Outside the Realms - Realm of LARP

There is a new Unscripted Reality Series About LARPing. The Nerdist Channel, a youtube channel, has created a documentary which follows the characters of 5 players as they interact at events. It looks fairly interesting thus far. Why has no one done this in the Realms before...and why aren't plans in motion for it?

Outside the Realms - LARPs can change the world

I always like it when atypical people play LARPS and RPGs. Here is an interview with the new Norwegian Minister of International Development wherein he talks about his history playing LARPS and RPGs. One of the interesting comments is...

"LARP can change the world, because it lets people understand that humans under pressure may act differently than in the normal life, when you’re safe."

Outside the Realms - Shade's LARP List

Shade's LARP List is a website whose mission is to keep a list of all LARPs throughout the world. It is fairly comprehensive, though at times outdated (broken links, etc). In fact we are on the list as Realms of Wonder. Of particular note is the fact that there are announcements of upcoming events on the front page. One thing I would like to see is for someone (not me) to figure out how those announcements are placed and then get announcements of our events up there on a regular basis.

There is a similar site that lists various LARPs throughout the world at TheLARPER. I could not find the Realms anywhere on the site, but I believe the site is fairly new. It would be cool if we were there as well. More public exposure can only help our game.

Outside the Realms - 10/21/11

Modesty and costuming at LARPs
Here is an interesting article on how to dress modestly while we play. While the Omnibus does not cover the topic of modesty in costuming (other than the topic of real world laws being applicable) this is a good article if you are worried about such things. The link to the article can be found here.
This is an intersting topic and one I do not has ever been touches on before within our community. What are your thoughts on costume modesty? Are we in a good place so far with modesty? Do you think we could get away with a bit more? Do you think there are some costumes at recent events that push the boundaries of what you are comfortable with? 

Geeks wanted for Fantasy Transformation TV Show
Apparently the cable channel Animal Planet is putting together a TV show wherein a person puts together a fantasy based costume and then the costume will get tricked out by professional costume designers, prop masters and special effects. They are actively looking for people to send in video tapes of their costumes and ideas. The link to the article can be found here and it includes an address of where to send your video.
This looks like something made for us.

The Infection is Spreading
Some students at Michigan Tech University are participating in a Humans vs Zombies LARP. In this article here, it outlines some of the basic rules (thrown socks are used to spread the disease) wherein the goal is to survive as a human. However, as some of the uninfected become infected and thus turned into zombies, the number of attacking zombies spreads. This looks a lot like the old Assassin games but with Zombies.

Outside the Realms - Violence on Campus

While doing some research for a new Outside the Realms article I came across an article on LARPing at the Kennesaw State University that was posted this past Tuesday. In a nutshell, the writer asks the question, “Should a LARP group be banned from the campus for promoting violence?” I recommend you go and read the article here for a better understanding of what the writer is saying. The comments are also interesting.

To be honest I have not heard of such an attitude in our area, though I could be wrong. I have not had to deal with school or town authorities when it comes to using a practice site, though I suspect there may have been difficulties in the past for some people.

Have you ever had to deal with this type of situation? How would you handle it? What would you say to such a person?

Outside the Realms - 9/23/11 Roundup

Here is a roundup of some interesting articles from around the internet that deal with LARPing. 

Umstead Park hosts epic battles

The North Raleigh News has an article by a writer who went to a LARP in his area of North Carolina. It was interesting reading an outsider's view on what we do. One of the people he talked with said, "You can sit around and play video games all day all by yourself, but with friends and being around people and stuff, it's way better." You can find the article here.

LARP: Prayers on a Porcelain Altar

From the UK we have a look at a different type of LARP style. There is no boffer combat, but it still may be of interest to some of our player base. Basically, you play the character of someone who just woke up with a hangover after a party. From there things go downhill. You can find the article here.

Screw It, I'll Play Make Believe

The Documentary Channel is doing a, well, a documentary on LARPs. I am not sure what cable channel that is in our area, but if someone manages to catch it, can you let us know how it is. Of course, it is airing at 2am. You can find the article here. 

Advice for First-Time Roleplayers

Over at the website Lizzie Stark, they give some pointers for players about to attend their first LARP. There is some good basic advice there for newer players such as "When in doubt, just introduce yourself". You can check out the article here. They also have an older article on being a first-time event holder here.

Outside the Realms - Kingdom of Diddorol

Today we're going to take a big step away from the Realms and take a look at something unique that is happening in "our backyard". The Kingdom of Diddorol is a fictional fantasy world wherein there are multiple provinces, a back story for each, a barter and trading system, character classes and levels, and quests to pursue. It is mostly run on-line and there is a single Gamemaster, but much as a LARP, there are some real world locations the players can go to and play at. Where is this place? The Middle School in Barrington, NH (about 15 minutes from my house).

This is a project set up by an English teacher as a means to promote language. Each province is meant to highlight one of the Six Traits of Writing. A player gains experience and items not only through barter but writing as well. Writing a set number of pages earns points. These points are augmented by writing within certain constraints (such as genre), having the right tools (word wands-pencils, Janus tome-notebook, etc) and timeliness.

All together this looks like a teacher trying to make writing fun, exciting and something more than just an assignment to hand in. I find it fascinating he has chosen to go with an rpg or LARP type of style. A link to his web page can be found here. Did I mention one of the provinces is named Dolphinia; is this guy a genius or what?!

Outside the Realms - Movies

Following last week’s article on a new movie with strong ties to LARPing, I decided to take a look at LARPs in movies in general. There are quiet a few out there. Here are some of those…

Darkon 

This is a documentary based on an SCA inspired LARP based out of the Baltimore, MD, region of the US and was released in 2006. It seems to be highly regarded as it won the Best Documentary Audience Award at the 2006 South By Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival in Austin, Texas, where it premiered. It also has scored a positive 89% at the Rotten Tomatoes movie review site.

Monster Camp 

Another documentary released in 2007, this one follows a branch of NERO out in Seattle, Washington. It followed the players in that LARP for about a year. I do not believe it was ever given a wide release but according to the producers it won 4 Best Documentary awards at various film festivals.

The Wild Hunt

This 2009 drama/horror was given a fairly large release, though not in our area. It was a low-budget film and from everything I have heard did not make a lot of money, though it did win some minor film awards. It is a fictional story wherein a boyfriend follows the girlfriend that jilted him and the interactions of a “mundane” as he tries to interact with her during an event.

Role Models

A purely comedic film from 2008, this was less about LARPing and more about the main characters and the problems they cause for themselves. They are forced to interact with a group of LARPers as a form of community service so the LARP aspect is more of a background than at the forefront. This movie is the biggest exposure to LARPing the general public has had to date, the movie raking in $98 million.

By the way, if anyone has seen any of these movies and wants to do a review on them, especially on how they portray LARPing, we would love to post such a review.

Outside the Realms - Knights Of Badassdom

This is the first of an irregular series looking at LARP related news that do not pertain specifically to the Realms.

Coming up next year is a new movie with heavy ties into LARPs. It is Knights of Badassdom. On wikipedia the movie is described as "a group of live action roleplayers accidentally summon a demon from the underworld". It is being billed as a horror-comedy. Given that the director, Joe Lynch, is a huge horror fan, apparently of the splatter variety we'll see how this bodes for the movie. Of course in one interview he was quoted as saying "absolute respect to culture, but still have a little fun with it. If someone sees the movie and afterwards says, 'I wanna LARP!' then we have done our jobs." so it might not be a trash-on-LARP-fest.

Of interest is that a couple of the actors are Steve Zahn and Summer Glau.

Here is a link to an online article about it along with a trailer...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/25/knights-of-badassdom-trailer-video_n_908347.html

Here is the official website...
http://knightsofbadassdom.com/