Hello everyone! Today I'll be talking about my experience with LARPing. More specifically with Amtgard.
Before we get into the thick of things, firstly, yes, I am a nerd and happily refer to myself as such. Secondly, all of what I'm talking about is based on my personal experience with one group. Depending on the system and group you choose to play with, there will likely be differences between my experience and yours.
So what exactly is LARPing, you may ask. LARPing is essencially a bunch of nerds getting together and pretending to be characters from medieval, Sci fi, or other eras, similar to games such as Dungeons and Dragons, Traveller, Pathfinder, or Monster! Monsters! and typically involves some sort of rule system and weapons. While I am sure there are groups out there that are more into the roleplaying aspect of LARPing, my Amtgard group focuses more on the fighting aspect of the game. There's a rules set thet defines legal striking areas, classes, spells, and weapons. As an example, I played as a scout (there are races, but me being an elf mostly just adds to my stabbing random people out of boredom because they aren't elves). As a scout (Level 3ish?) I have a healing spell, a tracking spell, and a recharging spell to regain my spells without having to die and respawn (get hit in a "kill" area or sustain enough hits to be considered dead, then count to a certain number before going back to play in the game). Each of these spells has it's own little chant/rymie thing that as a player you have to memorize and say out loud to use the spell (cheat sheets are allowed, so you don't have to memorize the spells). For example, the spell for tracking is just saying the word "tracking" three times, whereas the healing spell is longer with 7 fairly short lines (Sword cut, spear jab....The white light of healing hath healed thee!). In addition to spells, my class determines which weapons I can use, such as bow and arrow, daggers, and short sword, as well as armor. Armor is based on a points system: essencially each type of armor has a certain number of hits that it can take before it is "destroyed" and the body part it's covering can be hit. An example would be a set of bracers I own. They are made with a thick leather and have metal accoutrements affixed to it, totalling three points of armor (also the max my class can wear in any one piece). If someone hits one of my forearms, that piece of armor becomes damaged, losing a point of armor. If it's hit three more times, then I wall lose the two remaining points on it as well as use of that arm. Also, with armor, you can wear a piece of armor that has more points than your class, but it still only counts for your class's maximum number of points. So if you were wearing heavy platemail that counted as 5 points of armor, but your class only allowed a maximum of three, the armor would only count as a 3 point piece of armor.
Now that I've talked your ears off explaining some of the rules for LARPing, more specifically Amtgard, let me tell you why it's so much fun for me.
The first and foremost reason I love LARPing is because of the people there. We're all just a bunch of dorks in costumes, and we all tend to have similar interests. I've even met fellow Lolitas at our events (not in Lolita at the time though)! Another reason I enjoy it is because of the exercise. I like to play as an archer and even when I'm not, my fighting skills aren't always the best since I can't attend very often anymore. This means lots of running away from people so I don't die. LOTS of running away. Plus the sword fighting is good exercise too, especially if you're fighting people one on one since you only have one opponent to worry about. But when it all comes down to it, it's just having fun with similarly minded people beating each other up with foam swords.
Let me know if you've ever experience LARPing and if so what type of group you were with!
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