Quote from: Dumarest;958924I've never done it or had any interest in doing it. I've only ever seen it done on TV and movies, where it was basically being mocked as uncool by writers who probably know as little about it as I do as evidenced by the way they portray D&D on shows like the Big Bang Theory and Community.

So what makes LARP different from what my kids do with their toy light sabers and blaster pistols? Are there actual rulebooks or referees who roll dice to see if you hit? Do you pay to join an organization that sets it up and schedules it or do you just get together with friends and lark about in the park?

1: Yeah. That gets really old really fast.

2: Yes there are rules and GMs. Varies alot but some are more freeform and others are more like a sandbox style modules. There may be NPCs played by staff or even dedicated players, there may be monsters and some of these can be incredibly well done. Most are set at regular schedules by whomevers hosting it.

As for combat. Theres usually a system in place that determines damage from weapons and spells. Some require you to call out the damage as you deal it. Usually no dice are being rolled and its more a point system with fixed damage and often some sorts of resistances.

In some death is permanent. In others theres a chance to be raised IF someone comes along in time who can. And in others theres a neat little system where you have to draw a marble from a bag. If you draw the wrong colour your character is gone. And each time you die another kill marble is added.

Equipment varies alot too. Some are street clothes and the most basic of boffers. Others are more elabourate and and require good costumes, real armour, and foam latex weapons.

Quite a few are hosted on parks and theres usually a fee to participate. Most are weekend deals. But one local, Kanar, has an annual week long event each year.

Personal favourites are
IFGS: After Treasure Trapped it is probably one of the oldest LARP organizers around. A good system and one of the first to require more intricate boffers that actually look the part. Some are on par with foam latex ones in looks.

Cthulhu Live: Call of Cthulhu RPG based. Pretty good system and some of the prop makers I've seen go all out! Combat lite for obvious reasons.

LARPCraft: This is a relatively new organization that has been promoting better costuming. They have hosts all over the place.

Kanar: This ones local and I like the system and look of the videos of gameplay up so far. Unfortunately its a bit too far out for me to attend yet.

Over in Europe there are some absurdly elabourate LARPs hosted. Check out College of Wizardry, Fairweather Manor or Hell on Wheels for three examples.

[video=youtube;C3RSPVCdkDA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3RSPVCdkDA[/youtube]

Quote from: Sergeant Brother;959041From my own observations, Vampire LARP's are less common than they used to be and offer LARP's are more popular than ever. I'm currently involved in a boffer LARP but can't play regularly because I have two small children.


That happened in my home town. We had a pretty successful SCA community here, but it all depended on one guy and his loaner armor and influence. He moved away and the SCA died there. It didn't help either that it is a college town and so younger members cycled out every few years.

Do you live in my town?

There are also a lot of systemless LARPs that focus on storytelling versus any mechanic.  For LARPs, they tend to be my favorite.

Hard to get into a game unless you know people.  I tend to save it for cons versus anything else.

Quote from: Charrua;959072There are also a lot of systemless LARPs that focus on storytelling versus any mechanic.  For LARPs, they tend to be my favorite.

Hard to get into a game unless you know people.  I tend to save it for cons versus anything else.

We usually call those "Parlour Games" or somesuch. They are fairly popular at conventions. Usually little to no combat. All socializing.
Way back in the 90s I was in a huge one that took up the whole con pretty much. Mirror Universe Deep Space 9. Everyone was handed out a character, some goals and was usually part of some group or faction.

Also pretty much how the early playtests of the Vampire larp were too. More like an enormous parlour game. No rules other than stay in character when not attending something. Apparently some play the finished V-Larp like that too. Mostly socializing and little to no combat.

One of my favourites was a time travel one that took up the whole floor section of MiniCon. No combat, no rules there either.

Great stuff but rather different from LARPs.

Quote from: Headless;958889I used to play in a Vampire the Masqurade Larp.  It was lots of fun.  I made some cool friends.  It sounded like it was a big deal with chapters over at least two countries.  

Anyone still do that?

Kinda of... ...not, ...but kind of. Did join SCA and dress up at various Renfests when I was much younger i.e. early eighties. Still really enjoy attending Renfests, just not dressing up so much... Also never did join any Vampire groups though. In the latter half of the eighties, the Vampire LARP clans were mostly composed of Goths who were not old enough to actually get into nightclubs and join the real parties, and them youngsters had to content themselves with dressing up at private parties, as well as dressing up and playing at being Goths at conventions. This was common until around 1995 or so, when Vampire and LARPing actually became more mainstream and popular.

Even as late as 2003 I remember us having discussions and banning LARPing as a Convention approved activity for PentaCon. This was on account of there always a small group of LARPers that seemed intent on doing just plain illegal stuff, and in seeing how much morally questionable/objectionable  stuff they could get away with while they were attending an event without the supervision of their parents. This, of course, has legal implications for us, ...and none of us Convention organizers wanted to end up being sued in civil court because little Jane Vampire ended up being taken advantage of, due to her lack of judgement in hanging out with dirtballs or other lowlife whose only goal in life (other than dressing up for conventions) was to see if they could get someone else nailed for being stupid, so we just didn't do it.

About three years ago, our art director at my club started a Cosplay group, and then she left, However it was so popular with our club members we continued the Cosplay program. As such, for the last three years I have been escorting this group to Indiana Comic Con. We participate in the costume contest, attend geek and celebrity panels, and generally have a good time. I might have some photos laying around from ICC 2017 which was held just three weeks ago.

I was once Prince of Indianapolis!

Anyway, the two major differentiations seem to be BOFFER & NOT-BOFFER.

I wrote up several session reports of non-boffer LARPs from Origins & GenCon. I think the convention ones tend to fall in to two categories: NPC railroad vs player-driven. The first has lots of NPC "helping" to run it. They tend to have plot and suck balls. The other side are the player-driven ones that just give you a character with motivations and everyone lays in, trying to do their thing. Maybe a GM introduced event or two.

The player-driven ones were some of the best experiences I've ever had gaming. The NPC railroad ones were some of the worst.

Good LARP: http://fortressat.com/articles-gaming-scene/2687-origins-session-report-4-the-price-all-men-must-pay

Good non-tradiitonal LARP: http://fortressat.com/articles-gaming-scene/2683-origins-session-report-3-national-security-decision-making-game

Bad LARP: http://fortressat.com/articles-gaming-scene/2670-origins-session-report-2-victims-ball-3

Boffer LARP: https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/69108/item/1728071#item1728071

Good LARP: https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/69108/item/1728079#item1728079
It's the Magna Carta, baby!

I played in a Houses of the Blooded LARP for over two years, but it is sadly defunct. Tons of fun for a time, but it devolved into something best avoided (when the original showrunner passed the torch) and suddenly: people stopped showing up (including myself)...
Lots of cool stories and neat reasons for costuming and character immersion (my primary drives with LARPing).

Quote from: Omega;959055Personal favourites are
IFGS: After Treasure Trapped it is probably one of the oldest LARP organizers around. A good system and one of the first to require more intricate boffers that actually look the part. Some are on par with foam latex ones in looks.

Cthulhu Live: Call of Cthulhu RPG based. Pretty good system and some of the prop makers I've seen go all out! Combat lite for obvious reasons.

LARPCraft: This is a relatively new organization that has been promoting better costuming. They have hosts all over the place.

Kanar: This ones local and I like the system and look of the videos of gameplay up so far. Unfortunately its a bit too far out for me to attend yet.

Over in Europe there are some absurdly elabourate LARPs hosted. Check out College of Wizardry, Fairweather Manor or Hell on Wheels for three examples.

Agreed. Northern Europe has a huge cosmopolitan role-playing scene - especially larp, which is nearly mainstream in some places. Eastern Europe and Russia also have a huge larp scene, that overlaps with the reenactment crowd, allowing for some thousand-person larps. Some collaboration for them have made for what are now being called "blockbuster larps" with great scenes and costumes and significant budgets. College of Wizardry is a series of Harry-Potter-inspired larps set in an actual castle in Poland. Fairweather Manor is a Jane Austern larp in a real manor house. Hell on Wheels is a western larp. Also check out Monitor Celestra - a Battlestar Galactica larp set in an actual battleship - and Legends of Arabia, set in Abu Dhabi.

There are some people in the U.S. trying to do similar. There is New World Magischola - a Harry-Potter-inspired offshoot; and Event Horizon, which just took place in the Bay Area. cf. This summary of blockbuster larps:

http://leavingmundania.com/2017/03/30/brief-incomplete-history-blockbuster-larps/

Currently, the U.S. is still predominantly outdoor medieval fantasy larps using foam-padded weapons (aka "boffer larp") and World of Darkness larps, but there are also plenty of interesting small larps. Intercon is a pure larp convention in the Boston area, and Wyrd Con is in the L.A. area.

Personally, I enjoy many smaller larps that have mechanics but where the mechanics are minimal but there are still key events and problem-solving to get through - rather than primarily socializing or primarily combat. I agree with bryce0lynch that player-driven games (which are generally PC-vs-PC) have been better than NPC-driven games, in my experience.

"boffer"? :confused:

Quote from: Dumarest;959145"boffer"? :confused:

Sorry for the jargon. Resolving combat in part by using padded foam weapons. There are still rules, so character stats and armor make a difference, but actual hitting with weapons is part of combat.

Quote from: jhkim;959149Sorry for the jargon. Resolving combat in part by using padded foam weapons. There are still rules, so character stats and armor make a difference, but actual hitting with weapons is part of combat.

And magic is usually handled by saying an incant correctly and throwing a pack of bird seed (or beanbag) if the packet hits the target the spell takes effect.

Quote from: jhkim;959141Monitor Celestra

Sweet Christmas! I would have been totally onboard with that one if it was held locally in my area.

I used to play in a Vampire LARP here in Roanoke from 2010-2012 and it was not very good. Most of the players were annoying and pretentious Goth burnouts in their thirties who wanted to relive the glory days of 1996 when the Roanoke LARP scene was a big deal. I disliked the Goth subculture before joining that LARP. Afterwards, my dislike became a burning hatred.

I had a falling out with them in October of 2012 and I have since moved on to better LARP's like the one I sporadically play in based in Staunton. I'd attend that LARP more often, but I lack transportation and Staunton is a two-hour drive from Roanoke.

Quote from: Dumarest;959145"boffer"? :confused:

Theres a couple of types but the general concept is foam padding over a semi-rigid core like a bamboo or fiberglass rod.

The most basic basic ones are little more than pool noodles.



The more advanced ones are shaped.



and decorated.



The IFGS ones require a cloth cover over the surface.



Past that you get into the foam latex weapons which are a different animal as it were. This is the sort of stuff used in movies too like Lord of the Rings.

LARPing is popular here in New Zealand with regular large events. White Wolf based LARPs did die away over 15 years ago though.