New Website

I have just change the link on my blog from Shards LRP to Ascendancy LRP which is the new website I have been working on along with Julie.

Julie put together the Forum since she knows far more than me about the languages used in setting it up, although that meant it was more like work for her, while I put main site together i.e all the pretty picture and links and I think it all looks good.

The colour scheme was chosen by Andy and Heather who run Ascendancy and while it seemed very bright at 1st, spending a few weeks with it as made it grow on me and I now think its quite a fresh look, especially after looking at the dull, woody, green dark brown website of other Fantasy sites.

Now its case of others grammar spell checking it for me and finding any broken links, plus remaining keen enough to keep it up to date and current.

Overall though I achieved a goal and learned a few tricks, and idea's for next time, and feel quite pleased with my efforts.

Pot Watcher's Daughter

Old Arnkel

I have just come back from York having just done the 2nd Strangehaven event which was a great event.

Having found our way through the back roads to avoid M1 congestion during the Friday evening nightmare rush hour, we arrived on site around 7ish later than planned but traffic was horrendous not only getting from my house to York, but Julie getting from Coventry in the 1st place.

Friday night's story got underway with a party celebrating to upcoming death of my character Old Arnkel for the 3rd time, unfortunately the happy atmosphere was broken by foul mouthed pirates. After a bit of trouble Julie character Geruuih was kidnapped and brutally beaten as you can see from the photo, so Saturday she arrived back from her ordeal which was far from pleasant and that kicked off a great, well paced day, with plenty of plot and characters, and good feedback and interaction from the players.

I enjoyed myself, and while tirering unlike the 1st event it was not hard work, probably for several reasons, livelier villagers, more rounded plot, npc that delivered info and were not there to provide the solutions for the players, slightly cooler weather, and players that got stuck in and asked questions.

Geruuih................................................ Commander Drusa & Guards

By the end of play on Sunday all the pieces came together and some core plot handed over to both the players and crew to take with them to the next main event.

Packing as always is a pain, but we paced it around a late lunch and left site before 5pm, so it was good to arrive home not long after 6 making it a far pleasanter journey, even if I wasn't driving

I also managed to pin down a way forward with the Shards website, so me and Julie can get it ready for Andy's upcoming change.

New Tent

I spent the weekend gone tweaking the Shards web site and left the house rarely, the web site I promised to get up and running by end of August and failed, not my fault.

Apart from that I went looking for a slightly bigger modern tent something Julie reminded me about, something I said I would look for last year but never did, something I did look for in the spring this year but never found the right beast, so said I would wait for the end of season sales. I went off to try and find a tent suitable for one person, but tall enough to stand in if I need to, even with my neck bent would do, and with area to cook in should I need to, sound easy, but to get tall enough you need 4 person tent, (in tent speak that actually really means 2 people) and one with porch so the footprint tends to be big.

I tried 2 camping shops and the Internet, the shops where rubbish, either small dome tents, one with no height or then they jumped to family sized monsters, the Internet provided clues and couple of option but unless you can see them 1st hand you don't get a sense of proportion.

However having discovered Julie had made her mind up and along the same criteria, since its for use when she is not with Dave, I decided since she was going to the shop again to ask her to get a duplicate of her choice which is this one can't wait to see it up at the next event.

Weeklong Adventure

For the past eleven days I've been camping with my friends in a wood in Wales, the week started off very wet but eventually turned out nice. It was one of those weeks where many things happened but I'm already struggling to remember everything but a few personal highlights, possible because I need a few days to recover.

I shared a camp with Julie and Dave and as far as I know managed to get through the week without irritating them, apart from perhaps the incident where Dave went through a box of matches that would not light, and I managed to light the 1st one I struck, this resulted in me being promoted to storm kettle boiler.

The event was thoroughly enjoyed the first two sections especially, the last being rather slow for many reasons, mainly a guild plot that did not engage me and a dreaming plot that was kept away from all but the Frontier tribes.

I got back and was unloaded for 2am this morning, collected Jasmine who is just running around the house and returning every 5 minutes to jump on me and purr. The Cattery said they found it cute the way she total buries herself under the fleece rather than sleeping on top of it.

I don't feel tired, but I'm sure that will change as the day progresses.

Floods and tears

Tired......

What ever the reason I was tired during weekend and feel shattered now, its probably a combination of tough week at work, a hard drive to the event, a tough event and the dismal weather.

I have today off and actually contemplating going back to bed.

The weather was terrible on Friday, by the time we hit the M5 it was flooded and the odd wave of water hit us every time a truck or car going by far too fast overtook you. By the time we got to M50 my co-pilot Julie was on the look out for hidden lakes and watching the drains pouring out across the road, luckily most lakes where mud orange so easily spotted and driven through very carefully, lots of accidents on the hill side of the road where the water was deepest, however the little extra height and better tires of 4x4 gave me a bit more confidence. Getting to site not far behind schedule we learnt of people phoning stranded on the M5 behind us, some spending all night there, so it appeared we got through just in time. Very sodden tents were erected in appalling conditions and we never really dried out all weekend.

The event went ahead as planned with enough dry weather to make it work, despite some players and crew being stranded including the main man who had to drive via London and arrived at 1.30am Saturday morning. The event was hard because of the emotional style of roleplay & lack of progress unless you count finding dead ends, absolutely no good news only more bad, the light at the end of tunnel is getting dimmer and dimmer.

Just to make matters worse the M1 was down to one lane for repairs combined with a accident meant I did not get home until gone midnight.

Today well dry so far.

Leaking roof

I had a good weekend the forecast rain generally held off, a few crew tantrums seemed to have settled down by the end, I travelled home with 3 very sleepy people all of whom slept for most journey (fortunately the driver was fine) and was fed plenty of porridge and cakes.
My character also had a good weekend, if not for last hour where he landed on sorcerous snake when he was hoping for a supreme ladder, still if it was all good, you would not be able to recognise the good.

That was the good since when I got home I found a plant, broken plant pot, a pile of soil and a cat trying to look Innocent, then this morning I woke up at 4am to sound of dripping splashing water and kitchen roof that had sprung a leak overnight (at least it waited until I was home). I positioned a few buckets a washing bowl and pile of newspaper and went back to sleep and mopped it this morning.

Oh and thanks to Julie and Dave for my birthday present

Happy Birthday

Today is Jasmine's birthday, she is now a 2 year old kitten.
I have just collected her from the kennel after being away for weekend of larping and she is curled in my arm as I type this with one hand.

The house I got back to at gone eleven last night was freezing cold. I was camped not far from Swansea which was 16 deg yesterday one of the warmest places in Britain while the Midlands dropped to a low of 8 degrees, (some places dropped to 6 degrees) well I suppose I have seen snow in June before, but still a shock when we are a few days from summer. I was very tired by the time I got back and switched the heating on went to bed deciding to unload the car this morning.

The Shards event itself was great, I camped with Julie & Dave who fed me till I burst, especially her famous and tasty never thawing frozen soup, which remains frozen after 60 hours outside a freezer. I brought some cake and so did Julie but by the end of weekend the word cake almost made me run in fear, especially since the Rat tribe a player group organised a party which mainly consisted of large amounts of cake, which needed sampling, a impossible task since their was so much, I tried and the Order of Pi (Pie) another player group handed around more cake.

PS its my birthday in less than 2 weeks on the 9th

Refreshed

Had a great time at this weekend larping about at Shards, I took today off to recover, but woke this morning even after a long drive feeling quite fresh, so could have gone to work, still I've spent today doing some house keeping and some online stuff for Shards.

I started the weekend still feeling weak from the previous weeks illness, driving down was tiring but by Sunday I was fully recovered and enjoying the fresh air, good company, & nice soup of camping in a pleasant woodland far from traffic, even the one night of rain was pleasant in its own way.