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[serpentstar]

From oxfordgirl 's blog:

'I find it hard to get into tabletop RPGs. Especially since I discovered and identified exactly the sort of high-immersion, character-driven adrenaline-junkie all-IC-all-the-time LARPing that really hits the spot for me, I've been wondering if the style simply... wasn't for me. A nice way to spend an evening, but on a par with "

Comments

[serpentstar]

Mmm, makes sense, yeah. I find if I pick the right games (no flying!), LRP gets me more immersed, generally, but I think that the right games & the right GMs can have that happen in tabletop, too.

[serpentstar]

Aye, true enough, for sure.

Again -- there are ways around it (were I running an LRP event in a setting of my own devise, I'd be sure to rule that oil and/or canvas weren't flammable enough for that to work -- attempts to referee setting fire to tents never work well).

And, again, in a well-run LRP game, it's *very* rare that you need to make that kind of interruption -- certainly it should happen less often than (say) a tabletop game gets interrupted by loo breaks, tea breaks, etc...

[the_themiscyran]

I have never experienced a LARP that didn't make me giggle while attempting to play it, which tends to throw me right out of enjoying myself, or any character development. To be fair, I have also never been involved in one that looks like as immersive and well-staged as the sort you regularly participate in, so that probably makes a difference

[renniek]

I like both - much as I like both red and white wine - they have different advantages and disadvantages. LRP probably has the edge for me - but that's partly due to a close group of LRPer friends. LRP has also caused me more annoyance - probably due to never having read any tabletop-based internet noticeboards. Unlike (seemingly) pretty much everyone else, I like missions - I don't call them "linears" because when well written they're often not linear (PLP is fab - but it's good to have something happening even if other players are being dull) and I don't mind battleboarding (coz it allows for more complicated rules, which allows for more difference from reality. While I appreciate good phys-repping etc, I want a character with different qualities to me - appearance, skills, opinions and more. Above all, I want a character who doesn't have MS. I can fake that pretty well - but not if faking it requires the ability to beat a 6ft bloke in a physical fight while keeping my balance on an uneven slope...).

[heliograph]

Tabletop is an improv radio play, but LARP is improv theater. Both have their weaknesses and strengths.

I've had fun with both, but the biggest disadvantage of the LARP form (in my experience) is that it takes place in real time: there's no fast forwarding, rewinding, or skipping over the scene-changing bits. In a short game that isn't a problem, but in a MIT Assassin's Guild 10-day-long-24-hours-a-day game, you notice. Oh brother, you notice.

Plus, what everybody else has said about imagination vs the constraints of real life. Implementing rocket packs, aerial dogfights, burning Zeppelins, or fights on top moving trains is far more difficult (and potentially dangerous) in LARPs.

I think a really well run game in either format can be a lot of fun.