The adventurers gathered together wearing only light jackets with no hats.
The storyteller spoke and divided the assembled into two factions.
One faction was sent to defend the Maul Corp factory. Other adventurers had managed to sneak inside the factory and place a bomb on the generator. The factory guards assailed the saboteurs multiple times but were unable to defeat them and disarm the bomb in time. The bomb exploded explosively but both guards and saboteurs managed to escape unharmed.
As they surveyed the ruins, the saboteurs realized that there were traitors amongst their ranks! How else could the guards have known of their dastardly plan. The saboteurs quickly identified the traitors and executed them swiftly.
Leaving the dead bodies where they lay, the saboteurs went inside the Faraway Leaf Inn to rejoice in their victory!
The LARP currently bans Nerf Rival because of its reputation for being too painful.
One of our LARPers recently brought a Nerf Rival Apollo, which currently has the reputation of being the most painful Rival blaster, so we could test just how much it hurt. Those agreeing to be test subjects found that it mostly felt like getting hit by a regular Nerf dart, but it does depend on how sensitive the area struck is. It was very loud though — test subjects reported that they flinched from the sound more than from the hit.
A few LARPers have proposed we change our rules to allow Nerf Rival, and we would like to give everyone the opportunity to share their thoughts.
Results: Out of nearly two dozen active LARPers, only three voted. Two voted to allow Nerf Rival and one voted “I don’t care.” We are assuming everyone who didn’t vote also doesn’t care. So we will allow Nerf Rival. As always, be sure that anyone you engage in mock combat has agreed to be part of the mock battle.
Update:As of August 2018, all Nerf use is restricted to the Dire Garden when LARPing at Silverwood Park.
On a warm winter day, thirteen adventures gathered on the Mystical Isle to discover that they had been joined by a mysterious giant who came armed for battle. One of the heroes stepped forward to proclaim: “We shall battle for honor, for glory, and for possession of a flag.” The promise of possessing an invaluable strip of colorful cloth overjoyed the fourteen adventurers who soon split into two factions, each with their own priceless pennon. One contingent fled to the Eastern Shore and the other to West Point.
The two outfits fought for quite some time for possession of the tantalizing colored emblems of honor but eventually decided that they were just too evenly matched for either to win. Deciding to simply share the bounty equally, they gleefully returned to the Faraway Leaf Inn for refreshing beverages.
Unfortunately, their camaraderie was soon broken by the revelation that there was a traitor in their midst. Again! It took them quite some time, but they eventually discovered all of the traitors and executed them. A passing mage then revived the traitors as honest souls.
Seventeen adventurers gathered within the Faraway Leaf Inn to sit down and enjoy the good food and hearty drinks of the welcoming innkeeper. But they should have realized that their prime number was a portent of doom. Suddenly, the seventeen heard a terrifying rumbling outside. Being heroes, all seventeen of them grabbed their weapons and rushed outside towards the terrible noise. The seventeen soon discovered that the Basilisk was awake! As all seventeen were heroes and well armed, they were primed for battle and set off to defeat the beast.
The Basilisk is a fearsome redheaded beast that has three life stages and must receive five grievous wounds in each stage to be killed. Even more dangerous: once a life stage is defeated, the next stage is invincible to the weapon that last caused the Basilisk harm.
Undeterred by this zoological knowledge, a brave band of adventures charged in with close range combat weapons. Unfortunately, their long-range support decided to run in the opposite direction. Despite this cowardice, the heroes managed to take down the Basilisk’s first life stage but lost almost their entire number in the gruesome battle. The survivors of this battle eventually tracked down the fleeing ranged support team. Together they tracked down the Basilisk, and with the last remaining close range fighters running around the beast to distract it, the long-range warriors threw some grenades at the Basilisk which grievously wounded it twice. Unfortunately, the Basilisk grievously wounded all of the warriors. Inexplicably one of the warriors suddenly disappeared. Perhaps we will learn that story next time. All the remaining warriors died. The Basilisk then hunted down the one who had got away. They faced off in battle and the Basilisk was finally slain by a combination of multiple weapons from this one warrior, including grenades and bullets.
The reviving adventurers then learned that there was a traitor in their midst. And then another traitor, and another, and another, and another, and another. The uncovering of traitors went on until they were all found out and promptly slain.
After this hard day’s work, the adventurers trudged back to their home to lay down and sleep.
The dastardly Lord Maul struck almost instantly and split the fourteen into four unequal groups and used his evil magic to trick the adventurers into thinking the other squads were their enemies. The groups fled in different directions, and then they began to hunt each other down. A plan was hatched as one gang sought an alliance with another band of rogues. Together they managed to defeat the other two hapless factions but only at a terrible cost that is yet to be known!
Upon revival, the once-dead adventures were relieved of Lord Maul’s curse and decided to go to the Faraway Leaf Inn to huddle around the fire with some much-needed warm beverages.
Boreas attacked even before all the adventurers had arrived and with such brutal force that most everyone was defeated within 15 minutes and the few remaining hearty souls succumbed almost immediately afterward.
Fortunately, all were revived in the warmth of the Faraway Leaf Inn within the first 25 minutes of the LARP.
The Scribe was attacked by a Pesanta who attempted to steal her breath.
Ace dragged the limp body of the scribe to the Seneschal who transported the Scribe in a horseless carriage to a Technomage.
The Technomage used arcane magics to drive off the demon. This restored the Scribe but put Ace, the Scribe, and the Seneschal into a deep sleep from which they did not wake for an entire day.
The LARP started with waiting. Waiting leads to boredom. Boredom leads to ridiculous acts. The bored adventures decided it would be fun to bury Q-Tip in the snow. So they did. This took quite a long period of time to accomplish as Q-Tip is very tall. Once buried, Q-Tip rose from the ground as a zombie. The adventurers scattered. Fortunately, Q-Tip eventually recovered from his zombification.
This was good because now that the entire fellowship was gathered, they decided they needed some battle training, and Q-Tip was put in charge of dividing them into four 4-hero teams. The teams battled each other but they were not evenly matched as one 4-person team was entirely armed with the magical mystical Nerf weaponry while the others only carried swords and shields. But all was not lost. The sword fighters decided to team up against the Nerf carriers. The sword fighters eventually defeated the Nerf carriers but only with heavy losses.
Meanwhile, a group of bridgewalkers appeared and began to walk the bridge. Back and forth they walked, back and forth, back and forth. Never tiring. Never stopping. Always watching. The adventurers knew to be wary of these mysterious and powerful beings and so stayed far away from them.
After reviving their fellow heroes, the adventurers decided there had been enough bloodshed for one day and trekked to the Faraway Leaf Inn where they enjoyed good food, warm beverages, a cozy fire, and the best of company. One of their long-lost fellows soon joined them at the Faraway Leaf Inn and they rejoiced and drank and ate until they were summoned back to their home realms.
The ancient Sumerians had seven gods who decree, seven domes of the sky, seven gates to Kur, seven gallu demons dragging unfortunate souls through those gates to their dreary afterlife, and seven days in a week. The LARP had seven adventurers. It seemed fitting and right.
When the adventurers exited the warmth of a local tavern, they found that not only did no one know who was to be their most honored Storyteller, but that Lord Maul had summoned a massive blizzard and set it upon them. Snow swirled around them. A biting wind cut into their bones. The nearby hills were obscured by blowing snow.
Thankfully, one of their number knew of a unicorn who had the power to control the weather and could redirect the blizzard back towards Lord Maul. Bundling themselves warmly against the evil cold of Lord Maul’s storm, the adventurers quickly set off in search of this powerful being.
Unbeknownst to them, Lord Maul had sent his minions to track and kill this unicorn. Knowing the adventurers would also be seeking it, these minions had obscured the path of the unicorn, making it difficult for the adventurers to track the beast. The adventurers followed multiple false trails, and along the way, they also found evidence of a bitter fight between the unicorn and two of Lord Maul’s Angels of Death. Worried about the safety of the beast, they pressed onward despite the biting wind and bone-chilling cold, eventually discovering the unicorn hiding among the White Oaks.
The unicorn, upon hearing that the storm was set upon the world by dark magic, agreed to use her own bright magic to redirect the storm back towards Lord Maul’s domain. Unfortunately, shifting the direction of such a powerful and magical storm would take a bit of time, so the unicorn advised the adventurers to seek shelter in the Faraway Leaf Inn to wait out the worst of the weather battle. There the adventurers stumbled upon a werewolf who slaughtered several villagers. After several battles, the adventurers eventually defeated the beast.
It should be noted that the Scribe’s attempt to subcontract the writing of the synopsis for Winter LARP #2 was not handled professionally, with the result that the story was eventually lost to posterity. The Scribe regrets the error.
It should also be noted that evil pixies invaded the home of Ace and swiftly rendered him incapable of meeting his fellow adventurers for Winter LARP #3 and then, after a brief respite in which Ace and his fellow adventurers joyfully celebrated the shortest day of the year with wild revelry and downhill sledding, the pixies again set upon both Ace and the Scribe, rendering them too weak to attend to their duties for Winter LARP #4.
Saturday, December 2, was the second annual (I hope) Makers Market where I sold almost my entire remaining stock of the beta version of my Periodic Elements card game! I also learned a valuable lesson about pricing: A $10 game sells much faster than a $16 game.
Periodic Elements Maker Booth at Makers Market 2017 with reduced price signage.
I reduced the price of a deck to $10 as I am working to revise game play and wanted to reduce my stock of the beta version. I succeeded in that goal easily. Unfortunately, I was selling the deck at cost, so I didn’t make any money.
I am now looking at how to reduce the cost of producing the game elements so that I can sell the gamma version for as close to $10 as possible.
Periodic Elements demonstration game board for Makers Market
A lot of people asked if they could buy the demo board. I created the demo board to help me demonstrate game play at a busy Makers Market. My shoppers loved it and wanted to buy one to own as it made game play more enjoyable and easier to learn and follow. That will increase production costs, but I can sell the board separately as it’s not essential to the game.
Getting advice at game production at the Makers Market
The Makers Market was exhausting work, but I kept a smile on my face and kept on talking. There were a couple of gaming industry professionals who stopped by my Maker Booth and gave me lots of useful advice and ideas on producing and selling my game. One thing I did not know: Your box size to component weight ratio needs to be very small. Pack your parts into as small a box as possible as many gamers will judge the value of your game based on how full the box is. A smaller box is also cheaper to produce.
A lot of other kids were also at the Makers Market selling some pretty cool stuff.
Logan’s Dueling Arts had a great idea, in my opinion, on how to make money. He was selling modded Nerf guns, but he also said that if you gave him the Nerf gun you wanted modded, he would mod it, which was a great idea, because if he ran out of stock, he could still take orders. And it was also cheaper to have a Nerf you already owned modded then to pay for both a new Nerf gun and the modifications.
Logan’s Dueling Arts
I was pretty impressed with Vulspera Verso, the Maker Booth right next to mine. It was really cool watching the buttons be made. I think I want to buy a button maker of my own now.
Vulspera Verso
I also ate a lot of delicious cookies, bars and scones. I felt a little ill the next day.
