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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AFGNCAAP" data-source="post: 1405986" data-attributes="member: 871">My LARP experience has been extremely limited--basically attending a local V:tM LARP twice.  Not much fun the 1st time, & the 2nd time was a waste of it for me.  My g/f has had more exposure to said V:tM LARP & its regulars than I have, & it was a very bad experience for her overall (mainly from dealing with the people who played & how they handled the game).Now, what I'm about to say is merely IMHO, & I'm quite sure there's some good LARP groups out there which will provide a positive experience for newcomers.  However, what few observations & experiences that I've had (& the tales of terror my g/f can provide) hopefully can serve as information to better inform a prospective player to detect a potentially bad LARPing experience.WARNING: Personal opinions & observations ahead.  May be deemd objectionable to some readers.  Reader discretion is advised.In essence, it seemed to me that the particular V:tM LARP I was exposed to was nothing more than a live-action version of (the original/1st version of) Ultima Online--a fair amount of conniving & player-killing, with very little left to do for newcomers since the veterans had pretty much done it all.It also seemed that this LARP batch reeked of high school-esque cliques (though the LARPers varied in ages from teens to adults), acting as a social elite in a setting where they could claim to be so (possibly having suffered from being deemed as outsiders/"freaks" during those high school years), esp. their characters.  As a result, there seemed to be a sense of elitism present that wasn't inviting (way to go for inviting newbies!), and IMHO, built upon a very false & ficticious foundation.  It also seemed to be a place where those who didn't receive much positive attention/acceptance/approval IRL sought it--and it seemed, for some, to make the line between "player/real person" and "character/fictional person" a perforated one.And, like any other sort of group of people, it had its own batch of personal politics & issues woven throughout that made it even less inviting, and which inevitably manifested in-game one way or another.  Apparently there was a fairly, um, "hedonistic" attitude prevalent in this batch of LARPers, as well.So, it was a large group of people where the veteran players tended to dominate the game & attention of others, wasn't very inviting/welcoming to new players (esp. those who were ambivalent about it beforehand), and reeked of high school-esque clique-ishness, personal politics/melodrama, & to a certain extent, a certain lack of common sense/politeness all in the name of a "good time" for the individual.  IMHO, it was comparable to a very badly-written collaborative anthology series of books, basically equating to nothing more than a continuous literary version of King of the Hill (the game, not the TV show).And, IMHO, the high # of people merely increased the chances of problem players (the ones likely to be shunned from other, smaller RPG groups) being participants in the game.It apparently wasn't the best LARP group around, & those few former members that I knew who stopped attending tend to concur.However, this was my only (limited) experience with one LARP group.  It proved to be a bad experience for me.  I don't think all LARPs are like this at all--if I did, then that'd be just as bad as thinking all RPGs & their participants were portrayed exactly in "Mazes & Monsters."  I'm sure that there are good groups out there.  However, the experience has helped me be content with sticking to tabletop gaming on the weekends, playing CRPGs, & otherwise dealing with the pending issues of my real, mundane life.Well, I hope this serves as a useful additional to your knowledge/perspective of things regarding LARPs.  My experience definitely isn't the be-all, end-all regarding LARPs, but hopefully it can alert you to some of the negative potential that any LARP (or any game in general) could have.</blockquote>

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