Some people seem to use LARPing as a general insult for what they don't like in RPGs with little or no knowledge of how LARP actually works.
I'm not a fan of LARP, never could get around the dressing up in silly costumes requirement myself, still I have friends who LARP and one who runs LARP events on a commercial basis, so I know a little about it and find its misrepresentation annoying.

1. LARP is not ruleless. Since it involves people running around wielding dangerous objects it tends to be highly regulated.
2. LARP is not make a story up as you go. If anything the exact opposite. LARP events have highly scripted stories, they can't manage the massive casts that would be neccessary for a freeroam adventure.
3. It goes with 2. I suppose but LARP is not just pick a role, the role has to fit the story so events can be scripted. If anything LARP has more in common with linear RPGs than it does with sandbox RPGs like TES.

Is it kinda like in Role Models?

everything you need to know about http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVZczLuoJoU

Heh, I just watched that about an hour ago.

I have my reservations, I suppose I would not be embarassed to Larp but my issue with larping is the same that always came up when I played airsoft with my friends, I would hit some one and they would either not feel it because they were wearing heavy protection or they would lie about me not hitting them.

I can't imagine really how it is that it would work exactly (and I saw role models *don't know how accurate that was* but even that did not explain how exactly people keep track of complicated things like spells) you probably have to have a serious honor system but thats not going to stop most people.

Haha, boffer fighting makes me laugh.

Tried to do a LARP of Vampire: The Masquerade once. The cops chased us out of the cemetery.

Couldn't imagine why.

It's not like we were waking anybody up...

This is what I know of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxF0vygnF2Y.

So it's kinda like role-playing in oblivion, except you do it in real life?

Except it's not free roam so it's worse than role-playing in oblivion...

You don't even get to kill people.

One thing I will say about it is, it's a helluva lot more social than sitting behind a computer screen making snide comments about it.

We still get to cast spells though right?

http://youtu.be/j_ekugPKqFw

But they don't explode or kill people.





Unfortunately. Some of us are in a cold, dark, lonely workspace when everyone has long since left, filling out a database and correcting other peoples mistakes.
Forgive me if I decide to come on a forum between checks and fixes to reply to stuff. Not all of us are lucky enough to be unemployed

LARP stands for Live Action Role Play, it consists of playing a role in real life, that is outside of any board games or video games, using your own bodies as the avatar of your character and live props of relevant size and imagination to fill in the blanks (much like in your average board game RP session).

People of all ages can LARP and no special equipment is required. Children are more prone to LARP as they think less about maintaining their image and are thus more free to make themselves look as silly as they will during a session of LARP.

LARP is often centered around fantasy games, movies or stories with a medieval theme, such as Dungeons and Dragons, Lord of the Rings and even creatures from old folklore such as vampires and werewolves. Occasionally people LARP around concepts with more modern themes such as Harry Potter, sports and modern war. LARP based on futuristic concepts such as Star Trek or Star Wars is also popular. So basically any fantasy a person can hold can be turned into LARP.

We all know the general image of the D&D LARP player, running around often using rules from game books to decide upon events in their LARP, but you can also just ditch any rules, if you′ve ever seen children running around with toy guns shooting at each other, pretending to die when a well aimed shot from a NERF gun hits them, then that is LARP. If you′ve seen children play doctor, or pretend to be a star athlete during a game of for example football, then that is LARP, if you′ve ever seen girls set up a tea party with a plastic kettle and plastic tea cups, sipping away from empty cups, then that is LARP.

I don′t think anyone really goes through childhood without doing some LARP. To take an example from my own childhood me and my friends used to LARP using the game Heroes of Might and Magic as our basis, we′d find a good playground, designate big buildings as castles and then decide upon turns and what each of us would do each turn, we′d give things in the area the role of many different mines, and we′d imagine up battles against imaginary enemies that we′d be likely to see at such places from the games, using rules from the games, often straining our little minds with all of the details we were trying to remember through it all... (if you′ve ever played a game of Heroes of Might and Magic, then imagine having to try and remember the price of each structure, the basic number of steps a fresh character could take, the kind of XP you′d get from your average fight, how much creature growth there was of each creature and so on and so on).

So if you′ve not done LARP at least once in your life I find that to be pretty weird and unique, but if you did but didn′t realize it then now you know what the concept of LARP is about.



Well if you′ve worked so hard on your life you must be a pretty big success and you must have a mate. Such pairs often engage in LARP through roleplay in their more intimate moments. And yes, that counts as LARP too.

No that's "pretend".

I'm confused where I said I am a big success. O_o

I get paid slightly decent for spending 8-10 hours a day filling in Database entries and fixing up database errors [it's really NOT as fun as it sounds. But it's something my course qualifies me for].
As for the intimate moments between me and my [not so recent ex], Whilst they are none of your business. We did prefer traditional encounters over exotic or role play.

Yes and no, you′re pretending to be a character different from yourself, but you′re also taking up a role of a character that is not you and improvising upon your environments again pretending they are different to fit the character and what he does better. A lot like acting but acting is done by a script, LARP is freestyle.

So LARP and Acting are both subcategories of pretending. While pretending is a more general term and can cover even more things than acting and LARP, like pretending about objects eating something that tastes bad but telling everyone that it tastes good, which is not taking on a role, neither freestyle or scripted but something else.

So pretend is a very large concepts with many concepts that branch of it.



I said it because it often feels like people who say what you said feel like people with free time are doing nothing with their lives, thus being some sort of failures, hinting at those who mention not having the luxury of free time being those who work hard and get to places in life.

And yes it is none of my business but I hadn′t mentioned it and few are too busy for that, so I figured it was a form of LARP that no one would pretend to be too busy to do.

I openly admit to doing nothing with most of my time. Hell, up until I got this job my entire life revolved around sleeping, videogames, and hanging out with the girlfriend when she was off work. And now between being single, work and games. The only time I do anything else is when I go out drinking with some friends.

As for intimacy. I had enough of my crazy fun back when I was 16-19. I'm content having relaxing relationships and such.

So a specific community creates a term and uses it as a blanket definition outside of that community. Unless it's in the dictionary or a widely used definition, I'll use the proper terms for these things.

Your term is more proper ? Where did yours come from then. Mine admittedly does not come from a dictionary but it is agreed upon by the community I hang around. And I haven′t heard of any specific term for it that is widely used that is not very loose. Even the wikipedia article on LARP agrees with the terms I gave it.

A live action role-playing game (LARP) is a form of role-playing game where the participants physically act out their characters' actions. The players pursue goals within a fictional setting represented by the real world, while interacting with each other in character. The outcome of player actions may be mediated by game rules, or determined by consensus among players. Event organizers called gamemasters decide the setting and rules to be used and facilitate play.

Anyway I get the feeling I′m starting to spam with each post I make, I should let others post before I post so I won′t post again until at least 5 others have posted.

Some day I'll have to try LARPing.

I honestly don't think there is any point in arguing about this... there's going to be the fierce supporters and the people who think its for losers. I really don't see the appeal in it and as shallow as it sounds care too much about my image to do something like that, but if you enjoy it, go for it. Just don't try to revolutionize non-larpers mindset because thats not going to change.