View From Valehaven: What You Missed: Carnage 22 (plus photos)

by John "Gordon" Rescigno
(*) Photos and captions by Jon "Trent" Jessop

(#) Photos and captions by Sara "Zarine" Jessop

Carnage Convention is one of my favorite events every year. It gives the Realms a chance to put its best foot forward for the gaming community at large, and do some recruiting for our game. We get a consistent crowd of people who would otherwise not be able to come participate at “normal” events over the course of the year who are always enthusiastic about learning more about fighting, magic, and LARPing in general. But this isn’t about why I want to go every year and why you should come too, this is about the amazing time that you missed!

Carnage takes its course over three sections of Saturday at the convention. Weapon-making, Tournaments, and Quest. The first part of Saturday was our weapon-making/networking section where we answered questions for passersby and invited them to come check out what we were doing and why we were all in silly outfits. We had the Loaner Armor Bin for people to check out and try on some gear, multiple posters about both The Realms and Bicolline, Omnibi for people to peruse, and a great group of people to answer questions about different aspects of the game while Eric and others instructed the newcomers how our weapons were built.

T-Main and Trent help a visitor at the tourist and visitor information counter (#)

Gordon teaches an aspiring student Realma magics (#)

Weapon-making with Rudy (#)

Section two was all about teaching the new recruits of the “Green Mountain Militia” how to safely beat up their friends and especially their siblings with our combat training. We divided them into three groups to better focus on individual coaching in three basic fighting styles: Single Short, Sword and Board, and Five Foot. After we rotated these groups a few times, we pitted them against one another in a series of tournaments. Even some members of another LARP also joined us and took part in the tournaments.

Drike teaches the basics of hand and a half (*)

Why do elves attract all the girls? (*)

Our activities caught the notice of many from far off lands, including this experienced Elf, who taught as much as he learned. (*)

Every year Carnage Con attracts children and families alike who want nothing more than to go on a quest. After dinner, a merchant came to our new recruits with news of goblins who ambushed her, providing exactly that to our intrepid heroes. With Celtrex and Skyler of Creathorne supporting the group of new adventurers against the forces of the Goblin King, who had made off with a treasure chest full of candy as well as the Merchant’s assistant. With the help of some coordinated attacks, some divine magic, and a happy-go-lucky attitude that only our devoted regular Carnage attendees can supply, the Goblin King was defeated, and the candy recovered!

Our generous candy and toy merchant (*)

The Merchant's Terrified Assistant. Don't fret, she was rescued by the Heroes (*)

The Merchant guides the Heroes towards Adventure (*)

Our Happy Heroes with their treasure chest of candy and toys, and also the Goblin Kings head.(*)

Next year, the Green Mountain Militia will be moving to their new home at Mt. Snow, but the same training, questing, learning, and energy will still be had at our new location. Why do I want to go to Carnage for years and years to come? Because of What You Missed this year. The energy at this event is always so pure and exciting as new players and old players come together to try to build our game together for the next generation of LARPers.

Additional Photos by Sara and Jon Jessop:

Sign-up sheets, pamphlets and omnibuses on the info table (#)

Our fearless event holder Trent enjoying the first Sunny day in the History of him running Carnage. (#)
And yes, that is snow on the mountain behind him, fortunately made by a magic machine and not naturally occurring.