At my first KR Event...

With the banquet coming up, it's a good time to look back at not only where the game's been, but where we were in the history of the game.

At my first KR event...

Feb. 2001:
Shen was still learning Tao.
Kellindel cast Valence on my NPC (a bear) for giggles.
Lord Altarus Deathbringer was Lord of Drega'Mire.

At my first KR event...

Sept '06

I almost killed Wolf, falling across him while dying IG as a bear. (Appropriate, really.)
I got lost for about an hour Saturday night, walking off the wrong way from main mod, returning to all the NPC's crowded about the fire and greeted with "So the chopper took off and left ya in Nam, eh?"
I had one of the best weekends of my life.

September 06

Fought undead for an hour from a portal, constantly being healed

Freezing night temperatures - being woken for the 4th time and yelling "Next thing through that door is going to have my foot so far up their ass they'll be spitting teeth."  RP marshal comes in and gives me an RP point.  Mike Sera, who was sleeping in the cabin with me, says "He wasn't RPing."

My first event present was September 06 as well. I only got to spend the night NPCing. The thing I remember best was hearing Kristen shriek as a mummy and thinking 'that's awesome' (my dad did not appreciate those very same freezing temperatures and made me leave in the morning)

PCing was October '07. I spent most of the time moping around, hanging out with Dios who was leaving, briefly met Alai before he left, and hung out with pair of goblins who got a nice picture in while I chatted with them.

It was also the first event that the original boom packets stopped coming out but no one was warned about it. Left Ilana thinking 'So... people are scared of us why?' for the next year I think it was until the new ones started.

Oh, also seeing some weird purple girl and thinking 'What the hell did the mages do to her?'

Sept '02 (First event PCing, previous event was a Festival I NPCed)

Made my first and only boffer weapon - a pretty but lead-weighted staff no one ever should have let me weild.

Got an infatuation spell put on me by Judge's demon-child NPC within 15 minutes of creating my character and walking into game (Thank goodness we got rid of that spell).

Really disliked Sam's brand new PC started that event, a wildmage who wanted to be a "warrior-warrior" and talked in this really annoying accent, but asked him to help me find my cabin in the Pendarvin area of Hickory Run anyway when it got dark.

Was called Xena for months by people that didn't know my real name, nominated for best new player after that or the next event (always a nominee, never a winner!), called Elawyn by James at the Awards Banquet soon after.

Kendra was Lady of Pendarvin, Gorn Solcastin was Lord of Kaladonia, Mythrien was Lord of Alisandria, and Geoffry was the most ridiculous peasant NPC ever.

At my first KR event was...

Feb. 2007
I had no idea who any nobles were.  I NPC'd a psycho who job was to get killed after annoying the townsfolk enough.  I was supposed to get dropped in 10 minutes... took over 45 minutes after some very patient people followed me around Camp Sac in snow & mud.

I was made welcome by Birnum Pyre... which didn't help my xenophobic self.  Tried to shoot everyone with my arrows... which was why everyone kept thinking I was an archer or ranger those first 6 months at game.

First event:
April '09.

It was freezing and I had no idea what to expect. I met my first few friends and got introduced to a whole new world of roguey stuffs. I remember waking up with my toes hurting....
Also....mushroom caves. So much fun.
Sadly, I don't remember much of my first event besides that.

My first time was in February 2007.  I had just been out of the hospital the week before.  That is the reason  I showed up in a wheel chair.  It was at Camp Sac.  I was warmly welcomed!   

My first event event was August of some year a long time ago. I forget what the first year of KR was, 1997 or 1998.

I was 15 years old, wore a bath robe and played the Aera mage Saro of the Kazark. What the kazark is, to his day I do not know.

At that time new characters got 6 build, and lists with points did not start with any. My character had staff, literacy, read magic, lightning strike and 3 magic points. Which meant I could cast 1 spell per period.

I died my first night in game to an unborn and after being rezzed realized that my staff was stolen. Those two things mixed together lead me to hate my first evening and as of the morning of saturday was debating not coming back. I had an amazing second night and well we can tell I changed my mind.

I changed accents about 100 times from faux barbarians to celtic and a few other things trying to figure out how on gods earth one actually role plays.

The plot was about Uton Alexander the powerful lich.

My first event was July 2008.

I was one of 6 Yhatzi's that weekend and the others were: Balthazar, Rafiki, Mikhail, Iouzzini, and Lydia. Since then, there has been the addition of: Paetros, Iago and Imacomon. Thats right, there are technically 9 Yhatzi's out there.
Got screamed at by Elawyn for not knowing where to go and she thought I was being insubordinant and thought "Who the hell does that chick think she is?"
Main mod was The Tear in the Wall thingy and I still have no clue what that was. I spent most of the mod hiding behind a door.
I didn't come back till the Alt event that following April, which led me talking to Wally about my third game, where I was a main mod boss with a laser pointer wand. That was sweet.

See you all at the banquet!

At my first KR event...
July 1st-3rd, 2011.

Opening speech about bears: "Don't run from a bear, it can run faster. Don't climb a tree, the bear can climb higher. Don't get into your car, the bear will get into James's car and drive after you..."
In my first hour of play, seeking help to take me to the Mage's Guild. Thank you, Geoff, for escorting a very scared Charcoal all the way down to the lake and back. I was scared IG and OOG, to be honest, but I had to fight back laughter when you said "who goes there" to a trashcan.
I glomped Sorel until he had to drag me around to get me off.
Two non-combat characters and I were the only ones in the Inn during an undead attack. Considering how, at the time, I had an uncontrollable fear of zombies, that wasn't a welcome sight.
Being converted to Andorra after talking to Father Kwildar and Mother Quinn for ten minutes and deciding that it was the right deity for Charcoal.
Eating yummy food in the Bedouin tents was great!
Meeting people who made me feel welcome on my first visit was very special. Thanks for that!

At my first KR Event
December 2007

That was my first event. I don't know much but I do know that I NPC'd Main Mod and I was some sort of ghost trying to get past a soul harvester. And...I didn't get past it and Speed Casted and Perfect Aimed a Harvest Your Soul. That was my first role-played death and first event I didn't really know much of what was happening. I was non-combat. I healed 4 body with Cure Light Wounds because this was before the 2/3 less cost of skills and 2/3 less of career points your character has. I stayed away and was afraid of combat at that point. A lot has changed ever since.

August 2004

Corsair had just been released from his prison.
I was the worst assassin ever.  6 build to start a character sucked.
Rose and Crasis were the Lady and Lord of Drega'mire
Geoffrey was the best peasant ever.
And Smash Averin was a Real American Hero.

October 2008

I come in with a few other new players,  miss a few main plot points, and get pulled into a mod by the other newbies I came with.  My character's best friend dies within ten minutes of lay on.  I have a conversation about "fragile fragile life" with KR's favorite Vampire lord played by Judge.  I helped out on that mod with the changing creature that just would not die.  And immediately chased down one of the guys that jumped the entire group who were looting the body of the damned thing that wouldn't die, and got to know Odo and Hiro because of it  ( go honor combat down by the river at camp daddy allen).  Dropped so many times getting to main mod it wasn't funny anymore.  And stayred in house dark heart my first event, for sleeping quaters ( my friend woke up Danny twice and almost got us killed.)

May Alt Event 2009 (Only 2.5 years? Huh, its felt way longer than that)

I was a sweet, kind, good-natured bard!

My response to Insult was to throw a cup of water in Thanatos' face

Took my first (and to this point, still only) death, decided to haunt Thanatos for the rest of the night instead of seeking resurrection



And once we turned over to our normal characters...



Erim wore her hair pinned up (and dressed like a schlub)

Lethias was First Knight of Dreaga-Mire

Sir McDermitt was still Squire McDermitt

We had one fewer race than we do now: the Sylphs had not yet been freed

Seamus would never be a Belmont

People still had nice shoes (and there were a lot of bee's around)

March 2010 (people are always surprised that I haven't been around all that long).

Stacey called me Steve #2 and said Winks should make adorable goblin babies with Brik.

Winks was a very simple young goblin who just wanted to be a bartender and had no political aspirations at all. My how things change.

The only people he knew coming into town were the McKraegars.

Colin was still a squire.
Apollo was still knight protector, I think?

I think this was the explosive high-five event? Kelly?

Main mod happened in the maze, which was covered in hard packed snow and ice, to the point where there were times I could walk on top of the ice without breaking through.

Winks only had one dagger...

October 2003,
The town was being assaulted by the second drow house
Either Cinder or Draknar had just gotten roundhouse (at the time I couldnt tell the PC dark elves apart)
Phaedrus was Lord of Drega'mire
Feast was the best one to date in my memory (turkey, which lead to...)
Fell asleep on the couch (which it turns out is a bad idea) and had my only sword stolen (which was an old sword I had made back in 2000 for another larp). Got loaned a katana phys-rep to use for main mod (which taught me that I didn't know jack about making weapons, and has been the inspiration to make better and better weapons since)

and that's about all I remember...

April of 1999, at Camp Sac

I barely remember anything, I was so sleep deprived all weekend.  So badly I accidentally shot Vladimir with my nerf crossbow just before feast because he had a big furry mantle and I thought he looked like a monster in it.  Needless to say, he was unhappy.  

I was saved several times by Geoffrey Le Thresher.  

I'm not 100% sure, but I think it was one of the first events with the Book of VIM and the Reaver, the Goblyn, and the Broken one.  AKA the Hunchback, the Walrus Man, and the goofy goblin mask guy  Funny how that story crept back up to me 10 years later....

I think Jon is really the only person that still comes from the people that took me for my first couple of events, but he was playing Antrim then too.

We were all super impressed by our friend having Weapon Prof +1.  

Obergon the Alchemist was not my first character, but I did suffer through 2 years as an alchemist to try and get their Promo Skill, Golem Mastery.  I never made it, but I do still have the old recipe to make a flesh golem in my stuff somewhere...  

Either Cinder or Draknar had just gotten roundhouse (at the time I couldnt tell the PC dark elves apart)

You trying to say we all look alike?

September 1998.  Camp Conklin.

I was 13 and Chris Kane, who was my scoutmaster at the time, stole all my stuff while I was sleeping.  I was a smith, so I could make my own sword, but the only person I could get the materials from (we still had to buy steel for swords back then) was Gilly.  Being that he was a Dark Dwarf and I was an Orc, he wouldn't give me any break on the price (which I think was 8 silver - a small fortune back then) so it took me all freakin day to get the money to pay for it.  Chris is such a swell guy, and he wonders why I give him crap about being so old.

Tom Tiseo wore blue sweatpants, a yellow sweatshirt, and a leather jacket.  Seriously, that was his Ogre costume.

I thought Grendel and Korax were the coolest characters ever.  This hasn't changed much.

Skimmel

Obergon the Alchemist was not my first character, but I did suffer through 2 years as an alchemist to try and get their Promo Skill, Golem Mastery.  I never made it, but I do still have the old recipe to make a flesh golem in my stuff somewhere... 

Andy,

I'll be in touch

--Larry

June '99, Daddy Allen

I NPCed the whole time.

One of the first people I met was Russ, a name very few who remain will recognize.
To this day I have no idea what he did, and barely who he was, and that event was the first and last time I ever saw him. I mention him, though because I don't know how much I would have really got the whole concept of what it means to NPC if it weren't for him leading at least the first 2 encounters I ever went out as.

First mook-ass goblins, who rather than being killed on sight, just kind of ran around and got in trouble. Played off being stupid shiny goblins, but when we caught someone alone, they learned pretty quick what a mistaken assumption that was. To this day, I can't believe we survived for as long as we did.

The next thing they had us do was be zombies in what was basically a suicide run on the inn, but RP can add a lot to undead encounters, and simple things from both the NPCs and the PCs turned an encounter that nobody would bat an eye at today (I could have cleared it with 2 dissipates) into the few PCs in the inn being truly afraid of what was trying to get inside.

Thogg wasted me a lot.
Galamah wasted me a lot.
Grendel wasted me a lot.
Altarus wasted me a lot.
And every time I turned around, there was whatever Jeff King's character was called, beating me into the ground.

But it was too late, I was hooked, and for the next 3 years, NPCing became all I knew.

Big thanks to Wally and Matt, the lesser Kimmel of no relation to Skimmel, without whom I would likely have never heard of KR.

My first event sometime in 2005 i think around July.

I came in as a gambler Nyad who was called a drow because my blue makeup at night looked almost black.
Kyo and Alia Sunrose brought me into the town with them.
(Which then they introduced my current Character Raxas that same year at the festival)

I don't quite recall everything besides being scared for my characters life not knowing many people and not being able to fight.

First event as an NPC was sometime around 2003.  I showed up with Christina from my art class at William Paterson, who played the Lich's daughter.  That first event, I was told to go out and teach Jen and Wolf Cloak of the Green, and had NO idea what the skill even did, as there was no rulebook around to look at.  NPC'ed a few events, and had a particularly memorable experience with a lake that rivals Chris D's experience with a fence. 

Took a 2 year hiatus and came back in 2006 as Rayven.  Ran into Cooper, who tried to sell me the blue serrated sword that Vince used for years, and helped drag him around the camp getting his limbs healed.... eleven times...

Had an epic duel with JimBob, ran into a Beholder, and got cursed by Gypsies 7 times in two events.  Fun year.

April 98 :-*
The 1st KR event. I played a Bounty Hunter Named Slack Mcdermitt.

Everyone was level 1
I had 6BP , 1 HE and Sm Wep with no florentine.
I think I may have been the 1st PC to fall in battle.

No one from the 1st event is still part of KR except James.
We role played getting off the caravan and occupying Travance
The plot involved us raiding a Goblin camp and stealing there Nexus..(kind of messed up when you think about it.)

The hero of that weekend oddly was a wild mage, who later dropped and broke the nexus. So for like a year people where getting resurrected inside out and shit and healers where taking lots of insanity points.

Kind of hard to remember it all cause it was almost 14 years ago. But I do remember having so much fun, that it was all I thought about for the rest of the month. I even used to play on Sundays.. something I have hardly done in years.  The next moth I brought Derrick who was the DM in my weekly D&D game with me. Needles to say he was also hooked.

The hero of that weekend oddly was a wild mage, who later dropped and broke the nexus. So for like a year people where getting resurrected inside out and shit and healers where taking lots of insanity points.

Hahahah I totally forgot about that.

Skimmel

first event, October 2006.
lucky I was dating someone I could borrow a sword from, and knew what I needed to start with.
Stayed in Kaladonia statehouse
It was cold at night.
it was very cold at night - girlscout training of putting a blanket inside the sleeping bag with me saved me from getting sick.

being begged to wash dished on Saturday morning.
did such a good job, begged to help after feast; was informed that it was from that game forward that I was in charge of cleaning up after feast.

spent a good part of Friday and Saturday evening watching the paths leading to the Inn for wondering monsters.

It was Haroldson's second event

borrowing a bow and quiver of arrows from Brendon/Pyre.  Learning first lesson as an archer from him on the path just down from the Inn.

eating at the Ugly Mug before it was sold and the food got really bad.

First KR event was January 2010.

-Came in with a bunch of people, all of us had been hijacked by Matt M, who I had only known for a few months thanks to our weekly DnD game at Bergen.
-Planned on coming in as a Kormyrian gamblor. Someone (don't remember who but thanks!) loaned me a ring belt and said Hey play a gypsy! Marika was born and after a few hours of boredom, got quickly rerolled into the healer we all know and love 
-I don't remember much of the actual plot, but I remember playing a corrupted cleric of Agguara at Main Mod. Ah, my first verbals...
-The only noble I knew IG or OOG was Sam because when I was in Logistics, I kept turning around to my name, when they really wanted to talk to him
-KR is like an addictive drug. I promised my parents I would try it once and maybe go a few times a year.  Two years later and I have yet to miss an event 

Oct 2003 -

Was the last time Orias Wormwood was in town.

The feast was definitely a taco bar. Which was weird. Leanna, who had coaxed me to come with her, assured me it wasn't normally like that.

Togashi Hiewa gave me a boffer staff to use, one that was much taller than me.

If you went behind the bar you got waylayed.

Tim Mason helped me write my character card.

Vince only NPC'd.

Mitts was really tall. I guess that's the same, though.

<<Togashi Hiewa gave me a boffer staff to use, one that was much taller than me. >>

Even I am much taller than you. 

September 2008 Daddy allen,

... Another Silverbow... and the reactions that got.

Nick(lathiel) was non-combat and strictly a healer.

Buying the sword off of Charlie that i use to this day.

A little B&E on a rogue mod that held that NPC shift up a bit was with 2 people that one is not playing and one is no longer in town. Reaching around traps and knocking out guards was so tough and a thrill.

Main mod, undead pirates "vaguely" resembling a pirates of the Caribbean theme.

Sleafus playing the accordion and me thinking whoa that's cool while I helped served feast, and determined, i think i'd like to be more involved in the kitchen.

NPC shift getting chosen as one of the top 5 pirates in the bunch over several other more experienced gamers, was touched.

Having Jackie do my makeup and applying the latex scars and other pieces on and thinking how cool that was having "real hollywood makeup" on lol.

YO HO YO HO you're all about to die. and then watching an awesome honor combat between our chief pirate and Solomon Darkheart, then the lantern was broke and he no longer was unkillable and the reaction was classic.

Took a while to come back, but so glad i did