Geas Burgkon Drugi

The first time I’ve heard about Geas was at this year’s Odraz, and it intrigued me at first sight. I was not (and I am still not) used to the fact that it might be possible for larpers to obtain a whole castle, which is not even in ruins – Zamek Grodziec. The propagation materials created for their first game also looked really good.

The whole game was more than inspired by Arthurian legends. Kalina, the lady of the castle, had an affair with the first knight Zyndram and since Jan Kosciesz, the lord of the castle, eventually got wind of that, the lovers were now facing a trial. Let’s also spice up the situation by adding some power-hunger and rivalry for the vassals and planning a tournament and an execution, and we have an ideal explosive material for a nice fantasy larp. The only thing that’s left is inviting about a hundred players (including three foreigners who can’t speak Polish) and commencing the fun.

The game had one, let’s say, quirkiness for us, foreigners (Lapo from Italy, me from the Czech Republic and Dominika from Slovakia); everyone was speaking Polish, a language none of us understood. The solution was that English was declared to be a lingua franca, which therefore everyone knew… but the nobles refused to use, since it was beneath their station. One of the players actually quite profoundly apologised to me for this roleplaying after the game. 🙂

Because I think that it’s no good to play and shoot at the same time, I always try to attend larps only as a photographer, so that the players have no problem in letting me in on any meeting and situation, and my own game does not prevent me from seeing any interesting events. However, I could not avoid playing this time, since one of the game rules was that everyone present at the castle has to be a player. I got a role of a foreign merchant who attempted to open a new trade route to Rabbit’s Rock. Even though I missed several visually interesting moments because of this role, I don’t think that they will be missed in the final set of photos from Geas.

I should note for those who have not attended, that the castle’s main hall is truly impressive in its largeness and that it really made the events which took place there more epic, and also that the blind harpist can really play the harp (and she is not really blind).

I was kind of amused and surprised at the players’ tendency to bring democracy into the game – I’ve always thought that lack of feudalism is a Czech larp problem. Everyone present in the castle at the time was allowed to speak in front of the tribunal during the trial with Kalina and Zyndram, and present their opinion.

I think the greatest problem of the game were the dozens of smoked cigarettes that in met during the game. Although the game had no determined historical setting – the costumes ranged from the 11^th century to the Thirty Years’ War, there were potatoes at the feast, as well as working alchemy – the cigarettes didn’t fit in.

That’s connected with the overabundance of players’ alcohol, which was also probably caused the fact that Saturday morning was filled with more sleeping than playing. I wouldn’t expect that the watered beer and wine available at the feast could tire anyone down to the level that he’d have to sleep till noon.

To conclude, I believe that this was not the last time I visited Poland.

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