We’re Back!

Northwest Amtgard is back! There are no more restrictions on meetings. I attended Silvermoon (Aumsville, OR) along with 54 other people. It was our coming back celebration combined with our mid-reign. There was a feast and a tournament.

The tournament was a three bracket bear pit tournament, short sword, two swords and sword and shield. I would say that was the main event of the day. The first bracket was 25 minutes but that turned out to be a little too long in the heat so the last two were only 20 minutes.

I didn’t participate in the tournament myself, but I did live stream it! I’ve uploaded the video to YouTube in three parts (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3). The YouTube quality isn’t the best due to it being taken from the VOD of the live stream. I was thinking that going forward I would bring two cameras, one to live stream and one to record for YouTube. Of course, that is if people would like me to stream when possible. Please let me know either way!

While I didn’t participate in the tournament I did give some advice to my Squire Indra’s younger brother, Adolfo. I’m not sure if he picked an Amtgard name yet, this was one of his first days. I gave him a few minute introduction to two stick and fought a few rounds with him. I got tired very fast, it was sad, but I think that was pretty common for most of the people coming back. Thanks COVID!

Adolfo got at at least one kill in the two sword bracket. I know this because he got excited and told me that he was able to use something I showed him to win. It was great to hear how excited he was. I was happy to have helped him have that memory.

After the tournament there was court, a very quick court, with lots of awards going out. Some had already gone out during the pandemic but they handed them out again so people could have physical copies. You can see a full list of who got what on the Silvermoon Facebook Group. For myself I got my 8th Dragon for the Shattered Kingdoms Wiki and my 4th and 5th Lion for my contribution to the online Amtgard experience over the pandemic.

The last part of the day was the battle game. It took a very long time to get started and then it lasted a long while too. I stayed near the shelter and talked with Indra and eventually we got in some short sword practice. I didn’t do as well as I’d like, I missed some blocks I shouldn’t have, but I still had speed and some footwork I got tired very fast but I pushed through it. I really need to up that endurance.

Photoshoots!

With us coming back to the parks I thought I would offer a new service, character portraits. My goal is to offer a professional product at a reasonable price. I figured if I’m going to be at the park and I’m going to have my camera, I might as well offer mini photoshoots. The base price is $30, this includes an approximate fifteen minute photoshoot and one edited image. I’m willing to travel to other parks, but there is a small charge to cover gas. Check out my Photo Services page for more details

I’m excited to start this endeavor! Please contact me if you have any questions or would like to arrange a photoshoot.

Live Streams?

I mentioned early that I live streamed and I’m wondering if people would like me to continue to try and live stream LARP days. I’d really like some feedback. I’m not 100% sure what this would look like yet. It’s best for streaming if I’m able to announce when I start and be able to stream for a few hours. This also requires a bit of work on my part, you shouldn’t just set up a the stream and walk away. I’d want to monitor the stream chat and be interactive.

Additionally the video quality of the stream is watchable, but for YouTube, it’s really not great. The only thing I can think of is to use my camera alongside my phone (that’s how I stream IRL content). This is a bit of a cumbersome workaround and is not ideal.

Chances are I will try to do this for a while, just to see how it goes, but I’d really enjoy some feedback.

Next Week

Next week I will probably go to Dragons Forge on Sunday, it’s their grand opening. I might also go to Silvermoon on Saturday too! I’m not sure if I’m ready to do two days back to back, but we’ll see. I’m sure to be out one of those two days.

Restrictions are over and we’re back at park, LARPing it up! I talk about my day, live streams and photoshoots.

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