The Arilic Observer

One thing the View used to do was offer up space for nations and groups to regularly post articles and observations pertaining to their respective groups. Here is our first such group. We look forward to this and future articles from them.

The Arilic Observer 

The Church of Arius would like to welcome Drike of Grimloch into our family.  Drike was initiated into the church August 27, 1011 during the annual Queen of Hearts Tournaments and War Maneuvers held in Rhiassa.  Drike will be mentored by Disciple William Althorne of Grimloch.  Please take a moment to congratulate Initiate Drike of Grimloch.   

Why I Want to Go- Adventure

Adventure: Walking into Oblivion
September 2, 2011 (Friday 6pm) - September 4, 2011 (Sunday 5pm)

With an event name like Adventure, how can you go wrong? This looks to be a purely questing event and appears to be heavily geared toward those who enjoy questing and role-playing. It seems to be the start of a new quest-line, though I do not have any behind-the-scenes knowledge of what the event-holder has planned. Either way, the event looks to be about doing some exploring and should be a good time for all who like to quest. Who knows what the players will find...but it is likely to be Adventure!

The event is up at Creathorne, an eventing site designed and maintained specifically for Realms use and Realms quests. As such it is nice that there are no "mundanes" around to cramp our style and a player can relax and enjoy playing within our community.

Question of the Week - 3

What spell(s) do you consider overpowered and why?

Outside the Realms - Movies

Following last week’s article on a new movie with strong ties to LARPing, I decided to take a look at LARPs in movies in general. There are quiet a few out there. Here are some of those…

Darkon 

This is a documentary based on an SCA inspired LARP based out of the Baltimore, MD, region of the US and was released in 2006. It seems to be highly regarded as it won the Best Documentary Audience Award at the 2006 South By Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival in Austin, Texas, where it premiered. It also has scored a positive 89% at the Rotten Tomatoes movie review site.

Monster Camp 

Another documentary released in 2007, this one follows a branch of NERO out in Seattle, Washington. It followed the players in that LARP for about a year. I do not believe it was ever given a wide release but according to the producers it won 4 Best Documentary awards at various film festivals.

The Wild Hunt

This 2009 drama/horror was given a fairly large release, though not in our area. It was a low-budget film and from everything I have heard did not make a lot of money, though it did win some minor film awards. It is a fictional story wherein a boyfriend follows the girlfriend that jilted him and the interactions of a “mundane” as he tries to interact with her during an event.

Role Models

A purely comedic film from 2008, this was less about LARPing and more about the main characters and the problems they cause for themselves. They are forced to interact with a group of LARPers as a form of community service so the LARP aspect is more of a background than at the forefront. This movie is the biggest exposure to LARPing the general public has had to date, the movie raking in $98 million.

By the way, if anyone has seen any of these movies and wants to do a review on them, especially on how they portray LARPing, we would love to post such a review.

Aggression Training by David "Callin" Dolph



Photo by angie_phoenix

Combat Aggression is a skill much the same as knowing how to hit an unarmored location or blocking with a shield. Similar to those skills, it can be taught and trained. It is of great use on the open battlefield and in a tourney, giving a combatant an edge in any fight.

What do I mean by Combat Aggression? I do not mean a wild, pell-mell attack. I do not mean charging your opponent and running them down. I mean a controlled system of attacks wherein you initiate the attacks as opposed to waiting to react to your opponent.

Why I Want to Go- Rhiassa Presents: Queen of Hearts XVIII

Rhiassa Presents: Queen of Hearts XVIII
August 27, 2011 (Saturday 11pm) - August 28, 2011 (Sunday 6pm)

What can you say about one of the cornerstone events of the year? If you like all day fighting, then this is the event for you. If you like the culture of the Realms, then this event is for you. If you like to see how much effort the people of the Realms can put into our game, then this is the event for you. This event is always grand and epic showcasing the best the Realms has to offer.

It looks like the event will be run similar to the past with some minor administrative changes; i.e. large teams are still competing for an overall prize through a series of team and individual tourneys. While the teams running for the title, Queen of Hearts, have already committed to the event, it is not too late to come to the event even if you are not part of a team. It is very easy to join a team at the beginning of the event. There is a special part of the opening ceremonies designed to do just that; allow those not on a team to join one for the weekend.

Question of the Week - 2

What in your opinion makes a Knighthood worthy of respect?

Outside the Realms - Knights Of Badassdom

This is the first of an irregular series looking at LARP related news that do not pertain specifically to the Realms.

Coming up next year is a new movie with heavy ties into LARPs. It is Knights of Badassdom. On wikipedia the movie is described as "a group of live action roleplayers accidentally summon a demon from the underworld". It is being billed as a horror-comedy. Given that the director, Joe Lynch, is a huge horror fan, apparently of the splatter variety we'll see how this bodes for the movie. Of course in one interview he was quoted as saying "absolute respect to culture, but still have a little fun with it. If someone sees the movie and afterwards says, 'I wanna LARP!' then we have done our jobs." so it might not be a trash-on-LARP-fest.

Of interest is that a couple of the actors are Steve Zahn and Summer Glau.

Here is a link to an online article about it along with a trailer...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/25/knights-of-badassdom-trailer-video_n_908347.html

Here is the official website...
http://knightsofbadassdom.com/

Plot View - Kathrani

This series is where we take a look at one of the ongoing plots to be found within the Realms. This article is from one of the plot-holders and is a good basis for gaining some fundamental information about the plot.

The Kathrani:

The Kathrani is not so much as plot as a group of people that want to get ‘more involved’ in the Realms and Carrie Plot. Becoming Kathrani is part culture, part personal challenge, part e-quest, and completely optional. No one HAS to be Kathrani to participate in the plot. No one that starts on the Path to becoming Kathrani has to remain on the Path. An individual may stop or quit at any time.

There are a couple restrictions to being accepted as a Kathrani:

-Your character needs to be a good guy for the most part.

-Your character cannot practice Necromancy of any kind (even if the character doesn’t view it as Necromancy). Additionally, characters that are tolerant of Necromancy use will likely not make it as Kathrani. Characters that worship gods of Necromancy likely also will not be accepted.

To get involved in the Kathrani, it is recommended that you read the section in the Ivory Library about the Kal en Dral, and speak with other members of the Order. No character will be discriminated against unless they are outside the restrictions listed above. When you and your character are ready to apply to become Kathrani, contact Carrie Dolph at cdolph@comcast.net. If she is not very familiar with you or your character, she may send you a questionnaire to fill out before beginning the process.

Why I Want to Go- Festival of Val Dara 2

This is the first of an ongoing series of articles that will take a look at the events for the upcoming weekend.

Festival of Val Dara 2
August 19, 2011 (Friday 7pm) - August 21, 2011 (Sunday 4pm)

This looks like it will be a nice and easygoing blend of tourneys during the day with some questing at night. As those who have been to this site before know, the site is expansive with plenty of room for camping, tourneys and some nice trails through the woods for the nightquests. As an added perk there is a nice stream for swimming, just the right thing at the end of a day of tourneys before a night of questing. Of course, since the event allows alcohol there might be some good reasons for skipping the nightquest in favor of just hanging out by the fire. Did I mention they are planning for some dancing around the fire as well?

Pre-registration might be a good idea since it appears there will some perks handed out to those who pre-reg. In addition, those with regional magics will want to pre-reg as the EH staff apparently needs to know exactly what regional magics are being taken so they can better prepare for them; not doing so may cost a caster some spell slots. They had requested a two week pre-reg on the regional magics, but it might not be too late.

If you do get to go to this event, make sure you check the event listing as the directions can be tricky; GPS can not account for the bridge that is out.

Question of the Week - 1

This is the start of a weekly series that will run on Mondays. In it we ask a question about the Realms with the intent of getting some thoughts and opinions from the Realms populace. Feel free to leave your thoughts in the Comments section of this post.

What books/movies inspire you with ideas for your character or plots?

Weapon vs. Weapon by David "Callin" Dolph

There are many different styles of weapons; we have two-handed, florentine, sword & shield and 5’ weapons. There are, of course, variations of these; single short and 4’6” are variations on the single weapon, but for the sake of simplicity in this article I will be lumping all single weapons into the 5’ category. Likewise 6’6” and 8’ are both considered two-handed.

As most experienced fighters know, when facing an opponent you need to take into account the weapon style your opponent is wielding. In fact, there are some weapon styles that are more effective against other weapon styles. Here are the weapons I use when facing a particular style. Obviously personal ability comes into play on this topic. Your own ideas may vary (and feel free to post about them in the Comments), but I believe the following are good ways to deal with the variety of weapons you may encounter in a tourney field or on a battlefield.