Liquid Communism posted:Happens. A lot. Especially in games like the one I recognize trauma as playing, where you get on the field with people who have literally been playing the same character for 20+ years. I said in another thread the best thing you can do in any kind of roleplaying is retire your characters. I mean, you get a great big Thing out of it like a heroic death or a funeral or an event and then you get to make a new one! The world moves on and everyone gets a turn in the spotlight. *in an extremely Plinkett voice* OH... oh...
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Apr 19, 2016 11:15
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Liquid Communism posted:Happens. A lot. Especially in games like the one I recognize trauma as playing, where you get on the field with people who have literally been playing the same character for 20+ years. That's true, Especially on a system that has some seriously insular cliques and a wonky "power structure." It has happened before to us before. The difference with well adjusted folks and maladjusted gophers is that well adjusted people just shrug and move on with their life. Either they find a different/better game or they move on to other healthy hobbies. Hell my biggest complaint about my game apart from the power bloat is that some chapters openly encourage lovely costuming. It's jarring when i visit one of these places. Nothing like being greeted by asshats claiming to be orcs while basketball shorts, lovely plastic armor a smear of green on their face. Also yes retiring your characters. For fucks sake I know a guy who has become a literal dragon, and still runs around. To his credit he doesn't play to break the game, but to his discredit he didn't retire his god drat dragon.
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Apr 19, 2016 11:39
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I could've sworn I'd posted in this thread, but apparently not. My first and last experience with LARP was around the time the Mind's Eye Theater book first came out. At the time my only experience of any gaming had been with my tabletop group which consisted of people I'd known for years because all our families were in the same neighborhood. One of the people I'd known from high school who was also into gaming, but not in my tabletop group mentioned that if I enjoyed the White Wolf games, I had to give LARPing a try because it was just as good and more fun. She explained it to me as it's play pretend with your character and no paper or dice. Seemed strange but I figured why not go and see what this is about. Looking back, I now recognize all the warning signs that should have sent me running away. The group was meeting one of the guy's running the LARP's house, and HSfriend insisted she'd been there lots of times already. We go and it's in one of the more distant unincorporated suburbs that I'm not familiar with at all. I figure that I'll be playing the Gangrel I've been tabletopping with and dressed accordingly with frayed jeans, baggy t-shirt and flannel overshirt. Everyone else is dressed More Goth than Thou so I'm already standing out. I get told that I can't play my character that I'll be assigned one, that sounds odd to me but I figured to give it a whirl. I get assigned a Malkavian with Sadism and am paired off with another Malkavian who's a Masochist. By this point I'm already seeing the signs that this is more a sex thing than a gaming thing as people are more hooking up than doing anything I would consider play pretend. The guy I'm paired with keeps trying to get me to go off with him to a room and I keep telling him no. I start looking for HSfriend because I want to leave and she's gone off somewhere, I can't find her and I'm not about to go barging into rooms where people are loving. I try to leave anyway and get told I can't until the LARP's over even as I'm telling people this isn't looking like my sort of thing. While I'm now freaking out and trying to find a way to get out of this, I'm still getting hit on my Masochist who I'm still telling no. I end up managing to get into the bathroom and sneaking out the window. Thankfully I remembered us passing by a gas station on the way and made my way there in Country Dark conditions and pleaded to use their phone to call home for a ride. My Mom showed up and she was livid when I explained what happened. I was just happy to have gotten out of there. It was either the next day or the day after that the guy who was my Masochist shows up at my job looking for me. I'd already shared what happened with my co-workers and a bunch of the guys chased him off. When HSfriend showed up asking what happened since from what she heard my roleplay was awesome and she gave Masochist my work address to hook up. I bitched her out and she honestly didn't see why I was so upset since I was playing a wonderful sadist to my masochist, and everyone who was there was so creative and awesome. Needless to say the friendship was over at that point and from what I later heard, she really got deep into the LARP thing until she ended up having to move out of state. When I've shared the story with people who are pretty up in the Camarilla, they're horrified by it as pretty much all the rules they have were not present like separating what's IC and OOC. My tabletopping experience ended up following a similar path with my first group being well adjusted and chill, and later groups being with too many fundamentally broken people that I gave up on it. Last one where I was told unofficially that while the morbidly obese elf/fairy player bitched about the flight of stairs to my apartment, everyone preferred my place because it was clean, didn't stink of cat piss and I served real food was my breaking point as I kept being the one to host and the GM on a steady go of coming up with campaigns that we had to make new characters each time but never got around to do the campaign before he got another wild idea going.
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Apr 19, 2016 14:24
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M_Sinistrari posted:Needless to say the friendship was over at that point and from what I later heard, she really got deep into the LARP thing until she ended up having to move out of state. I'm loving the image of someone getting so into LARPing they have the leave the state, Poochie style. Also I still maintain that WoD LARP is is the source of the most vintage cat-piss known to man.
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Apr 19, 2016 14:35
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I wondered for years why everyone immediately asks if it's a sex thing when I tell them about LARPing. Then I found this thread. Mystery solved I guess.
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Apr 19, 2016 14:56
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Doctor_Fruitbat posted:I wondered for years why everyone immediately asks if it's a sex thing when I tell them about LARPing. Then I found this thread. Mystery solved I guess. I'd say it probably has to do with most people immediately having a sexual connotation if you say you're into role-play. Most people go to playing quarterback and cheerleader in the bedroom, not pretending you're a half-elf wizard.
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Apr 19, 2016 17:48
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I put on my robe and wizard hat 
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Apr 19, 2016 23:31
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trauma llama posted:That's true, Especially on a system that has some seriously insular cliques and a wonky "power structure." It has happened before to us before. The difference with well adjusted folks and maladjusted gophers is that well adjusted people just shrug and move on with their life. Either they find a different/better game or they move on to other healthy hobbies. I played with NERO a few times a long while back, and then quit showing up because pretty much all the characters who got the spotlight were past the actual leveling system of the game and on to transforms and weird plot poo poo to make them superheroes. When the tag for a magic item takes up an 8.5 x11 sheet of paper it has gone silly.
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Apr 20, 2016 11:52
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Liquid Communism posted:I played with NERO a few times a long while back, and then quit showing up because pretty much all the characters who got the spotlight were past the actual leveling system of the game and on to transforms and weird plot poo poo to make them superheroes. When the tag for a magic item takes up an 8.5 x11 sheet of paper it has gone silly. Yes! God, I hate the power creep at NERO. It was always so vexing to me that players could literally buy their own chapters to give their characters as much free exp and loot they wanted, even if those "chapters" never ran an official game. Want some hilarity? Google for anything you can find about "The LARPy Awards," NERO's attempt at an even higher level of circlejerking.
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Apr 20, 2016 16:29
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my cat is norris posted:Yes! God, I hate the power creep at NERO. It was always so vexing to me that players could literally buy their own chapters to give their characters as much free exp and loot they wanted, even if those "chapters" never ran an official game. Don't forget the entire game is basically just a means to fund a crazy man's coke habit.
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Apr 20, 2016 16:53
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trauma llama posted:Don't forget the entire game is basically just a means to fund a crazy man's coke habit. Oh, and that Joe would happily outright sell you EXP from the national website for cash. Even now they sell magic items and all sorts of hard to get ritual effects for straight cash. It's brilliant from a monetizing autists perspective.
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Apr 20, 2016 23:53
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Liquid Communism posted:Oh, and that Joe would happily outright sell you EXP from the national website for cash. Even now they sell magic items and all sorts of hard to get ritual effects for straight cash. It's brilliant from a monetizing autists perspective. They still do the buying exp thing. It's an excellent way to take advantage of those tragic goobers who validate their worth through their Larp character. Joe also convinced people to let him buy tons of land with national funds for a national Larp site. I'm pretty sure he's just building himself a new cabin in the woods. I haven't really been involved for the last several years but some if the local chapters aren't bad. Most of the problem people have left or are on the east coast.
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Apr 21, 2016 00:51
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holy poo poo thats diabolical a larp with microtransactions.
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Apr 21, 2016 01:16
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Especially the bit where they sell ressurrections, since most deaths are to NPC monsters and players with a few hundred bucks in garb and gear for a character will shrug off $20 to not start over. He's found a way to get paid extra for bad statting.
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Apr 21, 2016 01:25
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I've never LARPed, but I have a LARPer buddy tell me he mostly enjoys it because he's moderately athletic and has a little fencing experience, which mostly makes up for the fact that he's not super invested in it since he can outrun almost anyone and outfight some more experienced people despite not being nominally a level 40 assassin or whatever. He's not a jerk about it or anything, he's just like "Yeah I don't get a lot of prestige in the game but if some high level superman wants to murder me, they usually can't since I, the player, can run further than them without getting tired." Does that sound about accurate, and anyone have any fun stories about players whose personal abilities make up for their lower ranked characters?
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Apr 21, 2016 02:34
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Pharmaskittle posted:I've never LARPed, but I have a LARPer buddy tell me he mostly enjoys it because he's moderately athletic and has a little fencing experience, which mostly makes up for the fact that he's not super invested in it since he can outrun almost anyone and outfight some more experienced people despite not being nominally a level 40 assassin or whatever. He's not a jerk about it or anything, he's just like "Yeah I don't get a lot of prestige in the game but if some high level superman wants to murder me, they usually can't since I, the player, can run further than them without getting tired." drat YOU FITNESS i get this mental picture of him daintly skipping ahead of some huge overweight behemoth heaving after him panting
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Apr 21, 2016 02:38
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Pharmaskittle posted:I've never LARPed, but I have a LARPer buddy tell me he mostly enjoys it because he's moderately athletic and has a little fencing experience, which mostly makes up for the fact that he's not super invested in it since he can outrun almost anyone and outfight some more experienced people despite not being nominally a level 40 assassin or whatever. He's not a jerk about it or anything, he's just like "Yeah I don't get a lot of prestige in the game but if some high level superman wants to murder me, they usually can't since I, the player, can run further than them without getting tired." Sounds about right. The one guy who was a fencing coach was significantly better than a lot of other players at straight up fighting, and a few people could outrun nearly anyone in monster camp. No specific stories, just general stuff like "literally run around a lake to get away from the big bad" and "challenged the god of death to a duel, fought to a draw, then got insta-killed cause y'know, god of death".
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Apr 21, 2016 03:13
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Pharmaskittle posted:I've never LARPed, but I have a LARPer buddy tell me he mostly enjoys it because he's moderately athletic and has a little fencing experience, which mostly makes up for the fact that he's not super invested in it since he can outrun almost anyone and outfight some more experienced people despite not being nominally a level 40 assassin or whatever. He's not a jerk about it or anything, he's just like "Yeah I don't get a lot of prestige in the game but if some high level superman wants to murder me, they usually can't since I, the player, can run further than them without getting tired." Oh absolutely. This was me and most of our core group. We relied on our hard skills just being that much better. I do have a few funny stories. I also have some pretty fun ones of physically sneaking into enemy encampments to scout or rob them blind in the middle of the night. My crowning achievement was saving the entire town/event by sneaking into an enemy camp and stealing back a few magic items vital to the rest of the faire after the entire town got slaughtered in a failed assault. The nice thing about these types of actions is they rely on out of game stealth and agility rather than some in game bullshit *you can't see me* type of soft skill. In order to be good at combat or a stealth skills you legitimately had to be good at them. Nothing pisses off a giant rear end in a top hat with unlimited stats than getting murdered death by a thousand cuts style by some low level punk.
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Apr 21, 2016 03:18
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SneakyFrog posted:drat YOU FITNESS Physical fitness is OP.
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Apr 21, 2016 07:01
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Pharmaskittle posted:I've never LARPed, but I have a LARPer buddy tell me he mostly enjoys it because he's moderately athletic and has a little fencing experience, which mostly makes up for the fact that he's not super invested in it since he can outrun almost anyone and outfight some more experienced people despite not being nominally a level 40 assassin or whatever. He's not a jerk about it or anything, he's just like "Yeah I don't get a lot of prestige in the game but if some high level superman wants to murder me, they usually can't since I, the player, can run further than them without getting tired." When Empire started there was a huge outcry from a certain section of the player base, because the rules made a distinction between armour made of plastic/aluminium and armour made of steel, while in systems up to that point plastic would have counted as the heaviest kind of armour. Plastic plate would stop special sword blows but not arrows, while steel armour stopped both. Since arrows instantly take out a limb if they hit one or knock you out immediately if they hit your torso, this was a pretty big deal. Cue all the fat powernerds who had been used to wearing plastic plate and being combat gods due to their stats whining that it was unfair that they were being discriminated against, while me and my mates were rejoicing since we already owned steel armour (it's a lot cheaper than plastic plate) and actually did exercise.
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Apr 21, 2016 09:53
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How does steel end up being lighter than plastic armour? Is the plastic just really thick? I've met a few people who do LARP because my Fencing group ends up having some LARPers. Aside from being a bit unfit, they're normal. One of them runs it and he seems nice enough, just a bit disorganised. Which is odd, since he runs it at the local University.
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Apr 21, 2016 11:55
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Hazzard posted:How does steel end up being lighter than plastic armour? Is the plastic just really thick? Not lighter, cheaper; sounds like it was heavier but if you're fit you can handle that.
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Apr 21, 2016 17:56
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silvergoose posted:Not lighter, cheaper; sounds like it was heavier but if you're fit you can handle that. Yeah, this. Since steel armour is used for more stuff than just LARP there are more people making it thus it's easier to get it cheaper. Don't get me wrong, you can still drop a cool £2000 on a set of steel full harnes if you want. But a breastplate/mail hauberk/set of brigandine alone will cost you around £100 compared a few hundred for the equivalent Norton torso armour.
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Apr 21, 2016 20:52
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I am a fast, stealthy killing machine, so shiny, clanky kit is right out for me. I do have a nice set of rigid leather armour though, which has lasted me for about ten years at this point and seems like it can take another decade of punishment.
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Apr 21, 2016 21:28
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Doctor_Fruitbat posted:I am a fast, stealthy killing machine, so shiny, clanky kit is right out for me. I do have a nice set of rigid leather armour though, which has lasted me for about ten years at this point and seems like it can take another decade of punishment. Cuir bouilli? Doesn't it creak? I've always heard that was one way in which D&D-inspired games were ahistorical, that "leather armor" wasn't in any way quiet because it creaked like mad.
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Apr 22, 2016 01:47
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Not really; it isn't very rigid at this point, so I don't think it would constitute actual armour in the real world.  I am not quite that invested in authenticity.
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Apr 22, 2016 07:38
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I'm seeing a lot of rumbling about someone apparently trademarking the words and term 'LARP Australia' and therefore expecting people to rename any and all Facebook pages that could... infringe upon it? Or something?
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Apr 22, 2016 08:32
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Liquid Communism posted:Oh, and that Joe would happily outright sell you EXP from the national website for cash. Even now they sell magic items and all sorts of hard to get ritual effects for straight cash. It's brilliant from a monetizing autists perspective. http://nerolarp.com/e107_plugins/easyshop/easyshop.php?prod.64 Seriously? People pay $125 for what I assume is just a piece of paper that says that your foam-covered stick is now ~MAGICAL~? 
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Apr 22, 2016 09:39
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Comrade Koba posted:http://nerolarp.com/e107_plugins/easyshop/easyshop.php?prod.64 Some probably do, yeah. Hell, people payed hundreds to have a piece of paper that said your fat rear end is actually Arch War Wizard of Mount Bad rear end, Highest Lord of Darkness, and totally not insecure at all guys, I swear. At least the guy who is "literally" a dragon actually "earned" it, and isn't a huge Dbag. Admittedly, I'm totally a nerd who has paid a few hundred dollars (in event fees) to dress up as an Orc and hit people with sticks.
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Apr 22, 2016 10:16
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Back when I played NERO, monsters looked like this... It was what I thought was acceptable and okay, but looking at other LARPs these days, it just seems like such a no-effort downer.  I'm not surprised someone would spend $125 on a +3 spirit-locked magic sword. Magic weapons were indestructible iirc, and so your investment would effectively be worth $125 spread across two years of multiple chapter games. If you manage to attend two events per month in the usual season, that might work out to 10 - 12 games per year -- up to 24 games over the lifetime of the weapon -- so if you think about it, it's only spending about $5 extra per game. It's a huge up-front cost, and that'll be prohibitive to a lot of players, though I can see some players finding it justifiable.
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Apr 22, 2016 14:03
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my cat is norris posted:Back when I played NERO, monsters looked like this... You hit on one of my biggest issues with the game: lovely costumes. Fortunately some chapters are doing it much better these days. Some...not so much. I wish there are some good larps within reasonable distance of me that had legitimately good costuming standards. Also talking about people going to 10-12 events. That's a pretty reasonable amount for travellers. However, I know someone who at the very depths of his madness played Nero every weekend for an entire year. This included a couple extended events, a 9 day, and a loving God drat 13 day long Nero event. Actually, the more I think about, I really do have plenty l fodder for this thread.
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Apr 22, 2016 14:50
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Haha, that's crazy! I tried to do a back-to-back 9-day into a 5-day...once. I basically went insane. This was when I was like 18, so it was a good long, long time ago, now, and my responsibilities were very few. I was also totally hooked on the game, so it seemed like a good idea. It was not. That picture was from 2005. It's good to hear some things have improved!
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Apr 22, 2016 15:02
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The longest CP event is 4 days, and the first and last days are barely half days as it is. By the end I'm completely dead. Who the gently caress has the time or energy for nine whole days of LARPing?
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Apr 22, 2016 15:59
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my cat is norris posted:I'm not surprised someone would spend $125 on a +3 spirit-locked magic sword. Magic weapons were indestructible iirc, and so your investment would effectively be worth $125 spread across two years of multiple chapter games. If you manage to attend two events per month in the usual season, that might work out to 10 - 12 games per year -- up to 24 games over the lifetime of the weapon -- so if you think about it, it's only spending about $5 extra per game. It's a huge up-front cost, and that'll be prohibitive to a lot of players, though I can see some players finding it justifiable. Most of the really hardcore boffer LARP players I've seen seem to be already willing to invest buttloads of cash into it, from the event fees to costuming and makeup to props and so on. I would not be at all surprised that they'd spend that kind of money on an in-game investment.
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Apr 22, 2016 19:20
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Puppy Time posted:Most of the really hardcore boffer LARP players I've seen seem to be already willing to invest buttloads of cash into it, from the event fees to costuming and makeup to props and so on. I would not be at all surprised that they'd spend that kind of money on an in-game investment. There's a difference between spending money on costume & kit, which are tangible items that can be used for multiple games/characters/systems and even sold to recoup some of the cost, and spending money on a bit of paper that gives your pretend elf +3 HP. But like you, I'm not surprised at all that some people do it. 
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Apr 22, 2016 21:27
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Look at it this way. To build the equivalent item in game is probably a year or two worth of work, playing 6-8 events at your home chapter at $60 a pop.
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Apr 23, 2016 03:31
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Liquid Communism posted:Look at it this way. To build the equivalent item in game is probably a year or two worth of work, playing 6-8 events at your home chapter at $60 a pop. Nah, you can probably churn out one an event with a good group at most chapters. Plus that $60 goes to playing the game, supporting the local chapter; getting all of your in game loot, and feeding Joe V's construction worker on blow habit.
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Apr 23, 2016 04:56
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Wow, drop rates must have gone way up since I played back in the day, I recall Damage Aura being a hard rit to come by.
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Apr 23, 2016 07:57
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Liquid Communism posted:Look at it this way. To build the equivalent item in game is probably a year or two worth of work, playing 6-8 events at your home chapter at $60 a pop. That is the calculus of madmen who value fake numbers over real cash. And also I guess want to pay to "win"?
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Apr 23, 2016 09:17
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Gravitas Shortfall posted:There's a difference between spending money on costume & kit, which are tangible items that can be used for multiple games/characters/systems and even sold to recoup some of the cost, and spending money on a bit of paper that gives your pretend elf +3 HP. Gravitas Shortfall posted:That is the calculus of madmen who value fake numbers over real cash. And also I guess want to pay to "win"? My main point is, once you've already sunk a significant amount of time and money (and energy and socialization) into your hobby, it can easily become your main priority in life, so further investments don't seem that big a deal. Especially if you're one of those people who associates their character with their ego.
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Apr 23, 2016 22:27
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