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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ambrus" data-source="post: 2394939" data-attributes="member: 17691">I don't understand the animosity many gamers here seem to have against LARPers in general. To me it's just another facet of the gamer lifestyle. If you're willing to drive hundreds of miles and pay money to attend a gaming convention then, in my book, you're a more extreme gamer than most LARPers. I've roleplayed in LARPs for ten years in a handful of cities. I've intermittently played angsty Vampire LARPS for six years or so as well as professional D&D style LARPs out in wooded areas for just as long. On occasion I've also played Changeling LARPs as well as Werewolf LARPs and have played at at least one convention LARP. I still have several costumes hanging in my closet and boxes of props from those games. I've LARPed in a camping ground for about 40 straight hours once a month during the summer months for several years in the D&D style LARP. I've LARPed Vampires in reserved bars, public establishments, private homes, on a university campus, on the street and in public Parks often while in full costume. Although wandering around in costume in public might seem a little odd to you, in Montreal no one bats an eyelash and it has never been a problem for me. On the contrary, I once was mistaken for a street performer by tourists and was asked to pose with them for pictures, which I did happily.After all my experience playing LARPs I'd have to say that, all in all, I still prefer playing tabletop games to LARPing however. I'm not currently playing in any LARPs but it's not because I've been turned off to LARPs but rather because none of the ones I'm aware of in my area currently appeal to me. After years of it, I would have to say that Vampire doesn't appeal to me much anymore. It's a very negative game in the sense that the players are, by default, pitted against each other. I'd rather play something where teamwork and camaraderie are the norm. Still, even the best of LARPs often have some inherent flaws that make them more difficult to enjoy. Crazy or obnoxious players aren't one of them though. In my experience, such players are just as likely to join a tabletop game as they are a LARP. The difference is that, in a LARP, they are generally easier to ignore than they are at a table of six people. Just as in tabletop, such players usually leave the game on their own or are encouraged to do so by the GM.What distinguishes tabletop from LARP in general, IMHO, is personal attention. In a tabletop game there are usually only a half dozen people playing together in a room with few distractions. You're pretty much assured that the plot is going to involve you and that you'll have someone to role-play with. In a LARP however, the number of players can easily overwhelm the number of GMs meaning that your character may not be involved in the plot and you can easily end up bored with nothing to do. Without exception, I'd have to say that the most enjoyable LARPs I've ever played had the fewest number of players, usually as few as fifteen. Unfortunately when a LARP is successful and begins becoming popular more players join and, in my experience, reduce my enjoyment of the game.There are of course other issues with LARPs. With so many players it's hard to keep everyone on the same page. Some people have a wildly different idea of what the LARP should be like. Some people want to play in depth political mind games while others just want to go out and kill the bad guys. Some people play lighthearted or silly characters and other players are forced to ignore them to try and keep their character's world-view intact.Another problem is consistency. Most LARPs have multiple GMs so oftentimes the NPCs and the game environment aren't consistently played by the various GMs. Rules are interpreted differently, some GMs don't inform the other GMs of plot changes or player actions so often the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing. One GM creates a side-plot that distracts players from another GM's plot and tempers start to heat up. One GM's ad-hoc rule interpretation can often mean disaster for a PC, NPC or another GM's plot. LARPs can easily become mismanaged and so require an extraordinary amount of communication and teamwork amongst GMs who are often used to doing whatever they want in their own tabletop games.The other big thing that distinguished LARPs from tabletop games, IMHO, is the PC to NPC ratio. In a tabletop game the PCs are extraordinary or heroic and are easily in a class apart from the majority of NPCs in the world. Common NPCs admire and/or fear the PCs. In a LARP however the majority of people your character will meet will be other PCs. It becomes nearly impossible to stand out as extraordinary in a society made up entirely of heroes just like yourself. Suddenly it is the common NPC that becomes a rarity because there simply are never enough GMs to play them all. The sense of a larger fictional game world is quickly lost as all the PCs and a handful of NPCs become a strange little insular group of characters.These are the issues that have generally turned me off to LARPing over the years. Still, I seem to be among the minority amongst my gaming friends. Most continue to enjoy LARPing overall. LARPing also remains, in my mind at least, the best way to to quickly meet other gamers. When I first moved to Montreal from a small town, I went to a local LARP and, within a few weeks, knew fifty or so like-minded people who all enjoyed the same things I did (sci-fi, fantasy, RPGs, ect.) and who immediately understood me when I spoke or joked about something. It was a godsend to a lonely guy new to the city. I even met my hot gamer-SO of ten years at a Werewolf LARP. Seeing a cute 5' 4" woman chasing a 6' 6" 250 lb guy while growling was hilarious and I was immediately smitten. I had finally found a place where I belonged. When I moved to another city years later, the first thing I did was to find a local LARP and sign up. So I'd suggest to anyone to not knock LARP until they've tried it, and even then why knock it if you didn't enjoy it? It's still a role-playing game filled with gamers. It's a part of our joint gamer sub-culture. We should all try to support each other whenever possible. Lord knows few others ever do.</blockquote>

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