Thornir Alekeg
Albatross!
Did it back in high school/college at a local boffer LARP. It was a lot of fun, but most people there didn't take it very seriously. I would do it again if I had the time and found a place with a similar attitude.
LARPers and D&D players
- Thread starter Li Shenron
- Start date
MonsterMash
First Post
I always worry that LARPing is the first step towards furries! 
Nothing against LARPers at all, though.
Wombat
First Post
I fall between two answers.
I've done a couple LARPs in my time; I have also been around a lot of LARPers, including more than one Vampire LARP that didn't understand the concepts of limits (their game washed over into areas with "mundanes"). I have also been in the SCA and dealt with two different American Civil War re-enactment groups -- and, sadly, may I say that I found more people in the Civil War groups who got "lost in their character" than in the SCA? I have also done community theatre work and public storytelling.
So I answered that I have played at least once and enjoyed it, but the real answer is that I have had a very, very mixed reaction to LARPing in general. I would be willing to play again, but I would have to know and vet the group well in advance, like the kind of LARPing they do, etc., before I would join in.
LARPs can be great fun. They can also be just embarassingly lame. Given the right circumstances, I am quite willing to participate. Given the wrong circumstances, I will run screaming from them.
I've done a couple LARPs in my time; I have also been around a lot of LARPers, including more than one Vampire LARP that didn't understand the concepts of limits (their game washed over into areas with "mundanes"). I have also been in the SCA and dealt with two different American Civil War re-enactment groups -- and, sadly, may I say that I found more people in the Civil War groups who got "lost in their character" than in the SCA? I have also done community theatre work and public storytelling.
So I answered that I have played at least once and enjoyed it, but the real answer is that I have had a very, very mixed reaction to LARPing in general. I would be willing to play again, but I would have to know and vet the group well in advance, like the kind of LARPing they do, etc., before I would join in.
LARPs can be great fun. They can also be just embarassingly lame. Given the right circumstances, I am quite willing to participate. Given the wrong circumstances, I will run screaming from them.
painandgreed
First Post
When live action games hit the cons I went to in the mid 80's, you'd join in and they'd explain the rules and it was lots of fun. There was a Paranoia LARP where one guy got a hand full of ice cubes which were a secret weapon that would kill anybody they touched but he had to keep holding them in his hand to use them. One con had a Talisman LARp that was lots of fun as everybody was running around the con visiting different locations and attacking each other.
Later, the Vampire LARP came along and I did that too being the prince for a series of local con LARPs. Lots of fun but the thing that really bugged me was the gamers that started trying to be goth due to it. I was into that scene and when they started describing their clothes and what they did last weekend in detail, I would have to ask why I hadn't seen them out as I had been doing the exact same things. Turns out they were talking about their characters. So once I realized that my real life was as much if not more exciting than their fantasy lives, I felt too dorky to do it anymore. I mean, if you're going to play a centuries old and powerful vampire that is elegant and moves within high class circles, then you really should consider describing them as wearing something better than the $300 outfit straight from Hot Topic (or equivilant, since there were no Hot Topics at that time) that's in my dirty clothes hamper.
Later, the Vampire LARP came along and I did that too being the prince for a series of local con LARPs. Lots of fun but the thing that really bugged me was the gamers that started trying to be goth due to it. I was into that scene and when they started describing their clothes and what they did last weekend in detail, I would have to ask why I hadn't seen them out as I had been doing the exact same things. Turns out they were talking about their characters. So once I realized that my real life was as much if not more exciting than their fantasy lives, I felt too dorky to do it anymore. I mean, if you're going to play a centuries old and powerful vampire that is elegant and moves within high class circles, then you really should consider describing them as wearing something better than the $300 outfit straight from Hot Topic (or equivilant, since there were no Hot Topics at that time) that's in my dirty clothes hamper.
wingsandsword
Legend
I was in one vampire larp for about 2 & 1/2 years around here. It was pretty sensible, since it was started by a tabletop group who wanted to try something new. We got some strange people coming and joining, and a few people who started to go too far (ambushing my "character" by surprising me one night on campus and demanding to run a fight scene with my PC). The ST's quickly quashed that and kept the oddballs reigned in. The larp was fun, it ran it's course and ended, but I probably won't go back to White Wolf larping, it's too angsty and dark, definitely not my style at all.
The LARP I like to play in is NERO (www.nerolarp.com), which is a huge fantasy larp with over 50 games going on across the US & Canada (they got a big write up in Dragon magazine back in '91, which is what made them famous and got them to spread from a local game into a huge franchise). Each local chapter represents an area of the continent (a Kingdom, duchy, colony or whatever) and characters from any local game can play in any other. It's a "boffer style", which means we beat each other with padded weapons and throw little beanbags to represent spells (it might look a little silly at times, but it's a lot of fun). It is pretty high fantasy, and pretty obviously is meant to have a D&D feel to it.
There have been a few other independent larps, one-shots, convention larps and others that I tried. In general, and this is a huge generalization but I think it might fit, White Wolf gamers and D&D gamers are different groups largely. This is reflected even in the larps, where WW larps and D&D-style boffer larps have completely significantly different groups of people playing them with a significantly different culture of play. Somebody could enjoy both, but if you'd rather play a heroic knight swinging a sword at an orc you're not as likely to like completely immersing yourself in the part of some angsty modern urban vampire, and if you want some detailed plot and story about being an angst-ridden remorseful monster, you're not likely to want to spend your weekends at a campsite dressed in Ren Faire garb engaged in a simulated dungeon crawl.
To be honest, I think the animosity some people have towards larping is interesting, since it is probably similar to the animosity some outsiders have towards tabletop. They played with a bad group once and don't want to go back. How many people have we (as gamers collectively) scared away from the tabletop hobby because we freaked out a newbie their first time?
The LARP I like to play in is NERO (www.nerolarp.com), which is a huge fantasy larp with over 50 games going on across the US & Canada (they got a big write up in Dragon magazine back in '91, which is what made them famous and got them to spread from a local game into a huge franchise). Each local chapter represents an area of the continent (a Kingdom, duchy, colony or whatever) and characters from any local game can play in any other. It's a "boffer style", which means we beat each other with padded weapons and throw little beanbags to represent spells (it might look a little silly at times, but it's a lot of fun). It is pretty high fantasy, and pretty obviously is meant to have a D&D feel to it.
There have been a few other independent larps, one-shots, convention larps and others that I tried. In general, and this is a huge generalization but I think it might fit, White Wolf gamers and D&D gamers are different groups largely. This is reflected even in the larps, where WW larps and D&D-style boffer larps have completely significantly different groups of people playing them with a significantly different culture of play. Somebody could enjoy both, but if you'd rather play a heroic knight swinging a sword at an orc you're not as likely to like completely immersing yourself in the part of some angsty modern urban vampire, and if you want some detailed plot and story about being an angst-ridden remorseful monster, you're not likely to want to spend your weekends at a campsite dressed in Ren Faire garb engaged in a simulated dungeon crawl.
To be honest, I think the animosity some people have towards larping is interesting, since it is probably similar to the animosity some outsiders have towards tabletop. They played with a bad group once and don't want to go back. How many people have we (as gamers collectively) scared away from the tabletop hobby because we freaked out a newbie their first time?
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