Poking unexplained holes in reality, for science!

[caption id="attachment_2385" align="alignright" width="112" caption="What does this do?"]Picture of Lord Townsend investigating something for Science[/caption]

We had a slightly extended weekend as we headed up North to visit friends in Manchester before heading over to the Yorkshire Hippie enclave of Hebden Bridge for Victoriana. This was going to be our last game before our first child arrives.

Victoriana is a steam-punk style alternate history LARP game based loosely around Victorian era Britain. The brainchild of Mikey and his team of writers it's an idea that's kicking around for some time and we are happy it's been finally realised. The system is fairly lightweight with a combat system which is mainly based around cosmetically modified NERF guns and the occasional traditional LARP sword. However the combat is a fairly small part of the overall experience and certainly not a required skill to enjoy the game. Fliss for example was almost entirely involved in the trials of high society including scandal and match-making of eligible ladies with the appropriate bachelors. My game was almost all concerned with poking things in the cause of science. The science system is fairly free-form where the results are driven by the almost omnipresent Jeeves referees who otherwise blend in with the In Character ambiance of the event. It took a little while to get the hang of it but I tried a few experiments of Friday and together with the rest of the scientists we continued to poke at the strange anomaly with reckless abandon as we formulated our theories. By Sunday we were constructing steam-punk style contraptions with handy copper coloured tape and had a better feeling for the interaction between scientists and engineers. There were other areas of the game I didn't really see including occultists and of course the working classes who I only occasionally bumped into .

As it was our anniversary weekend we were off site for most of Saturday evening but nevertheless we enjoyed the game immensely. For a game that was 24 hour time in there didn't seem to be any slack areas where we were just twiddling our thumbs waiting for things to happen. The standard of kit and costume was fantastic including a marvellous automaton by the name of "Number 47" who was being played magnificently by a first time LARPer. Everyone I spoke to after time out seemed very happy with the way the event had turned out. Mikey has said he's learnt a lot from the experience and I'm sure there will be some tweaks to the system and organisation for the next event. However a jolly good time was had by all, including the two of us.