Okay, so I was asked about it in another thread, but it seemed as if it would be a bit too off-topic to answer there. Especially as my rants usually get pretty long. I haven't seen any other threads about the subject, so this can be kept as a general purpose LARP thread, to share experiences or compare the different forms of LARPing in the world. The scandinavian version of LARPing is pretty unique, compared to the English, American and German style that seem more common. The Russian style is also quite interesting, though I'd argue it's closer to Reenactement that actualy LARPing.

Fraser.J.A:
I am so confused by that LARP thing. :D It sounds like a cross between a How To Host A Murder party and lunchtime at primary school.

I'm afraid I'm unfamiliar with both of the things you use in the first paragraph. How to host a murder party seems to be a mystery game, but I'm not sure how that would figure in. Lunchtime at primary school needs explaining too, I must admit that I don't know what years primary school is, or what you mean by lunchtime. I could hazard a guess at it being small children running around playing make-belief, and if that's the case then yes, that's exactly what LARPing is. Except proffesionally and with firmer rules.

Well, in more depth, LARPing is to experience another culture. Another life. (At least here in Sweden) A lot of focus lies on creating a belieavable illusion. To create a lifelike scenario, to live as the people of a medieval village (or whatever else the scenario is). You take on the role of another person, as in theatre or a roleplaying game (with a lot more focus on role than usual), you live as that role completely, you talk as that role, you act as that role, you interact with other people as that role, and you live and die as that role. Everything else, and everyone else is also keeping this illusion alive. Houses are built, clothing, weapons, beds are all things that would exist in the scenario. If it's a medieval world people live in pavillions, in wooden houses, etc. Food is cooked over and open fire, and all modern things, electricity, chocolate, mobile phones are banned.

I could keep ranting, but hopefully you've gotten the idea by now. There's a lot of interesting reading on wikipedia on the subject, or you can just ask and I'll clarify.

Now I guess this is enough for a first post. If no one says anything I'll give it one more shot and write some more and if that doesn't work weep a little and realise not everyone is as passionate about this as I am. Perhaps other people don't need to run away from their lives so completely, or can't shake the image of the abomination that is American LARPs... Character sheets. Bah.

I've wanted to get into LARPing for quite a while now. Living in the UK, I think my choices are limited a little, but hey.

What did you mean, in the other thread, by "awful american and german"? What makes it bad?

I've been larping a few times and it IS fun.......until some fool runs over to you and tells you're not allowed to smile because you should be in character and you would smile when about to be attacked by monsters.

But yeah, it's fun as long as people go to have fun. Some people take it too seriously, love the power that comes with it and should really just finally give in and go pay for sex - Busting your cherry will probably make you feel a lot better about yourself and you don't have to run around quoting the rules 24/7.

Forgive me, is LARPing basically WoW just real?

What on Earth is LARPing? Eh?

curlycrouton:
What on Earth is LARPing? Eh?

Live Action Role Play.

Rednog:

curlycrouton:
What on Earth is LARPing? Eh?

Live Action Role Play.

Ah, well it sounds alright enough. Yeah, sounds alright I suppose. I don't quite see what the problem is here.

The only LARP groups in Calgary are lame Vampire ones.

Rednog:

curlycrouton:
What on Earth is LARPing? Eh?

Live Action Role Play.

As it sounds. In the UK that means far people dressing up as wizards and warriors and hitting each other with fake weapons.

Asday:
I've wanted to get into LARPing for quite a while now. Living in the UK, I think my choices are limited a little, but hey.

What did you mean, in the other thread, by "awful american and german"? What makes it bad?

May just be the area I live in, but there is a lot going on. Try searches for 'Mayfest' and 'Augfest'

Optimus Prime:
Forgive me, is LARPing basically WoW just real?

Lol. Yes, it was invented 5 years ago because of Warcraft. No one had thought of it before then.

[This response is directed mostly at Silver's original post.]

Your post reminds me of a famous (and perhaps apocryphal) conversation between a young Robert DeNiro and an older and wiser Sir Laurence Olivier. The two acting legends met at an awards ceremony, and DeNiro was simply starstruck by Olivier's presence, so much so that he started gushing about how much he had prepared for his latest role (Travis Bickle in "Taxi Driver"). Supposedly it went something like this:

Olivier: [paternal] What was it like preparing for that?
DeNiro: [ranting] It was crazy. I lived on the streets for a week. I didn't eat regular meals for a month. I lost almost eighty pounds. I started shaving with a broken razor. I went to the [Veteran's Administration] hospital and sat with the really crazy guys, the ones who just babble all day long, until I started babbling like that too. I didn't sleep for days, so I started seeing things. It was a nightmare ride, man.
Olivier: [taken aback] My dear boy, have you tried ACTING?

In other words, while I totally respect your position about immersion, truth is that there is no "superior" way to LARP - there's just the way you like, and perhaps just as importantly, the way that works for the game setting. I'm all for as much immersion as possible when I play fantasy LARP - I don't want our warrior stopping combat to answer his cell phone, or hear people talking about their grades or their WoW alts while my friends and I are discussing the latest dire turn of events in the game world. Foam/latex/"boffer" weapons are innately a bit silly, I'll grant you, but since the alternatives are real weapons (yikes!) or resolving things with dice or cards or something (yawn), I'll trade a little bit of nonreality for fast, intense combat.

At the same time, though, I'm perfectly willing to sacrifice some immersion when the alternatives are needlessly dangerous, overly time-consuming, or just plain silly. For example, my friends and I play an Aliens-style space marine LARP that involves running around in the woods with guns, shooting horrifying alien monsters. I know some similar games that use paintball for this, and I can't necessarily argue with it, but we decided on using Nerf/Airsoft/water guns and other harmless weapons for our game, for the following reasons: 1) We wanted to avoid having to wear safety gear all the time; 2) Even with safety gear, we didn't think the potential for game-stopping injuries was worth the increase in "realism" (if you can call shooting balls of paint at people "realistic" when it's supposed to represent high-caliber, mass-detonating armor piercing bullets); 3) Buying paintball gear would make the game too expensive for some of our friends who didn't already own it, and we wanted them to play. You can argue that we were too cautious, and I could see some merit in that I guess, but we enjoy the game and if there are complaints, they are few and not about the choice in weaponry.

And sometimes there's simply convenience. Total immersion is wonderful, but often time-consuming and involved to set up. Sometimes it's just a group of friends hanging out who decide they want to play a game for a few hours, and so we LARP. This is especially common with White Wolf's stable of MET games, because they work so well in the modern world. Depending on the game, we can even go out in public and play with no one the wiser, and without having to spend a tremendous amount of time propping up an illusion. It exists in our minds and in our interactions with each other, and that's good enough (hence the name Mind's Eye Theatre, I suppose). Naturally we can get more involved if we like - we've done grand changeling revels, werewolf moots around the fire, etc. - but we don't need to in order to play, and I like that a lot. It's not better or worse than your preferred style of play - just different.

If someone isn't into LARP, that's cool. Whether it's RPS, cards, boffer weapons or whatever else is involved, it's definitely not for everyone! One thing I hate about some LARPers is that they get really snooty and superior, like LARPing was a religious calling and not just a fun, goofy hobby like most everything else gamers do. If you are into LARP, well, let us all LARP in the ways we enjoy, and leave it at that. :-)

DannyDamage:

Optimus Prime:
Forgive me, is LARPing basically WoW just real?

Lol. Yes, it was invented 5 years ago because of Warcraft. No one had thought of it before then.

No, they've been around forever. In Norway they have a huge one, except they use real weapons.

Sounds a bit like the Harry Potter party in the Movie Yes Man starring Jim Carrey.

Since it seems to be a little confused here, let me offer the simplest explanation of what LARP is and what it isn't.

LARP always involves...
- Players take on the role of a character and act as they feel that character would.
- There is a controlling authority, such as a Gamemaster, or in large games, a staff of them.
- There are specific rules for resolving social conflicts, supernatural powers, fights, etc.
- Costumes, props, makeup and other theatrical elements are encouraged, if not required.

LARP can involve...
- Boffer/latex/foam weapons. With a few exceptions, this is generally only found in high fantasy, sword & sorcery LARP games that use campgrounds or other large spaces to recreate a fantasy or medieval world. On the other hand, White Wolf's MET games, set in the modern time, specifically forbid players carrying weapons of any kind, even fake ones.
- Character sheets, dice, playing cards or other means of tracking character stats and resolving conflicts. Just like regular old tabletop gaming, games need a way to decide the outcome when the players can't agree on what happens, though the ways they do this are as different as the games themselves. Not all games carry these sorts of things around, though. Some work on an honor system and require players to carry nothing at all.
- Total immersion. In these games, players are expected to be in-character at all times, and to not "break character" (stop acting as their chosen persona) unless confronted with an injury, personal crisis or other dire out-of-game emergency. This is done to maintain the illusion of the game world as vigorously as possible, and to avoid having real-world intrusions that break the mood. Not all LARPs are like this; many reserve a "reality room" where players can go and take a break from playing while the game is still running, or employ hand signs or certain phrases to indicate that a player is acting/speaking out of character.

LARP is not...
- Cosplay/Dressing up at conventions, whether it's as Inuyasha, Harry Potter, Goku, Klingons, Imperial storm troopers or what have you. Putting on a costume might be a good start to prepping for a LARP, but unless that person is part of a game with specific rules, plot threads and narrative controls, it's just fun dress-up for the people involved.
- Furries/plushies/etc. Are they playing characters? I guess. Are there rules? Yes, but those are social standards for their subculture, not game-style conflict resolution rules. Again, wearing a costume does not mean it's LARP.
- Murder Mystery Theatre. Again, people take on the roles of characters and work through a story, but they generally don't have the freedom to explore any/all possible options that a real LARP involves - they're stuck following one specific plot to one predetermined conclusion. Fun? It can be, and it's real close to LARP, but it's not truly there yet.

It's kinda incomplete, but I hope that helps. :-)

It does sound rather interesting.

If not slightly eccentric.

There WAS one of these threads, once... But I don't think you need to worry, cause I was pretty new then. I'm neutral.

Now, to be fair, do we we REALLY want to start a "looks stupid" fight among a geek-slanted community? :-) I mean, you're right, I'll be the first to admit that LARP looks prety dumb from the outside, but so does playing tabletop games, MMO raiding, slapping down CCG cards, moving miniatures around a board, fiddling with keyboards/console controllers for hours and other geek-type activities. Sin, first stones, all that.

I once saw a documentary on this (I think it was called Darkon), and it seemed a bit... pathetic.

But, to each his own, I guess.

Darkon was a pretty good depiction of the fantasy style boffer LARP. (Some of the scenes actually captured the energy that makes good boffer fighting fun, silly-looking or not.) What I liked about it was that the director didn't editorialize - they simply let the players talk, and if that made them seem pathetic, well, that's on the player, not the director. No doubt, some of those people scared *ME*, and I've been doing this for years and I'm about as sympathetic an audience as you could hope for. The way some of them use the game as an escape from lives they obviously need to spend more time on is kinda sad - gaming is escapism, sure, but when your real life is totally in the toilet, put down the ears and the bean bags and do something about it. The game will still be there when you get back.

Note that all LARPs aren't like the ones you see on youtube, some like the WoD LARPs are solved by rock paper scissors, or a card system (you draw a card add bonuses from your character traits and have to beat a certain difficulty). So not everyone who LARPs runs around wearing crazy outfits with foam weapons. That and WoD is usually a gothic theme so many people just wear trench coats & shades or suits.

Easykill:
There WAS one of these threads, once... But I don't think you need to worry, cause I was pretty new then. I'm neutral.

This WAS that thread. I created it a year ago. Check the first post.

Optimus Prime:
Forgive me, is LARPing basically WoW just real?

Yes, some LARPs sadly are, mostly the German and American LARPs I mentioned in the first post, you even have character sheets and levels for some of them.

Seppo, I don't really feel like going into a really long debate here, and now, unless you or other people would really be interested in it. I tend to get carried away when it comes to this particular hobby of mine. I will say that I think you misunderstood my post, in part, I'm not at much of an elitist as you seem to think, I do however think that while maybe not superior, there's two very different forms of LARPing sadly caught up in the same word, when they really shouldn't be, in the same way that guitar hero and mgs4 are caught up in the word game, despite being so incredibly different.

If you really want to get into a debate, just answer here again, or send a pm.

Silver:

Easykill:
There WAS one of these threads, once... But I don't think you need to worry, cause I was pretty new then. I'm neutral.

This WAS that thread. I created it a year ago. Check the first post.

Nah, tis' the first time I've seen this thread. I wasn't on much in the summer. There was one months before that.

I'm sorry if I gave you the impression that I thought you were being elitist - the only thing about your whole post that I reacted to negatively was the comment you made about American LARP being an abomination - not just because I'm American, but because I I think it's a dismissive of the possibilities of other LARP styles, perhaps ones you haven't even tried. It's not necessary to try something to critique it, true, but it can be useful to explore why it is the way it is even if you don't intend to try it out directly.

Just to put it out there: I was the lead writer/developer for White Wolf's MET department for about a decade, I've played in several different boffer LARPs for the same amount of time, and I've played more different LARPs than I can name off the top of my head. I'm not saying that I'm a final authority on LARP - no such animal - but just putting it out there so you know I'm not some random fanboy either. :-)

Seppo:
I'm sorry if I gave you the impression that I thought you were being elitist - the only thing about your whole post that I reacted to negatively was the comment you made about American LARP being an abomination - not just because I'm American, but because I I think it's a dismissive of the possibilities of other LARP styles, perhaps ones you haven't even tried. It's not necessary to try something to critique it, true, but it can be useful to explore why it is the way it is even if you don't intend to try it out directly.

Just to put it out there: I was the lead writer/developer for White Wolf's MET department for about a decade, I've played in several different boffer LARPs for the same amount of time, and I've played more different LARPs than I can name off the top of my head. I'm not saying that I'm a final authority on LARP - no such animal - but just putting it out there so you know I'm not some random fanboy either. :-)

The abomination part was written pretty tongue in cheek, to be honest, guess it didn't translate.

The thing I find worst about that is that those (mostly) American LARPs have set the "standard" for what people think LARPing is about. I think you know the type I'm talking about, like what is shown in the webcomic Geebas on parade, or this clip: http://www.break.com/index/what_is_larping.html

I'm sure they have fun, I'm sure I'd have fun there as well, but that is not the hobby I'm involved in. Neither is the German or British style of using character sheets, and keeping the dynamics of tabletop roleplaying through stats and GM's.

I'm not saying one is better than the other. But if they're stuck under the same name, one of them is an abomination, since they're as different as night and day. I know there was an Italian LARP group that visited a LARP here, and they were completely baffled, that it was so different. It might be something you'd want to try out, if you're looking to broaden your repertoir.

Triffid:
LARPing, any LARPing, american, british, WHATEVER, is just fucking sad

Thank you. I take pride in comments like this from selfrighteous nerds who think they're better than me. It's sort of like when a chav is complaining about my dress sense. I know I'm doing something right.

I'm also a bit curious. Could you explain WHY it's sad? Would you?

The one thing I've always wondered about LARPing is just how combat oriented it is. I know some differ from one another, but my German teacher once explained her LARP as basically a large battle in a field, complete with false castle walls in some scenarios. Combatants basically used false, hard weapons covered in a thin layer of foam, and wore armor similar to what would be found in actual medieval times, because, well, getting hid by a large stick still hurts like hell even if it's covered in a layer of foam. It included large-scale including everything from archers to spearmen. Afterwards they would go party it up medieval style while being in character.

Basically what I want to know is if this type of LARP even exists and how common it is, or if I just got the wrong impression from what she told us. I tried to find information on this myself, but silly people with character sheets seems to encompass all of the information I can find on LARPing.

Reaper, yeah, that type of LARPs exist, and they're quite common. It's more common that they use boffers so that armour isn't really necessary, but just a nice addition.

If that's not what you're after, I can assure you that it's very easy to find LARPs with more... Meaning, for lack of a better word, behind them. Many that doesn't even involve violence at all, if that floats your boat.

And there are variants of both where you need character sheets, at least in the UK and Germany, but in most places you should be able to find (or exclusively) find LARPs where character sheets aren't used.

DannyDamage:

Optimus Prime:
Forgive me, is LARPing basically WoW just real?

Lol. Yes, it was invented 5 years ago because of Warcraft. No one had thought of it before then.

Larping was around well before then.. well well well before then. But I assume your being sarcastic..Ii hope your being sarcastic.. Are you being sarcastic?

On topic, I would LOVE to try larping.. but I don't know of any groups in Australia.. thought I think there are a few in NZ.. maybe I should take a week trip to try it out.

I am a nerd
A big one (metaphorically and literally)
I play table top war games, role playing games (even obscure shitty ones), board games, i enjoy all forms of sci-fi and fantasy. I've even cosplay'd (once) I enjoy things that are not meant for people closer to 30 than 20.

but let me set one damn thing straight

I will never... NEVER be a big enough nerd to LARP.

also put "Fear of Girls" into a webbrowser.

I was involved in a LARP game called Ampgard for a while and for the first few months it was fun, right up until a guy who was supposed to be my friend decided to hit on me wearing a bloody winch wig, and would not quit no matter how much I told him to stop. It seriously got to the point where I almost decked him for it. Also, there were a few players who like someone said earlier, basically live in the game and have no outside life. Ever since then I have completely sworn off it, but if you enjoy it, power to you man. However, I have been looking to participate in the SCA, but purely for the combat. I also own an actual suit of full body leather as well.

Silver:
Reaper, yeah, that type of LARPs exist, and they're quite common. It's more common that they use boffers so that armour isn't really necessary, but just a nice addition.

If that's not what you're after, I can assure you that it's very easy to find LARPs with more... Meaning, for lack of a better word, behind them. Many that doesn't even involve violence at all, if that floats your boat.

And there are variants of both where you need character sheets, at least in the UK and Germany, but in most places you should be able to find (or exclusively) find LARPs where character sheets aren't used.

Thanks for the info, although I doubt I would find a less action oriented LARP as fulfilling as one I described; I'm sure I would find it fun but it would be just too much of an escape for me. I enjoy being myself, not a fictional character, even if we share identical personality traits.

As for character sheets, I strongly believe these should stay out of real life. I simply don't understand how applying stats to real life would be either fun or engaging. I play and love D&D, but character sheets and stats work in that universe. This leads me to my next question, just how can and do character sheets work in a real world setting?

Silver:
The thing I find worst about that is that those (mostly) American LARPs have set the "standard" for what people think LARPing is about. I think you know the type I'm talking about, like what is shown in the webcomic Geebas on parade, or this clip: http://www.break.com/index/what_is_larping.html. I'm sure they have fun, I'm sure I'd have fun there as well, but that is not the hobby I'm involved in. Neither is the German or British style of using character sheets, and keeping the dynamics of tabletop roleplaying through stats and GM's.

Yeah, I know what you mean to a degree about the boffer LARP phenomenon. I didn't even try boffer LARP until 2000; up until then I'd only really tried Mind's Eye Theatre. When I tell people that I LARP, they think the same thing and ask me "Oh, isn't that like D&D in real life, or something?" And I usually answer, "Not always." But yeah, it never translates well to film - to the people involved, it looks awesome, but to everyone else, it's Geeks On Parade: Extra Virginal Edition. :-)

What's interesting is what you're describing doesn't sound like a "game" exactly - it sounds more like the SCA or other historical re-enactment societies. Nothing wrong with that either - been doing that for a while too - but as you said, it's a completely different animal. An immersive medieval village may be wonderful if you want to experience a historical scenario; I love my SCA weekends with folks around a fire, cooking and drinking and generally enjoying ourselves like 13th century brigands. Those nights have a magic that can't really be captured in any other format.

But if you want to represent, say, fantasy elements like magic or monsters, well, that environment probably won't work. And combat can be difficult since people naturally won't tend to agree on outcomes that work with their characters. You can argue that people have to simply fight it out, but what about the element of roleplaying? Say I'm a lousy fighter in real life, but I want to play a character who's a master swordsman. In the kind of games I play, I can take skills and abilities that help compensate for my lack of ability - I will never be as good as someone who plays a warrior and is actually a good fighter, but it will give me a hand against other players and help me play the character I want.

As I've said before, it's not better or worse, just different. With games like the ones you seem to be describing, if I want to do something, I must actually learn it, which has a certain appeal. Games like mine, the game rules and traits help you play characters you might not be able to emulate otherwise. Of course, Lord knows that also means I've had to take "beatings" from people who could barely swing their sword but played characters with mighty combat skills, but I'll take it as a tradeoff for them accepting that I'm a master thief (or savvy ranger or what have you).

Silver:
I'm not saying one is better than the other. But if they're stuck under the same name, one of them is an abomination, since they're as different as night and day. I know there was an Italian LARP group that visited a LARP here, and they were completely baffled, that it was so different. It might be something you'd want to try out, if you're looking to broaden your repertoir.

I think your translation gear may be doing you a disservice when it comes to the term "abomination"; it's defined as:
1. anything abominable; anything greatly disliked or abhorred.
2. intense aversion or loathing; detestation: He regarded lying with abomination.
3. a vile, shameful, or detestable action, condition, habit, etc.: Spitting in public is an abomination.

You can see why that term might be causing some confusion. When two things are so different, one of them might be an aberration compared to the other, but that's about it. :-)

Abomination can also mean unnatural and wrong, if I'm not completely mistaken, like it's used on occasion in the bible, which was the translation I was going for. Anyway...

ace_of_something:
I am a nerd
A big one (metaphorically and literally)
I play table top war games, role playing games (even obscure shitty ones), board games, i enjoy all forms of sci-fi and fantasy. I've even cosplay'd (once) I enjoy things that are not meant for people closer to 30 than 20.

but let me set one damn thing straight

I will never... NEVER be a big enough nerd to LARP.

also put "Fear of Girls" into a webbrowser.

What's it has to do with being a nerd? I know a lot of LARPers that aren't nerds, hell, I know LARPers that would be closer to jocks than nerds. Personally I take pride in being a nerd, but it's not LARPing I brag about when I do.

Reap3r:

Thanks for the info, although I doubt I would find a less action oriented LARP as fulfilling as one I described; I'm sure I would find it fun but it would be just too much of an escape for me. I enjoy being myself, not a fictional character, even if we share identical personality traits.

As for character sheets, I strongly believe these should stay out of real life. I simply don't understand how applying stats to real life would be either fun or engaging. I play and love D&D, but character sheets and stats work in that universe. This leads me to my next question, just how can and do character sheets work in a real world setting?

Character sheets can be used to be able to do things you can't in real life, or to "balance" things. And to keep the separation between yourself and your character.

I have never personally attended a LARP with character sheets, but you pick skills and such, as in a normal roleplaying game. You might pick weapon proficiencies, so you can use bows or crossbows, you might pick alchemy or magic to be able to heal, or pick-pocketing or sneaking or lockpicking, then aided by tools. You might hold your hand above your head to show that you're sneaking or invisible and have people ignore you. You might find a locked chest and ask a nearby Gamemaster if you can pick the lock or whatever.

Personally, I've never found the appeal, that feels to me like it fits better in a tabletop setting. To me, if you can't sneak, you can't sneak. If someone notices you pick-pocketing, you're going to get caught.

Seppo, I suppose you might say it's close to reenactement, I'd say it's closer to roleplaying, but we're focusing on different parts. While some people think roleplaying is about stats, and dungeon crawling, I think roleplaying is about taking on another role, and telling a story. That's the same philosophy I use when I LARP, and the same philosophy my countries LARP-culture is based on.

We focus on the roleplaying part, and ignore the game aspect, since those are just tools. I'm sure you can agree that the system is never important when roleplaying, we just do away with it altogether, and use ourselves, and our own limitations instead.

I wouldn't call it reenactement, just because of that, we're not reenacting something, we are in another world, while often based on our own, and while many people like to keep things historically correct, it's not reenactement, since the illusion we're upholding is not of our own world. It is of a fantasy world, there is magic, elves, and trolls and orcs. We're living the tale, keeping the illusion alive. That's why we do away with gamemasters, with stats, with character sheets and with rules that has a visible impact. If someone fights, it's going to be a fight, if someone uses magic, they use magic, they don't draw cards, or roll dice, or ask a GM.

Triffid:

Oh I thought you would never ask, and I will be HAPPY to oblige

1. Spending ridiculous amounts of cash on costumes and weapons/armor/other things so you can go prance about in the woods and pretend you're doing an outdoor production of lord of the rings

As opposed to spending ridiculous amounts of cash on fancy dresses, or computer games, or cards, or gambling, or stamps, or televisions, or whatever else you do with yours?

I may have spent a lot of money on LARPing, but far from as much as I've spent on gaming, probably less than I've spent on RPG-supplements as well. It doesn't really cost that much money.

And it's not all in the woods, it's not all Lord of the rings.

Triffid:
2. It's a crippling social barrier. It's like fucking World of Warcraft without a computer. You aren't socializing with these other larpers, you're just playing your little game in costumes. Real socializing would be something like, going to a movie, going to a club, or even just hanging out and talking, not pretending you're the Grand High Elf of the Faggotini dynasty.

I won't be able to convince you otherwise, of course, but why? I'd say a watching a movie is a pretty solid barrier, since you can't talk when the movie is on. Sure, but you can talk afterwards, you say. In that case, what's to stop me from talking to people for real after the LARP?

I've made tons of friends through LARPing, friends I go to the movies with, friends I hang around and talk with, friends I invite over for dinner. And no, we're not in character when we do.

LARPing is a very social activity, both during and especially before and after. It's a group activity after all, mostly. Preparations before, meetings beforehand, etc. And while some would consider the fiction a barrier, I find that it doesn't limit social interaction. You're maybe not socialising too much during the game, but you find people that shares the same hobbies as you, just like you'd do in WoW, which I wouldn't really consider a barrier either. I've never played WoW, I still got to meet a lovely young lady in Britain and went to see The phantom of the opera with her, through a friend playing WoW with her.

If you want it to be a barrier, it can be, but it can also be a very good networking tool.

Triffid:

3. You're making your own town look bad. Theoretical case: someone visiting the town stumbles on your little kook festival while going for a walk. Then, if that person has any common sense, he will IMMEDIATELY leave the town, and tell everyone he knows never to go there, because it's clearly a town populated by escaped mental patients

Weren't we out in the woods playing LotR a minute ago? How can they notice us then?

First off, why would I care if I made my town look bad?

Secondly, why would it make my town look bad? I know you have a lot of horrible movies in your head, telling you that's how we act, but really now, you can't believe that any more than I believe that every computer gamer is like the angry german kid on youtube. Or if you do, I'd say you're the escaped mental patient.

We don't run around shouting fireball or hitting each other in cities, really. And most people aren't as narrow-minded and downright crazy as you seem to be, and wouldn't leave the town immediately and tell all people to stay away because some people there were dressed differently. MOST people, most sane people, would maybe ask, because they were curious, and would most likely recieve a polite answer. We're very protective of our image in media, what with people like you and newspaper accusing us of murder and stuff.

Triffid:

4. The clear destruction of the barrier between fantasy and reality. Escapism is fun, and a good way to relieve the stress of reality. But once you're bringing your escapism into the realm of reality, that's perverted (not sexually,...well, MAYBE not sexually). The idea of escapism is to give you a sense of disembodiment with reality, but at the same time, you still realize that you can not fully be a part of the escapism. When you start to cross those boundaries, your mind unconciously begins making associations of escapism in the realm of reality ( Case in point: I have a friend who had a girlfriend that did a vampire LARP, and her "Character" was in a relationship with some other character. Now, my friend didn't do LARPing, but he was cool about her doing it and even pretending to be some other guy's girl. His chick ended up cheating on him with that guy, and when he found out, she didn't apologize, oh no, she said it didn't count because she was "in character" and "what happens in the RP stays in the RP". He dumped her, and I will be completely be honest, if he had bludgeoned her with a rusty lead pipe, I would have been cool with that)

Is that enough or do you need more? Or did I just blow your fucking mind because you thought I had nothing to back my statements up and you thought I was just trolling?

There are idiots everywhere. You should know that. There are also people with a less than firm grasp on reality. Such people shouldn't do escapism, in any form, much less something as "extreme" as LARPing. It's not the fault of LARPing that she was an idiot, much like it's not the fault of America that Bush is an idiot.

SANE people are able to differentiate between reality and fiction, even LARPers, as long as they're sane. All people I know that have had in-game relationships have stopped those relationships before they actually become anything (two people playing married for example might talk sweetly to each other, they might hug, they might give each other a kiss on the cheek, but everything beyond that is a big no-no) OR they have a similar relationship outside of the game as well, and thus can take that step without worry. Case in point many LARPs here have "rules" or rather guidelines that says just that. That your character only extends so far, and that if you want to kiss someone, or have sex with someone or whatever that's between you and the other person, not your characters. You don't ask the character, you ask the person.

I know you're a horribly narrowminded and prejudiced person and that nothing I say will ever change your mind, I know several people like that, some LARPers, some not. One guy that for example wants the whole middle east nuked, and fully believes that every person down there deserves it (oh, he's a LARPer by the way, so all LARPers are definitely pro-genocide, use that next time).

And no, you DON'T have anything to back up your statements with, really. If you weren't so narrowminded I'd offer to show you how it really works, but you most likely live far away (at least I hope so) and you wouldn't want that anyway. You're content with thinking we're evil scary people. You like it that way. If we were normal people, you'd have to re-evaluate your world-view, and we wouldn't want that.