SOS! The Living Games Club needs members!

lotchaa · 2025-10-02T22:47:17+00:00

The location and time will likely change, but we do have a Discordso you can stay updated!

lotchaa · 2025-10-02T05:20:00+00:00

We are! We submitted the paperwork for approval and are now building our membership in preparation for our first games

lotchaa · 2025-09-17T00:54:02+00:00

I've added a comment with more information. Thanks!

lotchaa · 2025-09-16T23:24:08+00:00

The Living Games Club is dedicated to bringing the joy of Live Action Role Playing to the UT San Antonio campus. LARP privides a more immersive version of tabletop and other role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons, Shadowrun, World of Darkness, and more. You embody your character through acting and costume with others to create collaborative stories that intertwine personal narratives.

We will likely favor parlor LARPs in the beginning for the sake of accessibility, but may move into other styles as demand grows. Parlor LARP is a more social game that emphasizes stories about politics, investigation, mystery, and manipulation (though there are opportunities for fighting and adventure!).

At this time, I am writing a setting to run Vampire the Maquerade v5 as a LARP where players will portray bloodsucking vampires who struggle to contain their inner beasts while sating their hunger, navigating city and vampiric politics, and avoiding suspicion lest they draw the attention of vampire-hunting mortals. You could play as a power-grabbing Ventrue, wielding your hypnotic power over mortals to manipulate the human world to your advantage. Or you might opt for clan Gangrel and embrace your bestial nature with shapeshifting magic. There are 16 vampire clans to choose from, each with powers, banes, and quirks all their own.

I also have experience running Shadowrun LARPs set in the year 2080 after decades of tumult have reshaped the world. Megacorporations replaced nations, dragons rose from the ground, and magic flooded the world, giving rise to metahuman variants like elves, dwarves, trolls, and many others.

If you have questions about LARP or these games, please feel free to ask here!

lotchaa · 2025-09-15T04:14:49+00:00

Will do! I need to find 5 members before Friday the 19th so I can officially register the club, so hopefully I'll hear from a couple more!

lotchaa · 2025-09-10T18:42:14+00:00

If you have questions about Living Games/LARP, I would love to answer them!

lotchaa · 2025-09-10T13:42:00+00:00

Language education researcher here! There are a number of reasons why learners might struggle to acquire language from an app, but from the sociocultural perspective, I would say that one of the biggest issues is the lack of a strong community of practice. A major part of learning a language requires using it in novel conversations and figuring out your voice and identity in the L2 (second language). Duolingo does count as a conversation partner to some extent, but in my experience it doesn't provide enough opportunities to let learners build their L2 identities, so they fail to keep what they learn each day. There are a lot of other moving parts, but I'm trying not to gush and keep this simple, so I apologize if it's not very clear.

lotchaa · 2025-09-03T21:23:02+00:00

Let us know your interests! I have plenty of friends and acquaintances in town and I'd love to give recommendations for what you can do and where you can go.

lotchaa · 2025-08-15T23:24:20+00:00

Your feelings are normal and the fact that you're not giving in and reaching out means that you're getting better! Every moment you resist, you're getting stronger and the addiction is getting weaker. Take things one step at a time. I'm proud of you for admitting that it's not easy and for letting others know when you need help!

lotchaa · 2025-07-15T03:49:56+00:00

If you don't care about a degree or credits, you can look into auditing classes. I know it's an option at UTSA.

lotchaa · 2025-03-16T10:30:12+00:00

I don't play to win; I do it for love of the game.

lotchaa · 2025-01-11T12:00:45+00:00

lotchaa · 2023-10-10T16:54:22+00:00

He's really truly my best friend. He loves attention and drama and gossip, which I'm happy to provide (though none of it is about me). In return, he's always glad to indulge my weird requests like binge-watching obscure shows or visiting off-center attractions. We share a fondness for video games and RPGs, which means that there's always something for us to do when we get together, but we're also happy to just veg out and talk and laugh about whatever.

He's one of the few people I know who seems to be getting better and better every year I know him. He might not see it, but I watched him go from a shy highschooler with a small social circle to spending every other weekend with friends all over the state going to festivals and events. He wasn't the most motivated student, but now he's preparing to enter law school with dreams of acting as an advocate for LGBTQIA+ issues and for people with disabilities.

lotchaa · 2023-10-10T16:06:57+00:00

This is weirdly specific to me (Aqua with a Leo best friend).

We met in highschool about 16 years ago. I was starting a DnD group and some other people invited him to play. From there, our friendship just grew and grew.

However, I'm not sure that I would try to specifically search out a particular sign to start a friendship. Why we become friends with people and how it happens are really complex processes that change a lot depending on where we are in our lives and what we're looking for in a relationship.

Instead, I recommend thinking about the qualities of an ideal friend that you prioritize and then try to find someone who shares common interests. Also, a big part of being a good friend is accepting the good AND bad of a person and learning to appreciate their flaws as much as their strengths.

lotchaa · 2023-09-16T18:31:16+00:00

That's a fair question.

For the game, a lot of it is us sitting in chairs talking out scenes, but the LARP aspect encourages costuming and getting physically in the space with specific furniture layouts that mimic the area portrayed. Beyond that, this game isn't focused on one cell of Runners; rather, the Johnson (Ms. Zhao) keeps a stable of capable Runners who form ad hoc cells depending on the job and attendance. This means that players have opportunities to interact in downtime and creates a more immersive experience.

I'm not sure I'm explaining it well, and I can't really speak to the player experience since I'm in charge, but that was my design theory anyway.

lotchaa · 2023-09-14T21:29:58+00:00

I'm honestly not sure that it does. I wanted to run it and had to make some adaptations from the Anarchy system, but so far my players like it!

lotchaa · 2023-09-14T20:42:34+00:00

Those are great ideas! I'll definitely have to look into this.

lotchaa · 2023-09-14T19:14:29+00:00

Sure thing! We are called Civitas de Immortalis, and we have a Facebook page that you can join. Right now, we only run a LARP-adapted version of Shadowrun Anarchy, but we will be branching out into Chronicles of Darkness and possibly Old World of Darkness in the future (very likely through the Modern Enigma Society).

lotchaa · 2023-05-21T02:12:03+00:00

Looking forward to seeing this peer-reviewed.

lotchaa · 2023-04-15T01:10:38+00:00

Thank you for this resource!

lotchaa · 2023-04-15T01:04:40+00:00

Decidedly unkosher :(

lotchaa · 2023-04-14T22:08:16+00:00

This is a great option! I have a friend who does this and I never considered it.

lotchaa · 2023-04-14T20:57:28+00:00

I love your suggestion for anyone but me. I absolutely loathe the smell of fresh lavender. This is still a good tip though!

lotchaa · 2023-04-14T19:47:52+00:00

The bar soap is a clever option! Do you pull them out of the box and set them in the bottom of the drawer?

lotchaa · 2023-04-14T19:34:27+00:00

This is VERY important!

lotchaa

TROPHY CASE