OK, here’s what happened last week.
After doing my teching shift at CKLN, I was about to go home when I remembered that a clerk at a gaming store had mentioned the previous week that there was a gaming club at Ryerson that met Thursday nights. So, I started wandering around the school, looking for people to play Settlers with.
I saw a group gathered in the cafeteria. They looked like gamers. I approached cautiously.
I started talking to one of them and found that they weren’t table-top gamers, but live-action role-playing gamers. In fact, they were Epoch Toronto, a group I had looked into only a month or so earlier.
Now, I’m sad to say that I didn’t have any plans for the Victoria Day weekend at the time, so going into the woods to watch these people do their thing was certainly an option. Besides, the idea of getting out of the city, of seeing the stars at night for once, was very appealing.
So, I arranged to get a ride up with some of the larpers, and, as is often the case when I find something new that appeals to my nerdish side, I got right into this. I went and bought a sleeping bag and a flashlight. I dyed my spare karate uniform brown to make a suitable costume. And I bought some food that I thought would be authentic for the game: breads and apples and nuts.
I “shadowed” for the first night, so I wasn’t technically part of the game. It was very strange, walking around watching things happen, but not being able to interact. I remember I actually felt weird making eye contact with anyone in-game, like I was disturbing the flow of events or something.
I decided that I wasn’t going to shadow all weekend, so on Saturday morning I drew up a character (the psychic cook), borrowed a foam weapon from the club and got into the game. But even then I wasn’t familiar enough with the how things worked to really know what to do. So, I ended up being pretty quiet and that became part of my character, I guess. (There’s a bit of my character’s back story on Epoch’s message board here.)
Anyway, I did have a good time, and once I grow into my character and get over my fear of doing or saying something stupid, I’m sure I’ll have a great time.
But it won’t be at the next event, since my grandmother’s 90th birthday is on that June weekend. But, the story continues on the message board and July looks free and clear from here.
