Trepidation

Community Larp discussion
#1

So we’re working on some materials for new players for Anna’s big Armageddon push, and I found myself wondering what makes people nervous of signing up for their first larp.

So, what made/makes you nervous, if anything? What concerns did you have that turned out to not be founded in reality?

Also, what things would you have liked to know before your first larp, in order to help make you more comfortable? What’s the most helpful thing that someone has said to you before or during a game to help relax you into it?

Tips for new players at weekend games
#2

I know that a lot of people don’t want to be photographed larping.

They just don’t want to find this on the notice board when they return to work on Monday:

#3

I guess that could be summed as a nerves about being seen as doing something silly? Is the best answer is “yes it’s sometimes a bit silly, but it’s fun, so who cares?”

What else - anyone worried about whether they’d be any “good” at it?

#4

Not being good enough - going against what someone else wants to do.
My first larp was as a bodyguard and although I had my own agenda, I didn’t feel confident enough to do what I needed to, first time nerves and all that.

Doing / Saying something outside of guidelines / setting (eg: “what up dawg” doesn’t go down well in Victorian times), persuing own goals when more enthusiastic / vocal people want to do something different.

I’ve seen a few times when new people are thrown in with a bunch of veterans/friends, getting involved can sometimes take 1/2 - 3/4 of the game, so when you start feeling a bit more confident, its almost over.

#5

What really kept me from signing up for LARPs, was costuming.
(Note, next things are assumed based upon my own exprience)
People who are new to LARPing in general, have a high possibility of not being able to make their own things, buying it is hard and a big investment at times, and I’m still kind of afraid of doing certain things with my costume for the next Teonn (which will be my first as a player-character). I believe that generally, there is one thing which keeps people from signing up:
Insecurity:
Either about themselves, their stuff, their skill or their knowledge of the game, but also other people’s reactions (Even, if not especially, from those who actually play in the LARP)

A minor thing would probably be, thinking it’s stupid, but that’s for friends to help them persuade I presume? XD. Someone who wants to join a LARP, but doesn’t sign up, is probably most of the time insecure.

#6

What I’ve heard a number of times from people who ended up sitting in corners is “Sorry, I didn’t know what to do.” (The worst bit is that they’re apologising about it.)

#7

I am a pretty shy person but had played Tabletop for a long time.

My concerns were in no particular order

Staying in character for a weekend.
Costuming
Talking to new people <- big issue for me
Getting involved - Previous attempts to larp 15+ years ago resulted in boredom as I never quite found the plot.

What I found was

Costuming was not actually too hard, mine wasn’t brilliant but I didn’t feel out of place.
Staying in character was easy because everyone else was and the costumes helped.
I was lucky in that I had a few people I new well, a couple I had met a few times and some very friendly new folk around on the first game.
Getting involved has still been hard as I migrate from a TT to a LARP way of doing character backgrounds but I am hopefully improving.

#8

Well, for me as a new person, I do sometimes get the feeling like i’m going to intrude upon your experience, and anything I might do wrong, would make your experience less =S. I know this probably isn’t true, atleast not for the most part, but the feeling remains.

#9

When I was first encouraged to attend a LARP by my partner and a friend of my partner (now a friend of mine as well), my first reaction was “don’t larpers exist solely so that Trekkies have someone to tease?”, and I admit that I could not have been more wrong. Getting past the social stigma that I thought was associated with it wasn’t hard for me, but then I guess I’m not a shy person.

One thing that I wish I’d been told beforehand was that ‘losing’ (i.e. not achieving your goals, and effectively getting taken out of the game) at the end is not a bad thing, especially when you milk it for drama (which I did). I spent the entire LARP worried that I would fail at my goals and that this would be a bad thing. Turns out an awesomely dramatic ending is quite a lot of fun too.

While I had played tabletop for about a year or 2 before LARPing, I think it would have been really helpful to have the social contract of LARP explained to me beforehand. I spent my time acting under the social contract of tabletop; which worked just fine in this particular LARP. Without having a previous roleplaying experience to fall back on, I’d have been incredibly uncertain as to how to act.

I also encountered a problem after the LARP, which I didn’t see as one during the time. While I was encouraged to join up to NZRAG, Diatribe, come to Chimera, and Kapcon, I kind of forgot about it in the next few months (entirely my fault for not taking action, I admit). What would have really helped is a business card with locations that I could find out more about LARPing from (such as diatribe, NZRAG, or the NZLARPS website). With that physical reminder, I think I would have been more likely to take action sooner, and not been left scratching my head and wondering what that forum people had suggested I join was called. Basically, such a thing would be an enabler to further larping, and mean that in the middle of everything else that was going on, I wouldn’t have to try and remember what the names of the things were, just that I’d been to a LARP and there was a piece of paper in my wallet that would lead me to more of the same (lazy, I’ll admit, but it would have helped me in particular).

#10

Well, Anna (I believe) gave me a business card of Chimerae at the one-day-game of Teonn (Before Aware of the Dark)

#11

Doing a short evening game in a familiar genre was much more approachable for me, rather than signing up for a weekend of who knows what. I recall seeing a couple of people invited along by friends for a weekend game bail and go home saturday, cos its too much for them, basically not knowing what to expect. A shorter time period is a more manageable bite to take to get addicted with.

Having said that, the logistics of a weekend game needed explaining to ease some of my concerns. Like where do we sleep/eat, and with who, is there time to change costume part way through a weekend, what do I wear if its cold, where are the toilets etc

#12

Are you sure? That doesn’t sound like Anna. deadpan

#13

Well, 'twas my first time at an actual LARP, and I might’ve confused her for other people, but I do think 'twas Anna… Ah well, I guess we won’t know until she herself comes here for confirmation XD.

#14

Krintar’s taking the mickey :slight_smile: I’m ever so slightly notorious for trying to shanghai people into Chimera by not allowing anyone within a 100m radius of me be without a business card. :blush:

#15

Heh, Challenge accepted? XD.

(Challenge would be, not getting a business card from you XD)

#16

[quote=“Kamica”]Heh, Challenge accepted? XD.

(Challenge would be, not getting a business card from you XD)[/quote]

Well, if you like. But it’ll be your loss. My business card inevitably lead to awesome.

#17

I think I already lost the challenge >.>

#18

Awesome, thanks for all the illuminating replies. More discussion of reservations about larping is welcome. We’d like to find ways to mitigate these “barriers to entry” into larp, to make it easier for people to start.

#19

If you replace the word ‘larp’ with, say, ‘heroin’ this discussion takes on a whole new light… :smiling_imp:

#20

O.o That’s… random XD.

Anyway, people are generally shy of new things. Especially things where they have to do things in front of other people. You see the same in Drama, in the beginning, people are shy, and won’t do much, eventually they’ll loosen up. What would be nice, is if people could have a way of getting familiar with LARP, without throwing themselves into a weekend game, or a mid-story day game, but just a small game, which comes quite often, without consequences… Atleast that’s what I think. It might not work at all though >.>. Also, the more friends of said people are in a LARP, the more likely they’ll join. And knowing exactly what it is might also help.