Does LARP freak anyone else out?

[Kamard]

I'd love to try, but never had the pleasure.

I read about a LARP that had set referees, it's own park, hundreds of players, etc. I thought that looked way rad, but, who knows - since I've never tried.

If anyone knows of a good LARP in my area, lemmie know!

There are probably NERO, Amtgard, or other games in your area. NERO is one of the good ones. Those're both boffer. There are DEFINATELY "by Night" White Wolf larps within thirty miles of you.

We have our own village where I play- built by past games.

 

[Silver Moon]

I worked on Con staff for several years, and can honestly say that LARP games draw a much larger "weirdo" faction than standard role playing. While these players tend to be in the minority (maybe 20%) they seem to dominate many of the games. The ongoing LARPs appear to be the worst at this (just my opinion - that wasn't meant as a Troll).

On the other hand, some of the best games I've ever played were LARP games.

One was called Pope Maker, and was set in 15th century Rome. All of the players were Cardinals brought together to pick the next pope. It concluded with KidCathulu being named the Pontiff. Another one was called Comrade, and was set during the Russian revolution.

And my wife and I helped run a great Star Trek themed LARP named One Big Happy Family, set right after the movie Generations. The playing characters were most of the casts of all four Trek series in the same place at the same time. It ended with PirateCat playing the 145-year-old Bones McCoy, and lecturing everyone that everything that had taken place during the past four hours "was a bunch of space hogwash!" concluding "If Jim were here you know what he'd do about all this? He'd shoot the Romulans all to hell and then run off with a green girl." It was great fun.

 

[Ashwyn]

Near wher I live, there is a secluded area of trees and things that several people LARPed in that they calld "The Dead Zone". I went there once when noone was around, and they had quite an elaborate setup. I imagine it would have been fun to get involved in, except they seemed to be the kind of LARPers who fell into that minority category. That's what i heard anyway.

 

[DDK]

I've LARP'ed once and watched a Vampire LARP once out of sheer curiosity.

Never again. People who LARP may think it's not freaky but I'm tellin' yah, it is.

In fact, I don't even think it's freaky-harmless freaky, I think it's freaky-scary freaky. It's one thing to roleplay online or around a table but to do it like in a LARP is just... freaky.

 

[Kamard]

Never again. People who LARP may think it's not freaky but I'm tellin' yah, it is.

In fact, I don't even think it's freaky-harmless freaky, I think it's freaky-scary freaky. It's one thing to roleplay online or around a table but to do it like in a LARP is just... freaky.

Thank you, thats open minded.

Do you have anything else about me and people like me that you'd like to insult off hand?

 

[Cedric]

You know..I guess I'm odd. I've enjoyed LARPS a number of times, in fact, I helped run the LARP at Origins in '99 for Dark Millennium games.

But while I enjoy this form of entertainment and have no problems using paper-rock-scissors to decide random outcomes...something about the idea of letting someone hit me with a foam weapon just irks me.

I could never enjoy that...

Cedric

 

[Kamard]

something about the idea of letting someone hit me with a foam weapon just irks me.

Thats a reasonable thing to say. Most of the games we play, you CAN avoid being hit as much as possible. My last character was only wounded in the last event, when my nemesis finally gave up toying with me and just beat the snot out of me.

The foam weapons are meant to be hit with only enough to make you know you've been hit. Its my understand that European LARPs are made with harder weapons, and you hit harder.

I wouldn't enjoy that, much.

 

[Sixchan]

No ,it doesn't freak me out. In fact, not long ago I was dissapointed to find that LARPing seems dead in Scotland.

Because no matter how old I get, the idea of running around in costume with a sword will ALWAYS sound cool to me.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

I played in one LARP in New Jersey called "LAIR" or something like that. It didn't take. I was a monster and this guy half my size kept lightly tapping me with boffer swords and saying it was a "hit". I had been in the SCA and I was expecting combat to be a little more hard-core.

There was one guy (who I pegged as a Vampire player, because of his T-shirts) who I kept seeing in the Washington, DC music scene. He wore a black cloak no matter what the weather was and was constantly sweating as a result. I last saw him at a "Famous Monsters" show.

But ultimately, I figure we're all gamers so it really isn't my place to judge as long as they don't do anything illegal or ... possibly worse ... name their children "Lestat" or whatever.

For another man's opinion about LARPs, I strongly suggest this article written in '97 for rpg.net: http://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/columns/acknov97.html

Happy gaming!

 

[Kamard]

I played in one LARP in New Jersey called "LAIR" or something like that. It didn't take. I was a monster and this guy half my size kept lightly tapping me with boffer swords and saying it was a "hit". I had been in the SCA and I was expecting combat to be a little more hard-core.

There are games which use rattan and armour, but I think part of the appeal is the lighter touch. You don't have to be Hercules to play.

There was one guy (who I pegged as a Vampire player, because of his T-shirts) who I kept seeing in the Washington, DC music scene. He wore a black cloak no matter what the weather was and was constantly sweating as a result. I last saw him at a "Famous Monsters" show.

There is a certain subset of humanity I like to call the "dumb@$$."

These people are part of a scene. Even if the only scene is themselves.

They are not confined to any sort of LARP or music scene. They surround us in all we do.