Have you ever gone LARPing before? How was it? Was it a full contact LARP group...

I was part of a Vampire the Masquerade LARP about 12 years ago. We rented the function suite below a pub the first Monday of every month.

It wasn't like other LARPS with massed brawl BS, it was more of a GoT style everyone just plotting against each other, and DMs walking around and you just call them over if you need to resolve a stat-off.

It was a lot of fun, I thought.

What the actual fuck?

i played npc 2 times

was 3 days including food (LOTS OF FOOD) and a place to put up a tent for 30 bucks

had to play things like
demon soldier
water wizard that needed to get haggle key from some players
random bandits
other random stuff to be hit
a chuthule things that was like 100 meters away with multiple light bulbs as eyes (in the night) walking fucking slowly towards the players while they try to solve something

best one was when i played literally some void thing that could not be harmed. me and 5 others had to wear full black cloaks and covered our faces in the night. so you couldnt spot us until we where close. we had to walk and act kinda slugish and whoever we touched was dead.
(this happened because they fucked up some giant ritual)
Anyway we where in an open field and while most spectres went walking towards them i slowly walked around.
i was very close to like a group of 50 players that had their backs turned to me, so i get close enough to slowly stretch out my arm and almost touch somebody. bunch of females literally scared out of their mind started screaming when they saw me and the guy i was about to touch turned around and janked his head backwards away from my hand that was like a few inch away from him. he fell backwards and was dragged away by other players away from my feet that where still close to him, and the rest started running away

>dlc in larp
WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK.
I HAVE NEVER EVER HEARD OF BEING ABLE TO PAY TO GET XP OR ANYTHING IN ANY LARP EVENT.

US larping. The organizers realized the main playerbase was so desperate there to "win" the larp they would even pay for it.

No LARP, but I've been interested. But I've spent so much time in reenactment that I'll just get annoyed by the combat if it's not full contact billhook point-to-chest.

>haha user why are you complaining?
>yeah dude you get 4 whole build just for paying the 40 dollar entrance fee!
>and you know you can get one or two more by volunteering for cleanup or coming in two days before event to help set up!

You don't HAVE to pay for the extra experience, but you are instantly out leveled by these cunts. They've had tax troubles before and sometimes I wish the IRS would show up at an event. Check out their forum, it's fucking bonkers the way some of these people think and act. Everyone wants to be a fuckin hero. Of course I'm the asshole complaining on an anonymous Mongolian tapestry spinning board or whatever the latest meme iteration is while still paying to go to these damn things. It's the only way I see a lot of close friends these days, all my SCA friends laugh at me when I get tagged in photos on facebook

>This is what's considered one of the better larps in the US
I don't know whether to laugh or cry. I'll need more details to make my mind up.

knightrealms.com/events/prices-build.html

Please take a look around, it's a fucking travesty

Massive(30 players or so, 4 GMs, 10-ish people playing NPCs/extras/being the friend of someone else that just came to hang out) Vampire/Werewolf LARP that was in many ways more a sort of sleazy party with a vague plot and fake names. Ran monthly/bimonthly for a bit over a year.

It was fun. I was running my werewolf character that required I throw on a big leather jacket and flannel and huge boots, then I was helping the vampire game and putting on a shirt with lace and slicking back hair. Once or twice ran back to a werewolf scene with makeup still on and hair all slicked back and my pack made jokes about "AN IMPOSTOR!"

I miss it, there was a lot of fun to be had and some beautiful skinny goth boys in corsets and fishnet.

> Have you ever gone LARPing before?

Yes.

> How was it?

Great.

> Was it a full contact LARP group, or did your group focus more on the stats and paper?

100% your actually physical ability with an approved boffer (short swords, long swords, spears, javelins, and darts/plumbata), shield, no body armors though. We didn't aim to try and simulate protective gear for a lot of reasons and focused more on just trying to recreate stone up to iron age melees.

Whole group came together from several martial arts club's students such as fencing, kendo, and such wanting to try and play at what a brawl would be like. The rp part of the LARP was usual tribal warfare, low fantasy, no magic fuckery accept for the GM staff using it for plot. All players were warriors more or less.

>Back Buying Events: If you miss an event you may pay for the event that you missed to still get the build. You may however only purchase events that had been missed within the last 90 days. You must have had your character recorded in the database for at least 90 days before being given this opportunity.
You simply can't make this shit up. Every time I want to make a joke about US larps the reality simply one ups me

I like that idea. Where there any HEMAfags there? What kind of weapons won out most of the time?

When I started going and first started heavily browsing the LARP thread on /cgl/ a few years ago, I thought you and the other Eurofags were memeing or just exaggerating. I was wrong, so very wrong.

Every other person who actually cares about what they're doing out in the fucking woods spooges over Euro-larp and laments American land owning laws but no one wants to actually change the scummy policy. God forbid these Adult - children and their actual children don't get what they want or get to be good because they threw money at it.

Shield and spear or sword for new people.

Expect a lot of fights with new people to come down to a leg hit. The shield tends to get people aggressive enough to go for it rather then dance around.

Once people get more conformable and you introduce armor things get complicated. It's really hard to beat someone that is honestly good with a long sword, but a shield and a axe in the hands of a strong man with an idea what he is doing is always fun to watch.

It's like I'm reading a parody of what Veeky Forums thinks US larps are like.

See It is absolutely real, I wish it were just a joke.

Yes. A lot of the HEMA hard core types would get humbled pretty quick as most of us were as much physically training and developing technique, as we were there to just skirmish and have fun. Roman legionary re-enactors were particularly successful. Also the fencing guys usually did real well, as they kept their foot work, but adapted their weapon posture to the more unrefined hack and slash.

Spears, especially in three man points, with javelin and plumbata cover were the meat grinder incarnate. Swords were usually a save my ass back up when things did manage to somehow break up into man to man and back to back brawls.

I must ask: What the fucks are "lifestyle cards"?

I did see it. That's what I meant. It's like a bunch of guys on Veeky Forums got together and wrote a satire webpage about a fictional larp and tried to make it as ridiculous and as American as possible.
Except it's not a parody and it's 100% real.

Professions and careers, stuff like 'tailor' or 'carpenter'. Another skill you buy with build, but you have to gather many many cards
knightrealms.com/game-play/playing-tips/167-the-trade-system.html
ah, I see your meaning. Check out the images from the most recent event. Just a real good time, I think I got caught in one of the April event photos.

Well, here comes a russian LARPer.
>Have you ever gone LARPing before?
3 years into it, usually 1-4 games in gaming season(May to early September) and small indoors games in between.
>How was it?
>Was it a full contact LARP group, or did your group focus more on the stats and paper?
Here in Russia a go-to standart is a full contact with hard plastic, like HEMA training swords. Soft boffer and latex weapon is not a novelty anymore, but only a handful of games use them. In the result, there is very distinct line drawn between "fighters" (solders, knights, adventurers, who wears metal armor, helmets or at least gambesons) and "non-fighters" (nobles, commoners, merchants, alchemists, wizards, etc). At least in medieval fantasy games, there are pleny of games based on 17-th century-esque settings, where everyone carries and uses a rapier(still hard plastic) or pistol.
Games usually have a models of economy, alchemy, medicine and surgery, that sometime get pretty complex. For example, (ranging from "mines" where you need to find marbles hided in expanding foam and "hunting" at archery range, to built-in board game of international trading that merchants and nobles play to get their income).
You either go to the game as a solo character or as a team like "noble house", "knightly order" or "mercenary company". When you go as a team, usually only a few of players get complex backstory or goals, so I prefer to play solo. Of course when you prepare for the games, you send game master your connections with other player, like, your character's relatives, friends, love interests, enemies. All in all - a big deal of game is made by players themselves.
Sometimes games have issues with safety, or poor logistics, so LARP in Russia is more oriented on hardcore player base, who get used to it, but we starting to have more "casual" games, more friendly to the newcomers.

I must give it to knight realms that the costuming is better than most (probably among the best) US games, but I just opened the rules section and it's comedy gold through 351 pages

>Yellow [headband]: Characters hiding on this plane, through natural means (Hide in Shadows, Cloak of
the Green, etc.).

>Weapon combat is fairly simple and straightforward. When using hand-held weapons either thrust or swing the weapon in an arc between 60 and 120 degrees while you attempt to make contact with your target.

>A character may, at any point while aiming with a loaded and drawn launched weapon, begin a count to automatically hit a target. The Archer must an OOG verbal count, "Steady Shot 1, Steady Shot 2, Steady Shot 3..." until reaching the appropriate count for the desired ability they wish to use.

>As a general guideline, characters with +0 strength can press 100lbs and squat 150 lbs

>Any player may sheath or carry a weapon he does not know how to use. However if that weapon is struck for damage it provides no defensive ability and the holder takes the damage.

The photos weren't actually bad at all. I wasn't sure whether you meant good time ironically or unironically, but considering what type of people I expected to pay for games like these, I was positively surprised, they look quite wholesome.

>automatic ranged hits
What the fuck?

Holy fuck, the rules.... I mean fucking Christ, how fucking over complicated can you make the 'Live Action' aspect of the game? This is just DnD 3.x with people in the place of minis and schizophrenic DMing.

>This is just DnD 3.x with people in the place of minis and schizophrenic DMing.
90% of US larps

>90% of US fantasy larps

World of Darkness LARP have.. different.. issues.

replace DnD 3.X with WoD tabletop

I am fond of old WoD Minds Eye Theater LARPs., at sixteen I got a handjob from a 6.5/10 single mom in the janitor closet of the rental hall were were playing at. But otherwise, yeah a lot of fatties going about on power and drama trips.

some guy i knew was in a WOD he played a long and at some point got more involved, the current top guys didnt like it so did some shit to his character.

his character started gathering a fuckton of explosives and blew them all up in a tent after scheming to get them all there.

then the organizers just said. nah didnt happen or everyone survived by some miracle /jk

last time he ever went

>Live Tracking
>This method utilizes the 'Marco-Polo' method, where the tracking character calls out the skill at a reasonable pace and the tracked character replies each time by calling out “here”. There is no real duration other than whoever gives up first, the tracker or the quarry (the person being tracked).

I can't decide if this is the most retarded idea ever or the funniest one.

> "the tracking character calls out the skill at a reasonable pace"

Translated, you must move no faster than the speed of your local Wal Mart's complimentary mobility scooter or else you may give one of the land whales playing a heart attack.

Why do fat people ruin everything?

I once played in a local LARP where the rules were full of stuff just lifted from D&D 3.x - the rules worked providing that everyone sort of agreed to play along, but if there was any rules disagreement, there was no way that they could be solved.

Although I tip my hat to the little shits that realised this and used it to their advantage. Didn't like how a fight went? Get it overturned by saying you were out of range, or somebody was in range, of a spell that has a range in feet that nobody is going to be able to check during a fight.

Big LARPs have their own problems, but little ones with a dozen or so players tend to have some really poorly thought out rules.

>Have you ever gone LARPing before?
Plenty

>How was it?
Heavily depends on the con. Lately I am gravitating to invite only conventions, because as sad as it is, LARP is getting invaded by SJWs, making bigger conventions a hassle and a roll of the dice

>Was it a full contact LARP group
Whatever it is LARP in Germany is considered as

>or did your group focus more on the stats and paper?
Mostly wysiwyg, with a few abstractions for HP and spells

>Have you ever gone LARPing before?
Nah, i'd love to try it but I have novody who wouldnt murder me for dragging them with and also I have no idea how too.

Also I don't think I'd be good at it.

Yeah! It was fun, got stabbed once.

>go LARPing on an island named Amager, commonly known as the shit island by people living near it
>find an abandoned boffer weapon
>test by hitting a tree
>it gets stuck
>because it's an actual machete wrapped in sleeping pad

Swedenlarper here we have the highest quality larps perhaps even in the world.
Or used to...
They are being infested with sjw politics

I mean, you guys have a lot of awesome larps. But then again a shitton of chamber larps that are basically SJW recruitment centers

Well I guess I'm not gonna start larping then.
At least muh games are self contained circlejerks to stay pure until everything goes to hell.

Stories? I could go for some schadenfreude.

well you can have some fun playing an intolerant asshole

There's a difference between tolerating you and being hounded by the morality police for showing your face a mirror.

There's a story here...

>my only occasion to get a whiff of larping is a traditional reenactment of a battle my hometown fought against an army of muslim raiders
>being traditional and shit its full blown mock battle, full contact with wooden weapons, punches kicks and so on (a few guys got tramplet even by a fucking horse somewhere around the end of the 1800's)

halp

tell us about sjw larping in Germany and how it is different from your previous experiences, user.

...

How does LARPs work, usually? I never was on one (by the way, hello to the Hungarian, guy, Polish fuck here, I hope you have good day) and it is interesting for me.

Also US larps seems to be fucking self parody of themselves, as far as I follow the thread.

so far so good, most people in the office went to a team building trip that I excused myself from saying I don't give a fuck about it.

If you are Poland you are in luck, they have a very good and active larp scene, with the mandatory drama here and there. You can choose from fantasy larps (which is mostly the main focus of the larp threads here because they are so common) but there are a whole shitload of chamber larps and city games too. You can look up the group "Liveform" for example, they are doing mostly chamber larps but good doing solid work.

But to your actual question: there are a fuckton of larps, all different, like different kind of tabletop rpgs, wod, DnD, FATAL, Dark Heresy, Call of Cthulhu, etc. All of them uses different systems has a different setting and obviously even your GM and party makes it different. But all of them is about having a character, representing it during the game and having fun.
Same for larping. You have a character, you have the rules to play by and have fun. The thing is you have to actually do the things (within the constrains of the rules) but it all differs from game to game what is the thing you have to do. Some games have fighting with larpsafe weapons where you have to actually hit the other guy, some larps uses limited fighting or no fighting at all (or just representation of a fight)
Some uses foam swords, some uses nerf guns, some uses airsoft weapons.
So as I said there are a shitload of different kind of larps out there.

So do I need to make my own gayboy gear or how does this usually work out?

Because fuck me if I know how to make anything with my two bare hands.

Join as npccheap as fuck and you can do a multitude of roles

Either that is gonna be like, the most picked thing or the most empty of spots, depending on who plays?

make, it, bowwor it, buy it, rent it. Whatever you want.

Nobody really cares how you got your stuff.
Depending on the larp costumes might be easy to get for some modern scenarios or hard if it's something really fantasyish.
But don't worry, nobody started as a pro, and not everyone a master of crafts. As long as you put effort and thought in it it's not that hard to get a decent costume.

that isn't really an option in Poland. Or in most places.

no they always need more npc.

they use dogs as npc's?

they don't use npc's in the sense that US larps does it.

i was in europe, the netherlands. they all use npc's

you sign up, they get you food and a camping spot and you act out the npc's they need.

pretty sure thats how it works everywhere

>As long as you put effort and thought in it it's not that hard to get a decent costume.
I mean you say that but when all you can afford is needle and some thread, bargain bin cloth and literally no idea where to get most material its not exactly like I can pump iron and get results.

they do it in empire, drachenfest, conquest too. In a lot of big games or games that really needs an npc faction AND has the logistic behind it. But still lot of differences opposing to the Us version, where even the smallest games try to have it.

In Poland there aren't that many really big fantasy fighting larps, just a few, or at least that was the case a few years ago, and they have way more smaller fantasy games that either doesn't need outright npcs or actually shuffling pcs in a different way so they don't have to use npcs. And then there are the chamber larps that I mentioned there is a fuckton of. Those while sometimes technically have npcs they rarely are "open" spots, but rather that the organizers take care of because they need someting VERY specific to be done so the organizer team does it.

search for "medieval tailor's assistant" on google. That's the msot helpful tutorial I can give you if you want to learn sewing, pattern making and basic medieval clothing.
Obviously you aren't good with a thread and needle if you never tried it before, but on the other hand until you try it you won't know if you are actually shit in it without the promise of improvement, or just shit but with a great possibility of improvement

Ok thanks.

maybe we have different definitions on npc. but the npc's didnt need to have big factions.

i played 10 different characters every day.

>maybe we have different definitions on npc
most countries has a different definitions for it. That's the point. The are a lot of games where npc's aren't even a thing, some where it's similar to a player but in a specific, organizer controlled faction, some games where it's just a short hop-in act or some where they are basically just the "encounter" the "E" part of PvE.
And everything inbetween.

>Have you ever gone LARPing before?
Yes, just had an event this past weekend.

>How was it?
The past two events have been fantastic.

> Was it a full contact LARP group?
No, we use latex boffers for weapons and fists. Even then, people are scared to get hit.

> or did your group focus more on the stats and paper?
We have stats and a sheet. They're used for HP and ability points. It's a low number LARP, nothing like Knights Realm. Ability points go towards certain skills for abilities like "Stun".

Ok, to put it this way, My favorite larp is about a war between the capitalist mercenary guild (known as "the guild") and the medieval communist nation Cordovien. Cordovien used to stone homosexuals to death, now they are A-ok with them and allied to a Not!byzantine people whose concept of marriage is that it can involve as many people as you like and as many genders!

>Larping
Yes, once
>Full contact
Yep. But everyone had magical power and all where very high level.
It was all combat and was very dull.
Members of the public walked past a few times too. I didnt like it.

>Have you ever gone LARPing before?
Yes, I organize small LARPs with my group of roleplayer friends.

>How was it?
Last time was extremely exhausting. It's always rewarding, but we were a bit too ambitious. Otherwise it's stellar.

>Was it a full contact LARP group, or did your group focus more on the stats and paper?
LARP is not necessarily fight-oriented, and ours tend to be more geared towards investigations. Still there are foam weapons and you can hit people with them.
No stats though, I don't like it. Makes me wonder what's the point of LARPing if what you see *isn't* what you get. Of course you've got to make concessions to reality because players can't have all of their character's skills, but it's easily done without resorting to putting dots everywhere.
Also good players *will* research their character's skills beforehand.
We had a player playing as a herborist last time (in a 1400 France context). He had done his research on medicine at the times, on plant properties, etc, and could easily tell you where the problem lay in your humours. He isn't an expert but he researched enough to be believable.

>Larping
leaving for one in a couple hours.
I play about 6-8 times a year.
>Rules
Absolute shit. bloated rule book, literally dnd live with dumb shot like proficiencis.
I want to play fantasy, but despite the larp scene being crowded in my area, they are all garbage. The progressive types also ruin a lot,with calls of aproperation, and abliism. I just want to larp however, and will take this solution as I try to improve it from within. maybe one day a good larp will open.

>Have you ever gone LARPing before? How was it?
Some friends and me had a RPG club and we also organized a couple of LARP. Everyone who was involved in the organization was a NPC. We tried to create as much dynamic between the players as possible by making a good background story for each player beforehand. This way the "NPC" could concentrate on the main story, while the PCs were constantly involved in a lot of stories and intrigues. Despite not putting the emphasis on combat, numerous PCs and NPCs ended up murdered or executed.

Our most successful LARPs were situated in a fictive 1930s esoterico-noir world ruled by the all omnipotent and omniscient Ministerium. The world was heavily inspired by Ismail Kadaré's "Spiritus", Brazil, The City of Lost Children, Les Cités obscures, Enki Bilal's work, and especially Nacht der Gaukler (The Silence Within).

The first LARP took place in the historical district of our town and in an abandoned factory. It was about a mysterious theater play that was going to be performed. At the same time the forbidden mage's guild was holding an important meeting.
Our second LARP took place in large hangar we had rented and turned into an industrial night club. The story was about the exploration of a parallel universe, the hypnokosmos, and it involved the Ministerium's military-industrial complex. The best thing were all those clubbers who showed up, thinking there was really a club, and who I refused entry since they didn't have their invitation for the International Congress of Spiritism and weren't on the guest list.
Third and last LARP took place in an art school. It was the only LARP we did that took place during day time - which was fitting since it was a judiciary-political intrigue.

>Was it a full contact LARP group, or did your group focus more on the stats and paper?
We used to put immersion and ambient before everything. This means that fighting was full-contact, but only foam weapons and water pistols were allowed.

Oh great, a LARP thread! I was just wondering about these. I was talking to a friend who's just got into LARPing and making a costume and I was trying to recall an image I saw in one of these threads years ago with a guy's costume through the ages, from like t-shirt to proper armour. That shit is so cool to see.

...

I dunno, previously it felt as if people were all on the same page for the most part. But now you constantly have to watch your language because someone might be offended when you use offending language despite being completely in character.

I am playing a WHFB Witchhunter. Naturally he doesn't use the kindest language when when confronted with an actualt witch coven trying to fuck shit up. Talking about this with some other people IC and some random chick suddently starts telling me completely OOC that I need to shut up with my women hating language and that my characters attitude made her feel unconfortable.

I am fairly convinced we will soon enough have to abide a language rule set next to the game rules.

That's RMT, not DLC. Get your acronyms right.

>Have you ever gone LARPing before?
No. I've done paintballing and laser quest, though, but it's just a case of finding somewhere that I can get on with the people at.
And, ideally, avoid actual full contact stuff. I cannot afford another concussion.

was it a vking dude or one with at later stages a red doublet?

I think he ended up with red in there somewhere. I know there was armour involved in the later stages, though.

Does Airsoft with specific themes count as LARP? I think so. Twice a year a partake in a weekend long operation that has an ongoing story line. You dress up in faction uniform and complete story driven objectives... The crowd is similar to your typical lot of nerds but there's lots of ex-military and edgy dudes. I jokingly call airsoft "LARP for Conservatives"

...

>I am playing a WHFB Witchhunter. Naturally he doesn't use the kindest language when when confronted with an actualt witch coven trying to fuck shit up. Talking about this with some other people IC and some random chick suddently starts telling me completely OOC that I need to shut up with my women hating language and that my characters attitude made her feel unconfortable.
I always find it sad when people cannot make a distinction between IC and OOC. I mean, I've larped with 8 years old kids who could make that distinction and fully aware of it...

this one?

Yes! You're awesome, thank you!

...

...

>Does Airsoft with specific themes count as LARP?
yep. Very much. It doesn't even have to be post apoc or similar stuff. Lots of milsims counts as larp too

it's been five years since I last updated that pic it seems like. since then the guy on the pic made several more costumes so he doesn't really upgraded that one, thus there would be no clear "improvement" between the costumes.

Either way, I get a real kick out of these progression images. It really shows how with a little time and dedication, you can piece a cool suit together one bit at a time.

he made more than a few awesome stuff during the years that's for sure

So from boring and wrong to hot and correct? Sounds like the SJWs are onto something.

user, don't forget that the majority (I would say 2/3) of people who has the hots for in game marriage are usually the ones you REALLY don't want to marry.

...

Hey, Poland user back. Any names you know?

Dracan Dembinski and "Zula" from Zula Costumes. You can find them in the book of faces.

is this MadMax LARPing?