The Functionning of the Caravan (Continued)

Oh dear, I still spent over a week without updating anything... I swear I will try to update at least once a week from now on!
It's been really hectic around here for a while, I was sick, Christmas is coming, I lost my job... Just plain hell.

Anyways.
Last post was cut short by my inability to think. But now I have more things to say.

The Caravan, like I said, is a big family. Everyone has his or her own ability that can help, weither on the road or while parked at the outskirts of a town.
Obviously, the jugglers will need to do something different when the caravan is travelling but some people do not have a specific 'entertainment job'. The person in charge of the toddlers in example, will not stop taking care of them to entertain villagers with the others, the toddlers require constant care.
Different people have different jobs, but most everyone in the caravan will enjoy singing and dancing.

The exact population constantly changing. For generations, people have come and gone, but only under certain criteria.

- An infant born from one of the women from the caravan will be considered a member of the faily.
- A child under the age 10 found abandonned will be taken in as a member of the family if no one can trace his parents in two weeks' time. (Or if the parents are deemed unable to take good care of their children.)
- An adult that has no connection to the caravan will be allowed to travel with them but will be kept away from any secret, they are welcome to travel with the group for safety but they are not of the group.
- An adult that used to be from the caravan but left of his own accord can come back anytime and will be welcomed to stay.
- An adult or child that has been banished for any reason will never be allowed in the caravan again, not even to travel with them.

I have written that the caravan in a group of charlatans, this in neither completely right, nor copletely wrong.
The caravan will never cheat honest people out of their money nor sell something harmful to someone. They are honest people who will find ways to get something without stealing it directly - i.e. asking to see something and, when someone diverts the owners attention, pocketing it and never mentionning it again- but if asked for it back, they will not hesitate to give it back.
They are tricksters who take profit of people's lack of attention, they are not thieves.

The people from the caravan have a wide variety of features and skin colors due to their habit of taking in orphans from across the lands.They wear many different type of clothing, mixing a bit of every culture they meet. The women tend to prefer long colourful skirts or very revealing outfits, depending on the occasion. The only common occurence in the dress of the caravan is the insane amount of jewelry the all wear and the bell ankle-bracelets women wear, which supposedly repels monsters.

*To be continued, yet again*

The functionning of the Caravan.

Beldandy and Ewen come from a caravan of gypsies. A nomadic tribe of entertainers, thieves and charlatans.

The tribe (kumpanya) contains roughly 100 people and about as many horses. Most of the horses pull wagons while the others serve as mounts for the guard and the scouts.

The kumpanya acts as one big family; pooling ressources, taking care of all the children, sharing food and protecting each other. They are led by the Council of Elders, the six eldest members of the caravan.
Right now the council consists of:

Veroni, the chief elder
He is not the eldest but he is the one in charge of leading the carts from town to town. His wagon is the first in the procession. All the members of the caravan respect his decisions as he always has the good of the kumpanya in mind.

Izegaga, the seer
The eldest by far, being a seer for so long made her lose a few braincells too much so she is sometimes incoherent. But when her mind is not wandering off, she is a walking-talking pool of knowledge.

Gueux, the medicine-man
He is not exactly a healer, he is not exactly an alchemist, he is not exactly a fool. He knows how to make healing potions, which he uses to help the caravan, and he knows how to make potions that have no use and that people will want to buy (love potions, hair growth potions, luck potions, penis enlargment potions (some things never change...), etc.)

Bobre, the fletcher and
Bobge, the brewer
Twins, one of them makes the booze, the other makes the barrels to store the booze in. Together they keep the parties going. They are very popular among the kumpanya and among the clients.

Ruena, the seamstress
She is the one in charge of the musicians', dancers', entertainers' and prostitutes' clothing. She designs wonderful creations that are both practical and beautiful.


The rest of the tribe is divided between entertainers, musicians, dancers, singers and prostitutes although everyone has a second profession be it as assistant to one of the elders or other important tasks like instrument repair or shoe-making or even hunting.

*To be continued*

Things I don't understand.

Ok, I play a Bard. That is an innkeeper. That is a whore.
But I play a bard. why? because I love to sing.
I play an innkeeper. why? because I love to take care of people and make evil and cunning plans to have even more money without needing to fight.
I play a whore. why? because I have no shame whatsoever.

The thing is, contrary to what it seems like, I have no confidence in my skills.
I think that my voice is horrible.
I don't really like my own cooking and invent recipes on the fly.
I am the shyest person ever, I don't care about making a fool of myself, as long as no one else is involved. I don't want people to be fools. That and I don't trust people to believing the "it's only a game" part.
Oh and like any person, I don't think that I am attractive.

Ok, useless ranting but I have horrible hair that cannot be tamed, only detained in a tight braid; I have a horrible acne problem that makes me look like I'm 12 and I have an anoying personality!
I know that I have an annoying personality! I've always had it. And then people tell me I'm annoying!
I KNOW!

So yeah, back to the main subject.
I play a jaded bard whore... yet I must resist telling people to shut up when they compliment my voice or my looks because I disagree.

What is pretty in a badly proportionned zit-faced freak like me? What is melodic in a broken squealy voice like mine? What is good in the randomly tossed together produce that ends up looking like a brown goop (It often looks like I'm a bone-gnawer who used the gift "cooking")?

I just don't understand....

You can do miracles with rotten wood and rusty nails. (With Pictures)

Welcome to the inn.

It`s awesome what you can do with rusty nails and rotten planks of wood. Like this inn, holding on buckets filled with cement. This is basically a front view that is really cute and all...

We are planning on eventually putting cedar planks to finish the outside of the inn, and hanging some lights outside the door. Also we will have a big plaque with a gold lion painted on it.

Another view of the front. We could use a bit more windows but I guess it's better to have less so that we can't break what's not there.

If it wasn't for the buckets, the inn would be in deep shit since the ground is NOT level and even if we tried digging, there are about 2 inches of dirt before you hit solid rock.

On this side of the inn, we actually didn't repair much. the bunch of bricks in the foreground is our fire pit... And that window you see had the nostril prints of an Orc for half the summer.

The window also lets us keep an eye on the fire from inside.

This is the back wall. this is the most finished wall of the whole building.

Well, the leftmost window is actually broken so it's a gaping hole... but we shut it with planks so the snow wouldn't come in.

And here is the point were I realise we went to repair the other side of the inn and I didn't take pictures of it... Just imagine that the triangle between the wall and the roof is missing. But now it's not.

So like I was saying, here is how we repair a window.  We just put planks randomly and drive nails into the beams.

We are still unsure if we will repair the window or just cut a door and make an outside veranda to have barbecues in order to be able to cook more food.

This is a corner! duh. With Marie-Helene, one of the DMs, being cheerfull since we are repairing the inn.
The window behind her is the one we can see the fire from. And there is another window behind the plank of wood.

The bench has been repaired (it was loosing it's legs) by driving nails into each and every interlocking part.

We are awesome.

As you can see in the corner, the triangle had not been entirely repaired yet.
Also we have a new shelf unit! that makes 2 shelf units!
We'd see them better if it wasn't for Ewen's butt. But it's fine, she has a nice butt.

And we see part of the bar... full of stuff...
It will be repaired to. We like the bar, but it's nice to have some storage AND some counter-space. and the counter is way to high anyways.
But it's understandable, the people who built it are all super tall.

Here we have Ben, the other DM, installing planks of wood so we can install hooks for coats and cloaks. We also built a cage/ box/ thingydo to put weapons so they won't be everywhere.

Ben said that the nails that Marie bought were flimsy pieces of crap... but he was the only one to complain... (Marie, I think Ben would like his balls back...)

Also we changed the door knob so now the door stays closed and LOCKS! No more will we need to put a table in front of the door to prevent the wind from opening it.

And last picture, same corner where Marie was.
Eventually we will put plastic lining, fibreglass insulationg, more plastic lining and close the walls... but that is for the future.

For the moment, we are happy to have a door that locks, no holes in the walls and chairs you can sit on without falling.

We accept donations to make this inn better!

Just send them to the DMs!

Photos of Legion!!!

So in one of my earlier posts I mentionned my cat.

Now here are pictures. (They were taken with my phone so no one is allowed to complain!)

This is when we were still at the LARP. Poor little cat was so scared when we got attacked by a were-wolf...

He survived that weekend eating anything we gave him (mostly eggs and meat mixed with veggies) and sleeping with me for warmth.

I think everyone at the LARP, even the ones that are allergic, held the cat at some point during the weekend.

When we got home, we were so scared that our other cat would maul the poor little kitten that we kept him in a separate room. We fed the cat with wet food and eggs to fatten him up. it didn't take long and he was a lot better.

This one was taken not to long ago... maybe two months now...

Already he is a lot better. After spending a while with food, loving people and a friend cat, he is super happy!

The satisfied look in his face is because he is sleeping with us.  (The foot in the background is not mine but my boyfriend's.)

And this is last week, Legion was pretending to be a pair of shoes.

From 6 pounds he is now a healthy 8.6 pounds and is soooo happy.

He still meows like crazy if I dare try to sleep without telling him though...
But it's ok.



More pics soon!

Pics about the repairs on the inn!

A note for the unenlightened.

I realised that I've been talking about LARPing for a while and haven't even said what it is.
Mostly because I have been writting for myself and people in the know.

But as I am giving the blog's address to people who might not know what I am talking about, here is a description.


LARP: Live Action Role-Playing, (the rest will be shamelessly stolen from wikipedia and edited as I see fit since I can't be bothered to pull a description out from my ass)

A live action role-playing game (LARP) is a form of role-playing game where the participants physically act out their characters' actions. The players pursue goals within a fictional setting represented by the real world, while interacting with each other in character. The outcome of player actions may be mediated by game rules, or determined by consensus among players. Event arrangers called gamemasters decide the setting and rules to be used and facilitate play.


The first LARPs were run in the late 1970s, inspired by role-playing games and genre fiction. The activity spread internationally during the 1980s, and has diversified into a wide variety of styles. The fictional genres used vary greatly, from realistic modern or historical settings to fantastic or futuristic eras. LARPs range in size from small private events lasting a few hours to huge public events with thousands of players lasting for days.



Playing a LARP is often called larping, and one who does it is a larper.

LARP does not have a single point of origin, but was invented independently by separate groups in the late 1970s and early 1980s. These groups shared an experience with genre fiction or tabletop role-playing games, and a desire to physically experience such settings. In addition to tabletop role-playing, LARP was preceded and possibly influenced by childhood games of pretend, play fighting, costume parties, roleplay simulations, Commedia dell’arte, improvisational theatre, psychodrama, military simulations, and historical reenactment groups.

Today LARP is a popular activity in North America, Europe, Russia and Australasia. Large games with thousands of participants are run by for-profit companies, various LARP books are published and an increasingly professional industry sells costume, armour, and foam weapons intended primarily for LARP.

Players physically portray characters in a fictional setting, improvising their characters' speech and movements somewhat like actors in improvisational theatre. This is distinct from tabletop role-playing games, where character actions are described verbally. The setting, characters, and rules may be defined in a publication or created by the arrangers or players. LARPs may be played in a public or private area, and may last for hours or days. There is usually no audience, and bystanders are typically either ignored or treated as part of the fictional setting. Players may dress as their character and carry appropriate equipment, and the environment is sometimes decorated to resemble the setting. LARPs can be one-off events or a series of events in the same setting, and events can vary in size from a handful of players to several thousand.

Player actions in the real world represent character actions in an imaginary setting. Game rules, physical symbols and theatrical improvisation are used to bridge differences between the real world and the setting. For example, a rope could signify an imaginary wall. Realistic-looking weapon props and risky physical activity are sometimes discouraged or forbidden for safety reasons.

There is a distinction between when a player is in character, meaning they are actively representing their character, and when the player is out of character, meaning they are being themselves. Some LARPs encourage players to stay consistently in character except in emergencies, while others accept players being out of character at times. Character knowledge is usually considered to be separate from player knowledge, and acting upon information a character would not know may be viewed as cheating.

The players take on roles called player characters (PCs), that they may create themselves or be given by the gamemasters. Players sometimes play the same character repeatedly at separate events, progressively developing the character and its relations with other characters and the setting.

The GMs (gamemasters) determine the fictional framework of a LARP, and may also influence an event and act as referees while it is taking place. Unlike the GM in a tabletop role-playing game, a LARP GM seldom has an overview of everything that is happening during play because numerous players may be interacting in separate physical spaces, especially at larger LARP events. For this reason a LARP GM's role is often less concerned with tightly maintaining a narrative or directly entertaining the players, and more with arranging the structure of the LARP before play begins, facilitating the players and crew to maintain the fictional environment during play and who handle details such as advertising the event, booking a venue, and financial management

Crew members assist the gamemasters in setting up and maintaining the environment of the LARP during play, which sometimes involves playing non-player characters (NPCs). NPCs exist to make the LARP more satisfying for the players, and typically receive more direction from the GMs than PCs do. In a tabletop role-playing game a GM usually plays all the NPCs, whereas in a LARP each NPC is typically played by a separate crew member. Sometimes players are asked to play NPCs for periods of an event.

Much of play consists of interactions between characters. Some LARP scenarios primarily feature interaction between PCs, who may be written with connections that encourage interesting interactions. Other scenarios focus on interaction between PCs and aspects of the setting, including NPCs, that are under the direction of the GMs.

Many LARPs have game rules that determine how characters can affect each other and the setting. These rules may define characters' capabilities, what can be done with various items, and what characters can do during the downtime between LARP events. Because referees are often not available to mediate all character actions, players are relied upon to be honest in their application of the rules.

Some LARP rules call for the use of simulated weapons such as foam weapons or airsoft guns to determine whether characters succeed in hitting each another in combat situations. The alternative is to pause role-play and determine the outcome of an action symbolically, for example by rolling dice, playing rock-paper-scissors or comparing character attributes.

There are also LARPs that do without rules, instead relying on players to use their common sense or feel for dramatic appropriateness to cooperatively decide what the outcome of their actions will be.

LARPs set in the modern day may explore everyday concerns, or special interests such as espionage or military activity. Such LARPs may resemble an Alternate Reality Game, an Assassin game, or a military simulation using live combat with airsoft, laser tag, or paintball markers. LARPs can also be set in historical eras, or have semi-historical settings with mythological or fantastical aspects incorporated.

Fantasy is one of the most common LARP genres internationally, and is the genre that the largest events use. Fantasy genre LARPs are set in pseudo-historical worlds inspired by fantasy literature and fantasy role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons. These settings typically have magic, fantasy races, and limited technology. Many fantasy LARPs focus on adventure or on competition between character factions. In contrast, science fiction LARPs take place in futuristic settings with high technology and sometimes with extraterrestrial life. This describes a broad array of LARPs, including politically themed LARPs depicting dystopian or utopian societies and settings inspired by cyberpunk, space opera and post-apocalyptic fiction.

Horror LARPs are inspired by horror fiction. Popular sub-genres include zombie apocalypse and Cthulhu Mythos, sometimes using the published Cthulhu Live rules. The World of Darkness, published by White Wolf, Inc., is a widely-used goth-punk horror setting in which players usually portray secretive supernatural creatures such as vampires and werewolves. This setting can be played using Mind's Eye Theatre, which is a set of LARP rules also published by White Wolf. World of Darkness LARPs are usually played in a chronicle, a series of short events held at regular intervals, and are also popular at conventions. An international chronicle is run by White Wolf's official fan club the Camarilla.

In the Nordic countries, LARP has achieved a high level of public recognition and popularity. It is often shown in a positive light in mainstream media, with an emphasis on the dramatic and creative aspects. However, even in Norway where LARP has greater recognition than in most other countries, it has still not achieved full recognition as a cultural activity by government bodies.

 
 
There! Now you are all enlightened and I can go back to posting about interesting stuff!
 
Yes. I am shameless.
 
and Evil.