LARPing

[Obryn]

LAIRE may sound familiar because our name was used in the film ROLE MODELS. Yes they asked our permission (I have the fax to prove it

...and many weapons from Edhellen Armory!

(I kept seeing them on the commercials, and saying, "Those look like Kegg's weapons!" Sure enough!)

-O

 

[Zaruthustran]

This effect comes from an effort to balance player and character experience.

At the core of the NERO-Alliance type system is the hope/idea that the character can shine regardless of the player skill. Thus, even though you may be the best boffer-combat master in the world, your 1st level character will not be more effective than people who have been playing the game and building up that character for a year or more because you have to land so many more hits than a higher level character of lesser player skill.

I think that's a fundamentally flawed system. The point of Live Action is that it's live. You're actually *doing* whatever it is your character is doing. If you're just going to pretend to be a good swordfighter, and don't want to invest any time in learning how to fight, then you may as well just roll some dice. Or play a no-contact larp such as Minds Eye Theater.

 

[nimisgod]

That's an interesting viewpoint for me, esp. since currently I'm writing up rules for a LARP here in south NJ.

I don't think that a system like that is as much a flaw as it is a feature. I think that you should be able to prosper/function somewhat as a starting character if you're great at fighting... but a new guy shouldn't be completely able to wtfpwn every dude in the LARP just because you're good with a sword.

Some LARPs allow some bonuses to starting characters as the LARP itself ages, to lessen the gap.

Live action a LARP might be, but it's also an RPG and allows players to take on the roles of people more powerful than they personally are (power-fantasy).

At the same time, as someone who doesn't suck balls with a boffer weapon, I would rather not get my ass kicked by some nerd that spams his best powers against me.

I think there is a happy medium somewhere.

 

[pawsplay]

At the core of the NERO-Alliance type system is the hope/idea that the character can shine regardless of the player skill. Thus, even though you may be the best boffer-combat master in the world, your 1st level character will not be more effective than people who have been playing the game and building up that character for a year or more because you have to land so many more hits than a higher level character of lesser player skill.

I am not really keen on the idea that what matters is not skill, but how long you have been in the club.

Amtgard is definitely a compromise. The hit system is almost identical to Belegarth. Classes go up to 6th level. Higher levels get you special bonuses or more powerful spells, and while a 6th level Wizard is distinctly more powerful than a 1st level one, if you compared a 5th level Wizard to a 2nd level one I would definitely be looking at player skill.

Amtgard is can be called a hybrid of "European" style LARP with "American" style and SCA-style combat sports.

For the uninitiated, European LARPS tend to be large (100+ player events), use sculpted latex weapons, have elaborate costuming, and be scenario driven. American LARPs tend to host smaller events, use boffer weapons, have functional costuming (like color coding classes) and be character development driven (i.e. they have levels, characters can be killed off, etc). Of course, there are "European" style LARPs in the US and vice versa. Combat sports tend to be highly concerned with safety and authentically representing historical or legendary combat.

 

[^Graff]

I think that's a fundamentally flawed system. The point of Live Action is that it's live. You're actually *doing* whatever it is your character is doing. If you're just going to pretend to be a good swordfighter, and don't want to invest any time in learning how to fight, then you may as well just roll some dice. Or play a no-contact larp such as Minds Eye Theater.

I've played Alliance since '05, and that's not exactly how it works. It's more along the lines of "I've been playing my PC Bill for ten years. One day, I decide to play a new character, Joe. Now does it make sense for Joe, who has never adventured a day in his life, to be just as skilled as Bill, a ten-year adventuring veteran just because both characters are played by the same guy?"
Player skill counts too, but the stat system is there to tell the difference between characters, and to represent how the *character's* skill has grown. You may have been a larper for as long as there have been larps, and you might practice for three hours a day, but your new character is a newbie, and his stats reflect that.
Player skill, however, does count. I know of at least one player who makes a point of staying on the opposite side of the field from me during battles because I once schooled him with a low-level stat card and a handful of arrow packets.

 

[Umbran]

Resource management is always a big deal.

No, it is not.

The campaign larp I'm currently playing in has lots of combat scenes, but you are generally not concerned with resource use through the weekend. Your weekend is cut into a number of discrete scenes, and if you didn't get killed in the last scene (and permanent death is a bit difficult to do if you don't want it), you're generally considered to be up to snuff again for the next scene.

Larps vary as much as tabletop games, including in their mechanical choices.

TOO OLD? I am 36. The master of the thieves guild before he left was 63. The mistress of our healers guild is 59. Please... NEVER TO OLD.

Bah! In our game, we've got a 60+ year old, and he's damned deadly with a spear, let me tell you. Next oldest guy is in his 50s, and he's the dad of one player, and grandfather of the youngest player, who is less than a year old.

 

[pathfinderq1]

The slight differences between boffer LARP fighting mechanics can generate all kinds of fun. My wife and I first met while LARPing, in a system whose fighting mechanics were derived from SCA rules. Every hit was potentially deadly, so footwork, parrying and dodging were vital skills. We tried out another, hit point/Nero derived system, where defense was all but ignored- the limit of tactics was to stand in and swing, hoping the enemy dropped before you did ("Seven magic! Seven magic!"). At the beginning of the weekend, some of the younger player made disparaging commentary to my wife, who is quite petite and frail-looking was playing a single-sword pure fighter (no florentine, no magic). They didn't know she had been fighting with that style for about ten years, and playing piano gives excellent wrist strength and control with a light boffer sword.

End result- at the end of the weekend, there was a nice long conversation about who had died and how many times. Most of them averaged about three, with some having died as many as six times (though no final deaths). When they finally got around to asking, my wife and i both had the same answer- "no deaths". The shocked looks were, sad to say, probably about the best part of that particular LARP- far too much PvP and resource item management for me...

 

[Byrons_Ghost]

I've been running LARP with a small group (named "Beyond Reality") for about twelve years now. In fact, we have a game coming up at Visioncon (Springfield MO) next weekend. We run theater-style using a homebrew system with simple character cards and a D20 die mechanic. As someone described above, it's basically "tabletop while walking around in costume".

Originally we ran a WoD game for people who didn't want to use MET or play in the Cam. When nWoD came a few years back, we decided to break from the setting rather than restart the game, so now we've got a sort of modern fantasy WoD-ish game. It's probably closer to Harry Dresden than WoD. Various weird creatures of the night maneuver around each other until they team up at the end to beat the villain.

Strangely, outside of running this game I have very little LARP experience. I'm not interested in live combat, and early experiences with MET make me avoid their games. And that seems to cover pretty much all the games out there.

 

[Umbran]

And that seems to cover pretty much all the games out there.

It doesn't. On average, I wind up in one larp event every other month, wihtout trying very hard, and I don't play MET.

Now, it may be that the only theatre-style stuff in your area is MET. For much of my play I drive from Boston to Pennsylvania or the Baltimore/Washington area. I could probably get more nearby if I wanted to, but I like many of the folks down south.

So, look around - there may be more out there than you think.

 

[Byrons_Ghost]

It doesn't. On average, I wind up in one larp event every other month, wihtout trying very hard, and I don't play MET.

Now, it may be that the only theatre-style stuff in your area is MET. For much of my play I drive from Boston to Pennsylvania or the Baltimore/Washington area. I could probably get more nearby if I wanted to, but I like many of the folks down south.

So, look around - there may be more out there than you think.

New England's a bit out of my way for a game. If anyone knows anything good in the Midwest, though, I'd love to hear about it.