Newbie Observations

Contributor: Amanda/"Istamira"

Submission: The 3rd in a series of IG and OoG written commentary from a "novice LARPer"

LARP System: Accelerant
Location: Boston, USA
PC Name: Istamira "Mira" Nascirus
Years LARPing: 0 years, 7 months 


Website: Istamira's Quill

In and out of character commentary from a novice larper. Character names, places, and sometimes even plot specifics may be changed or altered to protect readers from horrible knowledge that could threaten the very fiber of the universe! ... or something like that.

By the end of my first ever larping event, I'd learned a lot. Not just in the ways of fighting, but the ways the events in general seemed to work...

Observation 1: Fresh Meat

For a roleplay fiend like me, the story telling and spontaneous player interaction aspects of larping were my primary interest. No disappointment on that front! And yet, at the same time, I quickly got the feeling that the other players were behaving oddly towards me. By the next day, I finally placed what it was. 

The cutest thing about the second day at an event as a new person is: everyone wants to ask you if you’re having fun larping, but they can’t ask you out of character, so they invent creative ways of asking in character.

“Hail, well met. How do you find your time in town? Were you planning to live here?”
“Pleasure to meet you. Are you liking the town so far? Do you intend to stick around?”
“So what do you think? Uh, by that I mean… do you think you might pass through these parts again some day?”

It’s very endearing and welcoming, but hilarious at the same time; it’s like watching someone process a mini-puzzle in their head. You could tell that they really hoped you were having fun, and that you'd stick around so they'd have one more player for the mix.

Observation 2: Adoration of the NPC

I'd also concluded that the staff really bring the game to life for the players – particularly the reoccurring characters. But it’s more than the awesome costuming. Mentioning any regular NPC would generate an automatically concerned or interested response from any player I met. The characterization is so distinctive that most PCs could – and would – imitate the NPC in question with astonishing accuracy. This phenomenon extends to many PCs as well. Players frequently know exactly what traits and mannerisms distinguish one character from another. For example: every time I mentioned that I met my friend “In an inn in northern naporea” the response I would get was “yep, that’s something so and so would say”. And it WAS something he said! In any conversation, you knew exactly who someone was talking about by their portrayal, even if you didn’t remember the PC’s name.

Players seemed to love the NPCs dearly. I’d say they love them as dearly as they love other PCs. Any time one appeared they'd spread the word and swarm for the NPC like a pack of playful puppies, yipping the character’s name and clamoring for attention. That attention was given freely – NPCs spent as much time as possible speaking with any who needed them, and they rarely disappeared if there is anyone still chirping their name. It’s the living incarnation of the affection you might have towards a favorite character in a novel if it jumped out of the pages and walked around with you. It’s roleplaying paradise.

Observation 3: Phenomenal Action, Ity Bity Time Window

I also quickly learned how exhausting larping could be. No matter how little combat you did (I being a coward did precious little my first game), you were still worn out. Man can they cram in the action in very short time frames! I was expecting the last day to go somewhat like it does at my favorite tradeshows – that last day is basically hangover morning + packing to leave, and some socializing.

Oh no.

No no and no.

Oh contrare.

By the final morning we were still romping around, flinging plot, and duking it out in the woods like the days and nights that came before. But all good things come to an end, and so too did my first game.

Observation 4: SHINIES!!!!

I decided that after-game clean up was a good opportunity to glance “behind the scenes” a little for a fully rounded experience (and it turns out that by helping you actually got some character some perks). To be honest I just wanted to mingle with everyone out of game a bit, having spent 3 solid days in only in-character introductions. Clean up was a great chance for that. And after they'd put on such a great performance, it seemed only fair to help clean up what I’d enjoyed.

Sweet mother of all gods do they have a lot of equipment! The assets for this thing were as numerous and robust as any theater production with which I’d ever been involved. I can’t remember the last time I saw so much great costuming and so many cool props in one place. Being a halloween baby and a performance geek, I was absorbed. Then I discovered the large bin of all glittery, sparkly, make up & costume bits. Oh man, I LOVE shiney things! If it would not have been completely bizarre and detrimental to getting things put away, I would have frolicked in it all like catnip.

Now when I say that I went to my first game "alone" that's not entirely true. I was alone on the player side, but I had travelled with a friend of mine, also new to larping, who opted to try life as a newbie on the NPC side of the fence. After the game, we traded war stories, and NPC life was just as fascinating and varied. He spoke of how NPCing was a good place for him to start because he could be a bit more fearless and careless. If you die, you just respawn, right? I told my friend that I wanted to NPC, but started as a PC for two reasons:

1. Experiencing an event as a PC would allow me to know how NOT to make PCs miserable as an NPC. What kind of stuff got on my nerves so I could avoid doing it to someone else?
2. If I sucked at larping, but didn’t know anyone, no hard feelings – we’d never meet again and there’d be no harm/no foul.

Needless to say I’d accomplished neither of those goals. NPCing is appealing, but PCing turned out to be so much of a blast that I wanted to stick with it. I was definitely bad at larping, but planned to do it again. It was a case of goal failure I didn't mind so much.

This is the third in a series. Please share, and leave feedback in the comments.

To get you started... what was your first event? Did you experience the physical and emotional exhaustion that Amanda experiences? Would you recommend NPCing or PCing for newcomers? Why is NPCing an important part of the LARP experience?

Part One

Part Two

Part Four