonidas is far easier a job than priest of Hermes ever was. Too easy. She has too much time to spare and she's avoiding something, something she hasn't quite defined yet.

Once upon a time she would have asked Lysandra what to do (or at least she thinks she would have, if they’d had time for this to be a thing they actually talked about), but now she just has a tree and her imagination of what her friend would have said. 

Her footsteps take her to that tree anyway, and she sits in its shade, "At least if he'd gone off to that island, I could have gone back to the underworld, I wouldn't have to watch everyone get old."

It's the kind of thing she thinks Lysandra would have laughed at, reminded her that she offered to speak to Apollo to fix her, that she got to live and love."I never asked for that though," she reminds her friend who is a tree. "In fact I very clearly said I didn't want it. I wanted a trial period, or something. I didn't ask for this."

She doesn't really know why she's worrying; after fifteen years most of them still have plenty of life left in them, but it's becoming more obvious that they're getting older. 

[illustratedjai-art]

SLF Nekdel - Odyssey LARP Commission

Another gift commission! This one is of Nekdel, in the midst of 'the traditional worship of Marduk', with sausage and port. I had great fun on his headdress; I did my best to refer to the actual item to get the patterns right. tumblr - deviantART - facebook - g+

[ozmills]

Phoebe, I will miss you - Odyssey 2015 - The Mirror of the Sea

The Underworld of the nations was decimated, the walls between underworlds came crashing down due to a nation invoking magics they didn’t understand.

On the mission to find out what caused this, my friend, Phoebe, died.

I had gotten to know Phoebe over the past six years. She was smart as anything, everyone loved her, and her being felled hit us like a ton of bricks.

We had a funeral for her, it was sad of course, we all said something, and the ferryman came for her, but she was turned away. 

He put a mark on her head, told her to get up, but she was not welcome in the Underworld. They were too busy dealing with the walls of the underworld having been destroyed.

Phoebe was still with us, until Hades was fixed and they would come to claim her.

Eventually the walls were rebuilt, and Hades decreed that no longer could heroes petition to return to life, to fulfil unfinished deeds. The walls were rebuilt so they could no longer be breached. Even by him.

Phoebe became desperate. She begged a friend, who had a blessing from the god Eris to enter the underworld and return but once, to go with her before she was once again "collected" by the ferryman and beg with Hades to allow her to return fully to life.

We had another funeral.

A funeral for a friend who was alive is a different thing. Her standing in front of us, who could hear everything we said and how scared and sad we were that she might not come back.

There were tears and hugs and love. We loved her.

She stepped through the gates to the underworld with her friend.

An hour later, only her friend returned.

Hades' promise that the dead would not return was binding. Phoebe would not return from the underworld, and nothing could change that.

Phoebe was gone.

I will miss her.

Other people may appear in Atlantis, people with the same face, and who act very much like her in mannerism and form, but who answer to a different name and have different plans for their life. But they’ll all remind me of the best friend I made at the Annual of the Middle Sea.

Phoebe will live on in my heart.

[larphacks]

Hey I've never lapped before and have wanted to go for about a year nowadays have even started making a costume and buying weapons but don't know where to start with actually going to an event :-( are there any UK larp events you would recommend? And how should I go about joining?

Hey, hello new LARPer! :) New LARPers are my very favourite sort. I’m really excited for you starting out in the hobby! Here’s my ideas for what you should do to go about joining in your first LARP game.

Photo by Tom Garnett, from Odyssey LARP.

1. Do Your Research

You’re clearly doing the right thing by reading LARP blogs on Tumblr; you should also check out the wider LARP internet (Sarah Cook springs to mind among others). Please check out everything in the newbie advice tag and drop me any specific questions you have - I will answer privately if you prefer!

2. Find A Game

Pick out a game that you like (see below for some recommendations!). You want to consider a number of factors, including–

Time: Can you afford the time off? Some games run for less than 6 hours on a single day (most university linear systems) while others can run over 4 days or more. 

Money: Not just the event ticket - do a back-of-the-fag-packet calculation including transport costs, food and drink, camping equipment, and then give yourself a £20-£50 buffer in case it goes wrong. Some events have set me back more than £300 including transport; some have cost me less than £10 for a full weekend. Be careful.

Setting and system: Make sure you find something that really grabs you. You want your first experience to be a winner, so pick something that inspires you! 

What do you want? No combat, or hack & slash? System-light, or loads of numbers? Terrified hiding in a ditch, or wading through hordes of puny enemies? Think about what you want out of your LARP experience and use that to pick your game (and build your character!).

Once you’ve picked out something you love…

Visit the game’s website. Not all events keep these totally up to date, so you should also check out…

Facebook / event bulletin boards. Almost all UK LARPs these days have a Facebook page (or more than one!) which will likely welcome questions from new players.

When’s the next event? No point in getting yourself all riled up for something that won’t run till August 2021. Find something that’s running within your timescales, and start asking about ticket booking and prices.

Photo by Cthimon, from Maelstrom LARP.

3. LARPHacks Recommends…

This is dodgy territory, because my fun is not always your fun! However, as a starter for ten I can personally recommend:

Your local uni system: Odds are the university nearest to you has a LARP or at the least an RPG society, which may accept non-student members. I started as a non-student member at the tender age of seventeen! Many LARPers learn to play locally, then move up to national / fest systems. Here’s a non-exhaustive list of universities which may have current, active weekly LARP games during term:

Oxford - Memento Mundi: Tried it, liked it, would play again.

Durham - DUTT: Tried it, loved it, don’t like the system, love the setting and players.

Cambridge - No Flag, No Country: Haven’t tried it, played the last one, know the team, like and trust them to give good game.

York - Impact: Haven’t tried it, played the last one, know the team, LOVE their style, crewing their summer event.

Aberystwyth - WARPS (do they still have a LARP? They did in the past!): Haven’t tried it, know some of the team and trust them, ???.

Southampton - GameSoc (I hear rumours they LARP): Haven’t tried it, don’t know the team, ???.

Odyssey - medium (200-500 person) summer events, two a year, fixed campaign with three events left (next one in mid August). Personal opinion: THE MOST FUN YOU CAN HAVE IN A FIELD. I FUCKING LOVE THIS GAME. Don’t let the limited run put you off - there’s no character advancement, so you’re in the same place as a ten-event-old character! Kit is cheap. Character creation is easy. System is easy. Play is epic. 

Pioneers - small (20-50 person) events. Big silly space opera (Jupiter Ascending / Dune style), hunting for unobtainium crystals using real GPS trackers through hostile wilderness, space bugs, robots and nobles with vibro-swords. Good clean fun.

Empire - big (1500+ person) summer events, four a year, player-versus-monster battles. I help build their tents. Next event on 24 July (ten days!).

Projekt: Ragnarok - small-medium (40-60 person) events. Not a great place for a new LARPer to start playing, VERY good, VERY intense WWII survival horror. Next game in November, closed for player bookings but may well accept crew. I loved it so much I took cover in a lake. A+ would weep in abject terror again.

I don’t play, but hear great things about:

Fall of Vusoria

Tales Out of Anchor

Falling Down

Rockets, Rayguns & Really Nice Tea

A Foot on the Stairs

Other big UK LARP systems:

Fools and Heroes

Lorien Trust

Curious Pastimes

You can also try:

LARPages includes a directory of UK LARPs by genre.

LARPEvents includes a list of upcoming events by location, date, genre etc.

Photo by Steven Potter.

Good luck and godspeed!

Hey Tumblr, help me out and reblog with your UK LARP recommendations for this new LARPer!

[illustratedjai]

Kaddiq - Commission from Odyssey LARP

I am so freakin' proud of the pattern on this dress. Freehanded with pencil crayons.