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Shade's Live Action Role Playing (LARP) List: Forums
Shade's LARP List :: View topic - LARPing in the Winter
Joined: Jun 14, 2003 Posts: 152 Location: Southwest Florida
Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2004 1:03 pm Post subject: LARPing in the Winter
Well, here in Detroit, MI it's a balmy 17 degrees Fahrenheit outside. That's -8 degrees Celsius for all you folks who use the logical measurement standards.
There's a good 5 inches of snow on the ground.
Do you folks LARP out of doors in the winter?
If so, why and how?
If not, why and do you continue your game in doors or break until the weather is nice?
What are the pros to LARPing in winter?
What are the cons to LARPing in winter?
Bill _________________ "Friends are people who know the words to the song in your heart, and sing them back to you when you have forgotten them." -Anonymous
Joined: Jul 07, 2003 Posts: 606 Location: Mikkeli, Finland
Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2004 1:33 pm Post subject:
Bill, -8 degrees celcius is warm compared to finnish winter... -20 degrees celsius is no stranger to us and even -35 to -40 is possible even in southern/central Finland. And there is half a meter of snow in my hometown Mikkeli just now...
Yes, we larp in winter.
If so, why and how?
Why should we stop? Just add more clothing...
Larping in winter is authentic and fun. Coldness gives you a little bit of edge and when you are miserable because of the cold you can think how would your character feel about that rich lord that drag him to middle of nowhere just to have negotiation with his rival...
And cold is hell to your weapons, but hey, no fighting then...
EDIT : as you all see, everything is bigger and/or better in Finland. Men. Cold. Food. Drinking. Horns. Even tents and weapons... (Ask people that are regulars at Visby medieval happening... They'll tell ya)... *lol* I just could not resist adding this to my message. _________________ Very few rules, very good games and ... Awesome food.
Here in Italy it's a mere -2 Celsius, with bottoms of -10 sometimes.
We do LARP in winter.
How? Wear warmer clothes. Use more leather. The only problem are those girls who do not want to let their leather miniskirt home in favor of a pair of warmer trousers... tsk!
LARPing in winter is great. It makes you feel like a real adventurer.
Beside, here we don't have the problem of cold winter, but we have damn hot summers. It's normal in July to play at 30 Celsius and more. Sweat flows like river, humidity is high (Italy is no dry place), when you go under some tree for shadow you suffocate because of humidity.
Last time a girl fainted during a game. Everyone's comment was "strange, she even has few clothes on... not even armor!" Yep, she wore a 2 pieces. I mean, it was almost like a swimsuit. A very High-Fantasy swimsuit, but a swimsuit anyway. Nothing else. Lots of other people wore leather armor, chain armor, clothes that actually covered some part of their bodies... but nobody but her fainted.
If you ask why did we let her play, with that not-very-in-tone-with-the-game suit, well...
we are all men; we were all single (I got engaged only last month); she was stunning; that swimsuit was SHORT!!!; Homer Simpson rules.
And I agree, everything in Finland is bigger. But not better.
We have the best-looking fantasy suits (see above), the best looking monsters (you should have seen the Dragons I had to fight in a LARP I attended 3 years ago! 5 meters high! Flames from their mouth!), and the most gorgeous women. _________________ Lo Zeno
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OuT Of mY MiNd. BaCk iN FiVe mInUtEs,
Joined: Jul 07, 2003 Posts: 606 Location: Mikkeli, Finland
Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2004 2:54 am Post subject:
LoZeno : That's because finnish larper women don't wea... Let's not talk about this. *lol* btw : I still have weakness for green/blue body paint and I HAVE seen a suit that could be same as your description with a woman who makes men drool... Painted blue. Horrible combo. Poor me. *lol* I admit that our monsters are usually very poorly done... They are almost invisible (no monsters). And gorgeous women... Well, I have always fancied irish women and finn's do have a certain advantages, but I could almost let you win on this (Claire Forlani has italian origins even though she's american, right?)... *lol*
We are also used to hot summers, 30+ celsius. I'm very happy that it's not all summer and every day. I hate larping when this happens. Give me -30 degrees, I'll be fine. But +30 is horrible. Horrible. I don't like hot weather. I try to spend my time in water, which makes me kind of poor player for some characters. ("Hey, what's the high priest doing in the lake?" "Beats me, he has been there for all day. Said something about blessing the fishes" And no, this has not happened yet) Last summer, we had one of the longest heat waves in last hundred years and I thanked gods that I did not have to play in more than two events (I was working). Playing a goblin was fine, I just took it easy, drank some mead and had a nap... Playing a wizard with a black robe was horrid...
And just to make this message more than OffTopic :
Biggest problem in winter larping is finding a place for the game. some of my favourite places are old building, heated with fireplaces, not electricity. c-c-c-cold. And because places we are used to are situated in woods, even the electricity might have some problems. Worst case scenario : -20 degrees of celsius. Kitchen lights don't work, have to use outdoor kitchen that has electric stove/oven, but is not warm. Well is covered with ice. Have to use lake (it took four hours to make the hole... but it was big enough to swim in...). Heating system down. Only on room has fireplace. People sleep there and in the sauna. GM's use smaller room. GM's are quite sick at sunday. And we had outdoor wc (no flushing, just a hole... and NO heating ever). Game was good. And authentic. And surviving made you feel like a hero. _________________ Very few rules, very good games and ... Awesome food.
Here in California, the coldest it will get it like +25 F. To me..that is DA** cold!!!!!
But for you finnish guys, probably calling me a baby. But it gets about +107 in the summer.
My Larp, we larp in the winter, it's the only best time. During the summer we lay off larp a little, except for early morning and late evening to night play.
We put on lots of clothes, plastic baggies to keep water out of our socks and go at it.
We only get like .25" of a inch of snow every 4-5 years. So no snow here. I'd like to try LARP in the snow, sounds fun.
Jupe said "Game was good. And authentic. And surviving made you feel like a hero."
Ya to stay alive from the enviroment and then the monsters, I'd say I'd feel happy enough to be alive!!
Not a lot of monsters for us too...seems that they prefer their caves and wherever monsters live. However...undead or bigger monsters do (which means they are wearing thicker clothing, hahaha). _________________ Letting players live shows the GM has s sense of humor..
Joined: May 02, 2002 Posts: 158 Location: New York
Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2004 3:57 pm Post subject: Winter...
My home group just moves to the indoor site. Take a few months off from exploring the woods and stick to exploring dungeons I use to like cold weather LARPing, but as a get older I care less as less for it.
I think the only con to LARPing in the winter for players is that they have to wear more garb to keep warm.
The real pain in the butt is for the poor staff and NPCs. Everything takes twice as long to set up in the snow, wind, or rain.
The indoor site idea is the way to go. Spend a few hours in the maze, then head back down to the tavern for a warm up.
Joined: Jul 12, 2002 Posts: 1060 Location: Auckland, New Zealand
Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2004 6:30 pm Post subject:
This conversation makes me really want to play a snow game. I wonder if I could organise one down at Mt Ruapehu, where they filmed some of the Lord of the Rings. Obviously not the high-mountain stuff like they used for Caradhras, but pottering around lower in the winter could be an option.
I'd love to do a multi-day trek through the snow with a party, stopping at tramping huts. But I'm not sure how you could keep the crew ahead of the party, and I suspect you would probably need professional guides, one for the party and one for crew. Wonder if any guides would be willing to dress up and play a role?
Joined: Jun 14, 2003 Posts: 152 Location: Southwest Florida
Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2004 8:07 pm Post subject: A question to Chief
Quote:
My home group just moves to the indoor site. Take a few months off from exploring the woods and stick to exploring dungeons
Thats the kind of stuff I was looking for.
Chief, how does that affect your logistics and the cost of your game?
Bill _________________ "Friends are people who know the words to the song in your heart, and sing them back to you when you have forgotten them." -Anonymous
I live in Michigan, just outside of Detroit. Our weather is at best mercurial - having to do with those little things called the Great Lakes. It can be hot when it's supposed to be cold and vice versa.
The LARP I've the most experience with runs a one-day in February and kicks off the year with a weekend in March. One year we recruited heavily at local gaming conventions and the newbies came out for the Feb one-day where it was warm and sunny and everyone had a blast.
The March weekend rolled around and we were hit with a snow storm and freezing temperatures. So there I was calling folks before the game and telling them poet shirts and baggy pants (the standard newbie costume) were not going to cut it. And then at the event I spent hours teaching folks how to start campfires in the snow and how to dry out deadfall.
Personally, I love it when its cold and I can break out my woolen costumes. But I'm also a fairly "outdoorsy" kind of person. I'd love to hear outdoor "horror" stories - like the time you fell asleep by the fire and ended up covered in snow.
Also - I'd love to hear about alternate events. Indoor modules. Feasts. Parties. Royal Courts.
Ryan - if you run a game with Caradhras as the setting make sure you give me plenty of notice!!!
PS - I'll take a dead of winter game over a dead of summer game any day. _________________ "Friends are people who know the words to the song in your heart, and sing them back to you when you have forgotten them." -Anonymous
Joined: Jun 20, 2002 Posts: 48 Location: Twin Cities, Minnesota, USA, home of original D&D
Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2004 12:37 am Post subject:
Minnesota, USA, gets up to +30c and has been -45c, though with this global wrming trend it has not ben below about -35c for some years. There was one year where the temperature did not get above -15c (0F) for over 100 days straight.
Larping is done in mid-winter in Minnesota, but this is strictly indoor and that meants non-combat but ROLE playing. After all, we invented D&D right here amongs my friends. Yes, I am that old, that I was among the players BEFORE D&D was ever invented, and did a bit to play-test the old, old game. Would you believe it stemmed from a WWII man-to-man combat system coupled with a campaign of the Napoleonic era wars.
Joined: Jul 07, 2003 Posts: 606 Location: Mikkeli, Finland
Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2004 2:25 am Post subject:
*starts worshipping Lord_Grey*
"We are not worthy, We are not worthy... not worthy... not worthy..."
*offers first edit D&D manual as a sacrifice*
*stops worshipping Lord_Grey*
Bill : Our campaing budgets and stuff do not really increase because of winter.
Royal Court (and Royal Weddings) is quite an usual theme for Finnish larpers. We like to play politics... The best game that I have visited was a royal court of one vassal kingdom of the great empire. We voted for independence. The game was plotting, intimidating and sweettalking, we knights and other lower nobles tryed to create a faction that could overpower dukes and other higher nobles. We succeeded in slowing things by demanding a vote for everything (at some point we demanded a vote about vouting about vouting, that was wierd...). We actually managed to get our own "man" (Sir Birgitta, a woman... we always told a joke that the only man in the Rusticanian army was a Belvorian woman... Rusticania = Empire Belvor = our kingdom) to the position of Marshal of the Kingdom and we declare our independence... And get rid of two very sneaky bastards (one duke, one count). Too bad we lost the war when Emperor invaded us. _________________ Very few rules, very good games and ... Awesome food.
(Zeno burns the D&D Red Box on a table)
"Oh Lord(Grey) bow thy mercyfull smile on us poor mortals... give us peace on this Middle-Earth..."
EHR! Sorry, got carried away
This very last weekend I had a LARP session under the snow. weather has reached the lowest temperature (concerning Italy, so no match for Jupe ) in ages: it even snowed in Venice, and if you have a vague idea of that city you'll know that it is believed to be impossible that snow falls there. We have a motto in Italy, to say "It will never happen" or "it's impossible", something like "when pigs will fly": "when it will snow in Venice". Well, Saturday did!
Well, we had our LARP session. It was a feast for my eyes, every single character had brought his/her winter suit, and evry single one looked amazing! One of the 3 camps looked like the home village of Conan shown in the first Conan film (those with the California governor 'Schwarzy'). The white-covered woods made my heart cry... sigh, it was so REAL! _________________ Lo Zeno
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OuT Of mY MiNd. BaCk iN FiVe mInUtEs,
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and go at it.
I use to like cold weather LARPing, but as a get older I care less as less for it.
) in ages: it even snowed in 