Not a full weekend larp, but an easy start of the new larping year: the Dela fruitwisseling (i.e. new year with the Dela group). The year of the pineapple has passed, it is now the year of the carrot. We celebrated with all kinds of dishes that contained carrot. Like hutspot, carrot-spinach cake, pie with carrot, pineapple-carrot salad, carrot bread, carrot cookies, carrot colored cookies (lemon cookies with orange icing) etc. There were carrot games (capture the carrot, truth or carrot), drinks, munchies and happiness. Even some plot discussion.

They had arranged for GaanKamperen to set up 3 tipi's and a tarp on a campsite in Otterlo. The tipi's were actually 'normal' cone shaped tents, not huge pieces of canvas over poles. So they looked a bit OC but were quite comfortable. They had little stoves inside with a chimney out the top, which made them warm too. They were delivered with self inflatable beds, cooking pots and all kinds of kitchen equipment, tables and benches. All we had to do was bring the food and dress everything up in Dela style because GaanKamperen actually put up and took down the whole shebang!

The plot part was mainly the Dela deciding what course of action to take for a certian Dela-plot to safe their homeworld. I/Enid didn't quite understand it all, but it was about one hour on the whole evening/night, so no problem to sit through. There were presents too. The Dela give each other, except the Warmi Wawa (head of the tribe), presents after letting fate decide (lootjes) whom they should get a present for. The guests (non-Dela people like Enid, Mottul, Veer Slang) had to bring a gift for the Warmi Wawa. Schots received a hot-water bottle in fur from Veer Slang, a necklace that protects from evil spirits and brings guidance from good spirits from Enid and a canopener (Kan Openen) from Mottul, which was a bit of an inside joke.

The gifts were all well received and came with stories as to their meaning and there were more stories during the rest of the evening and night. Dela like stories. Somewhere Enid asked about the name giving that the Dela do and ended up with a new Dela name. Instead of Kiwi she is now Kam (comb), because she is both caring (according to herself) and tidy (according to Mottul).

The evening started at about 17:30 and ended for me at 05:00-ish. Unfortunately I had a stomach ache at that time and went to bed feeling ill. It turned out to be just the fatigue though, because when I went to the toilet at 08:00 I felt much better. After that I slep on until 11:00 and woke to a sunny morning. Most people were already awake, or woke at that same moment, and were preparing breakfast. After tidying up we left at 14:30 or so and after an hour drive were home again. We got everything cleared away at once and had a relaxed massage/shower/tv afternoon/evening.

I love camping! This 'event' has made me itch for more camping this year. Fortunately Moots and Summoning will provide it again, but we might also take some days off to go camping aside from larp.

This weekend also made me yearn for a group like the Dela to play in. So far I've only played in two groups: the Nocona at Symbols and the Ern at VA. The first one started off nice with bits and pieces of culture defined, but it dwindled and in the end we were just a bunch of grey people with our own tent in the village. The other players even at some point seemed to know more Nocona-words than we remembered ourselves. The Ern were never a very strong group to begin with. Just loosely based on vikings and not even everybody in the group had the same ideas about what that meant. We are now only four and Matthijs and I mainly go because we like the campfire-cooking thing and have fun with the Dela. Cora and Rene keep going because Rene's character has become faction leader.

The Dela group just seems to thrive because all the members put the same amount effort in it and they have regular IC and OC meetings to keep the juices flowing. Their whole IC culture is well defined and convincing for outsiders. Most, though not all, of them are very good "I don't care what happens or if I look silly, this provides play/ is fun" roleplayers and I wonder if I would grow more into this hobby if I'd be part of such a group. Less inhibited. Perhaps I should be bold and ask them if I can be part of their next idea. Since the Dela seem to be on a kind of suicide mission.