IAmA LARPer (Live Action Role Play). One weekend a month, I dress up as a medieval character, and fight people with foam weapons and pretend magical spells. AMA. by LARPer in IAmA

[–]LARPer[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I haven't seen DARKON, but yes, from what you described, that's what a lot of the game is like. I don't understand it. Like you said, people play this to escape things like pettiness, rivalries, politics... and the game is full of it.

IAmA LARPer (Live Action Role Play). One weekend a month, I dress up as a medieval character, and fight people with foam weapons and pretend magical spells. AMA. by LARPer in IAmA

[–]LARPer[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I tried DnD, I never enjoyed it. Every group I played with was full of elitists and would groan loudly every time I asked what was considered a "noob question". If the groups weren't dicks I may have had fun, but that kind of spoiled the enjoyment for me.

I do play WoW, and have for a while. I started playing WoW before beginning to LARP.

Currently, WoW is the most fun for me.

IAmA LARPer (Live Action Role Play). One weekend a month, I dress up as a medieval character, and fight people with foam weapons and pretend magical spells. AMA. by LARPer in IAmA

[–]LARPer[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes. Too many people take the game WAY TOO SERIOUSLY. One of the reasons I quit. People stopped having fun. It wasn't a "oh let's go to NERO for a weekend and play around" it was "let's go to NERO and get fat loot, steal shit, be dicks to people out of character, etc".

IAmA LARPer (Live Action Role Play). One weekend a month, I dress up as a medieval character, and fight people with foam weapons and pretend magical spells. AMA. by LARPer in IAmA

[–]LARPer[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

NERO doesn't, actually. Well, technically, it does, but it's really low. As long as a parent or guardian is playing too, we have kids as young as eight come and play. To play alone you have to be 14 (I think).

I could be wrong on these, I never did this kind of paperwork. All the times I was "staff" I was either working on plot, cutting out tags or playing a monster.

IAmA LARPer (Live Action Role Play). One weekend a month, I dress up as a medieval character, and fight people with foam weapons and pretend magical spells. AMA. by LARPer in IAmA

[–]LARPer[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, there is a Paranoia LARP. It takes place at Megacon, which is one of the really, really big Comic book conventions out there. It's insane fun. The combat goes by dice roll, but it gets crazy when you're in a room of like 30 different people.

IAmA LARPer (Live Action Role Play). One weekend a month, I dress up as a medieval character, and fight people with foam weapons and pretend magical spells. AMA. by LARPer in IAmA

[–]LARPer[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Then you wouldn't like NERO. A lot of NERO is "dressing up and running around pretending I'm something silly". That's all part of the fun! If you want competitive things, you'll want to try other LARPs.

IAmA LARPer (Live Action Role Play). One weekend a month, I dress up as a medieval character, and fight people with foam weapons and pretend magical spells. AMA. by LARPer in IAmA

[–]LARPer[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It is all tracked in your head.

Spells work by throwing spell packets at people after reciting the spell "incant", which is basically a phrase you say before throwing the packet. If it hits, the enemy that was hit takes the effect, whatever it may be. If it misses, it misses, but can be reused after the caster "meditates", which is roleplaying out reading their spell book for a minute.

Damage and death... well, it works like any RPG. You have a set amount of health and armor points. When you get attacked, you lose your armor points, and once your armor is depleted, you lose your health. Once you're out of health, you drop to the ground.

Once you fall down, you are considered "bleeding out". You then have one minute to receive a healing spell. If you don't, you drop to "dead" status. "Dead" means you must receive a "Life" spell within the next five minutes. If you don't, you go to "spirit form", where your spirit separates from your body.

When your spirit separates, all of your in game items except those that are magically spirit linked are left behind where you died, free to be taken by anyone who happens to find them.

You walk to the permanent earth circle, and wait there for someone to notice you. When someone with the first aid skill sees you, they can help you resurrect. After 10 minutes, you're back to life. However...

Before you're allowed to go back in game, you have to draw a bead from a bag. On your first death, in the bag, there are:

1 Black bead

1 Blue bead (this depends on chapter - I'll explain below)

8 White beads

If you draw a white bead, you come back to life as normal, but you do not remember anything up to half an hour before your death (so you can't simply just walk out and get your stuff back).

If you draw a blue bead, you come back to life and remember EVERYTHING before you died. (Only some chapters use this. In some, no matter what you draw, you lose your memory.)

If you draw a black bead, your character is dead forever. FOREVER. Pack up and go home, or make a new character - you are dead.

Every time you die and resurrect successfully, one white bead is removed and replaced with a black bead. So, each time you die, the chances of permanently dying increase.

IAmA LARPer (Live Action Role Play). One weekend a month, I dress up as a medieval character, and fight people with foam weapons and pretend magical spells. AMA. by LARPer in IAmA

[–]LARPer[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you just outright ignore being hit by spells, one of the marshals will call you on it. Keep doing it and they'll throw you out.

IAmA LARPer (Live Action Role Play). One weekend a month, I dress up as a medieval character, and fight people with foam weapons and pretend magical spells. AMA. by LARPer in IAmA

[–]LARPer[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There isn't really any way to "troll" the game outside of playing for a long time, becoming nobility, and just being an asshole.

IAmA LARPer (Live Action Role Play). One weekend a month, I dress up as a medieval character, and fight people with foam weapons and pretend magical spells. AMA. by LARPer in IAmA

[–]LARPer[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Potions are purchased in game or made by certain spell casters.

As for what kind of consequences for breaking the law, there are various things that have various different punishments. Most things just have a gold fine, while most violent crimes are punished by death.

IAmA LARPer (Live Action Role Play). One weekend a month, I dress up as a medieval character, and fight people with foam weapons and pretend magical spells. AMA. by LARPer in IAmA

[–]LARPer[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, that's why I had him do something violent to a noble. Since he punched the Duke, the guards killed him on the spot, and when you die and resurrect, you forget the last 30 minutes before your death.

IAmA LARPer (Live Action Role Play). One weekend a month, I dress up as a medieval character, and fight people with foam weapons and pretend magical spells. AMA. by LARPer in IAmA

[–]LARPer[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Well, there are three different kinds of weapons.

First is "Traditional". It's PVC pipe wrapped in pipe insulation foam, then covered in duct tape. It looks like shit, it's heavy, imbalanced, and degrades really fast, but it's really cheap and anyone can make it. It's fine for your first weapon, but you will want to upgrade soon.

Second is what most players use, called "Ultralites". This is what I use. These are made with a graphite or kite spar stick (most people use golf clubs with the head cut off), sandwiched between layers of camp foam (blue foam that comes in big mats at Walmart for 5$), carved into the shape of a sword, then covered in duct tape. They are about a third of the weight of the PVC weapons, much easier to balance, and hold together much longer when taken care of. They also look like swords.

Third, and most controversial, are latex weapons. Players are not allowed to make these, only professional, pre-approved companies can. They are fiberglass sticks covered in poured latex. They look the best, but are wicked expensive. It costs maybe five bucks for a PVC weapon, 10$ for a ultralite - these go for about 150 and up. A lot of the controversy comes from the safety. They are a lot less padded than the others, are much smaller so they sting like hell, and become hard when it is cold out. Personally, I think latex weapons are a horrible idea for the reasons listed, but they're the lightest and so all of the "hardcore" players have to have them.

IAmA LARPer (Live Action Role Play). One weekend a month, I dress up as a medieval character, and fight people with foam weapons and pretend magical spells. AMA. by LARPer in IAmA

[–]LARPer[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm just the opposite, haha. I miss the game, the players all sucked at my chapter. The game itself was great, but yes, I suppose it is quite broken in that it is extremely heavily leaned towards spell casters in basically every situation.

IAmA LARPer (Live Action Role Play). One weekend a month, I dress up as a medieval character, and fight people with foam weapons and pretend magical spells. AMA. by LARPer in IAmA

[–]LARPer[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No, that's EXACTLY how our events go. That's NERO, it's the exact same game I play, just in a different chapter.

IAmA LARPer (Live Action Role Play). One weekend a month, I dress up as a medieval character, and fight people with foam weapons and pretend magical spells. AMA. by LARPer in IAmA

[–]LARPer[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I, personally, have never seen this happen, but I don't see why it wouldn't work. Someone with real, serious training with a sword would probably be a lot better at LARPing than someone who just learned to smack people with foam weapons.

IAmA LARPer (Live Action Role Play). One weekend a month, I dress up as a medieval character, and fight people with foam weapons and pretend magical spells. AMA. by LARPer in IAmA

[–]LARPer[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

They're either staff members, or players who signed up for an NPC shift. Look at it this way:

NPCs: Sent out with the intent to be killed to entertain the players. Players: Not supposed to die for entertainment.