In which I succumb to the inevitable, and post about Larping
Monstering was much better than I expected, given that I'd had the horrible sinking feeling that I'd signed myself up for another PGL activity holiday, when prior experience tells me to avoid PGL at all costs.
I love my wellies. And my Mum, for insisting I wear them. I reckon that at several points over the weekend, I was the only person with dry feet.
I prefer monstering to NPCing. Monstering is simple, and requires no emotional investment.
I did a lot of crying on Saturday, some but not all of which can be blamed on fluctuating hormones. Firstly, my longstanding NPC, Julia the Nervous, led some of the players on a linear to fight Theodoric Theodocius, (Julia was going because she knew the way to Theodoric's shrine) and got two of them killed. Louis was fucking scary, and roaring so much that I had no idea if any blows we landed were hurting him, and we didn't see the two players go down, and we had to run away and then there was a time out cos one of the monsters attacking the Martyr's Temple had been hurt, and then we had to run back into the camp, trailing Louis, and the other players wanted to know what had happened to the dead pair. That was mainly IC crying.
At about midnight, there was a big epic battle against Lord Shojiir (who bears a remarkable resemblance to a Tonberry), which I didn't get to really do anything in because one of the players yelled at me to help Clark in praying to the Saints to stop the fallen body of Shojiir re-spawning. I wasn't actually casting anything, because I didn't have a Lay-to-Rest spell, but Julia does what she's told. So, I was kneeling in the cold, wet grass, for roughly half an hour, with monsters constantly looming out of the darkness, yelling at the Lord of the Dead to help us, repeating myself, tears streaming down my face, and then I got Crushed by a Siege Breaker, and kinda forgotten about.
I was good for very little for the rest of the evening. I couldn't stop crying. I was convinced all the players were going to die, and I realised I was on their side. I found it difficult to talk civilly to any of the monsters, or Bunny, when it transpired that not only had she had loads of fun chasing after undead, but had also survived. Don't get me wrong, I didn't mind dying, because my purpose as an NPC had been fulfilled, so I was expecting to die and get out of their way soon.
I can't really explain why I was so fucked up. My only guess is that I think the emotion that affects me strongest is desperation, and it is very hard to act that much of it without feeling it too.
It was also very hard not to be extra wary of any monster played by Jeff, simply because it was played by Jeff.
Enchanted Crush Strikedown (Theodoric's Trombies) = fall on your arse and die.
FoF = Food on Faith, i.e. you go do some monstering for us in the early morning dampness, and when you get back, there will be breakfast. Honest.
Oh yeah, and I cheered up some on Sunday!