On Thursday afternoon, after the Purple Party finished winding down, Forum@Intercon began. Forum@Intercon is a dual-track mini conference, featuring panels, presentations, discussions, and workshops. I was originally the deputy Forum Coordinator, but when the two original coordinators thought they weren’t going to make it in person, I became the Forum Coordinator. We ultimately ran thirteen or fourteen events (depending on how you count them) on a wide variety of LARP-related topics.
For a lot of attendees, Intercon T, which ran back in early 2020, was the last major event they attended before the pandemic shut everything down. Plans for Intercon U were made for 2021, but it then had to be postponed another year. In 2022 the Omicron wave forced another postponement… but in 2023, Intercon finally came back.
You wouldn’t know it from this blog, but I’ve played in 21 LARPs since Summer LARPin’, over the second half of this year. I’d like to make sure I share at least a few sentences about them all. I don’t think I’ll get through them before the end of the year as I originally planned, but maybe over January.
Starting with the most recent…
In the weeks before Summer LARPin’, I had two other LARP events (Steady State and Starfall Academy) that involved a significant amount of prep. I told myself I was going to keep any crafting projects low key, and try to do most, if not all, costuming out of my closet for Summer LARPin’.
…Obviously, I failed at this.
As mentioned in a previous post, I wanted to separate out all my chatter about costuming and prop and set dressing creation into its own post, which has been in the works for months now. And now, in November, I’ve finally gotten some photos of the one costume I failed to photograph at the event. So below the cut, you’ll find photos and descriptions of the costumes I wore over Summer LARPin’, along with some homemade banners, small painted props, and a big ol’ wishing well. And because I was feeling self-indulgent, there’s also excess rambling about my design and creation process.
Two years ago, I wrote a blog post going over my LARP-related New Year resolutions and seeing which I had made any progress on or completed, and which I had yet to attempt. I found it pretty helpful in terms of actually getting them accomplished. Last year, I started writing a similar post, decided it was boring and self-involved, and therefore didn’t belong on a blog. So I left the post unfinished.
At the end of the year, I realized this probably had a negative effect on how many resolutions I completed, or even attempted. So even though I haven’t really shaken off the feeling that this doesn’t belong in a public blog, I’m writing it anyway… about two months late.
Continue readingMy most recent LARP event was Summer LARPin’, a weekend event of small theater LARP. And in a year without Intercon, a lot of locals were champing at the bit for something like this.
In the three or weeks leading up to the event, in addition to lots of costuming, I created set dressing and/or props for four LARPs. (Basically, I put it all off until after Starfall Academy, which has its own blog post in the works.) But I’m planning to write a separate blog post just about all the costuming and crafting, so that I can feel a little more able to ramble about it. (Hopefully, this will also give me a little time to recreate the costumes I didn’t get decent photos of… including the one that has yet to make its debut. So please excuse the lack of photos in this post!)
I played in four LARPs over Summer LARPin’.
Welp, the year is half gone and catching up on LARP review posts was on my list of New Year’s LARP resolutions, so no more procrastinating. Here we go.
Continue readingA death has left the local LARPing community reeling.
Posting in my blog feels obscene. Nothing I have to say about anything else could possibly matter in the slightest. But writing about the loss feels awful and selfish. What right do I have to write about it, when so many people knew him so much better, were so much closer? However much it hurts, (and oh, it hurts), there are so many out there hurting so much worse.
But silence feels even more obscene. If this blog was intended to provide a glimpse into the general goings-on of the local LARPing community, how could I consider not posting about it? (But I don’t know what to say — specifics feel like a violation of privacy, vagueness feels superficial. Every possibly option feels deeply wrong, somehow. That’s just how death is.)
Well. Here is what is going on in our community.
A drunk driver stole one of the points of light out of our constellation, never to be replaced.
May Kevin’s memory be a blessing.
About a month ago, the weekend that was supposed to be Intercon U came and went. Back in January, NEIL made the difficult decision to delay it a second year for pandemic reasons. To stave off some of the no-LARP-con blues, a small group of LARPers ran and played in a smattering of small theater LARPs over that weekend. I think it helped a lot to distract us from thoughts like, “I should be playing all these great LARPs I managed to get into this past fall” and “it’s probably gonna be another solid year before Intercon happens and I get to see the LARPers I used to see once a year…” The gathering was cheekily dubbed “Intracon”.
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"LARP Magis LARP Optimum"
Fair Escape 