So you want to go to Empire? - a relative newbie's perpective

Before I start, I'm not in any way affiliated by Profound Decisions, I just play their game and am very enthusiastic  about it. 

So why would you want to go to Empire?  

Well there a multitude of reasons, but let's discuss the main reason first; it's fucking fun.  If you like RPGs, either tabletop or virtual, then you should try your hand at this.  You get to spend a weekend playing make believe in a field with 2500 other similarly minded nutters.  This might seem intimidating but everyone is there to have fun, which results in a huge super inclusive community the likes of which I've never experienced before.

 The second reason is its a surprisingly good work out.  You will find yourself wandering around Anvil, it'll happen trust me.  And for those who count their steps you will be smashing through those step goals.  If you go to battle you'll be running about having a whale of a time.  Of course we all know a healthy body means a healthy mind, so....

It's great for mental health issues.  I'm not going to lie, up until the last event there, my anxiety was kicking my arse.  Some days I was struggling to leave the house.  But even now several weeks on I'm still riding the high from the event, and I've feel at a mental best that I've not been at for years.  Honestly being someone else for a couple of days is great therapy.  Also the new player team are they're to look after you.  However the players have also formed a support network, there's a bunch of tents set up as quiet zones, there's a guy who hands out badges for those who are anxious or shy, and there's someone who hands out pronoun badges for those who are trans or playing characters of a different sex.  Between the players, the crew and the exercise the game's got you covered.

Reason the fourth; the spectacle of the whole thing.  Imagine this, a whole medieval city of tents springs out the ground, not only that it's fully populated.  With 10 nations each with their own costume brief it creates a multicultural metropolis.  Everyone is cutting about looking awesome, and guess what? you get to cut about looking awesome too.  At your first few events you will be in awe.

So how do I go to Empire?

1. You need to go to the Profound Decisions website and create a free account. 

2. You then want to go to Empire wiki and locate the nations page.  Read through all the nation briefs and find one that appeals.

3. Log into your account and create a character. Note you can edit your character right up until you play it.

4. Check out the Empire Facebook groups, especially the new players group and the group for your chose nation.  Ask questions, seriously do it.  This well help you immensely, it might also help you find a group to join in game.

5. Gather the kit you'll need.  It doesn't have to be amazing, your kit should be aspirational.  It will improve over time.  If you plan to fight by your weapons at the event.  This gives you a chance to check how the feel in the hand and if they fail a weapons check you can take them back.

6. Book your event.  Try and get a recruitment code.  You get £15 off your ticket, and so does the owner of the code.  Fell free to use mine 9066.16781

7. Read the relevant rules to your character.  Definitely read the combat rules and calls if you're going to fight.  Fighting is optional, but if you go into battle you have to monster the other battle, don't be a dick.

8. Figure out how to get there.  There is an Empire travel plans group on Facebook, and even a separate one for the Scots.

9. Go to Empire.  Definitely go to the new players briefing and the new players skirmish (if you plan on fighting).

10. Have fun.

What kit do you need?

You will need at tent definitely.  There are two sleeping areas out of character and in character.  Out of character sleeping means anything goes, modern tents and camping equipment.  In character sleeping you will need a canvas tent that looks in character.  You don't necessarily need modern camping equipment if you learn to hide it (we throw blankets over everything).  PD rent some tents, but these sell out fast.  Some people will have space and will be willing to take in strays.  Another thing to note is that you will take up the space of more than one person.  If you have a 6 man tent with 6 people in it you aren't going to have room for your kit.  A basic rule of thumb is your kit is a separate person.

You should also bring more socks and underwear than you can possibly use.  If you get wet it's really hard to get dry again.  Also spare dry soft kit is a must.

Money.  Most of the traders have card machines, but the food vendors may not.  Eating is important with all the walking around you do.

A water container.  Try to make it look IC.  If you can't afford a waterskin or other IC water container then wrap some cloth or leather around a plastic bottle.  Hydration is super important.

Good walking about shoes.  You'll be walking around all day, so comfy shoes are a must.  If they look to modern you can disguise them with some cloth.

Ear plugs.  Buy some earplugs, you can get a whole jar cheap on Amazon.  Anvil can be quite a noisy place shutting out that noise is a must if you find it hard to get to sleep.

Snacks.  These will keep you going.  Snacks are a must.

Your kit.  Don't forget that, it's important.  It is possible to buy all you kit in the field from the traders, but that will be expensive, better to build it up over time.

Toiletries, medicines feminine products etc.  Bring anything you need to keep you alive, and make you more comfortable.  Bring wet wipes, although there are showers, there aren't many.  Wet wipes will be your main source of bathing.  If you need electricity contact PD.

Any tips?

Don't worry about being a weak roleplayer.  Roleplaying is a hard skill, it takes time and practice to develop.  Do your best and don't worry.

Just say yes.  If it's something your character would do then do it.

If you don't like how your character is developing change it.  If it's a personality trait you can change it yourself.  If it's on your character sheet, contact PD.  And if you hate your character bin it and make a new one.

I said this earlier but make sure eat and drink.  Make sure you take water to battle.

Poop before time in.  It's easier to navigate the chemical toilets if you're not wearing flowing robes.  That being said make sure you go to the toilet before a battle, because you wont be able to go during.

Don't use glass potion bottles on the battlefield.  This doesn't really need expanding upon.

The phrase "I'm new to Anvil" is the most useful thing you can say.  It'll open doors.

Don't get totally wasted the night before a battle.  You do not want to be spewing chunks on the battlefield.  Also going into battle drunk is against the rules.

Find the aspect of the game that interests you.  If you want to be a policeman, join the militia.  If you want to get into the politics games try and find a senator and become an aide.  The game will not come to you, you need to find it.

Talk to people.  Ask strangers about their character, they will wax lyrical.  Also selling things will get you talking to people.

My final tip is just give it a go.  It might be your new favourite hobby.

SAGA - Age of Magic Undead

I've been repainting and rebasing  a bunch of undead for use in SAGA - Age of Magic.   I've got 10 points worth here, which is what's considered enough for a big game.  In my warband I have a warlord, a sorcerer, a black knight, two points of hearthguard with heavy weapons, four points of warriors, two points of mindless and a scourge.

The Mindless

Instead of normal levies units, the undead have mindless.  They're big tar pit units and the only unit in the game that can exceed 12 men, as far as I know anyway.  They're mindless, what better miniatures to represent them than zombies.    They're a mix of Games Workshop and Mantic Zombies.  These got a brand new paint job.



Warriors

For my warriors I've used skeletons.  These are the workhorse of my warband.  These were painted, all I've done is weather the metals, repaint the cloth to make them less uniform and gave them a brown wash to tone them down.  I've actually painted the cloth and shields in the colours of various Dawnish houses from Empire.

 Hearthguard

These are grave guard.  I've pretty much painted these guys up.  I wanted these guys to be uniform, they're elite troops, and they've probably been raised from the same grave site.  I also didn't rust them up, I like to think their tombs have suitably protected them from the elements.

Black Knight

This is a really old GW vampire.  I've completely stripped him and repainted him. 


Sorcerer

Another old GW vampire.  I was going to go with a necromancer, then thought this a vampire would be a different approach.


 Warlord

This is a collection of minis from different companies.  The warlord himself is from Darksword miniatures.   The two skeletons are from GW, from the mid 90's. 

 The Scourge

 Scourges are one of the three monster types.  Titans are the tough slow ones, behemoths are the fast angry ones and scourges are the flying, fire breathing ones.  This is a terrorgheist from GW.  I've had this for years, and I glued it up wrong.  But I don't care it looks like it's screaming.

Moving forward I want to add cavalry, archers and creatures.  I'd quite like to add other hero and monster variants. 

I've also got two more SAGA projects in the works.  I'm working on a Lords of the Wild warband for my other half and a Great Kingdoms warband based on my military unit from Empire.

A pile of minis for RPGs

Here's a bunch more Reaper Bones minis I've had lying about for a while in a state of half paintedness.  It's been a productive morning.

Let's start with the bugbears.

ah bugbears, the most brutal of the goblinoids.  They're big, bad and brutal, so I've done them earthy again.  I've given them redy brown skin, to make them stand out from my green goblins, I mean I didn't need to do that, they already stand out because they're pretty damn beefy.  also I didn't rust them up, they probably bully goblins into cleaning their stuff.



Drow Cleric

This lady has been sitting on my desk half painted for almost a year.  I had no idea as to how I was going to paint her.  Pro painting tip, don't overthink it, just do the thing.  I went with green to brighten her up, her skin and armour are pretty dark, so I wanted a bit of contrast other than her hair.  This lady is probably an evil cleric.  How do I know this? She's a Drow (racial profiling) and has a spider on her shield, by adding these two facts together she's probably a cleric of Lolth therefore we can conclude that she's an evil bitch that eats babies.


Paladin

This mini is another example of the bones range's soft details.  Always the face... why is that?  She could pass as a human, an elf or a half-elf.  I've done her in a standard paladin look, lots of blue, lots of silver.  I'd go so far as to say that this lady does not eat babies... but you can't judge a book by its cover.


Elf Blacksmith

My favourite of the bunch.  She could be an npc... but that would be boring.  I'm toying with the idea of using her as cleric that casts spells by striking her anvil.  the anvil is magic and follows her around.  If your wondering why she has a bronze sword, that's because she doesn't have a forge.  Bronze is a cold hammer metal, basically it gets strong when you hammer it when it's cold, to a point anyway.  It can be over hammered at which point it becomes brittle.

Hill Giant

I've had this guy for a good few years now, he's a Hill Giant from Reaper's Bones range.  I love Reaper Bones, it's so cheap and resilient, sure the detail might not be as good as their metals, but for simple gaming pieces for D&D that doesn't matter.

I've decided to make him a bit more bronzed, he's shirtless and a giant, he's going to have trouble finding shade, so living constantly exposed to elements he's going to be tanned.  I've gone for earthy colours for the rest of him, it just screams natural to me.  I broke this up by painting the shields on his belt with red and blue, just to add a splash of colour.  The steel parts have been rusted, he's a stupid giant, he probably doesn't give to shits about the quality of his stuff.

I'm tempted to put him on a base for use in Kings of War or SAGA Age of Magic.  The question is square or round?

Empire LRP Spring Equinox 383YE, the loot

So let's take a look at how things are progressing with my kit and have a swatch at my loot from the event.  But first an update on the mud kit.  I'm removing the garments out of the mud stew and putting them in the washing machine a couple at a time.  It's a nice day, the sun is out... or at least it was before that big, dirty bastard cloud appeared.  Fuck off! you big, grey steamy cunt!  Erm... on with the stuff.

Well start with my new stuff I took to the event

This is my stabidy-poker.  There are many like it but this one is mine.  It's a seven foot, stab safe hewing spear from Saxon Violence.  I still need to use it, and it will be getting used at E3.

This is my new ring.  I picked it up from larp fashion.  I really like it, but due to my fidgety nature I keep fiddling with it.  I'm getting married in a few weeks, so I'll be wearing two rings to my next event.  The question is which one to play with?

Now the stuff I bought.

I picked these up from Dark Blade.  The pendant had chain, which broke.  Luckily I had loads of ribbon in my bag.

I picked up these.  I'm a hunter I need a knife, well its a dagger, so close enough.  The dagger is from Eldritch and the sheath is from Dark Blade again.  The two vendors share a tent in the field.

I picked up a notebook from Chow's.  This is my flower crown orders book.

I also got an IC time piece, again from Chow's.  Super useful thing this.  If you don't have one, get one.

I picked up some big potion bottles, also Dark Blade.  This is for GLORY! Sauce.  Which I forgot to talk about yesterday.  It's a cocktail of Raspberry Ripple, Parmaviolet and Bramble Gins with a sploosh of plum wine.  It tastes amazing.  This is for recreating it.

And my money and resources.  Got just over three thrones now, and some crafting materials.

So that's all my new shit.  A don't think I'll have any new stuff before E3.  But I'm totally buzzing for it.

Right peeps I'm off to try and chase that big, dirty cloud away from my laundry.

Empire LRP; Spring Equinox 383YE

Best event ever! Or at least so far.  I'm going to talk about my hots and nots in a minute but first I'm going to bring up the subject of mud.  The mud can go in both categories.  I grew up in the countryside and did Ecology at university so mud for me is a big meh, although the general level of clart (good Scottish word for you) put a dampener on some peoples experience.  However the level of mud made it difficult for people to get things on to and off of the field.  Basically a lot of cars and vans were getting stuck in the mud.  However this is were it becomes a hot, a lot of people (myself included) banded together to push the cars out.  Also I have to commend all the PD staff and volunteers for their hard work in coordinating the traffic and building flood defences.  They were quite literally building bridges and digging ditches.

so let's get the bad stuff out the way first

1. The weather.  While there were sunny spells, and those were glorious, the torrential rain showers were a real downer.  Seriously when it completely fucked it down it was awful.  There's also the issue of wind, when it was windy it was freezing.

2. I'm still not totally comfortable being in Bertie's skin.  But I'm getting better. Role playing is hard skill, it needs practice.



okay that's the bad shit out the way, let's get on t the good stuff.  Take a seat this is gonna take a while.

1. New friendos.  I made a bunch on new friends at this event.  WIN!

2. Public Speaking Workshop.  This was so helpful.  I'm getting married in a few weeks, so I'm going to put what I learned to use.  Definitely be going again at E3.  Huge thanks to Martin.

3. Spending an evening in the Marcher camp.  So on Saturday night I went along to the Hunter's Rest which at this event was in the Marcher camp (it moves about) for a gin appreciation night.  The gin club didn't turn up, however I spent the evening indulging on the hospitality of a Marcher house who's name I cannot remember for the life of me.  They were all lovely.  And the bramble gin I brought along went down well.  The whole night was very chilled.  So on behalf of the assorted Dawnish who were sitting at your fire, thank you.  I'll be paying you a visit again.

4. The Empress Richilde Festival of the Arts.  This was amazing.  If you ever go to an E2 you need to spectate.  Admittedly I got soaked (thanks rain)  but the talent on display made me completely forget about all that.  The winners deserved it, and honestly as a spectator I believe it was a close run competition.  A massive highlight for me was Will from the Rusty Compass.  That magnificent bastard completely improved a song, sang it in a Varushkan accent, it was humorous and catch too... it's still stuck in my head.  Also the Herald of Fools had me full on belly laughing with his story about the goodest doggo.

5. The Secret Teahouse.  We got out and about a bit this event and found the Secret Teahouse in Urizen.  We were told about it by one of our friends (hi Libby if you're reading this) because she works there ic.  Such a chilled place.  Also as someone who is not a fan of  hot drinks I actually really enjoyed it.  I recommend the Autmun Gold, it tastes like apple strudel.

6. Floral Crown Spotting.  So I made a shit load of floral crowns.

 And sold a lot of them.  It was quite fun to spot my work as it made it's way around the field.  A big thank you to everyone who bought one.  Best start to restock for E3.

7. Food.  I think we ate exclusively at the Wooden Spoon.  The specialise in serving you food in a hollowed out loaf.  The don't waste the the middle either, they save them up and make bread and butter pudding.

This is a breakfast trencher.  This is a fry up in a bowl made from bread.  They can also fill it with other things like chili, pork stew, mac and cheese... I'm getting hungry.  The do waffles and other stuff too.

8. Losing an Egregor.  Ser Vyse one of our egregors did not return from battle on Saturday.  This hit me hard, he was very supportive to me both oc and ic.  I'm not sorry to say that I went back to my tent and had a little cry after I found out. 

9. Bors and Tieron.  You pair are bad influence on me and I fucking love you for it.  Life is never boring with the pair of you around.

Bonus content

Look at the fucking state of my coat.  It's currently stewing in the bath along with the rest of our muddy gear.