March 2019 ~ Favorite moments!!

Hello friends! I hope everyone had a truly fantastic time at game. Special thanks to all of our new players who came out, and to the hard working NPCs who kicked ***, as usual. Also to the PCs who are better people than me and crossed over to NPC this weekend.

Please take a few minutes to share with us your favorite moments from the game! It does the plot team and NPCs good to see how much fun you had, and some of the other players love reading them, too! I'll post mine, below.
 
"Archers, Fire!"
Number one moment was 8 archers all pelting the same poor NPC. Fantastic.
Loved the trolls. Just sitting listening to their chatter was quite fun. Confusion over why someone would eat "sah-lahd" and "Small, pink one" :)
Hillbilly orcs making corrupted moonshine. That was a tough fight, but lots of fun!
Gotta say I always have a blast with physical challenge mods. Hopping from rock to rock on our way to go deal with a talking wall of fire. Great stuff.
Felt a bit odd, but was quite enjoyable to be playing music during an epic battle. Those Ilithids tried very hard to shatter that recorder! (thanks for all the spell shields, friends)
 
  • Rifting out friday night, and just in general the consequences of Sunny's decisions... >.>
  • Zakar perming and causing all kinds of fun RP for me even though he wasn't even at the event.
  • The Ulrathi mod Friday night was amazing, and trying to shepard all of the destined into small tunnels was awesome.
  • Sierra and Emily's rescue mod was amazing, from the traps, to the having to jump on pillars, to the fun banter with their NPCs and accusations of trouble.
  • Whoever wrote up the scout/tracking blue card. Thank you!!! Since everything was buried under the snow it was really hard to find the tracks, but spending the time to do so felt awesome. Especially uncovering the final card at the end which was COMPLETELY buried and the only reason it was found was because of the tracks. <3 <3 <3
  • Closest Sunny has gotten to the circle yet. (Thank you Dem and Kendrick for the save)
  • Thank you to everyone who checked in on me when my brain gave out saturday night, and thank you for the brief bits of RP in the KS cabin when I was reduced to a heal bot hiding under the blankets sylvan.
  • The party mushroom Sunday morning, and the shenanigans of trying (and failing) to get intoxicated.
 
My turn! I tried to check in with the most important ones after game, but as always, if you felt like Alis was really awful to your character (it happens) and you'd like to talk it out, OOC, please let me know! My character is neither tactful, nor patient and I know sometimes it can be intense. I'm always happy to check in with folks. :) I promise I probably won't eat you OOC.

This game was pretty good for me, VERY emotional. My character continues to surprise me with new things that I didn't know or plan for. Favorite moments (that I can share):

*Good, if brief, conversations with Thaddeus Blaine. I feel like if ever there was a noble who'd say "I didn' see nuthin',"... ;) He's such a great NPC and RPing with Paul Sr. is always a joy.
*The most tense meeting with the Duchess ever, and the somewhat hilarious conversations with Elavir and Darius afterward. "You. YOU YOU YOU YOU!!!" - Darius
*Every single second my new garb got complimented (thank you guys!!!). I worked really hard on it and it was delightful to be noticed. Made me very proud and happy.
*The debates with Parzivel about feelings and actions.
*Saturday night fight. Holy ****, so brutal and terrifying. I, for one, really love genuine terror in my LARP experience, and I was really pretty sure we were all about to die. I really enjoyed the speed and scariness of it, and the genuine fright that came over me when I realized Parzivel had been taken and was literally destroying people at the most alarming rate I've ever seen him fight. I was also very pleased that my aim was true, for once, and Alis was able to doom spell his happy *** and fix him. (Until he was charmed AGAIN, anyway.)
*Hard internal character introspection and realizations leading to questions like, "Do you miss who I used to be?". I always really love my RP with Parzivel, especially when we get time to talk alone, because it's the only time both of our characters really open up and say things. Feelings are safer behind closed doors.
*The horrifying moment Alis started crying in the tavern because she realized at exactly the wrong moment how much she genuinely misses Calidan. (I had no idea she was sad, just angry. Oops.)
*Not really a favorite moment, but I do want to give a shoutout to Nissa for being such an exceptional RPer. She is so good at connecting to her character that Alis forgot several times that it was Nytillit and not Athena, and that created a lot of nuanced and uncomfortable RP moments that I really enjoyed.
*Alis finally had her first real conversation with Connor. She liked him immediately. God damnit.
*Grudgingly thanking Sandro for helping to save Parzivel. I love the weird relationship between our two characters. Thank you, Nick.
 
This was the second event that I PCed in 2 years. I knew it would be about shaking off the rust. I want to extend a big thanks to Ian Moriarty, and my Rivervalies, to all the other Barons and John Siadak in particular, for helping me figure out pretty much everything about being a PC again! My new skills. My items. Basic tactics in the new rules set. My character's morality, personality, and "job on this ship."

I also want to thank a variety of PCs who gave me an opportunity to renew old bonds, and forge new ones, whether or not you knew you were doing that: Karlee Nasalrod, Leora Wambach, Casey Yeager, Will Haddon, William Broderick, Suzanne Bastien. Taking such a long break while staffing and coming back is a marvelous opportunity to make changes in my character, roleplay, and interactions, and I am grateful for chances to change the rythm a bit.
  • New site (to me)! Love how flat it is, how close the central town buildings are, how clean and near the bathhouse is, and the internal floorplan of my cabin. My commute from Broomfield was also very easy. Had a brief chance to meet one of the camp managers on Sunday, and she was so lovely and gracious, expressing gratitude for our group's rental, and that was a relief!
  • Faerie village on the big rock outside my cabin (11): We discovered this Saturday and kicked ourselves that we hadn't noticed earlier... only to later learn PCs apparently set that up. It was a cute and weird addition. I have no idea what the story was with that, but thanks for adding a little fun props color to the neighborhood!
  • Various 1:1 talks about the Scions: Was nervous going in about potential results of roleplay with Sir Kendrick and used Star Trek as my guide in always trust the crew. Loved the visit from Baroness Elavir to catch up and talk like we used to, and practice roleplaying again after so long in a comfortable, relaxed environment. Talked more with Parzivel than I think our characters ever have in 5 years - I'll take the excuse! Had a brief, but meangingful to Katherine exchange with Alis prior to Saturday morning's meeting. LOVED the chance to bond a little with Lady Guildmistress Cynder late Saturday night as both a character, and a player that I've been hoping to have a chance to get to know better. For both Parzivel and Cynder, the circumstances were sad IG, but I was pleased for the silver lining of opportunity to talk and connect - and of course that's the goal of roleplay!
  • Rivervale LCOP on the well outside our cabin within the first 10 minutes of game FTW!
  • Panax reporting back that a random piece of historical trivia - that Bayenna takes its heraldic colors from the Sparhawk Family - happened by coincidence to be immediately useful on Friday night. It's so delightful to a trivia or history buff to know that! :)
  • Ryan Mosher on my team getting to write and run his first LARP mod, and going into such detail with its story, and his NPC and costuming! Great job, Ryan!
  • Belswin - so many delightful moments! I just love the stuffing out of you, and you make my world so much brighter IC and OOC, thank you for being you and being here! <3 "Bring me that howl bear so I may kill it!" over and over.
  • Annual School Picture Day for Rivervale! Getting dressed up fancy, and Juliet's delightful direction in photography
  • Baron Wolsey's elevation - Graham and Kate have character history connections, and we've had such a remarkable journey together in our noble careers. It was a heartwarming honor to get to watch his very well-deserved elevation to high station, a meaningful moment for my character watching one of her best friends excel
  • BROOKE WEARING RED. How striking. That was tough... happy for her!... but tough for Team Green!
  • Chivalry School: What a turnout! I am so grateful IC and OOC for the attention of so many of you, and really honored by new and newish players who rolled the dice with your patience and time to see what this was about. We had some really neat IC discussion, and I was delighted by persons other than "the usual suspects" speaking up here. Thank you so much!
  • Paul Mosher, Sr.: I just love him! Was so amused by the 90-second walk-on from the L.W.A., and the little storyline attached which I understand may be Dan Begnoche's first foray into writing. We assembled a BGA team to pursue this, and once BGAs reopen, we're so excited for it!
  • Winged Heart of Doomwing: Sweet prop, dude!
  • Owen Loats's first loot split :)
To open and close with gratitude, I also want to thank every player who was kind to answer a rules question, or tell me a spell verbal, or express sympathy that so many of us are in the same boat of feeling uncertain in our knowledge about the new rules so far.

I really enjoyed knocking the rust off my roleplay, and while I entered the March event like a lamb in enthusiasm, I approach the April event like a lion, with some confidence restored!

Thank you all,
Trace
 
Boy oh, boy. Where to start. I had a LOT of fun this event, though I really wished I had spent more time interacting with the new characters.

  • First and foremost; the new dwarf PC who approached Sandro and asked "Are you well, Warrior?" This quote has been repeated aboit 56 times since on the drive bome to kansas. I loved the absolute shock that sandro experienced when somebody thought he was a Warrior. -a warrior-.
  • I was super nervous about the new armor, as ive only ever worn it once before and the red undercoat I hand made. I was super flattwred by all the nice words, and, admittedly, Baron Eigal's confusion on me. Thanks for the save, Ian.
  • Mike and Trace. I cant thank you enough for the gift, and the hat is absolutely amazing. Thank you both so much. Also, really want to thank Paul Mosher Sr for putting those barrels to such fantastic use. They looked AMAZING.
  • Swearing oath with Gambit.
  • Saturday night, goofing around before THE CHARM FEST. Pranking my boy Gambit and then immediately questioning my own will to live as Parzival stood under the snowy boughs. I... Have nevwr questioned before how far Sandro would go for the sake of a joke. Apparently, the line is drawn at Parzival's boots.
  • The entire Charm Fest. Squaring off against Ian Moriarty, Emeric and to a lesser extent Parzival. Hearing Alis shout for help struck a weird chord with Sandro; desperation coming from a stoic person evidently inspires him.
  • Putting Sword-Woof on the ground because he didnt know the right answer to "are you enslaved", then getting Slay'd three times later on because i got charmed by said Stab-Doggo. Fairs fair, i guess lol.
  • Brawling with Maddy. (Another thank you to Mike for keeping the fight safe.)
  • Alis. After the fight, those brief words she gave to Sandro. I super enjoy Sandro and Alis's... Whatever you would call it. Lol.
  • Jesse. Thank you for the mod you put on for the Philosophers stone, again.
Great event guys. Csnt wait for next month!
 
  • Thanks Sandro for actually asking to inspect the "head wound". I'm sad my prosaide had failed by that point (I had expected someone to try that hours before), but live and learn.
  • While discussing the ramifications of new horns, surprise Ulrathi plot/mod with Yssenia! Glad we at least got those slaves out. The slaves accidentally throwing 20s at our poor destined :eek:
  • All the Merchant's Guild / Crafting plot and LCO crafting stuff from Jesse and Senior, it's got some kinks to work out but we'll get there!
  • Finally clearing out the backlog of boot orders for everyone with Wulfgar and Panax!
  • Was glad that the bulletin board I put up saw some use, didn't take long for it to get covered in notes, orders, advertisements, etc.
  • Yay blue cards!
  • Cynder and Darius, thank you for all the trust you put into Markov, even if he doesn't always quite live up to it.
 
SO many! Okay, I hope you guys are sitting down...

COMMUNITY
Several Random Friendly Folk: "Thank you guys so much for coming out to try our LARP!"
Multiple Groups: "If you guys need anything at all, in or out of game, please come find me. My whole group would love to help."
So Many New Faces: "Hi. I know we haven't met. I just wanted to introduce myself and say welcome to Alliance!"

Um, damn Alliance. What a way to begin a new LARP journey for us! Being so overwhelmingly welcomed by everyone, in and out of game, was like a breath of fresh air! Just... wow. What an amazing community y'all have built! You've definitely restored my faith in a hobby I have been involved in for decades and that I love so much. Jesse, I think it's safe to say we've found our new LARP home.

NEW LARPers
Our Pages: "The event just started and you want us to go find a what?! W... Ward? We got this! Who is that? What does he look like? Is he up by the tavern?!"

Getting to experience all the unknowns, all the majesty, all the newness of LARP again through the new eyes of our pages very first full weekend LARP experience was priceless! Just the best loot we could take home by far.

BLOTTING OUT THE SUN
All the Archers: *As an NPC, Paul Sr.'s eyes go wide only moments before a cloud of blue packets bury him!*

Two words: Archer. Corps. It's an idea I've been telling folks would work for years in other games. SO glad I finally found a group that was willing to give it a go! And mercy... was it effective!!!

FAETOWN
Luise: "We will be right back.”
Talyn: "Um, Pages, where are you going?! Its snowing like crazy right now.”
Mia: "Exactly. We need to go clear the snow off the village. We're NOT gonna be slum lords!"

The tiny Fae Village. Yup. That was us. I'm so sorry if it confused some people. We thought our Littles would love it, so we surprised them by letting them even pick the spot they wanted to set it up. Even gave them each a tiny set of keys on necklaces for the houses. It'll be back as simple decoration again because they loved it so much...... but if our Page Plot Team wants to borrow our tiny addition for ALL the pages to enjoy somehow, go for it!

SLAVERS (almost…)
Darok, the Stone Troll: "Wait. You're saying that they rip the plant up from out of the dirt, then they attack it with blades, and consume it?! On purpose?!?”
Sir Wagerset: “Well sorta. Yes, it is called salad and we call them vegetarians.”
Sonny: “Exactly. They gain sustenance from the bounty of the earth. Much like herd animals that graze in fields.”
Darok: “I see. So, Tiny Pink One, we will need to trade for several of your Vemurturians to take back to our cattle pens so that they may sustain us through winter in the Fangs.”
*Darius and Sonny share a wide eyed terrified stare as they begin to form a plan to gently back away from accidentally creating a brand new slave race*

So hard to hold a straight face and NPC a serious Troll between Mac trying SO hard to hold back laughter and Gabby’s giant smile! Thank you both for some of the best RP in a good long time!

NOBLE EFFORT
Talyn: “Thank you so much for leading the class today. We really enjoyed attending.”
Neysa: “Yes! It was very informative. I enjoyed it alot."
Baroness of Rivervale: “Well, thank you both for attending and participating so vigorously!”
Talyn: “We wanted to honor the gift of your time, with a gift of our own.”
*We present Trace’s PC with a large decorative silver key.*
Baroness: “Thank you so much!!! That is so very kind of you both! I have to share with you, we have a long standing tradition in Rivervale of presenting keys as tokens of affection to our loved ones.”
*The newly affianced Neysa and Talyn share a quick nervous glance with each other wondering if they have just declared their undying love to their new noble neighbor.*

We shared a good hard laugh that left us in tears back in our cabin after that nervous exchange, Trace! It was SO nice getting to see you again and of course meet and role-play with your PC. You were one of the special bonus relationships that we were able to renew by joining Alliance and we were very happy that it happened!

PRESSING ON
Talyn: “I’m not sure if this battle is a good idea, Your Excellency. I seem to have split a nail. Now... it is not on my draw hand and I have checked with the Healer’s Guild. The general consensus among all of their assembled healers there was that I should be able to make a full recovery given enough time and rest.”
Baroness of Tiatar, pausing the preparation of the pending battle: “Are you sure?! Do you truly feel that we should not proceed with the assembled Black Dragon’s forces assembling across the field?”
Talyn: “…… I will endeavor to press on, if you deem it prudent to do so, Your Excellency.”
Baroness, attempting to stifle a giggle: “Well then I think we shall give it a go! Thank you for your strong conviction Goodman Archer and for pushing past your personal pain for the greater good.”

Another amazing mote of RP from Juliet! Thank you so much for all the support and information about the in and our of game world of Alliance! I know we met prior, but it was great getting to see some familiar faces on site again!

RIB GOODBYE
*knock on the cabin door*
Baron of Tiatar: “Unfortunately, the Baroness and I have very pressing matters that we must attend to and just did not want to leave without saying goodbye.”
Baroness of Tiatar: “Yes, it was very nice to meet all of you and we look forward to our next gather.”
Neysa: “Well, that was kind. We were just preparing for dinner. Are you sure you don’t have a few moments to share a meal with us?”
Talyn, locking eyes with the Baron: “We’ve been smoking and preparing these ribs for the past two days.”
*The Baron blinks really hard. Twice.*
Baron: Well, we don’t want to be rude and just rush off…”
Talyn: “The Ward recognizes the Baron and Baroness of Tiatar!”

Man, I will take fellowship and breaking bread with you two any day! Share a meal in game and learn all about the political landscape in Alliance?! Yes, please, even better!! Thanks for everything, Raymond and Juliet. You two are a gift.

COLORS
Talyn: “Thank you so much for your time, Your Grace. We will indeed meet with the representative of your Heraldry Guild and clear registration with them. It was a true pleasure to meet you!”

There were so many people that wanted to know what to call us, or how to identify us in game. We weren’t being intentionally vague, we just didn’t know what the rules were about presentation and didn’t want to walk into our first Alliance LARP and get in trouble for impersonating a noble! LOL. We were also so torn between the honor of getting to meet the Duchess in game and FINALLY getting to see Jess out of game because she had been so helpful in getting us ready via so many emails and phone calls for our first event. She’s just the very best! I know I am not the only one that feels this way, but we are so lucky to have her!!!

AWKWARD RESURRECTION
*Sir Noah of Rivervale takes Neysa’s spirit’s hand and Talyn’s real hand as he starts the process of easing Neysa’s spirit back across.*
Noah: "Neysa can you recall a memory of happiness? Maybe when you first saw the elf you now love so much?”
Neysa: “Well, I first saw Talyn when he came to visit and trade with his Father. I was nine and he was 75. I had never seen … “
*Noah’s eyes go wide and we feel his hands twitch in ours for just a moment!*
Noah: “… Um, we journey further down your life path to an OLDER time when you experienced happiness with Talyn! Let’s uh… let’s focus there!”

I was dying and crying from laughter! SO funny watching him back peddle outa that! It was a great tension break in a pretty intensely sad moment for us. Sorry, player of Noah, but thank you for literally holding our hands through it!

I could go on… but this is already ridiculously long! Needless to say, we had a great game and can not wait to do it again!!!
 
Hoo man. It's been too long since I wrote one of these.

- First and foremost, oh goodness, all of Team Tiatar at the same game! It's been a while since that happened for more than an afternoon.
- Trying desperately to rally the town to arms when I realized the attackers weren't just trying to kill us. This was followed by a bad decision trying to save Squire Aikoll that got Demvarien infected.
- "Cornering" Sark with Wulfgar only to be charmed in short order and turned on Tiberius, then walking up and down the battlefield six times looking for my new friend before somebody caught on.
- Getting to see my dear brother Ryan run his first mod!
- "Respectfully, coming from a place of deep and abiding love... shut the **** up, Aikoll." The squires had good banter this weekend.
- Being part of Baron Wolsey's elevation ceremony! And a funny little chat with Her Grace about being careful because the sword Dem was carrying had Race Reaver: Human.
- All weekend trying to balance Demvarien's identity as a biata with his chosen path as a Squire. Political negotiation on behalf of Phoenix with Her Grace stands out, as well as...
- Squire School! It was really, really weird mostly agreeing with Parzival. It was also a real punch to the gut when Baron Nordheim pointed out that nobody but him really cared that the illithids had a homestone.
- Demvarien being driven to call a retreat against the Vilker brewing poison was a weird moment. This is a character who takes "Thou shalt not recoil before thine enemy" very literally and has a track record of picking fights he knows he can't win. For him to turn tail and run... wow. And screaming at people that Sunny needed help, how narrowly she got that Life. The irony is that I was later told we had won the fight by the time Demvarien decided it was time to turn tail and get help.
- Fighting the illithids! Katie's roleplay being entirely too pleased with herself that she'd gotten one of the biata was excellent. It was a desperate fight, and seeing it finally turn at the end was really satisfying. It was a weird feeling to know that I would have died if the illithids themselves hadn't been healing me while charmed. It was awesome for Dem to fight for something he was so passionate about.
- Homestone roleplay! Dem's seen one before, but never one this big, or this... broken. It was also great for him to have an opportunity to stand up to other biata and say "No, my brother is not leaving, this is his birthright."
- Sunday morning trolls. Demvarien doesn't like tribesmen, but he took one look around at who was already in the tavern and made the decision that he needed to not start a fight right now. It was also interesting in that he missed Sir Darius when he scanned the room, so he ended up taking charge because he didn't think there was anyone better to do it.
- Rebecca Feathrin. Alya (whose name I've probably misspelled) did a great job with her eyebrow makeup and with the role for a first timer. There was also a tense moment with Vandathron while the brothers disagreed over the nature of the Huntsman. And of course, now I'm filled with HYPE over the prospect of a mod playing to my character history next month!

Great game overall, and I look forward to seeing all our newcomers again next month!
 
Jeff's favorite moments about Jeff:
  • PCing my first event in 2 years! Early to bed and late to rise. (Sorry... not trying to be mean to you, Plot/NPCs, you guys work so hard.)
  • Really great RP with several people around the change from Calidan to Cryn. Thank you all for being amazing people and amazing roleplayers.
  • Coming to game as a "new" character meant that I got to connect with other newcomers a ltitle more easily (I think) and I really enjoyed that. Shout out to Fife, Korric (sp?), Brom (sp?), plus a few others (sorry for forgetting your names).
  • Trying to feel out a new character. I think of myself as someone who doesn't easily slip into really different personalities, but I'm working to find small "hooks" that will get me to move into a new mental space.
  • Connecting with the new family/group that came to this event (Neysa, Talyn, Quin, Katelyn, Luise, Euphemia... another?)
  • I always love sparring with others, and I especially liked that the new rules mean you can meditate back a skill while sparring. If you ever want to spar, I'm probably up for it.
  • An invitation to travel...
  • I was challenged (and terrified) by the Saturday night fight. In retrospect, I really loved the mechanics. Using Charm and Enslave to pit us against each other meant that we (mostly) didn't die but man did it feel like we were solidly on our way to a full wipe. The turnaround when the charms wore off and the floating stopped was dramatic! Neat fight!
Jeff's favorite moments about Owen:
  • Seeing Owen sit down excitedly for his first loot split.
  • Hearing Owen speak up in Chivalry School.
  • Seeing the kindness and care so many of you extend to Owen. I was chopping onions a few times over the weekend.

As always, huge props to Plot and all the NPCs. I miss you folks, and love what you do for our game!
And... thanks to the whole community for being such a great place to play.
 
Running the house of wax mod that I resurrected from the mid 90s in a warehouse in Brooklyn NY, on the fly and have it be so much fun in 2019 thanks to Derek and Jen's walls.
The insanity that was the Philosophers stone mod. Love putting you all through the ringer on that one.
Pitch - Arcane Shatter Spirit. Bluewolf - "HOLY ****!" at the top of his lungs!
Darius' Ritual casting and rhyming.
I need to get back to writing but wanted to not forget my favorite moments!!!

I will try to write them much sooner after this next event!!
 
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