Supers and Guns: That was the weekend that was

So, over the last weekend I:

1) Played a guest hero in the final game of a year-long superhero campaign...that ran Friday night and nearly oall of Saturday. I had a Green lantern Analog, and even if I didn't have that much to do I had a lot of fun. Part of it was the game, and a lot of it was the company.  More on that later.

2) Sunday I got up way, way, WAY too early to go up into the mountains to go shootin' with racerxmachinaas part of her belated birthday present. It started out cool and foggy- almost too cool, but the mountains were beautiful, and eventually the fog cleared away, and it became just a perfect day to be out shooting targets.

• We got instructions, and though I was very, very cautious, my major fear did not materialize: I did not drop a gun, I did not shoot anyone in the foot, nor did I forget and accidentally point at anyone anything that shouldn't be pointed at anyone.
• Of the three pistols we had (.22 auto target, .357 magnum, .45 automatic) the .22 was best for target shooting, with low recoil and a long barrel. The .357 was almost as good, and had the advantage of easier to see bullet holes. The .45 had a lot of kick to it, and I tended to not be accurate.
• I tend to overcompensate my aim for the anticipated recoil- have to work on that. it wasn't so bad on the short range targets, but the 40 meter plinking range ment I only got one good hit in, with the .357 of all things. That Nestle's Quick bottle will never menace the earth again!
• The targets were silhouettes, and after some deliberation, I decided not to take any home to pin on my annoying downstairs neighbor's front door, or put behind my desk at the office.
• My lovely sweet dear racerxmachinaallowed afterward that some time we could get some guns if we take shooting up as a hobby, most likely either a .22 or M-1 rifle, and some light pistols.
• She STILL won't let me buy a crossbow. And that's just injustice. She pointed out the reduced ineffectiveness of crossbows vs. zombies; I should have pointed out theri increased usefulness against vampires.

By the way, the people at the range were really cool and nice- it figures that the people there wouldn't be jerks about guns. there was a lot of checking out of each others guns, including a beautiful genuine W.W.I Mauser. And in spite of the "no instruction" rule, I got some good hints on firing stance and aim from a range master who turned out to be a really interesting SCA guy.


And then I went home, and collapsed and slept for four hours. Then watched anime to unwind. What a weekend.

The Question Was: "Are LARPS Dead?"

This was asked in the live-action section of rpg.net. My answer was the following:

Given that three weeks ago a LARP provided the most intense roleplaying experience of my life, I'd be hard put to say its dying.

Around the Bay Area, most of the LARP activity I know of is concentrated around one-shots held at the major game conventions. This gives people chances to LARP at least three times a year, and more importantly, lets the LARP creators come up with good ideas. We have groups like Dreams of Deirdre who are organized to put on LARPS, and a lot of single people putting on fantastic games as well, like my wife did recently. If anything, the LARP community seems to be growing around here, while staying close-knit.

Recently, I recently played in a tragedy loosely based on Arthurian and Celtic myths, played in a brilliant LARP based off of Labyrinth, helped with a Dark Tower LARP, played in a 1970s City of Heroes Disco LARP, a 1960s superhero politics LARP, the excellent prequel to the Arthurian LARP...and most importantly, every convention I have to choose between equally good-sounding LARPS. And frankly, the one time in the last three conventions that I passed up a LARP for a tabletop game, I was horribly disappointed.

So for me at least, the game conventions exist for LARPS. And shopping as well, but mostly LARPS.

So, what do you all think?  I'm still a bit of a newcomer to the local scene, do you agree?  Do you think local LARPing is dyying, on life suppor