Does LARP freak anyone else out?

[Irony]

me and my friend did a starwars larp once. mind you, we were two teens hanging out with a bunch of thirty year olds, so... it was kinda freaky...

anyway, it was pretty fun, mostly because everyone was pretty lighthearted about star wars (IE, all the stormtroopers were dumb and couldnt aim. ALL of them!).

Everything went great, i got to be a sith apprentice, until the point when my best friend sort of killed me with my own lightsaber. yah, that wasnt cool. But it wasn't a reflection of the larp, just my friend.

Larping was fun, once, but... me personally i would rather play DND. But its not like i hate larps... they just arnt my favorite.

And i felt kind of weird running around a hotel with a big plastic saber and a cape. (the larp was at a con at a hotel)

 

[Chauzu]

I always ignore larp invitations and hand them to my 5 year old nephew.

 

[mistergone]

Yes, of course. Standing up and pretending to be a vampire or mage is soooooo horribly worse than sitting down and pretending to be a vampire or mage.

Heh, I think you took him too literally, or were being sarcastic, but I get what he means. Acting out, like actually dressing up and running around as a vampire or to act out the casting of a magic spell is creepy and wrong to some people. Sitting around a table, we may talk about how a spell is cast, describe what it looks like, or talk "in character" and use a funny accent to play the role, but they are different things. You may not see them as that, but understand, people not into LARPs are gonna draw the line and see them as different.

 

[Tsyr]

You may not see them as that, but understand, people not into LARPs are gonna draw the line and see them as different.

And they are different. It would be silly to try to claim otherwise. And yes, I was being a touch sarcastic... but only a touch. I'm fine if people draw the line somewhere; I draw it at a different place, I guess, but that's my choice, you can have yours.

What I object to is the continual use of the word "wrong" to describe it. Get off it people! Stop acting like your fantasies are somehow "safer"* or more "healthy" than mine are! To society at large, we are both looked on as freeks, do we really have to do the same thing amongst ourselves?

/rant off

*And by safer, no, don't mention that tabletop gaming you aren't getting hit over the head by foam swords. That's not what I meant and you know it.

 

[Guilt Puppy]

I don't play LARPs. They creep me out, mainly because there's a certain appeal, but it would be incredibly embarrassing, I'd feel like such a little kid and I'm not really comfortable being grown-up yet so that would be too much to deal with. Not to mention how much flak I get from my normal-people friends for playing Dungeons & Dragons, I mean, that would double, and then I'd get the same again from the people I play D&D with, and I just can't afford all the sunglasses it would take to feel cool again after that. It's seems different and I'm not sure how to live a life being different like that, how would I meet and talk and be okay with normal people and have them be okay, you know, so I feel I should really distance myself as much as possible. It's a gut instinct to feel ill toward that sort of thing, it helps you stick with the herd which is always safer. There are lions out there.

I'm not speaking hypothetically, just really honestly (which also often creeps people out). Most of the things which "freak me out" like that do so because I'm insecure about something-or-other. I could just say "that's weird, that's wrong, what is it, it's not acting and it's not gaming, it's like what little kids do and adults can't do that" and so on, but that's being dishonest which is to say it's ignoring me, and I'm really self-centered so I can't do that. I really have no idea if that's why most people are "freaked out" by LARPs or not, and I'm not trying to call anyone out, just providing one opinion and one explanation for the thing.

So LARP out if you like it. Me, I'll stay at home and play D&D in secret and try to change the subject whenever anyone brings it up In Society.

 

[Hawkeye]

Dedicated member of the IFGS for the last 11 years. Before trying it, I would have thought it was a strange and weird thing to do. I am not an actor. I am not a fantastic swordsman, decent arcehr though. After the first day though, I was hooked. I played in the 2nd game of the Atlanta Chapter. Aaron might recognise the name of the game, The Colony. W had a team of 7. With one of every class available in the game except monk, we had 2 rogues. The encounter that hooked me on the game involved accidentaly awakening an evil cleric from a stasis. He got up and started casting spells against us and chased us out of his lair, which included a 6 foot chasm. One of our thieves was about 5 feet tall. She couldn't make the leap, so our knight grabbed her and literally tossed her across. Our fighter was screaming "I am out of here!" the enitre team. As for me, I was laughing the entire time. Since then I have had some really good times. Why you make ask. Simple, LARPIng provides a sense of realism. You are there experiencing everything in real time. There is nothing like looling across the field of battle and realizing that you are the lone person on your team standing and you still have 3 opponents or trying to pick the lock to disarm a trap on a wall that is closing in on you to crush you. Tabletopping is fun. I have had lots of good experiences in it too. I don't prefer one over the other, but they are different and great. If LARPing is not your cup of tea, then don't do it. If it is, have lots of fun. The funny thing, is that the people who are die hard table toppers are looking at Larpers and stating "They are just plain weird" seem to be forgetting that the majority of the world looks at table-topping and say "THey are just plain weird."

Hawkeye

or known as Jordan Bowridge in some circles on a occasional weekend.

 

[Umbran]

Hr. Go away for a couple of days, and look at what happens...

I larp occasionally (this coming weekend I'll be at Intercon C, an all-larp convention in Massachusetts). I find some of this thread a little funny. We have members of one fringe-group that is considered a bit weird by the rest of the world, pointing fingers at another such group and saying, "No, really, those are the weird ones..." Come on, folks! People in glass houses, and all that.

The fact is that every human activity will draw it's share of lunatic fringe. You see them at tabletops rpgs. You see them in larps. Heck, you see them at sporting events. You know them - those guys who put on makeup and sit bare-chested in sub-freezing temperatures. Or how about those kooky Ohio State fans, burning things in the streets?

Isn't the human mind funny? An activity has a couple of people who act a bit weird, and we leap to thinking that perhaps the activity as a whole is "fundamentally wrong", a haven for the mentally unstable. Have an activity repeatedly end in tens of thousands of dollars of riot damage, and we don't even blink. Logic just isn't our strong suit, is it?

 

[shadow]

I mentioned before the that the reason the Vampire LARP never appealed to me was the lack of action. It just seemed like a bunch of people sitting around making small talk.

...But if I could only play a Hunter (tm) in a Vampire LARP, that would be cool. I would just love to see the look on the Vampire LARPers' faces when a pack of Hunter LARPers showed up!

 

[mistergone]

What I object to is the continual use of the word "wrong" to describe it. Get off it people! Stop acting like your fantasies are somehow "safer"* or more "healthy" than mine are! To society at large, we are both looked on as freeks, do we really have to do the same thing amongst ourselves?

/rant off

*And by safer, no, don't mention that tabletop gaming you aren't getting hit over the head by foam swords. That's not what I meant and you know it.

I agree, and I've pretty much said already that I know I'm in a fringe hobby. In fact, I think I have made my opinions on the whole subject very clear. But yes, we do the "same thing" among ourselves, just like Star Trek fans >shudder< do with what show they like most, or SCAers do with the weekend warriors and the hardcore lifers. It's a part of human nature to do that. It's like a prison riot, where the actions of one group affect the way all similar groups are seen; we all get punished equally. Is it right of fair? No.

 

[mistergone]

Isn't the human mind funny? An activity has a couple of people who act a bit weird, and we leap to thinking that perhaps the activity as a whole is "fundamentally wrong", a haven for the mentally unstable. Have an activity repeatedly end in tens of thousands of dollars of riot damage, and we don't even blink. Logic just isn't our strong suit, is it?

Yeah, the human mind is funny. But you're covering and assuming too much here. Who ever said that anyone thinks rioting and looting and burning is okay? How is it that you can read my mind and say that I think that kind of behaviour is okay? Pulling that out is a logical flaw in itself.

Sure, a lot of people who are on the "I don't LARP" side (I won't say "anti-LARP" because overall I'm not getting that vibe except from a few), have made generalizations about LARPers. Probably because they don't know much about the whole LARP subculture. Personally, I say the things I do about LARPs from experience. Not even all bad experiences. Yeah, some tabletop gamers are weird too. Some LARPers are "normal". That's been established.

What I'm saying, is MOST LARPers seem to me to be really weird people with oddly developed ideas of social interaction, or, "freaks" as it were. And I haven't pulled this opionion out of my ass, it comes from years and observation, participation, and first hand experience.

Sure, I'm a freak too. >shrugs< But I'll still say that LARPing is freaky and wrong. It won't stop anyone from doing it, eh? I don't have that kind of power. I'm just some jerk on a message board.