Welcome to another TAG Talk Tuesday, where we interview a player of TAG and learn about them not only as a LARPer but also about their character in Odyssey. This week we have the charismatic Kyle who plays Sir Deadward. I’m Mel and I’m here to find out more about Kyle and his background with role-playing. Welcome Kyle! Let’s get to know you.

Hi there! I’m Kyle Prebeg and I’ve been larping for about 13 years now. I have a ton of crafting hobbies like painting miniatures, leather working, and chainmail. Also I love Japanese culture, medieval history, and gaming of all kinds!

Oh! So many crafting hobbies~ Which hobby did you start because of LARPing? And what’s your fav project so far?

Hmmm that’s a good question. I guess my first LARP adjacent hobby was chainmail but at the time I was playing a pirate, so I never had a real reason to make anything to wear, haha! I ended up making chainmail/scalemail bags and bracelets.

My favorite project I’ve done is probably my work on a brick stitch project for a 15th century medieval bag. It takes a long time but its fun to do something that has historical meaning

Oooo, I’m sensing a lot of Ren Faire vibes~ Other than TAG, where else have you LARPed/costumed?

So if we’re talking strictly LARP, there was the original one from Circle of Swords, Quest. That was a medieval fantasy LARP, but I’ve also done werewolf and vampire the masquerade LARP, and those are more parlor LARP style. Recently I’ve also done a huge European style LARP called Drachenfest, that’s a lot more heavy roleplay than it is combat.

But for other costuming… I’ve done a lot of anime conventions that I also did cosplay at. My very first one was a friend let us borrow his. And it was Auron from Final Fantasy X, but my first cosplay that was made for me was the following year I did Kenshin from Ruronin Kenshin.

Funny enough, the first year I did LARPing was also the first year I went to an anime convention.

OMG Kenshin! Memoriessss~ Do you think cosplay had a hand in getting you into LARPing?

Actually, it was the other way around! So in college, I met Jared who introduced me to DnD and after a few games he said, “You know, I play this thing called LARPing with some friends. You should go!”

So on a whim, I got my mom to make me a blue tabard, I put on some skateboard elbow pads and knee pads, and a black bandana and the rest is history. Funny enough I met my future wife there, Gena, who got me more into anime and was the one who invited me to our local anime convention, Tekkoshocon. So I owe a lot to LARPing and Jared.

Fun fact. My first ‘breastplate’ I wore under my tabard was the lid of the big plastic cat litter containers connected with shoe laces.

🥰 That’s so wholesome, I love the entire story!! So with cosplay, one tends to already have a character to dress up as. For your first few times, did you have a character in mind?

So when I was a kid, I read a lot of books about King Arthur and armor. The big ones being Arthur: The Seeing Stone by Kevin Crossley-Holland and the DK Eyewitness book Arms and Armor. So my first character wanted to be a knight. However, being a poor college kid meant you can’t really buy armor and I didn’t know any crafting stuff so I couldn’t make it. A friend suggested that I take the Swashbuckling kit and so my first character went from a knight to pirate! I ended up playing him for about 8 years.

After that, I loved the idea of ronin and samurai so the second idea was a Treeant samurai. His personality was based on Captain Holt from Brooklyn 99 so this stone-faced, very stoic figure that would very dryly try to be funny and claim to be known amongst others as a prankster.

Honestly thinking about it now, it does point back to my first times cosplaying as Auron and Kenshin who are both represented as ronin.

One, we are a Captain Holt stan here. <3 Two, I love how the books you loved influenced who you wanted to play! In Odyssey, your character is Sir Deadward! Is he a knight/ronin type?

In ways yes, I tend to always try something new or challenge myself to do something I’m not familiar with. So LARP-wise, I knew I was bad at using a shield and all my characters were very chaotic and no defenses.
So I’m challenging myself by being a “lawful good” person and being very defensive.

Style wise, he’s designed off of being a Germanic knight from around the 13-15th century. So your classic Teutonic knight. And my heraldry on my shield took a lot of inspiration from that and my own heritage.
I’m mostly of Scottish heritage and Scotland’s colors are blue and white and their national animal is a unicorn. So that is why those colors and elements are present in my shield. And finally the black for being undead.

Finally, personality wise, I wanted more of myself, so a little unhinged or out there at times but wants to help when they can but having that position of disliking thievery and dishonesty.

And it’s been a fun challenge to be a “good guy” in a world of chaotic people. I know it’s a LARP and you can get away with so many things. I’ve done a lot of them as a former pirate, haha. The fun is trying to be the playful opposition to “chaotic” types is by respecting where each other is coming from. I don’t want to limit your ability to steal, but being a part of that thrill of the chase and then it being memorable. It’s not about who wins and loses, but how we all make a story together.

That’s exactly what makes LARPing, and role-playing in general, so much fun; weaving a story from many perspectives~ This is a great question to leave off, as Mat will have you delve further into Sir Deadward and his lore ‘n at! Thank you so much Kyle~ You gave some GREAT answers! <3

Check back in next week with Mat who will give us some more insight into Sir Deadward. If you wish to be interviewed, please contact Mel or Mat on our Discord!

Thank you everyone and please have a lovely day~

(Other than small spelling and grammar errors, text from the interview is left unchanged.)