How to Avoid Bad LARPs

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Song: Moonsong - Adrian Von Ziegler

[@santiagosagrera3670]

"They are simultaneously touching and not touching grass" >Schrodinger's Grass

[@iivin4233]

I still remember when I encountered LARPers as a kid while walking through the woods with my dad. My dad copied their foam padded PVC swords. I got a shield too because I was special. With these my friends and I had full contact fun for months to come.

[@themindofdirge3809]

This could also be titled "How to Avoid Bad People" as in all honesty, most of this can be used in general life social interactions. Great video, Chappy. :)

[@PerfectionHunter]

Oh damn you hit the nail on the head with this one. 100% legit tips. 05:17 ruined one of the largest larp in 2017 in my country and it was the new organizers who took over and thought they were baller and both changed everything And made themselves the heroes of the larp... they are still hated for it. No more larps of that setting has been made since cause noone wants to touch that legacy with a 10ft pole.

[@minionsmore7638]

I'm a LARPer from Germany and at least some of the problems you talk about seem to be kind of solved over here (at least in my specific bubble). Theres a really popular system over here called "You can do what you can portray" - which pretty much means that you play without rules. When you get hit, you just decide how much that hurt your character. If you want to do alchemy, you get some cool glass containers and some dry ice and put on a show. At that point LARP stops being a game in a sense and just becomes nerdy improv theatre, but it works quite well, you wont need to remember any rules and noone will try to use you to farm XP.

[@myotiswii]

Honestly same. If a game has a ton of weird rules, its just not fun to attend. Some rules make sense, like safety and boundary rules, and general guidlines for the story. But if it gets much more its so annoying

[@pavelzak3603]

In CZE we call it "Šatrh". And it is great way to play. I really like it. And on top of all, it is immersive as hell.

[@Lngbrdninjamasta]

Really loving ur all that is larp series so far. I have been a member of mine for eons now. Been there thru the good and the bad times. I am glad I stayed & weathered the storms. I am happy to say after all these years I am still having fun!

[@mortis_semper143]

I've been keeping tabs and watching a few of these for a while now and you manage to KILL it every single time! Everything from the succint breakdown to overall informative value and pure hilarity. 10/10 Chappy! 👏

[@ZagTheRaccoon]

One thing that put me off from a LARP group was having a culture that seemed to encourage self destructive play and told people to walk it off if they got hit in a way they weren't supposed to. Some of them openly spoke proudly of breaking their ribs and stuff at events.

[@boxturtlebruce6110]

Glad to see you made video about this and that thing about robbing new players is horrible It is a shame that wasn't corrected quicker I had a really bad larp experience a few years ago wouldn't mind giving it another try if I can find a good one near me

[@pipo9409]

Where did he go

[@changingpeopleslivesmoon2993]

Who knows

[@JohnnyNeedle]

Great vid! 7:25 I larped Vampire: The Masquerade in Sweden back in the 2000s and 2010s. They were and are wonderful people. But VtM is at it's core a horror PvP game. Things like session 0 and lists with different safety tools didn't exist yet. But that was, to my knowledge, not a big issue. There was instead a lot of clicks, favoritism and situations where the GMs and their friends had all the in game power and plots. There was IRL drama bleeding in to the LARP and then suddenly the PvP is not all in good fun anymore. But that was years ago, don't know what it's like now,

[@AuntieHauntieGames]

Yeah, this. I was a Camarilla Fan Club LARPer back in the 1990s and 2000s and it was a wonderful time that, yes, was a horror PVP game at heart. Fortunately, we had other venues as well, such as Changeling LARP and so on, which are much less heavy on the PVP element. People who have a difficult time with the content that comes up in horror games, or who do not want to engage in PVP, are going to have a hard time at those games, and tracking known triggers (or even content people simply dislike) would have been difficult with as many people playing as there were. Which is one reason why we would use what we called 'Venue Style Sheets' or VSSes, which basically laid out all the content on a 1 to 5 or 1 to 10 scale, and the players could self-select themselves in or out based on their preferences. The club has changed a lot over the decades though, it has become more institutionalized overall AND the players treat it like a 'Company Providing A Service' rather than a 'Club Run By Volunteers Who Are Your Friends', which creates a lot of toxicity in both the storytelling staff and the player base. I ran a Sabbat game a few years back (not my preference, I prefer Changeling and Wraith, but they needed an ST) for the club in Colorado and immediately found the entire experience SUPER exhausting within three sessions because people saw me as a Service Provider instead of a Fellow Gameplayer and would Karen the fuck out of me and the other storytelling team members, would demand that I be the one to address benign behaviors that they found irritating (i.e., small stuff, not the serious stuff we would direct to Coordinators) because they did not want to have adult-to-adult conversations themselves, et cetera. I tried and tried and tried to impress upon people that we were friends volunteering our time and emotional labor so we could all have a local game to attend, but they consistently tried to squeeze us into this weird space where they could see us as 'Staff' instead. So the scene overall has changed a lot. I'm not really sure that I would go back to Cam/MES at this point.

[@JohnnyNeedle]

@@AuntieHauntieGames Interesting. Seems like the scene really has changed a lot. As for the problem you describe. "ST gets payed a lot = a lot of service" and "ST gets payed nothing = dear player be happy with what you get". The concept shouldn't be that hard to grasp. Were the players perhaps young and not able to understand the work you put in or was there perhaps something in how the game and club was organized and presented itself?

[@yankankou]

I tried it some year ago. They have a problème of hazing, they are horrible to New people and dont understand why they dont stay.

[@horsemaen]

Hi, I love your Videos, keep up with your work Sir Witchtaker!

[@subjectmichael1]

0:20 Wow, so I'm actually the person in the background with the mask hanging below his face and the bowler hat. Never thought I'd see me, let alone one of my characters in this sort of medium. Great video though. Thanks for actually doing this.

[@maj61601]

This is a great video, thanks for creating this content!

[@davideberhartii6028]

Just realize that just becasue a game has the green flags on paper; it doesnt mean that staff will actually abide by them.

[@comicstrider4851]

THAT CODE LYOKO PIC HIT MY CHILDHOOD OUTTA NOWHERE

[@justsomejoe8072]

Miss your DnD videos, man.

[@flashmagic19]

literally had my entire faction (only like 5) get bullied out of a system because the leader of the largest faction at the event DIDNT like our theme ;3; She was super close with the ref team so all complaints (and there were many, not just from us) led to nothing... such a shame but that particular larp had been losing steam and players for a while now.

[@changingpeopleslivesmoon2993]

Where are you

[@iceshard333]

Can you do a stacking guide ...like rage and transformation into a bear...or shelghlili and smite

[@adamix1010]

I see a new Davvy video. My face betrays no emotion.

[@williambaldwin6779]

Anyone’s thoughts on fell and faire’s warriors weekend?

[@poopieesq2995]

my shield arm thigh hurt just looking at that sca picture.

[@redanthalas8830]

From a Central European perspective, this is wild. The best way to spot bad larps over here is "it has skills" or "is that seriously a dog damn CHARACTER SHEET?!", rule"books" longer than 2 pages are another serious red flag. Come to think of it, the closer a larp here is to a typical American game, the less fun it tends to be. There are occassionaly what we call "skanzen" larps (skanzen is a reconstruction of a historical village, implying you're visiting the past of larping), where typically less experienced organizers try to make a skill based sandbox, but in the field it always turns into "just fall down when you feel you got hit reasonably", both from the players and the NPCs. Our larps definitely moved forward a lot in the past two decades and most have that approach as the rule, with basic guidelines.

[@BiblicFurby]

What happened.

[@patrickdees5256]

Honestly yeah I've heard plenty d&d horror stories to try to avoid becoming a "That Guy."

[@sparkusclark6176]

Mhm, saftey tools are super important. I joined my local larp just as they were starting to implement those and have seen them become second nature to players over the years inspite of early grumblings. A thing I've noticed as well, is that the more queer people attend a larp, generally the safer it tends to be. That said, nothing is perfect and there have been some cliques formed. Thankfully nothing as bad as what you mentioned, but still need to be addressed as one of the biggest knightly houses has enough gravitational pull to affect plotlines.

[@Hadthese]

DR made my wife the villain in MA. Just like you’ve described.

[@pedrostormrage]

7:52 Whenever anyone starts talking about the need to be "self-motivated" (**flashback to job descriptions**), I think that's a red flag already, because it's just deflecting responsibility. No matter how motivated you are to do something, that's gonna take a hit if things aren't going the way you expected to (of course, you need to evaluate whether your expectations were unreasonable, or whether other people simply didn't deliver what they promised). Also, there's only so much motivation that can come from yourself (and whatever environment you're in is gonna impact that, for better or worse).

[@Siegsoul]

Yoy Should totally talk about firbolgs

[@emiliotorres-roseberry6575]

So thankful my home larp doesn't tick any of these boxes (there's an argument to be made that it flirts with one of them) but so far so good right?

[@misomiso8228]

Hey Davvy Would be great if you could do some recommendations for alternative starting adventures to Lost Mines of Phan. I know it's quite popular but I've never liked and I know you only think it's 'ok', but I don't what else to use for 5e! I know a lot of OSR good starting adventures, but I really want something specifically written for 5e as I don't have the time or inclination to adapt anything. The best I've found is Tales of the Old Margreve which is excellent, but I'm looking for something that just really hits the spot! Anyway would be great to hear your thoughts, and you havn't uploaded in a while! Hope you are ok! best

[@door5443]

love how the only rule is Be Cool, dude lmao

[@bartlester591]

I tried playing a vampire, the masquerade, LARP once did not work out. It was boring. I didn’t know what was going on half the time so I said never again.

[@chadhitchcock6568]

I'm here for the Code Lyoko reference

[@sheakennedy-ordway1156]

6:17 >phone vibrates

[@skycr7059]

Hey is the how it feels to play series still in progress?

[@DavvyChappy]

Yep, we have to do some reshoots though.

[@skycr7059]

@@DavvyChappy ah okay, thanks for the update.

[@masterofdungeons9957]

I understand that you may have an extensive knowledge of larps in Michigan. What, in your opinion, is the best medieval larp near GR?

[@navarrduphoenixx]

Waypoint in Muskegon is a very high fantasy game, but has some excellent medieval elements, and a solid team of staff.

[@masterofdungeons9957]

@@navarrduphoenixx Thank you, that is super helpful.

[@moderncrusader5128]

Could you also do a video on Shadow of the Demon Lord?

[@linkparrish8277]

Davvy I 100% thought you had a more popular channel cause your content is SOOO very good, but today i looked at you sub count and got sad because you need more subs. you are really good and got me in to some of my favorite hobbies

[@sethbennedetti753]

AYE DR SHOUTOUT LETS GO!

[@chattychatotchannel]

I want to LARP but I get scared because I am autistic and have big boobs and I heard some guys are gross in LARPing. When I am very overwhelmed communication can be hard and also I am scared of people being mean to me because of things I cannot help like stimming and people saying I'll break immersion... I think if I had someone to tag along with me who understood me and could help when I cannot talk it would be really nice. I wanna LARP and make friends with all sorts of cool OCS :D like my main thingy is that I wanna befriend and learn more about characters

[@navarrduphoenixx]

Absolutely bring a friend/safety anchor that wants to try a new experience. Larp encounters and scenes run the gamut from mild to “overwhelming even for NTs, and disassociating individuals.” I’ve had immersive joys, laughed until my face hurt, and sang and danced with friends. I’ve also had immersive lows that were powerful and profound, evoking emotions that I could appreciate later as being “real” even though the situation was completely make-believe. Many larps run from Friday evening to Sunday afternoon. I make plans to attend as much as I can handle, and then I leave because I know my limits, and if that means I larp for three hours on a Saturday afternoon, I enjoy that time, and then I politely excuse myself and go home because any more socializing would make me uncomfortable. Find what works for you. Take it slow, and never hesitate to walk away.

[@anastylos2812]

Bringing a friend is a good idea. Also try to join an existing group, makes the beginning much easier and you can get support from them as well. I assume being autistic can make a larp extremely overwhelming with all those changing situations and all those different people playing different characters. So maybe start slow. In the other hand larp is great, as long as you play you can do nothing wrong, unlike really where not being social and not behaving in a certain way can make your life hard. Many people find that quite liberating.

[@theraven4810]

look most things I've told you were out of overlyaggresive but was from humble place Davy. I appologize for my orcish swagger. hope to work for ya again boss.~ Bor'gash of Tüth.

[@wishpunk9188]

Jeebus. Larps are like YT channels. If it is this stressful consider walking away.

[@koshercub]

Ayyyy a DR shout out!

[@flatlineforge5119]

Comment for engagement numbers

[@TheGooberishere]

you are the bad alrp... tvue

[@VooshSpokesman]

Love from a Vaush and CritCrab fan!

[@adamsullivan1576]

Forst

[@mush_cow985]

👏

[@moderncrusader5128]

What’s with all the Larp related content nowadays?

[@sparklingwater925]

People ask for more larp videos because there are surprisingly not that much beginner focused larp content in general.

[@DavvyChappy]

I was burned out by D&D, and I was feeling like I'd talked all I could about it anyways, so I decided to bite the bullet and make videos about this super niche thing that I actually care about.

[@moderncrusader5128]

@@DavvyChappy great decision! Will you make reviews for other rpgs or will there just be larp vids

[@DavvyChappy]

@@moderncrusader5128 Just larping for now. I've got to decide how I'm gonna move forward with these in the first place. It's warming up, and I want to take advantage of that.

[@moderncrusader5128]

@@DavvyChappy you got me inspired to check out a larp in my city of Toronto. It’s called Underworld and it’s a Dark fantasy larp akin to Diablo and Dark Souls