10 Questions - Hillary "Tara" Fotino

Hillary "Tara" Fotino

Photo by Jesse Gifford

How long have you been playing?

I've been playing since the Black and White of '07.

How has the game changed since you've been playing?

While I don't know if its true, it feels like there are a lot more tournaments and a lot less quests happening these days. It does feel like a lot of the major plots that were big when I first started either wrapped up or disappeared in the last year or so. I like the shift to improving the fighter culture of the game, though sometimes it feels that it comes at the cost of people's fun and the cost of roleplaying.

Who have you learned the most from?

I feel like I've learned from everyone. As far as the most goes, that has to go to three people who through the course of their actions and words shaped not only Tara the character but Hillary the player, pushed me to improve in real life as well as game life and I can guarantee without them that I would not be the person that I am now. So, many thanks to Dave Martin, Janna Oakfellow-Pushee and Alex Newbold. They taught me everything from how to be a better fighter all the way to how to look someone in the eyes.

What was your best moment IC?

That depends on what you mean by 'best'. There are two moments from the same event that are full of a lot of emotion for me.

The first is probably the one time I really felt epic as a fighter. I want to say it was the second Saturday of the final push into Bedlam, but I'll be honest, those weekends blur together for me in a way I would never have believed possible so it might have been the first one. It was late, it was dark and people were starting to slow down. You could feel the urge to just hole up in the tavern and not move. We knew which way we needed to go to find the next piece we needed but no one was moving. So, I decided it was time to go. I had a special shield which had been made for the event which glowed and would let me plant my feet and gain invulnerability for the next 30 seconds. So I walked out of the tavern with Cuchullain and Pheonix Rose, but no one else followed us. We got to the head of the trail we needed to go down and I planted my feet when we got attacked. I don't think 30 seconds has ever last so long before. The count finished and I finally started taking damage. I was convinced I was about to go down when someone healed one of my legs. The rest of the questing party had arrived just in time.

The second was definitely the final Sunday during the last court of the True Court of Fae. To preface this, my first event was the coronation of Cuchullain and Nimbus and that has always been a very defining moment to Tara. By this point in the Bedlam War, there were rumors going around that the Fae were going to pull out after we defeated Mad Tom. We had all been talking about it on the side. The plane of Fae was so damaged, what would happen? I knew two things to be true: Tara would never leave the mortal realms and her responsibilities there but she would also never be a squire in a capacity where she could not actually serve her knight. I had spent more than a while bracing myself for the very real possibility of turning in my squire belt. Instead, I found myself being knighted and explicitly told to stay behind. That moment has gone on the very, very short list of times I have honestly cried real honest to goodness tears at an event.

Photo by Angela Earle Gray

What was your best moment as a NPC/EH/Player?

Hands down, the best moment has to be during the storyteller's quest that Becky and I ran some time back where we actually hung a player. We had a tree climber's rig to keep him safe and hung the noose loosely in the tree so if something failed, the noose would just fall. But it was convincing enough that went the rest of the players found him, they were legitimately shocked and confused.

What would you like to see changed or developed more in game?

I would really love to see more garb, more role-playing and less OOC talk during events. I know people want to catch up, but at least do it off to the side. I know there have been individual pushes, but I feel like it will take a real push from across the board before anything changes.

What advice would you give new players?

Try everything! No seriously. Help in the kitchen, serve, NPC (but wait a while on that one*), fight, learn spells, fight some more. Ask people to teach you things. Anything. Make armor, sing, try rituals. Help people, stay to clean up, make friends. Run shops, do something in-character stupid, get in trouble. I mean it, try everything. And don't be afraid to make mistakes, they usually end in fun.

* But wait a while before you NPC. One of the things I've been discovering is that once you've seen behind the curtain, its hard to go back. Once you've been the goblin, its hard to see the goblins and not your friends in hockey masks. If someone has a solution to that, I would love it.

What do you love most about the game?

I love newbies. I love watching the wide eyed joy that people come in with. That sense of 'oh my god, its all really real' and 'this is what I didn't know I need'. So many of the people I've seen come into the game come for the roleplaying, stay for the community and really grow. I love being part of that and helping to shape who they become.

Who would you like to see the next interview be with?

I'm not sure. Surprises are fun though! Someone no one would expect.