Tinker Gnome
Adventurer
I am not sure if this is the correct forum to put this topic in but...anyone here ever LARP? If so, what rules did you use? Was it very freeform, or did you actually have a character sheet and stats? Tell me!
-
NOW LIVE! Into the Woods--new character species, eerie monsters, and haunting villains to populate the woodlands of your D&D games.
LARPing
- Thread starter Tinker Gnome
- Start date
I'm involved in crewing one of the UK's largest larps with ~1000 people at each event. People do have character sheets (although in our case, they are held in a central computer database) but they are very much simpler than most tabletop sheets. Given that all (well, most but we do aim for all) interaction takes place in real-time with no or little Referee/GM involvement the rules and stats have to be reasonably simple and clear. More details here:
Live Role Playing : Maelstrom - Profound Decisions Ltd
That said, the game is pretty atypical - theres a huge variety of different Larp styles and rulesets out there.
Live Role Playing : Maelstrom - Profound Decisions Ltd
That said, the game is pretty atypical - theres a huge variety of different Larp styles and rulesets out there.
Tinker Gnome
Adventurer
I know that a LARP can vary.
It can be from "We dress up funnily, act in character, and walk around while still obeying the rules on our character sheets and rolling dice" to "We dress up in armor, use foam weapons, attack eachother and have golf balls that we throw as spells." (The old "LIghtning bolt lightning bolt lightning bolt!")
Depending on your definition, Civil War Reenactments might constitute LARPing.
I was at DragonCon a few years ago, and they had a 24/7 LARP going. You signed up, payed cash, and you were given a packet with your character - it was personality, behavior, and your "Goals" - information or whathaveyou that you were to acquire in order to "win". There was a specific room that was designated as the "In Character" room that you played in.
It can be from "We dress up funnily, act in character, and walk around while still obeying the rules on our character sheets and rolling dice" to "We dress up in armor, use foam weapons, attack eachother and have golf balls that we throw as spells." (The old "LIghtning bolt lightning bolt lightning bolt!")
Depending on your definition, Civil War Reenactments might constitute LARPing.
I was at DragonCon a few years ago, and they had a 24/7 LARP going. You signed up, payed cash, and you were given a packet with your character - it was personality, behavior, and your "Goals" - information or whathaveyou that you were to acquire in order to "win". There was a specific room that was designated as the "In Character" room that you played in.
I've played many and various larps over the past... 15 years or so.
Larps can be roughly divided into two different camps - "live combat" and "theatre style". In live combat games, combat is at least in part simulated with simulated weapons - folks run around whacking each other with boffer weapons, or shooting each other with paintball/airsoft weapons. In theatre style games, combat is simulated with something more like a tabletop rules.
So, Mind's Eye Theatre (the World of Darkness larp rules) are theatre style. NERO and Alliance are live combat games.
Some larps are stand-alone, weekend-long, day-long, or a few hours games, others are multi-year chronicles. Some use very light rules (or almost no rules at all), others have very full rulesets (like "Mind's Eye Theatre" or "Rules to Live By"). Some are run by large organizations (NERO, the Camarilla), and others are run by a couple of folks who get together to write. In some you get to create your own character, in others characters are pre-generated and you get cast into a role...
I tend to more theatre-style stuff, though the chronicle I'm currently in has a mix of forms, and a full ruleset that they sometimes work by, and sometimes don't
Those on the east coast of the US who are curious might want to look into one of the "Intercon" larp conventions. One runs in Boston every year, and another down in the Baltimore-Washington area. Intercon runs a whole bunch of minigames, in a variety of genres and styles, so you can get a bit of a taste.
So, rather like tabletop games - experiences can be all over the place.
Larps can be roughly divided into two different camps - "live combat" and "theatre style". In live combat games, combat is at least in part simulated with simulated weapons - folks run around whacking each other with boffer weapons, or shooting each other with paintball/airsoft weapons. In theatre style games, combat is simulated with something more like a tabletop rules.
So, Mind's Eye Theatre (the World of Darkness larp rules) are theatre style. NERO and Alliance are live combat games.
Some larps are stand-alone, weekend-long, day-long, or a few hours games, others are multi-year chronicles. Some use very light rules (or almost no rules at all), others have very full rulesets (like "Mind's Eye Theatre" or "Rules to Live By"). Some are run by large organizations (NERO, the Camarilla), and others are run by a couple of folks who get together to write. In some you get to create your own character, in others characters are pre-generated and you get cast into a role...
I tend to more theatre-style stuff, though the chronicle I'm currently in has a mix of forms, and a full ruleset that they sometimes work by, and sometimes don't
Those on the east coast of the US who are curious might want to look into one of the "Intercon" larp conventions. One runs in Boston every year, and another down in the Baltimore-Washington area. Intercon runs a whole bunch of minigames, in a variety of genres and styles, so you can get a bit of a taste.
So, rather like tabletop games - experiences can be all over the place.
Last edited:
Tinker Gnome
Adventurer
Cool, I think I would prefer a live combat fantasy LARP over a theatre style one. I think a lot of the fun would be in actually just moving around, dodging, and running around with boffer weapons.
Similar Threads
