Legion review

Lindybeige (re-enactor, has some great videos about weapons) has done a video review of Legion: A Siberian Story:

Its an hour long, but worth watching if you want to see him squeeing about a walking larp.

TL;DR:

  • Czechs are crazy. Blank-firing imitation weapons in larps? I’m surprised no-one has been killed.
  • Snow sucks
  • He enthusiastically says it wasn’t fun, but was satisfying. So definitely type II fun.

Had a quick skim - he mentions that he was cold and tired and found it easy to cry. Tiredness absolutely heightens emotions and can make you weepy in the right context, it could be used as a tool but it’s pretty uncomfortable/unhealthy.

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He had deliberately chosen the hardcore option, but being cold and exhausted is probably part of the core experience. Obviously, it needs to be managed properly with strict observation for safety. Last time I read about it (when we were discussing walking larps I recall them having a proper safety team to ensure no-one got hypothermia or got lost, but you’d definitely want people who knew what the hell they were doing.

But I’m still freaking out over the thought of blank-firing weapons, and a whole column of people wandering through the countryside with them.

Closest I’ve come to that is airgun pistols in a public park at night, over 20 years ago. Seemed like a good idea at the time? Wouldn’t do it today.

I got invited to participate in a reenactor event a few years ago, that was essentially a larp - French WW2 resistance themed, and it would have used blanks. Didn’t end up happening sadly.

But it’s no different to all the blanks the reenactors use at Armistice in Cambridge or whatever. The Brandon Lee thing wasn’t specifically an issue caused by blanks, more a failure of their armourer system.

Yeah there is literally zero chance of being killed by a blank round as there is no projectile in the case. (Note; there is a primer and powder so if you’re close enough, you can get powder burns)

Brandon Lee was killed by a real bullet that was lodged in the barrel of the gun from a previously fire (and improperly made) “dummy” cartridge, which was then expelled out of the barrel by a second, blank round (importantly, dummy rounds and blank rounds are two different things)

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Not quite true Matt - The pressure from a blank can and has killed if you are close enough.


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Ah fair enough I hadn’t heard about those cases. I will note the following in the second article though:

“Anywhere farther than a couple of feet out from a blank and you have nothing to fear…Things get tragic when people attempt to put the guns right up to their bodies and fire.”

Which seems like common sense advice :slight_smile: