Live-Action Role Playing is generally considered to be the worst of the worst, the lowest of the low in terms of gaming. They play the same kind of games we do, only they dress up and run around in parks throwing tin-foil lightning bolts at each other and insisting on speaking only in bad British accents (because that's how everybody old-timey talked). They're the ones who go into the steam tunnels and get lost because they aren't in touch with reality enough to realize they're not actually adventurers and don't know how to navigate "dungeons." LARPers are the ones that the rest of us shun. They're the ones that cause us the most embarrassment, because they represent everything we don't want people to think about us. They're like furries; yeah, we might like some things that the mainstream would consider weird, but we're not freaks.
Why bring this up? Well, my wife and I went to a party the other week which was Dollhouse themed (set in the time of the Epitaph episodes). We dressed up and spent the entire time in character. I was a paranoid survivalist, my wife was a butch hard-ass, there was an ex-doctor, etc. The entire thing went like a game of Werewolf or Mafia, as we tried to figure out which one of us was a Butcher. Last year, a bunch of us also did one of those How to Host a Murder games. Both of these events were a lot of fun.
But when you think about it...they were awful close to LARPing. I mean, what's the real difference. We are still hanging around, playing as amateur actors, trying to solve mysteries and unravel plot. And the murder mystery type games are pretty popular even with non-gamers. So what's the difference? Is it a matter of rolling dice? Is it okay because it doesn't take place in a medieval fantasy setting?
Myself and the people I game with pride ourselves on our roleplaying. We like to think that we spend more time "in-character" fleshing out personality and backstory than we do just hacking and slashing. We will definitely build characters that might not be the strongest stat-wise, but will stay true to their themes and personal history. There's a fair bit of acting involved. Yet we think of ourselves as better than LARPers, why? Because we have the common decency to keep our asses around a table instead of going out into public to display our geekiness? What, are we ashamed?
I'm not saying I'm going to start donning a robe and a point hat and spraypainting "fireball" onto the side of Nerf balls. But I do think we need to take a step back when we look down on others' hobbies. We're none of us cool kids, and we'd do well to remember that.
You know, I had friends in High School who LARPed and we always made fun of them for it. Maybe because whenever they talked about it, it sounded like the were masturbating. But although I was a geek back then, I didn't know how much of a geek quite yet. I didn't understand the sheer level of fun they got out of it.
ReplyDeleteWhat about the SCA folks? That's somewhat akin to LARPing although seems to be more nerdy, historically based than say fantasy based LARPing. I think for me, it comes down to what feels comfortable. I know in my imagination in a roleplay I can do all sorts of things I couldn't do in real life, even in a role-play one. My Flame Strike doesn't seem as cool when I throw a small foam ball at someone, vs doing it on a small grid. It's easier I think to step out of reality and into imagination when I'm not still trying to do those things based in reality.
Maybe not. I try not to bust on LARPers too much anymore, but I love Murder Mysteries (well I love horror, puzzles, and roleplay). I think the difference there is the ones I have done are still grounded in reality. Sure I didn't actually kill my friend over there, but I could given the circumstances and it makes the actual, physical roleplay feel more natural.
That's just my perspective.
Hey, I'm one of the coolest kids on the planet. I'm so cool you can keep a side of beef in me for a week (or maybe that's Zaphod, I often get us mixed up.)
ReplyDeleteAside from that though, if you read the wikipedia article on the History of LARPing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_live_action_role-playing_games) in the section on American History, 3rd paragraph talking about the first theatre style game by the Society for Interactive Literature... the Rick Dutton mentioned is my husband, I played in that first game and ran the second game ever down in the Baltimore area because we had such fun playing.
Because of that game, I met my boyfriend Walt Freitag, and eventually ended up marrying his roommate, Rick *grin* My eldest daughter, now 22, "played" in her first game (as an NPC baby) when she was only 3 months old.
And really, this dressing up like the Pink Pummeler and acting out Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-Long Blog... kind of like Interactive Literature/LARPing, don't you think?
I'm NEVER gonna grow up.
Greykell
Oh man... I hadn't even thought about stage shows, but yeah, they do definitely lay on that border, don't they? I mean I certainly get awfully into character when I'm up there and it does tend to linger a bit afterwords, lol.
DeleteOf course I've had no room to talk for a pretty long time. I did Dagorhir for years when I was in college and loved it.
And that's really the point, isn't it? Having fun.
ReplyDelete