I would like to start a discussion about the differences between European and American larps. Having only played the latter, I would greatly appreciate the input of anyone with experience in Euro larps, or even just thoughts, theories, or opinions.
Here's the basic run-down: European medieval fantasy larps looks impressive as heck, full of high quality props, costumes, armor, weapons, special effects, buildings, and locations. That is, the big, once-a-year games do. But even the average, individual players appear to have invested quite a bit more into the character's costume/armor/weapons than what I commonly see, so what gives?
I'm hoping that someone with experience in Euro larps (cough-cough-Ogunshi-cough) will chime in. I'm always seeing videos of more "theatrical" combat. Are all of these choreographed, or do they represent a different mind-set towards fighting? In big games such as Drachenfest or Conquest of Mythodea, what are the player death systems like? Is it like Darkon, where no one permanently dies? Or is it just far more difficult to die, requiring conditions to be met OTHER than just losing hit points?
Actually, I'd like to explore that concept some more. A lack of perma-death would explain why players would invest the time and money to outfit their characters so well. After all, if there's never any threat of your character perm'ing, you gain the luxury of taking all the time in the world to build the character you ultimately want to represent. Would an Alliance-style game ever accept a system like this? Let's take a look at the pro's and con's of a permanent death system:
Pro's
(1) Greater risk means greater reward. By feeling that our character, and ultimately ourselves, have something to lose, it increases the value of what we gain for taking risks and making sacrifices. Not just in terms of loot or gold, but how we regard other characters' value as people.
(2) Risk of loss and death is exciting! I've never had so much fun as when my chapter owner set up an encampment of diabolical creatures, who had taken the body of my recently-perm'ed friend (They had tortured him and another to death, he was Obliterated), and gave me the the no-win scenario of sneaking in with no spell book, no armor, and only a short sword to recover his remains. I low-crawled and snuck about for hours.... well, that's because I actually got lost in the dark. The point is, I didn't get the body, but I managed to survive after being discovered and chased down with more death spells than you can imagine, and then hiding under a rough camo-cover I had on me. I was SCARED. My character's life MEANT something to me, and that rush of adrenaline wouldn't be the same if it just meant resurrecting without risk of perm'ing.
(3) Player deaths keep the Average Player Level (APL) down. As the APL continues to climb, so does the damage curve, and the disparity between starting characters and established ones. The math gets worse, newbies may have more trouble integrating into the existing game, and things can start to get down right silly.
Con's
(1) With death always around the corner, a player might be hesitant to invest the time and money into their character. Sure, I'd love to order that awesome brigadine armor, or custom make a latex sword with my family's crest built into the crossguard, but what if that character dies next month? What, does my next character just happen to use the same $100 cuirass that I bought off of ebay?
(2) This game is about being all you can't be, right? But when the charcater that you loved so much dies, where do you typically go? WARNING! I'm about to make a GROSS over-generalization about players here, but based on my own personal experiences. Here's the typical order of character types that I see players make, after each of their characters perm:
Player Bob's 1st character: Pretty much "Bob", but braver. He tries to get involved, plays the hero, and is generally a decent guy.
Player Bob's 2nd character: Bob makes a "wacky" character, maybe a Scavenger or combat-happy Orc, who adopts a care-free and frivolous life full of fighting and/or merry-making. Often has a funny or squeeky voice.
Player Bob's 3rd character: Bob is now gruffer, perhaps meaner, maybe even evil. Probably human. He's seen it all, done it all (Even if he's 1st level), and typically doesn't bat an eyelash when a Liche walks into town.
In my own experiences, players tend to cycle through these characters simply because they don't want to play, or be thought of as playing, the same character "type" twice in a row. It's like we feel that we're required to change things up. Like I said, I'm painting with a very large brush here, but that's how it often seemed to me in the chapters I played.
I have some ideas for this, but this post is already too long. I know that I rambled a bit, but if anyone has any thoughts or suggestions regarding the above, or about the differences between Euro larps and ours, I'd love to hear them.
God, I need to get some sleep.
EDIT: Corrected some spelling errors. I'm sure there's plenty more.
Here's the basic run-down: European medieval fantasy larps looks impressive as heck, full of high quality props, costumes, armor, weapons, special effects, buildings, and locations. That is, the big, once-a-year games do. But even the average, individual players appear to have invested quite a bit more into the character's costume/armor/weapons than what I commonly see, so what gives?
I'm hoping that someone with experience in Euro larps (cough-cough-Ogunshi-cough) will chime in. I'm always seeing videos of more "theatrical" combat. Are all of these choreographed, or do they represent a different mind-set towards fighting? In big games such as Drachenfest or Conquest of Mythodea, what are the player death systems like? Is it like Darkon, where no one permanently dies? Or is it just far more difficult to die, requiring conditions to be met OTHER than just losing hit points?
Actually, I'd like to explore that concept some more. A lack of perma-death would explain why players would invest the time and money to outfit their characters so well. After all, if there's never any threat of your character perm'ing, you gain the luxury of taking all the time in the world to build the character you ultimately want to represent. Would an Alliance-style game ever accept a system like this? Let's take a look at the pro's and con's of a permanent death system:
Pro's
(1) Greater risk means greater reward. By feeling that our character, and ultimately ourselves, have something to lose, it increases the value of what we gain for taking risks and making sacrifices. Not just in terms of loot or gold, but how we regard other characters' value as people.
(2) Risk of loss and death is exciting! I've never had so much fun as when my chapter owner set up an encampment of diabolical creatures, who had taken the body of my recently-perm'ed friend (They had tortured him and another to death, he was Obliterated), and gave me the the no-win scenario of sneaking in with no spell book, no armor, and only a short sword to recover his remains. I low-crawled and snuck about for hours.... well, that's because I actually got lost in the dark. The point is, I didn't get the body, but I managed to survive after being discovered and chased down with more death spells than you can imagine, and then hiding under a rough camo-cover I had on me. I was SCARED. My character's life MEANT something to me, and that rush of adrenaline wouldn't be the same if it just meant resurrecting without risk of perm'ing.
(3) Player deaths keep the Average Player Level (APL) down. As the APL continues to climb, so does the damage curve, and the disparity between starting characters and established ones. The math gets worse, newbies may have more trouble integrating into the existing game, and things can start to get down right silly.
Con's
(1) With death always around the corner, a player might be hesitant to invest the time and money into their character. Sure, I'd love to order that awesome brigadine armor, or custom make a latex sword with my family's crest built into the crossguard, but what if that character dies next month? What, does my next character just happen to use the same $100 cuirass that I bought off of ebay?
(2) This game is about being all you can't be, right? But when the charcater that you loved so much dies, where do you typically go? WARNING! I'm about to make a GROSS over-generalization about players here, but based on my own personal experiences. Here's the typical order of character types that I see players make, after each of their characters perm:
Player Bob's 1st character: Pretty much "Bob", but braver. He tries to get involved, plays the hero, and is generally a decent guy.
Player Bob's 2nd character: Bob makes a "wacky" character, maybe a Scavenger or combat-happy Orc, who adopts a care-free and frivolous life full of fighting and/or merry-making. Often has a funny or squeeky voice.
Player Bob's 3rd character: Bob is now gruffer, perhaps meaner, maybe even evil. Probably human. He's seen it all, done it all (Even if he's 1st level), and typically doesn't bat an eyelash when a Liche walks into town.
In my own experiences, players tend to cycle through these characters simply because they don't want to play, or be thought of as playing, the same character "type" twice in a row. It's like we feel that we're required to change things up. Like I said, I'm painting with a very large brush here, but that's how it often seemed to me in the chapters I played.
I have some ideas for this, but this post is already too long. I know that I rambled a bit, but if anyone has any thoughts or suggestions regarding the above, or about the differences between Euro larps and ours, I'd love to hear them.
God, I need to get some sleep.
EDIT: Corrected some spelling errors. I'm sure there's plenty more.