Two Wyrd took place on June 10th – 12th, 2011 at the Hilton Costa Mesa.

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Photos from Two Wyrd:

Two Wyrd’s VIPs

At Two Wyrd we wanted to feature some specific designers this year, focusing on their experiences in the media, academia, or the field in general. This year we focus on three special guests. 

Brandon Boucher

Brandon Boucher achieved Intermet meme infamy as the guy
crying out “Lightning bolt! Lightning bolt! Lightning bolt!” in a
YouTube video ad for Legends Role Playing in 2003. Millions of hits and
parodies later, Brandon appeared on Comedy Central’s Tosh.0 to
“redeem” himself. Despite the negative portrayals, the video and
Brandon have been introducing larp to more and more Americans through his
interactions with Hollywood. View
Brandon’s Tosh.o debut here.

Events lead by Brandon included:

LARP vs LARP, What is it

LARP, What is it.

Sarah Lynne Bowman

Sarah Lynne Bowman received her Bachelor of Science in Radio-TV-Film from the University of Texas at Austin in
Fall 1998 and her Master of Arts from the same department in Spring 2003. She then attended the University of Texas at Dallas, completing her Doctor of Philosophy in Arts and Humanities in 2008. Her dissertation, “The Functions of Role-Playing Games: How Participants Create Community, Solve Problems and Explore Identity”, was published as a book by McFarland Press in 2010. She presently works as a lecturer for UTD, Ashford University, Brookhaven College, and Richland College. Her interests include role-playing, fantasy/science fiction, psychoanalysis, gender/sexuality studies, rhetoric, media studies, critical theory/cultural studies, multimedia performance/new media, evolutionary psychology, and the history of human consciousness. Current projects include understanding role-playing characters in terms of Jungian theories, Ascension myths in popular culture and games, and making sense of conflict in role-playing communities.

Events lead by Sarah:
Panel: Understanding “Bleed” in Character and Player Interactions

Panel: Shifting Identities in Role-Playing Games

Ford Ivey

Ford Ivey, sometimes called the Grandfather of NERO, is the founder of several live action role-playing games, including NERO International, Shandlin’s Ferry, Wildlands, The Isles, a live version of Call of Cthulhu, and his newest game, The Osiris Sanction. Ford is the recipient and namesake of the LARPY Lifetime Achievement award, and is the LARP Guest of Honor at Origins Game Fair in July, 2007.

After attending the University of Texas school of Architecture, Ford Ivey worked in all parts of the construction industry, doing everything from design to supervisor of construction on some major projects in the Boston area. He got disenchanted with the construction industry and went back to one of his early loves, opening The GameMaster, a full service game store In Arlington, MA. This store had tables for playing roleplaying games and miniatures. While doing this, he heard about a Live Roleplaying game in New Hampshire called Mid Realms Adventures, based on the Treasure Trap games in England.

While he enjoyed this game, he was convinced that it could be done in a way that would allow more character freedom of action. After running a series of games for a couple of years in Sudbury, MA, under the umbrella of the Explorer Scouts, he (with input and assistance from several others) developed the idea of everyone playing the game: everyone was someone
else’s NPC. This event was known as Shandlin’s Ferry, which was run in the fall of 1987 and was the immediate predecessor to NERO.

NERO was a unique development in LARPing, based on character growth and freedom of action. It grew far more quickly than the organization could handle in those early days, after an article appeared in Dragon Magazine, written by Michael A. Ventrella. NERO suddenly had over 5,000 active members.

NERO began to expand with new chapters quickly, starting
with one in New Jersey, called the Ashbury Campaign. They later broke off to
form Alliance LARP. Other early chapters were the Pittsburgh chapter (now PRO),
and the Atlanta chapter, now running a game based on an early set of the NERO
rules, now calling themselves SOLAR. NERO has, to date, spawned in excess of 40
games of the same general type.

Ford’s NERO game was the first game to own its own site dedicated to Live Roleplaying. This was in Ware, Massachusetts. This site had 105 acres (0.42 km2) of woods and fields and 27 structures, including an old New England Inn, barns, and many cabins.

Ford sold the game in 1998 to Joe Valenti. After overcoming health issues, Ford is now involved in several new projects, including a new concept in LARP, The Osiris Sanction.

The Osiris Sanction is a whole new direction in LARP, combining elements of an ARG with what has been called “Ultra Laser
Tag”, with mystery and conspiracy plots arrayed against the players with the final satisfying encounter being a SWAT team type mission.

Events lead by Ford Ivey:

Ford Ivey’s Osiris Sanction Demonstration

Panel: Open discussion about NERO, it’s history, and it’s current state

Intercon West

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