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Good morrow nerds
My name is Cheyenne my friends call me Az and one day I will walk into Epcot and no one will ever hear from me again.
Welcome to the LARP House!
Which, right now at least, physically, does not exist at the moment.
You can check the last video for updates but long story short
I'm gonna be staying with Steven and Red for a while,
you may know them from "hoganddice" and as "f1restart3rr" on the Internet,
and that's just-that's gonna be my life for a minute while I sort some stuff out.
So you could check them out...
in the meantime, Let's uh, let's talk about some adventures
I recently visited the states with Will of LARP Analysis and Momo O'-freaking-Brien, some of my best friends in the world
and I'm gonna tell you about some adventures I had there.
It was a month-long trip for me and we did some pretty amazing stuff.
I'm starting with my adventures at Twin Masks.
Twin Masks is a local fantasy campaign in Southern California.
Southern California is where I started LARPing and it's where I met my second family in in the LARP community,
But I never got a chance to actually try Twin Masks before I moved to Europe,
So I was kind of hell-bent on doing it one day.
I had a I had some unfinished business to attend to,
so I was Incredibly excited to learn that my visit to California would overlap with one of their games
Will decided to come with me and then when Momo heard that we were both going, she decided to tag along
and-and it was just a domino effect of friendship. Here we are.
The game itself is fairly unique,
I would put it in the category of fantasy boffer larp,
But it is a fantasy boffer larp that a lot of people who enjoy Nordic and freeform style LARPing also really enjoy.
I've heard wonderful things about the heavy role play and playing on dark themes
and the culture of trust in that community that often comes With some more freeform style
and for some reason it seems to work really well for this particular community.
They are a fantasy boffer larp in the States,
So they do have a pretty formidable rulebook,
But they actually have specific workshops at the event for each kind of specialty that your character can take
So if you're a fighter, if you're a caster, if you have whatever abilities you have,
they'll have a workshop where you can actually playtests your skill set before you start the game.
The-the workshops were an absolute blessing to to me, person with some neurodivergence,
I learn far better by doing something than I do by reading about how to do something. So...
Thank you. *laughs*
Working on character concepts was especially interesting considering the premise of the game.
In this game you actually start out having already died.
All of the players in the game are referred to as "the returned";
people who died at whatever point in history for whatever reason who've been brought back for some unknown reason
Nobody really knows why, exactly, we've been brought back,
but out of game you get to decide how much or how little your character remembers of their past life,
Which creates some really cool roleplay opportunities because you can discover it as you play.
it also means that you can have characters from almost any time period within the game universe,
so you can have characters that are from thousands of years ago getting a drink in the tavern with a character that died yesterday.
It's one of the most unique fantasy boffer campaigns I've ever played
and you can find out more about the story and the game;
they have their own YouTube channel with their own videos and Kellie Eaton also has a bunch of videos about the game,
because this happens to be the game that she plays.
I decided to revisit the character concept I made when I originally was going to play this game over a year ago
I wanted to play an enchanted sword that came to life. I knew I would probably only be playing one game as this character
So I wanted to do a sort of halfway NPC thing and make a character that was mostly there to facilitate other people's stories
The point of this character was to choose a worthy hero from the player base,
whatever worthy means, and sort of become their sword at the end of the game,
kind of like if Excalibur was sentient and sapient and chose the hero itself.
I just wanted to make a player feel cool
And that's why I did ask for a sort of special concept and Will jumped in on that with me,
We were both sort of looking for chosen ones.
The full concepts we landed on were these;
I was a celestial named Carnwennan
Celestials are basically angel people and they can choose the form that they manifest in.
She chose to live her life as a sword.
Like, her whole life. She just preferred to be inanimate and I can relate to that.
Will chose to be another celestial name Radiant, a warrior who wielded the sword Karen wennen
They were both fighting demons in a big historical battle in the universe and he sacrificed himself so that others could get away,
dying and becoming trapped in a magical object.
They were both tossed around in junk piles for a couple millennia until the players found them
and accidentally woke them up.
Momo plays Patch. who we all know and love as the adorable wolf/fae Bard
" *gargles* Everybody's been singing with me, really, it's hard to get-
*screaming*
No no no no no! No. No!
Parkour! Weh!"
She left the fey territories, which, in this game, means that you can never return.
We were all plopped back to life on the same day.
We got to sing, fight, give weird parental advice, float around the campsite like
otherworldly weirdos and I even got to sacrifice myself to a dragon to facilitate some player's story
One of them said that my screams will haunt them forever
*chuckles*
It was a really good time!
Protective sword mom status: achieved!
So creating the look for this character was a whole journey.
I quickly realized that with all the other projects I was doing and with moving out of Berlin
I didn't have the mental or physical space to do a single other thing
Not-not one more thing. Couldn't handle it.
So, I enlisted the help of a good friend and fellow LARP youtuber McKenzie Jameson,
who you might know as the Thrift Store Larper and if you don't know her you should,
Because just as she has saved me with her thrifty craft skills,
She could also save you, because her videos are chock-full of very valuable stuff.
Good tips and tricks. Go check her out.
She worked with me and my concept to create a full fabric wrapped bodysuit for this costume
I didn't realize the amount of work that I was asking for and she just didn't even flinch
I wanted to look like the dingy mildewy fabric that the sword was wrapped in had become its clothes when it was brought to life
Mackenzie's work really saved the look,
although the footage that we got from the game was mostly of a time when I had a dress on over it,
her fighting outfit was mostly just that fabric wrapped suit with some armor pieces on top of it,
and I'll go into the rest of the look now
The wig is from Arda Wigs. I buy most of my wigs from Arda Wigs because they most
consistently have wig sizes that will fit my giant melon head
and giant thick hair.
- We interrupt this program to bring you...A Dog. -
Huh? A boy?
*gasps* A boy! Hello!
Oh, you had me scared. I thought you meant a human male
Hello!!
*crying*
You're so precious! Oh what a sweetheart!
Also, the wigs are really comfy and they're really good quality for the price,
and I should probably take this time to say that I'm not sponsored by anybody in this video.
I'm not being paid to say any of the things that I am saying,
I just really know what I like and Patreon affords me the freedom to only recommend things that I very much believe in,
so let's take that for what it is. And-and thank you very much, patrons, for that freedom
You're magic.
the rest of the gear I did try to make myself...
"Tried" being the operative word,
Hoo Hoo!
but the conditions I was working under it just made it impossible
I didn't have access to the materials that I needed. I didn't have the proper space to work in so I had to scrap...
everything...
*sobs internally*
It was a-it was a bit of a desperate situation and that is when LARP Empire swooped in to the rescue
LARP Empire is a LARP gear supplier run by one of my dearest friends on the planet
and one of the first people to become my friend in the LARP community
We'd already decided that we were going to stay with them and possibly do a photo shoot with their gear,
but when Brian and Ezra heard about my difficulties they just...
Decked me out in gear.
All of the armor pieces and the jewelry pieces that you see in the costume are from them.
I felt way cooler than I had a right to be ever in my life, and I'm very grateful to them.
They actually helped all three of us me Momo and Will with some amazing gear.
Brian and Ezra also did a huge amount of work on the sword that used to be Carnwennan's body
that we ended up gifting to a player at the end of the weekend.
That and driving us around, picking us up from the airport or making sure we had a place to stay during the game on the campsite
They helped us out so incredibly and they deserve so much support.
Show some love to the people that supported the chaos fairy
Those are brave people. *laughs*
We had a lot of fun even though there was some off game stress happening.
The only reason I even bring up the stress is because I want to personally thank Nox, John and Angela
and the whole safety team for handling those safety concerns so incredibly.
They were more thoughtful and compassionate than some safety teams of international blockbuster LARP organizations.
*war flashbacks*
And even though the nature of what we were dealing with doesn't really allow for the anxiety to be completely eliminated
We were as safe as we could possibly be and we have them to thank for that.
Thank you.
Another thing I want to address is that sometimes they have issues with the site that they use for the game
There is nothing physically wrong with the site, but it is also used by another game organization
That is a huge point of contention in the community and rightfully so.
My understanding is that it is also the only site that meets their budget and capacity needs.
That's a tough spot to be in.
At the game I attended alone, there were over 300 people. For a local game, that's kind of insane.
That's more than any blockbuster LARP I've attended has had to deal with at once in a small space.
and they handle those people safety with just as much care,
If not more in some cases
I would love to see these people and this game supported to the point
that they have the freedom to deal with these issues how they choose to.
We all have to do what we think is best and I'm not going to begrudge anyone else for doing just that,
But this is my take.
I want to thank the video team and the people who helped organize getting this footage because it was no small task.
I'm putting their social media links up here.
They were wonderful and friendly and I'm super grateful for all the attention and care they gave us during the game
I have almost never been treated in such a fancy, special manner for for footage before and
It made me feel like a-like a REAL youtuber *laughs*
Again; way cooler than I had any right to be.
They have an insane amount of skill and experience
Thank you guys so much.
And of course I want to mention that I wouldn't have been able to go on any of these other adventures if it weren't for Felbis Productions.
And I am super excited to be attending their Magic School LARP "Bienspora" in November
and I hope to see some of you guys there.
I'm also really excited that I got to meet some other Incredibly talented and industrious creators in the nerd community
Kellie Eden who was lowkey delightful and hilarious to be around,
Fie who is just an actual Disney Prince, just balled up into a wonderful little human
and Xander of Library Bards. You had me in stitches the whole time I was trying to play a stoic character.
How dare you, but also, thank you.
it was wonderful to meet all of you.
And the most special thank you goes to the players of this game who were so welcoming and enthusiastic and talented
This event was incredibly special to me
I got to go back to California and revisit the people who were my first real community
They became my second family
and I got to introduce them to some of the most important people in my life now
It meant a lot to see my new community connecting with my first one
They all taught me things that I will carry with me forever and I am so lucky to call them my friends
Thank you all for reminding me why I do what I do and why I love LARP
*acoustic music and singing*
*applause*
That's all I have for this video which was made with support from wonderful nerds like you on patreon!
Thank you so much for watching.
If you have any questions, comments, emotional outbursts,
If you want to be one of the Nerds supporting us all the links for that will be in the description of this video
And as always nerds, thank you so much for liking us, subscribing to us and creating with us.