Ask me about LARPing destroying my life and my soul.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Ask me about LARPing destroying my life and my soul.

Liquid Communism: Mar 9, 2004

Shbobdb posted:

In Vampire computer game, I remember them talking about an awesome bad-guy who had an organic castle with floors paved with the screaming people. It was hinted at and, admittedly, I never could beat the last medieval level so I never saw what they were talking about. What was that dude about and how would something so badass work at lower levels? Biomancy is an awesome concept and video games do precious little with it, but I figure some random RPs might.

There's a whole clan of vampires in OWOD called the Tzimisce who are like that. It isn't really biomancy as it is blood-magic fueled flesh shaping. They do nasty, nasty things, like making bus-sized amalgamations of screaming innocents called War Ghouls, and performing Menegle-level human experimentation for fun.

# ¿ Aug 19, 2015 11:26

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# ¿ May 16, 2024 07:18

Liquid Communism: Mar 9, 2004

Mince Pieface posted:

So me and my friends run a small LARP out of southern California every month. Our game is not any of the popular LARP systems, and most of the people we play with don't play any of the popular LARPs or have any interest in them. I think a big part of the reason for the famed toxicity of the general LARP community is that frankly, every single one of them has terrible loving game design.
As mentioned by some other posters, almost every popular larp massively favors older players over newbies, encourages out of session scheming and has insanely complicated rules with terrible presentation. All of this combines to drive out any sensible people who aren't willing to be poo poo on for 2-3 years by the inner circle of people who've been in the game forever. Basically, the only people willing to stick it out in these terrible systems are people who don't value their time or self at all.
So, the key to LARPing without having all this terrible poo poo happen is to make a system that is simple, friendly to casual/newer players, and naturally breaks up cliques that form.
We accomplish this by having a system that:
1) Runs without a dedicated GM (thereby avoiding the problem of GM cliques and favoritism)
2) Has 0 accumulation of character power over time. This puts new players on the same level as experienced players, and has the side benefit of driving off the toxic shitheads who can't handle not being able to lord over the dirty casuals.
3) Putting a strict limit on how long we can make the rules document, so new players aren't put at a disadvantage through not being able to understand the rules, and lowering the barrier to entry so people without gaming experience can play
4) Rules that don't allow weird/disturbing roleplaying behavior such as seduction/mind control/sexual acts without all parties explicit consent.

Our group isn't large compared to the really popular LARPS (Around 10-20 people each month), but they are all cool people, and we've never run into any really problematic behavior.

It's hard to state how important some of this is. A few years ago I got dragged to couple Nero Alliance events because I was into the SCA (because beating each other up with sticks then having beers and bullshitting was fun) but rehabbing a knee injury, and got sold on it as lighter combat with some roleplaying to go with it. It is hard to state just how poisonous it is when you realize that the high-level players have literally been playing the same character for up to 20 years in a system that has unlimited accumulation of character abilities. Naturally new characters will never get that strong because the old and powerful ones get their pick of the best loot and most of the plot attention because the people running the game see them as essential and steady money.

They got really, really butthurt when they realized that they couldn't actually land hits on people who were used to being swung at full speed instead of wrist flicked at with pipe foam, though. :v:

Liquid Communism fucked around with this message at 07:14 on Aug 31, 2015

# ¿ Aug 31, 2015 07:08

Liquid Communism: Mar 9, 2004

Anoia posted:

Another former WoD LARPer here. I played for... I don't even remember. 3 years? Maybe close to 4? I missed a lot of games for health reasons. It was a bad time for me, but I was lonely and wanted some escapism on top of social interaction.

I had previously been warned away from my local troupe when it was with the Camarilla, but then it split from the organization, changed the troupe name, kicked certain problem players, got new Storytellers, and was supposedly much better.

It'll take some drinking for me to try and get out some of the stories, but the troupe was about 50 people mostly ages 25-45 and it was FILLED with swingers.

I was quick to tell dudes I was a lesbian, not that it did much good, but my downfall came at the hands of the wife of one of the head STs, or as one of the guys in my coterie called her "the LARP bicycle."

I turned her down when she booty called me one night, so she made it her mission to destroy my characters. Then I confronted her about it publicly on the LARP Facebook page without thinking. The resulting blow-up (nobody took my side) is when I decided to quit.

Long story short, the creepy dudes weren't the biggest problem in my LARP. My experience was basically an especially ugly, nerdy version of Mean Girls.

Oh God the Cam. My old roommate was big into it.

The only organization I've known that had to institute rules that specifically prevented anything from one-shotting a character because certain players were travelling to other states to show up to a game, murder someone's character in one round with no recourse, then leaving game before any consequences could happen.

# ¿ Sep 27, 2015 01:36

Liquid Communism: Mar 9, 2004

You've... never heard of Airsoft, have you?

# ¿ Oct 19, 2015 19:50

Liquid Communism: Mar 9, 2004

ScratchAndSniff posted:

In the history of the United States, police have never mistaken an airsoft gun for a real gun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9FtNOV6Qhk

Yeah, you're right, that would never happen.

http://nypost.com/2014/11/27/cops-release-video-of-officer-fatally-shooting-12-year-old/

Never.

https://www.rt.com/usa/police-shooting-california-teen-719/

Happen.

# ¿ Oct 20, 2015 06:09

Liquid Communism: Mar 9, 2004

Vampire LARP is its own special flavor of hosed up and awful.

Most of the boffer LARPS don't get that bad because when someone is being a creepy fucker you can just hit them.

# ¿ Oct 26, 2015 16:35

Liquid Communism: Mar 9, 2004

Camrath posted:

Is archery unusual in a US LARP context? Every single game I've played at over here that involved combat had bows and crossbows as weapon options, even if frankly they felt inappropriate for the setting.

My first ever character was a crossbowman, which was perhaps not the wisest of choices. One event I spent the same amount on lost or broken bolts as I did my ticket for the event.

When you don't require any safety gear at all, fight 24/7 in whatever conditions, and your players are used to boffers, so don't really fight in a controlled manner, real archery even with padded arrows becomes a hard sell to your insurance provider. I have no idea what it costs to insure a LARP these days, but paintball was always really expensive, and had significant requirements regarding gear, lighting, obstacles, and times of play.

Liquid Communism fucked around with this message at 12:56 on Dec 17, 2015

# ¿ Dec 17, 2015 12:49

Liquid Communism: Mar 9, 2004

Sadly, it's the US. It's not about how often someone gets hurt, it's about how hosed the guys running the game are if someone does get hurt and sues.

# ¿ Dec 18, 2015 02:51

Liquid Communism: Mar 9, 2004

BiggerJ posted:

So, is larping EVER anything but a bad idea? If someone wants to try larping, what should they avoid, and what should they keep in mind? Or is larping something literally nobody should ever do? (The answers to these questions would of course very depending on where one lives.)

Like any nerdy hobby, what you get out of it will depend on how low you set your bullshit tolerance. Just don't put up with the crazies and you'll avoid 90% of the drama.

# ¿ Apr 9, 2016 22:13

Liquid Communism: Mar 9, 2004

Trojan Kaiju posted:

So is the furry thread that inspired this thread in archives? I was really enthralled by all the stories in this thread and I'm super interested in checking that out.

It's all of a couple pages back.

https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3725148

# ¿ Apr 15, 2016 06:59

Liquid Communism: Mar 9, 2004

Milky Moor posted:

I was one of these people. But eventually the game I was playing basically ran the more 'casual' players out.

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.

# ¿ Apr 19, 2016 10:57

Liquid Communism: Mar 9, 2004

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.

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.

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.

# ¿ Apr 20, 2016 11:52

Liquid Communism: Mar 9, 2004

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.

# ¿ Apr 20, 2016 23:53

Liquid Communism: Mar 9, 2004

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.

# ¿ Apr 21, 2016 01:25

Liquid Communism: Mar 9, 2004

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.

# ¿ Apr 23, 2016 03:31

Liquid Communism: Mar 9, 2004

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.

# ¿ Apr 23, 2016 07:57

Liquid Communism: Mar 9, 2004

BiggerJ posted:

The reason American larps are like this, from what I've read, seems to be that people in the US are a lot more judgmental about hobbies than Europeans are. The US tends to be more capitalistic, so putting a lot of time, money and effort into something that doesn't make one money is often looked down upon.

Well, and as you note from the picture, it's a bunch of broke-rear end highscool and college kids that are their main audience.

# ¿ Apr 27, 2016 05:46

Liquid Communism: Mar 9, 2004

I think that's a thing in all LARPs. Regular old human politics, cliques form, gain power, then work to consolidate as much power as possible to themselves in order to 'win' the game.

People are really, really bad at recognizing that they're all out to just play a game, and sometimes not winning makes for a more fun story.

# ¿ Apr 29, 2016 16:07

Liquid Communism: Mar 9, 2004

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.

# ¿ May 31, 2016 08:28

Liquid Communism: Mar 9, 2004

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?
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.

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.

# ¿ Jun 3, 2016 02:55

Liquid Communism: Mar 9, 2004

The Sabbat game I played in back in high school was pretty good, for a Vampire game. Everyone came out and made monsters, then reveled in it. Much less bullshit goth queening when a lot of the playerbase considers 'Fine, I hit you in the face with a shovel until you shut up.' to be a valid character response.

# ¿ Jun 5, 2016 04:48

Liquid Communism: Mar 9, 2004

MES is loving terrible at all levels, and being in a position of organizational 'power' is a pretty good predictor of how lovely of a person someone is to interact with.

# ¿ Sep 28, 2016 08:27

Liquid Communism: Mar 9, 2004

Xenocides posted:

One good way of telling how much fun a LARPer is going to be is their backstory. If it is long and miserable and involves revenge, trauma, etc then they are probably going to be insufferable.

If they keep it short and actually give some positive motivations for being where they are in the game they are more likely to be fun and engaging.

In a fantasy LARP the guy who is adventuring in order to feed his otherwise happy family is more fun then the guy who claims to have been victimized by three enemies and lives to kill them all. This is another reason World of Darkness LARPs tend to go wrong. Everyone is supposed to be a victim of something in the game no matter which of their games they play. In tabletop this is mitigated a bit by the players usually banding together to rise above the generally oppressive atmosphere. In a LARP everyone's goal tends to be to amass power and create the oppressive atmosphere.

99% of why Werewolf was the only good OWOD game. "gently caress it, we're just going to be superheroes." works there.

# ¿ Oct 15, 2016 05:27

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# ¿ May 16, 2024 07:18

Liquid Communism: Mar 9, 2004

Pondex posted:

So there's the Chaotic Neutral-people, there's the Fish-Malks, and there's Pookas as well.
This seems like enough of a thing that is needs a name.

Fish-Malks don't needs names, they need measured and repeated kicking until they knock it off.

# ¿ Oct 19, 2016 13:06

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Ask me about LARPing destroying my life and my soul.