|
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 |
#
¿
Mar 11, 2016 18:02
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 16, 2024 04:44 |
|
|
That actually sounds like a really good time.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 30, 2016 00:22
|
|
|
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.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 20, 2016 16:29
|
|
|
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.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 22, 2016 14:03
|
|
|
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!
|
|
#
¿
Apr 22, 2016 15:02
|
|
|
I think the quality was mostly owing to the budget of the playerbase during that time period, mixed with lower standards (due to people not really knowing any better). I honestly can't speak to what the LARP chapter looks like these days, though a glance at some pictures* suggests more effort is going into things overall. Nowhere near on the level of a Euro LARP, but still improved over the t-shirts-and-tabards days. * The gallery is no doubt showing off "the good stuff" so my assessment may be very wrong.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 27, 2016 17:50
|
|
|
NERO gives you an increasing shot at permanent death that starts with 1 black stone in a bag of 9 white stones. On your second chance, it's 2 black stones and 8 white stones, etc. Pulling the first black stone is extremely unlucky, and that's how I lost my first character, a gypsy rogue who just kinda got in over her head. My second character was a boring-rear end hard-to-kill healer-type who kept to the back lines. Still technically alive, I guess, but I have no idea where any of her records might still exist, if they even do. My third character was a thief who played politics well enough to become squired under the nobility. Unfortunately, being a thief was way more fun than playing the noble (especially under my chapter's heavy-handed OOC rules), so even if I did want to go back to LARPing, it wouldn't be to play that character. I don't think I had any other lasting characters outside those three. my cat is norris fucked around with this message at 18:31 on May 18, 2016 |
|
#
¿
May 18, 2016 13:00
|
|
|
Nah man, sharing that much personal information in a thread like this generally isn't gonna happen. Up to the OP if she wants to respond or not, but I don't think she needs to do that. It's better to ask for those kinds of details in PMs. 
|
|
#
¿
May 30, 2016 12:37
|
|
|
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.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 2, 2016 20:27
|
|
|
Ghogargi posted:I really felt a wave of panic and misery, just by being around that sort of conversation/quip. That cannot be healthy. I get that feeling right now from online roleplay. After my first and only life-absorbing MUSH experience came to an end last October, I haven't been able to get into any form of online roleplay at all -- not that I really feel the need for it? But, I've tried a few times, just writing collaborative stories with my boyfriend, and I keep getting these awful feelings. Working through that has been tough! I wish you the best of luck.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 3, 2016 16:00
|
|
|
Your costume looks great!
|
|
#
¿
Sep 8, 2016 12:20
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 16, 2024 04:44 |
|
|
I've mostly LARPed in semi-isolated campgrounds. Pubbies had little reason to go to a reserved group campground unless they were really exploring the entire park, so we had only rare encounters. One guy was passing by on his motorcycle whenever a downpour broke out, so he had to take shelter in the camp's kitchen hall (the "town tavern"), where he was surrounded by LARP for like a whole hour before he could get the gently caress out. Fortunately, he took it pretty well, and nobody was too weird to him. The only time I've LARPed in a public space was whenever someone's city park pavilion would get rented out for one day events. That was more difficult because we'd run into families and weirded-out parents. I don't miss those days.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 12, 2016 12:14
|
|