LARP

[Ariel]

I think it deserves a thread.
These two documentaries are a great starting point

There is a nerd girl in this one who details how she rotates her beta orbiters.

Features a lot of autistic women and a middle aged man who compares LARPing to amazing historic feats like climbing mt everest.

Some LARP related websites:
http://www.larping.org
https://www.reddit.com/r/larp


https://www.reddit.com/r/LARP/comments/341gcz/coolest_larping_stories/

 

[autisticdragonkin]

I used to larp but then I entered grade 4
(we called it fighting aliens though)

 

[Ariel]

I used to larp but then I entered grade 4
(we called it fighting aliens though)

Everybody LARPs in primary school. It's when you do it as an adult and follow it up with a powerlevel story on reddit that it becomes amusing.

 

[HG 400]

 

[Bigguy28]

Friend of mine LARPed in a Werewolf game. Think everyone but the chick was a Werewolf, she was a Faerie. Asked me to sit in on a game once to see what it was like, never been more embarrassed for a bunch of adults in my life, sitting out in a very public area pretending to be Werewolves fighting Vampires.

 

[Broseph Stalin]

Knights of Badassdom almost got a friend of mine interested in LARPing. Then I had to remind him that it was a comedy movie, and for good reason. Still, it was pretty funny, and Peter Dinklage was in it.

 

[DangerousGas]

Augh. LARPers really have no sense of self-awareness. I knew a guy (who I am no longer friends with for several reasons) who got massively into the LARP scene here in the UK. Wouldn't shut the fuck up about how awesome it was, to the point of regularly giving unsolicited blow-by-blow accounts of the 'fights' he'd have as a rogue. He also claimed to be amazingly good at swordplay.

Spoiler: Slight Power levelling

Having practiced Fencing for several years, as well as HEMA (Historical European Martial Arts), I can entirely debunk his claims. The guy handles a sword (be it foam or steel) like ADF handles social interactions.

He then showed me photos, and I had to forcibly extricate myself from what was becoming one of the most awkward social situations outside of full-scale lolcowdom. This guy was dressed up in a poverty-spec take on Aragorn's getup from the LoTR films. Might have worked, if a) he'd put some time/money/effort in, b) he wasn't brandishing a pair of foam latex short swords, and c) he was taller than 5'9". To add further insult to any normal person's sensibilities, he was surrounded by what I'll euphemistically call like-minded individuals, in front of a set of tents in an otherwise quite pretty part of the UK countryside.

 

[Truant]

From what I've heard there's quite a big difference between the American and European LARPing scenes, mostly I think coming from the differences in culture. Americans seem to play more fast-paced and combat-heavy games while Euros in general enjoy a slower, well thought-out style of LARP. Might have something to do with the kind of people the scene attracts.

 

[Butta Face Lopez]

Watch Darkon my niggaz

 

[Bugaboo]

My best friend likes LARPing a lot, his basement is full of foam swords and axes. I really, really don't get the appeal. I like Dungeons and Dragons (as a general concept, I haven't played it in years) but LARPing I can't wrap my head around
I don't know if he's ever gone out to like, a big gathering and LARPed, I'm not even sure where you'd find such a thing near us.

And then of course when you were a kid on the playground everybody would pretend to be pokemon, or Harry Potter or a Power Ranger, I suppose LARPing is for the people who never grew out of that?

 

[SpessCaptain]

My bro was in with a LARP group, I think some of his friends were interested in it too and made him go. He wasn't autistic over LARP but he was constantly trying to build scale-armour for himself but his friends tried to enlist him because of his skills and to help set up camp. He told me he was sent to a game in ghost town just a few hours out of town that was some sort of multi-use urban arena for town-sized skirmishes. One night he was standing around at the camp site and saw some teenagers sitting alone. He asked them what they were playing and someone described themselves as Cultists and continued to be these brooding and really edgy kids.

They were full on into it that he confirmed later on that they were actually Satanists IRL when they began doing weird-ass rituals.

 

[Sanshain]

I love roleplaying in general, but I've never really gotten the appeal of the LARP scene. I mean, logically, roleplaying is all about getting into a fantasy that you could never really experience in real life. When you have that kind of scenario in mind, anything that reminds you of the distance that separates you from your fantasy logically removes you from the experience itself. It's like video games; the simplicity of the interaction generates the immersion, regardless of how divorced that interaction is from the 'real thing'. This, incidentally, is another reason why motion controls consistently fail to garner mainstream appeal.

With all this in mind, why an earth would somebody want to create a form of interaction where they're at their absolute furthest from their fantasy, while being constantly reminded of this fact? Foam swords, cardboard or scrap armor, bits of badly dyed rag for costumes, etc. You can't even argue that it has the same kind of value as historical reenactment, where people actually try and be as authentic as possible. It's one of those things that I feel needs a special kind of mind to consider in any way a good or engaging idea.

 

[c-no]

My bro was in with a LARP group, I think some of his friends were interested in it too and made him go. He wasn't autistic over LARP but he was constantly trying to build scale-armour for himself tried to enlist him because of his skills to help set up camp. He told me he was sent to a game in ghost town just a few hours out of town that was some sort of multi-use urban arena for town-sized skirmishes. One night he was standing around at the camp site and saw some teenagers sitting alone. He asked them what they were playing and someone described themselves as Cultists and continued to be these brooding and really edgy kids.

They were full on into it that he confirmed that they were actually Satanists IRL.

Considering how LARP (if it was like that of DnD) is roleplay and that your bro LARPed with Satanist, that could of gotten attention from Christians who think anything related to roleplaying is evil. That said, LARPing itself would no doubt attract edgelords considering @Bigguy28 mentioning some werewolf vampire LARP. That said, here is some LARP cringe (if this is real and not some joke, even then, there can be LARPers of Avatar):

As for hearing LARP brought this to mind:

 

[Slurms McCorgi]

Oh hey, right after I mention it in Off Topic...

Spoiler: power level: is this what I've gotten myself into

I joined the "combat" club at school thinking I'd actually learn to use a spear and was sorely disappointed to find that it's nothing but kids swinging sticks at each other. It's not even a LARP group in the sense that it's supposed to be, like with the fakey-LOTR personas and the loitering at ren faires. Meetings can be embarrassing to watch because there's no rhyme or reason to what goes on (they're held by a busy stretch of road, too...), but everyone's having fun and *ahem* we all could use the exercise , so at least there's that.

 

[HG 400]

Friend of mine LARPed in a Werewolf game. Think everyone but the chick was a Werewolf, she was a Faerie. Asked me to sit in on a game once to see what it was like, never been more embarrassed for a bunch of adults in my life, sitting out in a very public area pretending to be Werewolves fighting Vampires.

Every time I see larpers on youtube or w/e there always seems to be one clueless motherfucker who stands out even in a bunch of clueless motherfuckers standing out. Like, everyone's playing knights and vikings or w/e and there's one nekoshota or avatar-alien spazzing around with them. Or like you said, a fairy in a werewolves vs vampires LARP. These are the people I want to know more about. Who are they? What are their lives like? What drives them? How mindblowingly autistic are they to be the ill-fitting spectacle even in a group of ill-fitting spectacles? Do the rest of the LARP nerds get mad at them for being out of place and ruining their immersion in their little game of elves or space marines?

 

[Mogambo]

Meh, LARP can be a lot of fun if you don't take it (or yourself) too seriously. That being said, it does attract it's fair share of weirdos. And I don't just mean socially awkward gaming nerds (myself included). Back in college I participated in a fairly big LARP group. I think the highlight of that was when two LARPers were caught having sex in a utility closet... apparently in character no less.

They were full on into it that he confirmed later on that they were actually Satanists IRL when they began doing weird-ass rituals.

I don't know about Satanists, but in my experience LARP (and, to be fair, gaming in general) seems to attract a disproportionate number of people who are interested in, or practice, 'alternative' religions. The LARP I was in had several Wiccans, generic neo-Pagans, and just New Agers in general, as well as a guy who was really into Native American culture and a white Buddhist convert. And yes, some of the neo-Pagans did participate in rituals, albeit outside of the LARP.

Although the religious right in America likes to claim RPGs are a gateway to Satanism and/or neo-Paganism, I think its more that the kind of person attracted to RPGs is more likely to be open-minded and interested in mythology, fantasy and the like.

 

[HG 400]

Meh, LARP can be a lot of fun if you don't take it (or yourself) too seriously. That being said, it does attract it's fair share of weirdos. And I don't just mean socially awkward gaming nerds (myself included). Back in college I participated in a fairly big LARP group. I think the highlight of that was when two LARPers were caught having sex in a utility closet... apparently in character no less.



I don't know about Satanists, but in my experience LARP (and, to be fair, gaming in general) seems to attract a disproportionate number of people who are interested in, or practice, 'alternative' religions. The LARP I was in had several Wiccans, generic neo-Pagans, and just New Agers in general, as well as a guy who was really into Native American culture and a white Buddhist convert. And yes, some of the neo-Pagans did participate in rituals, albeit outside of the LARP.

Although the religious right in America likes to claim RPGs are a gateway to Satanism and/or neo-Paganism, I think its more that the kind of person attracted to RPGs is more likely to be open-minded and interested in mythology, fantasy and the like.

Tell us more.

 

[Bork Laser]

 

[Flowers For Sonichu]

When you're a kid, it's called "using your imagination", but most people grow out of it. The ones that do not are usually the ones who sleep in a racecar bed and line their walls with action figures at the age of 40.

I play dag once or twice a week with my friend, and it's a good way to get some exercise in but some people take that shit waaaay too seriously.

 

[Sanae Kochiya]

I don't get LARP, but generally that's because I don't do RP-esque things to be sweaty, tired, annoyed, and having burned all my money on embarrassing useless crap. That's what LoL is for.

I have this basic rule of thumb though:

If you do it with similarly minded people and around no one else, then no one cares.

If you do it in public where people can see you, you're probably daft.

If you brag about doing it, you're probably autistic.

If you upload videos of yourself doing it, you're definitely retarded.