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Shade's Live Action Role Playing (LARP) List: Forums
Shade's LARP List :: View topic - Comparing Nordic and Russian LRPG, anyone knows US scene?
Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2007 3:31 pm Post subject: Comparing Nordic and Russian LRPG, anyone knows US scene?
Hi I just started a blog about Russian and Nordic LRPG which I will post to from time to time http://geirtbr.wordpress.com
-The Nordic scene are quite diverse and varied, and the Russian is probably the largest in the world.
I'm actually going to do a comparison of those two scenes. But I know very little about larping in USA. My first impression, from peeking at this forum, may be that it is not so big and developed hobby "over there". On the other hand, USA is the home of the original roleplaying popculture.
Maybe anyone of you knows the US scene well, which I could talk a little to me about it? If so, drop me a message or mail.
Joined: Jul 12, 2002 Posts: 1060 Location: Auckland, New Zealand
Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2007 5:56 pm Post subject: Re: Comparing Nordic and Russian LRPG, anyone knows US scene
Geir wrote:
the Russian is probably the largest in the world
Do you have an estimate of the number of larpers in Russia?
A Wizards of the Coast survey conducted in 1999 suggests that 49% of pen & paper roleplayers there had also done larp, and that there were 5.5 million people who had done P&P roleplay. That makes an estimate of 2.7 million people who had done both larp and P&P roleplay in the USA in 1999. And that doesn't include people who had larped but not played P&P. Those numbers aren't active larpers though, just people who had larped at least once. But it does suggest that larp in the USA is pretty big. I understand that the USA has a lot of MET larp and a lot of live combat fantasy, also some theatre-style that isn't MET.
I've read estimates that there are 100,000 active larpers in Denmark. Pretty amazing for a country of some 6 million people, having some 2% of them as active larpers.
Joined: Jul 07, 2003 Posts: 606 Location: Mikkeli, Finland
Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 1:07 am Post subject:
Denmark has professional larpers... They make their living by teaching young people and children how to larp. Huge amount (70%?) of those 100k larpers are minors. _________________ Very few rules, very good games and ... Awesome food.
Joined: Jul 07, 2003 Posts: 606 Location: Mikkeli, Finland
Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 11:15 pm Post subject:
Bit of a news flash :
Denmark has a boarding school that teaches via liveroleplaying and roleplaying. It's part of their official school system (very big on boarding schools) and it's meant for 14-17 year old students.
Hells, we had that too. I often thought I was in a german spaceship when I was in school...
Cool! thanks for answers. I did not check this for a long time.
Id estimate the number of active participant in the russian roleplaying movement (or "movement", as they themselves call it) between 50000-150000, if you then count those who take part in minimum one event (play or convention) pr year. Its not really young, like in denmark, i think plays can have typically people between 20-40 years old. The russian larp scene is closely linked to the cosplay scene, and also have connections to the reenactment scene (which is big, but considered as something different). Tabletop games does not seem to be that popular there.
Im in the US for the time, and if any american players want to meet and talk about larp in the US, they can send me a message!
Joined: Jul 12, 2002 Posts: 1060 Location: Auckland, New Zealand
Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 6:17 pm Post subject:
I've read that the Russian larp scene is closely tied to Tolkien fandom, which is apparently a big cultural movement there. Is that the case in your experience? Or is it something that maybe used to be true but has evolved?
Ryanpaddy:
While the Russian roleplayers originated from Tolkien, the link now is weaker than what it used to be. I think the scene has outgrown it. The tolkien fandom is definate very strong, but my impression is that it is a little its own thing - that sometimes blends with larp, othertimes they do their own stuff (like, learning the tolkien elvish language). The tolkienists are also viewed as a little excentric by others, including the live roleplayers.
Fantasy plays are also popular, but its not my impression that its the most popular nowadays. Id say big historical plays are the "mainstream" of russian plays. But there is an enormus variety of genres, especially if one also consider smaller groups who organise plays.
If you have any questions about US LARPs, feel free to send them to me. I can't claim an encyclopedic grasp of them, but I've played several different systems and have been playing for a fairly decent amount of time.
Joined: Aug 24, 2002 Posts: 742 Location: New England
Posted: Sun May 03, 2009 9:29 am Post subject:
[quote="Glen_MoP"]If you have any questions about US LARPs, feel free to send them to me. I can't claim an encyclopedic grasp of them, but I've played several different systems and have been playing for a fairly decent amount of time.[/quote]
When I first got into Larp here in the US. It was pretty much just a bunch of friends who got together and bashed eachother with boffer weapons. I even had Tapes of a couple clubs who played. Basically it was more of a loose hobby thing. While it seemed that there were a couple businesses based on Larp in the UK. Unfortunately I never really saw UK style larp take off in the US. But then again I didn't know every group then either. Then I got to know then NERO before the big split. One stayed NERO the other became Alliance. And honestly these 2 so far that I have seen. Comes closest to UK style larp. Now I am not a professional on this. Although I used to run my own magazine in the past. Albeit it was pretty amateurish at best. To it was awful. But anyways. It all comes down to finding a single copy of GM magazine in a now defunct gaming store in Sandiego. Named Rigels books and games. They had everything a gamer ever wanted and more. Too bad they went out of business. _________________ Just when you thought the worse was over. Here I am. :0)
Joined: Aug 24, 2002 Posts: 742 Location: New England
Posted: Sun May 03, 2009 5:37 pm Post subject:
[quote="thomasaagaard"]Here in denmark the 5 largest cities have a large larp shop or two.
(they allso sell RPG, bordgames, GW, hardball..)
And I mean a big one in the main shopping street or a shoppingcenter... not a small one in a basement.
The fact that they survive (and make money) is a good proof that there is a lot of larpers here...[/quote]
I see professional LArp stores popping up online that are here in the US. I do hope to see more actual shops though. I think that would be great. Maybe something like old Portly pixie. A place to hold LArps. With changing rooms just they used to have. _________________ Just when you thought the worse was over. Here I am. :0)
Joined: Oct 17, 2003 Posts: 264 Location: Seattle, WA
Posted: Wed Jun 03, 2009 6:07 pm Post subject:
[quote="BaronBlackRose"][quote="thomasaagaard"]Here in denmark the 5 largest cities have a large larp shop or two.
(they allso sell RPG, bordgames, GW, hardball..)
And I mean a big one in the main shopping street or a shoppingcenter... not a small one in a basement.
The fact that they survive (and make money) is a good proof that there is a lot of larpers here...[/quote]
I see professional LArp stores popping up online that are here in the US. I do hope to see more actual shops though. I think that would be great. Maybe something like old Portly pixie. A place to hold LArps. With changing rooms just they used to have.[/quote]
There is a game store up here in the Seattle-Tacoma area that has a section of LARP stuff (primarily weapons and shields), however I consider that a good start.
Joined: Aug 24, 2002 Posts: 742 Location: New England
Posted: Thu Jun 04, 2009 6:34 am Post subject:
[quote="dicemistress"][quote="BaronBlackRose"][quote="thomasaagaard"]Here in denmark the 5 largest cities have a large larp shop or two.
(they allso sell RPG, bordgames, GW, hardball..)
And I mean a big one in the main shopping street or a shoppingcenter... not a small one in a basement.
The fact that they survive (and make money) is a good proof that there is a lot of larpers here...[/quote]
I see professional LArp stores popping up online that are here in the US. I do hope to see more actual shops though. I think that would be great. Maybe something like old Portly pixie. A place to hold LArps. With changing rooms just they used to have.[/quote]
There is a game store up here in the Seattle-Tacoma area that has a section of LARP stuff (primarily weapons and shields), however I consider that a good start.
- Amber E.[/quote]
That's good. I have shops who cater to the history recreationists and such. Like Empire of Adria and SCA. _________________ Just when you thought the worse was over. Here I am. :0)
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