How long have you been LARPing?
In 1995, my friend Tim Delong that I was in Computer Science with at George Mason brought me to VALOR. It was a three day, and I was totally hooked.
What do you enjoy about LARPing?
Are you kidding? It is like playing D&D (or whatever game you like) but you get to DO it instead of sit at the table. I am an athletic person so I like the opportunity to use my fencing skills and also jump and leap about and pretend I'm acrobatic. Besides that, when you get with some good role players, it is truly amazing. Plus you are at a place with a bunch of people who enjoy the same things you do and are instant friends.
What do you not enjoy, and/or what would you change in LARPs?
I play for the role playing, primarily. I don't
care about levels,
power, magic items, etc. I wish that the pure "power gamers" would
at least try to do some role playing. I hate it when characters just do what
will give them more stats/power rather than doing any roleplaying.
Do you run games? If so, tell us about one (what was it, how did you do it, etc.?)
I haven't run an entire LARP before. I do run D&D and Paranoia, my favorite tabletop games. A few of my plot ideas have been used. A major storyline for a weekend that I wrote was used recently at NERO Piedmont in NC. At least, I think so, I haven't heard how it went yet.
What was your favorite role/costume that you have done?
Wow, it is really hard to say. Part of my favorite
stuff is throwing
myself totally into random NPCs that I play, making them more than just speed
bumps to kill. One time at a METRO event I was part of a goblin group and
I was poisoned (gas) and wandered into the woods. When I (the goblin) found
out that the rest of my buddies were dead, I became the "Avenging Goblin",
hiding in the trees waiting to ambush the evil humans. I leaped out in front
of a half-Ogre (Zug Zug, played by Tiny) and screamed, "I am the avenging
goblin! You killed my brothers! I will kill you all!" in a high pitched
goblin voice. I think I freaked the hell out of Tiny too, it was great. Then,
they all killed me, of course.
What was one of your favorite moments in a LARP, and why?
If you have played LARPs as long as I have, you
probably have 53,692 stories. In fact, I have observed that LARPers could
spend the entire weekend trading stories instead of playing the game. For
some reason, tabletop doesn't seem to generate these kind of great moments,
because I have never sat around for hours swapping tabletop stories. Most
of my stories are funny but I'll tell you a more sentimental one. Every December
at METRO in Virginia I would play my minstrel character, Redberry, and bring
my guitar. I found out that another girl there, Sarah, knew an old colonial
era madrigal that I performed. So, it kind of became a "Christmas"
tradition for us to sing the song. One of
these Decembers we actually had the lights turned off and the room was lit
by candles. We sang together "Blow the Candles out." It was an almost
magical experience, I miss that tradition.
How do you work LARPing into your "normal" life? What do your friends and family think about it?
I wrote an article for that LARP magazine a while ago, explaining how many of us tell folks that we are going "camping" for the weekend. So that is what I tell some people. My friends and family are actually pretty cool with it, and of course some of my friends play.
What kind of LARPs do you like? What elements?
I do like the boffer LARPs, I like the physical
element of running,
fighting, and hiding. My main character is a rogue and over the years I've
actually gotten pretty good at hiding and sneaking up on people. However,
I have had some GREAT fun at conventions where there is just a one-shot weekend
LARP. A friend of mine ran one once where I got to play, literally, "Undead
Elvis." I even had a performance and played Jailhouse Rock for the other
LARPers.
Where do you see the state of the LARP at now, and where do you see it going?
My gosh, I have no idea. I think in some way it
will always be
relegated to the ultra-nerdy label, since most people think we are absolutely
nuts. One time we were at a sci-fi convention in Raleigh where we were LARPing,
but there was also an investors convention there. I was hanging by the elevator
in costume when a meeting let out, and the investors all walked by. Many of
them stopped to make fun of me. A lady said, "Isn't it a bit early for
Halloween, honey?" Another man came up to me with his lighter (I am not
making this up) and kept flicking it at me saying, "Fire, Fire!"
Another guy asked if we knew we were grown-ups. I will always love LARP but
I don't think it will ever become mainstream. That's ok really, I quite enjoy
being a freak. I'll take a LARP, or a con, or an SCA gathering any day over
a boring investor's meeting.
--END INTERVIEW--