Just came back from postapocalyptic LARP. I've played as merchant and it was really fun. I've tricked some people, I lied with my every word and I've got annihilated by TNT taken by Lunatic to bar, where I was sitting with other characters.
Do you like LARPs Veeky Forums? Or do you prefer less dynamic games or games with no face to face contact?
American live action roleplaying tends to be awful, so no.
Please tell me this image isn't actually from your larp.
Also, if you want to spark serious discussion in a larpthread, use a serious image.
Just returned from a ren fair kind of thing. It's an annual fair in an old castle, and they have a whole area designated medieval. There were potters, jewelers, a blacksmith, and someone who made instruments out of wood and clay. But most of it was just people hanging out in canvas tents wearing garb. I discovered that it's free, only vendors have to pay. And it lasts 2 days every year, so there's a sleepover. The public can watch but is roped off on the walkway. You can let them watch or remove the rope to invite them in. There's a lot of families with little children. One vendor sells wooden daggers, so they all run around with those.
There was a stage fight demonstration, lots of food, some live music, and a bunch of people I know from LARPs who brought bottles and bottles of shots.
It was nice.
next weekend there will be our big summer larp here.
End of the month is Drachenfest.
Going for both and preparing
But right now I'm at our blacksmith who is working on my gorget and gauntlets, while I'm making a new leather jerkin and belt bag
I used to LARP, but the only close groups are all really high-level games, with an xp system based on how many games you go to, so no matter what I do, I'll never be as good as the people who have been playing for 5-10 years.
I'm planning on trying out a game that's a state over, but I haven't been able to get any of my friends interested enough to go with me.
New gear this year?
Can't wait for the pics.
same gear but I upgrade it a little here and there if I can finish it.
>no matter what I do, I'll never be as good as
This does not sync with what my experiences of LARPs was like at all. It isn't a game where you can win. Rules are silly beyond the simplest "one hit per limb, 2 with armor". Character progression is measured in stories to tell and not levels achieved. That's like running around with a broom stick yelling D&D! D&D!
I know, Amerilarpers are different. I just don't get it.
and by same I mean, armour will be the same, but probably I can bring my five fingered gauntlet, if everything goes right I will finish the new jerkin and side bag, and rapire and upgrade with more color my clothing. New laces were already made for it previously this year.
And if I don't forget it I will put together a better tutorial this time for the jerkin
>That's like running around with a broom stick yelling D&D! D&D!
US larps are DnD but IN REAL LIFE.
They used slightly modified tabletop rules as a core at first and evolved nearly everything from there
After my experience with SCA Cut&Thrust, I can't understand how anyone could enjoy LARPing. How are you supposed to reconcile the difference between the characters' combat skills and the players'? How do you reconcile a need for safety with a need to disincentivize stupid moves? If supposed reenactors can't get even the most basic shit right, I imagine any level of training at all would make LARP horribly imbalanced.
That's why you can't play an agile thief when you're a 200 lbs man. Just like your little sister couldn't play a mighty warrior. No one will stop you. But it will be silly, inviting hilarity at every corner. Not even making fun of you, just taking seriousness away from the game.
A LARP isn't something a GM presents and the players suffer through. It is a much more cooperative experience. Ability to act and initiative to develop story are essential. You don't have to be good at it, but you have to do it. Otherwise you'd just be standing around.
Few events talked about here seem to grasp the value of a town location. Most seem to focus on combat. And for parts of the player base that's fine. But it is only a small part of the much larger events that grab you and make you part of the fantasy. Contrast is crucial, you need opportunity to play your character in different contexts, showing different sides of the personality.
Pen and paper roleplaying is an entirely different hobby. A sheet for a LARP character should be nothing more than a way for the organizers to keep track of PCs. It shouldn't require much bookkeeping and it definitely shouldn't tell players how to mimic combat.
>After my experience with SCA Cut&Thrust, I can't understand how anyone could enjoy LARPing
>after my experience with american football I can't understand how anyone could enjoy baseball
>live in texas in the good ol USA
Is there any hope for my LARP scene, lads?
Not really I'm sorry to say. I've spent years trying to get involved in LARP but every attempt has ended in disapointment.
That IS a serious LARP where I live...
I am a staff member at a LARP in NJ. LARPing is where it's at for me as far as role-playing goes. When I tabletop I just can't really get into the serious RP.
>Implying SCA is anything other than LARPing
The culture of the SCA and the kind of stuff you do there is drastically different from most LARPs, at least in the United States.
Where do you live?
The culture of the SCA is "fuck history, I'm here to flail around with a wooden/vinyl sword and bone the first thing I see regardless of how male/female/goatlike/hideous it is." Is LARPing not like that?
Dunno where you are from, but my experience with the SCA (north-eastern United States) is that people are sticklers for historical accuracy and there is a great deal of politics and interpersonal drama.
Well, it depends on the LARP. There's definitely no wooden or vinyl swords though. Typically boffers (PVC core, pipe foam insulation) or latex weapons are used. There are some games that call themselves LARPs I classify as "stick jock" games that are basically just combat games like Dagorhir, Amtgard, and Belegarth. Then there's boffer LARPs like I play that have deeper mechanics and are focused around storytelling and character development. Ongoing plot lines, very detailed settings, etc...
So there is fighting, but it's 'lightest touch' meaning you only hit people hard enough for them to acknowledge that they were hit. It's often less about combat and more about creative role-playing and immersion.
Two main difference between larping and SCA
For larps, having a character is mandatory. At SCA it's totally optional and most of the time you only have a persona which isn't the same
Secondly, for a larp you need a shared "in game world" which everyones agree uppon. SCA lacks that too,
There's been some sincere effort in the new England region to create a Larp environment more similar the European games lately. It's running into some resistance though because folks can't get behind a system without a thousand calls.
There's also the issue where games with in depth skill systems provide players a chance to expand beyond their natural capabilities. In our "everyone gets a trophy" society we need to make sure our system allows 500 lb Johnny Asthma who can't afford a cheap chain shirt the ability to play an effective front line fighter
Does anyone here actually practice Western martial arts, or is this going to be one of those "Some butthurt European whines that American LARP sucks because reasons" threads?
In fact, we literally had a staff member at one of our local games grind a meeting to a halt because they felt requiring latex weapons to ensure at least a minimum level of immersion wasn't fair to people who can only afford boffers.
Because $40 for a cheap sword off the net isn't a fair start up cost. They're the same folks who are going to wear a towel tabard and they sure as hell won't be able to afford the $75-150 entrance fee (renting space is so fucking absurd). And they'll look terrible and piss off people who spent any effort at all to look the part.
And honestly, the second you allow boffers anyone with any competitive spirit will be using half ounce dickswords from the word go
Larp fighting and hema are different animals. Don't get them confused.
So butthurt European whines that American LARP sucks because reasons thread, got it. Thanks.
let me get this straight: you think that if nobody does HEMA here THEN the thread MUST be about europeans whining about US larps?
>In our "everyone gets a trophy" society we need to make sure our system allows 500 lb Johnny Asthma who can't afford a cheap chain shirt the ability to play an effective front line fighter
I'm a fat guy and I know my limits, I'm not gonna go fight the jock at the top of his form, I'm going to try to befriend him and have eachother to help in a fight with NPCs and mobs
No, it's an American gets butthurt when someone points out how American LARPs are awful thread.
are there any 40K LARPs
there are in the UK... if they still call it UK
>my experience with the SCA (north-eastern United States) is that people are sticklers for historical accuracy
My experience is that they're sticklers for their own headcanon version of history, which is demonstrably wrong.