Jul 22 2019

The Day I Played A Wizard

I did it! I finally played a v8 wizard in Amtgard. I haven’t played wizard since before 2014. All the incants have changed and were new to me. I stuck to using spell balls with the addition of Elemental Barrage and Wardself. It wasn’t overly hard to memorize the spells I was using. I spent some time before the battle game studying and I had looked at them over the last few weeks since The Time I Almost Played a Wizard.

The attendance in Silvermoon (Salem, OR) was rather small which made the battle game fairly small. We had about 12 to 14 players and two reeves. The game was a hold the point game. You had to hold the point for 3 minutes. To disrupt the time for the other team you had to be in the point, uncontested for 10 seconds. After the ten seconds the time for your own team started.

It was immediately evident that I was rusty. A big part of playing a wizard is dodging arrows and I did not do well. Ceian did a really good job of keeping me shut down. He even got off an accidental trick shot where he bounced off a tree, killing me. Eventually I managed to be a bit more limber and started dodging, but I had wasted two Wardselfs and an Elemental Barrage.

I also didn’t do very well at throwing them balls. I only hit three people the whole game. Don’t get me wrong, I threw a lot of balls and kept the pressure on, but my actual kill and wound count was nearly non-existent. I did get one really good kill with my Fire Ball though. Hyde was about 30-40 feet away and I did a hail marry throw and got him right in the leg, killing him. It surprised everyone, even me. In the end we stopped the game before there was a winner. We tied at 2 to 2.

I had never been amazing as a wizard in any of the editions, either version 6 or 7 but I used to be pretty good at throwing spell balls. I am rusty and I really need to practice. This isn’t to take away from other people and their ability dodge. For Example Hyde, who I targeted a lot, was really good at dodging. I also did pretty good with the spell ball incants. Torg only had to correct me once. I did get flustered while I was being pressed though, I need to get better at casting while under pressure.

I also had some trouble remembering the different effects of the spell balls, which had changed from version 7. Torg and Vaune were good at answering my questions. I need to work on remembering what each ball does. I have Entangle and Ice Ball down and I think I now understand Lighting Bolt and Fire Ball but I need to work on Phase Bolt and Sphere of Annihilation.

Ceian also helped me tweak my spell list a bit. I wouldn’t have had any Wardselfs if he hadn’t pointed it out to me. I’ve since made a few more tweaks based on the balls I have. I think it will be mildly better next time I play wizard and I do intend on playing wizard again. I had fun Larping something beyond a sword fighter.

Speaking of sword fighting I got some good wacks in too. Ceian and I did some single sword sparing and then at the end of the day some ditching. I have to say that my single sword is still better than my sword and board. I didn’t do so well in the ditch, although I did surprise Ceian with my battle field awareness, at least once. Oh and there was a tournament!

Specifically a Woman’s Tournament. Dee Metria drove up from Iron Keep (Eugene, OR) to run it. We had five entrants, we were hoping for more but it wasn’t a bad turnout for the first Woman’s Tournament in a long time. Ephiny  came in first place with Rion in second and Fala in third.

The day was pretty fun overall, although a bit short. I got there a little after 12 and had to leave around 4. I’m not sure how long everyone else stayed but I can’t imagine it was much longer, turn out was exceptionally small for us. Next week is a KLE and the parade in Dusk Hallow (Dallas, OR) but I won’t be able to make it. I’m throwing a big shindig at my place and it will take all day to prep for it. I will still try to find something LARP related to post next week though, don’t worry!

Jul 15 2019

Northern Lights Summer Mid-reign 2019

As the title suggests I didn’t go to my local park last weekend. Instead I went to Northern Light’s Summer Mid-reign. It was a camping event but I only went for Saturday. I originally had no intention of going but Uriel said he needed a ride and would pay my gate fee, so I said yes. However it turns out that Gustav wanted to go too so I didn’t end up driving at all.

I’ll be honest, I didn’t engage with Amtgard much at all at this event. The closest I came to Amtgard was me dressing up in garb. This might make for a less than stellar blog and I apologize.

Gustav picked us up from Uriel’s place around 10:30 and we headed out. We stopped at exit 42 in Washington to buy a pizza pocket as is tradition. Sadly it wasn’t as good as usual, which as disappointing. We made it to site around 12:30, paid our gate fees and made our way down to the field.

We immediately spotted Shayden and asked if we could use his camp as our base for the day. He was delighted and said yes. We made our way over to the Legacy Camp and set our stuff down. Gustav brought his gear and Uriel and I brought our beer. Jugging was just starting and Uriel and I cracked open a beer and started our day drinking. We walked over and said hi to a few friends and watched jugging for a while.

I saw Aurora and started talking with her. I then followed over to the Golden Lion’s encampment. I pretty much stayed there till feast. Most of the people I wanted to talked to were there or ended up walking through the camp.

I spent a good amount of time talking to Aurora and Terarin about Amtgard politics but in a positive light. There was some good conversation about the corpora and some recent change suggestions put forth by Aurora. It was a very productive talk. I even got some one on one talk with Terarin which I’ve hardly had. I think it was the most we’ve talked and it was good to get to know his thought process in relation to Amtgard.

I also made a point to get a selfie with all the people from House Gravy. There were only three of us but I try to get a picture of us at all major events. I didn’t get that chance till the evening in the feast hall. It was Gustav, Gallienus and myself.

For the feast I spent all the time on the deck out back. The food was alright. The chicken was cooked through and wasn’t overly dry and the root vegetables were soft. The slices, which I was told were pear, were not good and I couldn’t eat them. Ratatouille was also on the menu but there wasn’t any on my plate. All I can do is assume they ran out, which was a shame.

After feast I left, I didn’t end up staying for court. I said my goodbyes to the Golden Lions crew as they were packing up to head home. Gustav, Uriel and I ended up in the Legacy camp visiting with Shayden, Matty and Savy for several hours before heading home ourselves.

That pretty much sums up my Saturday at Amtgard. I didn’t get home till 3:30 am. As I said I didn’t do much actual Amtgarding. The most you could say I did was do some work on the business side of Amtgard but it was just through conversation. Next week should be more about the game, I plan to play wizard for the first time since version 7 of the rules. It should be interesting.

Jul 08 2019

The Time I Almost Played a Wizard

On Saturday I went to Amtgard in Mystic Seas (Portland, OR). It was a hard choice between going to Mystic Seas and going to Silvermoon (Salem, OR). Mystic Seas was having a BBQ and Chili Cook Off and Silvermoon was hosting the Phoenix League match between Black Company and Arcana (Arcana won by the way, huzzah!). What pushed me towards Mystic Seas was that my squire, Indra, said he would join.

I arrived at the park shortly before 1pm and I was greeted by an old friend who I had no idea who would be there, Falcon. Not only does she live an hour away from Portland she doesn’t really come out to Amtgard anymore. I hadn’t seen her since last year. It was great getting to catch up.

I also arrived just in time for the chili cook off although I wasn’t entering anything myself which I came to regret. It would have been fun and also a good chance to show off my skills, even if they are a bit rusty. I don’t enjoy cooking as much as I used to. One of the reasons for my regret is due to a pet peeve I have about chili. Chili in its pure form does not have beans. If you look at cans of chill it says chili WITH beans. Beans are an additive. It’s fine if people like it but it’s just not pure chili. As you might have guessed my chili doesn’t contain beans.

I don’t recall how many entries there were but I did get to taste each one. My favorite was probably BamBam’s. I liked the flavor and especially liked the pulled pork he put in it. It was a nice alternative texture and carried a pleasant meaty flavor that ground beef often doesn’t have. In the end Aurura won the competition.

I actually went to the park intending to play in a battle game for once. I had a dream the night before about playing a wizard in Amtgard and I woke up with the urge to play it. I haven’t played wizard at all in Version 8. I brought out all my spell balls and sashes, made a spell list and I thought I was ready to go. Then when it was time for the battle game I realized I had no idea how to cast any of the spell balls. So rather than try to figure it out in the middle a game I decided I would wait till next week and take the time to try and memorize the spells by then.

In the mean time, since I wasn’t playing in the battle game I spent the time sparing with with Gustav. We weren’t fighting long before Indra showed up to the park and joined us. I got some good kills in but mostly I died.

We decided to take a break around the time the battle game ended. I took the time to introduce Indra to a few people. I hadn’t seen him out in several months, although he did go to Dusk Hallow (Dallas, OR) the previous Sunday. I would have joined him if he’d just sent me a message. It was really nice to see him catch up. He wasn’t able to stay too long, just for an hour or two. He had his daughter and girl friend with him.

A ditch started up right after Indra left and Gustav and I joined in. It lasted for quite a long time and it was nice to get some more fighting in. I fought this day more than I had in a very long time. I hope I’ll be able to continue that trend in the coming weeks at my local park.

After the ditch ended up chatting with people for quite some time. Derek Roth had also shown up and it was great to get to chat with him, it had been a while. In the end I didn’t leave the park till about 7pm, it was a pretty long Amtgard day which I greatly enjoyed.

Originally I had some pretty solid anxiety going into to the events of the day. Everyone at the park is pretty much a new player, which means I knew no one there, which is something that is worrying to me when it comes to social events. That’s one reason I tried to get Indra and Gustav to go Then on top of the people I knew were going to be there I was surprised by Falcon and even Aurora, Terarin and Derek Roth were there. Not only did I know more people than I thought I would, the people at Mystic Seas are very welcoming, as is often the case I had nothing to worry about.

Next week I’ll be playing Amtgard at my local park, Silvermoon, and if everything goes as planned I’ll be playing in at least one game as a wizard. I also hope there are some decent fights to be had too. I hear we might even have a meat grinder going.