Why are most larps fantasy larps ?
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- čas přidán 23. 11. 2020
- Many have asked “Wizo, why don’t you cover other larps than fantasy larps?” I have covered Vampire the Masquerade if you want to check out a different larp, but it is true that I have only covered fantasy larps aside from Vampire.
Today, I will go over the reason why I have only gone over fantasy larps, and why there aren’t many other larps than fantasy larps out there.
Timestamps:
1:02 Larp origins
1:48 Sci-Fi larps
2:43 Progress
3:14 Sci-Fi as a larp
4:14 Core gameplay loop.
4:55 Hard to design around
5:40 Post an apocalyptic/zombie larps
6:50 The problem with post apocalyptic/zombie larps
8:46 Fring larps
9:20 Puzzle rooms and mystery larps
10:02 Audience retention
Once again, some really well-informed and informative content. A few points I would add...
Concerning Sci Fi LARPs, I agree that budget is probably the most constraining factor, especially if it's envisioned as classic Space Opera fare. I think Sci Fi could have some success if it were structured as an "away team" setting, in the vein of Star Trek, with a small crew exploring the unknown. Even then, combat would still be difficult to portray well, for the reasons you've outlined. Maybe some day we'll have hobbyist laser weapon systems to simulate Sci Fi combat, or perhaps paintball could serve as a substitute.
As for Post Apocalyptic, as someone who grew up in the 70's and 80's, I can say that the genre was pretty popular then. Think Planet of the Apes, Omega Man, Escape from New York, etc. With the Cold War looming over everything, we all thought about what a post nuclear war world would be like. And zombies go back to the 60's with George Romero. I think the lack of popularity of the genre is more because of the same reasons that Sci Fi wasn't widespread - mainly cost and logistics.
But really, I think the biggest reason they never took off is because they were overwhelmed by fantasy. And while it's true that much of fantasy's success is because of the reasons you've explained, I think there's even more to it than that. Fantasy has an unmatched appeal, even to non-D&D people. Some like the elaborate costumes, or the pseudo-historicity of pretending to be Vikings or Celts or medieval knights, even if they really don't care about the PnP games that gave rise to LARP. I don't think there's any corollary to fantasy's grand spectacle in those other genres. The theater, the dress-up... I think more grounded settings will always have a more limited appeal, and the limited player base and budgets that go along with that.
I agree with almost you in everything. The main point of contention is that post apoc didn't have a good framework from TTRPG to LARP. In that sense, the TTRPG wasn't popular. media did have some good post apoc movies, but the nerd popularity to make a game out of it.... that popularity was low. At least, from what I have seen. If I am wrong, then I would love to know more.
Playing Airsoft or paintball is essentially military LARP.
You made some really great points! Loved to hear your thoughts on it.
One of the biggest non-fantasy LARPS in the world is Model UN, but most people just don't think of it as a LARP.
Nice video. I believe your second argument, around the feasibility of SciFi in the LARP setting more impact on Sci Fi LARP popularity, than the TTRPG systems of the 80s. There were plenty of decent Sci Fi TTRPG systems in the 80s which could provide templates for creating LARPS (FASA's Star Trek, WEG Star Wars, T$R's Star Frontiers after Zebulon's guide, Traveller). Getting the real world to feel medieval or fantasy is a lot easier/less expensive that getting it to feel hi-tech sci fi. I wonder if the relative low popularity of Science Fiction games in the 80s has more to do with the low popularity of Sci Fi LARPS, rather than an fault of games system?
Another thing that might contribute to the popularity of fantasy LARPs over Sci Fi, 'Compatibility.' You can take fans of Tolkien, Howard, Leiber, Moorcock, the Warhammer mythos, Martin, Elder Scrolls etc., drop them into a generic fantasy LARP and they will likely coexist happily together. By comparison take fans of Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, Star Wars, Star Trek, Dr. Who, Heinlein, Asimov, Warhammer 40k etc. and drop them into a single LARP and you will have a chaos of cosmologic inconsistencies.
You have a strong point about the inconsistencies of cosmology. I didn't even consider how big those are to making sci-fi larps more than just small gatherings.
As for the first point, I think the TTRPG systems still provided a bigger issue than the popularity of these games. You had passionate fans of the Sci-fi setting and a lot of conventions to prove the popularity, along with the massive audiences that sci-fi has in almost all generas.
The real problem is that the TTRPG systems don't translate well into larping. A lot of sci-fi is dedicated to exploring new worlds, using weaponry, or having a ship. All of those are pretty bad (weaponry due to the nature of sci-fi weaponry) when trying to transition into larp, and are just better in every way for a TTRPG or even video game.
We could for sci-fi make the argument that the audience was also more into tech and video games of what could be, but that is a different argument.
There are a lot of problems with Sci-fi as larping, but the main issue is that any system (early on at least and even today to a point) does not translate well to larping at all. It would cost sooooo much money for each set and ugh. I don't honestly see it happening unless we find a way to make it more imaginative like we have for fantasy. "A rope is the bridge/lava/pirate ship." We need to get there and accept it for sci-fi to become a real big larp and I don't think we are even there today sadly. Would love to play an eldar from 40k and kill some Mon keighs!