RPGWW

LARP-Live Action Role Play
I've done it a few times. I honestly don't think it's much different than acting. But I understand some people see it as the ultimate in nerd. So nerdy, in fact, that other nerds find LARPers to be outcasts.

I'd like to know people's ideas here.

The RP was Laws of the Wild, by the way. I liked it but I like acting too.

I think LARP battling leaves a lot to be desired. If there was some sort of superhuman "Judge" like from Final Fantasy Tactics Advance there to run things, it'd be better. But as far as non-combating situations go, LARPing can be fun if everyone involved is a decently good actor.

I was supposed to go at one point, but the cost (especially of armor, and I don't trust my own reflexes enough to think my character could decide without it) and the hassle was prohibitive enough that I decided I didn't care enough. Plus character rewards rack up only when you go a lot, and I couldn't see myself making a regular thing of it.

I, personally, feel that the best roleplaying experience is still pure text, but LARPing did sound like quite a bit of fun.

I think that it is, while amusing, an impure form of roleplaying--but then, really, what is the pure form?

I think my main thing about LARP is the way spells work. I can understand the mechanics and the need to use something simple, but spells are supposed to have flash and pomp and thunder. In short, one cannot be sweet enough in LARP for my tastes. I live for moments of looking sweet.

Which means it's sort of irritating to try to quickly grab sand from a bag at your waist (because you can't use dry rice, birds would eat it and die from intestinal blockage) and throw it at another guy, without getting it in his eyes, before he simply pokes you with a foam sword and "kills" you. Eh heheh.

I like the concept of LARPing, but I have a lot of trouble with the idea of executing it.... In addition, none of the groups I've heard of have good locations for it. If you can imagine, running around wearing foam armor and holding foam weapons around someone's house, at the edge of the suburbs where there happens to be some lightly wooded areas. You know, places where there are still a decent number of people wandering around. It's bad enough that you're 23 doing pretend in someone's back yard like you were five again, without the neighbors staring at you and your 5-20 other friends who are also doing the same thing.

... I could be convinced to do non-fantasy LARP. Gift me a trench coat, a nerf canon, a warehouse to run around in, and a Shadowrun or similar background? Yes, I'll happily do that. Or, better yet, Paint Ball LARP. I don't even care that I can't aim for shit, I would have a blast doing that.

CP2020, yo. It's Shadowrun without the (somewhat superfluous) magic!

Actually, I believe the facilities most major LARPs use are summer camps (sleepaway, usually, I guess), abandoned on the off-season; I don't know what they do during summer, but my guess is many don't operate (it seems like it would be too hot to run around in armor during July, anyway).

What about LARPs that don't require props like Laws of the Wild, Vampire: The Masquerade, and any others I might not be familiar with?

Should LARPing be 'confined' and I use the term loosely to situations were the actors don't need flash and pomp, like when using magic?

Also, location is a hard one for adults to hammer out. Kids LARP all the damn time but that's cute and creative. Adults are just being creepy and wierd. There's quite a few forests near me though that I bet I could slake for a LARP but it's hard to find players for me since I'm not in college anymore and I work such crap hours.

I'm not saying it should be confined, exactly--just that if you want ME in there in a flashy-magic setting like D&D, LARP is not the way to keep me around for long. Unless I get to play a martial artist and actually use what I know; then we might be in business.

Also, I don't know the first thing about Laws of the Wild nor V:TM, so I can't speak for that. My opinion is that props are always necessary in LARP, otherwise, why LARP and not just sit at a table and talk-act?

Hammering out a location isn't hard for kids, because kids have locations hammered out for them. Backyards, basements, or otherwise wherever their parents are. Adults, on the other hand, have time constraints and jobs and things, and if they are going to be doing anything on someone else's property they have to get permission whereas children can often just be waved off as "well, they won't cause any real trouble." Adults also typically require much more space than children do, which makes finding an adequate location slightly more difficult.

On the other hand, adults have the capability to get drivers' licensure, which opens up the range of available places greatly.

Personally, I'm not a fan of LARPing, but I don't give people who do it a hard time for trying to enjoy themselves. It does remind me of an amusing story, though.

When I was a freshman in college, my RA was a really big guy, probably 6'5" and solid muscle. He was a fraternity president and played sports. He was also widely known in Denison's "nerd circles" as being one of the only people at Denison who LARPed. I just remember thinking, when I first heard that, how much it would HURT to get hit by that guy, since he could pretty easily pick up two of my floormates without any trouble. Either way, from the P&P gamers on campus, this guy got a hugely hard time for doing it, and he generally never showed his face around those people at any point in time because they ripped into him a lot for it.

Guess there's weird shit like that no matter where ya go.

... I can't help but imagine some 90 pound guy with buck teeth and more freckles than pores on his face, wearing coke bottle rim glasses and a pocket protector, pointing and exclaiming in a nasal voice: "NERRRRRD!"

I guess I'm not even sure how we're defining LARP. For some people, anything that you roleplay face-to-face counts, and for them LARP is another way to say "tabletop RP" or "pen and paper RP."

I'm pretty sure all the commentary up to this point has been centered around the kind where you dress up in armor and swing foam swords around in the woods. I think it's established that a significant percentage of this community is pro-tabletop.

Kai wrote:I guess I'm not even sure how we're defining LARP. For some people, anything that you roleplay face-to-face counts, and for them LARP is another way to say "tabletop RP" or "pen and paper RP."

Furthermore, there's a huge difference between Live Combat RP and between LARPs where you determine success or failure via rock-paper-scissors or cards.

I enjoy acting, including improvisational acting, and tend to get into it at the table as much as possible; most LARP either totally eliminates gamist elements or turns them into physical combat, which is a totally different sort of hobby if you ask me.