Rollerspielen

I feel like I got an education last weekend. Well, an education on the way Germans like their Role Playing games (Rollerspeilen).




The Role Play Convention in Cologne was not exactly an event I thought I would attend in Germany. I had it in my head that I would contact the Society for Creative Anachronism group in the Bonn/Cologne area and be able to play with them, I didn't plan on a Con. I heard about it through Jenny Dolfen's DeviantArt blog and decided to have a look. Originally, I was supposed to be able to meet her, but due to circumstances, the company she was to go with had to cancel (I want to blame Eyjafjallajokull, stupid volcano).

I didn't know what to expect beyond the usual convention atmosphere and patrons dressed to the nines, medieval warlord style. It didn't stray too far from this expectation, but trying to navigate around and find folks that knew English made it interesting. There were artists, people playing tabletop role play games, stall after stall of LARP paraphernalia etc. LARP (Live Action Roleplay) is similar to what the SCA does except absolutely insane and without any system that I could understand. All I could gather was that there were two teams and they were each bashing each other with realistic looking foam weapons. The winners and losers were really hard to differentiate since it was so chaotic. And the archery...ugh, I'm not going to get started on how awful that looked.



My favorite LARP group all had on turbins and displayed strips of fabric with cuneform painted on it. I saw them every so often. I was really impressed with the Death Star people and the Jedi group that were fighting each other with lightsabres outside.



Of course, there were a ton of people there who participated in World of Warcraft. Half of the costumes I saw were people dressed as their avatars from the game. I think some of the most ambitious role players were the Star Trek guys. I went to a presentation where they showcased all their erm...roleplay equipment. At the con, they had a captain's chair and the helm on display for guests to look at. But this was only a tiny portion of the full scale models the group had. I'm talking the ship's bridge in its entirety, some corridors, the sickbay, engineering and even a scale interior of a shuttle craft. I'd say that this is almost necessary to have a Star Trek LARP, but good lord they were crazy.



The con extended into the grounds convention center into an area along the Rhine. This is where all the faire food was and I was never happier to have potato pancakes. I've been in Germany all this time and had yet to partake of my favorite German dish. However, I think spätzle is my new favorite. It doesn't matter, I loved the food all the same. The guy at the spätzle stand got a kick out of the fact that I came from Texas. He gave me the usual 'do you ride a horse?' nonsense that most Europeans give me, but he was hilarious anyway. Mmmm spätzle.

Also near the food, a group of falconers showed off their birds. This ranks high on my favorite happenings at the con. They had a Saker Falcon, an Eagle Owl, a Harris Hawk, Peregrine Falcon and a Golden Eagle. I spent a lot of time with the Harris hawk. I guess seeing him was a small homesickness relief as they are native to my part of the US. The falconer thought it was neat that I can see them in the wild back in Texas. I spoke with one of the apprentice falconers for a long while about birds of prey and learned that falcons breed in the Cologne Cathedral. Makes sense really, but still excited to know they're taking advantage of the size and complex architecture of the building. I sketched the birds for a little while, getting some attention from other bird spectators and the falconers. One of the spectators had just harrassed the Peregrine falcon. I tried to tell him to stop because I could see the bird was not happy about being poked and prodded...he even got bit a few times on the finger. *sigh* No better than some of the five year olds messing with the NeNe geese at Sea World. Poor Peregrine.




On the second day of the con, we met up with two of our classmates who, oddly enough, were going to do a presentation about RPGs for our Game History class that coming week. What a way to gather research than to experience it yourself. As for other goings on: Final Fantasy XIII looks gorgeous, we got a ton of Dragon Age swag, I found a CD of Sava (not so easy to find in the US: A sample...), bought a pair of gloves for costuming.

Watched these guys for a while:



After watching more LARPers...I truly understand why the SCAdians hate being called LARPers. A.) We are an organized, international society. B.) We strive towards research and education as well as living the medieval period. C.)Our weapons can seriously injure you, no foam here, you could get ribs broken or worse. Sometimes the SCA look like LARPers, but we are after different goals beyond having fun. There's my little speil on that, just for your information.

It was a good con and I can't wait until A-kon in June. It feels like a taste of what is to come. Now the problem comes because I can't find any more Sava CDs...darn you Germany and your amazing ability to have awesome musicians that I don't know about until way too late!

Oh yeah...almost forgot about this foolishness: Rock and Roll Wrestling Thank God the guy in the kilt is wearing something under it. I swear seeing Lucha Libre masks for sale at a German RPG convention is probably the most surreal thing besides that one 'Mexican' bar in Bonn.

Upcoming: Rhinecruise, Godesburg, Day in Bonn. I will post whichever comes first or whichever I feel like. We're heading into the final days for our project so a wrap up day is forthcoming on this blog.