Ten Questions With Rob Nolan
(aka Morkeleb the Red/Alder Ragnarson)
How long have you been playing?
A little over 22 years. More than half my life.
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| Potato Goblins |
How has the game changed since you've been playing?
I started as a Rouge caster in the guild system, I had one specific weapon I could use and it took forever to learn spells. Now magic is much easier, but it feels like it is less effective, I miss netherforms and conductive lightning bolts.
Who have you learned the most from?
Trent, Artex, and Ashnak. The three of them taught me the most important thing, no matter how much you invest in the game, remember it is a game and not to take it too seriously to have fun.
What was your best moment IC?
My favorite moment has to be watching my step son go under the shield wall in a line battle at Gold and Green. He drum rolled most the the enemy team before they knew he was there. In fact it worked so well he did it again in the next fight. The third time they were ready for it so when he got behind them he just yelled, "I'm about to do it again!" and laughed as their entire line turned around in the middle of a fight.
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| Some of those faces look familiar |
What was your best moment as a NPC/EH/Player?
As an NPC it has to be a tie between the game of hot potato that spiraled out of control into the Potatoe Goblins, or the singing zombie chorus line that danced into the middle of the PC's unchallenged because of the gobsmacked laughter. As a player it has been, and I hope always will be, bringing a new player into the game and discovering it again through them.
What would you like to see changed or developed more in game?
I would love to see another combat spell path that would be a viable alternative/compliment to sorcerer.
I'd also love to see a real full scale war within the realms where everyone is pressured to take sides, friendships tested or shattered(IC), people get scalped out, nations are destroyed, and boarders are redrawn. I experience a lot of schadenfreude with my characters.
What advice would you give new players?
For fighters, don't be afraid to die, you'll get back up. For casters, never make a verbal that you can't say in one breath. That last has saved several of my characters lives.
What do you love most about the game?
The history. I've played other LARPs where they have these long written cannon histories of the nations in the game, "our forefathers" this and "long ago" that, but it is all made up and no one was there to see it. In Realms you can talk to people who were there when Kugen became a god, or the nameless one fell, or the Knights of the Eternal Flame were founded. We've seen the history of this world grow up around us and we've played a part in forging it, it hasn't just been typed up by an EH as backstory.
Who would you like to see the next interviews be with?
Any of the kids who have been playing since before they could walk and are now adult players.
Anything else you'd like to take the opportunity to put into print?
Accents are hard, everyone wants to be like Garhars but when you go from Swedish to Russian to Irish over the course of an event it might be time to throw in the towel.