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Skunkrocker posted:This going off the assumption normal people LARP. I apologize if that sounds insulting, just saying I know that mist if not all players including myself had some sanity problems going into it. I like to think I'm pretty normal, and the people I play with tend to be. That doesn't mean there aren't a lot of broken people playing, but not everyone larping is like you. Edit: that sounded harsh. Some people just really enjoy going to fests and being a dork for a weekend. That doesn't mean they are mentally ill. Like I said, most of the group I play with a functional adults with mostly normal lives and jobs. We just like to dress up as elves and poo poo a few weekends out of the year. It may not be the most culturally accepted hobby, but it doesn't make those who play it particularly broken. Although, vampire/werewolf/Mage/whatever seems to attract a larger percentage of damaged goods. Having never played it. I can't say why that would be. Though I will concede that one of the games I play (Nero) does have a problem with players who just cannot give up their cosmically powerful Mary Sue. trauma llama fucked around with this message at 04:37 on May 31, 2016 |
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May 31, 2016 04:27
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trauma llama posted:Although, vampire/werewolf/Mage/whatever seems to attract a larger percentage of damaged goods. Having never played it. I can't say why that would be. Though I will concede that one of the games I play (Nero) does have a problem with players who just cannot give up their cosmically powerful Mary Sue. I've always wondered if the link between these two things is having the National Organization surrounding your game? Most of the horror stories that I have heard about roleplaying games in general tend to come from some sort of organized play scene, whether it is the D&D organized play in game stores, White Wolf national organizations, or NERO. Of course, it might just be that those are the most popular forms of each game type, I'm not sure.
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May 31, 2016 04:43
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Taran posted:I've always wondered if the link between these two things is having the National Organization surrounding your game? Most of the horror stories that I have heard about roleplaying games in general tend to come from some sort of organized play scene, whether it is the D&D organized play in game stores, White Wolf national organizations, or NERO. Of course, it might just be that those are the most popular forms of each game type, I'm not sure. I wonder as well. I think it might be that they are the most popular and have the longest running continuous stories (for the unable to let go escapist crowd) I had a similar discussion with one of the mentally unhealthy Players at an event I went to this weekend. White Wolf stuff has such a broad network of games that it is the easiest Larp exposure, and I think a lot of the mentally ill using it as a poor coping mechanism settle for it instead of looking for a better game. Like I said, I can't comment because I don't know that game system well. Nero/Alliance are similar to White Wolf in that they are large organizations with multiple chapters. They have a wide net. They people who cannot let go of their characters are primarily two types of people. Power gamers who just love being a bigger bad rear end than everyone and those who need to be powerful and well liked, and intimidating to satiate their feelings of inadequacy. The first group tends to be ignored and people mitigate their ability to poo poo up a game by not engaging with them. The second group gets actively put into the corner because they annoy everyone by bringing all of their insecurities into the game all while trying to dick wave their power.
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May 31, 2016 05:11
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It's probably less "LARP makes you crazy" and more "LARP attracts people with preexisting crazy." A lot of folks with mental illnesses and problems with social interaction get attracted because it's a combo of 1) "I can be someone awesome, instead of the pathetic meatsack I am," 2) "I can get social interaction without having to be vulnerable, since I am shielded by being aformentioned awesome person," and 3) "I don't have to think about my lovely, lovely life for a while." You'll see variations of this with most escapist hobbies, where the broken people find each other and keep being dysfunctional at one another, while the people with enough self-awareness either give them a wide berth or just sneak off to continue the hobby away from the craziness. I think White Wolf (Vampire, especially) tends to attract more of these types since it's very much set up as a "be a complete manipulative douche to everyone and constantly jockey for social status" situation. As well as the "we are all secretly special creatures" thing.
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May 31, 2016 06:06
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Taran posted:I've always wondered if the link between these two things is having the National Organization surrounding your game? Most of the horror stories that I have heard about roleplaying games in general tend to come from some sort of organized play scene, whether it is the D&D organized play in game stores, White Wolf national organizations, or NERO. Of course, it might just be that those are the most popular forms of each game type, I'm not sure. Nah. The issue is generally the same across LARP and tabletop gaming, they tend to be a refuge for some poorly socialized and/or unpleasant people, and when those people have money and a national organization, they tend to self-sort to the top. Stuff like Pathfinder Society and RPGA are hosed up in all the same ways as the Cam.
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May 31, 2016 08:28
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As much as I defend larping and my groups I did have a pretty WTF! Moment or two at an event this weekend. Which is a shame because overall it was a great weekend. We got to fight a giant multi headed dragon thing manned by multiple npc's. It was great until I got knocked over by a giant wing slap only to be picked back up and immediately dead butted to death by the dragons head. A guy did propose to his girlfriend at the event too. I thought it was very cringeworthy at the time. In retrospect I was probably too judgmental. It is weird, but if that's what you both really enjoy: go for it. I've seen worse engagements, and I mean at least they were surrounded by all of their friends and family. Still weird though. The thread worthy stuff: One of the players posted on Facebook saying his ride fell through and asking if anyone could help him. Against my better judgement I offered to help him out. God drat altruism. He was as goony as they come. -Didn't fit in the passenger seat of my hatchback. His voluminous form billowed out of the seat like a pseudopod trying to engulf my shift knob -When I picked him up he was wearing half of his costume. When I dropped him off at home he was wearing the same half of his costume. He never showered of changed clothes once in 3 days. We were constantly fighting in 90F weather. -Halfway through the 3 hour drive, after I had gone an hour out of my way to pick him up, he revealed that it was great that I drove because he "he would have needed to get an oil change and that's just too much work" -After the event he threw a huge crying tantrum because we had Planned to do post game brunch with my friends who I hadn't seen in 6 months because he really needed Chinese and to see his friends. Whatever, I wasn't going to deal with a crazy loving crying manchild. He then harassed and manipulated his friends into paying for his food. Whining the whole time about how poor he was. -Broke down, cried, and threw the Poutiest temper tantrum I've ever seen. A toddler would have been embarrassed for him. He did this because myself and his friend told him that "no we weren't interested in playing at the chapter him and his asshat friend ran." -He constantly used lovely tired meme phrases and liners such as: "Winning," and "You're not Wrong." Managed to quote 300 in every conversation. That movie came out at least 8 years ago, dude. -Spent both the entire trip up and 80% of the trip home boasting about how cool his character was. 10% about how he knew the rules better than anyone else, and 10% breaking down about his dismal life. Because here is where it got interesting/insane. -Told me that he loves his character because it allows him to be completely different from his normal self. By completely different he means boisterous and a creepy gently caress who hits on/sexually harasses anyone he can at every opportunity. He's the creepy bastard who constantly buys massages and is forcibly awkward to make people touch his sweaty. Gelatinous body. Raved about how much he loved giving and receiving massages in game and hitting on everyone. He mentioned this about 5 times an hour when discussing how cool his character was -Let slip that he had spent literally all of his money buying skill points to make his character incredibly high level. He was bigger than any other character at the event. That included people who have been playing the same character for almost 10 years. He followed this up saying that he is finally content with where his character is level-wise. He tried to that as a point of humility. -He used this to segue into telling me he had been kicked out of his parents house and then kicked out of his girlfriend/the girl he stalked's house because he continued to be a lazy piece of poo poo who refused to get a job or do snything but play video games and eat. -Admitted hit was about to be kicked out of his current place because his grandfather had just passed away. He had been living off of his grandfather's social security checks. -Continued to cry about his poor finances and and depression the rest of the way home. He repeatedly hinted that he might need somewhere to stay. I could go on and on, but at this point I'm just being mean and no one wants to read about that. When I think of or hear about the painful and creepy maladjusted larpers he is what I imagine. On one hand I really do pity that tragedy. On the other hand I want to push him down a deep loving well.
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May 31, 2016 10:29
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The grossest and most goony part of that story is that buying in-game massages is even possible. Yuck.
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May 31, 2016 11:23
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mlmp08 posted:The grossest and most goony part of that story is that buying in-game massages is even possible. Yuck. I'm not about to defend the dude, because he sounds like a loving cancer on the hobby, but what's wrong with that? I just got back last night from an LT event, where for the past three years now I've been running an IC tavern and brothel; you pay some plastic coins and then get a 15 minute backrub from one of my ladies or gentlemen in the back room, as well as cakes and booze. Hell, I threw a party there for the setup team on the first night, so that people who had been in the field for a week building everything could get their aching necks and backs seen to. I've got professionally trained masseurs/masseuses on my staff who genuinely enjoy the roleplay, and frankly make more money in an evening than many make in a year. Everyone wins! In addition we've got a strong anti-harassment policy and are entirely LGBT positive (a first I believe for in-game brothels; we're even going to be holding a full-on LGBT night this year). Even had a satyr bard playing bawdy songs on sunday night, which was the final missing piece of my setup.
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May 31, 2016 14:32
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Camrath posted:I'm not about to defend the dude, because he sounds like a loving cancer on the hobby, but what's wrong with that? I just got back last night from an LT event, where for the past three years now I've been running an IC tavern and brothel; you pay some plastic coins and then get a 15 minute backrub from one of my ladies or gentlemen in the back room, as well as cakes and booze. Hell, I threw a party there for the setup team on the first night, so that people who had been in the field for a week building everything could get their aching necks and backs seen to. I've got professionally trained masseurs/masseuses on my staff who genuinely enjoy the roleplay, and frankly make more money in an evening than many make in a year. Everyone wins! In addition we've got a strong anti-harassment policy and are entirely LGBT positive (a first I believe for in-game brothels; we're even going to be holding a full-on LGBT night this year). See, your set up sounds way more immersive, laid back, and for the fun of it. It is a far more positive and "professionally" executed affair. In my personal experience it is always creepy as poo poo. Mostly because a lot of the creepiest, raspiest, and most unpleasant men and women desperately starved for attention and physical/sexual contact build their character around it and relentlessly sexually harass everyone or try to slip innuendos into everything. It makes it grimy, awkward, and creepy. I guess in my experiences the more well adjusted people avoid that aspect. It would be cool if we had a culture to support it reasonably, but as it stands; the dregs of the game use it to be weirdos. Fortunately, I rarely see anyone using that angle anymore. We purged a lot of that behavior over the last several years.
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May 31, 2016 15:00
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Camrath posted:I'm not about to defend the dude, because he sounds like a loving cancer on the hobby, but what's wrong with that? I just got back last night from an LT event, where for the past three years now I've been running an IC tavern and brothel; you pay some plastic coins and then get a 15 minute backrub from one of my ladies or gentlemen in the back room, as well as cakes and booze. "OOC this is a back rub but IC you're tugging my magic wand" is still pretty goony to me.
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May 31, 2016 15:13
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mlmp08 posted:"OOC this is a back rub but IC you're tugging my magic wand" is still pretty goony to me. When phrased in that way, sure. But dark candlelit bordellos where people drink, scheme and fornicate are a massive staple of pretty much every fantasy setting- and that's what I try and provide. Sure, some people are creepy- and they tend to get either OC banned and reported to security or dealt with IC depending on the nature of the offence and the desire of the offended. Frankly it's rare for there to be a problem. One guy flashed his cock at my then-gf (now fiancée) in the back room but other than that and one worker who got hosed up on morphine and booze and passed out drooling on a client's back (she had /issues/) it's been a remarkably trouble free three years. As I stated above, I approach running it all in a very professional manner, with clear IC and OC division and a firm set of rules. And almost universally people love us, both players and game runners.
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May 31, 2016 16:22
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Things like pretend IC brothels work just fine if the community in question is broadly a cool group that understands social convention. Idiotic sex chat is a pretty universal conversation topic outside of LARP as well, so I'd say it's only goony if you make it goony. I wonder if the UK has an easier time of it due to being a smaller country; you can travel up and down the country pretty drat easily, so there's a lot of overlap between systems and it's easier for word to get around about individuals across the entire national community. trauma llama posted:-Let slip that he had spent literally all of his money buying skill points to make his character incredibly high level. He was bigger than any other character at the event. That included people who have been playing the same character for almost 10 years. He followed this up saying that he is finally content with where his character is level-wise. He tried to that as a point of humility. I take a very dim view of massive power gaps in pretty much everything (I'm much more a Souls fan than, say, Warcraft, however silly a comparison that may be). When discussing my dislike of it with people, the usual counter, even with videogames, is that massive levelling and power gaps make them feel like they're doing something special or achieving something. Give people the chance to do it for real, to other real people, and I'm not surprised at how toxic it can get.
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May 31, 2016 16:53
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trauma llama posted:Edit: that sounded harsh. Look at my rap sheet. No worries, mate. I'm an overly emotional angry man who takes poo poo way too personally. You're probably normal compared to me. I can only go off my experience which is World of Darkness global LARP. Trust me, they may seem normal, like they have jobs and kids and social lives. They're not. They're all diseased. I'm not trying to be a dick, Vampire just attracts those people. Skunkrocker fucked around with this message at 17:39 on May 31, 2016 |
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May 31, 2016 17:32
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Skunkrocker posted:Look at my rap sheet. No worries, mate. I'm an overly emotional angry man who takes poo poo way too personally. You're probably normal compared to me. yeah. What's important to remember is that this is all referring to the social style LARP that features weekly or biweekly game, with constant downtime play during the weekdays. One of the major differences between the boffer style LARP, where you go into the woods once a month and 'drink and hit people with sticks' is the frequency of play and therefore, the time investment. Camrath posted:I'm not about to defend the dude, because he sounds like a loving cancer on the hobby, but what's wrong with that? I just got back last night from an LT event, where for the past three years now I've been running an IC tavern and brothel; you pay some plastic coins and then get a 15 minute backrub from one of my ladies or gentlemen in the back room, as well as cakes and booze. Holy loving poo poo, this sounds like a nightmare. I thought that kind of thing was bad enough coming from a game where you weren't allowed to touch each other, but loving hell, man. I understand that you don't think this is totally gross, and maybe UK nerds are better, but this would have been a true horror in the games I was in.
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Jun 1, 2016 16:08
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Narzack posted:yeah. What's important to remember is that this is all referring to the social style LARP that features weekly or biweekly game, with constant downtime play during the weekdays. One of the major differences between the boffer style LARP, where you go into the woods once a month and 'drink and hit people with sticks' is the frequency of play and therefore, the time investment. As I think I've said already, in three years of operation we've had very few problems. One guy who flashed his cock at my fiancée while shitfaced, a couple of guys I turned away for being too smelly, but aside from that we're a much appreciated service. I've worked hard to make it as safe an environment as possible for my workers, and they keep coming back so I guess I succeeded? Really, I think a reasonable majority of folk at the LT have moved past the adolescent approach to sexuality you so often see in nerd hobbies- though there's a lot of new blood there's also a large number of folk who are in their 40s and higher who /really/ want a back massage after running around in armour all day. Tbh though, the main reason I do it is because it's really loving fun getting to play a sleazy Littlefinger-esque character in the faction I'm in- we're very much a light-side faction with a lot of noble, upstanding types and playing against type makes for great amusement and plot. Though when this character dies the entire bloody lot of brothel gear is going straight on eBay... gently caress lugging around an extra bell tent and about my body weight of props, furnishings and accessories..
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Jun 1, 2016 17:24
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ScratchAndSniff posted:To be fair, if they did need treatment they probably would have anyway, with or without your involvement. I'm not convinced that the correlation between LARPing and mental illness is evidence that otherwise normal people can end up damaged by any make-believe experience they have while pretending to be a vampire. I agree. I don't think LARP has any real power over healthy folks. The problem is, it's created by and tailored to ensnare unhealthy people. I know it sounds lovely to call someone who's socially awkward, shy or who has low self-esteem 'unhealthy', but they are. It's not an insult, any more than saying someone has acid reflux or IBS is an insult. But the social stigma attached to mental illness is a whoooooooole 'nother topic, so I'll scoot away from it. And I'm old as balls, so I've met the creators/developers/writers of White Wolf games, and they are messed up, too. Mark Rein-Hagan (created Vampire) is not a healthy dude and he has serious social issues. He is a textbook Power Tripping Nerd. Ok, there's that. Stories - I co-ran a Mage game at the Grand Masquerade (the big global convention for World of Darkness). It was drama-heavy and sheet-lite because, in six years, I still didn't know mechanics at all because they are dumb. It involved folks coming into a spa-like room, doing a guided meditation with my NPC and confessing the Dark Traumatic Secrets Of Their Past. They'd then go into another room and confront the trauma, with my team playing the figures from their past and whatnot. It'd never been done before, I was really stoked, and way more people signed up for it than we'd anticipated, so I thought maybe not everyone was about combat and crap like that. About two hours in, I realized I'd made a huge mistake. It was going fine, but almost every single person had the exact two traumas. The guys had failed to save someone they loved and so had trained to become the biggest bad-rear end in the universe, and the girls had been raped by their father or stepfather. At one point, one of my team poked his head in from the other room and said 'I'm about to play Stepdad #12. What the gently caress?' And they all thought their backstories were unique and edgy. They really did. And to backtrack a little, while there weren't many black people at games, there were some nicely racist characters. Like, one guy put black pantyhose on his arms and legs to play a black dude gangsta complete with horrible Ebonics. My favorite though was a guy (we'll call him Fred) who was playing an Assimite, who are typically Middle-Eastern, but he decided to do it up jet-black, so he covered his WHOLE SELF, at least the parts exposed, in black paint. Face, arms, chest, everything. And Fred was this portly white dude so it did not work. The beautiful moment came when Fred was walking down the hall in front of me, and my husband was coming toward us from the other direction. My husband was not playing in the games, so he had no idea who Fred was playing or anything. Fred passes my husband, who then stops in front of me with the most tender, puzzled expression and says, 'Honey? Why is Fred in blackface?'
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Jun 1, 2016 17:25
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Oh, yeah, the "I lost someone close to me" backstory cliché is so common someone was actually shocked a character I built didn't have it because almost everyone else did, and the ones who didn't had the abuse angle which I also didn't have. Yay? FYI, I have done both those clichés as backstories before. So I guess I am part of the problem after all. 
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Jun 1, 2016 17:37
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Skunkrocker posted:Oh, yeah, the "I lost someone close to me" backstory cliché is so common someone was actually shocked a character I built didn't have it because almost everyone else did, and the ones who didn't had the abuse angle which I also didn't have. Yay? Me too, though only the lost-someone one. 
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Jun 1, 2016 17:40
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trauma llama posted:
What sucks is that he's alienated himself so much by being gross and awful, and he's in a group that can't see how unhealthy they are themselves, no one he knows is going to tell him to get the gently caress out of LARP and get some help. It makes me want to do a documentary about this poo poo, so outside people can get clued in to just how damaging it can be. All the ones I've seen are attempts to show normal folks how cool and okay LARPing is, or to make fun of it, or to showcase the losers for the sake of dredging up pity. I've never seen one with ex-LARPers sharing the stuff that people have in this thread. The things I've read here, they're serious stuff. From the outside looking in, I cannot believe how many unacceptable things I ignored, let slide, laughed about, and encouraged. It's a totally skewed perception of social reality.
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Jun 1, 2016 17:43
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Ghogargi posted:It makes me want to do a documentary about this poo poo, so outside people can get clued in to just how damaging it can be. All the ones I've seen are attempts to show normal folks how cool and okay LARPing is, or to make fun of it, or to showcase the losers for the sake of dredging up pity. I've never seen one with ex-LARPers sharing the stuff that people have in this thread. The things I've read here, they're serious stuff. From the outside looking in, I cannot believe how many unacceptable things I ignored, let slide, laughed about, and encouraged. It's a totally skewed perception of social reality. Oh god I gotta be brutally honest, not only do I want that I've thought about it too. The biggest problem is that you would have to travel a distance to find former LARPers who have negative feelings on the matter. I was one of three people in my local area who use to play that had a problem with LARP. The other two... BOTH rejoined, even though they hated it, because they were dependent! And, poo poo, I STILL think about playing. Christ. This thread got really depressing for me.
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Jun 1, 2016 19:11
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Skunkrocker posted:Oh god I gotta be brutally honest, not only do I want that I've thought about it too. Jeez. this thread does destroy lives and souls.
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Jun 1, 2016 19:15
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I have some filming friends in London, maybe Germany (been a minute, need to check if they are still down with this sort of thing), and in America NYC, Chicago, SF, LA/SD/OC and somewhere Arizona. If I started an anti larp documentary kick starter would you be down?
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Jun 2, 2016 02:15
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Shbobdb posted:I have some filming friends in London, maybe Germany (been a minute, need to check if they are still down with this sort of thing), and in America NYC, Chicago, SF, LA/SD/OC and somewhere Arizona. My husband and I actually are filmmakers, and we have a crew of folks who work with us on passion projects. So it's not that we can't do it ourselves, it's whether or not it's a good idea to trudge through the mire of it all.
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Jun 2, 2016 02:24
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Shbobdb posted:If I started an anti larp documentary kick starter would you be down? The only effect would be the lifers doubling down, and the normal people being driven away, which makes the problem worse IMO.
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Jun 2, 2016 05:15
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Ghogargi posted:
This reminds me of the time I went spelunking through the Changeling: the Lost portion of the MES wiki where people had gone and posted about the True Fae that had taken their character (IE a dramatic background element that is the reason your character is what they are), and about 3/4s of what I found was a parade of BDSM shenanigans and badtouching. These far outweighed the "and they they put me in an arena and I became a total badass" ones, interestingly, which were most of the rest. There were not a lot of genuinely original ideas in there. And y'know, in a lot of cases I don't really care that any given character has sex in their background, but I've played with a wide assortment of people that I do not trust to do it tastefully or comfortably, so when I see it I reflexively cringe. That's probably the same kind of cringe that others were expression RE: the boffer LARP massage tent. I sure felt it. I'm sure it works well in that particular setting in that particular LARP, but goddamn something like that would be an unmitigated disaster in a Cam/MES/White Wolf LARP setting. There is a lot of anxious/unhealthy/misplaced sex stuff happening, that I did my best to try and studiously ignore. One thing I've come to notice is that there a lot of freeform online roleplaying can have the exact same problems as LARP does, right down to the unhealthy lifers who spend all their time playing pretend to the detriment of the rest of their life and the well-being of themselves and others. I may have managed to remain out of the IC-OOC-dating-flirting-yikes cycle during my time LARPing, if just because in my younger days I was inadvertantly caught up in the exact same bullshit when I RPed online. I knew a bad time when I saw it, because I had dipped a toe into that bad time.
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Jun 2, 2016 05:36
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Shbobdb posted:If I started an anti larp documentary kick starter would you be down? To my eye, all larp documentaries look like anti-larp documentaries, regardless of their stated purpose... --- Aurelius ---
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Jun 2, 2016 11:47
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I wish I could pay for y'all to fly over and come do an event with me. I really do. This thread is like a terrifying bizarro universe to me.
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Jun 2, 2016 12:45
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Doctor_Fruitbat posted:I wish I could pay for y'all to fly over and come do an event with me. I really do. This thread is like a terrifying bizarro universe to me. Dude, I couldn't LARP now for all the world. I evicted all nerd culture from my life. I can't even go into gaming stores. I still like some nerd poo poo, but I don't do anything socially with it. I have so much shame from those years, I can't be around any of it anymore.
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Jun 2, 2016 16:21
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Shbobdb posted:If I started an anti larp documentary kick starter would you be down? I cannot fathom a time continuum in which this would work out well. Bitter ex-larpers hanging out together handling a project requiring positions of authority, management of resources, and coordinating events while attempting to excoriate LARPers who fail at the same is a recipe for some prime drama though.
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Jun 2, 2016 17:24
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mlmp08 posted:I cannot fathom a time continuum in which this would work out well. Bitter ex-larpers hanging out together handling a project requiring positions of authority, management of resources, and coordinating events while attempting to excoriate LARPers who fail at the same is a recipe for some prime drama though. Yeah, there are plenty of folks who would be willing to talk about why LARP sucks. Dunno how many would be willing to talk about personal poo poo they did themselves, or about how the culture is mentally damaging.
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Jun 2, 2016 18:29
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Ghogargi, are you trying to change that feeling of shame, at all? Is it something you're comfortable with feeling, or something you'd want to address in therapy? Feeling that strong of a negative reaction doesn't seem like something that's good to experience, though I'm not a therapist or anything, so maybe it's okay.  Still, I hope it eases up in time.
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Jun 2, 2016 20:27
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thread posted:backstories How come people like that can't be the least bit original? Is it just "everyone wants to be edgy", or something more specific? Actually, is it a LARP thing or a Vampire (and similar) thing? My knowledge of Vampire (never played, but heard about it) and online RP would hint towards the latter, but you guys know better. At least I'm glad we don't have that kind of thing in my DnD game, but it's a whole different crowd.
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Jun 2, 2016 22:21
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Serperoth posted:How come people like that can't be the least bit original? Is it just "everyone wants to be edgy", or something more specific? Back when I table topped a little bit I had a backstory for a character that amounted to a down on his luck worker getting fed up with limited work opportunities and having a lovely boss and deciding to try his luck hunting for treasure. I gave him a completely basic sword which I explained by saying his father was a vet who died comfortably of old age. DM thought this was not nearly "deep" enough and suggested I add in poo poo like a murdered family or baron stole my family home or my beloved being abducted or something. That trite poo poo is just baked into so many origin stories, and so everyone feels they need a special snowflake origin story.
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Jun 2, 2016 23:24
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my cat is norris posted:Ghogargi, are you trying to change that feeling of shame, at all? Is it something you're comfortable with feeling, or something you'd want to address in therapy? Feeling that strong of a negative reaction doesn't seem like something that's good to experience, though I'm not a therapist or anything, so maybe it's okay. Yeah, TBH the stuff you're saying in here sounds like you've gone too far in the other direction. Like, yeah, LARP has a heaping pile of lovely culture and lovely people, but you're sounding like one of those people from my youth claiming all role playing games lead to devil worship or some poo poo. Crazy people are going to latch onto unhealthy escapism no matter what. It's not the fault of their chosen form of escapism, it's the fault of their mental illness. Serperoth posted:How come people like that can't be the least bit original? Is it just "everyone wants to be edgy", or something more specific? The vast majority of people just aren't that creative, really. It's not just LARP, or even role-playing; you'll find the same trend in just about any version of genre fiction. It is soooo rare to find more unique backstories. And, since most of the players are getting their inspiration from genre fiction...
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Jun 3, 2016 00:17
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Puppy Time posted:
This, pretty much. Not everyone's going to have amazing original ideas, and in a way, that's alright. If you're out LARPing, it's not high art. It's dressing up funny and playing pretend for a bit. That said, while I try to be fairly forgiving to most people, there are some signs I've learned to look for that indicate you're dealing with someone over-invested and overcompensating. And I think there's more overlap between the over-invested crowd and the folk that give enough of a poo poo to stick things on a wiki or pay the premium to go to the Grand Masquerade. When you're that sucked in to the hobby, when it's your thing, and when you're doing those weekly downtimes and soft RP sessions and every Saturday is more, more, more, there's a good chance your character's power and importance make you feel powerful and important. Guys tend to want to gently caress everyone up in combat. Gals tend to want to be an object of desire. (That the 'power' that people try to patch together for themselves is so gendered is a whole other ball of wax.) Your character becomes an outlet for your real frustrations and a vehicle for you to get what you're not getting in your regular life. And bad poo poo always comes from that. On a local level, at the games we'd run, we had a pretty diverse assortment of backgrounds and concepts. Only a handful of players would go full-hog Mary Sue. But when you send every group's one or two snowflakes to a big convention and they all line up to get their plot cookie, you get a scenario like the dozen evil stepdads. These things, they concentrate the crazy.
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Jun 3, 2016 00:37
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Honestly I think minimalist back stories work best in larps. That allows your personal story and background to be fleshed out in game and through the plot team. It emphasizes the fact that no one else gives a gently caress about your background and let's you grow organically.
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Jun 3, 2016 01:31
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my cat is norris posted:Ghogargi, are you trying to change that feeling of shame, at all? Is it something you're comfortable with feeling, or something you'd want to address in therapy? Feeling that strong of a negative reaction doesn't seem like something that's good to experience, though I'm not a therapist or anything, so maybe it's okay. Yeah, I'm working on it. There was a lot of poo poo to tackle, especially childhood traumas, so those were Priority One. It's funny - we went to the mall today and my husband said he wanted to go into the comic store. Usually, I'll just park on a bench and wait for him, but this time I said I'd go. So we went in and I was doing okay, until my husband and a couple employees started talking about the fact that they were changing location and packing up for the move. My husband commented that there was a lot of stock to move, and the girl said 'Yeah, but we have lots of super-friends to help. Oh my god, I can't believe I just said that, tee hee!' And I wanted to run out of there screaming. Which is not a normal reaction, and it's not a comfortable one. It's way beyond 'Wow, these people are dorky, let me roll my eyes a bit'. I really felt a wave of panic and misery, just by being around that sort of conversation/quip. That cannot be healthy. But it brought up memories and feelings from the LARP Times, and those feelings were almost 100% terrible and filled to overflowing with shame and self-hate. This may be TMI again, but my husband and I are hoping to have a kid soon. And I was given advice that before we start that huge new endeavor, I have to make peace with the past and what I did. No bad mojo sticking around for the new life. It's kinda hokey, but it's rooted in some sensible ideas, I think. I dunno how to make that happen, but I am actively working on it.
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Jun 3, 2016 02:02
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Puppy Time posted:Yeah, TBH the stuff you're saying in here sounds like you've gone too far in the other direction. Like, yeah, LARP has a heaping pile of lovely culture and lovely people, but you're sounding like one of those people from my youth claiming all role playing games lead to devil worship or some poo poo. The difference is - this particular form of escapism, and the culture built by it, make things so much worse. The lifers feed each others' sicknesses by encouraging extreme investment. The games themselves cater to the unhealthy. The hyper-sexualized and PvP and themes in Vampire are bad news for people with low self-esteem. The victimization theme in Lost is bad news, the power-tripping poo poo in Mage is no good. In the Cam, you were rewarded for being a lifer. The more disconnected you were from reality, the more you got from the organization. And, I think, only RPing allows you to pretend you're not you to such a degree that it can actually make sick people feel like it really works. Video games, books, writing, anything people use to take themselves out of the world don't have nearly the immersion LARP does. It's the heroin to their weed, you know? It's the hard stuff. And it can have really awful, lasting effects. But I think I've said (and if not, I will here) that LARPing or any type of RPing isn't going to make you crazy, or gently caress you up. If you're healthy, you're probably not gonna be affected much. It's not going to turn you into a fat, unwashed, miserable piece of poo poo. In my tiny bubble of extremism, one that's not rational or sensible but something I do feel, I wish LARP organizations would at least examine the potential for harm they have, and maybe be transparent about that. But I know that's not really a reasonable or probable thing, and I'm aware it's fueled by my heavy, heavy bias.
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Jun 3, 2016 02:26
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Serperoth posted:How come people like that can't be the least bit original? Is it just "everyone wants to be edgy", or something more specific? It's LARP. Absolutely no one cares about your background. Not even you. It's just a thing you write down if you have to, and then go do some poo poo. The cliche ones are no-brainers, totally Default Fantasy Protagonist poo poo.
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Jun 3, 2016 02:55
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Liquid Communism posted:It's LARP. Absolutely no one cares about your background. Not even you. It's just a thing you write down if you have to, and then go do some poo poo. The cliche ones are no-brainers, totally Default Fantasy Protagonist poo poo. I intentionally tried to come up with the most boring backstory possible for my current character, eventually I decided on the fact that I ran away from home as a teenager to avoid having to take over the family accountancy business. There's a pretty rock solid correlation between the length of someone's backstory and not actually doing anything in-game. We had a bunch of people in our group who all had multiple A4 pages of single spaced backstory, who did nothing in play except sit around, drink tea and talk about how awesome all the stuff they had done in their backstories were. FeatherFloat posted:One thing I've come to notice is that there a lot of freeform online roleplaying can have the exact same problems as LARP does, right down to the unhealthy lifers who spend all their time playing pretend to the detriment of the rest of their life and the well-being of themselves and others. I may have managed to remain out of the IC-OOC-dating-flirting-yikes cycle during my time LARPing, if just because in my younger days I was inadvertantly caught up in the exact same bullshit when I RPed online. I knew a bad time when I saw it, because I had dipped a toe into that bad time. Urrrrgh, you haven't seen poo poo until you've seen the online roleplaying community for a LARP. We had one for one year in a local University system I help run and it was the loving worst. People would end up staying up till 3am every night deciding every detail of what their characters would do, so when the biweekly session rolled around players who didn't use the forums would be bluntly told that there was nothing to discuss as everything had already been decided online. Quite a few people said that their grades suffered due to spending way, way too much time on the forums instead of doing work. The next year we banned forum roleplay and have never gone back. Most sensible LARP systems do the same to make sure the play actually happens on the field and not on some lovely messageboard. Also, while fest LARPs don't necessarily have the same creepiness and lifer issues as regular social LARP (although trust me, you *definitely* get creepy and obsessed people at fest LARP as well) you replace it with another problem - imposter syndrome. When you have a system that actually is a somewhat functioning meritocracy (as opposed to older players getting all the poo poo or just buying it) and combine that with high costume and set dressing standards and you can get otherwise healthy people really stressing out about they don't belong or don't deserve to go LARPing. Pretty much every member of my group has to varying degrees said at some point that they feel they can't like up to the expectations and standards of the group or the system. I have to occasionally remind myself or others than we are playing super-serious fancy dress in a field, and that everyone should just chill out and enjoy it. Of course, you still get the people to whom LARP is the only good thing about their lives and the only time they feel competent/powerful, and you're never going to change those people or get them out of LARP unless they make that mental change themselves.
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Jun 3, 2016 10:40
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