Hey all, a long post follows but I hope you take the time to read it.

I just posted something I thought you guys might like and might have input on. It has changed the subject of our current podcast. We were about to record a show about Long Live the King by White Wolf but now I realize that we need to inform our listeners about what is required of them if they want to LARP.

I am a member of the RPG Podcasters group and I asked them recently if they didn’t LARP, why they didn’t LARP. A response to my questions was:

Isn’t a lot of it just the amount of energy it takes for a LARP? (on many levels)

Don’t LARPs require a lot of coordination and planning? You need more space, more people, and more equipment.

Especially true for most fantasy larps - don’t you have to be a little athletic, swinging foam weapons and all?

Let me reverse the question on you. What is achieved live-action that cannot be achieved at the table top?

So I posted this reply. Tell me if you have input…

Re: Why not LARP

Here is a long post to answer some questions about LARP. Don’s reply has superceded our previously recorded episode #02 of The LARP Podcast. If you don’t want to read my intro please skip down to the deviding line below.

Right now I am running a game of d20 Star Wars for my sons 15 & 19, my oldest boy’s fiance (noob), and my wife (noob). In fact, I play more table-top than LARP. I like table-top, it is just that I LOVE live action role-playing.

I have invested many nights in playing World of Darkness LARPs, mostly as Nosferatu vampires, and many days swinging foam in the form of sword, axe, pole-arm, and flail (the weapon of the lowly commoner, I was only first levelat the time). I have invested some amounts of time in preparation for LARPing. Time was spent in gathering or making costume. I have made a shirt of chain and a shirt of scale, both while deployed to airbases in the middle east. On top of this time I have wiled away the hours building weapons.

All of this time put together are not even a fraction of the time I have spent since 1980 preparing for table-top games. As far as money, I have bought thousands of dollars in books all the way from the blue box D&D to d20 3.5. I have bought tomes of great value (AEG’s d20 Toolbox) and boxsets of confusing babble (Marvel Universe, I much preferred Villians and Vigilanties). This expenditure dwarfs anything I have spent on LARP. That said, I will try to address a few points.

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It is true that it takes energy to play a LARP but not much is required in the beginning. The big energy is expended in finding a LARP that you like. This is also true of a table-top. For both you have to either have friends who game or look at the game shops or online to find a group in your area.

Once you find a game then there are playing costs. Table-top games don’t cost unless it is at a Con but some, probably less than a quarter, of the LARPs charge to play. I have never paid to attend a few-hour game of anything. What might cost is costuming or props. Few games would expect beginners to layout money for such items. Just like at a Con, most LARPs will let you walk in off the street and game. Vampire type LARPs will be able to set you up to play with no costume or props needed. Boffer-style LARPs usually have loaner weapons for noobs and will ignore the street clothes for an event or two.

Besides costumes and props the only real layout is time. You do need to learn the basic rules. This applies to table-top also. If you have been to a LARP that did not give you enough rules to play then it wasn’t a very good LARP and they make the rest of the games look bad. Usually you will be fostered in, that being that someone will take it upon themselves to teach you what is needed.

All, in all you should be able to play a LARP for the same “energy” as you would expend on a table-top game. After that first game or two you would be expected to pick up some costuming and props as appropriate to the LARP. This should run you about what you would put out for a Player’s Handbook and a set of dice.
- Costuming for a Vampire-style game could be done from your closet, especially if you have clothes left over from the 80’s! Barring this a trip to Goodwill would net you a fair selection of “cheap” costuming.
- Costuming for a boffer-style game would require a friend with a sewing machine and access to the internet for an easy pattern for a shirt. On top of the cost for cloth for a shirt you would have to put out for a weapon or two or maybe a shield. A weapon can be built with a $1.50 PVC pipe, a $1.50 fun-noodle (when in season), and a roll of duct-tape. This would be enough raw materials to build two swords or a sword and a couple of daggers.

Any financial output beyond this would compare to you buying a couple of game supplements for your favorite classes.

All of the above does not apply to the GM:

He requires a little more. Like a DM he needs to acquire a place to play. 95% of the places I have gamed are free. If it is a Vampire-style game the location can be the same house you play your table-top in. Other places I have played include a pub in Cambridge England where the local Camarilla (a membership group for Mind’s Eye Theater) played (Cam UK is not allowed to play on public property). This site was an upstairs room with a separate bar. It cost nothing to use because a bartender was provided and they made money off of drinks and bar food. I have played in many down-town and old-towne venues for free from Pacific Grove, CA to historical Old-Town, Sacramento, Ca, all the way to Main Street, Ellicot City in Maryland. Admittedly I have played in some bad places for free also. One group played in a mall to avoid the snow outside. It was a young group and although not a good choice it did encourage the Masquerade (the in game struggle for vampires to remain hidden from mortals). For boffer LARPs there is a plethora of public parks and forests available for free. Most places have a pretty fair supply of these available for anyone willing to go looking and not all of them are heavily trafficked by non-players. As far as boffer LARPs go I have paid for only one game so far (as long as you don’t count the SCA). It was held at a Boy Scout camp and is the subject of my first episode of The LARP Podcast.

There are more outputs of energy on the part of the GM. He has to plan the game (just like table-top) but with he doesn’t have to map out locations because they are real. Depending on the depth of the game the GM may want decorate, be it a boffer or theater style venue. The acquisition of decorations and props go along with the plethora of books a DM builds up. I know I have tons of books (only a slight stretch of the truth since I recently moved them all from Souda Bay, Greece). I am doubtful that a LARP runner has spent much more than I have. Another method for building up a prop cache is to encourage the players to donate, not money but props. I know that NERO gives character build points for the donations of needed items like weapons for monster players to use and props to decorate the game site.

When I look at all of the above I can say that yes there is a little output of energy to start playing and a lot of output to run a game but the time spent to do it right is very much the same as the time spent to run a table-top game and money is what you want to spend on it.

Another point raised is the need for athletic ability:
Yes, you may need to be mobile. But, I have known players for both theater and boffer style games that were not. This is a drawback for the boffer game but never have I seen it as much of a drawback for theater style. When it comes to non-athletic players in boffer games I have seen players in wheelchairs that come for the role-playing and they just don’t attend to the field of battle. In most games this is regarded as just fine. It allows for someone to run a tavern or shop of some type and get just as much RP in as the sword jock out there slaying Orks, Gobbo’s, and Unicorns.

If you are not wheelchair bound then you have the opportunity to join combat just like anybody else. The weapons are light so even if you are out of shape you can swing them for 15 minutes at a stretch and I cannot remember the last time I was in a combat that was longer than that, even if they do seem to run an hour. If you don’t care to run around the field like a jack-rabbit then you can team up and fight as a semi-mobile group and that will spare you the exhaustion that can occur when trying to outrun that 18 yr old marathon runner.

The weapons are light (sorry to repeat myself) so being struck by one really shouldn’t hurt unless a stray shot hits you in the head or, heaven forbid, a tender spot. These shots are discouraged and a couple head-shots can lead to someone be expelled from the game for safety’s sake. Stray shots may be bothersome but I have never seen one lead to injury. Of course, I have bought two pair of glasses for my son but that is because he forgets to take them off before going out to play.

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Now for the payoff of LARPing:

As I said in my original post, players are required to ignore information they cannot avoid learning. You know what every other player in the group is doing unless the DM runs each game as a side-session. So with this you are forced to role-play with the DM. All of your friends are there and you talk to the barkeep, the brigands, the jailer, whoever. But the best RP opportunities are sitting around the table. Sure some games have PvP role-playing but it usually breaks down to “Hey, John, have the npc barbarian engage the “Shadow” while my mage prepares the Polymorph Other spell”. In many LARPs there aren’t even any NPCs. Players interact with real characters and each has a chance to build a rich role with history and background that runs their game. Along with this comes player purpose. I now have a reason to interact instead of having the GM provide a scenario and the players moving through plots a-b-c.

Another advantage of this is that players really have secrets and motives that are unknown to others. With table-top a good 90% of the motivation/purpose of the characters is provided by the DM’s plot. In the LARP you have little knowledge of how another player will react to anything.

Of course there is a further achievement in LARP that cannot be achieved at the table top? That is the thrill of combat. As Sam said, there is a thrill in getting out there and swinging some foam. Even if you are not good at it you still get the adrenaline flowing. When is the last time you really felt your heartbeat race as a monster approached your party. How many times have you jumped out of your skin (figuratively speaking) when your party was ambushed, even by a lowly group of goblins? Add to this the feeling of real accomplishment of defeating your foe. Have you bragged about rolling a 16 to shoot a monster from across the field, I mean two days later over lunch? And when a bard sings the praise of your character’s accomplishments around a campfire how does if feel? I can tell you that in a LARP you know that it wasn’t a shot that just anyone could make and it made the game more enjoyable for the players you saved because they wouldn’t have to spend real time healing so they thanked you honestly. As for the bard, when he sang for me he really took time to write the song and when he sang it a dozen other players were hearing my accomplishments. How would that compare to the DM saying “The Duke’s bard sings your praises at court and you get a +1 reaction bonus for the next 24 hours.”

I guess what I am saying is that what you achieve in LARPing is just more real that in table-top. I did it myself, not with a die-roll but with my own hands. This lends to that immersion Sam talked about. I am there; I woke up on a cold Feb 3rd morning and put on my boots. I strode out across a secluded game site and breathed in that cold air. I felt the nip of the morning frost. I didn’t imagine it. I didn’t depend of the DM to describe it for me. It was grey, clean, and crisp, and I was there, not imagining it. Maybe for some that is too much but have you ever felt the same way when camping? There is very little difference.

Here is an example of immersion from the same event: In the darkness of that next night I was awakened from my (real) sleep at (real) 2:30 by an unknown person attacking me (real boffer combat) and biting my throat (one, I drain your blood, two, I drain your blood, three, I drain your blood. You’re a vampire). I was then very hungry (role-playing) and had to seek out a warm blood source. I got my boots on, picked up my (foam) hammer and donned my (real) chain mail and struck out into the night. Across a field I spied a candle. It was someone I knew. She had expressed an interest in the undead earlier in the day so I figured she might not mind so much. I engaged her as calmly as I could, trying not to give away my gnawing hunger (role-playing). I sat at her blanket and told her I was cold and she offered me a cloak. She could see my discomfort (role-playing) and when she enquired I leapt up and started bashing her into unconsciousness (real boffer combat). In the secluded darkness I stole her life (one, I drain your blood, two, I drain your blood, three, I drain your blood. You’re dead). As I made to get away others were outside the tavern. I knew they saw me but I ran (real). I ran for fear of my (character’s) life. My heart pounded in my chest as I ran into the woods. I ran for my (character’s) life.

As an example, imagine how I felt when I woke up. I really was
surprised but then again would that level of surprise been felt at the table? Would you have taken a moment to access the situation? Would you have grabbed wearily for your hammer? Heck, I couldn’t swing that thing in the bunks anyway. At the table wouldn’t you just say, “I roll initiative, a 17! On my turn I draw my hammer and roll a 16. Does it hit?” The cramped space wouldn’t be real; the time searching for the hammer wouldn’t exist. It would just happen when your initiative phase arrived. That is the realism of LARP.