Magic of LARPing

Community Larp discussion
#1

… As in, what makes LARP amazing for you? What are some of the most beautiful, magical moments that highlight some of the key reasons you participate in this hobby.

This is NOT a thread for discussion of mechanics on magic! (Gracious, there’s enough of those at the moment to last me the rest of my life…)

I’ll start with but one example.

Everyone who knows me knows that I love all things immersion. I love those moments where you’re just living the experience 100%, not seeing people as your OOC friends, but as wholly realised characters. That’s where my love of costuming comes in. It’s absolutely not a vanity thing for me. It’s an immersion thing. And that’s why I love costuming others as well. It adds to my sense of immersion if people look very different from their real life selves.

But every once in a while, you get to play with someone you’ve never met before. You have no idea who they are, or what they’re like OOC. You only know them as their character. And sometimes that creates extra special awesome.

One of my key examples is at the Flagship LARP 2 Chimeras ago, the Fairy Tale LARP. I was Alice in Wonderland and played against someone I don’t know who had the role of The Mad Hatter. He was -magnificent-. His costume was stunning, his roleplaying was brilliant, and he took me on a dizzying, wild ride utterly appropriate for Alice. I was buzzing for -weeks- after that.

… And I still don’t know who he was. I don’t think I’ve seen him again, and at this point, I’m super-happy with not knowing the truth. Because in that moment, I really was Alice, and I really was in Wonderland.

Magic. Pure Magic.

What are yours? I want to hear beautiful memories like these, as I get ready to make some new ones in our next big Campaign.

#2

I love the moments when you get utterly surprised by those you are roleplaying, and equally get to surprise others with your responses.

I also love those moments when you come up with brilliant IC lines, usually hilarious.

I’m sure I can think of some more, but those are the things that immediately come to mind.

#3

Can you remember a specific example? I’d love to hear a story about a time you were truly surprised by your own response to something. :smiley:

#4

Most of the time its had to be there moments… I’ll see if I can remember some of them.

#5

My moments generally deal with real emotion and being so swept away that it all bubbles to the surface. I’ve had a few over the years.

Others are when I’ve just stood up and said or done something that took some else’s breath away. Or made me feel significant to them.

Here’s a few examples in no particular order:

In St Wolfgangs, I was enchanted by a succubus as my widowed character, Duncan. And so I played it up as someone who was completely under her spell. At one point I proposed to her with my dead wife’s wedding ring… The looks on the faces of everyone around me was PRICELESS.

In that same game I was compelled to tell the truth about Jackies spoilt character. And I (Duncan) gave it to her. With both barrels. Again, priceless looks.

Some imp of the perverse had me write up some goodbye letters just before we stormed the keep where the big bad lived. And I died in that battle.

So in the aftermath, my companions discovered my letters to them. And read them. And actually cried. So much awesome. I recommend letters to be found on your dead body…

I also love the unexpected. In Teonn, when it was revealed to me IN GAME and MID BATTLE what my human power was, it was amazing. Worth the wait.

In a 33AR game, my sister (Hannah) had been kidnapped, and I couldn’t find her. She was rescued by others but was wounded. And I was there in the infirmary, realising that I had nearly lost her, and that would have been on me. And I actually broke down and cried. I mean, really cried. A lot. To the point that Amanda had to ask me if I was OK…

#6

For me I think it’s emotions. Often this is most simply achieved with the exhilaration of a fight. However, the excitement of my betrayal as Marcus in St Wolfgangs was amazing, and I had several highly charge emotional scenes at Witch House - the two that struck me most were with Kara and with Norm (in the latter I came very close to tears… which is a rare thing for me to say the least).

#7

I think this might come up a lot, but definitely moments that bring me to tears. Because I’m terrible at crying on cue when I need to.

I think the first time this happened was a Masquerade on fleet street when what I thought was had been a perfect life completely crumbled over the course of the game and most of the people I cared about died and a felt so helpless (except exhilarated OOC).

Probably one of the most memorable moment for me was in the first Teonn game where I gave up my love in exchange for a candle (well a world saving candle), and suddenly I burst into uncontrollable tears.

And then in The Rose and the Dragon where the stakes were much smaller, and I got some bad news I started crying and I hadn’t even realised that I was that immersed.

I concurr with Norm and Walter, the moment of high emotion are the best.

#8

These are wonderful! More, more!

And thank you for sharing :smiley:

#9

For the, the best, utterly best moments, are when my OOC emotions, feelings and thoughts, are very close to my character’s at that moment. It’s the ultimate moments of immersion that I find truly amazing.
The best example of this (And I don’t think I’ve had it as close any other time, but then again, I only played one campaign as of yet (and one game of Crucible)) is in Teonn. I played a character who didn’t talk around elementals (A race of people who were basically aspects of an element) because he believed them to be spirits. Then at some point, I volunteered (together with 4 others) to be sacrificed to free Death. In the feast beforehand, a bunch of people did some speeches, and at the end of it, I decided I would also speak up, just one sentence, but as the moment was approaching I felt nervous, and some other things which I can’t describe, exactly what Kamica (my character) would feel if he had to do that, so I stood up, noticed the whole hall of eyes on me, and spoke just a single sentence, best sentence of my life I’d say =P.

Another thing I really like about LARP, is that it allows me to do things and be things that I can’t or won’t be in real life. In Teonn for example, I was a really religious character (I’m Agnostic in real life), and now in the Crucible, only had one day game as of yet, and I’m already happy that I decided to play a somewhat arrogant character who can be a real asshole at times XD.

#10

Most of my moments are things that have happened while crewing. My first Teonn (and first weekend game, first campaign game, and third ever LARP) was in late 2012. I’m mortified by most of my memories from that weekend, because I don’t think the importance of crewing set in until the “holy shit” moment in the final minutes of the game. I couldn’t call it magical, because in an IC sense it was utterly harrowing, but it taught me so much about LARP - I don’t think I can put it into words.

In 33AR, I played an agent with close background ties to one of the player characters, Sophie Melchior’s Ivy. Those interactions were wonderful and heartbreaking. A lot of drama went down, but by far the most magical moment was while Ivy was hospitalised and I just sat by her bedside, doing nothing but guard her for a long time, until one point when she woke up and grabbed my hand, asking what had happened… and my character lied to her about everything. I’m still buzzing about that game.

The moments that stand out for me in general are the ones where I’m so in-character I think as the character, or I’m behaving in a way so different to the normal me that I don’t notice until well after the game’s finished. Sometimes I see sides of myself I never even knew I had.

And then there are magical moments like playing Lady Beatrice and getting GM permission to try convincing certain people to marry. :smiley:

#11

Just a few weekends ago, there was the time when my character Kosta was talking to a person who was about to die. Someone beside me was about to hasten their death (as I thought) and I turned and yelled at them “We need to do this. This is important.” And it made realise that actually, it was important to my character.

Despite the details of character creation and background stories one can write, its the finding out what is important that is something one doesn’t discover until start roleplaying the character.

Fraser said something similar in World That Is, when he first interacted with my character who was a slave and the guards around me at the time. And that was also nice, being able to have a character that makes a difference to other people.

#12

I’m going to run with the day my character Le Stirge took on a life of his own :smiley:

Le Stirge had just been into Death’s Realm and seen a montage of the life of Mephistopheles and how turning to magic had corrupted him from a good God fearing man into what he eventually became.

Upon returning to the mortal realm Le Stirge confronted Bishop Orlandos and made him agree that the order should stop using magic. We compromised and went with “one last time”.

We had a battle, we used magic “one last time” and then afterwards Meg used some very black magic to raise the spirit of Ragnar back into another man’s body. And Orlandos decided we’d keep using magic “just one more time”.

And Le Stirge lost it.

It’s probably the most in-character moment I’ve ever had role playing. It didn’t matter to me as a player that to stay in character I’d be kissing goodbye to the last day of the last game of an epic campaign. It was more important that I role played completely true to my character in every way.

#13

In 1001 nights, I got to live a childhood fantasy about finding Buried treasure… that was very special… So I think wish fulfilment can add to the magic of it too.

#14

Oh man, yeah, that Le Stirge moment.

That created such a magic and -awful- moment for me. A fairly new larper, in my first weekend campaign, my first larp romance - as extraordinary and unlikely as it was. To have really gotten to love Le Stirge, and then watching him storm away!! Being so desperately sad and worried, yet also so proud that he was standing up for his values.

It helped cement ideas and principles that made Alyssa start turning into a better person. Those moments like that, where your character arc really develops are so amazing.

#15

Another thing I LOVE about LARPing, is the unexpected, and just going with it. I can’t think of any particular moment right now, but I can tell you, that Kamica changed LOTS because of what happened from the first day Kamica =P.

Also roleplaying massive, (character)life changing realisations and decisions, just awesome =P.

#16

I’ll wade in, with The World that IS!

James (me) has had a bit of a crazy time of late, most of his life has been turned upside down and inside out. But while a 2nd virus raged through the refuge camp, I realised that my “one true love” AJ, had been infected. With memory loss being a major symptom, I started asking her basic questions, who she is, where, who I am etc, but then I asked who “Eric” was, knowing that this man is who stood between us, living happily ever after. When Mel poked her head over my shoulder and started telling AJ Exactly Who Eric was, I just screamed “SHUT UP” at her and turned directly back to AJ. It was a mash up of all the rage and desperation my character had felt throughout the session, & anyone stepping in to ruin this opportunity was toatally going to get it in the face.

The moment was pretty exhilarating, I actually felt bad for Mel, after yelling in her face like that. As James is normally quiet, calming and factual, even if often condescending.