LARP in San Jacinto, CA?

[gablet123]

Hey, me and my friend are interested in LARP and we need to do one close so is there one in San Jacinto or no?...if so how could we start one?
Please reply soon, THANKS!

[RyanPaddy]

If you could travel to Houston city, there are probably some larps run out of there.

What sort of larp are you interested in? Fantasy with live combat, horror, vampire intrigue, something else? Folks here can give advice on running all sorts of different larp styles if you want to start one.

[gablet123]

We are interested in fantasy with live combat
I heard about people talking about some where you actually have countries and have wars and whoever wins rules, So i think it would be cool to have one of those
Any advice to starting one?

[RyanPaddy]

Seeing we're talking about starting a larp rather than finding one, I'll move this discussion to the "Organizing LARPs" forum soon if that's okay.

If you want to run a live-combat game in the US, you'll need the following:

1) Some weapons. You can make these cheaply in the US "boffer" style, someone here can probably point you to instructions for making them. Alternatively if you've got some money to spare you could invest in latex weapons from somewhere like these guys: http://www.latex-weaponry.com - for example they have quite nice long swords for US$78 each with free shipping.

2) Some rules. They don't have to be complex, they can be as simple as having a number of Hit Points, each strike removing 1 Hit Point, and when you reach 0 Hit Points you're out of play.

3) Somewhere to play. Local parks, forest, or farmland can all work well, just depends on what's available to you.

You can also have costumes, a written setting, and rules for conquering each other's land if you're keen on that style of play.

One larp in the US in which players conquer each other's lands is Darkon, although that looks to be built for large number of players. You'll probably have a smaller number, and something simpler may work just as well.

If you just want a wargame, then you could simply draw up a map of a fantasy setting, divide it up into geographical areas (like the areas in the boardgame Risk), decide who starts with control of which areas, and then take turns fighting out battles to try to conquer each other's and expand the area you rule. Let's say you had ten players. When player A tries to conquer some of player B's land, A and B pick teams from the remaining players to play their "armies", and you have one or more fights to determine whether the invader or the defender wins. Then you move onto the next conflict.

Obviously you could add more to that - healing, magic, monsters, etc. But if you're just starting out and getting used to things, something as simple as that could be fun.

If you want more roleplaying - actually acting as your characters and pursuing goals as individuals rather than just as fighting countries - then you'll need a more involved setting and more personalised reasons for players to interact rather than just fighting. You could still build the setting on top of the idea of countries at war, though.

[gablet123]

You can move it if you like, Thanks for the tips!
I think it's gonna be really fun
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[RyanPaddy]

Yeah, me and my mates had a blast when we first started doing live combat. We were only about thirteen, we would meet in parks and try out different wargames with our home-made weapons and shields to get a feel for them. Then we gradually built up into more quest-like games with more roleplaying, then eventually into weekend-long games with more immersive settings.

Have you done much other sorts of roleplaying, like in tabletop games or online games?

[dicemistress]

I've actually written a piece on Creating a LARP. You might find it of some help if you want to start a LARP of your own.

- Amber E.
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Mortalis Games /// Journeys to another world

[BaronBlackRose]

There are many groups in california. If you are just interested in fantasy combat. There are groups there for that. Dagor hir, Amtgard etc. There are groups and guilds out there as well that are fantasy and historical. That do renassance fair. Along with their own events.
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Just when you thought the worse was over. Here I am. :0)

[RyanPaddy]

Ah crap - I thought you were in was San Jacinto county, Texas! Should have looked more closely at your location.

I should leave advice on the US to people who live there, rather than trying to Google it.