I did a quick search and couldn’t find anything on this - apologies if this has already been discussed!
Anyway, just came across this doco, ‘Monster Camp’, about a NERO chapter in the US.
Website:
monstercampmovie.com/
There’s a trailer to watch there.
And a four-star review at Film Threat:
filmthreat.com/index.php?sec … ws&Id=9783
Interesting. The larpers and play that they show in the trailer kinda make me wince. It aligns with my thoughts that larp usually doesn’t film well. That review says that you’ll never think “what freaks” about the subjects. I’m not so sure.
The reviews make it sound like the documentary-makers have given it a fair go. No way to know that without watching the doco. The only thing in the trailer which made me like the directorial angle was the music, which had a positive and thoughtful sound to it. If that’s the tone of the documentary then cool.
I guess my only worry with the stream of live combat fantasy docos coming out of the US is that people might start thinking that US boffer stuff is the be-all-and-end-all of larp.
[size=75]I eat your mind 1, I eat your mind 2, I eat your mind 3…[/size]
It’s a bit worrying that this connection is made. There are lot of people who meet these descriptions, especially people into WoW, who aren’t into larp. Seems like an anecdotal connection.
Couldn’t agree more.
While this seems to attempt to show US-style boffer larp in a “good light” it just seems awfully unappealing to me. I wouldn’t play this kind of larp.
Playing a game where characters don’t die seems pretty lame to me. As would the dynamics of an environment where you don’t actually risk your character.
I’m not particularly interested in a doco about this kind of game.
When I first came to Skirmish and pimped Mordavia, didn’t you suggest that it might be better if there was resurrection? 
Characters hardly ever dying seems to be pretty standard in US fantasy larp.
I could have dealt with resurrection being a difficult process undertaken for those of particular worth.
What I really really hated was that begoddamned Speak With Dead spell. It made the intrigue, fun, and indeed even the possibility of secretly murdering someone pretty much nonexistent.
Maybe that kind of thing should just be harder. So you can speak with dead but it’ll take an hour and six people to perform the ritual.
When Scott showed me the beta rules for Mordavia I suggested people should have 30 hit points. Views change!
I tend to agree. How would you feel about a Speak to Dead spell where the target didn’t have to speak the truth?
Wouldn’t that take the point out of killing someone of particular worth?
There’s so many things I dislike about resurrection. It’s not there to make the setting better, it’s there because people want another chance to play their character. In the process, I think it makes the setting less emotionally intense. I think if you want people to be able to play characters longer-term, then it’s better to create a setting where they are less likely to die than one where they can come back from the dead.
Or ressurection, aside from being difficult and time consuming, having some awful secret side-effect that permanently alters the character in question.
When I first came to Skirmish and pimped Mordavia, didn’t you suggest that it might be better if there was resurrection? [/quote]
If I did it was because I hadn’t figured out that 0 HP <> dead in Mordavia whereas 0 HP = dead in Skirmish.
In which case, you effectively did have a form of resurrection, but it was automatic - with death being possible rather than automatic.
Which is in contrast to Skimirsh where death is automatic and resurrection is possible. But true death is only a Raise Skeleton away…
I found the easiets way to kill off players in mordavia was to be a nerco or at least on good terms and have your necro ask a question first , like what colour is the sky? This tended to leave a confused player going “umm, blue?” and then they cannot be sumonod back again to answer more questions
True, but if the dead guy fingers the wrong person… I swear, I still don’t know if Harvey named Erin’s character instead of mine on purpose or not. It was dark. But sitting in on the investigative committee, listening to them reiterate the (amazingly detailed) description, and wondering if they’d figure out I fit the bill, was a very intense experience.