Hi, everypony, and welcome to another episode of Twilight Tries!
Today’s episode is going to be a very special one, because today I’m going to be joined by my number one assistant, and very dear friend, Spike! Or, to be more accurate, I’ll be joining him. You see, what I’m going to be trying in this episode is something that Spike has been doing for a few months now. Something that, in all honesty, seems a bit strange to me, but something that I promised I’d do with him.
Today, I’m going to be trying…LARPing!
For those who don’t know, LARP stands for ‘live action role playing’ and LARPing is the verb form used to describe partaking in live action role playing. It involves dressing up as a fictional character and acting out a story as that character with others. There are many different kinds of LARPs like Steampunk or Post-Apocalyptic, but apparently a number of them simply fall under the category of General Fantasy, which is the kind Spike and I are going to be doing.
LARPs can also vary in terms of the number of players and the length of time that they’re played. The one that Spike and I are going to will run from tonight through tomorrow night, so about 24 hours, and there should be around a couple dozen players, though we’ll only be playing with a few of them. At least according to Spike.
Anyways, like I said the reason I’m trying this today is because I promised Spike I would do it with him, and the reason for that is, well…because we haven’t done anything fun together in a while. Just the two of us, you know? I mean, we spend a lot of time together doing all kinds of official princess and principal duties, but it really has been quite some time since he and I did something fun together.
I could tell Spike was feeling sad because of this, so I promised him we’d spend a day together doing whatever he wanted, and what he wanted was for the two of us to go on one of his LARPing trips together. I’m not exactly sure why he chose LARPing, but I did say anything he wanted, so…here we are.
Also, if you’re wondering why Spike is into LARPing, I really don’t have an answer for you. Though I have a feeling it has to do with that one time when Discord made his and Big Mac’s Ogres & Oubliettes game real.
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I’ll be right there, Spike! I’m just finishing up the intro for my vlog!
Looks like Spike is ready to go, so I’ll stop recording for now and start back up once we reach the Whitetail Woods.
Okay, so we just arrived at the Whitetail Woods and we’re headed for the clearing where the meet-up is. While we walk, I’ll explain a few things that Spike explained to me about all this so nopony gets confused.
When we arrive, we’ll get registered and be given our character sheets. These character sheets will inform us of our stats as well as skills that we can use during the game. As somepony who’s done this before, Spike says his character sheet will be pretty complex. And as somepony who is doing this for the first time, he says my character sheet will be fairly simple.
Although I have the feeling that I’ll still have no idea what anything on it means.
After we get our sheets, we’ll change into our costumes and await the start of the game.
Oh, also, Spike says we might not be the same characters the whole time. We may end up being NPCs, or ‘non-player characters’, who will interact with the actual players to help move the story along.
Which I don’t really understand, because if we’re still participating doesn’t that mean we’re still players?
Now normally LARPs don’t allow cameras like the one I use to record this series, as they can break players out of the mindset of their characters, but Spike spoke to the organizers of this LARP and they said it was okay for me to use my camera as long as I kept it inconspicuous.
And that’s about the gist of it…I think. I don’t know, Spike threw a lot of information at me about this thing and I’m not sure if I’m remembering it all or not…or understanding all of it correctly.
Anyways, it looks like we’re getting close to the clearing.
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Do you hear that, Spike? It sounds like…music.
Wow, it looks like a number of ponies are already in costume and getting into things. That group over there must be minstrels or something.
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Coming, Spike!
Looks like we’re about to get our character sheets.
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Huh. My character's name is Efaris Dawn and I’m a White Mage. That sounds pretty neat.
Let’s see what my stats and skills are.
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Uh-huh.
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Interesting.
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Yep, I have no idea what anything on here means.
Hey, Spike, can you explain my character’s stats and skills to me?
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Oh, so I’m like a healer. Guess that explains why my skills with potions is so high.
Although, why are all of my attack stats so low?
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Healers don’t attack much? Well I guess that makes sense. A healer can’t heal if they end up dead.
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Right, we should get our costumes and get ready.
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Shoot, when I saw 'mage' I thought that meant I’d be able to use lightning bolts or something.
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Wow, these costumes is really nice! If I didn’t know any better I’d say Rarity made them.
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Rarity did make them?!
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Yeah, good point, Spike. Whatever helps her grow her business.
Though I can't help but wonder what the story behind her making LARPing costumes is.
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What? It’s time to join our party and found out what our quest is?
Okay, let’s go.
Okay, so we have our party and we have our quest. Our quest is that we have to take some sort of ring up to a mountain - which is actually just that small hill over there in the distance - and destroy it…because it’s evil, or something. And our party consists of Efaris Dawn the white mage, played by me, Sir Drake Hearth the paladin, played by Spike, Idril the archer, played by Big Mac, and Nibelle the wizard, played by…
*SIGH*
Trixie.
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Yeah, yeah, keep taunting me about how you’re a higher-level character than me, Trixie.
See if I don’t use my potion skills to make a poison that accidentally gets slipped into your drink during the quest.
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Anyways, we’re about to start heading off on our quest and I’m kind of excited to see what’s going to happen. I’m guessing there will be tons of obstacles and puzzles that we’re going to have to overcome before we even make it to our camp site for the evening, and I’m actually interested to see what they might be.
So let’s begin the quest!
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Yep, we’ll come across something any minute now.
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Nothing happened.
All we did was walk along the path for a few hours, and nothing happened.
I thought we were going to have to fight off bandits or solve a riddle in order to cross a bridge or…something before we reached the camp site. But…nothing.
Seriously, I can’t believe that-AHH!
What’s happening?!
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We’re being ambushed by orcs?!
What do we do, Spi-err-Sir Drake?!
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You three fight them off and I…just…wait until somepony needs healing?
Y-Yeah, okay.
Super.
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Okay, anypony need healing?
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Be right there, Idril.
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Idril took more hits than you, Nibelle. He gets healed first.
Guess I’m not so lowly now that you need healing, huh?
How about you, Sir Drake? Do you need any healing?
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Okay, if you’re sure.
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Well, that was…not what I expected. I didn’t even get to take part in any of the action. I just watched as the other members of my party fought off the orcs and then I healed them once they were done.
I really hope the rest of the quest isn't like this.
*SIGH*
Okay, anypony need healing?!
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Coming, Sir Drake!
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So, yeah, so far today has been exactly the same as last night. We get attacked, Spike, Big Mac, and Trixie fight them off while I do nothing, then when the battle is over I heal everypony. It’s so boring that I actually wish we'd been chosen to be NPCs for the day.
Frankly, the only reason I’m still playing right now is because of the fact that Spike is having fun, and I don’t want to ruin that. I mean, the whole point of me doing this in the first place was so that he and I could have fun together, and you know what? As long as he’s having fun, I’m having fun too. Even if it’s not as much as him.
So even though I’ve come to the conclusion that LARPing isn’t for me, I’ll keep playing until the end of this quest for my number one assistant.
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Be patient, Nibelle!
I’ll be with you after I’m done with Sir Drake!
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Okay, I’m going to stop recording here because I think I'm about to give ‘Nibelle’ a live action butt kicking and I don’t want it on camera if I do.
So as always, thanks for watching, everypony, and I’ll see you next time on Twilight Tries!
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I’m coming, Nibelle!
And I’ve got just what you need!