LARP: SAFETY PART 1 : BEING SAFE (Before we get to site)

The two most important points to being safe are: Preparation, Awareness, and Discipline.

Isn’t that three. 

You are starting to learn already

So being safe at LARP.  Sound dull?  well it is, but it is bloody important.  I am going to touch on several subjects in this series of blogs.  First however I will deal with general safety.

Safety begins at home

For LARPing safety does really begin at home.  There are many perilious situations that can occur in the field, but this peril can be reduced from very perilious to only mildly perilious by a bit of preparation. 

Step 1: Footwear.  LARP involves an awful lot of movement.  It will usually involve running or standing alot more than you are used to it you have a sedentary job like myself.  So decent footwear is a must.  But was is decent footwear?

a.) Can you walk in it? Sound stupid? but you would be amaze how many times I have seen people wear boots for the first time at LARP that cut their feet to ribbons as they have not been broken in.  Generally the ground at LARP is uneven and not smooth underfoot like tarmac, so it is best if you can walk properly on it and your balance is not upset by trying to put pressure on blisters etc.

b.) Does it give ankle support?  Many people who LARP, like myself, are generously proportioned.  When a 20st guy is running at speed there is a lot of force going through that foot and ankle.  Most boots give that support as do shoes if properly tied. 

c.) Can you run in them?  Are you gonna be running.  Always assume yes. Again test them.

d.) Grip.  LARP is always carried out on the worse terrain for natural grip.  Make sure your shoes have good grip.

Top Tip: Hobnails. Basically old shoes or period shoes tend not to naturally have much grip.  This can be massively improved by the addition of hobnails in the smooth sole of the shoe.  If you are not so hung up on period then gluing or nailing grips from modern shoes underneth them can work excellently to improve the grip of shoes.

e.) Will it survive the event?  When someone tells me a story of failing footwear it normally plays out like this.
“It was all going well till my old shoes self destructed and I trod on a nail”

Top tip: Old kit is loverly, but if something is on its last legs replace it or repair it. 

Top tip 2: Gaffa tape is NOT a legit form of repair.  You don’t want to be in casualty for injections when you tread on a rusty nail?

Step 2: Clothes

a.) Can I move in my clothes?  – sounds obvious, but if there is contact combat at your system being able to move is very important.

b.) Can I stop myself face palming if I fall forwards?  I.e. can you move your arms in a hurry?  Lots of kit prevents this if it is stiched poorly or wasn’t designed to be moved in.  (sounds dense I know).

C.) Is it likely to self destruct in combat.  You would think that self destruction of clothing would serve only to embarrass the wearer.  However, they can cause unexpected restrictions and possibly cutting of areas you don’t want cut.  Make sure you are wearing clothes that are not on the brink of being destroyed.

Step 3: Armour

a.) Sounds stupid, but is there any part of the armour that is going cut or dig into you?  If so sort it out.  The biggest threat from armour is from poorly made imports which are not designed to be worn.  Make sure that they are not a danger to yourself.  Same goes for unclosed links on chainmail etc.

b.) Locate pinch points with armour on, these are points where the armour will pinch your skin.  Locate and eliminate.  Whilst it seems annoying out of combat, fall in a bad position and you could trap skin there and it cause trauma.

c.) External edges.  Get a kiwi fruit, and gently run it along the edges of your armour.  If the thick skin of the Kiwi fruit is sliced then it is likely it will cut human flesh.  Makes sure your armour doesn’t ok?

Step 4: Weapons.   I have covered weapon safety in a previous blog.  Go back and look at that BLOG for checking if a weapon is safe.  Remember you are just as responisble for everyones safety as the weapon checkers.

So thats step one.  Want to keep it punch and all.  See you for step 2: Environment next time.

LARP: Interview 2: Mark A

Excellent photography supplied by John Kearney

So here is another interview from a guy who always seems to have a blast at LARP.  

Though we have never actually role-a-ma-played IC at an event, everything I hear about his group “Squad D” is good.  He is has been a LARPer for 4 years or so, so a much different perspective hopefully than the aging frame that is myself.

1.) So for the audience tell us a bit about yourself in the mundane world.

Hello, my name is Mark Allport I am 26 years old and work as a Learning Support and Personal Care assistant for a 22 year old guy who has Cerebral Palsy. I have been working with him for almost 3 years now and I love it. I have always been into video games and other various nerdy role playing ventures.

2.) How long have you been LARPing and how were you introduced to it?

I have been LARPing since October 2010. My first event was the Lorien Trust Lions faction Winter event October 2010. I am a big fan of the film Role Models and had just been watching it in the Summer of 2010. After it finished I started to do a little research into it searching mainly for LAIRE, being the system they play in the film. I only managed to find a few American websites and systems though so my research dwindled.

Shortly after I met a friend on a night out and we somehow got onto the subject of LARP (Being a little intoxicated I cannot recall how exactly the seemingly random subject came up at the time). I remember showing her the tattoo of Elvish writing I have on my leg which spurred on the conversation and she introduced me to my now very good friend Fozz, who took me under his wing and introduced me to the Lorien Trust LARP system.

3.) What systems do you current play at present?

I currently only play Lorien Trust but I have monstered for Outcast a few times and would certainly be open to trying more systems in the future

4.) What is your favourite current character?

My only current character and so of course massive favourite of mine is Spaff an Ogre Mage in the Lorien Trust Lions faction.

5.) What is your favourite character or monster role you have ever had?

My favourite monster role to date would definitely be a 50 total body hit point crush stick wielding Ent who was sent to attack the Lorien Trust Harts faction at the time, there were a few of us Ents and we were accompanied by little fairies. Our brief was once the fairies were killed the Ents went into a frenzy which was a lot of fun.

6.) What do you think are the best parts of LARP?

Personally the escapism is pretty much the biggest appeal to me. Being able to forget the real world for a few days at a time and role play another character is great fun. The massive social aspect too getting to see and role play with all my mates is great, especially since we all live all across the UK so a lot of the time LARP is the only chance we get to see each other! Of course then though the actual gaming itself is always great fun being able to fight and cast spells at other people etc all in a safe environment feels awesome!

7.) Many people consider that money is the major barrier to LARP, what are your opinions on this?

When it comes to money I wouldn’t necessarily see it as a barrier as such more of a hurdle to hop over. Any large scale hobby you want to get into will cost you money and sometimes a fair bit of money. It is an investment though once you get the base layers of kit, costume and weapons then you are set, you can modify and add to your gear over time to look and feel even cooler as time goes on. I feel ticket prices are fair and when you think about it you could pay £40 for a one night concert whereas you’d pay that for a whole weekend’s LARP. Even bigger festivals you’d pay £200 plus for one weekend whereas for similar you can get tickets for all 4 main events at the Lorien Trust. If it is something you really want to do, you will find the funds!

8.) What would be your single piece of advice for someone coming into the hobby today?

All the new people, faces and rules can be a bit daunting at times but remember that basically everyone in the field with you is like minded. We are all there to have fun and enjoy ourselves. Anything you are not sure on feel free to ask people questions. LARPers love to talk about LARP and are usually always happy to help. One thing to bear in mind though and I was reminded of this myself as a new player if someone seems angry or miserable or doesn’t want to talk to you 9 times out of 10 that will just be the character they are playing and are usually the nicest of people out of character. So don’t worry! Above all enjoy yourself and get stuck in!

9.) Do you think that LARP in the UK reflects well compared to LARP in other countries or do you believe we need to up our game?

I haven’t seen a great deal of LARP in other countries but certainly from what I have seen there are aspects of UK LARP that could be different or maybe even improved on. In my opinion and again from what I have seen I think UK LARP beats a lot of US LARP. There are European systems though that do seem to have much higher expectations for kit and costume which does make the game world a lot more impressive to look at. Every system is different though.

10.) What is your favourite LARP anecdote? (NSFW if you want)

I shall regale a more recent experience which happened at the Lorien Trust Spring Moot at the beginning of May this year (2014) After a year of tough role play and character development I had decided at this event to try to be a bit more Ogrey as Spaff, since he has to be fair been known to be pretty friendly and civilised thus far, as Ogres go. I was stood near the ritual circle area with Spaff’s Hobgoblin friend Mayhem and the bell’s started tolling from the ritual circle (They are loud and can be heard pretty much all across the site and usually signify something real nasty is about to come pouring out of the void gate within the ritual circle) We had two options, start to run like most of the people or go investigate. As I mentioned I was trying to play a more tough and Ogrey Ogre so thought, fuck it let’s get stuck in and so we marched through the crowd of people fleeing to see what was going on. I heard a call that some followers of Dracos (a big bad guy) were coming to perform a ritual and they wanted volunteers to help protect the Watchers within the circle. So without a second thought Spaff (me) and Mayhem jumped into the circle along with a guy from the Tarantula faction IIRC and stood our ground. The Dracos followers turned up a fight kicked off and during which promises were made by the Dracos followers not to hurt Erdreja with their ritual and so because the watchers have to be neutral and impartial we were asked to step outside the circle while they performed their ritual. Once it was over and the ritual circle seal dropped we all dived back in to smash the Dracos followers faces. Once they were all done I spoke to one of the watchers, Zuur who then wanted to get through to the guild area nearby to find and speak to the other watchers. Big and tough mode kicked in and me and Mayhem stomped our way through the crowd shouting at everyone to move out of the way. The crowd of players all parted creating a clear path for us which felt awesome. Afterwards Spaff and Mayhem were commended by the Watchers and later by our faction for our bravery. It felt great and goes to show getting stuck in and not letting the potential fear of character death hold you back all the time can lead to some awesome fun roleplay!

LARP: Misogyny and Misandry on the field (and why language is very important) PLUS request for feedback from readers.

Before we start remember this is opinion.  If it is offensive, talk to me about it ok?

Get back in the Kitchen and make me a Sandwich (or please don’t hit me with that rolling pin)

I come from a generation where if I was told that a female employee earnt less than a male employee being employed on the same contract for the same purpose I would not only be appauled, I would be confused.

I am also from a generation that frowns on misogyny, yet is aware that equality and open misandry are not the same thing.  For those unaware Misogyny is the hatred or (as now accepted in common parlance) the degrading of a woman’s position.  Misandry is the same thing, but for men.

A recent post about one woman’s experiences at Profound Decision’s Empire event has set me to thinking.  Partially about how women effect the LARPing environment and to whether Misogyny or Misandry (or the roleplayed effects of them) are prevailing or damaging in LARP.

The fiesty females

Being a man, I cannot answer the female perspective of being a LARPer

I have a lot of female LARPing friends, I wonder how they react to the environment.   So I am going to ask a load of you the following questions.

“How do you think the various LARP systems you attend rate for the level of Misogyny?”

“Have you ever felt uncomfortable at LARP because you are a woman?”

Contact however you chose and I will correlate them.

Erm… Masticating Males?

So what is my experience in the field of misogyny (and Misandry)

Well lets start with misogyny.  LARP is full of men who probably exist on a certain part of the autistic spectrum. It also includes people who might not be beset with female friends.  Does that make them misogynistic?  Well obviously some of them, but not to the extent that you believe.

See society is a strange place, there is actually a world of difference singing dirty songs about sleeping with prostitutes and actually raping a woman.   I have never actually seen men bothering women with wolf whistles and unwanted attention thats not true…. no wait thats not entirely true.

Maelstrom… or where I was during my last breakdown.

Maelstrom does not have good memories for me.  It is where I had my first breakdown. It was also a place of people generally being shitty towards me.   But that is for another time.  One thing massively puzzled me.

Marriages (but no deaths)

People seemed obsessed with marriages, event one.  It was something even I noticed, lots of males generally asking women to marry them.  Maybe it was the lack of anything to hit.  Also post event (and from Omega as well) there seemed to be a lot of comments on forums concerning: OOC Swinging comments (I believe it was about an OOC orgy with those yellow armbands on); how to conduct IC rape; sexual habits of different races; the possibility of races interbreeding; and pregnancy.   At the time my thoughts were “WTF?  this is a hobby about knights beating up monsters, why do we need to know these things.”

One of the things that did upset me was the way certain men were acting around a female friend (who was in a relationship).  She seemed to like the attention, her partner didn’t.  I certainly didn’t, it was the hungry look, the comments on her appearance.   Ok I am quite prudish, but I felt they were somewhat forward for RP. It did sicken me a bit at the time and can’t have helped my eventual breakdown at the event.

Schrodinger’s Rapist?

A term I read yesterday, apparently to describe young males at LARP.  When I think back to the spotty, overweight, geeks more obsessed with 40k and still wishing that they had seen a real vagina, I remember being in awe of women.  This is actually misandry, the statement that any man could be a rapist, same could be said of any woman being a pedophile (yes there are women pedophiles), or any arab being a terrorist.

So why do I take a dislike to this.  Well one I am not very good with women on a romantic level. I have spent a life time on cartoons where the actual attractive female character has red or black hair and is a tom boy and essentially bullys the boys into saving the day.  These women tend to reject femmine pursuits.  Yeah there was a blonde girl who wore pink, but she was boring and got captured by baddies all the time.   I mean who didn’t have a thing for Gadget in Rescue rangers.

This means that actual women are quite a challange for men like me.  But it does happen and work etc. (Love you Amara <3)

The fact that a lot of people at LARP are playing out a childhood fantasy of slaying dragons and fighting monsters, its probably less likely that they would possess predeliction to want to rape women.  Or am I being navie.

Maybe there are some factors I am ignoring in why this occurs.

Derailment: Alcohol, Drama, flirting; and really, really bad things.

At LARP people drink way too much.  Being a little bit drunk is good, but so many people are wasted all the time.  The thing is, I don’t know why.  I generally drink very little at LARP now-a-days but I know the feeling it can give you.  I will enternally thank my friend Alex for showing me by example why drinking is not a good thing to do.   Both men and women drink, when you are drunk you get emotional and occasionally very horny. Now if you have an outlet for that fine… but the same thing will happen that happens wherever drunken members of the opposite sex occur.  Maybe some people are not aware of the behaviour of both sexes at the taxi queue at 2am.

LARPers are prone to drama.  Things escalate quickly, normally based on one party’s ability to exaggerate.  I have seen things occur then one of the party’s post about it and I actually think. “Whoa, screenwriter in the making.”  In reality we are all governed by perception of events, sometimes we exaggerate them to appeal to our own pride.  When combined with alcohol and the memory affecting ability of that, and you get some misheard, misunderstood actions.

Flirting is a difficult area of LARP,  when you are flirting (or attempting seduction) remember you are essentially appealing to part of the ID of the human being, its base desires.  Doing this on a roleplay level needs some care.  A good example is a young lady once “roleplayed” caressing my leg and talking to me in such a way as to gain information.  When this became apparent I felt hurt (more hurt by her response to “should we go get a drink?” of “IRL never in a million years”)  Men and Women need to be aware that IC flirting can open doors in peoples minds and lines are easily blurred when people are drinking.    Be aware of this please or at least warn individuals.

IRL flirting or using “wiles” on people for gain often backfires, as it does in LRP.  Just make it clear whether it is OOC or IC please.

WAIT JAKE WHAT YOU SAID IS AKIN TO SAYING ITS A WOMAN’S FAULT SHE IS RAPED!!!!!!1111!!!!111112

1.) No it isn’t, look rape is a crime, people who commit it are criminals.

2.) How did this get to rape.  There are so many other steps from where we are here to raping someone.   Actually we are to that point (sort of).

So top tips for lonely men at LARP.

Top Tip: If people are NOT interested in sleeping with you, then take the hint.  Seriously it is LARP, not a singles bar.  Try real life.

Top Tip 2: Personal space. If someone wants you to enter their personal space, they will make it clear to you.  If they don’t want you there take the hint.

Top tip 3: Sex in a tent is nasty and uncomfortable.

See the above is all my father and mother needed to teach me about personal relationships.  So back to LARP.

Back to really bad things

Really bad things happen everywhere. The same advice that you get given in life you need to apply to LARP just as much.   I have never heard of a rape at LARP, but I certainly know of a lot of people who regret their actions at LARP… particularly involving sexual partners.

If you are in the situation and want out, get out.  If you are in the field there are enough competant people of either sex or sexuality in positions of responsibility that you can go to them and be safe.  Most bit LARP companies pride themselves on this aspect of their service.

If you get out of the situation, explore what led up to it.    Make sure you recognise what went wrong and avoid it in future.

I am going to get slammed for this, but people are masters of their own destiny.  If you are weak willed and manipulatable while drunk, don’t drink without safe people around.   Remember that people when they are drunk are not at their best and will not exhibit huge amounts of self control.  This goes for men and women.

Don’t try to mix IC and OOC sexual set ups.  I know one guy who left his OOC girlfriend cos he thought his IC relationship was more intense.  Turns out the IC relationship wanted an open relationship with the guy.  This kind of broke him.  I have never seen an open relationship end well for all involved. But as I said before I am very prudish.

Ahem…back on track

So yes misogyny, sorry about the detour.  Well there is another aspect, the roleplayed aspect of a woman’s place.  Now there is a thing, the concept of the woman’s place was actually define by certain realities and concepts at the time.  (Preganancy, poverty etc.)

Depending on a woman’s social status could lead to a very different “woman’s place”, lets not forget that in reality Queen Elizabeth I oversaw the beginnings of the British Empire; Elinor of Aqutaine ruled a massive area,  Joan of Arc defeated the british… etc. etc.

To be fair our “traditional” sexism does firmly appear in 1950s America when it was seen as good for a woman to not have to work.  We unfortunately then apply this to pseudo-medievial societies.  For period LARP, the appropriate level of sexism is probably appropriate, but again heroines of 1920s LARP are unlikely to be cooking or raising children (more likely using tommy guns to kill zombies whilst in a flappy outfit…. but I digress).  I think with RPed sexism, just remember that actually there was also a lot of deference to women as well.   Once again from this poor neanderthal’s mind, I don’t understand how sexism can come into it whilst there are zombies to be Tommy gunned.

So there are my ramblings.  But I am actually more interested in your comments.   I want to get a discussion going, not just here, but in LARP in general.

So either e-mail me, comment or facebook me.  I will post everything complete or anon if you desire.

LARP: SHARE: World Building with Microscope

World Building with Microscope.

Very intersting blog post, particularly from the point of view of sculpting a game world for LARP.  Will touch again on this subject, but I think this author said all there is to say.

What the Hell

Being a woman at LRP

Seriously give this a read.  I feel physically sick.

LARP: Dealing with lack of confidence

Confidence can be considered to be the lack of a lack of confidence.

LARP can be a strange environment.  Dozens, if not hundreds of people who all have similar hobbies, and yet you can feel so isolated sometimes there. The number of LARPers I know who suffer anxiety problems is literally legion.  So how do we combat it and how do others make the environment a bit better for people who suffer.

Personal space.

One thing that might get you wound up is personal space.  At LARP it can be difficult, lack of sleep, too much sun, too much rain, too much alcohol, not enough eating.  All this puts a strain on you.  In modern life we can usually escape somewhere, be it into a book or computer game.  If you are getting stressed or low at an event, it might be a good idea to use the same tactic.   An hour of a good book, or listening to the radio in the car works wonders for myself.  If you can just getting off site for an hour can help.

Anxiety about speaking to people

When people are rol-a-mah-playing they can seem very intense and unapproachable.  Even when they are not they can seem the same.  However, most of the fun at an event comes from interaction.  So here are some ideas about taking the hassle out.

1.) Don’t get upset if they are rude or someone interrupts. – this happens all the time, people always think they are more important than others when it comes to information dumping.   Just take a breath, count to ten and then do what your character would do…. thats roleplay.

2.) Write down the points you want to get across, read through them and take the notes for reference.  Nothing worse than forgetting everything.

3.) Politeness or deference can make you feel better.  If you are intimidated then being overally polite or deferent IC can actually help. It catches people off guard, disarming them and better disposing them to you.

4.) Sometimes feel better if you can get people to come to you, solution, send a letter or message to someone.  This is a great IC way of communicating and can set up the conversation excellently with an IC prop.

Speaking to groups of people

This is often necessary and it is something that a lot of people don’t like for many, many reasons. As musters and the like are a good time to ask questions or transmit information there are some things to remember.

1.) Do you need to speak to the group.  I know at musters I tire of listening to everyones little stories, especially as usually I am none the wiser by the end.  If it is causing you anxiety consider how important it is that you speak.  Whilst this goes no way to combating your anxiety it is a good way to dispel it if no alternative arises.  Alternatively get someone else to present it.

2.) Prepare what you want to say or make a flyer.  If you are advertising something at a gathering of people, try having a flyer, that way you don’t need to remember the information, just have it on a flyer to hand over.

3.) Get someone to introduce you.  This works brilliantly, get an outgoing friend to introduce you.  This will get you some deference. Inform a friendly that you would like to talk about a subject and a bit of intro can get you thinking and processing.

4.) Tag onto someone elses announcement, again the crowd are focused on someone else.

5.) Practice will improve your public speaking .  I still struggle at LARP, but can talk to hundreds of delegates at a science and engineering confernece.  But it does get better trust me.

Getting your ideas across

Quite often the decision making in larger groups of LARPers seems to revolve around shouting.

If you lack the confidence then this can present certain barriers to literally shouting your idea.   Some people with actual anxiety issues can find shouting non-productive.

So how do you get your ideas accross.

1.) NPCS, DPCs, Player-staff

These individuals are essentially there for you to talk to, if you think that it is hard to transfer this information yourself, talk to these people first.   These individuals will then, if they think it is a good idea, rely the information for you.  Again remember that these individuals are humans so they may disagree with you, be going to the toliet etc.

2.) Power behind the throne.

Get someone who is good at shouting to do it for you.  Many are these individuals.  Ok, seek out friendly charasmatic individuals to transfer the ideas.  This can work excellently IC as well.

3.) Actions

Sometimes it is easier just to act, depending on what sort of your character is playing.  Though you will have to live with the consequences.

Next time I deal with anxiety, I will touch on how to assist.

LARP – Chocks away for Spondon

Hi guys,

Been a hell of a 4 days, sponsor offers ( rejected btw), hate mail and over 900 unique visitors.

I am away at LARP this weekend but will be back on Tuesday for a piece on self confidence at LARP, a part on stage dressing and some more interviews.

Thankyou so far and I will be adding a post bag blog once I have enough hate mail to air before you all.

Anyhow remember, comment and follow and look through the achieve, any mail you want to send me send to Jacob.troberts  at Gmail and I will put them in the post bag or write a blog post about it.

LARP: Choosing a weapon on a budget.

There is nothing wrong with Gaffa

So you are new to LARP and one of the things putting you off is buying kit.  The first thing people rush to is weapons.  People are often surprised at the price and width (or sometimes lack of it) of choice.

Having bought a lot of weapons and made a few here is some limited advice. As always if you have other advice, comment below ok.

Hand me downs

My first suggestions, if you are squeaky new, is borrow a weapon. The last thing a LARPer on a budget wants to do is spend £60 on a weapon they hate using.    If you have good friends then it is likely there will be a choice of possible candidates.  It is important to find a weapon you like the feel of, not just for fighting, that way you will understand the style of weapon you will want to eventually buy.

Second hand

eBay is full of second hand weapons, but a word of warning, there is not guarantee that they are any good or will past muster at weapons check.   If the seller is close by you could always check it out, not very practical mind you.  Just a bit of buyer beware with eBay, its normally a good idea to ask why they are selling it.  One guy told me it was because it had failed weapons check, that was a sale lost. Facebook groups are a plenty as well for a similar function.

If you have aforementioned friends maybe they would be willing to sell weapons, again take note as to whether these “friends” are pawning off a failed weapon or one that is going to fail.

There are some traders in the field that sell second hand weapons, some even for IC monies. This is another good chance to try before you buy.

Top tip: Most weapon failures can be spotted by examination, others not.  Generally check the core is not pushing through the tip, that the core is still attached to the foam.  Check the guard on swords as well, these are prone to ripping off if mistreated.  Finally check the foam has not seperated around the core or has been so damaged that the core can be felt through the foam.

Top tip 2: Check the guard and pommel, particularly on moulded weapons.  These weapons tend to have hard guards and many systems have not chosen how to deal with this yet.  My suggestion is to find a way to soften up the hard rubber.  Hot water has been suggested to me in the past, never tried it.  Again any suggestions in the comments.

My first sword.

So you are buying a sword /axe/staff etc.  Where to buy, what to buy and how much to pay for your first weapon.  Some advice below.

Looks are key (except when they are not)

When you know the type of weapon you want seek out a trader that does the sort of weapon you want.  My advice would be to chose something relatively generic for your first weapon, after all you will want to be monstering with it as well.  Make sure you are happy with the look of the weapon and shop around, lots of traders sometimes have swords that are similar.   I would advise against buying prop based weapons for a first weapon (like wands and mages staffs) these can often end up left in piles at Das Shoppe free pile.

The Internet

When I first went on he internet in 1997 something stirred in me.  It was like I was connected to a million souls. Today things have changed, I am connected to a million souls who all want my money.  New weapons fall into the same catagory as ebayed weapons, be aware that there is no guarantee that they will pass weapons check.  Generally most LARP traders are friendly souls and will replace weapons, but it might take an age to get it sorted.

Advice on the best weapons probably comes from friends or other experienced LARPers. They have weapons can can suggest places to buy weapons.  It takes a while but you will begin to learn peoples reputations.

Top Tip:  Calimail, these weapons look amazing, but the number I have seen fail is ridiclous.  These are the aforementioned hard handle and pommel swords.  Their photographs look amazing and their proces are steep. But the reality is somewhat of a let down.  That said I have had a Calimail sword myself for 3 years and it has served me well, but I have a very plain sword taste.   Just we aware that Calimail will not (unless someone can correct me) refund you money if the weapon fails at weapons check. (I tried two years ago, and got no where).

In the field / LARP convention

Actually holding in your hand the weapon is very important to me.  A few practise swings etc.  Generally my best advice is buy in a field.  Secondly I advise taking cash and asking for a reciept.   Very few LARP traders have card machines.

Top tip: Talk to the vendors about their swords and how they feel etc.  All larp traders will craft their weapons differently, different weighting etc.  I would talk about forward or pommel weighting, but generally you will know if a weapon feels comfortable.

Prices
I would say you don’t want to second hand pay more than £35 for a one handed weapon unless it is fantastic.  £60 for a two hander, maybe £70 if it is a polearm.

New is an odd question.  For a new sword I would aim for about £45-£65 for a first weapon, as I said I would chose a one hander to be honest.  Very expensive swords look cool, but if you are on a budget there are other bits you might want to buy.   Two handers, again vary massively in cost, £60-£90 for a first one, towards the higher end for a polearm.

Top tip: Be aware some people on the internet sell the same stuff at different prices, check around before committing.

Top tip 2: LARP weapons are usually a case of you get what you pay for.   You might get lucky with a cheap sword that lasts forever, or spend a lot on a duffer.  Also don’t be drawn in by poor ancedotes from people on how great weapons are.  The best I heard was “My mate had this sword from *redacted* and it lasted 9 years.  Yeah it was perfect, it sat in his wardrobe for 9 years and when he took it out it was if it had never been used. ”  Needless to say the vendor didn’t understand why I thought his story proved nothing.

I think next time I might go through some basic kit for fantasy systems.  Again any contributions welcome on the bottom of the page.  Sorry you have to sign up, but it doesn’t take long.

Interview 1- Jason I

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rather than lump them all together, these interviews will be split up, mostly because that’s the best way to deal with an enemy. Divide and conquer and all that.

 

1. So for the audience tell us a bit about yourself in the mundane world.

– Jason Garfit is a ninja, and appears to have filled this part in using some form of magical ink. I have failed to work out how to translate it. This means he is an epic level ninja

2. How long have you been LARPing and how were you introduced to it?– I started playing at the Gathering, August 2004

3. What systems do you current play at present?

– I currently play LT and sometimes the Nottingham Uni system. I was introduced by a couple of friends I knew from school/ the local wargaming/rpg club in my home town.

4. What is your favourite current character?

– My LT character is my current favourite, he has got to the point where he isn’t completely clueless at what is going on and we’ve got a good distinct group theme (although we are much shorter on numbers than we were)

5. What is your favourite character or monster role you have ever had?

– There are so many, most of them monstering (pro tip: go monster). Best for OC hilarity: There was a demon encounter half our group monstered back in 2005, we had a new guy just join our group and he had hung back with the ones who hadn’t gone monstering. I remember the lines “Hey I know that guy!”, “Why is his face all red and growly?” “what does harm do!?”. Best logistically: Monstering the big Terannon battle a few years ago. Both the monsters and the players had clear independent objectives and worked towards them, rather than just “kill the other guys” it meant tactics could (and did) play a big part. Most memorable: Monstering another big battle (on the battlefield). A group of us were given an order to “bring me that banner!”. At this point a small scout party managed to repel our leader back into the void rip from which we had come. We continued with our order, fought past them making a beeline for the Gryphon’s banner. We hit their centre hard, dropping the banner bearer. At this point the rest of their line either side crushed us but the guy next to me managed to grab the banner and start running. Me and one other were behind him covering him while the rest of our unit were cut up. At this point a group of archers sprang out from behind a bush/tree/copse and fired, downing the banner bearer, the other guy with me grabbed it and ran a few paces before he too was shot down. I picked up the banner and continued running, waiting for the arrows but they did not come as the archers had run out. As I got to the void rip I stopped and turned to face my pursuers. I grinned and said “come and get it”. As no one stepped forward after about 10 seconds I slowly backed into the void smiling. IC faction banners were amazing, they need to come back. The pride of taking the enemies banners and lording it over them was amazing. This was back in the time when factions were happy to knock each other to the floor to prove a point without murdering everyone who was down

6. What do you think are the best parts of LARP?

-There is so much: the fights, the plotting, the serious role-play/acting from some people, meeting new people and learning about their cool back story and seeing how it fits in with the rest of the world. The problem solving needed for some of the more complex plots (although you need some bad guys where “kick it in the teeth” works, if they were all like that it would get old) e.g. the viper Kreask (sp?) plot line from around 2010.

7. Many people consider that money is the major barrier to LARP, what are your opinions on this

-I would agree money is a barrier for getting into larp, or more that the psychological barrier that spending a large amount of money at once can be, especially when you don’t have lots of friends who are experienced larpers and don’t know what you are doing. For my first event I had £160 I had saved up to spend on kit to make my base layers look like something in theme. The base I started with was just a pair of black jogging bottoms I had picked the logos off and a plain cotton t shirt. After having arrived with plenty of time before time in on the Friday of my first Gathering I bought a sword, a leather jerkin/surcoat thing and a belt with a sword loop on. It looked crap but it felt like just enough to pass off, and I was excited about it. Gradually after that I upgraded bits here and there and now I feel like I have reasonably good kit. This was in a time before facebook and I the only two people I knew who had larped before, whose group I was joining, had only been to one event themselves so hadn’t yet built up a stockpile I could pillage. If I was starting again now I would plan long enough in advance to have time to read up and speak to people online and maybe have a go at making some stuff. Kit can easily be done on a budget if you have time to raid second hand shops, market stalls and ebay . Alternatively at LT we are lucky enough to have Das Shoppe who trade kit for kit or IC cash, which can help scrape something together. Kit aside you also need camping gear (or a friend with camping gear who will lend it to you) and transport to and from the event plus food for the event (or money for the catering vans). Add on the cost of the ticket and you are looking at several hundred pounds to start up, which is a fairly big investment (although comparable to many other hobbies if taken seriously). I’m lucky enough not to have lost a character yet but my main apprehension about dying IC isn’t having to come up with a new name or playing a different side of the game or remaking all the connections with people, it is the real world investment of time or money I would have to put into new kit. For this reason I recommend getting fairly generic kit which you accessories with sashes, tabbards, hats etc to make it look unique. TLDR: Yes but no more than any other hobby/sport.

8. What would be your single piece of advice for someone coming into the hobby today?

-The game is so varied if you are not enjoying part of it, find a different part to try or try it with different people.

9. Do you think that LARP in the UK reflects well compared to LARP in other countries or do you believe we need to up our game?

– I think the larp scene in the UK looks fairly good, internationally. It does not make me cringe like many of the portrayals we see of larp in the US (although that could just be the media portraying it badly). But then again, I see and hear about Drachenfest in Europe and wish we had that kind of scale and effort. I remember when I started LT we also had huge masses of people but a lot of them seem to have disappeared. The lower price of land and transport costs in mainland Europe help those systems get started.

10- He didn’t answer this one. We have sent the flying monkeys to punish him. 

LARP: How to do military in LARP (and it not bore the crap out of people)

War – Organised

War – disorganised

“These photos aren’t mine, if you want them taking down please ask.”

So what makes doing war (as in tiffin’ on a grand scale) so difficult to do well at large scale LARP events.  Surely there should be backdrop to the adventures of our heroes, rolling battles and perilious set ups.

Though interlinked I will seperate the subject into Uptime and Downtime War..  Then I will bring them together.

Downtime War (or Rank Ranks Ranked)
<Also includes sorting background armies.

So LARP isn’t able to generate the thousands of people necessary to populate the world with pipe wielding mutants, zombies or Orcs.  (Hundreds, not thousands).   So it is here that armies march on paper.  The question is, why does it feel so dettached.

One answer is simple, a lot of people doing downtime military are not military historiains or military people.  I mean both are in short supply really.  So how do organisers bring this to life and how can you (the player) get involved to enhance your game and the game world.

Who to involve?

Generally people who want to be involved and will do things to enhance the game.  So do we want a scoutmaster (to recieve reports); generals (to send letters to armies and recieve reports back); Mapmakers (to make maps); Captains to delegate to.  Then Ship Captains and an Admiral. In addition Provosts (to recieve word of disobedient armies) and depending on theme commisariats (to enforce moral). A military meeting can quickly grow to around 15 for a large nation or faction at a fest level system.  Question is how do we manage this.

Well first step is have people who come to a meeting have something to say.   From an Organisers point of view this mens that IC documents need to be delivered to the people before the meeting.   Hassle I know, but doable.  If the people have enough time to assess and then know what they want to send back then the meeting is just a matter of co-ordinating.

Really the number should be irrelvent, but you want to keep the number of actions down.

In systems with an organised Downtime system there is no excuse not to involve everyone who wants to be.  It is important that it feels as if people are involved, especially if they control military assests as part of their character choice.   I will mention assets a bit later on.

Maps

Maps for some reason are treated as a commodity, ok historically accurate maps were difficult to make and precious, but the image is of captains looking over large maps of land and moving little cubes around.  My tip, don’t disappoint, tables, maps and cubes.   In fact props of a military nature can add massively to this part of the game. Also props don’t need to be dear.

Assets

What do the people control and how can they contribute to a wider DT conflict.   Well firstly make sure people know what they have.  Be it a number or so forth; then secondly make sure they know where it is and how to communicate with it.  The second is most challanging and sometimes requires a bit of “Out of character-ish” communication.   Also details of their travel times and so forth can be useful if you have descriptive campaign.

If there is opportunity making people’s assets act different is good.  A Unit of Orc mercenaries will write different missives to Elven Royal guard for instance.

Feedback from assests

Whilst letters seem to need to be written in character, in relatiy trained military men do not write flowery prose when reporting.   Make them concise and use  correct language of your period.

Like wise, make sure that units keep their commanders informed of problems, these can be amazing roleplay hooks as players try and work out how to get supply and DT logistics sorted out.

Describing battles

Whilst feedback from units can be the best way to describe a battle, “colour text” can also be great on forums etc.

Top tip: Armies are unwieldy things, they don’t do anything quickly remember this when describing battles.

Top tip 2: If you say that one side crushes another, then make casualties reflect the description.

Top tip 3: Typically casualties should never be higher than 30% in a battle.  Thousands can die, but most of the death occurs later.  In the same way remember that armies are being constantly resupplied with troops etc.  If you are going to wipe out a players assets, make sure it is a good game reason.

Uptime War (or war in a field)

Field Captains
When appointing people to lead people in the field do not feel bad about suggesting people who are not roleplaying generals.  A field captain has entirely different requirements to someone roleplaying a general.

A roleplay general wants the paperwork; a field captain wants to shout and hit things, the two can coincide… but sometimes not.  Do not give leadership to people who do not want it or who are likely to not be good at it without help (unless they want to have a go).

The requirements for a good field captain are: Ability to think for themselves; be loud; and have the ability to follow orders.

Normally you need a field captain for every 40 fighting men and you need to assign men to that field captain.   The field captains then act through the group leaders in their section and then them to the men.  In real life groups can be bigger, but we are not soldiers so control and attention is not as good as it could be.

No marching

Medieval armies did not march in step.  Marching is about discipline.  If your setting is appropriate (WW2 etc.) marching might be appropriate.  But remember the players are bankers and cross word puzzle writers, not men who are trained to march.

Top Tip: Don’t be a dick about the above.  Seriously if you are, you are a grade A cretin.  LARP is about Fun and looking good making a 14 year old boy almost cry because he can’t march means you are consigned to a certain level of hell – (message from 14 year old Jake)

Shouting

Even if you are playing the chaos horde enforce one rule.  Only people in the chain o’ command shout.  If someone tell a shouter and them they shout.   In combat shouting can be a good replacement for runners (will get to them in a second).  This rule sounds draconian, but it will make for better play.   People won’t stick to it, but at least say it, it makes group leaders feel important.

Runners

Generals/Faction leaders are not always shouters, they need to get one.  That shouter cannot shout to everyone.  For everyone else there are runners.  These are lighter, well armed people who are non-discript and can run from unit to unit telling people about changes of plans.  These are brave individuals, great for young new commers.

Shield Walls/ Pike blocks/Gun lines

There are tactics in LARP that work better than any other.  As an organiser/general/player you just have to accept that certain tactics always appear and as much as you hate it you will be forced to use them.  However, keep it dynamic, move about etc.  If both sides do this the battle is more interesting.

If you set a shield wall and don’t move, thats fine.  However, if there is no objective other than fight, why would the other side approach you?

Empire, by profound decisions, has made mass battle timed with objectives that don’t literally suck the balls of satan.  Worthwhile objectives make combat focused and prevent defensive situations.  Objective based combat also means that smaller forces can win.

Top Tip: War on a field (mass battle) should be fun, its a lot of hassle and the players (and monsters) should be rewarded for it.  Whilst there is a lot that goes into that, the base arguement is make the goal to be fun rather than simply having a final battle at the end of the weekend.

Top Tip 2: Most real battlefields were not empty, if possible try to do some stage dressing, particularly to break up the lines.  Just saying.

Banners

Banners are ace. People should use them.  They should not be stealable as people spend time making them.  Instead, for example, if a banner bearer is dropped and looted, he passes an IC token to the looter maybe.  Impractical, but depends if you are basing a battle on taking standards.  Banner look amazing and it is sad that they are lacking in battles of events i attend.

Dicks

Battles will see the major dickishness of events.  In the heat of battle it can be hard to not get sweapt away in it.   If you get mad or angry, take yourself out of the situation.  I will go into this more in other articles, but its not worth getting angry and possibly hurting someone.  Remember we are all humans in that field.

Sum up

The two aspects of War are covered here.  The problems with PvP will be dealt with in its own blog.  But organsing war need not be taxing with preparation.  As an organiser, involve the players or get an assistant to be your war planner if need be.

The most important thing I can add is that players should be pivotal to everything that happens in LARP.  They are not bystanders.  Hence an army is outnumbered, the action of players to reinforce them or turn the tide should work, after all they are the heroes.