Sim Terra Part 4: Get the Fuck Out of Dodge

When we last left our hero, Slanik (a.k.a. me) was having a very pleasant conversation with the gecko that slew him not 3 minutes ago. How is this possible, you ask? This is the result of killing time during the global TIMEOUT. No one was really sure who called it or why it was called, but everyone was stuck having idle conversation while something somewhere was getting done.

Several minutes after the TIMEOUT was called, Drew walked up and asked for everyone's attention. Drew informed us that we were being kicked out of the public park. Apparently, the local park ranger saw the +50 of us causing a loud ruckus and decided to put a stop to it. He stated that in order to have this kind of gathering/event at the park, the staff needed to contact the park people well in advance. Of course, many of the players objected to this and questioned the park ranger's authority on the matter. I believe there were even a few chants of "Roh! Roh! Fight the Power!" Regardless, no one was able to summon a 12 ft drill from their arm or wanted to get fined for trying so everyone got up from the ground and began repacking all of the equipment into their respective cars.

LATER, AT THE BASE OF OPERATIONS!

So now everyone is at the base of operation, twiddling their thumbs around while the staff run around like madmen trying to figure out how to keep the show going. In the mean time, I begin to try and flesh out my character a little more by interacting with the other characters. I get a lot of "oh, you're a Cryo, aren't you cute." and "Ah you Cryos, always making up stories." responses. Eventually, Drew and Micha gathered everyone around and we all marched to the back woods of the neighborhood. Once we were deep enough into the woods, we were told to assume our positions before the TIMEOUT was initiated.

So, back on the ground, bleeding out I continued my count from 15. Lucky, within 10 seconds a healer came and healed me to full. If I remember correctly, I didn't die for the remainder of that particular mod, which is good for a first timer. I gotta say though, running around killing gecko people while defending my allies with my shield was the most fun I've had in months. I can't describe the thrill of planting myself and my shield tower between a dying gecko and the gecko healer yelling, "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!" Yeah I'm a major nerd nerding out over nerdy things. If you can't have fun doing the hobbies that enjoy, then all I have to say to you is that "You're a towel!"

Once we cleared the all the geckos in the area, the staff pulled my group aside. Now it was OUR turn to play as the geckos for the final portion of the encounter. I can already tell this is gonna be fun.

to be continued...

Sim Terra Part 3: People Don't Tell Me Things

Once Drew was done telling the story, we were told that we would be divided into three groups. Two of the groups would hold off the gecko assault while the third would march through the center to destroy the siege equipment that the geckos were bringing in. I joined the group of Commander Leonidas.

The guy who was role playing Leonidas was nothing short of a bad ass. He sported REAL chain mail and had a chin that put Jay Leno to shame. To put it lightly, this guy had moxy and as long as this mother fucker was alive, nothing could possibly go wrong.

After some small talk within the groups, we got in our caravan and headed out to battle. That is to say everyone got in their cars and drove to the park. Once we got to the parking lot of the park, everyone gathered around for the battle plan. During this time, Leonidas assigned me to be apart of the shield wall. Not having a shield of my own, he grabbed one from the pile of staff weapons and threw me in front. Normally I'd be nervous with such responsibility, but god damn that chin invokes courage in people.

When everyone was ready, we all gathered around the camp fire to hear the awe inspiring war speech from Drew's character (I'm really bad with the names). It was at this point that we all discovered Drew's magic powers. During the speech, he spoke about the winds of battle changing. Once he finished that sentence, a massive gust came past us. This wind was so loud that Drew had to stop talking for several seconds. It was kind of awesome.

Once Drew finished his speech, the two other groups went into the forest to "scout". My group was left to wait until the "scouts" have returned. After about 5-10 minutes of waiting, one of the scouts returned with the location of the enemy. We marched for a few minutes and we encountered the geckos.

Now, at this point 20,000 thoughts are running through my head. A lot of it consisting of questions of confusion. In case you don't know or didn't figure it out, the geckos were played by the groups that were scouting. Because most LARPS are under staffed, they like to temporally recruit the players to play as NPCs. There are benefits to this like getting extra gold or exp when playing an NPC. I was unaware of this fact, so when I saw my player character allies as non-player character enemies, I thought that they were killed in battle and raised as gecko zombies...I'm not kidding. This is what happened when people forget to tell me things, I come up with my own solutions and reasons. However, I didn't have too much time to think about it cause these gecko zombie nerds are about to hit me with foam weapons and I need to make sure they don't hit the peeps behind me.

Remember how I said Leonidas was a bad ass and that if he was alive everything would be hunky dory? Yeah about that...he died...a lot. It wasn't till later that I found out that Leonidas' has been around for years and has ONLY spent points into HP. That's right, his ENTIRE strategy for battle is to run into the enemy's line, take out 5-10 of em, die, wait for the line to move forward so the healers can revive him so he can repeat the process all over again. Once again, I was not informed of this, so when I saw Leonidas die after pulling a Leeroy, my moral took a pretty big hit.

After about 5 minutes of battle, my character got hit enough that I started to bleed out, meaning I was at no HP and needed a healer to heal me within 30 seconds if I were to continue to fight. After 15 seconds of lying on the ground playing dead, a global "TIMEOUT" was called. Usually this happens when someone loses their glasses and needs to pick them up. Unfortunately, the timeout was called for something a little more serious.

to be continued...

Sim Terra Part 2: Base of Operations

After a quick stop at the near by Subway, we arrived at the base of operations for Sim Terra. It was there we were greeted by many of the other players and game staff. Before I could go out and hit people, I had to register with the game staff. What I did not know is that people who have pre-reg'd/RSVP'd to the event get to cut in front of the people who have not, a.k.a.: me. After about 5 minutes of having folks cutting in front of me I decided to just wait out the line on the couch.

It was during this time that I though up of a character for myself. A little background info about the world of Sim Terra. Sim Terra takes place in a post apocalyptic world set in the future. If you think Fallout, then you are on the right track. Guns are very few and far between, it is a lost technology. Even the people of highest intelligence barely know how a cannon work, let alone a jet airplane. The world is filled with elves, trolls, goblins, lizard-men and pretty much any sort of were-[insert animal here]. Oh and there is magic, don't ask me how or why. It's just there and anyone can learn it.

One of the great things about Sim Terra is that it is set up so that new people can play characters called "Cryos". If you think Fry from Futurama, then you have the basic idea of what a Cryo is. A person with a terminal illness who has been preserved in time in a Cryo-chamber. The idea is that in the future they will have developed a cure for your said illness. Again, think 80's Guy from Futurama.

For my character, I took elements from previous characters that I've RP'd in the past. I recycled the name Slanik, which is the name I give any character that is/acts like a Dwarf. I also gave him my high pitched Irish voice. Think leper con but without the pot of gold and the 2 ft tallness. A quick background story of osteoporosis (Boneitus) and I was set to interact with the rest of the world.

After about an hour or so of idle in game chit chat, the GMs, Micha and Drew, gathered everyone around to tell us the story thus far.

Before I get into the story, i'm gonna talk about Micha and Drew for a bit. These two are the brain child of Sim Terra. From what I heard from second hand stories, Micha and Drew met each other at a different LARP, got together, had some nice brain on brain action and some time later they birthed a new LARP and called it Sim Terra. Both Micha and Drew are fantastic RPers and terrific people and I have nothing but good things to day about them. And I'm not just saying that cause they have access to this website. Oh, and Micha is possibly the hottest nerd I have ever met and I want one.

Anyway, back to the story.

The city of Venthos has been under siege by the Sera Kera (Gecko People) for over a year now. The war has been long and brutal and there have been many casualties. However, the Sera are starting to become desperate. They have never in their entire history have a war last this long. They are running out of resources and soldiers. They will not be able to survive another year if this continues. Scouts have reported that the geckos are assembling for a final assault on Venthos. They are gathering every single unit they have for this last act of desperation. The entire war will be decided on this final day. Today is that day.

to be continued...

Sim Terra Part 1: Nerds With Foam Weapons

Last Saturday, I, along with my friends Mark, Scotty and Thompson, drove out to participate in the Sim Terra event. Sim Terra, for those of you who don't know, is a LARP. Thats right, LARP, LIVE ACTION ROLE PLAYING. The shit that you only hear about from your geekiest of geek friends. Nerds getting together, dawning their elf ears and foam axes in order to do battle against what ever mythical evil threatens the world. I would be joining them for the next 12 hours or so.

The week before the event, Mark helped me craft myself a "spear" for the battles to come. After about 3 hours of work, 5-6 ft of 1/2 inch PVC pipe, some foam covering and A LOT of duck tape, I had myself a spear that looked like a giant penis....I'm not kidding. It wasn't silly enough that I was hitting people with a large foam object. No, I had the luxury of yelling at people during combat, "Watch out for my penis." "Better dodge my penis." "Get your hands off my penis." I was getting a lot more entertainment out of then than I think I should have.

Every Friday afternoon at GMU, several people at the table who have LARPed before and have a plethora of weapons bring them for people to spar with. This has been going on since the Fall 09 semester and has been fairly popular among the people at The Table (The Table is an area on the bottom level of Student Union Building 1 where nerd people like myself go to hang out). For this week, I would be testing out Ron Jeremy's Trident. At 5.5 ft long with 1/2 in PVC pipe as the core the thing wiggles around like no tomorrow, which makes for some interesting combat tricks (and penis jokes). After about half an hour of playing with foam weapons I had a good feeling about my ability to use my penis in combat and was getting hype for the next day. Before I went to bed, I realized I had to do SOMETHING about the fact that my spear looked like a giant shlong. Grabbing my yellow acrylic paint, I slapped on a smiley face on the head of the weapon so people will notice that rather then the shape of my weapon.

On the car ride over to the GM's house where the base of operations was, I got to see Thompson's weapon for the first time. Strait the fuck up, he uses King Dedede's hammer. The thing was as long as my spear but 6 times as heavy and probably was constructed with 20 times as much duck tape. It is the most unwieldy thing you will ever see. How Thompson uses it is rather unique, much like everything he does. He has developed his character to be able to channel a magic enchant to his weapon that allows it to break other weapons on contact. This means Thompson's ENTIRE fighting style is to just stand there, hold his hammer and egg you on to hit the hammer. DON'T HIT THE HAMMER!!!

(The lobster is his dagger weapon...Told ya Thompson is unique)

to be continued...

Marvel vs Capcom 3!

GET HYPE!

Capcom has just announced that they will release Marvel vs Capcom 3 next spring for the Xbox 360 and PS3. From the trailer, it looks like it will look near identical to Tatsunoko Vs Capcom for the Wii, which is a pretty awesome fighting game.

Hopefully they'll put more time into the balancing the characters this time around. No more of these Magneto infinites and teams only consisting of Magneto, Storm, Psylock, Cable and Sentinal.

Full page of info at iplaywinner:

http://iplaywinner.com/news/2010/4/20/captivate-2010-marvel-vs-capcom-3-game-details-and-artwork.html