LARP Thread - Lightning Bolt, Lightning Bolt, Lightning Bolt

[Fiffergrund]

Ok, so I mentioned I was a LARPer in the Political Policy announcement.

There was subsequent discussion about LARPs and LARPers, so I thought I'd create a thread to keep it going.

To open, let me just say that I'm aware of all of the stereotypes. I happen to personally know and have gamed with the individual known as Lightning Bolt Boy. Yes, really. He has been a big part of the game I'm involved in.

No, that wasn't my game featured in that video.

----

Why do I LARP? I'll tackle this from two points of view - the player and the cast member.

Well, it's immersive, for one thing. Its far more immersive than tabletop gaming. In our game, a player gets in character and stays there for 48 hours. As a cast member, one can play multiple roles and be the hideous villain, the smarmy contact in the seedy part of town, or the fallen hero that needs redemption. All in the same day.

Second, you don't just get to *play* a hero. You actually get to *be* one for a while. You can leave all of your worldly concerns aside for a while and step into another persona completely. Even cast members, who step out of character occasionally, get a sense of escape that is refreshing.

Third, it can be great mental and physical exercise. Ours is live boffer combat, which is reasonably safe, but can be quite intense. We also pride ourselves on creating excellent physical and mental challenges. Our last game had the players unearthing a secret storehouse of necromantic magic. We set up our module building to appear as a stone crypt, complete with animate mummies (cast members in costume), slimy hearts, lighting, fog, gauzy spirits, a crypt thing (yes, modelled after AD&D - taunts and everything). It was set up so that if the players acted carefully and intelligently, they'd get through practically unharmed, while if they were silly and brash, they'd almost certainly die. They did remarkably well.

We've had epic fights that last for hours, occasionally, with players and cast alike wiped out at the end. We've been able to create decent, immersive costuming for many creatures, including lizard men, cyclops, spiders (we had one that was 20 feet long and operated by 3 people), goblins, all types of undead...

So, I LARP because it provides an experience that is entirely different from tabletop gaming. With tabletop, anything is possible. With LARP, that's not the case, but the things that are possible are so immersive that it brings a fantasy game literally to life.

For full disclosure, info on my game can be found here: prophecylarp.com

I was the Plot and Continuity Coordinator (we call it the Iron Fist of Continuity) for the first half of the campaign, and had to tone back my involvement after the birth of my second daughter. The director and I are good friends (and tabletop gamers). We're about to wrap up the second campaign with two upcoming fall events.

All told, Prophecy has been running since 2001. The first campaign ended in 2004, and this one, the sequel, picked up in 2005. There will be a third campaign as well.
_________________
Sir Fiffergrund, Lord Marshal of the Castle and Crusade Society.

He Who Hides Behind The Elephant's Back

[sieg]

Well, since we're confessing all....
Until recently I was a member of a Medieval Recreation group (Empire of Chivalry & Steel) and though reenactors hate to hear it...they're LARPs too. Oddly enough, one of the reasons I quit was because of a pervasive lack of "persona play". Hard to be immerced in a Medieval Tournament when everyone's talking about the latest Star Trek rerun or Battlestar Galactica episode.
Though one of our weekend tournaments had a Call of Cthulhu LARP on Friday night, with a "Romero Zombie" theme that was tons of fun. Of course, the guy running it had full props, including latex body pieces for the full dismemberment effect.
So there. I'm admitting it. Next?
_________________
Always remember, as a first principle of all D&D: playing BtB is not now, never was and never will be old school.- Tim Kask, Dragonsfoot

[Fiffergrund]

Oooh. Cthulhu LARPs are very fun. Again, if done properly. We had a very select group of players and one of the guys running it has a very old victorian house. It was excellent and very spooky. Particularly the ghoul chained in the basement.

Prophecy recently hosted a zombie event as a between-game thing. I did not attend, but I heard it went really well, and there were only a half-dozen survivors over the course of the weekend.
_________________
Sir Fiffergrund, Lord Marshal of the Castle and Crusade Society.

He Who Hides Behind The Elephant's Back

[Breakdaddy]

Thanks for the info. I don't think Ill be trying LARP any time soon, but it's nice to know that there are some well grounded folks doing it instead of the masses of stereotypical angstwagons that many assume are the norm.

[DangerDwarf]

Don't make me challenge my perceptions!

[Fiffergrund]

Breakdaddy wrote:
Thanks for the info. I don't think Ill be trying LARP any time soon, but it's nice to know that there are some well grounded folks doing it instead of the masses of stereotypical angstwagons that many assume are the norm.

Well, they still show up every now and then. They don't usually hang around, though, because their sulking doesn't get them very far and they are typically outclassed by the other players.

The system, by the way it is set up, beats them down.

I'd say we're about as far removed from Vampire LARPs and games like NERO as it's possible to get.
_________________
Sir Fiffergrund, Lord Marshal of the Castle and Crusade Society.

He Who Hides Behind The Elephant's Back

[Jerm]

Here a quick snip from my blog about larp (blog.banapsis.eu):

In 2006 there was the big Dragonbane larp in Sweden. For this larp the crew build a live-size dragon and a complete village (see www.dragonbane.org/ for some pictures)

My most memorable Larp moment was at Dragonbane, a moment that I've never experienced during any other larp before and after Dragonbane.

It happened during the 3rd day of Dragonbane. In the village Cinderhill people were getting more and more afraid of what the Dragon (their former protector) would do when it found out that the villagers had used the whole Dragon's treasure to buy extra food for the village over the years.

When evening came the villagers believed that the Dragon would come that night to claim all the children of the village as repayment. I and 2 other Dragontamers opposed the sacrifice of the children and we promised we would keep watch over the children. If the Dragon came we would take them to the forest where the Dragon would have a hard time to find us.

So when night came we went to the children, we prepared food for them and since they were clearly scared (very good roleplay of those children!) we told them stories of our adventures to make them less scared. It felt very satisfying that during our stories the children's eyes started to shine with excitement. When the children started to fall asleep we gave them our own sheepskins to sleep on and use as blankets1.

During the night we talked amongst ourselves about the Dragon threat, to where we would go in the forest and such. When it was getting really late one of us went to sleep while the other two kept watch. After a couple of hours we woke the one asleep and another would get to sleep some hours. We continued this until it was morning and we were certain the Dragon would not come that night.

The story just told really made me feel the hero of stories. We didn't get much sleep (we really did a 24hour watch), we made sure the children were safe, we kept the fire going (it was very cold at night) and we told them stories to make them less scared. Especially when their eyes started to shine when they listened to our stories made me feel the hero
In tabletop when the GM says: suddenly an Orc jumps in front of you, everybody will probably calmly say: 'I pull my swords and attact the Orc'. In Larp the same thing would be different, you're first very surprised of the Orc suddenly jumping in front of you, only after that shock you can try to pull your sword and start attacking the Orc.

All in all a Larp, when properly run, can give you the thrill of a life-time

[gideon_thorne]

Eh, there are odd ducks in any hobby. As Fiff could tell everyone, as well as I can, it doesn't take a funny costume and a foam swords to make one a pain in the ass.
_________________
"We'll go out through the kitchen!" Tanis Half-Elven

Peter Bradley

[serleran]

I once tried a LARP of Vampire, just to see how it worked, and it was dreadful -- the players were boring, the situation was worse, and it ended with some guy being "knighted" which I guess for them was great. And then, I gave Call of Cthulhu a run, using a system of my own purpose, and it worked OK -- could have been better if I'd had the time and money to purchase better effects.

So, its like pretty much everything -- the participants, mostly, determine if its worthwhile.

[Fiffergrund]

The Cthulhu LARP I played in was pretty clever. There was a 5 tiered insanity system that could be picked up from reading books (there was a large library in the place) as well as seeing nasty things. Each character was given a list of their custom insanity effects that they'd roleplay at each stage. Gunfire was handled with cap guns. If a cap goes off, it's a hit. The round caps provided to each character had a number of shots pre-fired. The higher a character's skill with the weapon, the fewer shots were pre-fired, and the more likely they are to hit with a given shot.

The plot was very intricate. It was a one-night game, and revolved around a dinner party at the home of a man who dabbled in the occult. Needless to say, there was a lot of confusion about who the bad guys were and who needed to band together to keep a portal from opening. The portal nearly opened, but in the end, the right decisions were made to avoid the horror.

The creature, somewhat shrouded by fog, was a tentacled, beaked monster. The tentacles were about 20 feet long and the beak maybe 3 feet in diameter.

The monster was so convincing that Prophecy now uses it as a young kraken.
_________________
Sir Fiffergrund, Lord Marshal of the Castle and Crusade Society.

He Who Hides Behind The Elephant's Back

[sieg]

Like Serl said, it can be expensive for the props. The beauty of Dusty's CoC LARP was that he only needed one ghost (his wife) and one Zombie. As the Zombie bit others, they joined the living dead! Oh, and nothing could stop the Z's (not even headshots)...we had to find the Necronomicon and read the rites to banish the zombies. So, other than body parts, the Necronomicon tome (nice wood & leather cover w/an elder sign) and a circle of stones.
But yeah, one of the things I liked about the ECS is that no matter how much you shot your mouth off about how "great" a fighter you are....once you got out on the field you had to put up or shut up. No levels, no "extra hits", no magic items. Just you and your weapons.
_________________
Always remember, as a first principle of all D&D: playing BtB is not now, never was and never will be old school.- Tim Kask, Dragonsfoot

[Jerm]

For a lot of larpers who do weekend larps Vampire larp is not considered a real larp
I tried it 3 times and each time I came to the same conclusion: this is not a larp
Like I said, my best larp upto now was Dragonbane, it lasted 6 days and on day 3 I was almost believing that I was really in that fantasy world. Just to say how real it looked and felt. A pitty I haven't gotten that feeling since.

Dragonbane was really like walking into a fantasy movie and really being there
I've also heard (and saw) lots of good things about the Bicoline larp in Canada.

[Morgrus]

LARP is odd to me only because of the nonvizable effects, i.e lightning bolt. This makes it kooky to outside observances. Most of us have "LARPed" at renaissance fairs though. aaa the drunkin wenches............oo zoned out.
_________________
Awww Craap.