How about Larps with purpose?

Larp used as an educational tool in many countries, mainly within the Pan-Nordic areas, but also the UK, Germany, Italy... Even the United States.

I personaly have run a game which involved heavy social themes and have plans to do so again. It was very well recieved and we had a bit of a nasty, but informative conclusion.

And how about Larp as a means of physical conditioning, not just swinging boffers, but running climbing and exploring.

These kind of ideas transend Boffer vs Salon, or fantasy vs modern...

All larps have a purpose, and like I said earlier, they boil down to roleplaying or fighting. Some people call SCA/Dagorhir/Amtgard/etc. a sport, while some people call Mind's Eye/Vampire/Mage an interactive play. Maybe you don't see a purpose in the competitive larps because it doesn't meet your goal, the same way that I don't see a purpose in roleplaying larps because it doesn't meet my goal.

Combat larps serve a very good purpose. I have learned more about fighting, leather working, wood working, sewing, cooking, and last but not least, myself than in any other kind of larp.

I still contend this is not true. Perhaps it is true of major organized LARPs, but it is not a universal truth.

The LARP I play has lots of boffer fighting, roleplaying, and plot. It's strong in all three categories, not just one or two.

Hi. I offered my services before.

As far as LARP experience I have as follows:

Player in a MET (Vampire Salon LARP) in Atlanta Georgia (where many of the players were the White Wolf Authors) from 1992-1996

Player in Dragon*Con LARPs various times.

Player/NPC in Boffer LARPS from 1998-2009 (Shattered Isles, SI II, King's Gate, KG II, Wildlands West, Portals, Forest of Doors)

Plot on Boffer LARP 2002-2006 (SI, II)

As far as Speaking Experience, I have as follows:

GMed games from 1977-2009

National Forensics League: Tripple Ruby, State Champion in Debate, National Finalist in Student Congress 1985-1989

DJed on "The Hours of Weirdness" at UTK. 2:00-7:00 AM show (No FCC rules!) 1991-1992

I'm about the same age as some of the older FTB podcasters.

I have Skype and a headset.

I am available for the hours listed.

English is my primary language.

I am not a dick.

Hope to hear from you

Can you cite examples please? If the larp is about fighting, then its purpose is to let people fight. If the larp is about roleplaying, then its purpose is let people roleplay. Roleplay being a blanket term for both story telling and character interaction.



Same as NERO, but I still don't consider that a combat larp.

Competative larps are a kind of sport, and the time spent playing is typically to better your skills. Because it takes a LOT of time to get better, there tends to be little roleplaying and more foam swinging. Some games try to blend both, but without the strong competitive appeal, people gravitate away for ones that do. The people who are left tend to be either a hybrid of fighters and roleplayers, or plain old roleplayers. And due to there being a low strive for combat excellence, those fighters never get better and tend to not fight nearly as much.

I played NERO for five weeks, and that was why I quit after only a short time. I am not a super skilled fighter, but when I can crush an entire group (8-15 people) in all versus one combat without dying, I can't in good conscience call it a combat larp. Ego much? Sadly, not really. Its like I said in an earlier post, they have boffers, but they still are a roleplaying larp.

Tsukiyomi, try an experiment. Have the best fighter in your park and yourself visit a chapter of SCA/Dagorhir/Belegarth/Amtgard, and see if you can hold up. Chances are you wil get spanked, I am only cynical about it because I have seen in many MANY times before.

Absolutely, each person's needs will be different. They will fall into some generalized categories which is how we can have huge Boffer games or games of Vampire. I enjoy competitive play as well as the cooperative aspects of live action play. I am also suggesting there may be more in there.

I think perhaps your second paragraph illustrates my point. While Larping you have not only learned a form of martial art, various crafting skills that may not have been available to you outside of Larp, cooking (a very valuable skill both in the game and out) and you have learned more about yourself. Not to mention all the social interaction required to do all that learning.

So we have a good example of how Larp can be a strong educational tool, a physical conditioner, and an encourager of introspective thought. You came for the combat, but came away with so much more.

And if we are truly boiling Larp down to it's basest level I would say that it is interaction using a persona with conflict resolution and hopefully along the way you have fun. You can add in contact martial arts, skill mechanics, costumes and the like, but it's all meat on the skeleton.

I've seen Amtgard people play some of the same LARPs I have before. There wasn't that much of a difference in combat ability (and actually, they got kicked out after a major fight for extremely unsafe in combat and bringing alcohol on site). I actually started in Amtgard years ago, and the difference just isn't that large.

Actually, any Amtgarder would probably have issues fighting effectively in the LARP I play, simply because of differences in combat rules. We have safety rules, anti-machine gunning rules, and other such things that might render Amtgard fighting tactics ineffective (and vice-versa).

As for not striving for combat excellent and all that, I've never seen that. My LARP has some excellent fighters and plenty of combat. Some people choose to not participate in combat (and of course, aren't very good fighters because of that). I started playing a LARP several years ago that was similar to others I had played before...the primary difference was in experience. I had years of it, and many of the other people there didn't. Could I crush many of them at a time in combat? Sure -- because I have years of experience (in games you would deem "roleplaying LARPs") they didn't.

Then I am happy that we can come to some sort of understanding.



And thats where I disagree, although my disagreement comes from the term "Live Action Role Play" itself. What I do is not "Live Action Role Play", is foam tag, and I believe that there should be some distinction between the two. I have never role played at one of my larps, and to my knowledge nobody else does either beyond using another name.

In fact, the only reason I think the combat larps should be better represented at all on the episode is because it is being called a larp. Other than the term, it has really no place on a role playing game podcast. I would be just as satisfied if Dan went on saying that they are discussing roleplaying oriented LARPs, and then avoids mention of the SCA, et cetera, because sports don't really have a place on the show. They are apples and oranges, the only thing similar between them is that they are both called fruits.

Japanese handle, bad experience with Amtgard, do you live in Florida by any chance? Just a hunch.....