So I want to start a LARPing group in my area. Any advice for

>>8907830
tons. In fact so many that you have to narrow this down a bit.
Which country, what kind of larp, what is your target audience, have you any experience in it, what do you have for logistics, any already own equipment, etc.

>>8908454
I'm in the US, Missouri specifically. I've never larped before, I'm hoping to get about a dozen guys my age together, I don't have any equipment yet but I'm working on getting together some stuff to make mine (I'm pretty handy sewing and stuff), and I have no idea what to use for logistics.

Basically any advice you can give is very very welcome.

>>8908638
well then first of all you have to decide what kind of game you want and what is your target audience, everything else depends on this. That is, if you want to do this seriously.

the what kind of game is a very broad question with a lot of implication. Do you want it to be a fantasy boffer larp? Or scifi? or something else? Do you want it to be more of a chamber larp that doesn't need outdoor places to be played? Should it be more roleplay heavy or fighting heavy? Do you want to exclude roleplaying nearly altogether like amtgard, dagorhir and such (which would also make it into something else than a larp)? Should it be fantasy, or closer to real life medieval, or some other time period?
etc. Lots of questions and these are just a few examples, but if you can answer these then the answers will create the main structure of your game.

About the target audience, you will have to consider how many players you want for the game, what kind of players you want and such. For example if you want a roleplay heavy game but advertise it for people who want to only fight then obviously both you and the players will be dissapointed. Deciding the target audience is mostly about deciding what kind of people won't be interested in your game because this and the "what kind of game you want" will also be the base of a lot of other things, like how complex the rules system should be and such.

(Not Op)'m starting a new Larp with blackJack and hookers. I've got 10+ years of Amtgard and I'm just driven to tears over the game now a days.
Ideal I want to create a persistent world in which the characters can interact with something similar to Drachenfest. Reagent based spellcasting to limit it's "availabilty" and professions to encourage player interaction. Starting small of course I've got no idea how to lure people away from Dickswords and jeans/tabbard outside if setting the bar with a few well garbed individuals and making the knowedge available.

>>8908638
hello fellow Missourifag

if you're near St. Louie there's a LARP group that does things at forest park every now and then

>>8910236
>Starting small of course I've got no idea how to lure people away from Dickswords and jeans/tabbard outside if setting the bar with a few well garbed individuals and making the knowledge available.
you don't. As I said, different target audiance. Those who only want to do dickswords and tabards and enjoy it don't want to go to other games (and lets be honest, the huge majority of amtgard players doesn't really care about roleplaying). Those who only go there because there is no other option and it's better than nothing will come to your game eventually if it won't die out in the first few tries. And purposefully luring away people from other games is a dick move which can easily brand you and your game in the eyes of others.
Setting standards is a good idea but that's another longer subject that can be come after the core stuff is ready

Also drachenfest is a special case, you can learn a few stuff from it but a lot of things only work because of their player base and because it's fuckhuge. Like their rules which is a total mess and in truth nobody cares about it, everyone is just playing it by the ear.
(Also figuring out of the world is among the last steps)
But the reagent based spellcasting is a good idea IF you are prepared to fill the playing area with reagents every day, and maybe more than once, and prepare for the opportunity of what if one guy gets all of it at the very beginning of the game,


Anyway as I see, you want more roleplay than the standard boffertag, restricted magic, good garbs, but still with fight oriented, right?

>>8910316
That's the long and short of it. A throwback to quests that take place.around the player. If you want drink your life away in a tavern or piss off a noble, farm mushrooms you can, but there is also a goblin army aproachimg and off to the east is a dragons lair.
Something where people can play characters not just dudes in medieval land.

>>8910974
I think if you try to include all of those it will quickly became a mess. Especially if for example the approaching goblin army is made out of five dudes in black tshirts, which can be seen in way too many larps, sadly.

Also "questing" has it's own bad habits too, tends to make the game bland and way too monotone when creativity runs out.
There are several methods and ways on how to organize the _story_ of the larp and questing is just one of them. But we are getting ahead of ourselves.

how do you feel about rules light systems? Because in my experience, the more rules there are the more restricted the game became and people care more about that than how they look or how they play their character

>>8907830
>>8899104

>>8911875
I'm all for rules light. As far as I dish rock paper sicisors for combat. I'd like definite mechanics for professions like healing and.blacksmithing. but magic would be limited to spellballs at most, "true" invisibility.
I was toying with the Idea of making QR codes for in game objects but depending on setting it would break immersion

>>8912408
Armor mechanics as well id like.to see it actually be useful outside of arbalative taps

>>8912408
you only need rules for what you can't represent good enough IRL. That's usually fighting and magic. Professions need very little game mechanics, only a few sentence n how a player should act it out (however he wants as long as it's believable) and what the end result will be system wise.
You shouldn't go too specific with any rules because the more specific you get the more loopholes there will be and sooner or later there will be clusterfuck.
And this is the point where deciding the target audience and what kind of larp you want to run helps. Every time when you can't decide how specific something should get or should you have rules for X you look back at what is your target audience and the larp you want and ask "Will this be enjoyed by those people? Will this benefit that kind of game?"

for example the QR code thing isn't a good idea for any fantasy larp because people will need their phones for it which already breaks immersion, but then have to use it. A few seconds later they will already start messing with their phone and put more attention to it than to the game.

About magic the best approach I've seen so far is limited combat spells, or maybe none at all, and every other spell needs some kind of ritual or preparation. The point is, when someone looks at a caster casting shit they could SEE that yeah that's doing magic from an in character viewpoint (I'm not talking about that the player should know system wise what it is) and preferably make an option for interactions. Just tearing up a paper and babbling a sentence obviously won't make much opportunity for roleplaying, nor pointing at a dude and telling him he takes X amount of damage

And armor... that's a tricky part for balance reasons and everyone has a different taste in it. In my opinion armor has to be overpowered. But that means a different thing when the whole game is just afternoon and when the whole game is three days long.

>>8912429
Ideal i.would.like the characters 'life' to mean something more than a death count to 500 seconds. I've got the notion to try and make higher tiers of armor immune to regular wepon hits. You would have to two hand it with some wind up to 'dent' plate armor or puncture lamellar.

I aprecicated the feedback. Most of thr guys I play with would laugh me out of the park for trying to do something other than Groious honarabu Amtgard.

>>8912492
well one of the games where I play do something along that line. You cna look at it's core rules here
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fegEm6sBD_TAs6HqO4LjnKn5_okXLN8no8ARoiSn7Jc/edit

>>8912525
Fantastic. I've been trying to get my hands of every ruleset for larping.