LARPing

[RunsWithLegos]

OI. LARPing is awesome.


How I LARP:
THE Z-GAME
Me and my friends play a Zombie survival larp game, We use nerf guns[no darts] and the zombies 'level up' as they die, like a new zombie would go down after maybe, 2 seconds of sustained fire, and one who has been around a while and died around... 10-20 times can take up to 15 seconds. it works pretty well.

We play in a 15 block chunk of town.



We generally have the games last around 2-5 hours max. with only 15-30 people, our game is not to big. We also put indoors off limites. our game is centered around running, hiding, and awesome last stands.

Most games are held in day, but around a third are at night. which just intensifies the fear. I swear some one is going to get PTSD from this game.


Most of our players are middle schoolers, freinds of a freinds brothers and what not, they generally don't last long, me and my 6-7 high shooler friends make up the backbones of both forces.

Generally the humans start out as one big group. and as the alpha zed whittles away the stragglers they generally start to break up, and go separate ways, by the middle of the game there is generally 2-3 groups of 5 humans roaming the city, and at least 10 zombies dogging their heels.



The Newer zeds normally do kamikazes, to level up, and some times[when they are orginized] to funnle the survivors into an ambush by the high level zombies. One tactic i love to use when i am the Alpha is to constantly harry the umies. keep them from getting comfortable, I am one of the fastest in our group so i can be on them in a matter of seconds. once i killed three kids in two seconds.

every death makes a Zombie stronger so they are harder to kill; there is no Set kill count, it is entierly up to the honor system, a zombie dies when he thinks he has been shot enough. this actually has worked perfectly so far. and the "leveling" system is actually just implementing player frustration into a working game mechanic.

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any one else LARPed before?

[GeneralOfDeath]

No, but I've heard of it, and your scenario sounds great!

[razgriz 25th inf.]

that kind of LARPing sounds interesting, not the nerd sweat soaked knight costumes. this gives me an idea....

[Cpl. Halan]

Airsoft is kinda LARPing, but no, I've never tried LARPing.

[Rev. Sylvanus]

I think two videos would be particularly interesting to the LARP discussion.

The first is a documentary from Goucher College on the making of the LARP game humans vs zombies

The second is a series of interviews that are essential viewing for anyone thinking of spending their late thirties living in their mothers' basements.  LARPing also applies.

Rev.

[RunsWithLegos]

The first is a documentary from Goucher College on the making of the LARP game humans vs zombies

Rev.

We found out about HvZ about a month after we started playing what we call the Z-Game

No, but I've heard of it, and your scenario sounds great!

Yeah, the Z-game has been a staple of my groups activities for a year and a half. the stories we have from the multitudes of sessions will last a life time.

[razgriz 25th inf.]

one question: how do you play with no darts? pretend shooting doesn't cut it, and the darts limited range makes up for the zombies not having a gun at all.

[RunsWithLegos]

one question: how do you play with no darts? pretend shooting doesn't cut it, and the darts limited range makes up for the zombies not having a gun at all.

Pretend shooting has indeed worked. and the pretend bullets also have a range, because no one wants to die to a kid shooting a pistol from a block away. In addition, the Zedz get Stronger over time. this counteracts the no gun deal-y-o.

[Ross_Varn]

Hrm... From what I've seen, pretend shooting would lead to even less kills than nerf darts themselves. Could you tell us the mechanics that you use for combat?

[RunsWithLegos]

I can try.

Damage is linked to volume of fire more then anything else.
Such as, 1 zombie up ageist 10 humans is going down quickly.

What kind of gun does matter, because some one is going to 'accept' getting killed by an MG easier then say a pistol.

It is all very Honor system based.
Frankly, i am very surprised it even works, let alone  that it works near perfectly for us.

[razgriz 25th inf.]

hmmm. skeptical cult is fraught with skeptisim.

[RunsWithLegos]

hmmm. skeptical cult is fraught with skeptisim.

and rightfully so, I find it extremely surprising that this game works. But is does, we are planning on filming it sooner or later.

[GeneralOfDeath]

Have one of they players be the guy holding the camers.  Like a CNN reporter.

[RunsWithLegos]

Have one of they players be the guy holding the camers.  Like a CNN reporter.

I plan on doing that, or using a helmet cam.

any tips on how to make the camra steady even if i am running?

[razgriz 25th inf.]

a "steady rig". they can be expensive though.