LARP

I don't really get LARP as someone with a mild interest in tabletop. Sure, writing about being about being a knight in full plate is alright and all, but pretending to be one in real life is high-tier autism.
 
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Watcher said:
I never liked the idea of LARPing. The whole thing comes across as too awkward for my liking.
At least with Dungeons and Dragons you do it in a dude's house and you play it at a table. Instead of making a fool of yourself in public.
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When you do it for the first few times, it isn't fun, but it's all about building up a character. Took me a few sessions to really enjoy it, otherwise, I was more of an audience that had a minor part.
LARPing is typically done in private fields, away from public eye. I think that it'd be much more socially acceptable if there wasn't such a sperg attraction to all things RP. The worst contingent is people that try to make their character immortal and then bitch and moan when they die.

Surtur said:
...wtf?
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Yeah, the whole situation was fucked up, and I'm not alone in experiencing it. Pretty sure people have died when an angry person brought a real knife or something, but that's just internet whispers. For a time, there was a scare, like there was for D&D, but LARP in general isn't terribly popular.

I would also like to make a motion to lump NERFers in with this thread. They're pretty spergy, too, especially the youtubers. There's plenty of drama with the NERF youtubers to begin with, but the videos of NERF battles and stuff are just cringe.
 
the Borg said:
The worst contingent is people that try to make their character immortal and then bitch and moan when they die.
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That's another aspect I kinda dislike.

In D&D it's first and foremost a game, and a roleplaying experience second. While you can have a story and non-combat segments. I can state outright that I get bored in D&D if there isn't any combat. And I like the combat in D&D because it's all very precise. You take specific amounts of damage, you have to roll in order to hit or miss, you have to pay attention to precisely where you are in combat and take penalties. Etc. With LARPing I don't really see the appeal to whacking each other with foam swords.

Also in D&D the game is usually pre-scripted by the DM (and the DM if he's smart will use a module for the party to start out with. Which is entirely pre-scripted). With LARPing I can't imagine having very well rehearsed character speeches or environment descriptions to add atmosphere to the game.

Unless I'm completely off base feel free to correct me but a lot of that was why I stuck to playing roleplaying games at a table.
 
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I remember going to a convention when I was 16, the larp kids there were actually snobby.
They were doing a "funny" gag with each other about a busted up fork, but they were in larp mode, in public.
I didn't know this as I walked by, and noticed their fork, and said "That's what I call modern art!"
They stare at me blankly like I just destroyed their secret utopia....or my joke sucked that bad.
 
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I've been to a few of these back when I was a dumb college kid, both the combat style and the Vampire style. Every single one was a massive powertrip for the neckbeard running it and his inner circle of friends. Not being in either of those categories, I had no idea what was going on and spend most of my time being bored.

I still have a fondness for D&D, but dear God give me some people my age who understand personal hygiene instead of the same crop of fat, stinky neckbearded college kids.
 
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Uncanny Valley said:
Everyone always dies, though. It sucks.
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Eh, if you didn't die, you'd be doing it wrong.

So honestly, my main thought on LARPers is I'm genuinely cool with them up to a point. As a tabletopper, I get the appeal and why people do it. Is it the style I prefer? Honestly not really. I tend to prefer having drinks with a group either around a table or on skype as I fuck up my dice rolls during combat and laugh as another guy keeps critting. Or rage when the DM is the other guy that keeps critting. But...

When you get fellas like what @the Borg dealt with, or those drunken morons ala the vampire gang in @The Knife's Husbando 's tale, that's just fuck no. Then again, that's a big fuck no in the tabletopping world too.

In short, eh. It's like paintballing or reenacting battles; fine so long as tardery is kept at bay.
 
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The Knife's Husbando said:
Back in the day, I used to be a member of the most god-awful half-ass Vampire: the Masquerade LARP group. After about the third meet-up, after I saw that the game mechanics were so derped-up as to make the game basically unplayable, I just started showing up for the drama & hilarious bullshit.

Which there was in abundance.

First of all, the game was only nominally VTM, but also incorporated in the other (then) two White Wolf games, Werewolf and Changeling. We had four separate sub-storytellers that had almost no communication between themselves about anything plot-related, under a main ST who was more interested most nights on hitting on attractive noobs than keeping sober or directing the story along.

All of the above was run out of comics/gaming shop at a local strip mall, with no notice to any of the other shops as to when it would be going on and what exactly would be happening. And since this was the only LARP/WW gaming opportunity in about a hundred mile radius, the turnout was huge. A slow night was fifty something players. An average night was seventy-five or so drunk/high nerds in trenchcoats with real katanas & other fantasy swords stashed under them, Gothy girls in corsets and goth makeup, a few furry "werewolves" in bondage gear, and high girls in sundresses with Halloween fairy wings throwing glitter everywhere. All in one spot derping around, with the public at large having no idea what they were doing.

Let that sink in a minute.

I ended up leaving for good when the cops got called on a dude I know who got a gun pulled on him when he drew his sword at a guy who yelled at him for hiding behind his car during a scene in the parking lot when he was coming out a store in the strip.
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That must have been interesting to experience.
 
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I actually side-eye Vampire-type stuff more than the high fantasy LARPs. Some Vampire players get way too into the whole "politics" aspect and turn into backstabbing little fucks. There's actually a small circle of them out of Chicago who've been spreading out into other games, setting up cliques, and generally acting like ... well, bloodsucking parasites, appropriately enough. At least with the high fantasy guys, you can hit them in-game.
 
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With LARP, you simply can't win.
Either you don't put much effort/money into your gear and you look like...
horrorshow 03.jpg

Or, you put money and effort into it and look like...
ye bearded warriors(small).jpg

Thing is, as long as people are self-concious about themselves and don't bother anyone else, it's pretty much like any hobby. You just hang out with friends and enjoy yourself.

That being said, yeah, LARP's a hobby particularly ripe with minor grade lolcow material:
american golem.jpg

Apparently, that's supposed to be a Golem.

larpers.jpg

Requesting Exterminatus.

doing it wrong.jpg

Close enough...

horrorshow 04.jpg

Yes, this archer's bow has no string. She has to throw the "arrows" by hand. Apparently, that's due to legal reasons.

horrorshow 05.jpg

It seems, the Uruk-Hai of Isengard aren't what they were cracked up to be.
 
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RomanesEuntDomus said:
With LARP, you simply can't win.
Either you don't put much effort/money into your gear and you look like...
View attachment 81559

Or, you put money and effort into it and look like...
View attachment 81562

Thing is, as long as people are self-concious about themselves and don't bother anyone else, it's pretty much like any hobby. You just hang out with friends and enjoy yourself.

That being said, yeah, LARP's a hobby particularly ripe with minor grade lolcow material:
View attachment 81564
Apparently, that's supposed to be a Golem.

View attachment 81566
Requesting Exterminatus.

View attachment 81568
Close enough...

View attachment 81571
Yes, this archer's bow has no string. She has to throw the "arrows" by hand. Apparently, that's due to legal reasons.

View attachment 81572
It seems, the Uruk-Hai of Isengard aren't what they were cracked up to be.
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Not gonna lie, instantly a fan of broom-hard-hat helmet guy. (And very guilty of LARPing, in one form or another)
 
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horrorshow 02.jpg
The Gatroade Bottle is a nice touch.

horrorshow 06.jpg

Again, the guys on the right are supposed to be orcs . . .

horrorshow 07.jpg
Tinfoil helmet, so conspiracy nuts can larp leisurely without worrying about reptiloid mind control rays.
 
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