Treasure Trap is the name we give to a Live-Action Roleplaying system which has been around for several years. The original "Treasure Trap" was a commercial adventure company which used the spectacular setting of Peckforton Castle in Cheshire. This was, I believe, a Victorian folly, and it can be seen in the film "Robin Hood" which was filmed there in the mid 1990's. This was the film released the same summer as "Prince of Thieves", with much less Costner-induced bullshit, or, indeed finance. Not a bad film, nonetheless.
Many people came from throughout Britain to adventure there, including a group from Birmingham University. They took the basic idea - "Dress up in pseudo-medieval costume and pretend to be heroes from history and myth", and expanded it into a fully-fledged role-playing game. They set the Birmingham adventures in "Merkar" - loosely based on ancient Mercia.
Eventually the treasurer of Peckforton Treasure Trap ran off with the money, and it was forced to close. This seems to be a common theme, revisited by Summerfest many years later, I believe.
Time passed, and each year more students joined the group. Indeed, some came to Birmingham University because of Treasure Trap. The older members eventually made way - very slowly in some cases. Quite a few "thirty-somethings" are occasionally seen still plying their stuff.
The costumes got better (slowly), as did the weaponry, which changed from home-made rubber swords covered in "Gaffa Tape" to beautiful latex weaponry, little different from the real thing. I recently heard a rumour that "Hercules" and "Xena" use latex weapons for fight scenes, as they are safe and light and allow the stars to do more of their own stunts.
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This is me as Father Toerag, Priest of the Knights of St. John. This was a large group of LARPer's from Birmingham University who attended Summerfest, a grand meeting of like-minded souls, on the August bank holiday in Derbyshire each year. The unimaginitive naming pattern was due to the fact that between 50 and 100 of us got together for this group, and new character names would have been impossible to remember. In later years, Summerfest transformed into "The Gathering", which still runs each August. Check out the Trappy Web Site for more information on "The Gathering" and our group there, The Fellowship of the Full Moon. This includes pictures. In this group I play - you've guessed it : " Toerag " ! |
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Here is a picture of the inimitable Alathar, Lord of Darkness. Throughout his considerable life at Birmingham Uni, Ian posted little notes to the world of Merkar - the setting for Trap - from Alathar. These decried the world for failing to recognize his greatness, explained his plans for world domination, and were generally great fun. Most people were convinced that Alathar was far more important than he was in "reality". This is a drunken Alathar at a banquet a few years ago. |
