Seven Virtues
So probably a good time to set down what's what here. Seven Virtues is the first LARP I've ever been a part of that went from start to finish, and in which I didn't miss a single session. I can't really express how much 7V mattered to me; I stayed up late many times talking with K, or with friends, about how it was going, what we thought, how we thought it would end, how to play Vic, and a hundred other things. And I can honestly say I have not been disappointed. What a splendid, splendid set of PCs and NPCs and "little hero moments" that made every single weekend worthwhile. Some of my best LARPing moments came out of 7V in fact; here they are in no particular order.
*The Courage Test
Happened during the Snowpocalypse event, where Vic got sent out with six other students to fight off steady, endless waves of Aetherial bad guys while the Colonel sent us off into the pitch black one by one to face our fears and fight stuff, all while maintaining that "Seen this, been there, done that, not afraid of nothing" face. For anyone who still doesn't know, Vic was a wizard/hearthmage, so my melee combat potential was pretty much a longsword and a determined expression. And getting sent out second to last, to fight in the woods, and confront some scary stuff about himself was absolutely awesome. It was the first time I ever really felt like Vic, and saved the character for me. Until then I hadn't been really sure that he'd work, and after that I was convinced he couldn't fail.
*The Blink-and-You'll-Miss-It Aetherial
This was a little moment (most of my favorite bits are) but it went a long way to building the world of Armandy for me. I forget exactly what it was about, but Tdira and Vic were listening to a Lostwood representative played by Melissa, and she mentioned that there'd been a little Aetherial that children used to chase back near her home village, and the closer you got, the faster and more impossible it became to catch. And it was multi-colored, and zipped around through the air I think. Well, Vic and Tdira nearly blew up. This was clearly much more exciting news than raising the border shields of the Lostwood or anything like that. I am almost certain it was made up on the spot, but man - Lostwood was suddenly a real place for me. It was a place where children could run off into the woods after strange, wonderful things and be home in time for dinner, and it was a place worth saving and worth mentioning in private conversation. Until then, Vic had been from a farm on the border of the Lostwood and Braemoor, and after that, he was one hundred percent from the Lostwood.
*The Great Panic
I'm sure everyone knows this story, but our Compassion professor pulled Vic and a bunch of folks out into the field and asked us to draw, I think, faces. I'd just seen a chipmunk and was watching for it again, and to say nothing of Vic listening to the instructions, I certainly wasn't. Chipmunks are cool. So I started sketching one, and pretty soon it's crayons down, people, let's see what your faces look like. And suddenly I realize I haven't paid any attention to this no doubt wonderful mod, and Vic has probably just failed a class, so out comes the line, "I panicked and drew a chipmunk!" which will no doubt be on my tombstone. This was one of those times that Vic worked, and played himself, and I was very pleased with it.
*She
So Owen (I know that's not how to spell it, Tim's character) and Vic are the last ones out of a disastrous Wisdom test, where we're trying to get one last woman out of a Fallen's lair and to safety. Two things happened here that were wonderful. First off, when Vic mentioned he was staying behind to try to pick the locks on this woman's manacles, he indicated that he had made up his mind and was just going to do it, so don't try to convince me not to. And Owen took one look, told Vic he thought it would wind up with him getting killed, and left him to it. I mean, serious props - most of our PC base was like this. If I said at any point, this is what I'm doing, guys, and I need you to trust me on this, some folks might argue but Owen never did. It was the only grenade Vic ever really jumped on and I'm glad he did, because then She walked into the room.
My first Fallen (not unlike my first bicycle ride) was a thing of absolute terror. And for Vic, terror was a funny thing; learn from it, observe it, but never really feel much of it. So he's chatting with her, trying to figure out how to get the balls out of that room, and the whole scene was,out of game, just about living through a real-life horror movie. After his death and subsequent resurrection, Owen and Vic would often talk about Her in low whispers, worrying she'd pop out of the bushes and terrify them both some more. So some of that very rare LARP terror.
*The Grace Test
So, here's what happened, briefly, for those of you who never heard the story. I had to drive a friend home Sunday morning, the day of my Grace test, because she wasn't feeling well. I get back, and about five people come up to Vic and say, "We're going on a Grace test in five minutes, we need a plan." So safe to say I didn't have one, but all I could come up with were the words of Vic's Grace professor, who ought to live in infamy for teaching Vic the following two lessons.
1.) When in doubt, make a distraction.
2.) If it doesn't work, just sell it harder.
It's like telling a pyromaniac how to make napalm.
So five minutes later I'm dressed up in borrowed finery, funny hat and all, with a scarf covering my elf ears, and pretending to be a Vortican noble early for an appointment at the Ambassador's office, while two rogues sneak in through the back window and steal some damn thing. I got to the front door and my mind suddenly hit on a snag - what do Vorticans sound like? Up until that point I couldn't have said a single true thing about Vorticans other than they had a love for wine. So that crazy quantum computer inside my skull sifts around and comes up with a voice that, somehow, I had labelled as Vortican. Said voice is best described as Inspector Cluseau, from the Pink Panther, on some serious LSD. And we barged in, and Vic's suddenly Lord Orlando Rossini of Vortica, with a wooden ear and wooden tonsils and a wooden arse, hollering about being "in time for his meeting" and I expect we could not have had more shock from some of the NPCs if I had run in wearing nothing but my birthday suit. And in fortyfive minutes of Orlando (and his favorite third wife, quatermaster, vinter, despicable serving girl, and others') hollering, incomprehensible musings on the state of being "blind-stinking-sober" and knocking things over, our rogues had the whatsit and escaped out the back door. Honestly it was a blast, and further proof why Vic shouldn't be put in charge of anything with a waistcoat.
*Vic's Book
So when the campaign started I felt sort of naked without a notebook, because we were going to class, weren't we? And Vic's character concept was so flimsy at the start that I was basically coming up with it during the car ride to the Orientation. So here's this book, and here's Vic in these ridiculous robes, and after one guy (who thankfully didn't stick with the game) made multiple comments about my technicolor dreamcoat, all I wanted to do was hide in the corner and wait for the day to be over so I might never return to this game. Fortunately taking notes on people, sketching the Wishing Tree, and developing an inner voice for Vic all meant that the book saved me that first day, brought me out of my shell, and got me to go to classes that would shape the future of the character. The book let me close off for a few minutes when I needed it, and thank goodness - a bit of luck for a new LARPer. Plus now I have a book full of 7V!
There are a thousand other things I could write about - my advisor, who was absolutely brilliant; the Irribirri, who was the only thing that ever made Vic turn and run, consistently; the Book Miss, with the torn-out pages that made Vic get so angry at the monster who'd perpetrated such evil; the Queen of Albion, and getting a troubled ruler to smile; crawling through the dead on the field and healing who we could, and passing other hearthmages doing the same; Bashir's fall; the Phantom King, and living in a dream for an hour; helping Vic's brother screw up a ritual AGAIN, and trying to talk crazy fox lady out of forcing people to love her; writing encouraging messages to the student body in the snowbanks, and seeing who wrote what; the terror of a three-page essay on Scartha due the next morning; getting the Evil Fallen Tea Professor (Vic's words, not mine) to giggle a bit; telling Caer Droiga what was really wrong with Vic in the dead of night, and feeling like a family; a ridiculous date with Star, where both parties readily admitted it was for widespread morale purposes and nothing much more; the Holodeck and long-bombing healing at Josef; and coming up with names I could remember for people, places, and things that might have made sense to me, if only Vic hadn't been involved. Along with a million other things I'm sure are slipping my mind at this moment.
Thanks for a wonderful time, guys. See you all at Seven Virtues 2; Irresponsible Liver Damage.
Also, I suppose I will now open this post to questions. Uh-oh.
*The Courage Test
Happened during the Snowpocalypse event, where Vic got sent out with six other students to fight off steady, endless waves of Aetherial bad guys while the Colonel sent us off into the pitch black one by one to face our fears and fight stuff, all while maintaining that "Seen this, been there, done that, not afraid of nothing" face. For anyone who still doesn't know, Vic was a wizard/hearthmage, so my melee combat potential was pretty much a longsword and a determined expression. And getting sent out second to last, to fight in the woods, and confront some scary stuff about himself was absolutely awesome. It was the first time I ever really felt like Vic, and saved the character for me. Until then I hadn't been really sure that he'd work, and after that I was convinced he couldn't fail.
*The Blink-and-You'll-Miss-It Aetherial
This was a little moment (most of my favorite bits are) but it went a long way to building the world of Armandy for me. I forget exactly what it was about, but Tdira and Vic were listening to a Lostwood representative played by Melissa, and she mentioned that there'd been a little Aetherial that children used to chase back near her home village, and the closer you got, the faster and more impossible it became to catch. And it was multi-colored, and zipped around through the air I think. Well, Vic and Tdira nearly blew up. This was clearly much more exciting news than raising the border shields of the Lostwood or anything like that. I am almost certain it was made up on the spot, but man - Lostwood was suddenly a real place for me. It was a place where children could run off into the woods after strange, wonderful things and be home in time for dinner, and it was a place worth saving and worth mentioning in private conversation. Until then, Vic had been from a farm on the border of the Lostwood and Braemoor, and after that, he was one hundred percent from the Lostwood.
*The Great Panic
I'm sure everyone knows this story, but our Compassion professor pulled Vic and a bunch of folks out into the field and asked us to draw, I think, faces. I'd just seen a chipmunk and was watching for it again, and to say nothing of Vic listening to the instructions, I certainly wasn't. Chipmunks are cool. So I started sketching one, and pretty soon it's crayons down, people, let's see what your faces look like. And suddenly I realize I haven't paid any attention to this no doubt wonderful mod, and Vic has probably just failed a class, so out comes the line, "I panicked and drew a chipmunk!" which will no doubt be on my tombstone. This was one of those times that Vic worked, and played himself, and I was very pleased with it.
*She
So Owen (I know that's not how to spell it, Tim's character) and Vic are the last ones out of a disastrous Wisdom test, where we're trying to get one last woman out of a Fallen's lair and to safety. Two things happened here that were wonderful. First off, when Vic mentioned he was staying behind to try to pick the locks on this woman's manacles, he indicated that he had made up his mind and was just going to do it, so don't try to convince me not to. And Owen took one look, told Vic he thought it would wind up with him getting killed, and left him to it. I mean, serious props - most of our PC base was like this. If I said at any point, this is what I'm doing, guys, and I need you to trust me on this, some folks might argue but Owen never did. It was the only grenade Vic ever really jumped on and I'm glad he did, because then She walked into the room.
My first Fallen (not unlike my first bicycle ride) was a thing of absolute terror. And for Vic, terror was a funny thing; learn from it, observe it, but never really feel much of it. So he's chatting with her, trying to figure out how to get the balls out of that room, and the whole scene was,out of game, just about living through a real-life horror movie. After his death and subsequent resurrection, Owen and Vic would often talk about Her in low whispers, worrying she'd pop out of the bushes and terrify them both some more. So some of that very rare LARP terror.
*The Grace Test
So, here's what happened, briefly, for those of you who never heard the story. I had to drive a friend home Sunday morning, the day of my Grace test, because she wasn't feeling well. I get back, and about five people come up to Vic and say, "We're going on a Grace test in five minutes, we need a plan." So safe to say I didn't have one, but all I could come up with were the words of Vic's Grace professor, who ought to live in infamy for teaching Vic the following two lessons.
1.) When in doubt, make a distraction.
2.) If it doesn't work, just sell it harder.
It's like telling a pyromaniac how to make napalm.
So five minutes later I'm dressed up in borrowed finery, funny hat and all, with a scarf covering my elf ears, and pretending to be a Vortican noble early for an appointment at the Ambassador's office, while two rogues sneak in through the back window and steal some damn thing. I got to the front door and my mind suddenly hit on a snag - what do Vorticans sound like? Up until that point I couldn't have said a single true thing about Vorticans other than they had a love for wine. So that crazy quantum computer inside my skull sifts around and comes up with a voice that, somehow, I had labelled as Vortican. Said voice is best described as Inspector Cluseau, from the Pink Panther, on some serious LSD. And we barged in, and Vic's suddenly Lord Orlando Rossini of Vortica, with a wooden ear and wooden tonsils and a wooden arse, hollering about being "in time for his meeting" and I expect we could not have had more shock from some of the NPCs if I had run in wearing nothing but my birthday suit. And in fortyfive minutes of Orlando (and his favorite third wife, quatermaster, vinter, despicable serving girl, and others') hollering, incomprehensible musings on the state of being "blind-stinking-sober" and knocking things over, our rogues had the whatsit and escaped out the back door. Honestly it was a blast, and further proof why Vic shouldn't be put in charge of anything with a waistcoat.
*Vic's Book
So when the campaign started I felt sort of naked without a notebook, because we were going to class, weren't we? And Vic's character concept was so flimsy at the start that I was basically coming up with it during the car ride to the Orientation. So here's this book, and here's Vic in these ridiculous robes, and after one guy (who thankfully didn't stick with the game) made multiple comments about my technicolor dreamcoat, all I wanted to do was hide in the corner and wait for the day to be over so I might never return to this game. Fortunately taking notes on people, sketching the Wishing Tree, and developing an inner voice for Vic all meant that the book saved me that first day, brought me out of my shell, and got me to go to classes that would shape the future of the character. The book let me close off for a few minutes when I needed it, and thank goodness - a bit of luck for a new LARPer. Plus now I have a book full of 7V!
There are a thousand other things I could write about - my advisor, who was absolutely brilliant; the Irribirri, who was the only thing that ever made Vic turn and run, consistently; the Book Miss, with the torn-out pages that made Vic get so angry at the monster who'd perpetrated such evil; the Queen of Albion, and getting a troubled ruler to smile; crawling through the dead on the field and healing who we could, and passing other hearthmages doing the same; Bashir's fall; the Phantom King, and living in a dream for an hour; helping Vic's brother screw up a ritual AGAIN, and trying to talk crazy fox lady out of forcing people to love her; writing encouraging messages to the student body in the snowbanks, and seeing who wrote what; the terror of a three-page essay on Scartha due the next morning; getting the Evil Fallen Tea Professor (Vic's words, not mine) to giggle a bit; telling Caer Droiga what was really wrong with Vic in the dead of night, and feeling like a family; a ridiculous date with Star, where both parties readily admitted it was for widespread morale purposes and nothing much more; the Holodeck and long-bombing healing at Josef; and coming up with names I could remember for people, places, and things that might have made sense to me, if only Vic hadn't been involved. Along with a million other things I'm sure are slipping my mind at this moment.
Thanks for a wonderful time, guys. See you all at Seven Virtues 2; Irresponsible Liver Damage.
Also, I suppose I will now open this post to questions. Uh-oh.