LARP Source

“What’s Miss­ing From Your LARP Experience?”

The first time I ever played a LARP I didn’t really have any time to prop­erly pre­pare for it. It wasn’t until 4 hours before the event started that I knew for cer­tain if I was able to go. This made for a very hec­tic 4 hours.

Look­ing back I real­ize that even at my first event I noticed that there were things miss­ing from my LARP expe­ri­ence that would have made the event bet­ter. Each one of these miss­ing things could have been avoided if I had been bet­ter pre­pared.  And it is these reflec­tions that have lead to the cre­ation of LARP Source.  We want to show you how to get what is miss­ing out of your LARP so you can have the best expe­ri­ence possible.

I remem­ber that I didn’t even have a char­ac­ter name picked out until we were in the car and half way to the game. In a moment of des­per­a­tion stricken with panic and con­fu­sion I selected my first character’s name — Vinx Starsword.

Seri­ously.

I remem­ber that my sis­ter told me that it was a great name — unique but great! (Prob­a­bly because it was her sug­ges­tion.) Of course once the game started her char­ac­ter spent the next 14 hours mak­ing fun of the “new guy with the funny name.”

In the grand scheme of things my character’s name didn’t really mat­ter that much. I was at my first event.  I was con­fused, cold, and quite lit­er­ally alone; it was some­thing straight out of a novel. I was hav­ing the time of my life.

I over­looked that I was con­fused due to not under­stand­ing the overly com­pli­cated rule book. I didn’t admit to any­one that I was cold as a result of not pack­ing well enough for a 2 day camp­ing trip where we would be fight­ing mon­sters in the mud, swamp, and for­est regard­less of whether it was rain or shine.

It didn’t phase me that I was quite lit­er­ally alone for most of the event because I refused to asso­ciate with my friends or fam­ily while I was in char­ac­ter.  Vinx didn’t know their char­ac­ters and had no rea­son to.

Although I was new and I was hav­ing the time of my life there were small things that both­ered me about that first event. I didn’t let them ruin the event for me, nor did I let them stop me from going, or hav­ing fun, but they were there none the less.

It both­ered me that I didn’t have real armour to show­case the char­ac­ter as I felt it should have been.  My armour was sup­posed to be chain­mail but instead all I could scrounge together on such short notice was was a gray sweater of a par­tic­u­lar pat­tern that was turned inside-out so it cre­ated a chainmail-like weave.

Every­one that I met at my first LARP expe­ri­ence was very open and invit­ing. None of my ques­tions went unan­swered and I was never treated with any­thing but respect. Yet it both­ered me that I wasn’t able to pre­pare well enough to know the rules so that I could just play my char­ac­ter with­out hav­ing to worry about whether or not I was doing some­thing wrong.

I’m pos­i­tive that my expe­ri­ence is sim­i­lar to many other first-time LARPers and that they have also been able to over­come these fairly com­mon sit­u­a­tions.  Over the years the part of the game that I found miss­ing or lack­ing has changed because my sit­u­a­tion as a LARPer has changed along with my desires.

Whether it’s new cos­tum­ing because I have made a new char­ac­ter, or just fin­ish­ing up some of the finer details of a char­ac­ter that has been around for a while.  Per­haps it’s my involve­ment with a par­tic­u­lar LARP group that I have wanted to see change for some time.

‘To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on cre­at­ing one­self endlessly.’

— Henri Berg­son

I am always look­ing to improve my expe­ri­ence so that I can play the best LARP within my abil­ity.  I look to end­lessly recre­ate my LARP expe­ri­ences with each oppor­tu­nity into an image that is bet­ter and bet­ter.  An image that fits my mind’s eye as to what my per­fect expe­ri­ence would be.

It has been over 12 years since I played my first LARP game and I have have improved my expe­ri­ence many times over, but there is still room for improve­ment.  I do not like the idea of hav­ing to pur­chase all of my cos­tum­ing from ven­dors or other LARPers who can sew far bet­ter than me.

My tal­ent in this depart­ment is abysmal but there are cer­tain cos­tumes that I want to see cre­ated that are not avail­able on the mar­ket.  Who else will cre­ate them to my spe­cific visage?

This is why I ask “what is miss­ing in your LARP expe­ri­ence?” I could also ask “what would you like to see improved or recre­ated in your own per­sonal LARP experience?”

I’m not promis­ing to show you ways to change your rules, or your game.  That is between you and your game facil­i­ta­tors, rules com­mit­tees, etc.

I offer to share with you my insights on the indus­try, games, styles, and hardware/kit and I hope that you will in turn share your own expe­ri­ences and insights.

Cheers,

Kevin

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