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Doctor_Fruitbat posted:I play another UK fest system called Curious Pastimes, which has given me 15 drama-free years of good friends, good times and fond memories (seriously, this thread has been like staring into some hideous negaverse where everything I love has been horribly corrupted), and it does an excellent job of stamping on special snowflakes and egomaniacs. I'll see if I can write up an effort post about its mechanics later on. I'd be interested to hear what you have to say, because the stories i've heard from the (admittedly few) CP players I know paint a pretty different view.
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Feb 5, 2016 15:39
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I wanna hear both sides!
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Feb 5, 2016 16:27
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MikeCrotch posted:I'd be interested to hear what you have to say, because the stories i've heard from the (admittedly few) CP players I know paint a pretty different view. I am pretty good at tuning out people like that and I've stuck rigidly to a cool and good faction, so I'm probably talking out of my arse and there is a cesspool of terrible people I just never interact with. Edit: 'excellent job of stamping out snowflakes' was overplaying it somewhat, but whatever, I'll get my thoughts down later. Doctor_Fruitbat fucked around with this message at 17:43 on Feb 5, 2016 |
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Feb 5, 2016 16:31
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Doctor_Fruitbat posted:I am pretty good at tuning out people like that and I've stuck rigidly to a cool and good faction, so I'm probably talking out of my arse and there is a cesspool of terrible people I just never interact with. lol if you think any LARP doesn't have massive amounts of drama and irredeemable assholes It's why I stick to crewing.
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Feb 5, 2016 22:21
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MikeCrotch posted:There is also the fact you allude to that some systems end up with a 'lunatics running the asylum' situation, where powerful, old characters are the ones making key decisions for everyone, and unfortunately are pretty unlikely to take a hit to their own power for the good of the new guys. It also doesn't help that you have people getting a serious sense of entitlement once they've been in a game for a long time. I've even had to deal with this in pen and paper stuff from time to time. "I've been in this campaign for years and I earned my power! Why did you start the new guy at level 13?" Because the party is level 15 and I don't want him to die instantly if a monster looks at him funny. "But he can survive if I cast Finger of Death at him!" Good, your dumb rear end doesn't need to be lording power over the new guy and ruining it for him. Besides you go to be here for all the cool story poo poo and he's just joining; don't act like you missed out. And by the way I wouldn't let you randomly Finger of Death the new guy anyway. Needless to say I don't play with that guy anymore. Few things are more disruptive to games than somebody who just has to twist the story into "hey everybody look at how much more powerful I am than the rest of the party!" Bro, I'm trying to tell a story here and you're supposed to be participating in it not ruining everybody else's fun.
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Feb 6, 2016 02:42
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So, CP mechanics. This is just an overview of a system I've enjoyed over the years; there's going to be a lot of overlap with other UK LARP systems, but I haven't played in them so I'll have to leave it to other UK folks to point out which bits other systems do as well or better, which is probably a lot of them. There are no character levels in the game; characters start with just one hit point to each location, and adding more is very costly (you start with 20 points to assign skills with at character creation and one extra hit costs 8 - give yourself two extra hits and you've got almost nothing left for other skills). Armour is much cheaper, point-wise, but arrows, spells and some weapons go through it, so even the biggest armoured bruiser can get slotted by one well-prepared scout (although it's stacked hugely against the scout, of course). Bleedout time (when you lose all hits to the head or torso) is just two minutes and once you are dead, you are absolutely 100% no-take-backsies dead. Executing players is as simple as yelling 'execution!' then hitting them while prone, although you literally have to bellow it at full volume and take a full ten seconds to theatrically ready the final blow, so you're broadcasting your intentions to everyone within earshot. Because of this, death is common, comes swiftly and is simple to administer, and EVERYONE will lose a character to minor misfortune at some point. If a large battle (~500-800 players with half of them NPCing the enemy) goes bad, factions can lose (and have in the past) 50% or even 90% of their numbers, and total faction wipeout is a possibility - I don't think any faction has ever lost literally every member they took to the field, but there have been some close calls, including one of our own faction events, where our faction commander was running it and plotted things in such a way that she almost wiped out her own faction at their own event. It is perfectly possible to survive forever, if you're sensible, but I've generally heard that it's much less forgiving than a lot of systems in this regard. The 1IC, 2IC and 3IC of each faction will start their character with a shitload of skill points to spend and generally be very tough to take down (since they fulfill an important OOC role in the running of the game and having them die too often would be a major headache for the game team), but they are not infallible - a dozen well-prepared players could take them down if they managed to corner them alone and had luck on their side. My faction suffered the loss of our 1IC a number of years back because he said something another faction didn't like, so they stormed our camp and took him out. Characters in this game are pretty fragile, which works both ways - a more powerful character is at a big advantage compared to a weaker one, but they are not infallible, even by that weaker character. You start with roughly half a dozen skills and can gain new one new skill per year if you attend and survive the main event, but it caps out after seven years, so 15 year old characters won't have gotten a drat thing for surviving most of that time. CP have introduced more ways for people to learn new skills outside of the passive once-per-year system as described above, but these are again costly and time-consuming and/or rely on a lot of RP. Blacksmiths and crafters need to roleplay crafting things with tools for several hours, magic users need to roleplay failing at learning new spells, etc. I'm a scout, so I'm hoping to learn a new skill through the Academy of War whereby I make myself seem unassuming enough that people close by will just ignore me so I can dart past or escape. It'll largely be a soft skill once I have it (if the game team think it'll fit into the game and not be too OP), but it's learned through hard skills - I need to think of actual, practical ways this could be achieved (like the way I stand and move and react to people) then RP them myself and report back, and will involve getting beaten into the floor for at least a year by enemies who have no idea why I'm standing around in battle looking like an idiot instead of hitting them. If you want to gain new skills this way, you need to do inventive and/or intensive RP to get it, and it typically involves you failing at poo poo for a while. It also means there is plenty for people to get involved in that will give them a useful and less common skill that people will need and give them a good chance to mingle with other factions, which also helps with those times when older players act as plot hoovers (still a bit of a problem for some factions, though some are excellent for involving people) or if you happen to be like me and fall asleep whenever people start discussing plot and only wake up when it's time to run around and do things. Acquiring new skills gives you a lot more options of course, but they're pretty well balanced and need to be used intelligently to be useful. New characters start with just four spellcards per day for each pick of magic they take, while some characters (through the kind of training and progression detailed above) have spellcards blasting from every orifice, but there are very few spells in the game that directly damage people (fumbling a sword, getting knocked down for a few seconds, being temporarily blinded, that kind of thing) and they require a few seconds to yell the verbals, so they need to be coordinated with other players to be useful, rather than a minor annoyance that puts off your horrible, horrible death by a few seconds. I do a lot of nighttime scouting in areas crawling with enemies, and if you don't know how to stand and move stealthily for realsies, you won't stay alive for very long at all. There is no stealth stat that makes you sneakier or magic stat that makes your spells more effective (countering magic is down to reflexes). A new character is absolutely not a liability compared to an older one if they can use what they've got intelligently. Some people have played zero-point characters very well in the past - they've literally had the ability to use a dagger (which has zero point cost) and nothing else (one hit, no magic, can't count, can't read), but still made themselves useful and wanted. In regards to overlap with other systems, I'll leave that to others who know a great deal more of me about them. I'm interested to hear about them! 4 or 6 weekends a year is enough LARPing for me, so I haven't branched out anywhere near enough. Gravitas Shortfall posted:lol if you think any LARP doesn't have massive amounts of drama and irredeemable assholes It's why I stick to crewing. I don't, it was a very badly thought out comment, so apologies for that. Doctor_Fruitbat fucked around with this message at 21:27 on Feb 6, 2016 |
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Feb 6, 2016 16:28
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Doctor_Fruitbat posted:I don't, it was a very badly thought out comment, so apologies for that. Nah, don't feel like you need to apologise. Like all nerd pursuits, LARP has its share of actually good people. I've been to a couple of CP games and met a bunch of players that weren't horrible. But there's something about LARP that attracts the worst of the worst, and there's no getting around that, no matter what the system is. Also CP has that guy who dresses in a stereotypical chinese mandarin outfit and affects a super racist "ching chong wing wong" accent. Which is.. something alright..
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Feb 8, 2016 23:49
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The best part about this thread is the posters obliviously putting up multi-paragraph essays explaining the intricacies of their LARP and promoting it as not-poo poo, in a thread about how LARP is poo poo. 
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Feb 9, 2016 01:08
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Rime posted:The best part about this thread is the posters obliviously putting up multi-paragraph essays explaining the intricacies of their LARP and promoting it as not-poo poo, in a thread about how LARP is poo poo. Except that by definition, if the posters in the thread are talking about positive aspects of LARP then the thread isn't about 'LARP being poo poo' anymore. Thanks for the write up on CP- I really know very little about the system. Didn't it split off from the LT many years ago amidst some drama? Also, just had another amazing high-immersion weekend at Tommy Guns and Temperance. Any UK larpers who want to try an awesome, tense, lethal and fun rules-lite 1920s LARP should go along. Booking opened last night for the next event on 20th May. It really is something special and is my now favourite system. Edit: Hit up their facebook page for more info. Player spaces are limited and go fast (I booked within 10 minutes of it opening) but every crew member has said it's just as much fun as playing. Camrath fucked around with this message at 12:51 on Feb 9, 2016 |
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Feb 9, 2016 12:46
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Camrath posted:Thanks for the write up on CP- I really know very little about the system. Didn't it split off from the LT many years ago amidst some drama? As far as I'm aware, yes - one of the major complaints I hear about LT from other CP players is how much more restrictive it is in allowing individual players to affect world plot and such, which I believe is what prompted the split. I've heard former LT players in CP griping that they thought of ways of, say, stealing a powerful item, only to have the refs just take it off them and say "sorry, you can't do that" because it would prevent the plot from unfolding as they intended. In CP they'd just roll with it - attempt to reclaim it IC through NPCs or monsters (and possibly fail) or just let the plot go off in a different direction as a result. I couldn't say how true this actually is of LT or what their own complaints about CP are though.
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Feb 9, 2016 14:44
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Doctor_Fruitbat posted:As far as I'm aware, yes - one of the major complaints I hear about LT from other CP players is how much more restrictive it is in allowing individual players to affect world plot and such, which I believe is what prompted the split. Well, I've never run into anything like that. Tbh if I have a problem with LT it's that you can become so much more powerful than normal characters as opposed to what you described upthread.. But at the same point that's also one of its charms. I only started in '06 so all the drama is years before my time, but i'v had a lot of CP players majorly bash the LT to me, which I have to admit is a turn-off (it's also one of the multiple issues I have with the stereotypical empire player). I strongly believe in 'live and let live' when it comes to the differing systems myself.
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Feb 9, 2016 15:40
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Camrath posted:Well, I've never run into anything like that. Tbh if I have a problem with LT it's that you can become so much more powerful than normal characters as opposed to what you described upthread.. But at the same point that's also one of its charms. Wow, that's unusual. I personally have a tonne of experiences of just being plain stonewalled on things we had planned, and I would say most of the people I know had either had similar experiences or have become plot reps themselves. I think the big issue here, at least for me, is that often the answer is simply 'No, you can't do that.' with no explanation and no recourse. It's really jarring to just be told you can't do something without an actual in-game reason for it or any consistency and just to be left with your dick in your hand to show for it. As an example, me and my group were a bunch of people whose hometown had been wrecked in-game by a snake demon who had since become a god. Naturally, we were setting ourselves to kill said god, and had spent some time finding out several methods in-game to do so, and had checked that these were indeed legit and not people bullshitting. When we had something of a plan and went to a ref to see how mechanically that would work, and what we would need to do, we were just told 'You can't kill gods. It would set a bad precedent'. That was that, good game, try again. Camrath posted:I only started in '06 so all the drama is years before my time, but i'v had a lot of CP players majorly bash the LT to me, which I have to admit is a turn-off (it's also one of the multiple issues I have with the stereotypical empire player). I strongly believe in 'live and let live' when it comes to the differing systems myself. I think a big difference here is that a lot of people got their start in LARP through LT and had actually had bad experiences, while I know a lot of LT players who bitch about Empire via things that they have heard but have never actually gone. Like, I know I almost certainly would not like CP since it is not my bag, but I would not complain about it the same way I would about LT where I had actual multiple lovely encounters.
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Feb 11, 2016 13:40
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MikeCrotch posted:Wow, that's unusual. I personally have a tonne of experiences of just being plain stonewalled on things we had planned, and I would say most of the people I know had either had similar experiences or have become plot reps themselves. I think the big issue here, at least for me, is that often the answer is simply 'No, you can't do that.' with no explanation and no recourse. It's really jarring to just be told you can't do something without an actual in-game reason for it or any consistency and just to be left with your dick in your hand to show for it. I'll admit I'm not familiar with the plotline in question, but how long ago was that? Because I know several ancestors (LT God equivalents) have been killed in recent years- it could well be that things have changed. I've never had a problem with plot restrictions, either as a DPC for the militia for years or in my current role. Though admittedly the Harts is an unusual case as the faction nearly got deleted a few years back and our new command team are /really/ pulling out the stops. quote:I think a big difference here is that a lot of people got their start in LARP through LT and had actually had bad experiences, while I know a lot of LT players who bitch about Empire via things that they have heard but have never actually gone. Like, I know I almost certainly would not like CP since it is not my bag, but I would not complain about it the same way I would about LT where I had actual multiple lovely encounters. Again, I'm not going to argue with anything you say here- my own lack of interest in Empire is largely due to wanting different things from my game than that which it offers (and as I said, some very vocal people on social media completely souring me on the idea). I'm really getting into smaller systems now- I know I keep name dropping TGAT but it really is the best game I've ever played, bar none.
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Feb 11, 2016 15:06
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I played some VtM in the mid 1990s and I really couldn't get into it. I mean the pretending was no different than what a good group does around a table during a tabletop RPG, but I found the actual rock-paper-scissors mechanics really loving stupid and off putting. Mostly though, I found some people took there LARP wayyyy to seriously. Once I realized that this wasn't just a game to some of the people present, I was suitably creeped out and never LARPed again. Questions: 1. Can you talk about your experience with tabletop gaming? Do you still table top game? If not, why not? What is your impression of the difference between the two communities? 2. Let's talk about taking things too seriously. Can you tell us about your experiences with people who began to identify AS there characters? 3. This is not a comedy thread, got it; however, what is the funniest anecdote you have from your LARP days?
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Feb 11, 2016 16:02
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ZombieLenin posted:I played some VtM in the mid 1990s and I really couldn't get into it. I mean the pretending was no different than what a good group does around a table during a tabletop RPG, but I found the actual rock-paper-scissors mechanics really loving stupid and off putting. That's because RPS for combat sucks balls. Like, it's the laziest lovely rear end form of combat resolution possible.
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Feb 11, 2016 16:32
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ZombieLenin posted:1. Can you talk about your experience with tabletop gaming? Do you still table top game? If not, why not? What is your impression of the difference between the two communities? 1. I did some tabletop, would do it again, haven't really done it lately though just because of time and poo poo. The biggest difference is answered in your second question. LARP is taken way too seriously. Tabletop you goof off, beer and pretzels, there's some music, you're comfortable, there are way more npcs you don't have to worry about so your core players basically form the party and kill anyone you don't like or whatever. It's great! 2. Identify as their character? Not really. Outside of the game people talk about their characters like they talk about their cars or the sex they had last night or something, but they go to work just like anyone else as far as I saw. The problem was their seriousness was different from that. Playing tabletop I often liked to goof around, but these people would shush you best scream at you at worst if you were talking out of character. They hide their character sheets like it's delicate information even if you're the guy running the game. They'll put their hands on you even though it says in the rules that's grounds for being terminated from the game because they're "acting." There is nothing more important than the game. They are of course the most important part of the game. And you, by existing, are ruining the game because you are not them. It's hosed up. 3. I dunno how funny this story will be to you, but the super hardcore players hate IC suicide. They hate it. They hate it so much because in their eyes you can just retire your character. But I didn't want to give them the pleasure of that. They did some fucky business where my character was forced to owe one of the characters played by a total dick a boon, I forget how large, probably a life boon. I forget. So that guy left the room, some other poo poo went down, I grabbed a cigarette and a soda and walked outside and pulled the storyteller to the side. "So, yeah, uh... I either need to make some rolls or you need to let me do whatever." "Well technically we're in soft RP so... why, what's up?" "Uh, I'm walking into the sunrise." He stopped and looked at me. "Wait a second, you're killing yourself over what [dickhead] did?" "Yeah, gently caress that guy, he's an rear end." "Okay..." So then like I think it was a month later? Two weeks? Some poo poo like that, I forget how the time span goes in those games, I walk in with a brand new character and talk to the ST about getting him introduced. Dickhead walks in, sees me, notices I have a new character sheet. "Wait, what happened to blah blah blah character?" "Oh, I killed him." "What?" "Yeah. Suicided him, into the sunrise. Don't worry, you'll find out when the game goes live." The autistic meltdown was glorious. That guy had to leave the game that night because he couldn't calm down.
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Feb 12, 2016 15:21
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Skunkrocker posted:1. I did some tabletop, would do it again, haven't really done it lately though just because of time and poo poo. The biggest difference is answered in your second question. LARP is taken way too seriously. Tabletop you goof off, beer and pretzels, there's some music, you're comfortable, there are way more npcs you don't have to worry about so your core players basically form the party and kill anyone you don't like or whatever. It's great! I actually had the opposite experience with the local Camarilla group: pretty much everything was a bunch of gag characters and people having trouble with staying in character. For example, Player A was sitting with a photo of Player C in his lap for some reason, when Player B came up IC to talk about something C's character had done. A responded with, "Did he look like this?" and pointed at the photo, which for various reasons couldn't possibly have existed IC. B just paused for a moment and replied, "No, he didn't look like your crotch." By contrast, the most serious, "No Fun Allowed" person I ever encountered was in tabletop. He was otherwise a great GM and player, but yeesh, dude hated anything that distracted from the Immersion and Seriousness. To the point that, any time people got into an OOC tangent or joking, would proceed to lecture the group, which would invariably last longer than the tangent would've. Skunkrocker posted:3. I dunno how funny this story will be to you, but the super hardcore players hate IC suicide. They hate it. They hate it so much because in their eyes you can just retire your character. But I didn't want to give them the pleasure of that. They did some fucky business where my character was forced to owe one of the characters played by a total dick a boon, I forget how large, probably a life boon. I forget. So that guy left the room, some other poo poo went down, I grabbed a cigarette and a soda and walked outside and pulled the storyteller to the side. Seems to me the problem wasn't suicide, the problem was either you finding an easy, legal way out of his power, or that you were sort of metagaming to do it, rather than reacting in more in-character ways. Not that I blame you, because holy poo poo, what a dick move. (Then again, Camarilla is sort of "Dick Moves: the Game")
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Feb 12, 2016 15:56
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I recently came across a linkedin profile where, at 26 years old, the users only work experience was "Storyteller for local Minds Eye Theater Troupe" and "Warhammer painter". I had a hearty LOL and promptly navigated away.
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Feb 12, 2016 16:23
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Rime posted:I recently came across a linkedin profile where, at 26 years old, the users only work experience was "Storyteller for local Minds Eye Theater Troupe" and "Warhammer painter". Yeesh. I mean, ST could be used as a sort of experience supplement, in that you're having to herd overdramatic cats, which is definitely a skill applicable to the business world, but at least try to disguise it with some jargon!
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Feb 12, 2016 16:36
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Puppy Time posted:Yeesh. I mean, ST could be used as a sort of experience supplement, in that you're having to herd overdramatic cats, which is definitely a skill applicable to the business world, but at least try to disguise it with some jargon! I've successfully used my LARP (and indeed, my furry) activities in interviews and the like- as you say, it's just a trick of describing it in the right jargon.
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Feb 12, 2016 18:10
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Yeah, if you talk about it the right way most people find it pretty interesting.ZombieLenin posted:1. Can you talk about your experience with tabletop gaming? Do you still table top game? If not, why not? What is your impression of the difference between the two communities? 1. Never done tabletop myself; the closest I've got is buying Warhammer 40k, getting bored learning the rules and tossing the blast radius discs at the plastic space marines. 2. The closest I've come to this in CP is someone in my own faction who has been playing the same character for over a decade, and she's happily admitted that she'd probably cry a bit if/when her character dies. This isn't really the same thing though; she means the same kind of upset people have if a favourite fictional character of theirs kicks the bucket, she joins in with NPCing and monstering the same as everyone and is a fairly grounded person overall. Having something you can really identify with in a comforting/personal way is one of the good things about LARP, I've always considered, but I guess there's a healthy limit. 3. First one that comes to mind is when we were chilling in camp and a werewolf stormed in and started wrecking poo poo, giant-rear end claws just windmilling everywhere. Everyone backed off and ran to get weapons, except for one lady dwarf with a huge beard who trundled up with her cart full of trinkets and said "excuse me, can I interest you in my wares?" The werewolf paused, lowered his arms and said "err, okay?" Then for ten minutes he had to stand there going "oh yes, very nice" while she draped comically tiny necklaces and beads over his 2" claws. Eventually the conversation ran out and there was an embarassed silence, then he said "well, err, I'll be off then I guess", shrugged at the player next to him and wandered out of camp.
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Feb 12, 2016 19:57
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For those interested in a look at the World of Darkness, this podcast is a very thorough examination of Vampire and everything that's gone wrong with it. Two guys intimately familiar with the old WoD tries to explain the most complicated and wonderful/awful book in the gameline to someone who knows absolutely nothing about it. http://slangdesign.com/rppr/2016/02/wod-the-heck/patreon-preview-wod-the-heck-dirty-secrets-of-the-black-hand/
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Feb 14, 2016 05:40
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Toph Bei Fong posted:For those interested in a look at the World of Darkness, this podcast is a very thorough examination of Vampire and everything that's gone wrong with it. Two guys intimately familiar with the old WoD tries to explain the most complicated and wonderful/awful book in the gameline to someone who knows absolutely nothing about it. The URL alone makes my eye twitch. Memories... such awful, awful memories.
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Feb 14, 2016 12:35
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Edit: Still reading the thread, so apologies if any of this is rehashing old content. Ohhh, boy. This thread brings back some memories -- pleasant and otherwise! I'm gonna chip in with my own rambling post about my personal experience as a LARPer. I started LARPing at NERO when I was fairly young, 16 or 17. Hadn't really "bloomed" at that stage in my life, and so NERO was where I found my social footings in more ways than one. With that came a pretty damaged idea of what it meant to feel good about myself, and what I needed to continue boosting my confidence. Had a lot of fun at LARP, found my first real relationship at LARP, made lots of friends through LARP, but went through so many cringe-inducing episodes and incidents and social mistakes that I eventually gave up on the game. I don't think I could return and have fun, simply because I'd be so worried about my past and what the lifers knew about me and would communicate about me to other players.  Probably just some anxiety/paranoia on my end, but considering how well I'd seen other players be treated, I can't say this concern of mine is absolutely unjustified. It's been six years or so since I've been to any game in any capacity, and though I still sort of yearn for some of the experiences I had, I feel way too uncomfortable to go back.I was one of those girls who felt validated by the attention I received at LARP. I felt like I was a great roleplayer and contributor, and that people respected me for what I brought to games. Man, I'd do some poo poo just to get noticed by the guys, though. That was really shameful, looking back. I was never to the point of giving blowjobs to randoms like OP described, and I never participated in any orgies, but I did have my share of sex at LARP, either with a committed partner (like my boyfriend of several years), or with whoever ended up being my hook-up that weekend (between relationships). Sounds awful, I guess -- it FEELS awful, thinking on it -- though I think the shameful aspect is more from the validation I got from the sex moreso than the act of sex itself. The IC/OOC overlap got really frustrating after I learned the extent of it. Whenever I was a more mature player (from ages 23 and on), I pursued nobility, and then found out that my character would have to be seriously altered in order to fit the OOC definitions of the nobility mold. There were also severe restrictions on PvP at my chapter, so my character concept was already pretty neutered to begin with, but to become a "leader" in the game I had to conform to all sorts of rules/ideas. Metagaming ultimately ruined the experience for me and drove me away from the game as much as my own mental health issues did. I was pretty incapable of OOC socializing at these events. LARP was where I'd done a lot of growing, as mentioned, and was also where I went to hide my many mental health and self-confidence issues. Once I was outside of the game, it fell apart. I was terrible at parties -- making bad mistakes, having meltdowns -- and flaky about maintaining OOC friendships. Like, I'd get on my way to a tabletop gathering, and halfway there I'd get all anxious and turn around and go home and just not own up to what was going on. I was a jerk, and fragile, and LARP let me bury it all. Left me thinking and feeling like maybe I didn't have it as bad as I clearly did. That same tendency to hide my head in the sand got me addicted to MMOs and then MUSHing, neither of which I've been strongly attracted to since actually going to therapy and receiving medication. Imagine that. I'm still pretty socially awkward, but I guess I'm doing better. What was good about LARP? It did get me exposed to more people. It did give me some sort of confidence. It gave me a chance to start operating as a leader and organizer. It got me away from my hometown, and encouraged me to travel, explore, and make new connections. I loved hiding in the woods at 2 AM because monsters were rampaging through all the unprotected cabins and killing everyone they could find. I loved stealing the hoarded wealth of other player characters who unwisely went out to the big town brawl and left their stashes unsecured. I loved being in character, and doing silly, often physical things. It got me exercising. It got me outdoors, and away from my computer! I loved how quality the roleplay could feel at times, and I still love visiting the campground where I played the most. The bad? Social politics. Drama between players, sometimes involving myself. The inability to separate IC from OOC. The addiction. The escapism. The half-assed costuming and even more half-assed roleplay. I dunno. Sometimes I really miss it. I played two characters who lasted for any amount of time: a cat person (who later became an elf after I got sick of doing the make-up), and a fox person. One was a healer, the other a rogue. I swear to god I'm not a furry -- I'd admit to it if I was -- but I did meet more than one furry at the game, so you'll be pleased to know this stereotype still holds true a lot of the time. my cat is norris fucked around with this message at 18:39 on Mar 11, 2016 |
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Mar 11, 2016 18:02
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Puppy Time posted:LARPs in general are not a very profitable enterprise, and I expect it'd be even harder to get enough cash to keep it up if you don't have the draw of "I can play my superpowerful character with tons of backstory and importance to make up for the really mediocre life I lead" to keep big fish coming. This is only true of the American Larps. European style Larps rake in SERIOUS cash. $125 x 3000-5000 people, mostly volunteer staff. Even with American Larps, If you can get your larp over 125-150 people you can start doing ok, as a side job running it.
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Mar 12, 2016 22:21
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Armagnac posted:This is only true of the American Larps. Speaking of European Larps - it's well known that htey tend of be of higher quality. But what kinds of people do they attract compared to American Larps? Do European Larps have the same negative psychological effects as what we've talked about in this thread?
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Mar 20, 2016 02:19
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European vampire larps are much the same deal.
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Mar 20, 2016 09:16
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Boiled Water posted:European vampire larps are much the same deal. Vampire larps everywhere are the same deal. Vampire killed larp entirely for years in one New Zealand city.
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Mar 20, 2016 09:48
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BiggerJ posted:Speaking of European Larps - it's well known that htey tend of be of higher quality. But what kinds of people do they attract compared to American Larps? Do European Larps have the same negative psychological effects as what we've talked about in this thread? From my own experience, the average European LARP:er is around 25-35, fairly left-leaning when it comes to politics, and much more into improv theatrics and/or historical accuracy than beating each other over the head with rolls of foam. They also tend to be insufferably smug about it. "Oh, American LARP:ing? Heh." 
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Mar 20, 2016 12:19
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I played with a group for a few years on and off. This was one of the american boffer-style setups, but astonishingly light on the role-playing outside of the costumes, so it's a joy to hear about the more immersive stuff from everyone else. The only person I recall mentioning their backstory in any detail later got barred for making our group look really bad in a public arena. He decided to call in to set the record straight when the local radio morning show was making fun of us and during the course of the subsequent tearing-down copped to bloodplay with his girlfriend because he liked to pretend vampire so much. I still remember his plastic dollar store fangs.
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Mar 22, 2016 13:32
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I LARP'ed exactly three times, and it was before I knew "LARP" was a term. I was twelve or thirteenish. Somehow my dad and his buddy learned about what he called a "lord of the rings re-enactment" in a nearby state and they decided it would be a fun camping trip, so we went and enjoyed it and went twice more. I never got inundated in the culture because I was with my dad and we went once a year for three years, but I think it was much healthier and jokey than what I see in this thread. Basically there was a big area of a state park (miles, don't remember exactly how big) that the group had mapped out as Middle Earth. The whole game, start to finish, took place from midmorning to half an hour before dark. In that time, the forces of Good had to get the ring to Mount Doom which was on the most mountain-y thing you could get to in that park, and the forces of evil tried to stop you. Everyone's character was assigned well before gameday so you could put together you outfit. When I was there, there was always a rotating cast of main characters. It seemed like they wanted to make sure that anyone who really wanted to play as Sauron got to play Sauron, within the confines of only doing this a couple times a year and having 150+ participants. I'll try to just list some of the fun things with fun details so this can hopefully be interesting, I don't know if it is. - One player each year played something called "The Menace" which was supposed to be an amalgamation of all the horrible eldritch things in Middle Earth, like the Balrog and Shelob etc. He would just wander around the countryside on his own and chase you if he found you. If he caught you, you were dead (fifteen minute penalty, sit down and don't talk to anyone "alive"). You always traveled in packs but The Menace was so strong that you really had to have an entire army to kill him. The first year we played was the year The Phantom Menace came out and the guy wore a Jar Jar Binks mask, rubbery skeletal bat wings, and carried a laser gun. I was like, this is pretty cool. - One guy had his two ten-year-oldish daughters with him. They were wargs. They were dressed like the blue and pink dogs from Blue's Clues, neon jumpsuits and ridiculous masks. - My dad and his bud were "Sheriffs" of Laketown or something. They wore cowboy outfits, hats, and had those sticks with horseheads on them. Someone else in the group, of course, carried coconuts. - Your power level for combat was a single number that was a combination of preset values for various weapons and armor types (with a 2x bonus for anything that was "real") and between 1-10 bonus points based on three judges evaluating your overall costume coolness. The judges were always extremely nice and erred on the side of giving you more points. My first year I was literally in a trash bag with an eye of Sauron painted on the front and they gave me 5 points because I was new and probably looked scared. - The beginning of the day was role-call so everyone know what everyone was, and to go over the rules. One of the rules was the rule of "freeze" because certain people could yell it and everyone had to stop in their tracks. They would read the first two (wizards, game masters) and then they would ask "WHO'S THE THIRD?!" and everyone yelled "PARK RANGERS!" and they'd ask "WHY?!" and 150+ people in ridiculous outfits would scream back, "BECAUSE THEY'VE GOT THE GUNS!" - I was a generic elf of Lothlorien one year (elves are known for their chubbiness and acne) and it was midafternoon and I was tired as gently caress and didn't care about the game anymore. We had gotten some item from Lothlorien and it was about time for the big showdown at Mt Doom by our reckoning, but if Lothlorien got sacked it would be a big loss so someone had to stay behind to guard it. I volunteered, it worked out because I got massive bonuses as long as I was touching the big rock that represented Lothlorien. A group of Evil players came along, about three or four of them, and spent ten minutes looking out at my rock, where I was proudly perched and getting through my first reading of Stephen King's Shawshank Redemption - much better than walking around a forest in leather armor. They ended up deciding they could take me and initiated combat. I had about half again as many points as they had so they had to sit for fifteen minutes and complain about being late for Mt Doom. I ignored them because they were dead and Shawshank Redemption is a really, really good story. - I used an old hub cap as a shield one year. The judge thought it was hilarious and gave me double points because he thought I took it off my dad's car So there's my post, hope you liked it
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Mar 29, 2016 19:47
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That actually sounds like a really good time.
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Mar 30, 2016 00:22
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There's a lot of horror stories in this thread, and even more generally when it comes to LARP. I've never done it but your experience sounded pretty cool. I would be afraid to take my kids to one just based on what I've read here.
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Mar 30, 2016 14:42
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JiimyPopAli posted:There's a lot of horror stories in this thread, and even more generally when it comes to LARP. There are a buch of LARPs designated as kid-friendly that usually don't have the mess going on that we see here. (They have their own messes, but such is life.)
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Mar 30, 2016 15:22
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I just remember that everyone emphasized fun over winning. I can't remember if it was billed as kid-friendly or what the vibe was because I was relatively young and didn't know how to pick up on those things, but I remember any time someone got a little sexually explicit or crude when there were kids around, other adults would immediately call it out and the offender would apologize. I remember the apologies sounding sincere, like the dudes just forgot that there were kids around. One kid was about 10 and we sent him up a hill to scout out a field where we thought there might be a pack of Evil moving through. He shouted back "I don't see anything!" and the leader started asking for specifics. Eventually everyone started catcalling him good naturedly, poo poo like "did your parents sign your permission slip?!" being shouted from a couple hundred feet away. When he came back he didn't look like he knew how to take it but everyone immediately gave him praise for being brave enough to go scout the hill and get us some important intel. The leader even asked him questions when we were all discussing what to do next. All the questions were poo poo the leader already knew or could infer, he just wanted to include the kid in the action. The kid looked happy after that and for the next couple hours before we joined up with another group, we called him the chief scout. The boulder of Lothlorien was surprisingly comfortable and just outside our group's campsite, so I stayed there reading for awhile even after I knew no one would be coming to sack the place. A judge was passing through and he stayed to give me a lot of advice, like for my first few times to just wear light armor and carry a staff since it would make travel easier, and to not be afraid to voice opinions, etc. He was a really nice guy but I was a lovely teenager so I don't know if I was as appreciative of his attention as I should have been.
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Mar 30, 2016 16:09
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CP has a bunch of kids running around and runs quests just for them. One event had so many babies they set up a crèche, although that was a good few years ago.
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Mar 30, 2016 16:13
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At one of my events, a handful of people wanted to bring reasonably young children to the game. Another group of players completely flipped their poo poo over it, and made some of the most bitter complaints I've ever seen, because the presence of three young babies on site was going to... gently caress, I dunno. Ruin immersion or something? Then we had the people who weren't participants but take every opportunity to poo poo on this particular game, screaming about how this kind of thing is unacceptable and you can't just let people bring babies to games. Larpers are massively overdramatic whiny nerds. And, surprise surprise, there were no issues with the babies when they were on site.
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Mar 30, 2016 19:42
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At the Lorien Trust games I attend there's little kids in every faction, dedicated kid's plot to keep them occupied (best to wear a cup if you monster for them though.. Yowch) and the entire field is amazingly protective of them. Only time I've seen everyone drop whatever they were doing instantly is when a missing child call came through on the radio. Kids incidentally are little bastards when it comes to PVP and the like. They can't actually hurt anyone IC until a certain age, but there's a long standing maxim that it's wise to be scared of a cute smiling 12 year old selling cookies or what have you..
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Mar 31, 2016 14:05
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Camrath posted:At the Lorien Trust games I attend there's little kids in every faction, dedicated kid's plot to keep them occupied (best to wear a cup if you monster for them though.. Yowch) and the entire field is amazingly protective of them. Only time I've seen everyone drop whatever they were doing instantly is when a missing child call came through on the radio. That's cos kids have foam hammers and are at knee/groin height. In Empire there is basically an IC school run by OOC teachers, and kids can take an exam to become fully fledged players if they pass (before that they can't hurt/be hurt by adults or hold in-character property and skills etc.) This leads to grown adults having earnest conversations about having to kill a 12 year-old's character because they passed the exam, then managed to convince the school to magically curse someone and gently caress up their income for a full year. LARP is weird
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Mar 31, 2016 19:20
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Empire kids are adorable
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Apr 1, 2016 01:56
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