Does LARP freak anyone else out?
- Thread starter Jeph
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Ysgarran
Registered User
I only played in a LARP one time. I had an absolute blast, it was the most fun I've ever had at a convention. Having said that I doubt that the experience could be repeated very often. Most LARP stuff doesn't interest me in the least but the setting of this particular LARP really caught my imagination.
Anyways, no, LARPs don't freak me out in the least little bit but given the choice I'd rather sit down for a RPG game.
I think part of the reason that LARPS don't bother me is that I'm very much in the 'creating a story' mode when I DM a RPG. My favorite RPG experiences have characters in them with interesting stories to tell. IMHO, a well-done LARP has the same elements.
Ysgarran.
p.s.
The LARP that I was involved in was a Gloranthan one set in Boldhome. I happened to be 'King Blackmore of the Colymar Tribe'.
Anyways, no, LARPs don't freak me out in the least little bit but given the choice I'd rather sit down for a RPG game.
I think part of the reason that LARPS don't bother me is that I'm very much in the 'creating a story' mode when I DM a RPG. My favorite RPG experiences have characters in them with interesting stories to tell. IMHO, a well-done LARP has the same elements.
Ysgarran.
p.s.
The LARP that I was involved in was a Gloranthan one set in Boldhome. I happened to be 'King Blackmore of the Colymar Tribe'.
Last edited:
WayneLigon
Adventurer
I've done a few LARP's. The vampire ones, the first I ever did, were in...oh, about the time Mage came out. I did two or three games, didn't like it, didn't go back.
I also did one session of Shattered Isles in Atlanta. It was very well done and organized, with lots of non-freaky players and such. I think their storyline is over, but something should be taking it's place. Or they might be joining Wildlands South. I'm not sure. But everyone there was very nice and it seemed like a good game to be a newbie in. Everyone was very helpful about how to do things, where to go, etc.
All in all, it's just not something I enjoy. I'm pudgy and clumsy and I breathe hard if I walk across a parking lot; just being me jolts me out of the 'fantasy'. I can't get into it.
I also did one session of Shattered Isles in Atlanta. It was very well done and organized, with lots of non-freaky players and such. I think their storyline is over, but something should be taking it's place. Or they might be joining Wildlands South. I'm not sure. But everyone there was very nice and it seemed like a good game to be a newbie in. Everyone was very helpful about how to do things, where to go, etc.
All in all, it's just not something I enjoy. I'm pudgy and clumsy and I breathe hard if I walk across a parking lot; just being me jolts me out of the 'fantasy'. I can't get into it.
Kesh
First Post
shadow said:
Well, that's Vampire.
The entire game is focused more around political intrigue than on combat. So yea, it's going to be fairly slow until someone insults someone else, or the Gm tosses a few werewolves into the game.
That being said, I've played a few LARP sessions. I rather enjoyed it, though I didn't get much. I'm afraid that some parts of the game are kinda off-limits.
For instance, there's one group of vampires (Malkavians) who are insane. All of them. For a change of character, I chose to play a Malk suffering from severe bipolar disorder (aka Manic-Depressive Disorder). Unfortunately, I rather freaked out some other players during my manic moments.
So, back to a Nosferatu for me... gotta love Obfuscate. 
We played at the college community center, but it was always kinda late on a Saturday night, so we didn't really bother anyone. Plus, one of the rules of the game is to not freak out non-players. In game, you're not supposed to let the humans know you're a vampire, so as part of the rules, you don't act out combat, etc., in front of people who aren't playing.
And for the record, I disagree with the "if you want to act, act! If you want to play, play!" crowd. I am playing, and who doesn't do at least a little acting in tabletop? It's just more obvious in a LARP situation.
Victim
First Post
Well, I find it easier to roleplay from my computer than at the table top, so I doubt LARPing would be to my taste. But several others in my group play Vampire. I helped to plan a devasting attack that should kill every Tremere in the campaign city, along with some other vampires that the players didn't like. I love it when a fiendish plan comes together.
Little, I think, is the operative word. I don't have a problem with someone who has a couple of beers now and then, but when they drink a bottle of bourbon every other day, then they damn well stay the hell away from me.Kesh said:
And I think that's what I find fundamentally 'freaky' about LARP. There's a line between 'ok' levels of roleplaying and dangerous levels of roleplaying; I think a lot of LARP's fall into the dangerous category and go too far.
Delving into fantasy to such a level is, IMO, not healthy.
Donatello
Explorer
LARP Guru?
I have been LARPing for 12 years now, in many different forms and many differnet venues. I'll go over them in brief...
1) LIONE Rampant. This is the first LARP I played, and I liked it so much, I bought the company! (Sort of...)
In truth, the game began in 1992, but in 1998 the original Board of Directors announced that they were giving up the ship and that it would be their last year. Seven friends and I got together, and put together a proposal to buy LIONE. We have been running the game now since 1999, but 2003 is going to be the final year of Campaign 2. Campaign 3 is beginning in 2004, with Four people from the current Board and four new directors. The campaign setting of LIONE Rampant has developed into the "Twin Crowns" setting by Living Imagination, and LIONE, LLC is the company that spawned LI. My d20 "career" would not exist without LARPing.
LIONE is a high-fantasy, boffer-style LARP set in a time period similar to the Age of Exploration.
You can check out the LIONE website here.
Pros & Cons of Boffer LARPS:
Pro -
1) Live the action! You never get the same exhileration from rolling a natural 20 as you do actually fighting off two or three monsters at once. A 4 or 6 hour session is nothing compared to 2-3 days of complete immersion.
2) Exposure to exercise and the great outdoors, something that gamers stereotypically do not get all that often.
3) Wide interaction. At a table with 6 people is a lot different than out at a campsite with 80. There's always people to talk to and roleplay with, dozens of plotlines going on at once, and for the "stick-jocks", always monsters to fight. If you want to go off and do something alone, or with just 2 or 3 people, you can do so without holding up the other half of the gaming group as the DM has to pay attention to only you.
Con -
1) Distance. LARPs are traditionally located "off the beaten path", so late-night battle screams and cries for help do not attract real-world attention. This causes them to be pretty far from where most people live. If you're within 30 minutes of a LARP site, you're very lucky. (I travel 60-75 minutes to LIONE, and I'm one of the "close" ones)
2) Expense. While gaming books aren't cheap, they're a one-time expense. Boffer LARPs typically cost $30-$75 per weekend (LIONE chimes in at $65 to play), ten times per year. Then there's costuming, weapons, supplies, etc. It can be costly.
3) Downtime. While the events last from Friday at 9pm to Sunday at 2pm, there are certainly lulls in the action that can sometimes cause 1-2 hours of nothing happening. Sometimes there's stuff going on, but doesn't involve you, so you end up sitting around the tavern for a few hours. For the "instant gratification" gamer, this can really break their interest.
4) Weather. LARPs happen rain or shine, and it seems that 7 out of 10 events end up with bad weather. Rain, snow, sleet, sub-zero temperatures, 100+ temperatures... you name it, we've played through it.
2) Vampire: The Masquerade
My Vampire LARP career began when I bought the original Mind's Eye Theater boxed set. I read it and hated the concept of Rock-Paper-Scissors after being a boffer LARPer. Then I played in a small LARP in Hartford that used playing cards, numbered 1-10, as their combat resolution system. I liked it much better than MET, but the LARP died after only one session. A friend of mine and I decided to start our own Vampire LARP. This one lasted 5 years, playing once per month. We used the card system at first, then switched to another system that essentially took the tabletop rules directly to the LARP. It was alright, and given the low-combat nature of Vampire (lots of social interaction, politicking and double-dealing), it suited our purposes. Since all of our players were also LIONE veterans, it was hard to overcome the boffer instinct when combat broke out, and the card system left us all feeling a bit flat. We basically all unconsciously avoided combat for that reason, but still had a blast.
Pros & Cons of Vampire/MET LARPs:
Pros -
1) Wide social interaction. Like any LARP, a group of 20-30 (generally smaller than Boffer LARPs) will generate a lot more role playing than 4-6. In addition, it's excellent when the Prince, Primogen, Elders, Whip, Seneschal, Sherriff and Sabbat members are actually all played by different people, rather than all by your Storyteller.
2) Low (No) Impact Conflict. For the less physically-minded, 95% of MET/Vampire LARPs allow no physical contact, instead resolving combat through other methods.
3) Machiavellian Intrigue. Almost a sub-set of Pro 1, when you're playing a game of double-dealing and political maneuvering, having 20 or 30 people to talk to is amazing. There is no ST that knows all of your conversations, so you literally can surprise the people that run the game with wonderful execution of months of carefully planned intrigue.
Cons -
1) Limited Venue. Due to the nature of the game, you typically can't "take over" a camp site like a boffer LARP and have your own run of the place. Vampire LARPs typically take place in church halls, VFW Halls, hotel conference rooms, and people's houses. Sometimes it's just harder to suspend disbelief, and three random people walking into your conclave can really break the mood.
2) Low (No) Impact Conflict. Both a Pro and a Con, for the people like me, this style is just flaccid. You want to be able to fight someone off, not have your untimely death dictated you by the luck of the draw.
3) Stigma. There is no subculture of gamers more feared and reviled than MET/Vampire LARPers. The Gothic movement, combined with freaky news stories about cult activity and people going out in public wearing black latex and lace with fake fangs is just too much for some people to handle. Announcing you're a Vampire player to most gamers is akin to saying to a bunch of Trekkies that you prefer DS:9 over ST:TNG and the original series. You're a wierd subculture of wierd subculture.
3) Convention-Style, one-shot LARPing.
I have played in one-shot LARPs of many flavors and styles over my convention-going career, from Deadlands to Vampire to Call of Cthulu. I always have fun, even when the game itself isn't going so well.
Pros & Cons of One-Shot LARPing:
Pros -
1) Instant Gratification. A one-shot LARP will usually last a few hours, so there's not much build up before the fun starts. You pretty much dive in to character and roll with it.
2) Acceptable Image. In fantasy and vampire LARPs, there's no quicker way to be branded a newbie than to not look the part. If you show up to a fantasy, boffer LARP in jeans & a Metallica T-shirt, you'll pretty much be looked at strangely. Vampire's a bit more lenient, but if you look "normal", your character better have a damn good reason to. At Cons, people know that you don't carry tons of costuming around with you. If you just spent the whole day dressed as a pirate in the dealer room, and then show up for a Call of Cthulu LARP wearing your Captain's Coat (like I did at GenCon last year), people will pretty much accept it at face value.
3) Short & Sweet. Because of the shorter sessions, you don't have to worry about ongoing plot, submitting updates to the people that run the game, or hours of character development. You go, you play, it ends, you leave.
Cons -
1) Linear Story. There's not much room for improvisation on the part of the GM's in a one-shot LARP. They have their sequence of events, and you interact with it. Oftentimes you feel as if you're more part of an elaborate play rather than a game where you can actually affect the outcome. Too often the session runs like "scene, react, wait for next scene", rather than a flowing immersive world.
2) Severe Lack of Venue. Convention LARPs are just that - run at the convention. Whether it be in one of the gaming rooms, one of the hotel rooms, or all around the con, you're still at the con. You're surrounded by hundreds, or even thousands of people that want nothing to do with your game, and are just wondering why you're dressed funny. It is very difficult to suspend disbeleif sometimes in situations like this.
3) No Room for Error. When you have a 4-hour timeslot and 15 players, any mistake the GM's or players make becomes painfully obvious very quickly. It has to run like a well-oiled machine or else there's a gaffe you simply can't cover up because there's no time to.
4) No Impact Conflict. Unlike the Vampire LARPs, you're now playing with a bunch of strangers rather than people from an pngoing campaign, and even incidental contact is frowned upon. Also, many LARPs try to write their own conflict resolution system (like dice, cards, marbles, rock-paper-scissors, staring contests, thumb wrestling, etc.) that may not exactly work well. If you get stuck in an inherently dysfunctional or unbalanced system, you become quickly frustrated. At least it's only a few hours.
I think that's all I can say at this point. If anyone has any questions for me, or about what I wrote, you can email me directly or just reply here.
I have been LARPing for 12 years now, in many different forms and many differnet venues. I'll go over them in brief...
1) LIONE Rampant. This is the first LARP I played, and I liked it so much, I bought the company! (Sort of...)
In truth, the game began in 1992, but in 1998 the original Board of Directors announced that they were giving up the ship and that it would be their last year. Seven friends and I got together, and put together a proposal to buy LIONE. We have been running the game now since 1999, but 2003 is going to be the final year of Campaign 2. Campaign 3 is beginning in 2004, with Four people from the current Board and four new directors. The campaign setting of LIONE Rampant has developed into the "Twin Crowns" setting by Living Imagination, and LIONE, LLC is the company that spawned LI. My d20 "career" would not exist without LARPing.
LIONE is a high-fantasy, boffer-style LARP set in a time period similar to the Age of Exploration.
You can check out the LIONE website here.
Pros & Cons of Boffer LARPS:
Pro -
1) Live the action! You never get the same exhileration from rolling a natural 20 as you do actually fighting off two or three monsters at once. A 4 or 6 hour session is nothing compared to 2-3 days of complete immersion.
2) Exposure to exercise and the great outdoors, something that gamers stereotypically do not get all that often.
3) Wide interaction. At a table with 6 people is a lot different than out at a campsite with 80. There's always people to talk to and roleplay with, dozens of plotlines going on at once, and for the "stick-jocks", always monsters to fight. If you want to go off and do something alone, or with just 2 or 3 people, you can do so without holding up the other half of the gaming group as the DM has to pay attention to only you.
Con -
1) Distance. LARPs are traditionally located "off the beaten path", so late-night battle screams and cries for help do not attract real-world attention. This causes them to be pretty far from where most people live. If you're within 30 minutes of a LARP site, you're very lucky. (I travel 60-75 minutes to LIONE, and I'm one of the "close" ones)
2) Expense. While gaming books aren't cheap, they're a one-time expense. Boffer LARPs typically cost $30-$75 per weekend (LIONE chimes in at $65 to play), ten times per year. Then there's costuming, weapons, supplies, etc. It can be costly.
3) Downtime. While the events last from Friday at 9pm to Sunday at 2pm, there are certainly lulls in the action that can sometimes cause 1-2 hours of nothing happening. Sometimes there's stuff going on, but doesn't involve you, so you end up sitting around the tavern for a few hours. For the "instant gratification" gamer, this can really break their interest.
4) Weather. LARPs happen rain or shine, and it seems that 7 out of 10 events end up with bad weather. Rain, snow, sleet, sub-zero temperatures, 100+ temperatures... you name it, we've played through it.
2) Vampire: The Masquerade
My Vampire LARP career began when I bought the original Mind's Eye Theater boxed set. I read it and hated the concept of Rock-Paper-Scissors after being a boffer LARPer. Then I played in a small LARP in Hartford that used playing cards, numbered 1-10, as their combat resolution system. I liked it much better than MET, but the LARP died after only one session. A friend of mine and I decided to start our own Vampire LARP. This one lasted 5 years, playing once per month. We used the card system at first, then switched to another system that essentially took the tabletop rules directly to the LARP. It was alright, and given the low-combat nature of Vampire (lots of social interaction, politicking and double-dealing), it suited our purposes. Since all of our players were also LIONE veterans, it was hard to overcome the boffer instinct when combat broke out, and the card system left us all feeling a bit flat. We basically all unconsciously avoided combat for that reason, but still had a blast.
Pros & Cons of Vampire/MET LARPs:
Pros -
1) Wide social interaction. Like any LARP, a group of 20-30 (generally smaller than Boffer LARPs) will generate a lot more role playing than 4-6. In addition, it's excellent when the Prince, Primogen, Elders, Whip, Seneschal, Sherriff and Sabbat members are actually all played by different people, rather than all by your Storyteller.
2) Low (No) Impact Conflict. For the less physically-minded, 95% of MET/Vampire LARPs allow no physical contact, instead resolving combat through other methods.
3) Machiavellian Intrigue. Almost a sub-set of Pro 1, when you're playing a game of double-dealing and political maneuvering, having 20 or 30 people to talk to is amazing. There is no ST that knows all of your conversations, so you literally can surprise the people that run the game with wonderful execution of months of carefully planned intrigue.
Cons -
1) Limited Venue. Due to the nature of the game, you typically can't "take over" a camp site like a boffer LARP and have your own run of the place. Vampire LARPs typically take place in church halls, VFW Halls, hotel conference rooms, and people's houses. Sometimes it's just harder to suspend disbelief, and three random people walking into your conclave can really break the mood.
2) Low (No) Impact Conflict. Both a Pro and a Con, for the people like me, this style is just flaccid. You want to be able to fight someone off, not have your untimely death dictated you by the luck of the draw.
3) Stigma. There is no subculture of gamers more feared and reviled than MET/Vampire LARPers. The Gothic movement, combined with freaky news stories about cult activity and people going out in public wearing black latex and lace with fake fangs is just too much for some people to handle. Announcing you're a Vampire player to most gamers is akin to saying to a bunch of Trekkies that you prefer DS:9 over ST:TNG and the original series. You're a wierd subculture of wierd subculture.
3) Convention-Style, one-shot LARPing.
I have played in one-shot LARPs of many flavors and styles over my convention-going career, from Deadlands to Vampire to Call of Cthulu. I always have fun, even when the game itself isn't going so well.
Pros & Cons of One-Shot LARPing:
Pros -
1) Instant Gratification. A one-shot LARP will usually last a few hours, so there's not much build up before the fun starts. You pretty much dive in to character and roll with it.
2) Acceptable Image. In fantasy and vampire LARPs, there's no quicker way to be branded a newbie than to not look the part. If you show up to a fantasy, boffer LARP in jeans & a Metallica T-shirt, you'll pretty much be looked at strangely. Vampire's a bit more lenient, but if you look "normal", your character better have a damn good reason to. At Cons, people know that you don't carry tons of costuming around with you. If you just spent the whole day dressed as a pirate in the dealer room, and then show up for a Call of Cthulu LARP wearing your Captain's Coat (like I did at GenCon last year), people will pretty much accept it at face value.
3) Short & Sweet. Because of the shorter sessions, you don't have to worry about ongoing plot, submitting updates to the people that run the game, or hours of character development. You go, you play, it ends, you leave.
Cons -
1) Linear Story. There's not much room for improvisation on the part of the GM's in a one-shot LARP. They have their sequence of events, and you interact with it. Oftentimes you feel as if you're more part of an elaborate play rather than a game where you can actually affect the outcome. Too often the session runs like "scene, react, wait for next scene", rather than a flowing immersive world.
2) Severe Lack of Venue. Convention LARPs are just that - run at the convention. Whether it be in one of the gaming rooms, one of the hotel rooms, or all around the con, you're still at the con. You're surrounded by hundreds, or even thousands of people that want nothing to do with your game, and are just wondering why you're dressed funny. It is very difficult to suspend disbeleif sometimes in situations like this.
3) No Room for Error. When you have a 4-hour timeslot and 15 players, any mistake the GM's or players make becomes painfully obvious very quickly. It has to run like a well-oiled machine or else there's a gaffe you simply can't cover up because there's no time to.
4) No Impact Conflict. Unlike the Vampire LARPs, you're now playing with a bunch of strangers rather than people from an pngoing campaign, and even incidental contact is frowned upon. Also, many LARPs try to write their own conflict resolution system (like dice, cards, marbles, rock-paper-scissors, staring contests, thumb wrestling, etc.) that may not exactly work well. If you get stuck in an inherently dysfunctional or unbalanced system, you become quickly frustrated. At least it's only a few hours.
I think that's all I can say at this point. If anyone has any questions for me, or about what I wrote, you can email me directly or just reply here.
RSKennan
Explorer
DDK said:
I respectfully disagree. I have enjoyed the boffer that I have run and the WoD LARPS that I have played in, and it seems to me that the fundamental level of involvement is not drastically higher than tabletop, it's just that you "overlap" with your character in different ways. I prefer the boffer LARPS myself, since I ran the only one on Martha's Vineyard, before I ever heard of Vampire.
To me, a LARP was like combining sports with D&D. While I'm not a sports nut, I love physical activity, so combining that with D&D was a natch. I wrote the rules, and got a lot of ultimate frisbee buddies (many of which are triatheletes) together, and we played. At first, it started out as sort of a complex version of capture the flag with boffers, then capture the flag with tennis ball weilding "rogues" and "healers" and finally a full-fledged LARP. Most of the events were fun, but some people did get out of line (we made our own weapons, and one guy brought a 2- inch thick wooden "spear" with a padded tip) and they weren't invited to future games.
There's something to be said for the visceral feelings evoked in LARP. I have a few "corn row" stories, as described above (by Kamard I think). One that comes to mind was when I thought I was stalking an "assassin", but lost sight of him. Somehow he got all the way across the field to a rim of underbrush, and circled around. I thought I saw him and suddenly I caught a glimpse of a glowstick arcing toward me from the left (a magic missile- equivalent spell). I felt *real* terror. You don't get that at the table. Just like you don't get to "fly" or slay dragons in LARP. Each is good for certain things. IMHO LARP is best for low fantasy, where suspension of disbelief will not be strained as much. To each their own. I'm not trying to convince anyone to play, merely to defend those of us who like LARP and perhaps explain a little bit of what at least I see in them.
For anyone who cares, I am really thinking of writing up a set of LARP rules using the OGL when I'm done with my current project and everything that snowballs from it.
One last thing; any good boffer LARPs in the Hartford CT area?
Donatello
Explorer
LIONE Rampant is in Connecticut! Winsted 7 times this year, (about 60 mins from Hartford) and Windham 3 times (closer to 30 mins from Hartford).
Check out the site for more info.
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