|
Who do I have to larp as to get the most chicks?
|
#
?
Aug 12, 2015 21:24
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 25, 2024 23:22 |
|
|
EATIN SHRIMP posted:Who do I have to larp as to get the most chicks? Fat chicks? Dwarves. Or the real answer is, whoever has the most fictional power in the game-world.
|
|
#
?
Aug 12, 2015 21:51
|
|
|
EATIN SHRIMP posted:Who do I have to larp as to get the most chicks? Roleplaying a pimp has worked well in that aspect. Or at least, would have if I wasn't in a committed relationship to an amazing woman (who also played my star whore). ;p
|
|
#
?
Aug 12, 2015 22:01
|
|
|
I recall a few years ago when I had a pile of free time and no hobbies my parents advocated getting into LARPing. I saw a few videos on YouTube and thought it looked like good fun. Am I glad I didn't go into it now, not that I would have been allowed at 14. I was just intimidated by the price of the stuff. I imagine I would have become a lifer. Maybe in a few years I will try this just to see the insanity, or find a combat one and whack people with fake weapons. This sounds like somewhere ripe for trainee psychologists to go. Is it really as sex focused as I am imagining it being?
|
|
#
?
Aug 12, 2015 22:18
|
|
|
I've never LARPed outside a couple of a couple murder mystery dinner party "once and done" scenarios, but the couple of guys I used to know who did were definitely in a LARP environment more akin to WWE than sexy court politics. They'd mostly grandstand and make bawdy speeches then hit each other with fluffy weapons and get mad when the archer used too much draw weight and left welts.
|
|
#
?
Aug 12, 2015 22:27
|
|
|
I used to LARP in high school (NERO.) I occasionally think it might be fun to go back and play for an occasional weekend, but something in the back of my mind has always said "that's probably not a good idea." I miss some of the people, I miss the fun parts, but all of the stuff about lifers really rings true. The one I went to did have a lot of people who played the game one weekend a month, maybe posted a few messages a week in-character and out-of-character on the forum to help set up plot for the next time, and went about their lives the rest of the time, but there were also the ones who spent the week before in costume to get into character, the non-human characters who obviously picked the cat-person race because they were furries. If I decide I want to nerd out and roleplay for fun, I would get together with some friends who run tabletop D&D games and get in on a game night with them. The immersion of costume and character of LARPing is fun, but the culture can't escape the toxicity of the lifers mentioned in these stories. Thank you for that reminder of why I'm not going to go back and give it a chance. Dacheat posted:6. Apparently there's a HUGE overlap in the local BDSM community to the LARP community, still cant figure this one out. Victory Yodel posted:To me sounds like it would be a lot of fun with the right people and in small doses, but based on this thread, it sounds like those two conditions are met only rarely.
|
|
#
?
Aug 13, 2015 03:22
|
|
|
How often do fights break out because people refuse to be killed in the sword fights? Like no bro you're sword attack didn't do jack poo poo and then I come back with a sword attack that fake chops their head off
|
|
#
?
Aug 13, 2015 04:22
|
|
|
GWBBQ posted:This is exactly it. The whole thing would probably be fun if not for the die-hard LARPers. To be fair to the nerds I think the lifer thing applies to any sort of pseudo-competitive make it up as you go along activity. I got really into racing in university and ended up scrapping together enough money to buy a mildly sporty rusted out 30 year old hatchback to take to autocross. I met alot of cool people there but almost all of them were out for only a few events a year. I ended up leaving last year fuming that it was basically a club of 5 or 6 high up guys in the club with deep pockets bending the rules as they want, doing favors for each other and looking the other way at infractions. The parallels between autocross lifers and LARP lifers minus sexual deviancy are pretty frightening, it was the exact same issue described in this thread. Newcomers don't know poo poo, casuals don't give a poo poo and the lifers take advantage of that. I'm sure there are plenty of activities like that, it usually just doesn't involves a cat elf giving blowjobs in a backwoods cabin to a bunch of fat nerds.
|
|
#
?
Aug 13, 2015 05:12
|
|
|
Every person I've ever met that LARPed sounds like this girl. Down to the mannerisms and everything.
|
|
#
?
Aug 13, 2015 06:26
|
|
|
EATIN SHRIMP posted:How often do fights break out because people refuse to be killed in the sword fights? Like no bro you're sword attack didn't do jack poo poo and then I come back with a sword attack that fake chops their head off Never, in my experience. You have a certain number of hit-points (either locational; so arms, torso, head etc or global) and when they're gone, down you go. There's always referees and marshals hanging around to keep an eye on things in case of cheating but it's largely self-policed; if you're not taking hits people will call you on it and/or report it.
|
|
#
?
Aug 13, 2015 07:17
|
|
Camrath posted:Never, in my experience. You have a certain number of hit-points (either locational; so arms, torso, head etc or global) and when they're gone, down you go. There's always referees and marshals hanging around to keep an eye on things in case of cheating but it's largely self-policed; if you're not taking hits people will call you on it and/or report it. I have the opposite view. In my experience, there was tons of people who wouldn't count their hits. They'd claim that they 'couldn't feel it' through their armor. This is a lie because I've worn a metal breastplate and I knew when I was getting hit. I've definitely seen people get pissed off and almost come to (actual) blows over it. FilthyImp posted:Every person I've ever met that LARPed sounds like this girl. Down to the mannerisms and everything. I didn't watch this whole video but seeing the girl in a corset (because they always wear corsets) made me remember how a corset added +1 armor point under the rules I was playing. No real explanation as to why (when chain and leather had to be a certain thickness and cover certain areas to count) but it prompted almost every girl on the field to go around wearing a corset. It was always pretty clear it was just a way for nerds to get to ogle cleavage.
|
|
|
#
?
Aug 13, 2015 07:51
|
|
|
Camrath posted:Never, in my experience. You have a certain number of hit-points (either locational; so arms, torso, head etc or global) and when they're gone, down you go. There's always referees and marshals hanging around to keep an eye on things in case of cheating but it's largely self-policed; if you're not taking hits people will call you on it and/or report it. I would literally fake kill everyone there
|
|
#
?
Aug 13, 2015 08:11
|
|
|
Milky Moor posted:I have the opposite view. In my experience, there was tons of people who wouldn't count their hits. They'd claim that they 'couldn't feel it' through their armor. This is a lie because I've worn a metal breastplate and I knew when I was getting hit. I've definitely seen people get pissed off and almost come to (actual) blows over it. Cheating douchebags do happen, but in all the systems I've played anyone acting like that would get pulled up by a ref or reported to one very quickly. In previous characters I've worn heavy armour and know the problem- it's why I pull my blows in a certain way so that while safe they make an audible 'thwack' on armour. Check out the video I posted up thread- that was shot from a good 10m away but it's very easy to pick out my hits audibly. quote:I didn't watch this whole video but seeing the girl in a corset (because they always wear corsets) made me remember how a corset added +1 armor point under the rules I was playing. No real explanation as to why (when chain and leather had to be a certain thickness and cover certain areas to count) but it prompted almost every girl on the field to go around wearing a corset. It was always pretty clear it was just a way for nerds to get to ogle cleavage. Girls and corsets go together in fantasy LARP. It's just one of those 'things'. My other half loves wearing hers- it can count as light or medium armour depending on the construction, she likes the look of it.. Admittedly she's rather petite compared to a lot of female larpers and doesn't do the whole 'mega cleavage' thing, but most of the women I know in the field are big fans of corsetry too. One of the other big UK LARPs actually has a 'no corsets' rule in its kit guidelines which has drawn a fair bit of complaint and scorn- from women.
|
|
#
?
Aug 13, 2015 08:35
|
|
|
EATIN SHRIMP posted:I would literally fake kill everyone there A lot of people come in with that attitude. They either end up dying over and over and getting bored or realise that there's more to the game than just random murder (which isn't to say that random murder can't be fun from time to time!).
|
|
#
?
Aug 13, 2015 08:37
|
|
|
1500quidporsche posted:
You found the worst auto cross club. Most I've attended have erred on the side of bending rules to make it more accessible to newbies and most of the best drivers/lifers are eager to either ride codriver with new drivers or take new drivers along with them on their runs, minus their last record run.
|
|
#
?
Aug 13, 2015 12:29
|
|
|
Milky Moor posted:Bingo. The big thing about the game I played in was that the people who created the homebrew ruleset also played the drat game as significant members of player-on-player factions. To anyone who has had experience with anything competitive, you don't let the people who make the rules play the rules. Particularly not nerds, who can't be guaranteed to remain objective about anything. Now, all these people who made the rules were also the sorts to throw down a ton of money on metal armor, good foam weapons and so on. This isn't surprising. This, essentially, made them very tough to beat on the field - and that's fair because, well, they're in armor and it cost them a bit. Are you over the east side of Australia? If so I am 100% sure I know this game. Went over (from Perth) to one of their major events this year. It was a change of pace from our games. And the cheating was ridiculous.
|
|
#
?
Aug 13, 2015 13:01
|
|
Cocomonk3 posted:Are you over the east side of Australia? If so I am 100% sure I know this game. Went over (from Perth) to one of their major events this year. It was a change of pace from our games. And the cheating was ridiculous. Yep, over in Melbourne. Wouldn't be too surprised that you know it because it's the only game over here. I'd go back to playing it if everyone involved treating it like a fair competitive game with a friendly spirit. But, nope, cheating is endemic and you can't count on the refs to be impartial, so, why even bother wasting my time? Camrath posted:Cheating douchebags do happen, but in all the systems I've played anyone acting like that would get pulled up by a ref or reported to one very quickly. In previous characters I've worn heavy armour and know the problem- it's why I pull my blows in a certain way so that while safe they make an audible 'thwack' on armour. Check out the video I posted up thread- that was shot from a good 10m away but it's very easy to pick out my hits audibly. This kind of goes with my above point - I'm a pretty nerdy guy and I don't think Australia's ever had a real LARP subculture. We 'cargo cult' a lot of things that are big overseas. My point about corsets is more how the game I'm talking about was really big on making sure that all armor was as practical as possible. For example, if you were going to have scale mail, you would have to ensure it was of a certain thickness and certain material to get armor points from it - and they were incredibly particular about what counted. Sometimes I don't think they really knew if they wanted to be historical reenactment with foam swords (hence the removal of magic) or a more conventional LARP. But, yeah, corsets are the exception for some reason and would just grant armor points.
|
|
|
#
?
Aug 13, 2015 13:34
|
|
|
Milky Moor posted:. But, yeah, corsets are the exception for some reason and would just grant armor points. I'm sure part of it is so nerdy dudes can peep girls in corsets but it may also be that women want to be viable in battle without looking shapeless or wearing a bunch of heavy gear. It's not only straight men who lead to fantasy/sci-if/whatever armor often showing at least some semblance of feminine curves in pop culture. It's a way to look more stereotypically feminine if one desires while still looking fantasy/olden days and without adding a ton of weight but not becoming as weak as a wet bag. 
|
|
#
?
Aug 13, 2015 13:48
|
|
|
Milky Moor posted:But, yeah, corsets are the exception for some reason and would just grant armor points. So how often did this result in men wearing corsets? Because if the answer is none, then clearly LARPers are very inefficient fake fighters.
|
|
#
?
Aug 13, 2015 15:25
|
|
|
Milky Moor posted:Yep, over in Melbourne. Wouldn't be too surprised that you know it because it's the only game over here. I'd go back to playing it if everyone involved treating it like a fair competitive game with a friendly spirit. But, nope, cheating is endemic and you can't count on the refs to be impartial, so, why even bother wasting my time? Ah, sounds like your rules are rather more in depth than the ones I'm used to- in the LT 'light armour' is basically any form of heavy clothing that could reasonably be 'padded' or 'reinforced' (for example I use a frock coat and leather trousers as light armour), medium is soft/flexible leather and heavy is rigid/studded/plated leather or metal. MonkeyBot posted:So how often did this result in men wearing corsets? Because if the answer is none, then clearly LARPers are very inefficient fake fighters.
|
|
#
?
Aug 13, 2015 16:13
|
|
|
Milky Moor posted:Yep, over in Melbourne. Wouldn't be too surprised that you know it because it's the only game over here. I'd go back to playing it if everyone involved treating it like a fair competitive game with a friendly spirit. But, nope, cheating is endemic and you can't count on the refs to be impartial, so, why even bother wasting my time? Don't wanna tangent this too much... I can talk about Australian non- Camarilla LARP for forever. It's has only been a thing in Australia for maaaybe 10 years. In WA, it's 3 years old. Most of the time it's made by people to ape games they've never been to, only heard about (Drakenfest, etc). Slightly more on topic, Australian Camarilla was, for about 2? or so years, completely unofficial. They got removed from the global registry due to how terrible it was over here. And that's saying something.
|
|
#
?
Aug 13, 2015 16:19
|
|
|
Is the combat system based more upon character skill sheets or personal skill? I kinda wanna see someone with a kendo background go to a LARP meet in their Bogu and wreak the place.
|
|
#
?
Aug 13, 2015 16:38
|
|
|
Whiskey A Go Go! posted:Is the combat system based more upon character skill sheets or personal skill? I kinda wanna see someone with a kendo background go to a LARP meet in their Bogu and wreak the place. For the Camarilla it's entirely down to your character sheet- combat is played out with scissors-paper-stone. For the systems I play, it's a mix of hard and soft skills (as I defined earlier in the thread), but for the most part if you have the hard skills you can do better than someone with lots of soft skills and no experience. In my case I have about 15 years of sabre fencing under my belt, and at least up until I broke my shoulder last year (at a LARP event no less) I was confident of beating almost anyone in the field, all other things being equal- and I have a collection of tournament wins to prove it. Even now I'd put myself in the 99th percentile, though I can't use 42" swords anymore due to the risk of aggravating the injury. You find a lot of different styles of combat represented- fencing, kendo, escrima, HEMA and of course a lot of people who have no real idea how to fight (I also teach LARP fighting professionally and have run a fair few masterclasses in the subject). However no style is entirely suitable for field use unmodified- for example thrusting with swords is absolutely verboten; you have to pull all blows and so on. And sometimes someone with no formal training can surprise you with what they come out with! My biggest problem in the past few years is switching from playing a heavily armoured tank with a full warrior build to.. Well, playing a pimp. I only have 2-3 hits per location including armour, so I'm something of a glass cannon these days! Soft skills in the LT can make your blows have special effects- ignore armour, break shields, that sort of thing. So while they make you more effective, you still need to actually land the blows and defend yourself.
|
|
#
?
Aug 13, 2015 17:13
|
|
|
1500quidporsche posted:Have you ever seen the documentary DARKON? I'm pretty sure its about what others are referring to as boffer LARPing in this thread but it really gets at the heart of what you're talking about : Something is fundamentally wrong with these people's lives and rather then trying to fix it they're putting a bandaid over the problem with this fantasy escapism that takes over their life while it falls apart. I have seen it. That's boffer LARP, not what I did, but the general overview - Socially Crippled People Taking Things Too Far - definitely resonates. I think this sort of encapsulates the sentiment/theme I'm going for in this thread - The difference between the folks who go to have light fun and then go back to reality unscathed, and the Lifers, is the common unhealthiness in the Lifers. Sometimes that unhealthiness came before LARP, sometimes LARP causes it because it takes a normal person who's maybe just shy, or enjoys theater, who starts to believe that LARPing can give them what they need emotionally, when it can't. Really, no game can.
|
|
#
?
Aug 13, 2015 17:51
|
|
|
Whiskey A Go Go! posted:Is the combat system based more upon character skill sheets or personal skill? I kinda wanna see someone with a kendo background go to a LARP meet in their Bogu and wreak the place. The answer is 'it depends'. Skills are defined as 'hard' (how good you actually are at swinging a sword/whatever) and 'soft' (how big the numbers are on your character sheet). Some combat systems favour one or the other. I used to play the system Camrath goes to (Lorien Trust) which has some hard skill but soft skill plays a big part. You can kill people with ranged magic, which in LT just requires a chant for a few seconds following by pointing and shouting the call at your target. Also, there is a huge power difference between characters statted for various jobs. A basic person in light armour has 2 hits on each of their locations, someone in heavy with extra body hits, magic armour and a ritual might have something like 10+ per location, so even if you are the best swordsperson in the world you are going to have trouble chewing through that many hits without going down yourself. The systems I play, Empire and Odyssey, are much more hard skill based. No ranged damage, so you have to physically hit someone with a weapon to get them with magic. The difference between a basic person in their pants and a full combat character is only a few hit points and people in general go down much faster, so a well-trained fighter can legitimately take out fully armoured statted warriors. Also you can get stab safe pikes and halberds which are a pain in the dick to fight against, gently caress.
|
|
#
?
Aug 13, 2015 17:52
|
|
|
I got into LARPing a bit in college, (did some NERO), and my friend did a bunch his old high school buddies did it. There was a bit of what you described, a really stupid rules system where every time you swing your sword you call damage, and people shout lightning bolt. I actually enjoyed it because I found many of the people to be super cool, and the roleplaying was good. It was incredibly newbie unfriendly, as the lifers would literally swing for 20 damage, and you would swing for 2 starting out. Losing yourself in a character for an entire weekend was very cool, The thing is, being on a campsite with 80 other people you could usually find a fun crew to run with, and it was really not as awful as the documentaries made it look. Sad part is that the game got stale and most of the cool kids left, and the game floundered. Strange how everyone in this thread is talking about 'excessive immersion' is bad, in the games I played, it was the people that couldn't really roleplay that were the weird ones. It was ALWAYS the ones that were never in character and constantly mentioned video games and movies that would go to the Denny's after the game *STILL IN COSTUME*. My buddy got me to come out to try a new game he started and it was actually super fun. It's trying to be a little bit more like the european style LARPs that genuinely sound awesome. I found a fun group and played a plague doctor. The annoying wierdo factor was like 3-4 people out of like 70 or so, and nothing creepy or messed up happend all weekend. I saw people I hadn't seen in years, and most of them seemed functional. Whiskey A Go Go! posted:Is the combat system based more upon character skill sheets or personal skill? I kinda wanna see someone with a kendo background go to a LARP meet in their Bogu and wreak the place. It's been done, but I doubt they'd wreck everyone. The most successful groups use lots of group tactics and shield walls, polearms, along with skirmishers to break flanks and opposing walls etc... at a lot of LARPs I've been to there are people with some decent athletic ability, and people who have been practicing for years. One kid was a Soccer player on a scholarship at his school, and he was so fast you could just never catch him. One guy was so good he could usually take on 2-3 opponents without getting hit. Some LARPs use intricate rules to work like D&D, (hp based on level, lots of magic spells, etc.) tend to really skew to the lifers, those larps tend to suck. Not just because of that, but because the balancing is so off you can't balance fights for everyone, and you have to separate people by 'experience level'. But for Fantasy Style Larps, the best way to tell if it's any good or the people playing are going to make it fun is the costumes. If they look good, it's usually a good group. The biggest tell is the shoes. If the photos of the larp have anyone with sneakers in it, it's probably super creepy and full of weird kids.
|
|
#
?
Aug 13, 2015 18:07
|
|
|
MikeCrotch posted:The answer is 'it depends'. Skills are defined as 'hard' (how good you actually are at swinging a sword/whatever) and 'soft' (how big the numbers are on your character sheet). Some combat systems favour one or the other. I used to play the system Camrath goes to (Lorien Trust) which has some hard skill but soft skill plays a big part. You can kill people with ranged magic, which in LT just requires a chant for a few seconds following by pointing and shouting the call at your target. Also, there is a huge power difference between characters statted for various jobs. A basic person in light armour has 2 hits on each of their locations, someone in heavy with extra body hits, magic armour and a ritual might have something like 10+ per location, so even if you are the best swordsperson in the world you are going to have trouble chewing through that many hits without going down yourself. What faction did you play in in the LT? There's a strong chance we have friends in common. And I totally agree about stab-safe polearms being a loving bitch to fight. I'm just waiting for someone to make a practical stab-safe sword, personally- I know the Calamacil ones are nominally so, but I really REALLY hate their styling and balance. Edit: also, very true about the possible power-differentials in the LT. My previous character was a 12-hit per loc monster waving a 7' spear around and smashing people off their feet. Now.. well, I'm 2-3 hits depending on gear with a few nasty spells up my sleeve. Try to avoid using them in PVP though, because frankly the corruption spell-list is pure dickishness. Camrath fucked around with this message at 18:19 on Aug 13, 2015 |
|
#
?
Aug 13, 2015 18:10
|
|
|
Victory Yodel posted:Interesting thread and thanks for the description. I'm still trying to wrap my head around it. I played D&D like every other nerd when I was in high school so I get the general idea of roleplaying, but how are things actually resolved? In the example above where someone is going to "hack into the tv station's computer to get employment records", does the character in question simply have "hacking skillz"? Does it automatically succeed or do they have to do something? (In the tabletop games I played, someone would have to roll a d20 or something to see if it was successful). Does the GM arbitrate? There are other complex additions, but you get the idea I hope. 2. I dunno about boffer. That seems more like a boffer LARP question just because you can't really sneak attack in WOD PVP. Anyway, bad behavior is discouraged in two ways. The first we'd kill your character. If your next character is also a dillhole, you can actually be suspended from play and asked not to come back. At that point if you don't leave it's trespassing.
|
|
#
?
Aug 13, 2015 19:15
|
|
|
Armagnac posted:But for Fantasy Style Larps, the best way to tell if it's any good or the people playing are going to make it fun is the costumes. If they look good, it's usually a good group. The biggest tell is the shoes. If the photos of the larp have anyone with sneakers in it, it's probably super creepy and full of weird kids. Why sneakers exactly?
|
|
#
?
Aug 13, 2015 20:03
|
|
|
Ice Phisherman posted:Why sneakers exactly? There's a longstanding joke about people larping in jeans, sneakers and an inside out Metallica t-shirt. Basically if you make minimal/no effort with your kit, chances are you're going to be lovely in other ways too
|
|
#
?
Aug 13, 2015 20:21
|
|
|
Victory Yodel posted:How is bad behavior discouraged? So if I'm at one of these sessions and decide I want to kill some other guy do I simply walk up and jab a foam knife in his ear? Do I tell the GM that this is what I'm going to do and the guy can try to thwart it? Is it simply "you can't do that" or you'll never be invited back? So in 'boffer' LARP (quote marks because that term isn't used in Europe - latex weapon larps are the norm) you could just try killing someone by walking up and stabbing them. Basically a bunch of things depending on the ruleset will affect how likely you are to succeed: 1. The dudes mates might beat the gently caress out of you 2. Some systems have a police or militia who can arrest, punish and maybe execute you. Their effectiveness drastically varies from system to system. 3. If you have some kind of special skill, item or magic that drop the guy on the stop, make them stop moving or make them not be able to talk 4. Your own faction/nation/group/whatever might punish you for breaking the law 5. How tough individual players are in the setting - sometimes it's just not possible to drop someone quickly since they have so many hits. There are other options to just murdering people in the dark though - causing people to have 'accidents' on the battlefield is common, and a lot of systems have poisons that you can put in people's drinks or use as vapour bombs. In pretty much all cases you need to get a ref to be on hand when you are doing the killing though, people running LARPs tend to look down very heavily on people murdering other characters with no refs around due to the high risk of cheating and players getting buttmad about being killed. Some settings and rulesets have built in plot reasons for why killing other players is bad. Example: At a system I play called Outcast, the plot was 5 nations retaking back a continent infested with a supernatural plague. In order to fend off the plague, the players had to use teamwork to power magical banners to protect them, thus players were encouraged to work together and not infight or 'bad things' would happen in the story. Alternatively you get a setting like the defunct LARP 'Maelstrom' where killing characters got you a soul which you could sacrifice to your god, which let to the most murder heavy system i've ever been to. There's a reason going for a slash in the bushes at night was a 'danger piss' at Maelstrom. You do definitely get trolls and griefers at LARPs who are just out to kill people for fun. How effective they are depends mainly on the system and whether the organisers want to foster that sort of attitude.
|
|
#
?
Aug 13, 2015 22:58
|
|
|
Milky Moor posted:I have the opposite view. In my experience, there was tons of people who wouldn't count their hits. They'd claim that they 'couldn't feel it' through their armor. This is a lie because I've worn a metal breastplate and I knew when I was getting hit. I've definitely seen people get pissed off and almost come to (actual) blows over it. I had a handful of friends who were really into the SCA for years. One of them went by 'Alaric', if I recall correctly. He was an interesting guy, always walking the precipice between 'eccentric' and 'completely off his rocker'. Apparently he and his crew of Landschneckts were doing well one year and he ended up 'battling' some high ranking player in a duel. After multiple strikes that his opponent waved off ("I didn't feel it"), 'Alaric' tackled him into a tree, grabbed his neck with one hand, and started wailing on him with his SCA weapon, bellowing, "Take my hits, motherfucker, take my hits". So yeah, it happens.
|
|
#
?
Aug 13, 2015 23:01
|
|
|
Camrath posted:For the Camarilla it's entirely down to your character sheet- combat is played out with scissors-paper-stone. For the systems I play, it's a mix of hard and soft skills (as I defined earlier in the thread), but for the most part if you have the hard skills you can do better than someone with lots of soft skills and no experience. In my case I have about 15 years of sabre fencing under my belt, and at least up until I broke my shoulder last year (at a LARP event no less) I was confident of beating almost anyone in the field, all other things being equal- and I have a collection of tournament wins to prove it. Even now I'd put myself in the 99th percentile, though I can't use 42" swords anymore due to the risk of aggravating the injury. You find a lot of different styles of combat represented- fencing, kendo, escrima, HEMA and of course a lot of people who have no real idea how to fight (I also teach LARP fighting professionally and have run a fair few masterclasses in the subject). However no style is entirely suitable for field use unmodified- for example thrusting with swords is absolutely verboten; you have to pull all blows and so on. And sometimes someone with no formal training can surprise you with what they come out with! My biggest problem in the past few years is switching from playing a heavily armoured tank with a full warrior build to.. Well, playing a pimp. I only have 2-3 hits per location including armour, so I'm something of a glass cannon these days! This is quite interesting, you've kind of already answered my question! I've done a bit of Kali/Arnis/Escrima, and was watching your video thinking that whilst you'd obviously done something related to fighting, the other guy really didn't know what he was doing. I've got a few friends that do some LARP (it's not my thing), and they always hold that knowing what they're doing in an actual fight makes the pretend fighting loads easier. I guess it's like you say, the 'hard' skills make a whole lot of difference. It's an interesting thing to learn. I've always found the whole LARP thing cringey as gently caress, in fairness. Each to their own, but it's not my thing. However, one of them died recently, and guess where his wake is going to be? I'm going to be borrowing some armour...
|
|
#
?
Aug 13, 2015 23:02
|
|
|
de la peche posted:This is quite interesting, you've kind of already answered my question! I've done a bit of Kali/Arnis/Escrima, and was watching your video thinking that whilst you'd obviously done something related to fighting, the other guy really didn't know what he was doing. I've got a few friends that do some LARP (it's not my thing), and they always hold that knowing what they're doing in an actual fight makes the pretend fighting loads easier. I guess it's like you say, the 'hard' skills make a whole lot of difference. It's an interesting thing to learn. I've always found the whole LARP thing cringey as gently caress, in fairness. Each to their own, but it's not my thing. However, one of them died recently, and guess where his wake is going to be? I'm going to be borrowing some armour... If you're scottish/from the Aberdeen area, colour me scared at the smallness of the world.. (a close friend of mine from Uni and LARP died last month and we're holding his wake at the Gathering this year.) And yeah, having any sort of background in a combat sport helps. I'm not sure about how well unarmed martial arts would transfer across directly, though I guess even just the concept of maintaining your balance and responding to incoming blows would help. I've seen some truly awesome escrima-based ambidex fighters in my time; my own ambi style is more a combination of my fencing background and being genuinely ambidextrous rather than any formal training. Fun fact. I broke my shoulder at the start of a linear (I guess the equivalent of 'an adventure', where a smaller group goes to deal with plot/monsters in a seperate location of the site); my right arm simply stopped working so I switched over to my left, fought on for the next hour until I was the last man standing and THEN went to first aid. Not my smartest of moments, but eh.
|
|
#
?
Aug 14, 2015 00:03
|
|
|
Camrath posted:If you're scottish/from the Aberdeen area, colour me scared at the smallness of the world.. (a close friend of mine from Uni and LARP died last month and we're holding his wake at the Gathering this year.) No, I'm from Cornwall! The Kali two-sticks (or stick and dagger) type stuff seems to be great for building a bit of ambidexterity, you just get it forced on you till it makes sense. I think my friend went to something called Dumnonni (I'm not sure)?
|
|
#
?
Aug 14, 2015 00:08
|
|
|
de la peche posted:No, I'm from Cornwall! The Kali two-sticks (or stick and dagger) type stuff seems to be great for building a bit of ambidexterity, you just get it forced on you till it makes sense. I think my friend went to something called Dumnonni (I'm not sure)? Yeah, Dunmonni chronicles. A game I've always been interested in checking out- I've heard nothing but great things about it. Condolences about your friend. It shouldn't surprise me that two larpers died in the same summer; the community is actually pretty big in the UK. Still feels weird to think about though.
|
|
#
?
Aug 14, 2015 00:12
|
|
|
Camrath posted:Yeah, Dunmonni chronicles. A game I've always been interested in checking out- I've heard nothing but great things about it. Condolences to you too. I knew my friend through our martial arts club, he trained for years, was a healthy little motherfucker, and only mid-thirties, had a heart attack and died. Clean living dude too. It's been weird since he died, finding out just how heavily he was into the LARP scene, I knew he was into it, but he was into it on the scale of building actual roundhouses and poo poo. I'll be at his wake, so I will get to see first-hand what I've always mocked, maybe I'm wrong. I'm happy to be open minded about the whole thing, and I'll certainly honour his memory in the way he would've wanted (getting hosed up in a roundhouse, I believe).
|
|
#
?
Aug 14, 2015 01:06
|
|
|
Camrath posted:If you're scottish/from the Aberdeen area, colour me scared at the smallness of the world.. (a close friend of mine from Uni and LARP died last month and we're holding his wake at the Gathering this year.) Anecdotal: One of my friends is a martial arts instructor, that's what he does for a living. Just because he's so good at footwork and knowing his range, he can hold his own with a lot of people even though he never trains LARP combat outside of games. And then you have 20 year medieval reenactment veterans who are death machines. Saw an old, chubby guy with grey hair who could school most people he fought just because his blow placement and control was so perfect.
|
|
#
?
Aug 14, 2015 01:51
|
|
|
I've got some friends who are totally into the Camerilla and it's amazing the amount of time and effort they dedicate to it. It's pretty much all they do anymore, which is sad. I wasn't ever very close with them, and they were always more friends with my husband, but they were nice people. There's a couple who own a warehouse and host a Cam game, and I've attended as a one-off a couple of times when they needed a spare person. I just don't get the appeal. My impressions: -It's like a simulated high school, down to the clans being the jocks, the art fags, the punks, the weirdos, the crazies, etc. Everyone and everything is constantly about stabbing each other in the back, trying to gain status and popularity in the most convoluted and insane ways. The idea seems to be for one group to out-dick the other groups. -None of the conflict ever seems to come from outside the group dynamic. It's never about werewolves attacking, or the evil corporation thing trying to take over the city. They seem to have a huge fantasy world to play in, only to not actually interact with it. -It's supposed to be connected worldwide, but nothing seems to have any real effect on worldwide events. It's not like a group can go "Hey, let's all break the Masquerade together , and go on Fox News and explain vampires!" and have it do anything. When I pointed this out, the response was "No, like last cycle, they made [unusual faction] be the most powerful in south america!" Uh, ok, no one blew up New York or anything? No one released a vampire virus that was spreading from region to region? -No beginner gets any power or specialness behind a character. Which is fine for the first time you play a game, except that you play that character for FOUR YEARS. Then maybe you get a little bit of power or get to be a rarer breed. -You can never get to the highest levels of power, because someone will always have been playing for a longer time than you, and therefore have more power. There's no cap. I don't think this means LARPing in general is always terrible. There was a group called "Rules to Live By" that did neat LARPs with interesting stories. They were always one time events, though. They did a great heist one, in which the plot twist was everyone involved with the heist was secretly working for the FBI, but everyone thought they were the singular mole. And I went to a game run by the MIT assassin's guild that was fantastic, involving 50's pulp and popular characters. I just regret that I'd only played stupid Vampire before, so I spent my whole time trying to manipulate other players, instead of finding Hitler's brain or any of the 10000 other things you could do in the game. I think what sums it up the best for me comes from a conversation my husband had with the wife of that couple. He pointed out that he didn't really like to LARP with them, because it was like high school all over again. She agreed it was indeed like high school, but enjoyed it. He asked how she could enjoy it, when for him high school was a miserable experience of being low on the social totem pole, with all the popular kids picking on the unpopular ones. He said his only good lesson from those years was when he realized how stupid trying to be popular was, and saw it didn't matter in the real world. She just replied quietly that she had always wanted to be one of the popular ones. So I think most of us grew up and discovered that it's better to be yourself than be popular. Vampire players seem to be made up of people who never got there, but still can't be popular or have power. They just LARP to pretend they do.
|
|
#
?
Aug 15, 2015 03:36
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 25, 2024 23:22 |
|
|
Domus posted:-It's like a simulated high school, down to the clans being the jocks, the art fags, the punks, the weirdos, the crazies, etc. Everyone and everything is constantly about stabbing each other in the back, trying to gain status and popularity in the most convoluted and insane ways. The idea seems to be for one group to out-dick the other groups. 2. The ST would try to introduce poo poo like that, but of course the players most of whom had been playing these games for years dominate the plot stuff and get back to high school politick before the end of the night. No one really gave a poo poo about the plot stuff, but it's required in some games simply because there isn't a whole lot to do. Vampire pretty much ran itself, but the other games required the ST to introduce plot just because the players would sit around and bullshit the entire time. Without an active antagonist (most players TRIED to make characters get along, because they wanted to be seen as the ultra cool hero) games de-evolve into social hour. 3. Okay, I can say I have actually seen that happen where poo poo that happens in your game actually makes the in-game national headlines and it's a headache because then people want to show up in your city, but don't have the money to show personally, and they have to send a proxy. I played in the Cam for several years before I said gently caress it, and I still don't know how the proxy thing works. 4. Eh, usually your first character gets murdered three months in and you have to make a new one anyway. That's my experience. I can say actually paying for a membership automatically gives you, like, thirty extra XP or some poo poo on your character. 5. There IS a cap, but you'll never get it, not in Cam anyway. It's reserved for special people, as in the guys who have given twenty bucks a year to the org for the past two decades and have a billion prestige points with them. They get the coveted Member Class 15, giving them the most amount of power. These people are like cops; supposed to be held to a higher scrutiny, more often than not abusing their power and being gigantic cocks.
|
|
#
?
Aug 15, 2015 05:20
|
|