Students participate in Live Action Role Play
Meg Felling
– Staff Writer –
A
s possibly the most intense game of rock paper scissors possible, throwing hand symbols willy-nilly won’t win the battle. Rock, paper, scissors isn’t a game anymore; it’s a battle for life and death.
Watch out, because gaming is starting to get “real,” or at least as real as gaming can get. LARPing (Live Action Role Playing) is the next step in gaming evolution.
Dungeons and Dragons, the 1980s stat building RPG, has moved off the table top and into something slightly more hands-on.
Gaming companies like White Wolf have taken their table top RPGs and turned them into live action.
LARPing involves: creating a character, following a story, and occasionally fighting for the character’s life in a riveting game of rock, paper, scissors.
“The LARP I’m in is Vampire the Masquerade,” Joshua Zigler, Forest Park student, said. Vampire the Masquerade is made by White Wolf. White Wolf recreated history and gave key events hidden supernatural meanings; this created the World of Darkness. OWBN, or One World by Night, is the LARPing organization Zigler belongs to.
“It’s a giant organization, where they have games everywhere. They have games in New Mexico, Minnesota, New Zealand, everywhere; and they are all connected via the internet,” explains Zigler.
OWBN took White Wolf’s game and put a twist on it. “The version I play is third edition, One World by Night, world of Darkness Vampire,” Zigler said.
LARPing, like D&D, starts with a blank character sheet. How one builds this character sheet is completely up to the organization the new gamer belongs to.
“Before I started, I showed up to one of the games without even knowing what LARPing was. They just gave me a character sheet and said ‘have fun’”, Zigler said.
Every player uses a character sheet to build their character up though the game.
Each plays their character according to the kind of creature their character is.
“I walk in with a vampire that doesn’t have a family, who is shunned by society, and a little weak person. I walk in like I’m the head of the town; like I control everything, and I didn’t die that night,” Zigler said. “It’s all about your concept for your character.”
The characters can do anything a person can do, but of course there are some limitations.
“You can pretend like your vampire can jump over a building, or run across a crowded street, but we don’t suggest it,” remarks Zigler.
Also, just because the character is fictional doesn’t mean it’s immortal.
A falling out with another character could occur in a rock, paper, scissor’s game to the death.
“If your opponent wins their chop, you die.”
After the death of a character, the player must create a new one to play.
LARPing is a chance to become someone else. “Acting is suggested to help with the role play,” says Zigler.
Some people merely tell people what their character looks and acts like.
However, some players like to get a little on the extreme side.
“I have seen people dress up before, as their character.”
Some of the most interesting parts of LARP, are the people. LARP gives people a chance to connect on two levels: as their characters, and as themselves.
“I personally just love the people you get to meet,” Zigler said. “We go to Uncle Bill’s after the game, and just spend a couple hours just talking. You get a really tight-knit group of people.”
Though LARPing has been around for quite a few years, the following has grown globally; linking people together by the common interests of fantasy, a story, and a game.
