I realised that I have yet to post up about our experience at these Larps, and should do so.
It was an absolutely incredible experience first and foremost because of the sheer scale. Walter, Gene and I went to both Drachefest and Conquest of Mythodea which had 5000 and 8000 players respectively.
Drachenfest was great because it was Player vs Player which we have yet to see much of in NZ. There were several camps that had been formed to fight for Dragons to see who would reign for that year. Each camp had a fortified gate as their entrance which could be attacked using seige weapons. Outisde these gates was a huge field where massive battles were held. The size of it was amazing. The camps were like tent cities. We were fighting for the Golden Dragon and our camp had a lovely gathering area including a tavern and a hospital.
There was also a central town where there were things like guilds, food court, fighting arena, IC dating agency (so going to join up to this next year) and traders. In order to get to the town (and therefore food and showers) we had to pass by the Orc gate looming on the hill. On that note, the Orcs at Drachenfest were truely terrifyly awesome. Most of them take the attitude of reenacting the Uruk-Hai (is that how you spell it?) from LOTR. Not only is their level of kit amazing, but they are fearsome on the battlefield.
One of the highlights of the trip was seeing how they do healing. They really get into the roleplaying of it and every healer carries fake blood and healing tools (often larpsafe) to perform minor surgery on the battlefield. The patients also get very involved in screaming in pain. Very very cool. I absolutely love being a battlefield healer.
While the language barrier was a factor, being part of a group of foreigners helped and the people were so helpful. The avatar of the Golden Dragon delivered his speeches first in german then again in english for our benefit.
Mythodea has a very different feel but was still awesome. They too had a town that you could interact with (Jackie I think got the most out of this, getting involved with thievery). I had this awesome moment where I was coming back from a camp late at night and decided to go into the casino and was told it was closed because "absolutley nothing was taking place out the back, in about five minutes: wink wink nudge nudge so I headed out the back and it soon filled up and a man was announcing something in German that was apparently hilarious. A lovely girl translated for me that I “was not about witness an illegal cock fight”. Sure enough soon a couple of ‘Cocks’ (men dressed as roosters) came on an began to fight. Hilarious stuff.
Another awesome moment was being part of a ritual to save the world, where we had to sacrifice ourselves to imbue a weapon that would bring down a big baddy. It was just cool being involved as well as being an awesome roleplaying moment having to say goodbye to friends and loved ones and slitting our throats. after this we were lead to a tent and told to close our eyes and unfortunately were then talked at in German (one of the sucky things about the language barrier) by some elder godlike person. Then we were brought back on the condition we completed some tasks for her.
One of the other highlights were all the traders selling everything you can imagine. I managed to buy two hats (one of them the most beautiful pointy witchs hat), a cloak pin, a waterskin (beautifully crafted from leather engraved with a horse), a larpsafe ‘wooden’ quarterstaff, a bandlier of bandages, and a sword (€40 on a last day bargain table). Especially at mythodea there was pretty much everything imaginable made larpsafe including a lantern (very expensive and sold out by the time I found them). There were weapon galore of all different varieties and the craftsman ship was truely wonderful.
All in all it was an awesome trip. The people in the expedition were wonderful and we now have larping friends from all over the world. I’m sure I’ve missed out so much, but I might post bits up if I think of them.