2025 Nationals Event Favorites!

[Roff]

Thank you all so much for joining us at the castle of the reverie.

There was clearly so much going on at event that I can only scratch the surface of knowing all the incredible things that took place.

As you travel relax and unwind please share your favorites of this event so we can see all the antics, shenanigans, and heroic moments that shined out in this event!

I know my list is long and I will continue to build it out to share but wanted to make sure we can start hearing these stories.

Thank you all again for joining us and I hope to see you all again soon. Whether that be back up in Minnesota or across Fortannis.

 

[Layla/sliver]

My favorites were:
Reading the pages we found (shout out to Claire for writing it. It was definitely worth the many times I was downed)
Fishing and catching fish
Talking with the fae at the get together and after during the fight at the silvinborn village learning what the fae were during was interesting
Seeing and participating in the echo tribunal's judgment
Seeing all the different characters claire became was really cool
The gala was interesting and I had a lot of fun dancing and talking with someone but I'm not sure if I can remember their name
Meeting all the different adventurers and hearing the storys they and the other npcs I asked told
The secret exchange
Getting to use my archery more and the bow I made passing the safety check
Finding out the grand master's spell store is their pants (very hilarious)
Getting a ritual scroll as loot more than once
Watching the fights
Being with Blackstone and seeing the big final fight (I heard someone tried to sneak up and murder me Blackstone helped prevent that from happening as well I really liked how you were able to get make these supposedly powerful creatures get reputations to be feared good job)
Buying the fae queen's wings
Seeing all the shenanigans
Impromptu songs
Being consistently called tinkerer by acorn
Watching dragon ball and seeing the goblins decide to work together instead of fighting each other
Hating the forge of horns
Helping break the forge of horns
Getting to yell umbra fae quee
The fun noises all the npcs made when playing monsters especially the beatle
Silver slowly getting stronger and surprising everyone when they bid 25 gold and being asked how I had that much
Getting too much gold and silver for the box to hold and having to exchange a good amount of it to make spac
Seeing all the interesting things we fought (pixies are very annoying in fights)
Underestimating the spice of a drink (lesson learned)
Seeing Dane and his cool look
The show of unity and its stories
Getting hit with intoxicate and hallucinate and deciding what silver would see if they were hallucinating
The outlanders getting enough votes and now having a home
All in all it was pretty darn awesome as both me and silver do not regret answering at all!

 

[Sswanson]

Team Sketchy Potion making with Alexander.

We amnesiad ourselves so hard we saw the future.

Getting to work with that group and build a potion in a "cauldron", watching it change colors, bubble, fizz, and crackle was so much fun. I genuinely have never had a mod where the Brewers got to do something so interesting and fun in all my time playing.

 

[Tuli]

Thank you!!

I think this may be my favorite Larp event ever. From start to finish I was having a great time! I know a lot of people were working really hard at making this event go as smooth as possible - this game is such a marvel and only possible because so many of you donate so much of your time and energy! Thank you!

Thank you so much for inviting me to be the frog archon and for everyone that engaged with her. Alexander did a great job writing her and when I was reading the character knew she would be perfect for me! Thank you so much!!

Kyle- I have never been so surprised as an NPC before and I LOVED it with getting the Adze caterpillar taking over Boss Gullawullah at the party night. The rescue was so much fun to rp!!

Derek- telling you I would not do all the things the archon was supposed to do at the party was pretty funny because I don’t think k you caught on immediately why

During the rescue “I’ve been awake this whole time!” When I forgot sleep was a command … Also at the very end the mini exchange …

Krem “That was a rouge operation, I knew nothing about it.”
Gullahwullah “I believe you! And forgive you!” slightly contradictory

So much fun RP as that frog! Dune! You were so fun to rp with and did a great job paying attention to how to get her to vote. Finch did too!!

Tony- omg I want to kidnap you and make you move to Chicago so we could play together more. I love how you were going along with the increasing unhinged ideas of the Adze to make Outlanders all a part of experiments.

“10 poison” too many people tried to lick Gullawullah!

Ana, Andrea and the other on our manic romantacy reading mod that got dialed up to a thousand. “We hate Regina! We want Obscura!”

Claire passing out cards and asking if I wanted the “obvious choice”- being a manic pixie monster was a lot of fun!

One of Claire’s rp instructions to the group of manic pixies being “well… just be Sarah..” lol - I think she regretted that …hahaha

The fishing game as a selkie had no business being as fun as it was

Sam telling me I can’t hurt the circle when I was kicking the air was funny

Erica- thank you for your help with makeup!!

It was great playing with everyone I have so many more but

 

[David E.]

As the honorary mayor I'd like to welcome you to Friendship town. . . .

 

[Mahir]

SO many from this weekend- I'll probably post more later as I remember them.

- The sheer amount of story and hooks that went out. Every time I felt like I had a good pulse on everything, I'd hear about some other plotline that had been going on all weekend that I didn't even know existed.
- Tent city! It was so fun having a couple different communities going on at the same event, and the Yurtlings killed it with decor.
- DRAGON DUEL (Totally Not Censerball). I have been ACHING for this- and what a damn good game it was too. The Rathfall Vikings stand victorious!
- Raising my leg baby. The construct archon 'first lesson' was such a fun idea from plot, and I entertained myself for *hours* talking to my own legs. Not to mention "We vote no. Ha ha. That was a joke. If the outlanders taught me anything, it is that you can always have a little fun"
- The props! From the gorgeous art for the banners to the many, many reps that dropped or were used for NPCs, the repping this weekend was phenomenal.
- THE SUNDAY NIGHT TOWN MOD. Legitimately top 5 experiences in my entire time LARPing between multiple games- and most definitely the single most fraught situation/fight I've ever been in. Leading #TheLucky7 as we got hit again. and again. and again. and again. by group after group was intense and terrifying- and then the sheer horror of getting hit by 3 of the archons at the same time and watching the group absolutely shatter. Not to mention the enslavement that followed- "Do you accept my physical roleplay?" IYKYK
- Waltrich P Tinger (probably misremembering the name, but I think it's close). I wasn't able to go on those mods (and I'm always very glad when there's something specifically for newer players) but every interaction with Ian's puppet-rabbit was phenomenal.
- The gala! Bada's learned to enjoy fancy parties. Begrudgingly. The favor from the dragons was such a nice touch, too.
- Ontario. Goddamn. Jones. I just can't stay mad at you, frog buddy. Even if you accidentally enslaved Aiden.
- The combat this weekend overall- some truly phenomenal fighters on the NPC side, statting that felt threatening without being unfair. Really hit that sweet spot.
- The Draught of Insight. Very cool to see an actual brewing 'mod' even if I only caught the tail end of it, and the vision was very, very cool.
- Judging the spirits in the silver garden. There was WAY more compassion out of the adventurers than I expected. There was so much gravitas in that scene.
- How clean the play was! Sometimes at an event like this you can see some "shenanigans" but it really seemed like everyone was committed to a fair, honest game.
- The pale lady storyline- I really bit into it even if Bada had to struggle with questioning whether or not these spirit guys really counted as undead or not.

 

[Marcus of Passwall.]

SO many from this weekend- I'll probably post more later as I remember them.

- The sheer amount of story and hooks that went out. Every time I felt like I had a good pulse on everything, I'd hear about some other plotline that had been going on all weekend that I didn't even know existed.
- Tent city! It was so fun having a couple different communities going on at the same event, and the Yurtlings killed it with decor.
- DRAGON DUEL (Totally Not Censerball). I have been ACHING for this- and what a damn good game it was too. The Rathfall Vikings stand victorious!
- Raising my leg baby. The construct archon 'first lesson' was such a fun idea from plot, and I entertained myself for *hours* talking to my own legs. Not to mention "We vote no. Ha ha. That was a joke. If the outlanders taught me anything, it is that you can always have a little fun"
- The props! From the gorgeous art for the banners to the many, many reps that dropped or were used for NPCs, the repping this weekend was phenomenal.
- THE SUNDAY NIGHT TOWN MOD. Legitimately top 5 experiences in my entire time LARPing between multiple games- and most definitely the single most fraught situation/fight I've ever been in. Leading #TheLucky7 as we got hit again. and again. and again. and again. by group after group was intense and terrifying- and then the sheer horror of getting hit by 3 of the archons at the same time and watching the group absolutely shatter. Not to mention the enslavement that followed- "Do you accept my physical roleplay?" IYKYK
- Waltrich P Tinger (probably misremembering the name, but I think it's close). I wasn't able to go on those mods (and I'm always very glad when there's something specifically for newer players) but every interaction with Ian's puppet-rabbit was phenomenal.
- The gala! Bada's learned to enjoy fancy parties. Begrudgingly. The favor from the dragons was such a nice touch, too.
- Ontario. Goddamn. Jones. I just can't stay mad at you, frog buddy. Even if you accidentally enslaved Aiden.
- The combat this weekend overall- some truly phenomenal fighters on the NPC side, statting that felt threatening without being unfair. Really hit that sweet spot.
- The Draught of Insight. Very cool to see an actual brewing 'mod' even if I only caught the tail end of it, and the vision was very, very cool.
- Judging the spirits in the silver garden. There was WAY more compassion out of the adventurers than I expected. There was so much gravitas in that scene.
- How clean the play was! Sometimes at an event like this you can see some "shenanigans" but it really seemed like everyone was committed to a fair, honest game.
- The pale lady storyline- I really bit into it even if Bada had to struggle with questioning whether or not these spirit guys really counted as undead or not.

 

[Atradimas]

- The Gala! Atradimas' preferred battlefield through-and-through and it was so full of absolutely wonderful drama, mystery, gossip, and intrigue! My shoulders were absolutely dying by the time I got the shoulder piece off me but we must all make sacrifices in the name of fashion! Plus, I think I made DeSylvia smile and Glenn sigh, so, I consider the outfit a complete success!
- Team. Lucky. Seven. My good lords we should NEVER have called ourselves "lucky". I'm not quite sure if we were actively being hunted or just had terrible luck (yeah...) but we there was essentially a single moment we got any rest and it was exactly two minutes plus ten seconds. We had a well-oiled machine of a unit till the three Archons shattered us. But even then? We got our pillar to the finish line! Major kudos to Bada for her amazing leadership, major love to my fellow supports for keeping us up, major thanks to Marcus for hanging back to deploy WoFs, and an absolutely major hoorah to our fighters for their kill sh*t attitude.
- The Pale Lady! Her storyline hooked me waaaay harder than I thought it would. I'm very sad I missed the first hook but I was on the mod that followed up on that hook, we were led by the Crimson Wyrm to learn answers and after finding out that the C.Wyrm and Pale Lady were in love? UGH amazing. The mod to get the Pale Lady back, to purify her? Absolutely phenomenal. Then coming full circle to be part of the Jury of the Dead? PHENOMENAL. Atradimas wants to be her lol!
- That line fight against one of Shane's NPCs. He kept taunting, I kept throwing Disarms. At one point he goaded me so good I messed up the Disarm incant and fizzled. I love you so much man but UGH. xD You know I'm already bad at aiming, you don't gotta make it worse!
- Getting Prisoned by one of the Fae in a big combat only for O'ot to Dispel it and the Fae Queen to double-tap sleep me. Then I got Awoken... Then had to Reflexive Prison myself like thirty seconds after waking up because I got hit to like 12 then hit again. xD I couldn't see which NPC said it but there was one who commented 'ah they're Prisoned, this one likes to do that' xP In my defense, only one of them was my own! So friggin funny to me!
- Dragon Duel! Censerball is easily one of my favorite downtime activities in Rathfall so to play another version of it/an update to it was phenomenal. Skol to the Rathfall Vikings for bringing home the trophy once more, and a very good game to the opposing team of Rengar, Ourodai, and Zagreus! (I couldn't quite catch your team name! I know it's land-something DX)
- TENT. CITY! This went WAY better than I expected and we only got attacked once! Thank you to Astyral for being Celestial Civic Engineer Extraordinaire and doing zoning work for all of us, thank you to everyone who respected the zoning ordinance, for cleaning up your tenting footprint, and for all the folk who came by for the bonfire!
- Ontario Joooones. The best frogbud an elf could ever ask for! A good combat-frog who will hopefully get to enjoy being a retirement-frog. It's ok bud, you didn't mean to try to Enslave me; if I had a cloak I would have used that but I only had the Bane, srry bud! xP
- I got to see Bada do the zebra stomp in combat for the first time! It's such a good mannerism.
- MEETING SO MANY NEW FRIENDS OMG. There are so many amazing people across the country who I am so terribly sad I likely won't see again for a long while and that rips me up inside but it was such an honor to meet you all.
- Co-casting rits with Frey/Soren! YOU'RE A STAFF. DEFINITELY A STAFF. NOT A CROOK, JUST A STAFF. if you know, ya know ... That it's a staff.
A big thing Dramthin has been teaching me is that rit casting is not just "ok cool make an item for someone" but it can be a gateway to some immense roleplay where you uplift those involved and invest them into the thing being made and each other, thus, bringing not only imbuing the item with ritual magic but the magic of our emotion. The item creation for Prelude will forever be cemented in my mind and I hope that the geas woven into it comes to pass; that it will be the tool of a shepherd, a weapon, a shield, and a guide for all those under Morley's care.
- Rhyming with Soren because of the rit casting. Frey is such a goof, thank you to Cadenza and Saoirse for helping me with my rhymes, because lord knows I suck at them ahaha.
- Stun Locking the Fae Queen! Claire had run out of mettles and I unloaded every last drop of Solidify I had as soon as I saw people were going for the circle beat. It felt so satisfying to help take her down after all the pain and sadness she had caused to the Sylvanborn, Elves, and Selunari. And! To be part of the jury that sentenced her to eternity as a spirit token! A token that I got to keep!
- The gala was probably one of my proudest "this is who Atradimas is" moments. Donning the costume was legitimately like donning _my armor_, others have steel and chain, I have velvet and silk. No one made fun of Atradimas, no one mocked them (to their face, at least), people were amused and impressed from what I could tell. And when it came down to that battlefield, they drew their weapon and got to work. It was fascinating to me because I ended up being like a sort of 'central processor' in the way I often see people going to Glenn for in actual battles, I coordinated people, made suggestions on what they should do/say, tried to stall NPCs and get them off-track so PCs could sneak around/behind. There was one point I was told that I needed to make it look like the party was still on and half the PCs hadn't left to "handle business" so I instructed 'I need us all to move _there_ and just start talking' and no one questioned it and just migrated over to occupy the visual space. It was _amazing_. Also, on-edge Atradimas using their big-elf-glenn-voice and shouting for "SILENCE!" as the master of ceremonies was trying to talk and all the PCs actually going quiet was rad.

Will update with more when my brain is no longer mush! <3

 

[Manflesh]

- The Gala! Atradimas' preferred battlefield through-and-through and it was so full of absolutely wonderful drama, mystery, gossip, and intrigue! My shoulders were absolutely dying by the time I got the shoulder piece off me but we must all make sacrifices in the name of fashion! Plus, I think I made DeSylvia smile and Glenn sigh, so, I consider the outfit a complete success!
- Team. Lucky. Seven. My good lords we should NEVER have called ourselves "lucky". I'm not quite sure if we were actively being hunted or just had terrible luck (yeah...) but we there was essentially a single moment we got any rest and it was exactly two minutes plus ten seconds. We had a well-oiled machine of a unit till the three Archons shattered us. But even then? We got our pillar to the finish line! Major kudos to Bada for her amazing leadership, major love to my fellow supports for keeping us up, major thanks to Marcus for hanging back to deploy WoFs, and an absolutely major hoorah to our fighters for their kill sh*t attitude.
- The Pale Lady! Her storyline hooked me waaaay harder than I thought it would. I'm very sad I missed the first hook but I was on the mod that followed up on that hook, we were led by the Crimson Wyrm to learn answers and after finding out that the C.Wyrm and Pale Lady were in love? UGH amazing. The mod to get the Pale Lady back, to purify her? Absolutely phenomenal. Then coming full circle to be part of the Jury of the Dead? PHENOMENAL. Atradimas wants to be her lol!
- That line fight against one of Shane's NPCs. He kept taunting, I kept throwing Disarms. At one point he goaded me so good I messed up the Disarm incant and fizzled. I love you so much man but UGH. xD You know I'm already bad at aiming, you don't gotta make it worse!
- Getting Prisoned by one of the Fae in a big combat only for O'ot to Dispel it and the Fae Queen to double-tap sleep me. Then I got Awoken... Then had to Reflexive Prison myself like thirty seconds after waking up because I got hit to like 12 then hit again. xD I couldn't see which NPC said it but there was one who commented 'ah they're Prisoned, this one likes to do that' xP In my defense, only one of them was my own! So friggin funny to me!
- Dragon Duel! Censerball is easily one of my favorite downtime activities in Rathfall so to play another version of it/an update to it was phenomenal. Skol to the Rathfall Vikings for bringing home the trophy once more, and a very good game to the opposing team of Rengar, Ourodai, and Zagreus! (I couldn't quite catch your team name! I know it's land-something DX)
- TENT. CITY! This went WAY better than I expected and we only got attacked once! Thank you to Astyral for being Celestial Civic Engineer Extraordinaire and doing zoning work for all of us, thank you to everyone who respected the zoning ordinance, for cleaning up your tenting footprint, and for all the folk who came by for the bonfire!
- Ontario Joooones. The best frogbud an elf could ever ask for! A good combat-frog who will hopefully get to enjoy being a retirement-frog. It's ok bud, you didn't mean to try to Enslave me; if I had a cloak I would have used that but I only had the Bane, srry bud! xP
- I got to see Bada do the zebra stomp in combat for the first time! It's such a good mannerism.
- MEETING SO MANY NEW FRIENDS OMG. There are so many amazing people across the country who I am so terribly sad I likely won't see again for a long while and that rips me up inside but it was such an honor to meet you all.
- Co-casting rits with Frey/Soren! YOU'RE A STAFF. DEFINITELY A STAFF. NOT A CROOK, JUST A STAFF. if you know, ya know ... That it's a staff.
A big thing Dramthin has been teaching me is that rit casting is not just "ok cool make an item for someone" but it can be a gateway to some immense roleplay where you uplift those involved and invest them into the thing being made and each other, thus, bringing not only imbuing the item with ritual magic but the magic of our emotion. The item creation for Prelude will forever be cemented in my mind and I hope that the geas woven into it comes to pass; that it will be the tool of a shepherd, a weapon, a shield, and a guide for all those under Morley's care.
- Rhyming with Soren because of the rit casting. Frey is such a goof, thank you to Cadenza and Saoirse for helping me with my rhymes, because lord knows I suck at them ahaha.
- Stun Locking the Fae Queen! Claire had run out of mettles and I unloaded every last drop of Solidify I had as soon as I saw people were going for the circle beat. It felt so satisfying to help take her down after all the pain and sadness she had caused to the Sylvanborn, Elves, and Selunari. And! To be part of the jury that sentenced her to eternity as a spirit token! A token that I got to keep!

Will update with more when my brain is no longer mush! <3

Backstory insight: You all were able to locate the Pale Lady's manor because Bada offhandedly brought the problem up to the Marquis during the Gala and got the location from him. He knew the location because he went to her manor and was the one to ask to her to take on the burden, forgoing all attachments that fateful day many years ago.

 

[Xanian]

Great event. Really enjoyed getting to meet new people, adventure more closely with some people I had only met in passing, and spend some more time among a couple of my favorite groups of people. Thank you to everyone who took the time and resources to travel and come together for this.

Plot Staff: You guys did a great job. As someone with some experience of running larp in the past, I saw some telltale signs of things being done 'the right way'. I went on a handful of modules and I don't recall any two of them being run by the same plot person. That tells me you guys did a great job of using your resources and working together. The results showed to us, for sure. Thank you for your time, effort, and expertise in making this a success.

- Lava Scorpions/Oni Golem: Thanks, Alexander. This was a fun concept to play and required us to do one of the hardest things for adventurers (controlling a threat without killing it). The mod was well designed and fun to run. Still shaking my fist at whoever enchanted the golem to bane subjugates though, that's just rude.

- World Tree 2.0/Reforestation for Civilization: Thanks to Kyle on this one. This was a fun spin on the 'escort' style mods I've seen in the past. Statting seemed appropriate to what we were doing and who was there. Just an overall solid mod run well.

-Fighting tournament night 2 - Thanks for running this, Ryan. I had the extreme pleasure to peanut gallery these fights. As an orc, I was trying to play up being the heel commentator a bit without being too mean spirited. It was fun to watch. Also fun to yell at the cyclops through the veil of death after the big fight that he had no honor. I had such high hopes for the honor of him and his kind, but they let me down. Oh well.

-Red Herring - Thanks for marshalling this one, Carly. I was walking the line of trying to be a serious orc and giving in to the fish puns. It was a nice break from the tone of many of the other adventures and stories that were going on. Having some silly mods thrown in is the key to a well balanced event. Well done.

-Mines/Kringle/Faewild/Eureka! - Derek, Kudos to you! There was a ton going on with this one and it could have easily turned into a mindless meat grinder without the proper care you took to run this the way you did. I appreciate the variance in the enemies we were seeing and the pace the of the mod overall. Going to the Faewild was fun (despite Binar's...reluctance?) and finally finding a creature of Fae that Binar doesn't hate was nice. It was a smart decision on the main golem card to have one person delegated to defenses to make the fight go a bit smoother overall. It's not something that can be used all the time, but it was very appropriate in this case.

I didn't have the pleasure of going on any of Claire's mods, but I heard good things.

Ben B. / Binar

 

[Matcha]

This event was an absolute banger and is in the top of most difficult and trying events I have ever participated in! Ive never run so hard in my life, and in that last big mod it felt like every time Warcrimes turned around there were three Archons we had *just run from* right in our face again, and they *never* seemed to be running!

But on to my personal favorites!

- As a newer player running with the Pawns in Warcrimes for that town mod, how much respect Ourodai already seems to have. I was one of the smallest cards in that group, and yet I was always at the front scouting ahead with Glenn or Jack and called out so many threats before anyone else had seen them.

- The last pylon. We were holding the gate and I was weaving through the field doing pickups and unloading into whatever I could. At the edge if the forest through the dark, I see a speck of red and someone moving entirely alone and clearly desperate. I slip through the enemy line and make a full sprint, grab the pylon, and relay it back through enemy lines. Something dropped a doom into my back and I just called dodge and kept. *******. Going. to Beryl's circle. I felt unstoppable and called to Glenn and DeSylvia that we had broken the seal. So badass!

- The mod with the water elemental played by Alexander. We were a group of younger adventurers, and as we laid on the line wasn't moving up. Urchins were throwing 5 massive, which we as a group were I'll equipped to handle, but when we realized that we had to kite the elemental into them to break the bubble I had the rest of the group focus on that while I dealt with the *sleep and para vulnerable* sharks. So I was dancing between taking down the sharks with 1 shot paralysis and then hiding behind the elemental to avoid damage. It was the first time I took command of a group on a mod and essentially solo'd it. I'm usually in the background providing utility and thinning crunchies, so it was a little out of my element to step into that role, but it felt really good to know that I can do that and nit only be successful, but also to be respected enough that people listen and trust in me to be that commander for them.

- Campfire time with Coven and friends! It was so nice after such a hard day to just sit down and relax around a fire with some marshmallows and vibe. Thank you to Spinner and everyone else who had planned that out and made it happen!

- Tent City. Big props to Atradimas, Spinner, Astral, and everyone else who helped make that happen! It was wonderful to have a little area all to ourselves and sleeping in a tent alongside allies really added to the feeling of being in something of a war camp under siege.

- Dragon Ball! I'm not a sportsball person, BUT it was an honor to play against the Rathfall Vikings!
- Going into the mind of a brain worm after Rengar ate one, and actually convincing it to.leave willingly. Under threat of death, of course, but it left of its own volition with both host and parasite unharmed. I wasn't sure how.much mentalism would come in to play at Nationals but im glad I got to do something fun with it!

- Rushing up the stairs with Glenn to free Dane at the end.

- Just in general It felt really good to be at the vanguard for almost that entire mod and to be able to do Rogue **** and also never go down despite my relatively few defensive. I spent that entire mid scouting ahead, calling out threats, or dashing behind enemy lines to pick people up behind the line.

- Finally, being able to claim the Venatrix's Judgement at the auction. I REALLY wanted something from the Pantherghast Corps, and to have THE thing from their very leader feels like fate, especially since I was able to duel a number of the pantherghasts solo or pick off a few behind the line.

There were so many other amazing moments, but everyone did such a phenomenal job and this will be an event I will never forget! Well done everyone!

 

[Darkcrescent]

It was a strange feeling coming out of this event. It's literally been on my mind since July 2024 when Nate and Jon asked me to be HoP for a National Game at Castle. I remember asking for only one thing, "I'm personally picking my plot team", and what a team. Each person brought their A game from different parts of the Midwest and to see it all come together over the course of a year was incredible to witness. The original event pitch itself looked nothing like it did this weekend and that is the benefit of having a great team. I didn't just get to plan a National event with experienced Plot members, I got to plan an event with friends--people I have known for over a decade at the minimum. Everyone had moments to shine, to bring their passions to full display and work to make Nationals 2025 quite the experience. I'll remember this weekend for years and years to come and am so proud to do it with an amazing group of friends.

-The Dragon Gala. I knew I wanted to do a Ball/Gala at Nationals and couldn't have guessed how rich and intricate it would become. Espionage, theiving plot involving The Venatrix, the Adze to infect an Archon, the art show, Evangeline's on screen appearance. All of it came together so well.

-The Sunday Town fight is something as a Player I would have lived for. Danger around every turn, a hunt across a site for items. From an NPC standpoint it was incredible to turn a corner, see PCs, see those PCs notice you and just up and book it. The fight was intense, the stakes were high and the moments made will last a lifetime.

-Seeing folks dive into the Lore of Olarith and all the revelations discovered. The secret love of Crimson Wyrm and Lady in White, The origin of the Reverie Castle, Secret Feywild Portal and other great story beats. We put around 60 pages of Lore into Olarith and I'm sure not all of it was touched on. That said, hope folks got to see the IG lore documents on each faction and I'm sure those will be posted at some point.

-Walking out of NPC camp seeing Andrea, Sarah, Ana and Layla reading "A Realm of Feather and Fang" out loud and laughing made my day. It was a campy riff on the Romantasy Genre that was so much fun to write--even with one particular spicy scene.

-The Potatoes were so tasty!

-Hearing of little moments others had throughout the event. From Endowing to pick up a fallen comrade who otherwise would have rezzed, to screaming Salix's name while having to retreat, to epic stands against 3 headed Leadfang. The more and more I hear from folks the more evident we play an immersive and emotional larp.

I'll more more throughout the week.

Thanks again everyone!
-Claire

 

[hjordan2814]

The event was a blast, an exhausting, non stop blast. There was a slight worry going in that I might not enjoy it as much NPCing, and I was completely proven wrong.

-I'll be honest, when I was first told that there was a bunny puppet NPC that they had me in mind to play, I was a bit skeptical initially. Once I actually got the writeup about them and the storyline, I knew "Go be a grizzled detective in bunny form" was going to be fun. I'm glad others enjoyed my nonsense character. I was really surprised to see the Muppet Effect coming into play despite my complete lack of ventriloquism ability. People started looking at the bunny instead of me when Walter was talking.
-R5 was quite enjoyable playing up the Robot bit. The amount of RP choices which all stemmed from "Ok, how would a robot act/react in this situation". Throwing a robot in a Gala was especially fun to make those choices.
-Sunday Town mod was super fun to truly just be a wandering monster. Really neat to wander around and get a first hit jump on a combat in progress.
-The amount of organization and just overall enthusiasm in Monster Camp was amazing. Everyone was game and ready to play. The abundance of efforts meant there was no "You HAVE to go on every mod" energy, which so great to not have that pressure in an event.

Echoing the others, many other great moments, but the words aren't coming to mind. Thank you everyone, both PCs and NPCs. You have contributed to this being an amazing event.

 

[Tuli]

I have been thinking about the event so much and one thing I had to share!

The PC that got the flag and booked it to the castle….

I was the NPC team that was supposed to stop him… I literally just watched him run by going “huh…. Wonder what he is doing…” because I didn’t know what the PCs were trying to accomplish at that point.

Then Alexander comes up the path and tells “stop him!” Ohh! Oh shoot! lol - he was in the circle already. I failed MISERABLY at that

 

[Tuli]

It was a strange feeling coming out of this event. It's literally been on my mind since July 2024 when Nate and Jon asked me to be HoP for a National Game at Castle. I remember asking for only one thing, "I'm personally picking my plot team", and what a team. Each person brought their A game from different parts of the Midwest and to see it all come together over the course of a year was incredible to witness. The original event pitch itself looked nothing like it did this weekend and that is the benefit of having a great team. I didn't just get to plan a National event with experienced Plot members, I got to plan an event with friends--people I have known for over a decade at the minimum. Everyone had moments to shine, to bring their passions to full display and work to make Nationals 2025 quite the experience. I'll remember this weekend for years and years to come and am so proud to do it with an amazing group of friends.

-The Dragon Gala. I knew I wanted to do a Ball/Gala at Nationals and couldn't have guessed how rich and intricate it would become. Espionage, theiving plot involving The Venatrix, the Adze to infect an Archon, the art show, Evangeline's on screen appearance. All of it came together so well.

-The Sunday Town fight is something as a Player I would have lived for. Danger around every turn, a hunt across a site for items. From an NPC standpoint it was incredible to turn a corner, see PCs, see those PCs notice you and just up and book it. The fight was intense, the stakes were high and the moments made will last a lifetime.

-Seeing folks dive into the Lore of Olarith and all the revelations discovered. The secret love of Crimson Wyrm and Lady in White, The origin of the Reverie Castle, Secret Feywild Portal and other great story beats. We put around 60 pages of Lore into Olarith and I'm sure not all of it was touched on. That said, hope folks got to see the IG lore documents on each faction and I'm sure those will be posted at some point.

-Walking out of NPC camp seeing Andrea, Sarah, Ana and Layla reading "A Realm of Feather and Fang" out loud and laughing made my day. It was a campy riff on the Romantasy Genre that was so much fun to write--even with one particular spicy scene.

-The Potatoes were so tasty!

-Hearing of little moments others had throughout the event. From Endowing to pick up a fallen comrade who otherwise would have rezzed, to screaming Salix's name while having to retreat, to epic stands against 3 headed Leadfang. The more and more I hear from folks the more evident we play an immersive and emotional larp.

I'll more more throughout the week.

Thanks again everyone!
-Claire

We love Shadow Mommy Obscura!

I could retell you this entire story but dont ask me to explain how mettle works …

 

[Kirutian]

Meeting people again I've met on my travels.
Coming up with a master plan and SUCCEEDING, before being told it wasn't allowed. Just happy to know it WOULD have worked!
Being confronted by Desylvia and Co for my antics.
The corn chowder was absolutely delicious.
The final battle was chaotic and therefore incredibly fun.

 

[Manflesh]

What a blast of an event! Thank you to all NPCs and staff that poured in so many hours of labor and love to make this event happen. Nate and Jon didn't go on a single mod for the first 36 hours of the event but still logged in more steps than most plot members by that time. Thank you to Claire for reaching out and pulling me into this fun mad world and allowing me to help shape it with full trust and support.

-The Silvered Processional was a fun way to set a tone for the start of the event. Our group made a point to spend several minutes rehearsing the chants before walking down to the courtyard. "Maybe they're just a cult" was a hilarious thing to hear while marching. Also learning someone had decided to tag along the back.
-For as often as the mining mod was repeated, I loved that each time it was a slightly different group with drastically different ways to approach it. Half of them involved running away once the Onyx Golem showed up.
-I didn't know what to expect when i was asked to head the banner town mod, but man, was a great to RP that banner ritual with practically everyone in game. Kudos to the hoblings for almost immediately feeding Dain to help showcase why they are proud to be a hobling.
-Having the town go ride or die for the rogue Lumere ghost almost immediately before a pantherghast came into town to kill it. Squaring up with Katie in the hallway was so much fun.
-The Gala went better than I could've hoped. Having helped plan and execute it, watching *every* plot point and hook get gobbled up by the PCs was amazing. While we aren't a parlor larp, injecting a little of that kind of fun into one mod was the perfect break halfway through the event saturday night. Hearing later the degrees players went to removing the charms from the Venatrix was amazing. Having private political talks with Kira (Kelly) while dancing felt straight outta a movie.
-I'm so pleased the archon mods for the Echo Tribunal and Quarry Conglomerate landed so well with players. Getting to slowly trudge toward the line of PCs as Onyx built such a satisfying amount of suspense and tension. Watching players be horrified when completing journals for the Lady in Black caused them to killing blow themselves in increasingly more horrific ways was sweet.
-Jon playing a roguey ghost and swing breaks specifically targeting production items and superior equipment was mean and hilarious.
-Having a PC ask the Quarry Conglomerate to teach him the secrets of being a gem lich and I just happen to already have a vibes mod written showcasing the transformation of a Stonelite was too perfect. I wish him the best of luck not having any access to easy healing anymore.
-Playing the Leshy Sunday night was the best!!! Granted we picked such a remote location for the pillar it took 30 minutes for a group to find us (with some help from some annoying frogs trying to get ANYONE to follow them). Emerging from the forest in front of Justin and hearing some people in the back yell "oh F&$# that" and run away was the best.
-Adding the Pale Lady's judgement in the Silvered Gardens was one of the last mods I wrote for the ET. I was so happy so many PCs came out to be a part of it. Fun fact, we originally wrote six eulogies to include Krem assuming the PCs didn't turn his vote. Cut to me running the last mod and realizing four eulogies in that CRAP Krem lived and I accidently pulled one too many NPC spirits and Emma didn't have a sixth eulogy to say. So I improv'd adding Kringle. It worked out SO well.
- Also Benjamin, how are you not dead?

Thank you for everyone to came out to play and beat us up.

 

[J'rajj]

I had some really fun moments at this event, and I'm glad that got to pretty much take a break and do what I wanted, even as an npc.

I like that my joke npc Ontario Jones happened kind of organically as on friday nobody knew who was a pc or npc, and I just so happened to dress well enough that people thought I was a PC and at the end just walked unharried up the stairs, threw intoxicates down, and then walked through the pcs out the front gates. It was then I decided my card would upgrade every time Ontario lived through something he shouldn't have.
I like that people ended up enjoying him, or at least won't forget the name.
It's always my goal to go on a mod with the PCs as my joke npc (and get loot split!) and I was successful!
Seeing Sid's excited face when I sat down in front of him as Ontario, and then he cheered as I brought cards out to play poker
Betraying Bada and the rest of the PCs (and somehow living!?)

"Oh hey bud I just got new orders, I havent had a chance to read them, why don't we step outside and have a look!"​

Bada, reading the note backwards through the sunlight "It just says 'execute order 66'?"​

"Soory bud, I gotta kill ya"​

The pcs in the courtyard: "Ontario, nooo! what are you doing?"​

Then Ontario coming back at the end on sunday, (consensually) shooting out intoxicates, euphorias, and (because it was funny) enslaving Aiden to: be his friend, have a good time, and practice emotional growth

I had a lot of fun messing around as the Magnum Opus Archon
"teach me necromancy!"
"I am not whole! I feel very u n d e m o c r a t i c!" and the pcs then scrambling to find the final piece of armor
Bada teaching the golem that "You can always have a little fun!"
Messing around with Ana and Sarah "Do you enjoy Human sustenance?"

That final big mod awesome. top 3 battles ever.
I had a blast playing Leadfang, and appreciated how well-constructed the prop was.
If it seemed like Leadfang was everywhere, that is because I did a lot of running.

Dragon Duels! now being referred to as Dragon Ball, aka Censerball aka the most Ancient Rites of the Triumvirate of the Grimere Expanse aka Pyre adapted to Alliance
I'm pleased with how well it went, and the enthusiasm players have for it. The rules are complex, but even the newer players (mostly) got the hang of them and a great game was played.
I'm improving it every time, and aside from a few spectator-friendly tweaks I think it's pretty much there.
Censerball tournament in November, world ending be damned.

I really tried to interact with some new people and not just the people I was friends with and knew well, but I'm really bad with names. Special shoutout to Belt-giving dark elf for looping The Ivory Wyrmlord into the frog-worm conspiracy, it was a fun gala side-plot. Lucinda? Crystal-horned oathsworn in plate, for the badass pantherghast honor duel. and Zagreus (Instantly locked in your name because of the game Hades), I think I cold-approached you and pitched dragon duels and you went all in on it, Hope to see you make it down for the next censerball tournament and dethrone the Rathfall Vikings

 

[Ragnarok]

I had a blast! These are the things my brain remembers,

-I came to win Fantasy WWE and I WON Fantasy WWE. Great fights with everyone there, this is the **** I love. The Finale was incredible and I hope it was entertaining for all! I love the belt!

-I get excited when Alex shows up to play poker and he's wearing a funny hat.

-Seeing so many plots happen from the outside! Something about building a new rock guy? OK cool, do that! Yall are making a potion? Fuckin sweet!

-Late night happy cigars with good friends.

-Friends from across the country, I love seeing yall. Extra special shout out to Ryan W. / Bluwolf. It was excellent to see you again buddy!

-I have gone on the Pikman mod. I'm allowed to die now. It was magical.

-And 1000 more tiny interactions

**More stuff I remember!

-Noli's breakfast Sandwiches!!!

-"A brothel is a place where you can get broth" - Jute

-Getting Almond to give me a gold three times in a row for an MI

-Poker! Ya win some, ya loose some. Currently -2.5g

-Cole: "*Incomprehensible Platypus noises*"
Ian: "He says thanks for everything and he votes yes"

-Walter P. Tinger, retired PI. Probably my favorite voice Ian does!

-"Oh this isn't my face, its a hat" - Boss Gullawulla

 

[Stripe]

(Seamus - player of Benjamin the caterpillar-kyn)
I had an absolute blast, and still didn't get to do half of what I wanted to get done! There were so many story lines happening at once that sounded like fun. But I did get to do a ton, and I'm writing at least some of it down before I forget about it.

-Getting people together for the Quarry Conglomerate mods. The mine shaft fights were fun as heck, and getting to be the one who organized everything was a blast - even the small 'just in and out' group we had that managed to pull off some excellent teamwork to scout the excavator's second form. And the huge final fight at the end with everyone asking me all the pre-fight questions beforehand. The whole thing turned out so well!

-Getting the archon's armor to carry into the final Sunday battle, and getting to talk to our newly formed friend. Hopefully Ben taught him all the ways not to almost get yourself killed trying to help. All the work to gather those ore shards really helped out in the final battle with the goodies we got

-The battle for the flag on Saturday. With groups of enemies coming from every direction, and so many people switching in and out the line it felt like a honestly epic battle with flanking and lines surging up and back the whole way. Just the sheer scale of it all was amazing!

-The final Sunday fight! In multiple parts because there was so much there - lucky group seven had a lot happen!
-Finding the first pylon at the same time as the other Chicago group and managing to sandwich them from two angles at once.
-Running down to the docks to hit the group there... only to find two guys just hanging by the lake. We waved. They waved back. Of course the wilderkin were in front.
-The frog pylon fight... When we were falling back after getting hit by three archons, I joined the smaller group of adventurers being led by the frogs to the (I think the last?) pylon, and winding up being in an ad-hoc team without spellcasters and staying to help. And we found the pylon! With an archon right next to it, and my resist stopping the brutal 'voice radius fear, voice radius pin' from knocking most of us down. I actually blew 24 antidotes (yay for cure for what ails you) in less than a minute there. I don't know who tested it, but when we saw he was swinging 30 web, I grabbed one of the shield users (who's name I forgot but who saved the day) to help cover while I grabbed the pylon and ran (I had the immunity from binding from the stonelight archon), taking a once ever life after a few dooms hit me from behind. Got to the road with everyone else falling back through the trees (and they all survived, yay!). Chased, and coming face to face with the three headed wolf on the road with one body and no backup. Lying there watching the curve into the castle and hearing everyone there still fighting. It took over ten minutes for someone to find and get me a life spell. So glad I had brewing skills that day. And that Alex forgot to killing blow (or chose not to because he thought I had a vengence, or was just too surprised I tried to run through like that). And used the life spell to sprint away from the fight back to the castle... and trip and hit the trail hard enough to be out of the fight. Which was fine because I needed a bit after that to take in all that intensity. I've never had that much of an emotional roller coaster from a game before.

-Tea and apple cider at night. I'm glad so many people got to unwind together after all that craziness.

And writing this out I'm starting to see a pattern of me getting people together for a 'just in and out' and things going south. A lot. Not sure if this is good that my caterpillar is now being brave, or what. But I'm glad for everyone who encouraged him to take more of a leadership roll in the future. It was so much fun to have these experiences and help grow with everyone like that. I'm still coming down from everything too!