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I got into LARPing a bit in college, (did some NERO), and my friend did a bunch his old high school buddies did it. There was a bit of what you described, a really stupid rules system where every time you swing your sword you call damage, and people shout lightning bolt. I actually enjoyed it because I found many of the people to be super cool, and the roleplaying was good. It was incredibly newbie unfriendly, as the lifers would literally swing for 20 damage, and you would swing for 2 starting out. Losing yourself in a character for an entire weekend was very cool, The thing is, being on a campsite with 80 other people you could usually find a fun crew to run with, and it was really not as awful as the documentaries made it look. Sad part is that the game got stale and most of the cool kids left, and the game floundered. Strange how everyone in this thread is talking about 'excessive immersion' is bad, in the games I played, it was the people that couldn't really roleplay that were the weird ones. It was ALWAYS the ones that were never in character and constantly mentioned video games and movies that would go to the Denny's after the game *STILL IN COSTUME*. My buddy got me to come out to try a new game he started and it was actually super fun. It's trying to be a little bit more like the european style LARPs that genuinely sound awesome. I found a fun group and played a plague doctor. The annoying wierdo factor was like 3-4 people out of like 70 or so, and nothing creepy or messed up happend all weekend. I saw people I hadn't seen in years, and most of them seemed functional. Whiskey A Go Go! posted:Is the combat system based more upon character skill sheets or personal skill? I kinda wanna see someone with a kendo background go to a LARP meet in their Bogu and wreak the place. It's been done, but I doubt they'd wreck everyone. The most successful groups use lots of group tactics and shield walls, polearms, along with skirmishers to break flanks and opposing walls etc... at a lot of LARPs I've been to there are people with some decent athletic ability, and people who have been practicing for years. One kid was a Soccer player on a scholarship at his school, and he was so fast you could just never catch him. One guy was so good he could usually take on 2-3 opponents without getting hit. Some LARPs use intricate rules to work like D&D, (hp based on level, lots of magic spells, etc.) tend to really skew to the lifers, those larps tend to suck. Not just because of that, but because the balancing is so off you can't balance fights for everyone, and you have to separate people by 'experience level'. But for Fantasy Style Larps, the best way to tell if it's any good or the people playing are going to make it fun is the costumes. If they look good, it's usually a good group. The biggest tell is the shoes. If the photos of the larp have anyone with sneakers in it, it's probably super creepy and full of weird kids.
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Aug 13, 2015 18:07
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| # ¿ May 17, 2024 00:38 |
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Ugh I really love Rocky Horror, but I really feel like a lot of the people who get super into it completely miss the point. It that Frankenfurter's life of complete abandon and hedonism in completely unsustainable. It was beautiful and savage but it can't live on, because it eventually kills everything around it. We can't live as pure id forever, and that realization is growing up, and it's a death, no matter if you're a bit of a dick. It's kind of ridiculous to think so once you're out of it, but it's still kind of sad. It's why that movie is so couched in nostalgia for the 50's, greaser culture, double picture shows, horror movies and the trappings of a kid who grew up in the 50's in england like richard O'brien. So the idea of dressing up forever always felt like anathema to rocky horror, that piece is about losing the innocence of pure release, and realizing there's no such thing. Frankenfurter's sexual revolution is falling apart as janet and brad arrive, they're in the last throws of it. It's about the dangers of nostalgia and not growing up, and somehow it became this clarion call for people who *don't* want to grow up, and are just filled with the nostalgia for when they watched Rocky Horror the first time... It's the loving snake eating itself...
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Aug 30, 2015 02:00
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Camrath posted:Airsoft, replicas or deacts, no gas or BBs permitted on site. It /really/ aids immersion. Biggest sadness was that no blank gas shots/PFC weapons were permitted, but that's down to insurance reasons. Uhm... As cool as & fun this looks, and a 20's larp sounds amazing... There are *way* too many real guns in america, and I would not be anywhere near this if the guns looked anywhere near real. The second the cops are called, or some redneck stumbles upon the game, I can just imagine it turning out really badly. I mean, when we shoot movies with prop guns anywhere *near* any roads or anything we hire cops to make sure everything will be ok. I can't imagine running a lap with real looking firearms.
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Oct 19, 2015 18:07
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I guess I should balance this out a bit, from horror stories to how it can go well. I went this weekend to a game with pretty high costuming requirements, relatively simple rules, and any skill you wanted your character to learn you had to learn in game. The focus was very much trying to build a sandbox style game, where every NPC was playing their own single character for the majority of the weekend, even if they were just a bad guy. They only run 3-4 events this year, and were really trying to bring a bit of the european model back here to the states. Basically it ended with the GM's stepping down as they don't want to burn out, and they got a standing ovation at closing ceremonies. We had some perma-deaths, and one was voluntary. A character basically sacrificed their character to kill a bad guy. That was the cost. Everyone that was secretly working with the bad guy and getting powers from him basically lost all their character progression. If you know New England style laps you know this is rather rare. Most people came left stoked, but the guys that run it don't want to run it without keeping this level of quality. There wasn't really any drama that was out of game, everyone had a good time. I think a big element is that they don't allow any in game internet forums, everything that happens has to happen in game. As far as no positive elements, I do know some people that got a lot of the larps the played, including gaining level of self-confidence, getting used to public speaking, conflict resolution, learning to deal with stressful situations and anxiety in a safe space, where nothing really matters on monday morning, etc... That said, you need a non-toxic environment for that to happen, and a lot of laps are completely insular communities that don't really do that, and the more often the game is is often an indicator of how bad it is. It takes so much work & planning to run a decent game, that if your game runs once per month, it's essentially a full time job for the staff.
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Oct 27, 2015 17:12
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It's a game called Arcane, and they basically wrote their own system, but heavily borrowed from european style larps. Every power requires some sort of physical representation, so, if you're a healer, you have 'waters of life' that you can only replenish every twelve hours and you have a small water of vial the town healer will give you when you learn it. Basically every 'power' and 'class' in the game is essentially similar. You have to roleplay a ceremony or ritual. There are about 7-8 calls in the game total. If you don't have a healer, there are 'first aid' and 'surgery' skills that require having bandages (for first aid) and needle and thread (for surgery). And most of the same rules apply or the NPC's. NPC's play recurring characters that resurrect upon death, so you really get the 'shadows of mordor' orc vibe when you kill that ratkin a few times, and they remember you, single you out next time you fight them, remember if you ambushed them, etc...
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Oct 27, 2015 20:53
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Archery was badass. And in the rules automatically pierced any non-plate armor, so if you can sneak around and get a shot off... it's huge. Basically you had to complete an in-game safety thing to explain the archery rules, to be able to fire arrows during the day, and only rangers could learn to fire arrows at night, and that would mean that it was basically your only skill.
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Dec 11, 2015 17:49
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| # ¿ May 17, 2024 00:38 |
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Puppy Time posted:LARPs in general are not a very profitable enterprise, and I expect it'd be even harder to get enough cash to keep it up if you don't have the draw of "I can play my superpowerful character with tons of backstory and importance to make up for the really mediocre life I lead" to keep big fish coming. This is only true of the American Larps. European style Larps rake in SERIOUS cash. $125 x 3000-5000 people, mostly volunteer staff. Even with American Larps, If you can get your larp over 125-150 people you can start doing ok, as a side job running it.
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Mar 12, 2016 22:21
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