“I’ve enjoyed archery since I was a little girl. I can’t really remember how I first became interested in it, only that it seemed interesting to me when I was roughly 8 years old. My grandfather gave me this bow around that time–it used to be my uncle’s–and my father showed me how to shoot. I spent a great deal of time practicing, and it kept me outdoors for a good bit of time! Though, I was the sort to enjoy outdoor adventures, anyway.”
“I got my start in LARPing as a healer, and often stuck to the sword and shield, since they seemed most practical. Eventually, I started to experiment with the staff, since I had plenty of experience with them thanks to my background in Karate…And eventually, I moved on to just a sword, and relied on my limited fencing and Kendo experiences…But then I found my old bow in the back of my closet, and had to give it a shot.”
“The heads and spare shafts can cost a pretty penny, and a suitable quiver isn’t cheap, either, so the bare-bones minimum is already a bit intimidating…But I find that the greatest challenge, is applying my marksmanship in combat. After all, I can only nock an arrow so fast, and by the time I can get a shot or two off, my target’s likely to have closed the distance. Stealth and having allies seem to be my greatest strength in combat–If I can get the drop on my target, or if I can flank them while they engage a friendly, I have a much easier time.”
“I’m disappointed by the number of LARPs in my area that either use–or plan to use–’Packet Archery’ instead of the real deal. I get their reasons. They feel it’s safer, and safety is the ultimate goal, right? The problem is though, you lose a lot when you rely on balls of birdseed instead of an arrow. You lose the aesthetic of an archer with her iconic bow, quiver, and arrows. You lose the difficulty of quickly nocking a new arrow as your enemy charges in…Instead, you get balls of brightly-colored cloth being slung around by over-glorified slingshots, and folks running around with a fistfull of fabric bundles.”
“If you ask me, LARPing with foam-headed arrows is fine as it is. Check your gear, don’t cut corners with construction, use high-quality materials, and know a little about what you’re doing, and you won’t have any trouble.”
A common thread regarding LARPing that often comes up is one where members of the community debate regarding the mechanics, most often the rules and character creation mechanics of one or many LARPs. The most hot button of these topics is the discourse between Tag Systems and Pool Systems, and between Class and Classless systems.
Tag Systems are also known as Periodic Systems. These are games in which a player spends build on each skill multiple times in order to gain additional uses of the skill, either with a cap or without one depending on the game system. Pool Systems utilize a style in which a game allows you to purchase skills once, and the skills are fueled by a cost similar to how most magic systems work, except for physical / non-magical abilities.
I want to say one thing, having been a player in both of these styles of systems, and variants that include linear progression / single purchase and Recovering or Non-Recovering Power Pools. There is no perfect system, no working the bugs out to get the absolute, objectively best design. What people like is always going to vary, it’s actually one of the beauties of LARP. In the very same vein that some people love Boffer LARP and others love Parlor LARP, and sometimes people dislike or hate one or the other
I am a personal fan of Recovering Pools with notably powerful or unique abilities being limited to either X times per Battle / Period / Event. Now, when I speak I am speaking from a place of personal opinion and regarding my preference to High Fantasy or Sword and Sorcery LARPs. To me, it never made sense that I could buy Parry 10 times and Slay 3 Times, but when I’m “too tired to Parry” I’m at the same time not too tired enough to cut a person in half.
I do find merit in Periodic-style systems though, and I think that they certainly do have a place among LARPers. For one they are much easier to police on a Marshal level, it’s a lot easier for newer players to get involved since there is fundamentally less math involved in it, and it allows players to feel like they kinda excel at something and have a viable reason to not do other things. Just because this system isn’t for me, doesn’t mean I will downplay it or ruin it for somebody who it is for.
When it comes to a Class vs a Classless system. I think that people tend to get wrapped up here a bit too much. This delves a little into individual game lore and immersive roleplaying a bit... but I feel it’s important to note regardless. If the name of your class is Thief, and Thieves have a certain reputation to them... you aren’t going to introduce yourself to people as a Thief. In the same way that telling me your a Fighter shouldn’t tell me anything more about your character than you know how to wield some kind of weapon, and you choose to actively do it. The name of the class doesn’t have to define your portrayal of it, nor should it in my opinion.
Now, there are of course exceptions to this where the game lore kind of forces it upon you. But those rare instances aside... I typically find that most of the time your “Class” is just a place where skills that lend towards a style of play all sit together. I have seen Classless and Class systems, and I find that when you look at both, there are a lot of pitfalls that end up existing no matter what way you go. I am a fan of Classes as a definition of where skills that function in a similar vein sit. Why? Because I have seen Classless systems, and I think that the “Build Your Own” might be liberating but you are always going to have a hard time contesting with the Power Gamer in those scenarios. When I have access to the mechanical best for less expenditure, I’m probably going to go for it because if the training is out there... why not prepare yourself the best way?
Again though -- There are some people out there who want to play a Classless system, they aren’t going to game the mechanics to be the most Overpowered Munchkin that’s ever existed, and that’s awesome that some systems out there allow for this style of game play so they have a place to go and enjoy. There’s no perfect answer here, as I sometimes find myself frustrated having to buy tons of stuff I personally don’t want to use to get to the one thing I really like, but that’s my opinion and has no actual bearing on the mechanical viability of these things individually. Especially because I am from the camp of every class in your game should be able to stand alone.
Regardless of what kind of LARPer you are, I hope that you can find the system that is just right for you. Remember though that you’re personal opinion about how someone else’s creative flows has come together is just that. Be kind when speaking to directors and offering constructive criticism and ideas, and understand that you will naturally be more attached to the things you gravitate towards. People liking other stuff isn’t an attack on you for liking what you like. Be cool, respect each other, and keep our community open, loving and free of bullshit toxicity.
Much love, my LARP Fam.
Let me explain... if you have a LARP System that has Classes, even if you have and encourage Multi-classing, there should be just as much merit to having a single focus and being able to play within that single focus. That’s not to say that I am against multi-classing, however if a player wants to play a simple character archetype they should not feel forced to have to expend into a ton of classes to achieve that singular focus with any semblance of efficiency.
Let’s say you want to play a Warrior. Being a Warrior should be well enough contained that while there could be great benefits to branching out into say Berserker or Crusader, a player should not feel like NOT doing so is just a huge nerf and an otherwise bad idea. I have seen a rise in systems where the ability to multi-class has lead to a lack of good conception for what should otherwise be core mechanics in the game.
Now if somebody wants to play some semblance of a Spellblade, then I absolutely understand a desire to see that player buy up into both the Warrior and Mage classes in some capacity. I think that the issue that I run into more and more is a desire to see “standardization” across certain things. We have gotten very progressive on both sides of the field with things such as Master Florentine, an admittedly very powerful combat style especially in systems that only otherwise allow for one swing per second per hand. I have seen and played in systems where the ability to Master Florentine is all but absent save for a very specific upper tier class, to systems where it is available at a EXP premium, to games where as long as you can wield melee weapons you can rock out with Master Florentine at a small penalty to damage.
However, you don’t see the same support these days for things such as Bastard Weapon, Single-Focused Sword ala Fencer-style or even the traditional Bow and Arrow. I have seen some attempts to bring a little bit of light to Bastard Weapons by allowing them to function as a Two or One-Handed Weapon depending on how you wield it, and that’s pretty great since it allows for a build-you-own style of combat and for that, I am pretty cool with it. I find there is sometimes a lack of positive support for 2 Handed Weapons, being fundamentally more clunky and awkward to use and by design and nature of that a bit slower. However... I digress.
If I want to go to a LARP and play a Rogue, I should be able to reasonably by into a Rogue-sounding class, and at the core feel like I am achieving my job as a Rogue in some way through that one class choice. The same should be said for Fighters, Healers, and Mages. Whenever I hear somebody say the game doesn’t really start for you until Level 5 or 7 because that is either when you can start multi-classing to achieve a playable and functioning character or that is the minimum level to achieve your Higher List and the game is so progressed that without a Higher List you are just chicken little constantly, it’s a total turn off. Flat-out, it sucks.
I understand games where Multi-Classing has a Build Tax. I may not agree always with how it is specifically implemented, but I do understand having something of a slow down for the sake of people who Power Game their builds to absolute insanity, so those games get a pass here. But I would rather pay a Build Tax than be told that I can’t be a real boy until I hit Level 5 in a game where leveling takes a lot of time and investment. As a new player, it really makes me feel shallow.
Ultimately, if your game is going to support standard archetypes, then I believe you should have a Class available that allows a highlight to those Archetypes. The fundamental 5 Archetypes being “Melee Physical, Ranged Physical, Healer, Rogue, Caster”. Usually I see Melee Physical broken down into Fighters and Crusaders/Cavaliers. Focusing one on big numbers and the other on big defense. Rogues in various flavors such as Thieves and Assassins. Mages with their plethora of magic, sometimes Healers being lumped in here, and Healers either through mundane or divine means. I see some games lump Ranged Physical Combat in with Fighters but with no actual support, making Ranged Combat an after-thought in an otherwise polished system; but that is a rant for another time.
If you are considering a Boffer LARP of your own to run and home one day, I plead with you to consider the styles of combat you want to see at your system, and put yourself in the shoes if somebody who might want to consider those styles. Again, I am not saying that person who wants to Gandalf Staff and Sword with his tons of magic and 50 damage swings... but if you want people to play Tanks, support Armor and Shields. If you want people to be Duelists, support single weapon and florentine-based combat styles. If you want Mages, make your Magic System something that they can access constantly and not force glass cannons. If you want Archers, make sure that Archery doesn’t feel like a foolish DPS style.
When in doubt, ask your players for ideas of what and why. Hell, consider going out as an NPC in your own game and trying some of these styles for yourself, identify if and when it gets to a point of feeling worthwhile, and ask yourself if it was a reasonable amount of time to get to that point.
If you’ve gotten this far, thank you one and all for your support in reading my insane rants! You’re all the best!
So, a long time ago at one of the LARPs I used to attend, one of the mechanics of the event was that a shadow-like figure was going around, it didn't talk and had no features... (it was played by someone wearing a full black morph suit). The issue was that it appears whenever it touched you, you would get teleport into this small arena where one of several champions, based on your level would be selected to fight you. This took place in this small grove-like clearing on the camp and it wasn't a huge area.
Now, during this event I was playing my Sylvan Elf Archer. I will admit I was a pretty high level character and I had built my character to succeed in combat-based scenarios, however... I was an Archer and while I usually carried a small weapon on me, I didn't have it when I got teleported into the arena. The enemy I had to fight was the highest stated NPC they had because of my level.
The beautiful thing about the character I was playing, was that a combination of several skills available to me allowed me to stand a fighting chance, although it was in complete and sheer panic. Kind of like Fry drinking his 100th cup of coffee that I managed to pull it off. The arena was small, but there was enough room to make good use of skills such as Flee, which allowed me to move 10 steps away from the enemy. Vanish, which was a Master Rogue skill that allowed me to become invisible and move away from the area (note since I was locked in a magical arena, I could only move as far as the boundaries). I also had 5 uses of Perfect Aim which I could pair with Skills, and the Archer's Promotional Skill called Rapid Fire, which allowed me to shoot 5 Perfect Aim attacks for 2x Damage that required a Higher List defense to stop.
The fight took maybe 5 minutes in total, with well placed Evades, Dodges, and Flees keeping me alive and able to position myself frequently enough.to keep distance available and make real shots. Master Archers also had this wonderful ability called Head Crack, which was a Melee-Range "Gesture" ability (meaning you didn't have to hit the target, just motion) that dazed the enemy for 5 seconds (Dazed enemies couldn't take offensive action and needed to RP being dazed for the duration). I combined my Perfect Aims with my Kill Shot abilities (Slay Effect, or 400 Damage) as well as Vital Shots (200 Damage Shots) and my base damage was 50, which when I used Rapid Fire meant 5 shots of 100 Damage. I also had Flame Shot, which was an Archer ability to deal 3x damage in Fire, and a few things from the Assassin Class and the Witch Hunter Class.
Despite this, the enemy had I believe someplace in the 2,500 HP range, and I had about 100 HP. The enemy was able to swing for 20 Damage, and I didn't have any access to healing. The NPC I fought was also a very good fighting, but a very VERY good roleplayer as well. This all generated a perfect storm that allowed me to pull off a victory in these situations in which not a single person... not even myself, thought I had a snowballs chance in hell to win.
Now, there is a lot of number bloat here because of the way that game functioned, but what I will say is that the game created skills that were of positive benefit to a character who wanted to be Range Focused. The small benefits and additions I got from my other classes were more icing on the cake than they were anything else in truth.
What about you? What was one of your Epic LARP Moments?
Gooooood evening everybody! Today I want to talk a little bit about Tournament-based LARP events. I have attended a couple of LARPs that offer a Tournament one or more times a year in various flavors and I wanted to talk a little bit about my feelings on them here.
Now, for those of you who don’t know me... I am a stick jockey when it comes to LARP. I. Love. Combat. I enjoy playing characters who are based on combative ability as their primary focus and enjoy being able to show my skills when I can. That being said, with the exception of a few specific notes. I. HATE. Tournaments.
It’s not because I always lose, because as a very good friend and game runner once said, “If the only reason you are going to have fun in this tournament is to win, then perhaps consider not participating.” The issues come more into play with the interest of “fairness” when it comes to these styles of events both for those participating and those who are not.
For those who are not participating. Tournaments can last sometimes an entire period of game play, which for many games ranges from 4 to 6 hours and most often takes place in during the early afternoon of the game which takes the LARP up to Feast. This is normally prime-time for plot seeds and various encounters. When a LARP hosts a Tournament, they typically focus all of their attention on making the event feel big, important and weight-bearing. Which results in a limited need for NPCs, most of which are played to come out and observe or cheer on the Tournament to give it a bigger feel.
The players who do not want to participate though, are stuck forced to watch the Tournament in which they may have absolutely no interest at all, or wandering around doing their own thing. Before you say that it’s up to each player to make their own fun, I don’t disagree with you, but when you know the game all but shuts down to play this Tournament there isn’t a whole lot of your own fun to be had, especially if your friends DO want to participate.
For players who maybe do want to participate there are also large barriers. Most Tournaments these days do host a number of side games, but the big prize... be it a special item, a title, a ton of money or any number of other incentives almost always belongs to the main event. The main event is almost always some semblance of a Double Elimination, Round Robin style 1 on 1. These types of combat tournaments favor a specific type of character build and place many others are a huge disadvantage.
For example, a Rogue is fundamentally at a disadvantage for Tournament Play, even if the player would have enjoyed or even benefit the most from the prize based solely on the fact they are not an armor wearing, hp stacking meat tank with a shield. Their skill set simply does not lend to confined areas and singles combat. The same could be said for an Archer and a Spellcaster. I think this is a hold over from the real life notion that Champions are Warriors, but I feel like in Fantasy and especially LARP this doesn’t have to be the case.
The concept that you have to build your character to win a tournament shouldn’t necessarily be true. Anybody who can fight and hold their own in a Main Mod should feel like they have an equal chance to win in a more structured scenario in my opinion, or at the very least consider perhaps hosting more relevant scenarios that allow each archetype to play in their element, and all have relevant prizes. A Caster’s Dual, an Archer Showdown, a Rogue’s game of Assassin and Honor Duels for Warriors as an example.
Ultimately, you don’t want to make your players feel ostracized as a result of your desire to host a Tournament. Players both new and old should feel like if they want to participate they can, and that doing so provides a realistic chance of success. I don’t have any specific or surefire answers to deal with some of these problems, but I think that generating conversation and consideration into these things is the key to starting.
If you’ve read this far, then I want to thank you all for taking time to read through my random LARP rants and supporting me. You guys rock!
I’m sure that many people have seen movies like Lord of the Rings or Hunger Games before with the Archaic Bow-Wielding Hero firing incredible kill shot after kill shot in epic fashion, keeping up with the same level of effectiveness and usefulness that the Melee Fighters who are engaged toe-to-toe with the baddies can output. It’s awesome! They get all the benefits of ass kicking combat effectiveness from a safe distance thanks to the incredible range that projectile weapons offer!
However -- When it comes to LARP, this is unfortunately not the case. Now, we aren’t going to talk about Packet Archery at all in this segment, I’m sure I’ll rant about that on its very own one day. Today, we are going to focus on LARP Safe Bow and Arrow archery at the games I have played that allow it to be used.
First and foremost. I love LARP Archery. I find it to be a very cool combat style because it requires a measure of out of game skill to utilize. You might think well so does Melee combat and you’d be right... however you have a much higher degree of control with a Melee weapon than you do with a Ranged weapon, and no matter how safe something is designed, a LARP Arrow has more potential to cause physical harm than a Boffer or Latex sword does (unless the melee weapon is being wielded with the intention to harm, of course).
All of the LARP games I play have more-or-less the same combat safety rules. This is good because I tend to agree with almost all of them in some degree or another, and it is very important that LARP safety be at the top of everybody’s list when it comes to a Boffer LARP... nobody wants to hurt their friends or community members, and if you do... then maybe get out of the hobby. Specifically, there are rules that govern swing speed, charging, wild fighting, etc... for melee combatants and violations that range from verbal warnings to outright suspensions for single or repeated breaking of these rules.
Your typical LARP melee combatant has a number of styles to choose from based on the game they attend and the class or classes they have access to. Single Weapon, Florentine (Dual Small, Small and 1 Handed), Master Florentine (Two 1 Handed), 2 Handed, Sword and Board, and in some rare instances... Grand Master Florentine (a 2 Handed and a 1 Handed). Regarding Swing Speed the variants I have seen are 1 swing per weapon per second and a requirement of the weapon returning to rest (or a 90 degree angle between each swing). I find both systems to be fairly reasonable, which the latter usually being a bit more intense.
Now, why I bring this all up is because Melee combat, when it comes to a Boffer LARP setting (I should clarify that I am talking about a Hit Point system not a Hit Location System) has some very clear advantages over a physical ranged combat. For one, even in the slower system you get a chance to strike your opponent once or twice per second based on your weapon style. In most systems the average weapon damage a PC can swing typically ranges between 2 and 8 damage, with some outliers and temporary buffs making this number higher for a short period of time. They also have access to their various skills that augment strikes to either deal more damage or to have alternate status-like effects such as disarm, breaking equipment or limbs and sometimes an outright Kill strike.
The issue I have long seen and come to find is that the Archer archetype is fundamentally weaker and more handicapped, despite the fact that it is a more expensive fighting style to get into, requires a bit more practice to be truly safe and good at, and offers you less opportunities to get a hit in.
Now, before you go off saying, “Well, being an Archer is a choice, if you don’t like it... don’t do it.” I know it’s a choice. That’s not the point. I feel very similar for those who say, “Yeah but nobody should be Just an Archer, even Legolas was a skilled melee combatant.” Yeah... I still get it, but again it’s not the point. I believe that if you are going to offer an option and have it be something you WANT to encourage your players to do, then you should make sure that the game system can properly support it.
If you have never gotten a chance to pick up a Bow and Arrow at a LARP and give it a shot, I encourage you to do so. It’s incredibly fun and when you get good and feel comfortable enough to take a shot at a player, landing clutch hits from 50 feet away can feel amazing, so long as the system offers support for the weapon style.
Allow me to give you some examples of what I mean here..
Many systems I have played set the “Bow” damage to either match the 2 Handed Damage, or be slightly higher. One of the LARPs I play in sets damage as follows.
1 Handed Weapons (this is Swords and Small Weapons) deal 1 damage
2 Handed Weapons deal 2 damage
Bows deal 3 damage
Weapon Styles can be augmented with Strength or with Weapon Proficiency in either a specific weapon or a specific fighting style and these are typically rooted to the Warrior archetype. Okay, so far so good... except here is where one point gets made. If I am fighting as a Sword & Shield fighter and I swing for 1 damage, over the course of 10 seconds I have the potential damage output of 10 damage, unrealistically of course as I am not fighting a training dummy and even when the difference in skill is significant, a lucky block or a miss is still almost guaranteed. In the same amount of time, the Archer has a potential damage output of 3. Why? Because it takes time to draw an arrow, knock, line up the shot, ensure safety and fire. You can’t take blind shots and the more melee combatants that surround your enemy the less opportunity you have to take a shot, since hitting an ally in the back doesn’t get ret-conned and it means you just helped the enemy.
Range is a positive factor here, as you can take that shot from relative safety while the Melee combatant is at risk of constant counter-attack, however you have an effective range, and point of range in which you are unable to utilize your weapon. For most games this is 10 Feet, and let me tell you... 10 feet is NOT a lot of distance. Within 10 Feet most games offer a 1-time assist called “Point Blank” which allows you to deal your base weapon damage as Perfect Aim. Now, I think that it is a perfectly reasonable strategy to break the line and rush the archer, putting him out of the fight and potentially scoring an easy kill. It’s even easier when you know he’s going to point blank you, and you can just call Block to negate whatever damage he had and drill him into the ground with your 1 Swing per Second assault.
When it comes to Skill Usage, I’ve seen a wide variety here, and so far none of the games I have played have made it very fair for the Archer. I’ve seen it where the Archer can only use Archery-Based skills with their Bow and the pickings are very slim, to where an Archer can use any Physical Attack but at a Tax of more Resource to perform the action, to where an Archer can use any attack they have, but with the hit-location requirements in tact... which means to Disarm an enemy you have to hit his weapon? No... just please, don’t ever attempt this. It’s not worth the skill use to be that potentially unsafe.
When it comes to Archery, there are a lot of things people don’t factor in. I like to compare them to Mages. Finite resources so the payout should be heavier and the attacks potentially harder to stop. You can’t carry infinite Arrows on you, and to be honest the most I have seen people load-up with is usually in the 10 - 12 range. Arrows are also expensive, unlike spell packets. Each arrow can run you around 10 - 18 dollars after shipping, and you want to have enough that you can feel effective for more than a few seconds. The bow is also a price point, usually coming in at the same price or more than a standard latex weapon, then the Quiver which I have usually seen run for around 60 to 120 dollars.
I would love to see a system that makes Archery scary, that makes the enemy second guess just recklessly charging the Archer knowing that Mechanics are on his side... where the damage output of a weapon you cannot rapid fire is on par and makes an enemy second guess being hit with it, and where there is a variety of things that a Ranged Character can do, similar to a Melee character.
Archery adds a bit of positive immersion to a Fantasy LARP, and I would love to see a system where I feel confident playing a character who can partake in it as a primary without feeling constantly overshadowed by the horde of melee fighters who can just get in there and deal a similar amount of damage and use a similar skill-set to me.
Now -- This is just my opinion, and I do know of archers who play some LARPs and are perfectly happy with what they can and can’t do. I am more than happy to talk to anybody about the specifics that lead me to this rant as well as what I think specific game systems might be able to consider to make the playing field feel a bit better for a character who wants to specialize in Ranged Combat.
If you’ve read to this point, then thank you for taking the time to go through my random rambling, I appreciate each and every one of you!
