I dreamt about LaRPing last night, the first time I've actively thought about it in a couple of years. I find myself actively pining for Remy and the Bacchus in general this morning.
It's been over three years since I last donned costume and took up the rubber sword and for the first time I'm seeing the upsides of the hobby rather than the shit that drove me away.
There were plenty of downsides. I spent the last six months of my involvement trying to patch up the growing disagreements within the Bacchus, not realising that someone was actively trying to make them worse to force me out. In the end, they succeeded. I got out at the right time, of course. Most of the people I was closest to in the group were defecting to other groups for both narrative and personal reasons, and I can't say I blamed them. The group was tearing itself apart and I was being actively backstabbed by one lady who was still pretending to be my friend back then. Well, she got what she wanted - leadership of the group - but it was a hollow victory. The Bacchus, once the largest group in that LaRP faction, were no more within a matter of months.
Why was it the right decision? A number of factors in my life had all hit at once which meant that I needed to be doing something different, not least my writing career which has gone from strength to strength since. The RPG writing work came at a time when my career seemed to be stalled, and strangely enough the two have grown in parallel ever since.
I do miss the social side, though, and the narrative immersion that comes from participating in a three to four day event. I don't know if I'll ever go back, but for the first time I can honestly say I miss it.
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