Okay normally I laugh at LARPs like everyone else, because lets face it, if you aren’t a LARP you are laughing at LARPs. What’s a LARP you may ask? Well it’s a Live Action Role Player or basically someone who loves sword and sorcery to the point where they assume the role of actor/player character with a bunch of other young white people. Yes in my observation of LARPs they tend to lack people of color, you can make your own assumptions on this. For me it’s just an observation, I’m sure there are a few but from what I have seen, I have yet to meet one.

So yes, back on topic, I used to laugh my ass off at LARPs but not because they are LARPing I mean there is a thin line between role-playing on a table-top Advanced Dungeons and Dragons game and actually strapping on some armor and beating the shit out of someone… so me an ex-ADnD player passing judgement on LARPs would make me a hypocrite, and the Dragon is far from it. No, I laughed because their “battles” were so dreadfully bad. You know it makes sense being that when you “role-play” a character on paper, the character has had a lifetime of battle, training and survival. Unlike the player who has had a lifetime of fast food, book reading and television. So when the latter tries to emulate the former, its usually pretty awful (or hilarious) to watch.

Today I stumbled upon an old video of some hardcore LARPs in Germany and I was laughing, but not on how bad the fighting was, no quite the contrary, I was laughing at how badass it was. I’m like saying to myself “damn these guys are for real”, I have the video below of them hacking and slashing each other in full athletic fashion and it gets all the props in the world for me.

Personal experiences with LARPs
One day I made the mistake of opening a door at Denny’s for one of these LARPS, she was in some disheveled clothes and was a young woman… I guess she was supposed to be a witch. I didn’t expect that Denny’s was in Sword and Sorcery lore but she got mad at me for extending the courtesy whilst whispering under her breath “just go… I’m in character mode!” What The F-ck!!! Denny’s LARP girl, really? I used to work with a LARP, I thought she rocked because she was the only one who felt me on my love for hack and slash movies and she admitted to crying in Return of The King. Our offices were right next to each other so I would overhear phone calls to her husband about her “purple armor” and “that sword is too heavy for me”. She also rode horses weekly and had the swagger like she may be able to actually wield a ball and chain… lawls!!! So ya LARPs are indeed special, and at times scary, tread carefully and don’t open the door for them!

Written by Greg Dragon on Monday, May 18, 2009 

Filed under Funny Videos, People are Strange, The Nerdiest Topics
Tagged with advanced dungeons and dragons