Re: alas LARPs forever

From: Sandy Petersen <sandyp_at_idgecko.idsoftware.com>
Date: Sat, 11 May 96 17:50:31 -0500

Nils
>While I consider myself a fairly good roleplayer in TTRP contexts, I'm
>fully aware that I am abysmally bad at social interaction. I just
_can't_
>walk up to strangers, start a conversation and get things moving.

        Then you must do one or (preferably) both of the following things:

1. go to the LARP with friends, and ask to be teamed with them.
2. Inform the Directors when you register, and _also_ at the game itself that you are socially shy, and that you absolutely require placement as a member of a closely-knit team, or as an individual who has embarrassment-free reasons to speak with others. For instance -- if you played a Danfive Xaron agent, I predict even you could walk up to a cop, flash your badge, and say, "Arrest that man over there. Bring him with me to the interrogation pits."

        If you _do_ have handicaps, then you must take steps to avoid them, or the LARP will not be fun. _I_ most certainly have such handicaps. I don't work well as a backstabbing traitor or as a lone wolf for hire. I find that I'm best off as part of a team; either a leader, or a sycophantic underling.

I said:
>LARPS are vastly more fun, more realistic, more engrossing, more
>emotionally exhausting, and more Gloranthan than any TTRP.

>Doyle responds emotionally and illogically.
>Part of me thinks that Sandy is exagerating for effect. I hope so.

        Think of what you are saying, Doyle. We both know how much fun TTRP is. I'm sure you would dearly love anything that was even better. But just as the existence of Lobster Thermidor has not destroyed the existence of a good hamburger, LARPing cannot replace TTRPing.

>there may negative consequences to the privleging of LARP vs TTRP.

        That cannot happen unless LARPs became enormously easier to run and play in. And cheaper, too! You cannot hold a LARP more than once or twice a year. We are now on the third or fourth year of Gloranthan LARPs, and we are still perforce recycling old games. Of the three Gloranthan LARPs I've participated in: Home of the Bold, How the West was One, and The First Council, two were successful games, and one was a failure. (As with all LARP failures, it was a mitigated failure, however.)

        If it someday becomes possible to hold well-run, well-designed 50+ player LARPs every two weeks without colossal expense in costuming, traveling, and renting a venue, then I will stop playing TTRP. I predict that this will occur just after Hell freezes over.

>These 'negative consequences' that I refer to are the
disappearence of >Gloranthan TTRP as viable option

        Doyle, if LARPs are the demise of Gloranthan TTRPing I will personally hand you all the RQ stuff I've got in my library, including notes, computer files, etc. Then you can play Gloranthan RQ forever with your own group at least.

        If Gloranthan TTRPing ever ends, which God forbid, it will not be LARPing that kills. Rather, I view LARPs as an excellent potential source of converts to TTRPing. In the same way that _I_ came to RQ through the boardgame WHITE BEAR RED MOON, I confidently expect that there are men and women playing RQ today because they liked the world they emulated in HotB or HtWwO. Or at least if there are not, there soon will be.

        And again, If Gloranthan TTRPing ends (which once more, God forbid), then perhaps LARPing will be the only remaining way for us to interact with the world we love so much.

Sandy P.

---