LARP thread

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Poor LARPfag. Dont y'know there aren't any of your kind here?

empirical evidence suggests otherwise

>the fucking clam pool

It has been 3 hours...

... and?

shrine for the blue avatar. But before that year he had the shrine and a small pool inside of a tavern. Because he likes to be worshiped next to a drink

Welp someone else finally showed up. Appears there is a very small amount of LARPfags around.

it's 15:44 in eastern europe, Work hours will end somewhere around now in europe.
US people are mostly sleeping, or just waking up.

Perhaps you are right. However it is midnight in western glorious desert country and i must sleep

sleep well

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....... wait a minute.
These people are adults?
With voting rights?

don't worry, they won't vote for Trump

I was worried that all the LARPfags had left in the days of yore.

Unfortunately for me, I haven't gone larping as often as I want to, but I'm heading to an event in 3 or 4 days, and I still have a few short stories if anyone's interested.

nah, we didn't left. We are just lazy fucks and you have to find the precise time of the day when larpfags look here and find the larp threads before it disappears among the other threads.

anyway do tell the stories

Britbong LARPfag here, looking forward to The Gathering of Nations LARP in August, seriously hope it's cooled down by then, black armour in hot sun is pure stupid

nah, you just have to have slashed cloths and awesomeness

Alright, I'll throw down a greentext or two.

This larp usually has at least 100 people, but since it's a long-ass drive across multiple state borders, I usually bring friends. Our party consists of one human cavalier (basically a spell-less paladin), one human bounty hunter, one halfling healer and one human mage/fighter (me.) The mechanics at this game are more numbers based than most, especially when it comes to high level skills. With background for this game aside, let the story begin

>It's Sunday morning, the four of us had just come back from a module and were going to grab a drink at our tent
>All of a sudden, a large group of green things carrying dogs were blocking our path
>In Game, we had no idea that these eight ogres and their dire wolves were THAT deadly.
>Out of Game, I sorta knew that ogres were weak to magic, and I specialized in casting pyromancy (the most offensive sphere of magic in the game.)/
>The four of us are split up by the ogres
>Healer and Bounty Hunter are sticking together, when all of a sudden I see them both fall.
>I manage to kill an ogre with a single beanbag, but then another one deals about five times my health in damage with a single swing (I only have 19 HP)
>As soon as he hears exactly how much damage the ogres are swinging, our cavalier fucking RUNS.
>The ogres proceed to move on in search of fresh meat
>I drop, and begin counting upwards towards 10 minutes, because after 10 minutes I am dead.
>It turns out the bounty hunter had his weapon disarmed so he just fell to the ground and pretended to be dead.
>Bounty hunter walks up to the healer, takes a healing salve out of healers pocket and brings him up.
>The two of them try to walk towards me, but then the ogres turn the fuck around, pick up my body and carry me to their next location.
>After some quick dispatching, a healer reaches me and tries a basic healing spell.
>It doesn't work.

>For the first five minutes after you're downed, any healing can bring you back up.
>After that, you need specific healing spells to be brought back
>And if after those ten minutes no healing is applied, you die and lose one of your four 'life tags.'
>Eventually, someone who can fix me brings me back up, and I end up walking to the place where the ogres were all killed.
>I see one of the tabards that the ogres wore for costuming on the ground, so I pick it up and take it to Logistics (basically the place that runs all the encounters and modules that happens all weekend.)
>I see a staff member and say 'Hey, I just skinned an ogre and he gave me this, could I have an item card for it?
>I now have a bundle of Tanned Ogre Hide.
>I plan on making it into a gambeson this coming event.

This one's a bit older, so bear with me.

>A few years ago, the cavalier and I (just a mage at the time) decided to go to an event together.
>It was cavalier's first event, and I was a newbie too, so we thought it'd be easy.
>Nope.
>This event, nightmares were attacking people in physical form.
>The entire town of Travance gathered late at night to take these things head on, because we had the Dream Knight, a dream that became reality thanks to some really magical child.
>We were told that as long as we had hope, we would succeed.
>Cavalier and I were supposed to be in the group that was fighting a beholder, but we got separated.
>Turns out that the beholder was the least scary thing there.
>There was a mummy who could only be killed by the rogue skill 'Assassinate' which is only available to characters who are at least 30th level.
>There was a young girl who whispered in your ear and knocked you unconscious.
>And so, so much more.
>Entire sections of the town were either surrounded or dead, and we barely escaped with our lives.
>I've been told that only one event was worse than that: the Apollocaust

Alright, I've got a few stories that you may choose from:
The Apollocaust
Arrows Fired, or 'I was executed four times in one day!'
The Death of Templar Rayven
How A Family of Cannibals Made A Paladin Fall
and, my personal favorite
The Animated Armor Massacre

and how do you plan making it into a gambeson?
I mean I'm sure as fuck wouldn't recognize an ogre hide

Oh, and I almost forgot. The town was so badly massacred in the Nightmare Battle that the Dream Knight actually died, and it turns out that the guys from Cake Boss actually made a cake for our game that event, which tasted amazing.

I'm going to find a smith who can use the ogre hide as if it were leather, which is actually pretty commonplace around here. Sadly, it doesn't have any magical effects, but it's more useful than the one time I ate Demon Intestines in an attempt to learn more fire magic.

I mean how do you plan to make a gambeson look like it is made out of ogre hide?

I've been trying to figure that one out myself, and I can't quite think of anything.

also, why do you want to make a textile armour out of leather?

This game cares very little about what I do with the ogre hide I'm not supposed to have, and I don't have any leather with which I could make my soon to be new chestpiece. Anyway, another story?

go for it, I will check back, have to do some work stuff in the mean time.

Alright, I guess I'll start with the Apollocaust. This is a secondhand story, so the details might not be spot on.

>Years ago, there was this guy who played a necromancer named Apollo
>As time went on he acquired a lot of demons and devils and other ne'er do wells who owed him a few favors and became capable of summoning quite a few undead NPCs.
>However, the town guard was onto him, and he didn't have much time before his character was caught, imprisoned and executed for practicing Necromancy and Black Sorcery.
>So he decided to call in every favor he had.
>No one quite remembers who was supposed to be the BBEG of that event
>But everyone remembers the Apollocaust.
>Players were dead or dying all over the campsite
>and Apollo was never seen again.

The same guy that told me that story played the Templar Rayven, and told me the following.

>Rayven, for some reason, was using a ranged weapon.
>Not sure why, might have just been target practice, but it turns out that he had accidentally shot the Baron of the whole town.
>Needless to say, he ran.
>He was found once by the town guard, who performed an execution and then let him be ressurected.
>Then the church found him, and executed him, because they did not know that the guard had already done so.
>Then the Mage's Guild found him, and executed him, for the same reason the church did.
>And then, by the gods, it happens a fourth time.
>At this point, the player behind Rayven is down to his last life. If he is killed by anything and not healed for 10 minutes, he's dead forever.
>Fortunately, the game's lead staff member found out what had happened and let him have three of his lives back.
>Moral of the story: Communicate with people, or you're going to die a lot.

The player behind Rayven ended up telling us those stories the morning after the Night-massacre, but the night before, Oscar the cavalier and I were some of the last people to ever see him.
>Rayven is a Templar of Valos, our setting's god of Light, Justice and Honorable Battle
>Templar is a prestige class for clerics, a prestige class only achieved by following your god's tenets to the letter and being a remarkably good (or evil, in the case of the evil gods) person.
>That night, Rayven went missing, and his bound weapons (which could not be more than 5 feet away from him) were not with him.
>Oscar and I, being 5th and 7th level characters (our larp lets people start at level 5), decide to do whatever the hell we can to help him, because Rayven seemed like a good person from what people were telling us.
>We arrive at the scene to see his body covered in vines and the higher level persons there negotiating with something.
>I couldn't get close enough, because the Marshals who were watching the module kept casting movement-restricting spells at me (to prevent me from going there and dying, presumably)
>Eventually, Rayven's shoots into the earth, leaving behind only a human body shaped hole.
>That was his last life.
>Out of game, Rayven later told us that if we had just cut the damn vines, he would have survived.

Now, it's time to talk about Paladins in this game.
Paladin's are a bit different from D&D paladins, in that they are a prestige class that anyone can take. Only characters who are GOOD, not necessarily worshippers of a good god, can become Paladins.
>When I say GOOD in capital letters, I meant the characters who always do the right thing, and, when faced with a choice between the lesser of two evils, will always find the third option. So, what happens when you throw a family of cannibals at a Paladin's Apprentice? This happens:
>The halfling healer and Oscar are on their NPC shift as a cannibal family, playing the role of the cannibal children.
>Their job was to lure unsuspecting adventurers into their home so that the whole family could have a bite.
>They found someone who engaged in a lengthy ethical discussion about what they did.
>Then, they fought.
>Somewhere out there, there is a Paladin who had to kill five innocent humans just because their taste in meat was...exotic.

Hey guys, I've been in an American LARP for almost eight years now, and some of these pictures and posts make me sad.

When I joined my first group I was told that, while there was loaner equipment, I was expected to have my own meager garb and weapons by the end of my first month. My stuff sucked, but it built up over time. It was well known that if you were in for past your first month, you were garbed.

Now I go to events in the same system (though I moved a good distance across the U.S.) and I see people going to larger events without garb. People that I know have been in the game atleast a few months, if not years.

It kills me to see an event where you have one person in a tunic, blue jeans, and sneakers considered 'decent garb.'
What do I do? How can I promote the idea of better garb standards? How do I 'be the change I want to see?'

>What do I do?
Move to Croatia, became a successful interior designer, look back at this years from now and laugh.

>How can I promote the idea of better garb standards?
Depends. do you want only ways to promote it or do you want it to be actually successful? Because the later is very complicated.

>How do I 'be the change I want to see?'
get better stuff. Never be satisfied with what you have for more than a year.

I'm pretty sure someone told this Apollocaust story in a larp thread here. Was that you or another guy from your game?

Does Croatia need Aero engineers?

In the past, we have set up loaner garb similar to when I joined in the hopes of using that to promote being garbed. Sadly, most of what I see is that people just end up relying on the loaner stuff to be there for them.
Our system has a punishment for playing without garb, but I almost never see it being used.

When I see people in better garb, or on days where I wear my best pieces, what I typically hear is people saying things to the tune of:
"I've always wanted to..."
"I've been meaning to learn to..."
"I wish that I could..."

While I don't have much free time, I try to inform my more local people that I would be willing to assist them. I sell beginner sewing machines, I have piles of cloth and leather, I have a metal shop at my finger tips. Nobody actually seems to WANT to learn, they just want to complain.

I think they need successful interior designers more.

Anyway the problem with US larping is very complex, and basically you can't do anything on the short term short of a miracle that would change things.
I could point at the cultural differences, the kind of people who play there, differences in aviable materials and the cost, the origins of larping in that continent, the existing larps and communities, etc
All of these and more are just strengthening the status quo that exists there, which is no effort should be made and anyone who makes effort must be shunned.
You take away one and the rest will still uphold this.

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Check out the fake junk on the guy on the left

you must be new here

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is life not larp?

arguable but if it's a larp then it's a nordic larp

Will be leaving for it on thursday and be in Chaos as always.
Also as usual I didn't get many of the things done in time that I wanted to get done...

I'm working on my new jerkin right now. I'm still not sure if I will be finished

Odds are that it was me, I'm fairly sure that most of the members of that larp either know about Veeky Forums or know about the Apollocaust, with me being one of the few exceptions.

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Suppose now is a good a time as ever to tell another story.

>Modules, or 'mods' can be tricky for this larp, and for any other larp with a power gap between new and veteran players. When the two groups meet, they would either have the high levels cream all the NPCs, or have the lowbies dying in droves.
>This larp in particular found a compromise: Debuff the high level characters who went on low level mods
>One such mod, which happened in October of last year, was part of a multiple event spanning story arc, in which the Adventurer's Guild (guild where newbs earned cash for killing evilbad monsters) was told to kill/save seven humanoids who had transformed into demonic embodiments of the seven deadly sins.
>That Sunday morning, Oscar and I were going to fight Pride.
>Pride turned out to be a warlock/psion who could deflect all of my spells
>Pride also turned out to be played by the game's best roleplayer, who I will call MHM, for reasons he will understand.
>Essentially, the fight boiled down to Oscar onehanding a club and chasing Pride down, whilst everyone else occasionally got hits in.
>We were told that we had to exorcise him, and to do that we had to not kill him
>He was also kicking our asses a fair bit.
>Then I had an idea.
>"PRIDE!" I said
>"I CHALLENGE YOU TO A DUET....TO THE DEATH!"
>I ended up losing and dying to a psionic blast upon losing. Fortunately, we lost gloriously, with Oscar using a passerby's shield as a drum whilst I sung Another Irish Drinking Song.
>It was all worth it when I heard the Marshal on site (the player behind Rayven) whisper 'You feel the desire to challenge Pride to a sing-off' to members of the adventurers guild.
>Eventually, this strategy led to pride being humbled, allowing us to both defeat and save him.
>Was told that the encounter went awesome by everyone in attendance.

random image bump

Tricorder spotted!

that funny

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they are a fun bunch, playing Ankh-Morporkian city guards.
One time they got the guard duty for the blue camp in the middle of the night. So they figured that they might as well throw a party at the gate so there will be al ot of people there with weapons and all so nobody will attack us.
Then a small group come from the camp next to us saying that we are too loud and stuff, after a heated conversation they were beaten back with weapons.
Then one of the city guard guys went to their camp, sneaked in, got past the guards and stole one of the stones they use to throw at people from the towers when there is a siege.
And somewhere around 5 am they "delivered" back the stone, right to the face of one of the guards in the tower by a very skillful throw.

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I'm extremely interested in getting into HEMA and LARPing soon, but I can only realistically afford the time and money to make a suit for one.

In the US, I know that a LOT of LARPing communities have quite strict rules on armor and shields and whatnot, and the position on a HEMA team that I'm going to be filling for melees is mostly going to be frontline shield-guy.

I guess my rather disjointed question is, if I make myself/purchase functional armor, including a shield, are there any LARPing groups or events where such attire would be allowed? I understand that it would be significantly easier to cause harm adorned as such, but I'd enjoy being a heroic knight in actual heroic knight armor sometimes instead of just "that meatshield guy" during HEMA.

historical armour is not a problem. Literally none of the historical armours makes you more dangerous to others than any other kind of armour.
Shiled could be tricky as the edge should be padded most of the time, and sometimes even the flat of it, but you can make a removable padded cover for it.

Strayan Barbarian here.

>tfw full time combined work + study
>tfw where the fuck even is larp in this country
>tfw I could never afford or find the time
>tfw I just want to give larp a shot
>tfw I have no face

Love the pictures as always Hungarian.

are you still not on the main continent?

Good to know. I just read through some of the rules for a local group (Dargarth, Seattle) and while I'm a bit put off by the restrictions on new players (no armor, "red" weapons, or bows until fifth event) without experience from another game. The reasoning is "familiarizing oneself with the hit system," but I feel like a combination of HEMA and playing Veeky Forums for the past 15 years should be enough experience to go fully garbed in actual armor.

Any suggestions for someone who's looking to build an actual suit of armor for their first time? Tricks to make it look more authentic? I'm probably going to be using steel, both for cost and practicality (the rules at Dargarth stipulate that armor must be made of steel or bronze, and I'm not going to sink the fortune into getting bronze that it would take to make armor out of bronze.).

well, you have the disadvantage of living in the US. most US larps are a clusterfuck rules wise, and more often then not there are problems with the community. Also with the equipment standards.

About armour. are you the one who will actually make it or you just want tips of what to look out for when buying and whatnot?

Dear heavens, just look at the time.

Yeah, I've realized that most of our LARPs are clusterfucks. It's almost as if people tried to take 3.5 or Pathfinder and turn it into real life. Hopefully in about 6-8 years when I am able to move to Iceland I will be able to attend better events!

I'm probably going to do a combination of making and buying. I have a rough idea of what I need to do, and I'm sure that I can find whatever tutorials I need online, but advice from someone who's been doing it for a while is always invaluable.

it's rape time!

>It's almost as if people tried to take 3.5 or Pathfinder and turn it into real life.
close but no. They did it with earlier versions. Larping is either DnD IN REAL LIFE in the US or anything with swords, pretend or otherwise.

About making armour.... it's not easy. You need lots of years, equipment and failures before you can make accaptable or decent stuff.
Don't even try to make helemts at first or anything solid plate.
lamellar, brigandine, coat of plates, etc are easier you should start with those.
I can try to bring our blacksmith in this thread but he is kind of busy nowdays.

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I gotta clean the rust from my plate...but I feel soooo lazy!

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How do LARPers handle magic? Do you actually do sleight of hand stuff or just roll dice like fags?

Both. Depends on what we're doing. There's looting unconscious bodies and having a conversation with the corpse's player, or taking a sword that seems to have lost its owner. The former is just a quick thing where you describe your search, the latter is literally just taking a sword and walking away with it.

Aaaaah, it wouldn't be a decent LARP event without pissing rain, mud and fog at least one day

Welp, I just discovered I have a thing for big, furry Satyr thighs

weeaboo aside that's really good

totally depends on the game.
Some game heavily restricts magic usage and allows only that an be represented in a cool way, mostly rituals and such.
Some go full retard and include everything even the kitchen sink and the representation is mostly shouting in what is the effect.
And there is everything in between.

I'm still having PTSD from a croatian event that was played in a ankle deep mud. Which was level up from the previous event of that game which was canceled because croatia had so much rain that landslides happened and the game area dissappeared... And the road to the area too.

Presonally I would only call people weeaboo if they doing a shit tier job at representing japanese culture
but these guys were pretty much spot on

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>romans
Ugh there needs to be more people with Greek armor, its sexier.

You cant tell me this isnt great for a quick romp in the woods

Drachenfest doesn't have too much woods. There is a little but it's mostly played on the field in the town or camps

What's the draw weight on that crossbow?

probably somewhere around 25 pounds. IIRC that's the upper limit on bows/crossbows on drachenfest

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Soooo glad I'm not one of those poor sods, seeing them scuttling around after a battle trying to find all their bolts/arrows makes me pity them just a tad

all i can think about is the knights of badassdom lol.

Anyone ever run a camp kitchen?

I've seen pictures from Drachenfest with clay stoves, spit roasts, catered taverns, and half a village of food vendors.

This year I baked my first and second dutch oven bread. I got a few real skewers from the Turkish market. I had sausages and cheeses, a salad, and a soup every day. The stew was divine!

Maybe I should play a cook?

man that looks comfy

>tfw you live in America and most larps around you are popsicle stick larps

>tfw you will never participate in a Witcher larp

cont: >tfw you will never chill in cozy tents

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>tfw you live in the middle of the Pacific and have shit for LARPs at all
>tfw you will never participate in a LARP

if you have the money you can go to the Witcher larp. Although it's way more expensive than Drachenfest, OR the Harry Potter larp

You mean Mainlander?
He's Tasmanian?
:O