A Positive LARP Culture

Over the last weekend, Eldaraenth had it's start of season feast and social event. We normally have the event in January, but, since 2012 was a really bad year for just about everyone, it took us a couple of extra months to get started. Since this event is the time for us to set the tone for the season, I thought it would be a good time to reflect on more than just story or character plot and look to what being part of a community and culture are really about.

As last year progressed, the game I love to play began to feel less and less like itself. One of the reasons I have been such an advocate for LARP and Role Play in general is because of the positive messages and lessons it can bring to those that are part of that world. I've always seen it as a way to improve myself and develop friendships that last for decades. During the course of 2012, however, even Eldaraenth, which has always prided itself on being those things seemed to be falling into the trap of becoming a place where people go out to fight and then spend the night partying.

I didn't do the frat scene in college, and I don't want to do the frat thing now that I'm almost thirty. In my introspection, I realized that as the game's leader, it was up to me to remind the players that I love exactly why we loved the game in the first place. So, I poured all of my thoughts and emotions into a speech and set off to the event ready to really share something important to me with the players around me.

The moment I got to the event site, I was bombarded with a lot of concerns and problems that players had spent all winter worrying over. I realized that most of what they were telling me were the same worries that were biting at the back of my mind. I wasn't alone in my concerns. I listened as each of them came to me with their fears.

I was actually pretty shocked when I realized that some of the most veteran players, people that had given a decade of their lives to this game, were in a place where they seriously considered not playing anymore. I'm not just talking about dedicated event attendees, either. I'm talking about hardcore veterans that spent weeks working on things for the game before each event. These were people that I couldn't imagine ever not playing the game.

I knew that I had made the right decision about what I had put in my speech. I knew that I had picked the right issues to address and focus on this year.

The speech I wrote was an emotional one for me. If you've ready any of my other blog, you probably know that I'm a bit emo. This speech was the most emo thing I'd written in a very, very long time. It took a lot out of me, standing in front of a group of people I have a lot of admiration and respect for and pouring my heart out. As soon as I was done speaking, I had to excuse myself from the hall we had rented for the feast and spend some cool down time outside.

When I came back in, I was almost immediately pulled into conversations about what had been happening the year before and how we could address those issues. They went beyond just talking about the partying and began bringing up ways we could improve ever facet of our game and our culture.

I was proud to be sitting at that table with a handful of players, veterans and new, who wanted to make their game a better place for everyone involved.

As one issue after another got address and resolved, the talk natural wound down and split off on tangents. I sat back and felt accomplished. I realized that I was really looking forward to this year after feeling so burnt out and drained from the year before.

People began to head out after a long day of fighting, eating and catching up. Several of them stopped and let me know that they had been feeling pretty down about the game before the event and now they were feeling incredibly positive and optimistic  Like me, just coming out and reaffirming what we wanted our community to be had rekindled their love of it.

For the first time in a very long time, I felt like I had done my job as the game's leader. For the first time in a long time, I felt like I was living up to that mantle.

Even better, players were feeling like they had found something they had lost and remembered how much the loved and missed it when it was gone.

To me, that is the point of all of this.

LARP culture is an amazing place that can help boys and girls become men and women, or more. Knights and Wizards! Or Orcs and Trolls if that's what they're into. We as a community and as a culture can help children grow in a positive, amazing environment.

Then, in my excitement and with the encouragement and feedback of the people watching the video of my speech on Facebook, I posted a link on the LARP subreddit and was reminded that our culture can have a downside. There is an natural draw to games that allow you to fight, plot and scheme. It is a creative outlet for people that are aggressive and confrontational. That's a wonderful amazing thing, as long as it is directed into the positive atmosphere of a boffer field or an intense role play.

Where it gets damaging is when we allow those things to carry over into the mundane side of our games and community. Where a rivalry between two fighting companies makes for some intense, fun, and epic battles on the pitch, a rivalry between games or players becomes a dirty mockery of the values we should be embracing. Manipulating court politics can be an exciting way of getting involved in a story. Obsessing over game politics is a destructive waste of time.

I love Eldaraenth. It is the game for me. I love what I get from it as a game and what I get from the community I play with.

It is not better or worse than other games. It is different than other games. For me, that difference is mostly in who I play with and how we play, not what we play.

I feel like the greatest crime in LARP culture is the inherent rivalry that grows between games and the resentment that players harbor for one another. Those are the truly poisonous parts of our culture that we should all, regardless of game, genre, location, or tusk count should work to eliminate in favor of creating a more positive community all around.

We all have parts of our community that we can improve. I'm certain that even with a dedicated group working through every problem they could think of, we're still going to have some massive holes in our strategies. All of us, and I mean all LARPers, need to share and help one another.

What are some of the issues that you've seen in your game?
How did your game address them?
What is your State of the Game?

I'd love to hear from all of you on this. Together, we can all build a better LARPer.

LARP is Mutual World Building

LARP is Mutual World Building

     When you attend a LARP event, you are going there for a reason. You are there to enjoy yourself by getting lost for a while in a fantasy. Yes, LARP is about friendship. LARP is about the community. It is  about sword fighting. It is about camping. It is about being outside with friends and enjoying nature. It is about all of those things, but you can get those same joys from other things. 

     You could just go camping with your friends and spend some time beating each other with boffer weapons. That isn't why we get dressed up and go out to events, though. That's basically what fighter practice is for. There are those of you out there that are looking for that, and that's wonderful. I enjoy spending time just beating my friends with foam and then having a party. That's a good time, and it's worth doing once in a while. 

     If that is what you are looking for, then there are plenty of boffer games out there. They are a filled with great communities, and are truly enjoyed by the people who are looking for those experiences. Games like Dagorhir are a great example. They're not worried about building a cohesive whole because they exist for the boffer fighting. Call me elitist, but I don't think of Dagorhir or similar games as LARPs. They are great Boffer Games. They are focused on combat and camaraderie. They are great at what they focus on.

     My personal background isn't in those boffer games. I come from a boffer LARP. The game I'm most familiar with, Eldaraenth, has it's roots in the SCA and Renfaire re-enactments. It got it's birth from the desire to add a fantasy element to those cultures. When I started playing Eldaraenth 13 years ago, that belief and focus in immersion were just considered the standard. Regrettably, I feel that Eldaraenth has lost that over the last decade, and as a game leader, I know that I bear the responsibility for that. 

     That's why I went looking for how to regain what we had lost, and that's when I came across this video:

     A lot of this video is focused on the kit and costume of the game. It focuses on the physical representation of immersion, and I think that is extremely important, but it isn't the end all be all of immersion. I am lucky that I play in a fairly small game that has a truly dedicated player base. There are quite a few older, more veteran players that are willing to really help out with getting newer players geared up and kitted up. I am extremely grateful for that. I think without them, Eldaraenth would have gone the way of the dodo a long time ago. For now, I feel like the original culture of the game is on life support, and needs an infusion of new immersion.

     One of the most important things I think we can do for our game, and perhaps you can do for your games, is to remember the goal. We are coming together at events for the purpose of creating a mutual fantasy.

     No mater what type of LARP game you're playing, there is a setting and a world that comes with it. To me, that world is the core, the heart, of the LARP. Breathing life into the world is most important thing you can do to help rebuild that immersion that has been lost, or to grow it organically.

     Focusing on the physical representation is a good start. It can help you get into character. It can help you define who your character is and why your character does what it does. The costume and accessories are not your character, though. You character is the persona that you're going to use, and the best thing you can do to improve your character isn't to develop a kit, it's to define your character and then do your best to stay in it.

     Role playing is the heart of Live Action Role Playing. Being in-character is the core of that. I love the accouterments of garb, weapons, and accessories, and I do my best to increase my own kit quality and help those around me increase theirs. It is amazing to increase the reality and feel of our world in that way. It makes for better pictures and easier role play.

    The role play itself, though, is the goal. The kit isn't the goal. The weapons aren't the goal.

    The kit video is great because it brings about the most important concept that every LARPer should take to heart: We are a community and we should help each other to be better. We should help each other have a better time. For me, I think we should not just limit ourselves to the fighting and the costuming. We should be focusing on helping each other get into the game. 

So You Want to Play…

Over the course of the next month, and hopefully hopping up back to it from time to time for years to come, I will be writing about playing different types of characters, not about playing a certain class or race, but the actual heart of a character, the role playing archetypes, and how to make them your own.

Why a Role Play Guide Series?

Part of me finds the need for a role play guide to be counter intuitive to the experience of playing a LARP. The fun of it comes from stepping into the shoes of someone you are not, or someone you want to be. The most important thing you can do for your own enjoyment and fulfillment is make your character your own, unique to you.

I’m just hoping I can help you figure out what that means, and maybe find some cool stuff you can add to your kit to go with it. There is a bit of general advice that you can take away from it all, though, a handful of concepts you can start thinking about to make improvements to your character on your own right now, regardless of what your character is.

The idea of this series is to help people take their character from being just another face in the crowd to being something truly unique and special.

Your Character’s Profession

Generally, when you ask someone about themselves, the first thing they tell you is about what they do for a living or what they do for their hobbies. Most Role Players, even in the LARP environment, tend to ignore the more mundane aspects of their characters, preferring to answer with their class. I think you lose something when you neglect the day to day details of your character’s life. It leaves it two-dimensional and incomplete.

Besides, there is a lot more to LARP than just going out in the woods, pretending to be an elf and hitting your friends with foam swords. There are crafts and skills that people fall in love with as they play the game. Other hobbies spring up from involvement in LARPing, and many of them can translate into game and add more depth to your character.

Accessories make the Character

There are a few things that pretty much every LARP player should have in their kit, things like a belt pouch, weapons and the like. Then there are things that just make a character stand out from the pack, turning the player from just another fighter on the field into something special. Everyone wants to stand out and be memorable, and the accoutrements you carry really can make an big impact on how big an impression you make.

Make it Your Own

Fantasy as a genre is full of archetypes. Those of us who grew up gaming and reading epic stories all have an image in our head of what we want to be. For some of us, it is the shining armored paladin, for others it could be the sneaky cutpurse. The pitfall that we have to avoid as role players is not trying to emulate our favorite characters too closely, otherwise you end up at an event with a half dozen fallen kings living the life of a woodsman or a smattering of redeemed drow.

We don’t want to abandon the archetypes, though. They are what brought us into all this, it is what we enjoy. The idea is to take that concept and build on it, bring your own voice to the character instead of just playing another clone of the kid who’s parents were murdered by orcs.

Hopefully over the next few weeks, we can get there together.

Your Input Matters

One last thing. LARP is about community, and without it, nothing really ever gets done. If you don’t have any friends to role play with, you’re just a crazy guy dressing funny in the park and swinging pvc pipe at the air. The same goes for this blog. Over the last ten years of LARPing, I’ve come up with a pretty good idea of the types of questions that players have and the information that they really desire, but I’ve probably missed some, too.

If you have a particular niche, profession or character concept you’d like to discuss, please feel free to leave comments.

Everything is better when we work together to figure these things out.

Bring Extra Socks and 8 Other Practical Tips for Events

It’s the night before you head out to a big event, and you’re getting your things together. You go down the list and double check all of the necessities; you’ve got your garb and weapons ready to go, you remembered to pack your tent and sleeping bag, and you’ve even filled your cooler with food and beverages. Seems like you have everything under control, but do you really?

Preparation is about the Basics

When you’re packing for your big event, make sure you cover the small stuff, too. Making it through a camping weekend isn’t just about the big stuff, and there are a ton of things that can make you take time from enjoying an event and need to head deep back into the mundane world, dressed funny and smelling like a street urchin. Make sure you pack these 9 things to keep you in the game and going.

Extra Socks

Ok, you’re going to be in the woods for 2 days so you would think that 2 pairs of socks will cover you, right? No! When you’re tromping around a field, sword fighting and running from zombies, your feet are going to get sweaty and skanky. If they get too gross, not only are they going to stink up the inside of your tent, but you’re going to get foot rot and loos hunks of flesh. It happens, but it’s avoidable.
I generally pack an extra pair of socks for each day I’m going to be at the event. I might not need them but they sure do come in handy when I do.
Back in December of last year I went to an event in the snow and almost froze my toes of even after we were inside. I had extra socks in the form of thin little athletics, but they just made my feet dry. That day I was given a pair of big thick, heavy cotton socks. They melted my feet into balls of happy goo and changed my life forever.
Now, I make sure to pack those socks when I head to any event. Chances are I won’t need them in July, but you never know when you’re going to fall in a creek and need something to keep you warm and going.

Toilet Paper

This one seems more obvious than it should. You need to go to the bathroom. You need to clean yourself when you do, otherwise you are going to smell like a sewer rat. That might be a little too in character. Take some tp with you into the woods, and you’ll thank yourself later. Again, you might not need it, but it’s better to have it than not. Even if there is a bathroom or port-a-potty on site, you are better off having this around in case of an emergency.

Trash Bags

We have a rule in Eldaraenth, you leave an event site better than you found it. That means policing and cleaning your camp regularly to make sure there isn’t any trash floating around mucking up the place. It’s best to bring two types, also. Grab some plastic grocery store bags to keep around in places where you might need to seal the trash away, especially if you have to break out the aforementioned toilet paper. Another great place to have something like that hanging is where you prepare your food, especially meat.
Make sure you grab some bigger trash bags, too. You can put the smaller trashbags inside them when they are full and put most of your general camp trash in them as you go along. We like to keep one at all times near our water station.

EXTRA WATER

There is no such thing as too much water at an event. Dehydration is a real worry, especially for the guys wearing heavy armor or the ladies strutting around in corsets (or vice versa). Most games will provide water for players, but it can be hard to keep it stocked up good and full when you’ve got a bunch of people all pulling from the same tank. Just do yourself a favor and bring extra water with you. You will drink it.

Sunscreen

I am a pale, pale man. I burn through my garb sometimes. It’s a good idea to sunscreen up. I like the kind that sprays on, and you can sometimes get it with bug spray built into it. Two for the price of one, I’m sold. Use it, and prevent melanoma.

A Tarp

I have a friend who is an outdoorsy kind of guy. He taught me a very valuable lesson. Bring a tarp (or two) when you go camping. One under your tent can help keep it warmer, keep the dew out, and get you a bit more off the ground, and one on top of a tent will work a million times better than the best rain flap out there. Also, if you forget your tent poles, a tarp and some rope makes a fairly decent lean to.

Extra Blankets

It can get cold out there at night. If you need them, they’ll keep you warm, and if you don’t they’ll make the ground a little more comfortable. I recommend putting one down under you anyway, because getting off the ground will help keep you warm when it is freezing cold.

Tooth Brush

People forget this one all the time. Morning breath can ruin everyone’s day. Bring one, and some toothpaste while you’re at it. At least grab some mouthwash.

Wet Wipes

This one never occurred to me for years. I just thought “Hey, I’ll go home and shower for two hours, so why worry about stinking at the event.” Then we had a new player come into the game and it changed my perspective. She brought wet wipes with her to the events and cleaned herself completely each morning. It was like, “wow, she doesn’t smell like a hobo!”

The List Goes On

There a a lot of little things that can be added to the list. Do you have any advice for new players, or maybe a simple recommendation for some of your veterans?

The 4 Player Archetypes - Where do you Fall?

Every LARP, and at some levels every Role Playing game has 4 basic types of players. In the twelve years that I’ve been a LARPer, I’ve seen hundreds of players, and you can almost always fit them into one of the four. It isn’t bad thing, and I think that it is important for a game to have all four to really thrive. Learning the types, and learning how to work with them can really make a game become more well rounded.

1. The Warrior

The warrior is the guy that is there for the combat and fighting. In a combat larp, they are going to be the guys that spend the most time practicing the martial art of boffer combat. They tend to get involved much more heavily in that side of things. They aren’t going to worry too much about role play and characterization, but they are going to be the guys that strive to become combat marshals and spend hours perfecting the art of smithing weapons and armor.

You can almost always rely on them to have extra weapons laying around, and they’re going to be the guys that will keep people from getting too bored when mundane things bog down an event by organizing games and sparring. In my experience, they’ll end up forming a unit together and become a force to be feared. The boon they bring to the table is that they are also usually more than happy to take aside a newbie and show them a trick or two to help them out on the battlefield.

Usually the first to volunteer to play some a group of NPC monsters, and tend to have a lot of fun with it when you give them a one shot character, especially if it’s a monster that is just there to get beat on by the party.

2. The Actor

Pretty much the opposite of the warrior, this is the guy that is here entirely for the role play. On the extreme end they can even be non-combatants that only want to spend some time in character. Their focus is going to be on story and plot. Good to have around because they don’t mind being thrown a curve ball for the sake of a great story line. These guys will spend time in shadows around a campfire working on politics and schemes.

You can usually use them to introduce new things into the game, and given a little bit of prompting can run with it. Even the most minor thing can become an epic plot point if you let these natural hams take care of it. With a handful of them around, the job of the story teller becomes easy, and you don’t have to worry too much about finding reasons for your warriors to gear up and beat on each other.

3. The Craftsman

Seamstresses, blacksmiths, even cooks, these are the people who are here for one purpose only, to make things that are awesome. Sure, they’ll pick up a weapon and fight, or might even spend some time negotiating over a few coins for a spare weapon they’ve got lying around, but their true passion is in the craft associated with the game. They will spend hours making garb and weapons, and will generally be the first to volunteer to help a new player get geared up. They, and their friends, family and unit, will almost always have the best garb, and they’ll no sooner have one project done than they are already working on the next great innovation.

They can go a long way to making a game look a lot better in the photos.

Take advantage of what they can offer in training and trade, but make sure you’re giving back as much as they give out. In my experience they will be too generous with their goods. Actually, that applies to most players. Make sure that if they hook you up with something cool, you at least repay the favor by helping them with some camp chores.

Generally, when they do sell their craft for cash, their prices are a lot lower than you’ll find online for work that is as good or better. Better yet, get some materials and spend some time learning a bit about the craft from them. It might not be your passion, but it’s always good to know how to at least fix the hole in that fancy pouch you’ve got.

4. The Heart

For every guy that is an amazing fighter, there is a guy that can’t quite seem to get past the basics. For every brilliant character, there is a guy struggling to find himself. For every artisan, there is a guy that somehow sewed his new cloak into a tree. Every once in a while, you get someone who is cursed with all three of these, but they don’t let that get them down.

The heart is the core of a LARP. They show up because they love the game, and they put more work into it than anyone else. These guys are die-hards that just can’t be beaten. I love them for that. They might not ever be the best at anything, but they’re going to try everything, and they’re going to keep on trying, no matter what. You can’t ever do better than that.

One of the best things about playing a LARP is that you get to step outside yourself for a while and be closer to what you really want to be. It doesn’t matter to LARPers if you’re a bumbling clutz in real life. We’re just out here to have fun, and these guys have fun, no matter how bad they might be at something. Their spirit is infectious in a positive way, and can keep people in a good mood even when it’s hot, humid, and the bugs are horrible.

Plus, guys that are this dedicated will usually be the first to volunteer to help run things, because it’s something they love. Give them time and encouragement, and you’ll find that someone with real heart will one day become a force to take seriously. Besides, we can’t all start out perfect, can we?

Breaking the Mold

Of course, anything as broad and generalized as these archetypes will cover everyone. That’s not an excuse to let yourself fall into one. It’s good to recognize what people love, and help them do what they enjoy. It’s better to help everyone step outside of their comfort zone and become great at more.

If you’re a warrior, why not take that guy with heart aside and help him get better with the sword. He might not ever be the best, but a little one-on-one training can make a huge improvement for a fighter.

If you’re the actor, why not pull the craftsman aside and help him really develop that blacksmith persona into something grand? It might just liven up the event to have a boisterous merchant haggling prices.

It’s always been the philosophy of the people I game with that we are here to help each other get better as people, not just players. It makes the game better when we work together to help overcome our own weaknesses and strengthen those around us. It just makes for a better time.