All Episodes

June 1, 2024 • 16 mins
Welcome back, lords and ladies, to another exciting episode of LarpCast! Hosted by the charismatic Ryan, also known as Artenen, this episode takes us deep into the heart of the Ozark Mountains, where the spirit of adventure thrives. Join us as we delve into the highlights of Season 10, Episode 5, filled with immersive stories, […]
Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
celebrating
lords and ladies another lark cast coming
at you just getting down
there filming a project way deep in the
ozark mountains and
it feels like lord of the rings back here
can't lie you know one of the things we
always wanted i mean it's it's pretty much
a fantasy of most larpers to build a

(00:21):
medieval town get some land make that
epicness happen and
i'm no exception definitely got the same
same ideas always wanted to do it when we
started the wisconsin live action role
players back in 2010 we had started at a
little park and then we found a location
that the some other role players use the

(00:43):
society for creative anachronisms sca they
had a little place and so we went out there
and talked with the ranger
which turned out to be camp cenoa
and
300 acres
they liked how we concentrated on safety
and family friendliness and you know we
didn't have any real religions or real
deities that kind of stuff it was all music

(01:05):
to their years it was easy to sell it to
the board we were able to get acceptance we
had insurance we had waivers we had covered
so they protected the trust of the camp and
we got the green light to host games there
which is where the world games were for a
few years i think but we couldn't really
build too many structures on the primitive
side of the property they couldn't be real
structures we had to work with land

(01:26):
management dnr forestry service people and
they were very adamant that they couldn't
be permanent structures back there we built
the we put our little temporary cabin back
there it worked out pretty good
but it didn't have a base so it fell apart
pretty quickly and where we had to end up
putting it was too wet
holy
colido i've been down some of these sketchy
back roads if you're hearing the background

(01:48):
noise i don't think i'm gonna be able to
take out all the noise we're like forging
streams back here you know dirt roads that
are questionable you get a tornado back
here and you're gonna be crawling over
crawling over logs that's why i got the big
jeep so we can get to where i need to go
and get back out safely but yeah so
found a location here
in missouri that had a real castle on it

(02:09):
and you know we had had the ability to
maybe do some stuff there developing that
relationship and doing
there's a lot of rule property than the
ozarks that we potentially could set up
something a little bit more permanent
land prices are of course at a premium no
matter where you go so
if we wanted to do this thing it would take

(02:31):
some time and we
learned from other game systems on how to
buy property and how not to buy property
and how to be
transparent on stuff as some of these folks
that did this with other game systems were
not transparent and they hummed the life
larpers out to dry and that's very
unfortunate so
we wanted to we can figure something out
like that we will if we can't well

(02:52):
you know if we can rent it and just build
stuff and do it that way that's fine too
whatever we want a high immersion
standard we want a very accurate theme for
renaissance medieval
bronze age iron age
you know depending on whatever
time period we're in we want to build those
towns too
that architecture style and

(03:15):
you know teach people how to utilize the
tools that were available at that time so
our fantasy elements of vicente are going
to blend you know different clubs
different
posts that are gonna run you know their
larp club are gonna have a realm
or realms locations lands and going to be
able to pick which time frame

(03:36):
that they're going to be in
for that location so unlike on earth where
everything was running you know at the same
time frame you know even different
civilizations had different technologies if
they develop at different times so we want
to you know simulate that and replicate
that and do that with our game system where
you might be you know 15th century in one

(03:57):
location in 13th century in another
location and your armors are going to be
different how's them going to be different
your garb is going to be different and even
if it's a fantasy where we have you know
possibly giants or some other types of
races that i mentioned in historical text
we want to play those out
those time periods so we're gonna have a

(04:17):
whole section in our rulebook around the
website to help people understand how some
of the cultures around the world at
different levels of advancement
you know at different time frames so it
makes it easier for people hosting games we
don't expect them to be any history buffs
or scholars of any type but we're gonna
loosely
put some you know guidelines down to say

(04:39):
all right if you're gonna be 14th century
you
know
medieval europe or you know let's say
you're in the africa plains or whatever
whatever we want to do some research
develop characters
in a time period that was as realistic as
possible while still keeping the fantasy
elements in there so that's going to be the

(05:00):
process it's beautiful out here in the
ozark mountains and there's so much
opportunity here to develop things that are
more permanent and doing it at a cost
that's lower as a prepper
i would consider myself pretty
knowledgeable on how to do off grid
watering systems
sanitation
energy and making it so that you can do

(05:21):
this in a safe way and so while we want to
have it remote we still got to have it safe and
you know develop a protocol for that keep
forgetting to turn off my radios before i
start recording and so yeah super exciting
there's you know out of here in the ozarks
the waterfalls are awesome the rivers are
pristine
for steam you can drink right out of most

(05:44):
streams
it's like one of the best locations for a
fantasy
setting that you can find the right
elements on a property location in the
central united states would be one that
would be where everybody could kind of get
to it it would be not exorbitant amounts of
money like it would be if you were building
it in a highly developed area i'm excited i

(06:07):
had so much fun building stuff at cinema
and building trails and coming up with
storyline and all of us who are hosting
games you know we read up either on
location i bring i'd film it and then bring
it back to the group and like let them
study it and we'd all kind of come up with
some ideas of how to create the story
between different regions and then we would
run that storyline being it you know to the

(06:29):
hosts who were not in the region and try to
figure out how to connect some dots
storyline wise
so that you know a quest that was in the st
louis area would make mention of something in
arkansas
which also would mention something in
wisconsin
which had hints of something from texas
or

(06:49):
california i mean we had that kind of stuff
going on where you would look at the
scrolls and so like on the backside us
hosts would work on
collaborating loose storylines and
character developments and things where
people would travel so if we knew like a
character if like we were going on vacation
and making a surprise visit to a different
realm we would you know run that by the

(07:10):
hosts ahead of time to come up with some
kind of cool reason for that character to
be there yeah it was just fun you know it's
just a little fun crap that we all come up
with it's just so cool being part of this
community it's really neat players and
hosts come up with these ideas you feel
awesome totally awesome i just got a text
from my neighbor i guess we're out of power
again so that's fun so yeah we want to keep

(07:31):
doing the larp casts and talking about how
to be successful how to make
successful games how to keep players
engaged things to stay away from that would
cause confrontation and a lot of this stuff
we learned on and we learned by accident a
lot of this stuff we've learned from other
people's mistakes
i know i've made a huge amount of mistakes

(07:51):
myself learning this stuff to the game
systems and as has others but
how do we navigate all of the
errors of the human ways and the different
skills and abilities people have and do it
in such a way that the games and the
storylines can continue you know one of the
things that sucked a lot when we moved from
ylarp to larp craft we had all these
storylines in there

(08:13):
the websites it was very difficult to
incorporate like versions of the website
which is another reason why i don't want to
use some of the hosting stuff we used to
hose our
software we used to have we've learned
because we've lost thousands and thousands
of hours of stories and it's horrible when
i mean i got a lot of that stuff but when
you like change formats or change game

(08:33):
systems there's some of this stuff that you
just won't be able to but people have spent
a lot of time developing and
writing in the forums and the scrolls
whatever and you have to be able to keep
those stories some people have wrote them
down we know we had a lot of people in the
missouecking system that wrote a lot of
their stuff down

(08:54):
on paper doing an analog which is highly
encouraged
we got
i got the worst
handwriting and so i cheated i bought a
cricket and i was
writing scrolls using the
plotter the cricket machine because you can
put like a fell point tip tip pen in there
well it was too perfect but it was better
than my chicken scratch and it was

(09:17):
definitely better than printing it out on a
printer because you could actually make the
paper and put it in the machine and it
would usually take it or write on it if you
did it slow depending on
how ruffled
the paper was like myself and others are
very passionate about trying to do things
as authentically as we can because if we
give 110 percent the players give 110

(09:37):
percent and
but if we don't
if we're doing stuff rinky dink half assed
fart in my language
why would the players expect to do anything
other than what we do so if we hold
ourselves to a higher standard day low tube
and that's the time of the goal and it
worked well in previous games but not at
all it's
getting exciting we're coming in the summer here

(09:59):
while it is a little bit warmer i have a
location
that's a bake ridge
a little barn door
i'm working on putting air conditioning in
the barn so that we can you know it could
be 110 degrees outside and we can still be
sparring in a climate controlled
environment
i actually with the rainwater system wanted
to put outdoor shower you know if people

(10:21):
are wanting to not get their car full of
freaking sweat after you know swinging all
day finding swords and stuff gel they can
just hit the outside shower or whatever
that kind of stuff you know hygiene is
important and making sure people are not
getting sick or whatever it's salt part of
it so stay stay clean so we do have

(10:42):
a few
sawmills in the area we do have
access to some timber perhaps so we might
be able to make some wooden structures
maybe do like rough sod and lipper and take
offs and that kind of stuff try to make
things a little more authentic i mean we can
plan it out and do it the old fashioned way
too which would work as well if we don't
have access to that much library that might
not be possible but we want to build some

(11:04):
structures we want to have some nice canvas
tents cotton tents canvas tents you know
all the modern day tents stuff and that
stuff gets pretty pricey it's a little bit
less if you buy the canvas and sell it
yourself and then you know strike up some
wooden dowels and you know make some
fasteners and that kind of stuff so it'd be
really cool if we had more companies or

(11:25):
people making kits for that kind of you
know where you to get all the parts so the
cast or machine parts for holding the
frames together and the wooden poles
together
or doing it in a historically accurate way
where you had blacksmith pins and shackles
and things to

(11:45):
pull things together through a wee clip at
weather your inside of your dwelling is
still period
so when you if you're having a character to
character interaction
inside a tent
game doesn't stop because everything at the
tent is also authentic and that would be
one of the most ultimate goals i would
think it'd be really cool if we could get
enough like i think you're getting from the

(12:07):
prepping standpoint i try to make it where
if we can get people to have the sheep to
make the wool to spin the yarn that kind of
stuff to
grow the cotton do the cotton gins like
make the cotton make the canvas like
how far down the line can we go we can go
all the way down the line you know right on
down to where if we had property where you

(12:27):
can live on full time and basically live
in that period
mostly
permanently i mean that's a sustainable
living because people back then didn't have
any of the technology they would work it
would be sustainable if you could support
yourself i think that would be pretty cool
it's a theme in moral village i've been to
some places in california some like towns

(12:49):
that are seen that way but in a different
you know like switch switzerland or i think
it would work pretty pretty awesome like
well i'm trying to think of what else to
talk about here well i'm on the road
without a script it'll be
wonderful to interact and get
some other folks involved on the podcast
get some
interviews going be interviewed by others

(13:11):
you know share the love of the game and the
hobby and the lifestyle can't wait to be
doing that i've been doing a lot of product
review videos right now or re editing some
of the other ones
got some really cool new weaponry i want to
test out do videos on and do giveaways for
and start building up our loader weapons
again before we start hosting games we got

(13:32):
lots of different weapons to choose for
people who want to try it out kind of
important
so there's like some upfront cost when
people are starting out making the club one
of the things we try to tell them to do is
just make some foam offers some duct tape
weapons you know that way you buy some foam
noodles and some pvc or out a few bucks
just see if it works before you go all in

(13:53):
and do the theatrical weapons and that kind
of stuff and
see what the feedback is i've known groups
that didn't make any what loader weapons
and everybody was expected to bring their
own stuff and that works just fine too so
we've done events at schools we've done
them at colleges we've thought on acts you
know like you said parks in our own private
stuff that we rent it just depends on the

(14:14):
location it depends on who is available what
skills and talents people have what
resources they have and once you get like
two or three or five you know different
locations and you start getting a constant
consistent player base of you know five
people then ten people then before you know
it's 20 people and what i tell people who are
thinking about hosting what i tell them

(14:35):
is it usually takes six consistent weeks to
build a little bit of an audio and so you
got to be
gotta host a game and be ready to host the
next game of a storyline ready to continue
the storyline and if you can do that
consistently and it doesn't have to be like
every weekend but it has to be something
where you're doing it you know if you can

(14:56):
do it once a month so for six months you're
building an audience that works if you can
do it once every other week you know cut it
down half the time once a week cut it down
in half again not everybody's gonna be able
to attend every weekend and it's important
to also have practices in some barring
sessions and maybe even some mini games on
the weekday some people work weekends
and can't get off for a lot of stuff so

(15:18):
look groups try to work around other
people's schedules if possible and it's
also less busy during the week so some
places that aren't available during the
weekend you can host on a wednesday you know
we've done that kind of
game too we'll do like a whole day game
during the week if there's enough
time in advance
we've done it so it does work just not as

(15:39):
often so yeah i guess we'll end this
work cast
thanks for joining us if you have any
thought questions concerns please post your
ideas in the comments section below this
video at martcast com on one of the social
media platforms that it's gonna be on
youtube on whatever streaming service you use

(16:00):
don't feel free to give a give a comment
give us a share give us a like give us a
review a star whatever and make sure to be
a part of this this is our turn
game on
Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

Crime Junkie

Crime Junkie

Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.

24/7 News: The Latest

24/7 News: The Latest

The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.

Stuff You Should Know

Stuff You Should Know

If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.