I went to two different parks this weekend, Silvermoon (Salem, OR) on Saturday and Dusk Hollow (Dallas, OR) on Sunday. Before I get into that I’d like to take a moment to talk about my newly launched Patreon and my YouTube Channel.
I launched my Pareon last week, I already have one supporter, Kormac, who I’d like to give a shout out! My blog focuses on my Amtgard and writing activities. My first goal is set at $50 a month, at which point I’ll remove the ads from my website, something I think everyone would agree is a good thing. What you’ll get is behind the scenes info and insight in to my writing projects, as well as into my personal life. You will also have access to the occasional poll. You can find the page HERE.
This week I’ve also been uploading to my YouTube channel. There are videos from both Saturday and Sunday. They are unedited but I think they might still be worth watching. I have a pretty still hand and I think I kept the action relatively centered. You can see the channel HERE or click on the link on the side panel if you’re viewing it on a desktop. Now on to the happenings of the weekend.
Silvermoon
I arrived at Silvermoon shortly before the Encounter ran by Torg. The scenario this time was to cleanse the land. The people of Silvermoon was able to hire an old magic user that could cleanse the land. They had to escort him to four various spots while a necromancer and his minions tried to stop them. The adventurers were successful.
Afterwards there was a game of winners/losers, which I recorded and uploaded to my YouTube Channel. Then there was a ditch, which I participated in. It went on for a decent amount of time for our park. My lack of mobility is still a limiting factor but I did alright, the important part was I had fun getting some exercise.
The next game was a bridge battle organized by Torg, although he played in it to make the sides even. I was the time and score keeper. It was a basic capture the flag battle with a bridge over a canyon. The gimmick was the death timer. It was an instant spawn at your base and every 5 minutes the death timer went up by 10 seconds. It ended 3 to 1. If it were to be done again I’d suggest changing the timer to 1 minute. The rounds went fairly fast and the timer was only invoked once.
After a water break there was another ditch, which I got video of. I did put down the phone to join in but as soon as I did the ditch died. There wasn’t another game after that. It was a fairly short day. There was a lot of visiting. After most people left Dab and Critias showed up. They got in some sparing, which I uploaded to YouTube for their review. We chatted for a bit and then broke up and went our separate ways. The day ended around 4:30-5.
Dusk Hollow
Sunday was such a nice day I wanted to spend another day outside so I made my way to Dusk Hollow (Dallas, OR). I also heard word that there was going to be food and it turned out the word was right! There was a smokey, creamy chicken noodle soup, although the water absorbed all the water so it was more casserole like. There was also fixings for sandwiches as well as chips and pop. I had myself some chicken noodle, a sandwich, some Cheeto Puffs and a pop. It was a nice lunch for a nice day.
The first game was a militia ditch but because people got annoyed with throwies it quickly ended. The next game was a two man forever class battle game where everyone was a level 2 caster. This took some time for people to get ready as most people were playing a class they had never played.
Once it started people had a blast. It lasted for a little over half an hour. I recorded almost all of it. If you want to watch a whole battle game you can find it on my channel. There are some good moments. People were mostly pretty good about the rules but some people were confused and they were corrected. The goal Savage had in running this game was to have people to play magic and get people used to the rules, which I think happened.
Following the battle game was a bearpit tournament. It had three brackets, single sword, two swords and sword and shield. I recorded the first bracket, single sword, which again, you can find on my YouTube Channel. The two swords bracket I sat out but I did play in the sword and shield bracket.
I didn’t do to bad. I didn’t die to newer people but I did die to Darb and Hyde, although we usually simoed. So while I did’t place I did stop streaks. It was pretty fun but to my surprise my body ached a little bit. I think it mostly had to do with how I was holding my shield during the down time while in line.
There was a court afterwards, but it was for announcements. Sadly I forgot who actually won the bearpit. (Edit: Hyde won overall and Darb placed second overall) They haven’t posted it on their Facebook group for me to check. That was pretty much the end of my day. I had forgotten that I was to meet up at Uriel’s place to watch Hell in the Cell, a WWE pay per view. I’m not a huge pro wrestling fan but it’s fun to watch with friends. So I left instead of going to afters with everyone.
There was a striking difference between the Silvermoon practice and the Dusk Hollow practice. While we had similar numbers this weekend Dusk Hollow had a lot more energy than Silvermoon, I was slightly envious. I guess that’s the difference between an older park with older members and a newer park with newer players. The day at Dusk Hollow was a lot more energizing.