Archive: Around Town

Tompkins County is divided into nine towns, six villages, a number of hamlets and one alternative world.  That world is located in the town of Enfield one weekend per month, and is inhabited by a collection of knights, healers, dwarves, elves, monsters... all the usual characters you might find in a game of Dungeons and Dragons.  In fact, you might consider it the next level up from the popular board game -- this version is played on a field, in costume, in character.  It is called Live Action Role Play (LARP), and the enfield game is called Finger Lakes Adventure Gaming (FLAG).

"It is a mental reset," says Monroe Payne, who, with his wife Janet, hosts the game on their farm.  "Whenever you can leave the cares of your life behind and completely forget about them it allows your subconscious to work on problems you have in the real world so  that when you come out of our fantasy realm you can think clearly."


LARPers create fantasy characters that they develop over the course of a game or several games.  The characters coexist in a world that is defined in this case by a plot committee that weaves the various characters' stories into an overlying plot, or series of plots.  The plot may go as expected or not as the characters encounter each other, battle monsters, and interact in a virtual world.

"The plot committee has created a world and the players are citizens of it," Monroe explains.  "It's not a matter of how do they know what the plot is -- they are living the world.  They are interacting with it, they are affecting it and they are being affected by it.  Just like you and me, except it's a little more entertaining."

The Paynes began LARPing when their son Douglas wanted to join a game.  They said no, but he persisted in asking.  "He wanted to play this game and we were convinced the game was some sort of evil cult," Janet says.  "My kids were young and I was not going to have my kids engaging in some of that lifestyle.   It just didn't look right to me.  But after several months I said, 'You can go but I'm coming with you.'  We've played ever since."

16 years ago the Paynes began hosting the game on their farm.  Their first event had a small mowed patch of land and one tent.  By the next event they had a house and a tavern in what was to become the The Village of Thornhill.  Today there are various defined areas including the village itself, which is surrounded by a fence, a labyrinth, and a Gypsy camp, a big clearing with a fire pit where the gypsies set up tents and conduct games of chance.


In real life Monroe is a professional photographer who owns Payne Family Photographers with his daughter Mindy Porter.  Janet is a delivery room nurse.  In the game Monroe is a long bearded sage, and Janet is an elf-like healer.  But the couple is remarkably grounded in reality. 

"I tell the kids it's OK to step outside of yourself for a while as long as you step back in," Janet says.  "When you're in that delivery room you're responsible for two lives.  It can get very intense.  My healer character feels responsible for the players when she's out there, and the character gets upset when she loses one.  But Janet's not too upset because she knows they can come back."

Then she shrugs and adds, "If I get too upset there's always a monster I can beat on.  That's not acceptable in the real world!"

Racks of padded weapons and boxes of costumes line the walls of the NPC shack, also known as 'Monster Camp'

While players range in age between 14 and 57, most are of high school and college age.  The Paynes view themselves as benevolent parents, and are serious about enforcing the rules.  "I've had parents call me and say, 'I'm concerned about the overnight because so and so is coming with his girlfriend'," Janet says.  "I'm honest with them.  I tell them they will not under any circumstances be permitted to sleep in the same area.  There's a girls area and a boy's area.  I had one young couple leave because I told them this was not the place for that."

"I'm the mother down here," she says.  "I don't always like the role, but if you are doing something you shouldn't do I'm going to call you on it."


Their game attracts players from a surprisingly wide patch.  There is a group from around the county including at least eight players from Lansing, and a fairly large group that comes from Rochester.  One player comes every month from New York City, another from Rhode Island, and a couple from New Hampshire.  Local college students play, as well as others who come regularly from Niagara University, RIT, and Wells College.

A typical weekend attracts between 20 and 30 players.  These may be characters, who pay $10 for each third of the weekend, or one or two thirds.  Or they could be Non Player Characters (NPC) who don't have to pay because they play a variety of monsters, fire imps, and other roles that the paying characters interact with.  The paying characters must e-mail the plot committee beforehand so that each weekend's plot can be tailored to the characters who will attend.

One of the things that makes their LARP unique is that it has a dedicated home on their farm.  The couple says that LARP games typically borrow or rent a place to play.  But because the Enfield game is always in the same place, the Village of Thornhill is an actual enclosed village with a dozen or so buildings that the players have built over the years.

"This is a labor of love," Monroe says.  "Most of the village was built with donated materials.  It was built by teenagers.  When kids goes to the effort of building their own house within the stockaded village, they care about the game."


When a game is outside the weather becomes a player, and the couple says this has occasionally caused some unexpected spectacular effects.  "We have had a couple of times when nature just came through," Monroe says.  "We were finishing a major plot line and the Dragon of Peace and Knowledge was finishing her work when the Aurora Borealis came out.  It was a clear, moonless, cloudless night and all of a sudden the sky lit up as if on cue."

Another time the field was inundated with sparkling fireflies just at the time when the 'Willow Wisps,' little spots of light that are supposed to lead you into danger, came to the town.  And there was the time one of the characters, Grimbor did something that made the element of air very angry with him.

"In order to get back in with the element of air he had to go through a gauntlet, and he had to make it from the front gate to the woods, battling creatures," Monroe recalls.  "A huge gust of wind came along and blew all the leaves off the trees into a vortex over his head.  We said, 'Grimbor you have no idea what we had to spend on special effects for this event!'"

Last month Monroe and Janet's characters got married, and the plot line attracted almost 50 players, some from 16 years ago when the couple began hosting the game.  In real life they have been married for 34 years, but this was their characters' first wedding.  A player from New York City officiated, and in-game friends stood up with the couple.  The character that was supposed to lead Janet down the aisle had been 'killed' in the last game, so she had to choose a different character.  Another character roasted pigs for the feast that everyone contributed to.

"It surprised me," she says.  "Everybody wanted to be involved.  The whole village came together."

In the real world the game has also spawned real marriages, many of which Monroe has photographed.  "One of our privileges is to see our kids grow and develop into real, worthwhile human beings," he says.  "When I get to do the photography for a wedding for these kids it is such a joy and a pleasure to be part of it."


Despite the 16 year history and obvious love for the game FLAG may be in jeopardy.  The Paynes' daughter Bethany and her husband John Eddy have been running the game, something the Paynes say is the equivalent of a full time job.  They are the key members of the plot committee, which meets weekly to create each months' event.  Recently John got a job in Massachusetts that will take them away from FLAG.

"It puts it in a bit of limbo," Monroe says.  "It was announced to the player base that FLAG as we know it will be over after the next event.  I want to see it continue, but if it's going to be done half way I don't.  It needs to be done with the same care and love and altruistic intent.  If we can find people who are willing to continue it with a player centered vision then the game may continue."

The October event will wrap up the season, and the Paynes plan to enjoy it.  "That's where I find my peace," Janet says.  "I can get really frustrated in the real world, but I can calm down here and work through it somehow.  I never had a playhouse when I was a kid.  Now I have a whole play village!"

Both say that one of their great joys in the game is seeing young players mature, both as characters and in real life.  They say that lessons learned in the game can be helpful to kids, some of whom come from troubled families but see them as a couple in a long lived solid marriage that provides a role model.

"Kids keep me young," Monroe says.  "Interacting with these kids is so refreshing.  The best compliment that any of them ever gave me was, 'Monroe you may grow old, but you'll never grow up.'  We're having a very good time with it.  Hopefully we're doing a little bit of good."

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