LARP around the world....

normal people LARP:


Russian LARP:

Don't mix up LARP and reenactment.

LARP is about playing roles, not about fighting. The bottom two videos aren't LARP videos, these are people who try (however successful) to recreate medieval combat, not to play roles.

As such, of course the fighting in the latter two videos is very different, but that's not at all related to the russianness of the combatants.

Actually, Spec, i do know what im talking about
There is a movement in LARP in Russia thet are using steel equipement, and they do larp. i just haven't found any good videos, but ye, same idea.

ppfff, those russians should try real foam instead, its way more badass

BD_Baby_Wolf wrote:

Russian LARP:

if this is how it happend in the middelage i would have laughed my ass off! HAHA!!

If it's supposed to be actual LARP, using metal weapons doesn't have much of a point in my opinion. What if you want to play an unarmored character? One not wearing a helmet?

Having steel weapons just forces everyone to play a fighter, turning that LARP into something entirely different. And none of these videos show any LARP-like situations to be honest. I see no roles being played, I only see people fighting (and spectating, several of them not even in costumes). That doesn't have much to do with role playing in my opinion.

well ye, thats why i didn't LARP that way. You can be an unarmored char, but you don't get to fight. Also a full equipement costs around 1k $, and you don't have any insurance on traumas. Also in Israel, they had to put something on the blades, i don't remember exactly what, to be legal, so it didn't went here.

i think i've seen this stuff on youtube somewhere, if i remember correctly there's also a thread about in the crpg forum.
It dosn't get called LARP, has some other name, don't remember
but yeah these battles actually occur in the states and france too, with high number of people etc.

reenactments?

no no, they where really going at it for realz

Yeah, that full contact stuff. Not sure what exactly they call it.

Well... Larp...


I like reenactment more!

The difference is what it is about. Reenactmant only simulates the combat aspect, LARP does not need to simulate combat at all. The above video is just a worst case example of people having put no effort into their costumes, weaponry, or playing whatsoever.

So yes; combat wise, reenactment is better than LARP. But you can't reenact all sorts of scenes that might happen if you let people role-play freely.

If I decide to play as a peasant, unarmored, equipped with only a pitch fork, and get attacked by, say, a bandit - in LARP, we can just see who wins that fight. In reenactment, neither one of us would be allowed to fight, because we don't wear helmets or any protective gear, and we cannot be expected to be trained in the safe usage of steel weapons.

It's apples to oranges.

There's some tries to combine western/cyberpunk/modern day/sci fi etc. settings of LARP with Airsoft. That surely would be better suited than only using guns that don't actually fire a projectile.

However, it'd also mean everyone would at all times, even when sleeping at night, have to wear protective equipment, as long as anyone in the game world might possibly use a gun. Would you want to do that for a whole weekend?

Same with this reenactment thing: Excellent for a single fight. But would you really want to have to walk around all day long with full metal armour on, just in case a fight breaks out? Would you really feel immersed in your role when you're told "hey, we know, your role is that of a noble knight, but your helmet is too far away right now, you can't go and save these people who are being attacked over here until you go back to the camp and fetch your helmet?"

I absolutely agree if you state that reenactment is better suited for realistically simulating a fight. But comparing all aspects of it to all aspects of LARP is, as I said, comparing apples to oranges, and impossible to do based on the given videos here in this thread, especially the prime example of "how not to do it", as you posted it. That's plain ignorant.

theres also this "historic fencing"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peX4klj-2Gk

One of the guys in my class is the national youth champion for fencing. He is fukin pro.

dont mix Olympic and historic fencing

I didnt meant to attack anyone with that video. I'm aware that this video is the worst example for LARP on the interwebs but still I prefer reenactment over LARP.

It was meant jokingly and Im sorry if it offended you. Indeed well played LARP is awesome, especialyl if you prefer the Roleplay over the fighting.

I did historical fencing too, and please for the sake of god dont mix it with olympic needle-poking. x.x

Spec is right about the issues you have with reenactment. You can play the whole battle-phase, maybe the pre-setup or a short time after a battle etc. But you cant play everyday life if you expect to be attacked. Ofcourse you could agree that no fights are allowed, but then its quite similar to LARP I guess.