Today I
shall share with you a story from my LARPing days. Earlier this year, I told
you about how I sometimes make joking suggestions that people take too seriously. This is a story about that, too.
Firstly,
for those who don’t know, LARPing stands for Live Action Role Playing. The one
I was involved with is called Amtgard – a fantasy themed game (surprise,
surprise). If that still means nothing to you, once a week my friends and I
went to a park in costumes and beat each other up with pool noodle swords. Kind
of like Dungeons and Dragons live. It’s significantly more awesome than it
sounds.
So, as part
of this game, sometimes quests are run – usually only during events with guests
from other groups because more people is better for quests and they take a lot
of energy to put together. During a quest, people are split into two groups PCs
and NPCs. NPCs are the people running the quest – the monsters and characters
that tell the story – while the PCs are the players who try to solve the
puzzles and defeat the monsters.
Now, for
years, as core members of our group, my best friend and I were usually NPCs, if
not the people writing the quest in the first place. This time, however, we
were PCs – which, to us, was an opening to have a lot of fun.
For a few
months, we’d been planning a couple of new characters to play – a pair of eccentric
gnomes. These characters had no interest in solving the quest. No, they just
tended to be around, sometimes helping, sometimes throwing a wrench in the
gears. We planned all kinds of antics, such as fishing in a pile of leaves or
setting up a “machine” that enchanted weapons (which really had one of us
inside casting the spells). The overall intent was to mess with people enough
to make them think we were NPCs rather than PCs and have them wondering what
our part was in the quest.
Well, we
got word in advance that this quest was taking place during a fair scenario –
where there would be games to play and prizes to be won. How perfect was that?
All we had to do was come up with some items that we could trade to people, or
give them as prizes, with the hope that they’d be fooled into thinking they
were some significant part of the quest.
I have no
memory of how the conversation led to it, but this is where – after the laugh I
have that indicates my idea is to ridiculous to do – I made the suggestion I
never thought would happen.
Fish in
jars.
However, as
usual, I underestimated my best friend’s willingness to run with my crazy
ideas. The idea stuck. Why? Because it was perfect for the scenario. In a quest
situation, why on earth would there be live fish if it wasn’t an important part
of the quest? We would hand them out to people and they’d go insane trying to
figure out what they were for. What more could we wish for?
So, the
project began. We went and scouted fish prices, then went to the grocery store
and bought four jars of baby food. It was while my friend was eating his way
through these jars that I giggled and said the next thing I shouldn’t have.
I said, “You
know, people might ask what the fish is for, and if they do, you should do
this.” I proceeded to mime drinking the contents of one of the jars.
I should
have known. He looked me in the eye and declared that he would do it. He then
said that he hated me, because he didn’t want to do it, but it was too perfect
an opportunity to miss.
And so, on
the day of the event, we went out and bought our fish. We bought feeder fish
because of a combination of them being cheap, and that they were intended to
have short lives and we had no idea what would happen to them once they were
given away. My guilty conscience – still protesting at the plan to swallow a
live fish – hoped that they might end up living a better life than that of a
bigger fish’s meal.
We sorted
out four fish into their four jars – leaving the lids loose when we could to
keep oxygen in the water – and headed for the quest. The game started, and we
set to work. One by one, we went up to random people (one of them even an NPC),
asking riddles or offering trades – then presented them with live fish.
They had no
idea what to make of them. The expressions on their faces were priceless.
Luckily, no one asked what they were for.
We were
having so much fun messing around that I honestly have no idea what was going
on with the rest of the quest. At some point, monsters attacked, and the
carefree gnomes hopped inside a protective circle and watched the battle. Then
the quest was over.
The best
part, though, is that during the quest, one girl had traded her way into owning
all four of the fish. She told us how delighted she was with them and that she
planned to take them home to the states with her and keep them as pets. It was
wonderful – if not for that, I would likely still feel guilty about those fish
to this day.
At the same
time, I’m a little sad that no one asked what the fish were for.
Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her life coaching website.
If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.
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