Yes!
I LARP with the Lorien Trust! Should be going to the first moot this weekend, but I haven't been able to get the time off work :(

Hail Sir Fatspear

I only LARP with women and usually only in a 1 on 1 battle. Loser takes a cock.

I don't LARP. And now I never will. Unless I move to Germany or something, I really have a hard time seeing LARP being taken seriously.

its silly, like medieval airsoft with an extra layer of bullshit

>>14727329

>spear

don't LARP
don't think I ever will

But I have told it is very fun when you get into it. I can kinda see why, making your own weapons and shit then beating each other to death could be pretty cool

I used to, but then I got sick of it being dominated by people who abuse the system to compensate for total lack of social skills.
Dominated by people who think "Undefeatable" = "Good Character" and wouldn't know how to adopt an alternative role if their children’s lives depended on it.

we have a group where i live who are SUPAR DUPAR SERIOSE about larping. they dont even let you play if you dont make your gear to EXACT specifications and can physically keep up with them. yes. powergaming larpers.

I've done real LARPing, where we were actually playing a WoD game while running around the university. It was pretty fun, and I would probably go again if it started back up.

I've also done pseudo-LARPing like HFS where there's absolutely no roleplaying and you're basically just beating people with foam weapons. That's fun too, but in a different way. And somehow it's even more embarrassing.

>>14727445
OP here, what's HFS?

>>14727522
High Fantasy Society. It's a lot like Amtguard.

>>14727427
I've heard about those LARPs.. They only let you use certain kinds of metal and gear that doesn't pass inspection isn't allowed in, and if it isn't historically accurate then its not allowed..

I'd probably just get kicked out for refusing to use any material other than cardboard.

>>14727422
Yeah, luckily, the LARP where that picture was taken is fairly neck-beard free. A lot of the pople there have been larping for as long as I've been alive (20 years). The team that I'm on is a good mix or relative newbies and veteran larpers.

Larping if for idiots.
If you want medieval, full contact stick fighting, check out Belegarth.

>>14727533
OP here, thanks. I just started playing Amtgard, and so far it's been kind of meh. I like the rules and the combat system, but most of the other people at my park (Boreal Dale, we're part of the kingdom of Goldenvale) don't roleplay at all and don't have any costume at all. It sucks.

>>14727561
What if I want medieval style fighting as well as roleplaying? If I was just in it for the fighting, I'd go all the way to full stee land join ARMA.

>>14727401
This is exactly why I want try it at least once. Going camping, running around in some woods, mucking about with boffers, for the most part it sounds freaking awesome.

Speaking of which does anyone know if there is any larping like this in Australia? The closest I could find are these dudes - http://www.sca.org.au/ - and they seem pretty heavy with the rules because they use blunt metal weapons.

Inb4 that vampire stuff in Sydney, unless I could be a hunter and take out non-human characters with EXTREME prejudice.

>>14727345
My nickname at that larp is Beardless, because most of the other guys on my team have beards and they couldn't remember my actual character name.

>>14727564
>>14727576
Im a stick jock, and I don't roleplay...So maybe belegarth isn't for you.
Also: amtgard is kinda wierd. Its not so much stick fighting as stick tapping. there is no sufficent force rule so everyone just "taps" each other. Belegarth combat is a lot different.

If you want to roleplay...well...don't know what to tell you. its not my particular cup of tea.

>>14727580
Get some friends together and do it yourselves, exactly as yo described. look up rules or make your own, and boffers aren't exactly hard to make. it's a lot of fun, especially if you can get away from real life and really stat to get into character.

>>14727594
See, that's the thing about amtgard that I don't get, is the idea that roleplaying and combat are mutually exclusive, and if you like or are good at one then you must dislike or be bad at the other.

>>14727618
Role playing and combat are almost complteley unrelated. there is no "one or the other" isue at all.

It just that in my experience people who care about the competitive combat don't care too much about role-play, and vice-versa.

>>14727639
What I mean is that in the larping that I'm most familiar with, you are in character the whole time, including in combat, and nobody focuses exclusively on roleplaying or combat. In Amtgard, almost noone is in character at all, especially in combat. It confuses me.

>>14727645
Who's fault was the head wrap? If the person knows enough to throw a wrap they should be well beyond throwing head shots.

I fight lefty, so I get people in teh balls more than usual, but I try to advoid it. It just that the sword side wrap and leg hook land around the stomach/right thigh area if they have their left foot forward.

I'm not implying that every hit is a tap, but taps DO COUNT in amtguard. In belegarth they dont, so you have to hit hard. This means that the belegarth weapons are often more durable and well made, and have more forgiving padding.

My friends and I make boffers, get drunk, and beat the shit out of eachother in the empty lot where this building http://www.hpd.mcl.gov.on.ca/hpdsearch/dbimages/Elgin%5CSt.%20Thomas%5CAlma%20College%5Cfront%20faca
de%20from%20entrance%20gates.jpg burnt to the ground.

It's pretty fun.

>>14727540
That's reenactment. I believe he was just talking about elitist LARPs.

One asshole wearing sneakers.

Motherfucker.

is everyone on here fat or something?
everytime I see someone post a picture of themselfs on here they are fat

>>14727698
Elitist LARPers often treat their shit like historical reenactment.

>>14727329
Is that chainmail?
Where did you get it?

Yes played it since i was 9 years old... It's what brought me into the whole "geeky" thing with Warhams and RPG's.

Dagorhir, I don't really roleplay I just like the fighting.

Out of curiosity, is there anything fun towards eastern Pennsylvania? I've heard of Ragnarok over in Slippery Rock, but that's over six hours away.

>>14728015
Same. I'm there for the fight, not the drama. I use spears and javelens... Fun way to blow off stress is breaking a line of orks... or if you run with a good group... breaking a solid brick wall of romens or narnians....

>>14728067
To my knowledge the orks run in the east along with Taurendor... they both are based around philly....

Heavy fighting > LARP

I regret nothing.

>>14727341
Oh, you poor cunt.

(For the rest of the fa/tg/uys, LT is the redhaired step-child of UK Larp. Ran by a guy who doesn't give a shit about the hobby, shitty plot, shitty props, shitty site. Only brand loyalty has kept it going.)

>>14727358

Sadly for this one, sex truly is a fantasy-only game.

>>14728112
Christ larp ladies are filthy.

Though of course, there is Larp Fit. Which is Fit because she's at a LRP event, and in a skimpy leather thing.

>>14728086
Dare I ask what system those two groups use? I think I just want to go somewhere with a tunic and pool noodle swords and wallop things. Dunno about heavy roleplay.

>>14728153
Both are Dagerhir units...

Basicly its a combat larp. You get hit in the arm you lose the arm. No 5 damage and leveling bullshit here...

The only UK LRP I'm doing this year is odyssey.

Arena combat for the win.

>>14728168
Thanks, I guess it's time to play the Ten Minutes on Google Game.

>>14727561

And what if you don't want to club people with sticks in a field?

Best fight I've ever been in took me through three upstairs rooms, down a flight of stairs, through a bar, into a common room full of tables and benches, out a door, back IN another door, out that door, and through half a mile of paths and woods before we'd killed the last of them. While half-dressed at 2 AM at night, starting about three minutes after being woken from a sound sleep to find a pack of orcs bashing down the doors they could get through and killing anyone they could find.

Write me back when you can do something like that safely at Belegarth. For me, part of the fun at the boffer/latex weapon LARPs is knowing that the only truly safe downtime at the site is when you're face-down and bleeding out. Or in the bathroom.

Yeah, call them wusses for not using sticks if you want to turn up your nose at lighter weapon physreps. I enjoy the lack of pic related.

>>14727657

Amtgard, along with stuff like Dagohir and Darkon fall waaaaaay over on the "combat" side of things. Aka "sword tag" or "boffer battles".

RP is minimal, because there really isn't anything to roleplay other when the dominant activity by far is "hit things with pillow-stick".

It's fun, but it's got virtually no RP in it's LRP. The polar opposite is your average World of Darkness LARP, which has nil contact and even the most brutal combats are really just "who has the most modifiers" + rock-scissors-paper, and tend to be almost drowning in RP by comparison.

Pic related, Amtgard group. This is not to say that there aren't Amtgarders that do better in terms of costume, but seriously- this is an average example.

>>14728253
yea...ok.
I like sports that don't get me injured when I play them.

Belegarth is bestest.

Sure do, just got my lamellar plate done.

>>14727841
ummm... did you read the part in the first pose where I said that I'm in chainmail? As to where I got it, it's Thinkgeek's butted aluminum stuff. It's cheap, but it sheds rings like bastard.

>>14727564

OP- you're in Maine, right? New England has tons of stuff with a bit less combat and more RP to it. NERO is the oldest game of that kind around there, but there's Siderus, LIONE Rampant around MA, Alliance has a group in Conn. as well.

Stretch your legs a bit and there's stuff more up your alley. This particular LARPer is further south on the coast in NJ, but from MA -> PA there's dozens of small to medium-sized games scattered around, from stuff like Amtgard to more mixed RP/combat stuff like Xanodria or Knight Realms.

>>14728361
Holy shit I don't.

Ever since I stopped playing Football I've been itching to krump some people. This sounds badass.

>>14728401
OP here, I'm in NH but near Maine. right now I play a LARP called Valhalla, that's where the thread pic was taken, it uses the Accelerant rules, and I suppose it could be called a NERO offshoot. I also play Amtgard, and might be starting a Dagorhir chapter.

Yeah, I live in New York. I think I once drove by a bunch'a you losers playing with plastic swords you bought at Party City and not getting laid. Ever.

>>14728378
Make it yourself. Even screw pads, which produce shitty chainmail overall, will give you a durable suit.

>>14728073
>>14728015
Try a Bohurt if you're in it for the fighting.

>>14728361

Full contact fighting is wonderful stuff, don't get me wrong. It's awesome in an open field or a straight-up line fight, and I've done my share of it with the kind of gear Belegarth uses.

But it really is straight up organized field battles with the occasional twist, and that's it. You get killed, you get up 5-10 minutes later, you do it again. Pretty much zero RP going on, it's a boffer fighting game vs. an actual live-action RPG.

But I can't stalk someone in a forest during the foggy morning as they're heading to breakfast, put two arrows in their back before they know I'm there, loot the body and get away before the rest of the town knows that goddamned bandit has gotten another poor bastard on the road again. Should have listened and traveled with a group...

Nor do you get to be walking along with your friends in the depths of night, hunting for a necromancer. Tripping over a small gravestone-covered field and then realizing when the moaning starts that he's found you, and he raised some friends...some of which lack flesh but are quite good at clawing through armor to drag the life from you with ghostly hands.

Nor is there any real story to go with any of it. Characters don't live, get stronger, go through all manner of adventures (or die trying), and there's nothing tying that sort of thing together. Only an endless series of light-weapon variants on what the SCA has been doing since our parents were barely old enough to stop wetting the bed. Cause that's what Amtgard and company are, in the end- when you go back to their founders. Folks who didn't want to have to deal with the safety dance of rattan and "historical accuracy" BS and just were having fun whomping each other with cushion-covered sticks.

>>14728563
Gotta agree with you on that, anon.

Seems that a lot of LARP groups are just large scale dicking around with soft swords. Would be nice if you could get the levels of intrigue and plot from a Camrilla larp with the chaotic fun and thrill of a full contact combat boffer fest..

>>14728563

Now, once battle games like Dagohir got established, people saw those and thought "Hey, I want to play something that actually has characters and monsters and shit!".

Dream Park, a 1980's novel seemed to be part of the genesis of that bit of the LARPing movement. So people took the boffer combat systems that those older games had and built them into a more complex game. People had characters with races and classes that allowed them to do specific things- and if they survived enough events, earn experience (build, exp, whatever you want to call it) and spend it to let those characters do more- a lot like a pen-and-paper RPG. That was the genesis of boffer LARPs- the IFGS and NERO being the two better known oldies, though there's break-offs and "children" of those systems that are near 20 years old themselves. They found great success in the US, and have spawned new games for the entire time. The grandaddy of LARPing overseas, Treasure Trap is along the same lines and timeframe- and spinoffs and breakaway games spawned all over the UK and later Europe.

>>14728651

Sorry anons, 4chan is being truly shitty about how long it takes to post stuff. Like "five-ten minutes" shitty...

Anyway, the >>14728651 games mentioned spread and prospered. Along with them in cons and the like were much more strictly RP and virtually zero physical combat games, where RP and diplomacy were the rules of the day. Some were called "Interactive Literature" or other fancy names rather than "LARPs". Many even lacked any costuming, though some players enjoyed doing so- but it wasn't remotely required.

White Wolf published it's own series of games on this, and they too took root- while combat games and boffer-combat LARPs held onto the outside, the "World of Darkness" games and similar systems ended up being played indoors. Just like most "sword tag" games look funny at LARPers who mix RP with their swordings, both tended to look askance at a game that had no real physical action- or often even weapon props, which were a no-go in a lot of the sites such games got played in for insurance or safety reasons. On the other hand, it meant that large groups could take over a site (a club, a college campus, whatever) with a minimum of fuss and disruption, play, and keep playing.

Nowadays, Europe has gotten ahead of the US, even if the US started the whole thing off. LARPing is a significant industry, it's an outright educational tool in some of the Norwegian countries, and you get stuff from a dozen or so lads out for a go in the woods to last year's Mythodea event, which had about 7000+ participants and ended up with a literal tent city (or at least small town). And yeah, it can go all the way to some truly exotic games like the one that literally built an entire village, cultures, and a big-ass mechanical dragon and stuck people in-play 24-7, unique game languages and all. Hardcore immersion is an understatement for stuff like that...

>>14728645

Actually, games like Mythodea (and smaller ones too, like Maelstrom LARP in the UK) do a lot of splitting PC's into factions that definitely do NOT all work at the same purposes or goals. Your orcs aren't going to be doing the same thing as the Sigmarite witch hunters or the pirates who are following that mermaid daughter of Aqua, even if none of them are all that fond of the undead. Except maybe the chaos worshippers serving Pestilence.

A lot of the older games were afraid it'd turn into rampant extermination of PC's, but with enough factions, allies, mercenaries and such...it hasn't.

>>14729122

Also, we've gone from these...

>>14729625

...to boffers like these...

>>14729650

...through ultralights like these...

>>14729679

...and latex-based weapons like these.

Shields started out heavily padded like this...

>>14729798

...to less padded but still edged for safety shields for boffer fights...

>>14729700
that looks like it would hurt like shit to be hit with

>>14729833

...into latex/foam constructed shields like these with latex weapons. Sturdy, light, but you wouldn't want to block a real weapon with it...but they do just fine with what they're used to do.

>>14729872

>>14729871

And surprisingly enough, it doesn't. One, because the technology to make a padded weapon has improved quite a bit over two decades+, and two because your average modern LARPer doesn't flail like a retard in what looks like a medieval moron's mosh pit. People swing weapons, but they're not whipping them like they're trying to hit home runs at the baseball field.

As LARPs got less about beating people with pillows, the weapons got more refined as well. And better looking. Likewise, as people could put less into having to worry about having the shit beaten out of them, they paid more attention to looking good while fighting.

>>14729679
>>14729700

How in the world do I make weapons like these?!

>>14730056

The >>14729679 weapon? Here's a guide. Pics included.

http://www.alliancelarp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=4953

>>14729700

is a professionally made weapon. LARP companies are actually a rather common beastie in Europe now, and that means both mass-produced and custom-produced weapons are a thriving industry.

>>14730205

Mass-produced weapons generally run between $35-$175 depending on size and complexity, if you're buying latex ones. Boffers are considerably cheaper and usually much more in the range of the average person to construct, since it's pipe foam, open cell foam, duct tape, and PVC/kitespar depending on type.

>>14730376

Boffer or latex, budget or fancy, people are having fun. And that's Rule Number One for all LARPs, regardless of the "tech level". US games aren't generally as pretty since the "good stuff" is more expensive to get and tougher to find.

>>14730748

It doesn't mean you can't do well with what you have...

>>14730823

...or that there isn't room for improvement.

>>14730823
>>14730376

Those are impressive! I must make some! But alas, I can't seem to find any LARP groups in my area.

>>14730889

After all, a lot can happen with enough time.

>>14730936

OK, I'll bite. Which area?

>>14730959

After all, people keep playing. You might not even know them.

>>14731290

Years and years later, you might even be teaching a newbie a few tricks yourself.

So you mentioned NERO as one of the better ones, because it is both RP and boffer fighting. Funnily enough, I was looking at that earlier. How easy is it, really, to get into as a newbie?

Fucking kill yourselves you gigantic faggots. Fuckheads like you make regular gamers look fucking stupid. You give us a bad name when we see your shit on tv and in the papers. Fuck you. Fuck you, hard.

>>14731416

NERO's quality varies depending on the chapter and who's running it- ones like the game in Cinci are excellent, others are just average. Their "cousins" Alliance aren't a bad bunch either. Pic related, that's an average bunch of NERO guys having fun.

But if you hear the words "Joe Valenti", watch out. He's the "owner" of NERO, but frankly he's more prone to whackjob promotional stunts and such vs. actually running the overall game.

>>14731444

>stop having fun guys

>>14731444

Ooh, I hooked a trips troll!

>>14731585

That being said, LARPs are social beasties. I've found the more LARPs I've played, the easier it's been to get into any given one as a newbie.

Starting the first event or two as an NPC is often helpful. It's often a lot cheaper (if not free), the game does all your kitting up for you to get you ready for whatever roles they need you to play, and generally games reward their NPCs in various ways that make it easier to play a PC later.

You also get to see the game from the back side of the stage, as it were. Which can be nice once (and for some folks, if) you choose to start a PC later.

Pic related, Mythodea NPC group.

Lightning bolt

>>14731804

Imagine TIME!!!!

Maybe you don't like LARP, because of the way they're done. But suddenly, you're independantly wealthy, with somewhere near 20 million dollars. You want to start a larp org.

What are you buying, and how would you actually try to make an RL fantasy RP?

>>14731835

Something similar to a laser tag arena where people just go in and pay a fee and enter a battle with equipment they rent, (for another fee.)

The arenas will be decorated with great amounts of detail, and the equipment will look equally awesome.

Perhaps the equipment has some fancy sensors and other technology to give people a "score" of some sort. Maybe you accumulate points the more you block other weapons and land hits on people.

>>14731913

To add an RP element there could be hired NPC characters in every game who are dressed with extremely detailed costumes, ( Heavily armored paladin guys and ripped barbarian characters, I guess.) and basically act out scenes and do improv and battling every game.

>>14731835

I think building a village of 8-10 buildings would be good. An inn, a shop and some houses etc. Maybe a manor outside it. Something on like 150-200 acres.

Have the inn serve beer, and food.

Hire decent looking women to populate the place, to counter act the uglies. The so many uglies.

What the fuck is this belgarth Shit?

>>14731835

Number one: You get yourself a decent site. Wave goodbye to most of your $20 million at that point.

Number two: A good costume department. With a few full-time makeup artists. Decent costumes, kit + makeup go a long way for any game.

You then rent that fucker out to keep yourself in business. If you want to literally see "If I had a bazillion dollars and the tech", though- go read California Voodoo Game. Niven and Barnes pretty much nailed it.

>So /tg/, does anyone else here LARP?

Yes, though I don't do Fantasy/Boffer, but rather other one time things like CoC, Neverwhere, and weird alternative timelines and layered realities stuff.

It's good to be Scandinavian.

>>14732086

It's a split-off from Dagohir, one of the older "sword tag" kinda games. Heavy combat, low costume, minimal RP- they're the kinda game that uses those low-tech "pillow clubs" instead of regular boffers/latex weapons.

>>14735200

Incidentally, for an example of "holy shit, what do those people DO up there for LARPing", there is a truly tl:dr-level of document in the form of http://stuff.wanderer.org/DB_the_Legacy.pdf

For those who don't just skip through to look at all the pics, it's a pretty good look at how truly hardcore a bunch of LARPers can get.

>>14730056

I own a company making weapons like this, and other unusual stuff (pictured). Still a small-scale operation at the moment, but hopefully growing in the future.

>>14735296
It's a baseball bat. Not that unusual, chief.

>>14735304

A foam-latex larp-safe baseball bat, boss.

I live in Southern Virginia and I'm having a bitch of a time finding any LARPs that don't require me to drive at least 3 hours. Though, Avalon looks like it'd be fun. Anyone know where one could find a large collective of LARPs based on zip code?

>>14735321

Bah, crappy picture is crappy. Meant to be a steam-powered chainsword for a steampunk system.

>>14735321
mother fucker made a chainsword

>>14735296
>herpderp.jpg

>>14735321
Still a bat, chief

>>14735403
I ain't your chief, pal.

Some friends used to do this when they were kids. We'll be reliving their memories this summer.
I've been told that the whole thing becomes like something out of Monty Python's Holy Grail.

>>14735461
I ain't yer pal, boss

>>14735506
I ain't your boss, buddy.

oh come the fuck on and knock that shit off

>pal

>>14735747
I ain't your shit, turd.

>>14735512
I aint your buddy, holly

>>14735774
I ain't your holly, wood.

>>14736119
I ain't your wood, stock

>>14736119
I ain't your woody, Buzz.

Just found out, that our 3rd STALKER larp will be in the biggest steel producing factory complex in the country. It was a case of - jizzing in my pants due to awesome 100% authentic old industrial terrain that would look totally in its place in either the books or the game, aaaand screaming FUUUUUUU due to having only 1 month to prepare...and we had biiiig plans for this one...which was supposed to be in August...

Here's something I have always wondered about LARP.

Suppose you have a guy playing as an NPC: how do you handle who wins that? Is there an expectation of "oh, the NPC is supposed to lose"? or do you have an actual legitimate fight and if your character dies, that's your character dead?

I mean, the fighting always sounds by far the more interesting part than the really bad faux medieval speeches by terrible actors. How do you work it? Does the attatchement of people to their characters mean that the structure is designed to keep the "PC's" alive?

>>14736659
Eeeeh nope. 2 years ago(on my first big event) an early major fuckup due to NPC killing our entire advance party was a setback we never managed to overcome. It did bring joy to my heart later on, when we had to play NPCs killable only by combat magic and got attacked by a throng of warriors...and not a single magic user among them whatsoever. Okay so maybe I took about 100+ hits but we scattered them to the four winds. Especially evident is this in our STALKER larps where if you die, its new character time, and I am proud to say - I survived both previous ones, with the same ole' army grunt(retired army grunt for the second larp+20 ingame years), despite anomalies, marauders, invincible mutants, expensive as fuck supplies and so on and so forth...Did I mention we take bribes? Its ok you can enter the Zone...just pay up. Unfortunately a lot of people couldn't grasp modern economics so we had to gun them down. (In one case, chase down and kill with my rifle bayonet...aaah good times good times...)

What kind of post apoc larps can I find in the US? I googled the STALKER larp and it seems cool enough, but I can't find any on this side of the pacific

>>14735384
>>14735396

Yep. Actually a pretty popular thing to make for the 40K crowd, even mass-produced versions are out there.

>>14735296

You are now visualizing a Team Fortress costumed airsoft game. Manually. With extra foam-padded BONK!

>>14736659

>Here's something I have always wondered about LARP.

>Suppose you have a guy playing as an NPC: how do you handle who wins that? Is there an expectation of "oh, the NPC is supposed to lose"? or do you have an actual legitimate fight and if your character dies, that's your character dead?

More along the lines of "The NPC is supposed to fight to the level the people running the game wants them to.", vs. "Fight as hard as you can.". The game essentially has infinite resources to throw at PC's- if they want to have their NPC's come out there with 60 zillion hit points and swinging decapitation blows with each strike, they could- but they don't. The idea is to have a delicate balance between "too easy" and "massacre"- to challenge people without the PC's being rolled over (unless they're stupid) or having no challenge at all.

>I mean, the fighting always sounds by far the more interesting part than the really bad faux medieval speeches by terrible actors. How do you work it? Does the attatchement of people to their characters mean that the structure is designed to keep the "PC's" alive?

It's designed to favor the PCs to an extent. This doesn't mean characters don't get killed off- but if PC's aren't stupid, it can take years. I'll give a few examples next post.

>>14737362

A lot of the high-fantasy type LARPs generally give people a chance to come back from the dead, to a limited extent- LAIRE for example lets you die once ever as a "freebie" auto-rez and the odds of survival rapidly decline from there- from a base 95% for a newbie on their first non-freebie death to 5% for a high-level player. There's also a chance on most higher-level characters that even a success = no more resurrections, even if normally you could do so.

That being said, characters have lifespans often measured in multiple years- I've had one that managed over 8 years, another one over 5. But they took their freebie death, and later on ended up perm-dead when they got killed from the realities of adventuring.

The first one was a noble at the end, who accidentally burned himself out trying one last spell to protect a paladin from being smashed to death by barbarian demon-hosts. The spell got deflected back at me by sheer random chance, and instead of lying there dying where any healer could have saved me, I ended up locked inside a protective shell meant for the paladin...dying without anyone able to get at me.

The second one was a warrior who got caught up in a truly DUH moment by the PC's- rather than stepping into a fight between two evil armies and helping one defeat the other first, they attacked the whole lot- which meant they got attacked at 10:1 odds.

About an hour later, my demon-possessed-then-repeatedly-reanimated-zombie-now-corpse finally found a peaceful demise and disintegrated to dust, while about sixteen or so other PC's simply managed to resurrect after a bad case of ass-kicking.

That being said, LARPs frequently err on the side of the player- who is, after all a paying customer. But cakewalks also don't keep players. There's a balance- you want to reward good play, but not let the PC's get completely stupid.

Pic related- it's those PC's who decided 10:1 was good odds, shortly before being torn to shreds.

>>14737504

>>14737257

I'm on the East Coast, but we've got stuff like http://www.dystopiarisinglarp.com/ . Post-apoc, zombies, etc. game.

>>14737362

On the other side, if you DO make it too easy to live, you end up with a big problem- characters get overly powerful and the difference between newbie and veteran gets wide enough that newbies start feeling left out for far too long at games- and leave. Stagnation follows. So a slow trickle of deaths and even perm-deaths is actually healthy for a game- it keeps the element of risk firmly in people's minds, and a game with risk is a more lively game.

There are a lot of smaller Larps in the UK, I've been spending a lot of time going to Dumnonni recently, small playerbase, high quality crew/kit, full contact combat and an actual permanent Iron age esque hill fort.

Bloody amazing. Pic related, its the firepit after dark.

>>14738308
Now thats the old problem of stat/skill based system with tons of magic and the do what you can do systems. I may be a biased bastard here, but I favor the second type due to belonging to one. Reasoning as follows:

Systems of the first type, don't have much of an incentive for people to improve. There ain't much point - you can (literally) grind your way to power. Sure you can train and practice but it won't help you that much.

Systems of the second type put players on a fairly even field. Sure, put a veteran vs a newbie and the vet will win 8 or 9/10. Put a veteran vs 5 newbies and he will lose. To win, people have to work on their actual skills. I can fight with a sword, sword and board, spear, poleaxe, axe, bow, crossbow, ok knives and flails are not my strong point yet. They work on their weapons, trying to get ones that so to speak - fit in their hands, try to find the optimum of armor vs mobility that suits them best. Or they exercise or train with the reenactors. Or learn a little bit of acrobatics because admit it - dual-wielding back-flips out of an arrow's path are awesome.

>>14739035

Hmm. I've got a few pics from there in my LARP collection. They do have some nice stuff in a small package.

>>14739876

Heh. You'd think so, wouldn't you?

The balance to that in skill/stat systems is this: You have to -live- long enough to earn those build points to improve your character, and RL ability is often helpful in doing so. Skills and higher stats mean you can make more mistakes along the way (sometimes!) and still live another day, but definitely not always- and the higher your stats, the nastier the opponents you run into anyway.

A low-level character may be running into little goblins, zombies, and suchlike and expect to have to deal with them. A higher-level character often ends up matching wits and skills vs. much nastier monsters or NPC's, and eventually the ones that live the longest are the ones that end up staring down lords of Hell, champions of entire hordes of barbarians, and other such nightmares. With great power comes greater risks and the odds that one of those gambles finds you in the graveyard for good.

Of the characters I started with 20 years ago at LAIRE, of the literally thousands of PC's I've seen played...a grand total of -one- is still alive. And not undeservedly so- he's not only had quite a bit of skill, but luck and friends who have saved his bacon a thousand times over at one point or another out of loyalty. He's gone down more times than I could count, but never out.

Not that you can't give a newbie a character card with bigger stats and make them more effective...but player skill definitely matters even then. There's plenty of stories at my game of people who were foolish enough to think a big rack of IG skills would be sufficient...and then found themselves embarassed or worse thanks to something far weaker than themselves.

>>14739893

>>14737262
40K LARP as a rule, is shit though.

The UK's Death Unto Darkness has fucking space marines as player characters. Bag of Shite.

oh its this thread again

Danishfag larper reporting

pic very much related. Only thing i'm wearing on that pic that I didn't make myself was my socks, sneakers and the hat. good times

also I helped make the god damn houses in the village i'm standing in the middle of

pic is from a LARP scenario called Two Cities (guess what that was about) - a one-time warhams fantasy LARP, lasting 4 days.

it was an ok LARP - not the best (I didn't get laid there) but it had its moments

I currently get my LARP fix at my local monthly LARP @ GERF (its a danish LARP club)

>>14740101

>>14740035
DuD has the six best friends of the organisers as Space Marines, and with all the slots in AdMech, Inquisition and Rogue Traders taken, everyone else is limited to Battle Sisters and Guardsmen, since xenos aren't allowed.

Additionally, the 'Space Marines' are actually scouts and nobody is allowed to take power weapons, power armour, power fists, boltguns or plasma gun until they've been playing for at least a year. So this isn't so much a 40k system as a sub-par nerf LARP with some grimdark flavour.

>>14740403
Some of the costume is good, but over all, it's a cliquey shite fest. What annoys me is it claims to be the best UK 40K lrp.

The UK has had 40K lrps for years. DUD is hardly the first or best. Dud by name...

>>14727580
where in Aus are you?
I live near melbourne and have the same problem. Perhaps we could get together and start our own group.

>>14740403
Oh, thank god its not just me that thinks they are all awful.

>>14740961

FACT: The woman on the left is a confirmed transsexual. She has broader shoulders than most of the Space Marines.

>>14741531
Shit. I thought it was a man in drag. It's a chick with a dick? Somehow that's worse...

>>14740992
>>14727580

If you do, take a look-see around at LARPs that have been playing for a long time- and snag copies of their rules. Many put free versions out for players, others don't charge much (less than a fast food meal).

It'll help you not repeat the mistakes of others. And possibly give you some good ideas.

Hey. I'm in the South-West of the UK. A couple of people I know LARP, and I've had invitations to join them. So far, I've turned those down out of fear of neckbeardage or World of Darkness creepy girls bullshit.

Anyone know what the scene is like in that part of the world?

I'd mainly be interested in it as a chance to make things, and also hit people in a safe and controlled manner.

>>14741643
http://www.profounddecisions.co.uk/odyssey/

>>14741643

http://forums.rule7.co.uk/ -have a looksee there. The UK as a rule doesn't have it bad for LARPs country-wide, though as you can see from DuD-shooters here there's reasons people get crabby about most LARPs...even though they get decent amounts of play. The bigger, established games tend to have their own subforums there.

LARPíng Dutchfag here. Been playing PotC-ripoff Pirate Lord for almost 2 years, commanding a faction of about 18 men.
There are actually a lot of good LARP organisations in The Netherland and quite a few players as well.

Pic related; it's mah crew (top left faggot is me).

>>14741643

It's worth noting that a good hand at crafting nice stuff often can find themselves going from LARP to LARP in the UK as a trader. You might not get to play as much as everyone else, but when you come back with more money than when you started, the extra beer funds make up for it.

>>14742214

>green face
>sorta green-ish arms
>pink hands

Half Orc: doing it wrong.

>>14742303

>picture labeled "Goblin Merchant"
>said merchant doesn't want green stains all over product on hot day

>>14742350

The joke.

^
|
|

Your head.

>>14742426

...DOH!

My bad on that last half-orc thing. Friends?

Calmacil, a LARP weapon producer just linked me this article. For those folks going "WTF is LARPs and why would you wanna play one", it's about how Denmark's ended up turning it into a national pastime.

http://www.rollespilsakademiet.dk/pdf/100000swords.pdf

LARP you say?

SCA Heavy Combat I say.

>>14744181

Sure. Where do you think Dagohir and the like drew their initial inspiration from? It's on the far end, though- there's very little "roleplay" and a large portion of the SCA actually doesn't do it. But there's a good chunk of SCA/LARPer crossover, at least at the local games. It's kinda funny introducing them to getting hit below the knees while they try not to wrap shot you in the head on reflex.

(On the other hand, tell the average SCAdian it's LARPing and they get a mite touchy.)

yes. only i play a game similar to HvZ only made for smaller groups and no nerf bullets [we lost them all]

>>14744235
I'm the president of my University's SCA club, so I know these things very well. We tend to lose more people to LARPing than anything else, and I wont deny that I've been tempted. And then I got into the Heavy Combat, LARP has nothing on that shit.

>>14737504
How does a spell even get reflected in a LARP?
How do spells even work there?

In my LARP we use incants and spell packets for casting.

For instance I would say, "I invoke the elements to inflict lightning bolt! 20 magic Lightning!" I throw a beanbag, and it it hits the person hit takes 20 damage.

The only way to reflect a spell in my larp is another spelled called Reflect Magic. Quite simply if I have it on me and I am hit by a spell, I call out Reflect Magic and the caster takes the effect of the spell instead of me.

I'd LARP if the people who LARP weren't the pathetic, asocial neckbeards that they are. Say, like if it were like a D1 college sport, I'd play.

I actually have a friend in a larger city that says his LARP group is total bro tier, just a bunch of college kids smoking and having fun.

>>14744265
>And then I got into the Heavy Combat

long training session of eating pies till you hit the "morbidly obese" level, and learning to kneel down to fight then?

>>14744502
From the SCA guys I know, that sounds about right.

>>14744520
sadly, yes. I might be half joking when I say it, but the proportion of grotesque lumps of blubber in a bargrilled bascinet waddling about witha shield and stick in the Heavy List is... worrying.

>>14744265

Really? Mind you, for me it was the opposite when it came to the SCA. Then again, I actually did have a bit of heavy fighter training years back.

So since you've never LARPed, how on earth do you know? A good chunk of the SCAdian heavies we've had end up in positions of some martial authority simply due to training being a good start with LARP combat as well, and the idea of knighthood is often very familiar to one.

On the other side, the unexpected has a flavor all it's own as a LARPing fighter vs. a SCAdian one. Being able to actually -fight- an archer rather than "I kill you" (or being that archer). Dealing with the human, not-so-human, and sometimes not-so-honorable. Having a potential "battlefield" that extends through the entire event, at all times (well, save the bathroom and designated out-of-play areas) - which leads to stuff like >>14728253

You're missing out, unless the local LARP scene is straight up boffer combat. In which case, it really is just SCA lite.

>>14744429

Couple of ways. LAIRE uses an incant -> toss a beanbag system for the physical part of spellcasting.

The nastier the spell, the longer the "windup" incant is, and incantations are a specific, set sentence for any given spell. Flub it, you screw up the casting. Get hit, you start over from being interrupted. Whiff with the beanbag toss after you finish the incant, and whatever you hit with it instead takes the effect (if it can, otherwise the spell is wasted harmlessly).

I actually perm-deathed on my first character when someone whacked the sword in my one hand, the pommel deflected my hand (with a ready spell in it) back at me, and I ended up killing myself when the beanbag landed on my shoulder and basically IG ended up blowing my brains out of both ears. Oops.

LAIRE lets you cast any spell you 1) learn in game as your character and 2) can pay the power cost for - so you get all kinds of spellcasters, each of which has a different balance between knowledge and the endurance to use them. Some casters also master metamagic skills to enhance their spells, other ones learn how to cast via rituals, still others figure out how to channel spells through a weapon, including redirecting the spells of others. Different LARPs have all kinds of magic systems, though- some have none whatsoever, or no "combat magic".

>>14744502
>>14744520
>>14744530

It's not that bad ALL the time, but a lot of SCA heavy fighters don't do as much running around as LARP ones do. This isn't a problem when your fights are essentially "Come at me, bro." and most of your fights are won by a handful of exchanges, if not a single precise shot.

Put the same fighter in a situation where he has to dash back and forth during a LARP battle and it can make them wonder if there is a God, and why he's torturing them like this as those damn speedy fuckers pelt them to death, and having their arm feel like it's falling off (yes, even with those light LARP weapons) because you have to swing and move and swing and move and swing and swing and can end up fighting for an hour straight. Or two. Or four.

I still love em for line fights, though. They're usually good for holding a formation, but lousy for rapid manuevers. Younger SCAdian fighters tend to be better, as you don't see as many stout and chunky types. And a good chunk of the better fighters at LAIRE have some significant SCA heavy fighting experience. It's good for discipline, but as you three noted, it's not perfect for LARP.

>>14728190

ODC is best-DC. I had the world's best time stomping about the arena, shouting and fighting. Awesomeface. All weekend.

Yes, faggots, it's me.

>>14744822

Guys like these often put the "heavy" in "heavy fighting" for SCAdians. They really are fun to run circles around, or shoot in the back with a crossbow when they're not looking. But get them in a big fight where you can't get away or be mobile, and they can pound the shit out of you. Get them unsupported on a forest path with a bunch of goblins running around throwing foam rocks and shooting arrows and you can see Goliath get aced by little green Davids.

>>14745159

Sounds like a blast. Anyone get pics of you fighting like a demigod?

Dagorhir/Belegarth have a "paintball, but with swords" mentality. Most fighters are not into the roleplaying aspect, and it rarely comes up except for the occasional scenario battle, or somebody telling their backstory around the campfire. They're also not as strict on historical accuracy (you see a lot of fantasy garb) and you can get newbie gear for around $20, so I've seen it called Poorman's SCA or, as above, SCA lite. They pad the weapon, not the player. Significant force rules mean you get people hitting pretty hard, but you're still not getting injured worse than a light bruise or the occasional concussion (some people never learn not to shield bash with their head), unless it's by some freak accident.

>>14745218
Yep.

Loads of pics of ODC here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/futility-and-spirituality/sets/72157624732154416

Including a few of me pounding the sand (well, dirt). I can't wait for event 2.

>>14745392

Oh, yes. I will definitely have plenty of pic folder fodder from that one.

So I heard there was going to be a LARP this weekend in eastern Pennsylvania, anyone know what that is about?

>>14746404

Xanodria's got an event this weekend in Hamburg, PA actually. (Though me, I'm at LAIRE's 20th anniversary game this weekend.)

That's http://www.xanodria.com/main/index.shtml for details.

>>14746640
thanks man

>>14740992
I go to uni in Armidale at the moment but I'm finishing my degree soon so who knows from there. There is HvZ here which is alright but player interest wears off during the later parts of a game. It seems that there is a couple of sites that haven't been updated in years like this http://www.adventurersguild.com.au/
and gaming conventions that have a slight chance of running something relevant to larp http://www.2011.conquest.asn.au/. This site says there are a couple of groups in Melbourne but I havn't checked out the links http://www.larplist.com/mainlist.php?op=worldlist
These dudes in Brisbane look like the best chance if you can be bothered to travel that far http://www.amazingadventures.com.au/

>>14747697

As a viclarper I can tell you that there are b grade (not a good as I would like it but it is better than none) in melbourne.

Most of the player use the term lrp instead of larp for some dumb reason.

>>14748469
is there a website or soemtihng for the group you run with. Geelongfag here with a hankering for LARP but theres nothing here I can find other than re-enactment.

>>14748575

www.viclrp.org.au

>>14748770
thanks mate

I go to my local Amptgard chapter most Saturdays. We're pretty casual, although sometimes people go off to events.

I think I've been going long enough to actually be level 4, but we don't really do classes unless enough people are there (not often) so I don't even remember what warriors get at 4. I changed from healer so I wouldn't have to memorize spells >.>

>>14749354

4th level? Improve Weapon becomes 1/life and you can improve shield 1/game.

>>14748469

You see LRP used more overseas in the UK/Europe because there's plenty of games that don't really have the "action" component- that is, they're pretty much combat-free and all RP. Thus, Live Role Play.

>>14752207

true

I know of a couple of vampire LARPs running off some (n?)WOD variation

never tried it - but who knows?

>>14752239
I have never heard a good story involving Vampire being done live, not counting stories of people drunkenly disrupting it.