It’s a great day out so you decide to go for a walk. As you walk along you pass by a park. For the most part, it’s empty. Then out of nowhere, you hear a battle cry. As you spin, you see two groups charging toward each other with weapons. They meet in the center and begin to fight.
I know you all have seen the LARPers in the park at one point or another. If you haven’t, then the easiest way to explain LARPing is a group of people that get together and fight with padded weapons. LARPing is a lot more than just that.
Oh sure, I can imagine what goes through most people’s minds when they see the larp group. “Weird.”
“Scary.”
“What the heck?….”
“…O.o…”
“Nerds.”
I’ll admit, like most people, I judged it too. When I first heard of larping, I thought, “That’s kind of odd…” However, I am open to trying new things. So when a friend of mine told me about it and asked me to come, I thought to myself, “Why not?” And as it turns out, I had a ton of fun.
The larpers are all very friendly and were nice enough to take it semi-easy on me for a bit. But after a while, I was fair game. Needless to say, I learned fast! You can’t be timid at all when it comes to hitting people because if you are the others will see this and attack .
Larping isn’t just random. There are several different games to play. For example, Chaos is everyone vs. everyone and when you “die” you are out. Zombies is one zombie killing off everyone so they can make them zombies as well. Capture the Flag is another game that I’m sure everyone has played but this in this version, you get to have weapons. This is more adventurous than the little kid version. Or you could play Warlords, where if you kill someone, they come back on your team and the game ends when everyone is on one team. There are more games but these are just a few I have heard of.
And there are rules such as no head or neck shots. If you get hit in the chest or back, then you die. If you are playing zombies, you are only dead for five seconds. If your arm or leg is hit then you are no longer able to use it.
Sometimes the LARPers will dress up in homemade costumes. I have seen a Viking, pirate, and some medieval looking costumes. The weapons are also homemade. They are created using PVC pipe, camping foam, and duct tape. Making a sword can take two hours.
Next time you walk by and see the larpers, introduce yourself! They are nice. They’re just people like you and me wanting to exercise and have fun outside. If you feel like trying something new, ask to join in a game or two. You’ll end up surprised at how much fun you have!