LARPing?

[Larry Fitz]

Instigation

I think Umbran is correct, more statistically reliable experience would be necessary to categorically defame Larpers. I fortunately, have that kind of experience, therefore I can categorically state that Larpers are ALL approximately 6 inches long and contain sugar, corn syrup, ground roasted peanuts, partially hydrogenated palm kernel oil, cocoa, molasses, confectioner's corn flakes, skim milk, whey, salt, monoglycerides, soy lecithin, cornstarch, artificial flavors, yellow#5, TBHQ and citric acid. Um wait, no, that's Butterfingers....

Seriously, the difference in RP experience between a Larp and tabletop is phenomenal. There is a huge difference in sitting in your favorite chair talking about how your character is going to sneak up behind the evil Baron and stealthily take the pouch of Gold he has taken from the church; and being in a Tavern lit only by a large fireplace and some candles actually making your way up to him. The adrenaline rush of yelling charge and having 50 other people surge forward with you to take on the horrible monster, or the the shocking disappointment of yelling charge and having 50 people watch you surge forward alone into the maw of death... a more immersive experience is just that, more immmersive. Yes there are things that work better in a tabletop setting as well, like aerial combat or portraying a character that is vastly different from yourself physically (a 7 foot tall dwarf? or anyone playing a Centaur?) But RP on a scale of dozens or hundreds of people is LOTS of fun.

There are many styles of play and I will add my voice to the "Check out the LARPA site" rallying call... they do a pretty good job of defining those different styles. At LIONE (Living Imagination Of New England) we have a safety and comfort conscious style of boffer combat, which is probably why we seem to have a higher percentage of women players than most games that use boffer combat. (Please don't flame me, it could also be because of our emphasis on good stories and roleplaying or just that we're lucky that way, please don't flame me).

If anyone is interested in learning more about our particular LARP look us up at

www.lionerampant.com

Or e-mail me at

Larry@lionerampant.com

 

[Ziggy]

Re: Instigation

Seriously, the difference in RP experience between a Larp and tabletop is phenomenal. There is a huge difference in sitting in your favorite chair talking about how your character is going to sneak up behind the evil Baron and stealthily take the pouch of Gold he has taken from the church; and being in a Tavern lit only by a large fireplace and some candles actually making your way up to him. The adrenaline rush of yelling charge and having 50 other people surge forward with you to take on the horrible monster, or the the shocking disappointment of yelling charge and having 50 people watch you surge forward alone into the maw of death... a more immersive experience is just that, more immmersive. Yes there are things that work better in a tabletop setting as well, like aerial combat or portraying a character that is vastly different from yourself physically (a 7 foot tall dwarf? or anyone playing a Centaur?) But RP on a scale of dozens or hundreds of people is LOTS of fun.

I must throw my weight in behind Larry here. I'm an invariant LARP'er (1-2 times a year), while I do "tabletop" RPGs almost every week. But the immersive experience you can get on a LARP is just awesome. Personally I go for the longer events, with 100-150 people, minimum 3 days. Then you have time to build a society feeling, and plots have a little time to unfold. We usually don't play very combat oriented, but there are always opportunities for those who wants that.

The biggest difference between LARP's and ordinary RPG'ing is that you are (at least partially) constrained by your real life skills and stats. While there are variants of LARP that use a lot of abstract mechanisms, in the end you must be able to execute your moves. If you want to fight, you have to be able to swing a padded sword. If you want to stir up some trouble, you must be able to speak to a crowd. Some people don't like that, they want to be able to play with a few constraints as in ordinary RPG's, and most of those leave LARP's feeling cheated.

But if you accept you physical and mental constraints LARPs can be wonderful. I'm no fighter, so I don't try to play one. But I've done some excellent sleight of hand stunts (e.g. changing cups with poison) and I'm a pretty good liar. And its just so *fun* when you pull of stunts like that, and its usually easer to do stuff like that in "real life" (i.e. LARPs) than in most RPGs.

.Ziggy

 

[Larry Fitz]

I could fill several posts with tales of the fun I've had RPing at LIONE, but I'd like to take this opportunity to tell you about something that happened at Origins a few years back. I got to play a Live Deadlands game with a few dozen people and ... Bruce Campbell. Bruce was at the convention as part of a promotion and he played in the LARP as Briscoe County Jr. He really was only in 3 'Scenes' but it was tremendous fun and he stayed in character for it. Lots of fun.

 

[Umbran]

Re: Re: Instigation

The biggest difference between LARP's and ordinary RPG'ing is that you are (at least partially) constrained by your real life skills and stats. While there are variants of LARP that use a lot of abstract mechanisms, in the end you must be able to execute your moves. If you want to fight, you have to be able to swing a padded sword. If you want to stir up some trouble, you must be able to speak to a crowd. Some people don't like that, they want to be able to play with a few constraints as in ordinary RPG's, and most of those leave LARP's feeling cheated.

This may hold for "live combat" games, but is not true in general. In fact, most "theatre style" larps not only don't require you to swing a padded sword, but expressly forbid striking another player, even if the weapon is padded.

Similarly, many abilities the character should have that the player does not have a mechanic. To influence a crowd, you'd get up, make a speech, and then whip out your special ability card (or use whatever mechanic the DMs have set into place).

People who aren't good at swinging weapons are not at all locked out fo the larp experience.

In talking about this, let's remember that just like tabletop, there are a lot of different larps out there, and they don't all use the same mechanics.