Leavenworth Locals LARP – Part One

This all started a few months ago, of all places, on Facebook. I received an invitation from my friend and fellow actor Ben to join a Facebook group called LARPing. Oh hell, not that. Why Ben, why? I have no interest in LARPing; in fact I am more in line with the guys from Fear the Boot who refer to LARPers as “The Dark Lords of Denny’s.” Wait, I‘ve gotten ahead of myself. I guess I should take the time to explain what LARPing is, why I avoid it like I avoid changing old people’s diapers, and what I learned last night.

LARP stands for Live Action Role- Playing game. LARPing is an immersive role-playing game where the players fully act out their characters actions. These LARPS can take place in almost any setting from a Lord of the Rings fantasy style game to a Bladerunner dystopian setting and everything before and after. The settings are only limited by the LARPers imagination and interests. During the LARP the results of character interactions can be adjudicated by pre-determined rules, a “Gamemaster” or by a collective agreement from the participants. The LARPers will normally wear costumes and if need be, carry foam weapons, tennis balls (Representing spells) and air soft or paint guns to engage in mock combat (if the LARP involves combat).

The Gamemaster or arranger normally comes up with a plot or storyline that can last from one short session to weeks and weeks of LARPing. So to put this in non-Geek terms, LARPing is a bunch of people in sometimes amazing costumes (often not) running around the woods or a local park hitting each other with foam swords and flinging tennis balls at each other yelling “LIGHTING BOLT!” Not my idea of a good time! Sometimes we geeks can be our own worst enemies.

LARPing has been around for a long time but people believe that what we know as LARPing in the Geek world started in the 70s. Some say it can trace its roots to childhood games such as Cowboys and Native Americans (Formally known as “Indians”) or Cops and Robbers, common interest in genre fiction, role-playing games and the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism). These are just a few of the guilty parties who have been listed as possible influences on LARPers and their LARPING.

If I haven’t made it abundantly clear, I am not into LARPing! I don’t like the idea of it and I often find myself becoming angry when I see people doing it. I have witnessed LARPers LARPing in restaurants where I was trying to enjoy a meal in and it pissed me off! LARPing has come to the forefront with movies like Darkon (or was it Dorkon?) and the mainstream classic Role Models. Darkon, while interesting and well handled, reinforced many geek stereotypes that we have all worked so hard to dispel (Without the use of a brightly painted tennis ball, “Dispel Geek Stereotype!”)

Then there is the movie Role Models. Hollywood seems to have a soft spot for these folks. LARPing was handled with kid gloves and humor. What the movie didn’t fully address is the fact that there are people, real people who live their lives like that. While there were awkward moments dealing with the LARP in the end, the KISS costume wearing heroes won the day and gave Augie the courage to speak with the double crossing girl who stabbed him in the back. I enjoyed the movie but for most LARPers there is no happy ending, just next week’s LARP and many of those LARPS will be yet another in a long list of sausage fests that comprise their pitiful lives. The makers of Role Models can go kiss a whispering eye (covers mouth and giggles like a school girl). Wait, I almost forgot. Back to the Facebook Group invite!

So I get the dreaded Facebook Invite from Ben. I know Ben is one of us. I’ve seen him with RPG books, been in community theater with him, and know he is a Rennie (Renaissance festival enthusiast) but this, this is too much. I waited for weeks, leaving the invite alone hoping it would go away and join a Vampire LARP and get rock, paper, scissored to death, but no such luck. I finally accepted the invite and tried to erase all traces of having accepted it on Facebook as quick as I could. Then during an email contact with my Ginger Editor Tierra (of talk nerdy to me fame), I found out that Geek-life was interesting in local stories as well as national stories. It hit me; I needed to write a story about Ben and the Leavenworth LARPers. I needed to do this story to prove once and for all just how stupid LARPing is.

The following week, the LARP is scheduled for 1:30 in the afternoon and I decide I can take a few hours off from work to make the session. I show up at the very back corner of a local park about ten minutes before the LARP starts, and I wait for about 20 minutes until the first person shows up. I walk over to his car, introduce myself, and state my reason for being there. The driver introduces himself as Chase and I proceed to ask him a few questions about LARPing. It turns out that Chase is new to LARPing but he enjoys it. I also find out that chase is a martial artist and most of the characters he plays are melee combatants as it allows him to use his mad ninja skills (my words not his) during the LARP. I asked him what his non-LARPing friends think about his dirty little hobby and he replied that one of his friends stopped talking to him but the others are LARPers or didn’t care. I thank him for his time and ask him if he knows when my friend Ben and the others will arrive. He shoots a text to Ben and tells me that Ben should be there soon but he’s he is looking for the family’s new kitten. Okay, I can excuse someone for being late looking for a lost kitten. The Kitten in question is named Edgar and said kitten is a three legged rescue kitten so I am willing to cut Ben a little slack.

An hour later, one or two other people have shown up and Chase lets me know that Ben still can’t find Edgar so the LARP has been called off for today. I wish we could have gotten this whole thing over with, but what decent person can be upset about a LARP getting canceled because of lost three legged rescue kitten? (Turns out they found him behind the fridge.)

This happened on a Wednesday. The next night, I get a call from Ben. Ben is calling to apologize about the LARP. While it wasn’t necessary, it was a classy move and even more so coming from a young man who just graduated from high school, proof of his character and his parents love (and hard work!) in raising him. I let Ben know that it wasn’t a big deal and that I would try to make the next session. So the next Wednesday rolls around and I show up about ten minutes before the LARP is scheduled to start.

There is already a car with a female sitting in it. This isn’t quite the sausage fest I thought it would be. However, I don’t approach her to question her like I did Chase as it might come off as creepy. I wait until the next person shows up and it’s my buddy Chase. We talk for a few minutes and soon Ben shows up with John and Ben’s younger sister, Kim.

I know Kim. We’ve been in a few plays together as well and she is my youngest daughter’s best friend. I always get a kick out of Kim as she has proven herself to be a talented and interesting young lady (their parents are two for two if you lost count).

So now that there are more people ready to LARP, I move over and introduce myself to the female who was sitting in the car. It turns out her name is Fran and her geek cred runs long and deep. She collects comics and graphic novels like her father before her, loves video games like Red redemption and Call of Duty, and loves Manga. Next, I meet John. He came with Ben and Kim and is new to LARPing as well. I didn’t get as much face time with John as I started to ask Ben a few questions about what was going to happen. Ben proceeds to give a great interview and as I’m listening to him discuss how this whole LARPing thing works, I see a glint in his eyes and the pace and tone of his voice show me that he is excited.

A few minutes later Richard pulls up with some “scream” metal blasting. Richard is helping with tech for Annie so I already know him too. Finally Deveneux shows up. I introduce myself to him and he seems excited that I’m doing a story on them but even happier to be at the LARP. We all sit around for a few minutes waiting to see if a few more people are going to show up. Everyone is talking and laughing and it’s actually lot like my gamming group before we get down to the serious business of rolling polyhedrons.

During my animated interview with Ben, one of the questions I asked him was about character development. He said he has posted a kind of character survey on the Facebook page to try to get people to think about their characters. He informs me that some people put more into character development than others and as this LARP is a one-shot, it isn’t a big deal. Soon the conversation turns toward the start of the LARP. Richard announces that the LARPers will draw pieces of paper from a hat, to determine who will be the villains for the evening.

So, here they are, getting ready to start this thing and going into it and no one knows who the bad guys are. I’m getting this almost mystery dinner vibe. While there is a basic scenario in place, it acts more like boundaries than a script. Ben was right when he mentioned that he had read my article about Improvise, Adapt and Overcome on Geek-Life (Shameless plug complete) and mentioned that this LARP is a lot like that. Most of the interactions are not planned or scripted. Imagine improv without a stage and add costumes and foam swords.

After “villain” papers are drawn, we move out as a group to the gamming area and there isn’t much conversation as we are making our way thru the woods. Everyone one is getting into character or a least thinking about their characters. We come to a clearing and they split into two groups. GAME ON!

 
To be continued next Friday!