L.A.R.P.

Warning: This post is about LARP. If you aren’t interested in gaming, theatre, or fantasy, feel free to pass this one by, though if that is the case, I think you ought to lighten up. =)

LARP stands for Live Action Role Playing, and is distinguished from tabletop roleplaying, such as Dungeons and Dragons. With tabletop, you are sitting around a table talking about what your characters are doing, whereas with Larp, you actually do what your character would be doing. You dress up in costume, you put on a character, and you act. Think of it like improvisational theatre, except generally the audience consists of the players themselves.

So, why do it if there’s no one watching? Because some of us like to pretend. Some of us like to throw ourselves into a character and be James Bond, or King Arthur, or a Homeless Drifter for the night, and then return safely to our real lives once we’re finished.

There are many systems in place for adding rules for combat in which no one is actually hurt, and for affecting the world around you without having to inconvenience anyone who is not part of the game. The system with which I am most familiar is Vampire: The Masquerade, which as you can probably guess from the title, is about vampires.

This is one game in what makes up the “World of Darkness” (now known as the old world or “classic” world of darkness, as they’ve released a newer system). The world of darkness is interesting in that, in theory, all of the different games (Vampire: The Masquerade, Werewolf: The Apocalypse, Mage: The Ascension, etc.) can work together to create this “world of darkness”, inhabited by mages, werewolves, mummies, wraithes, vampires, and even regular old human beings, some of whom have taken it upon themselves to hunt the things that go bump in the night.

In reality, the different systems don’t fit together as nicely as one would think (a flaw which you find in most systems which are released in a modular fashion), and so it’s usually better to stick to one type of critter. In case of the Masquerade that’s vampires.

Unfortunately, the majority of players who seem to be drawn to this particular game are those self involved, power hungry malcontents who are not the type of people you would want for a social game.These are people with the mentality of “My character could beat up your character” or “My character thinks she’s too good to talk to you”. Filling a room with such people, who are only really there to groom their egos, does not make for a very interesting game, as interactions end up limited to only those between preexisting, out of game cliques.There is an aspect of these games which is meant to be co-operative. It is difficult to foster that specific brand of camaraderie in a group dominated by these personality types. Because of this pattern, over the years I’ve encountered disappointment after disappointment from a system which, in general, would be fun to play if not for the unfortunate leanings of the typical player. The last time a game I was a part of imploded due to player drama, I said "Never again!". I decided I was done with it. Then, a few months later, the following conversation took place.

“So ***** is running an old world game” says my friend.
“Oh yeah?” I said with a lack of real interest or enthusiasm.
“Yeah, it’s a troupe game”
“Oh?” I’d perked up at this point, for reasons I won’t explain here.
“Yeah, and it’s invitation only”

This idea caught my attention. I am generally someone who promotes the concept of inclusivity, but in the instance of these games, it was only exacerbating the problem. By allowing anyone to play, you were opening the doors to Drama. By making the game invitation only, it allows the Storytellers (the people who direct the overall plot of the game and settle character or player disputes) to shape their character base, and hopefully cull any of the painful drama which so often accompanies this type of game.

I met with *****, and he explained all the safeguards which he’s put in place against drama and power gaming, and I agreed to join with the hope I would finally get the LARP experience I’m looking for. I’ve yet to attend a game, but I’ve decided to give it three months (one session a month), and see how it goes. If I find the same old drama, so be it, I’ll just walk away.

Either way I’ll probably revisit this topic in another post, so in the meantime wish me luck.

Thanks for reading,


-Step.