One of the biggest issues we tend to run into as far as LARPing in the US (at least here in Ohio), is that many people don't take pride in their costume. Often, people will do what's required in order to meet certain requirements, but going above and beyond is rarer. If you take a look at our LARP brethren overseas, it seems as if this mentality is a little less dominant. But I think I've figured out the reason behind this. And it can be explained with the movie Office Space.
There's a scene in the movie where Jennifer Aniston's character is told by her boss that she needs to wear more flair (buttons), despite the fact that she's wearing the minimum number required. Her response, of course, is that if they wanted her to wear more, they should make the mandatory amount higher. And thus lies the problem...
As a predominantly Gamist culture, we are often looking to do what is required of us as far as costume, and then focus on other aspects of the game. I know that this is not necessarily true for individuals, but as a culture this mentality is acceptable.
Now, if you were to go overseas, the culture itself prides itself on costume, and well combat is a big issue, people will applaud others simply for costume and no other reason. This is somewhat rare in our culture.
This needs to change.
There's a lot of examples in WAR Accelerant where we could have put a mechanical limitations in the rules - things like Bardic song, Sentinel speeches, armor representation. However, we specifically chose not to. All of those things are aspects that have the potential to really improve the atmosphere of the game, and we chose to give the players the opportunity to build a culture that applauds excellent kit and roleplay in these situations, rather than playing by the letter of the law.
Don't get me wrong, if it gets abused, we won't hesitate to start mandating things. We don't want to make people count in their head while they're giving speeches, and we certainly don't want to have to give you a full body pat-down just to see if you meet some arbitrary minimum of armor. But if our culture can't police itself, we'll have to.
As Jenn always says, I like nice things, you like nice things, let's have nice things together.
So, instead of worrying about the letter of the rules, let's do a little homework. Find someone that you don't normally associate with, who goes above and beyond the minimum requirements regarding kit and roleplay. And let them know that you really like what they're doing, and you're glad they're a part of your game.
You'd be amazed how an act like that can spread like wildfire...
So who do you know who goes above and beyond? Give them a shout out in the comments below!
There's a scene in the movie where Jennifer Aniston's character is told by her boss that she needs to wear more flair (buttons), despite the fact that she's wearing the minimum number required. Her response, of course, is that if they wanted her to wear more, they should make the mandatory amount higher. And thus lies the problem...
As a predominantly Gamist culture, we are often looking to do what is required of us as far as costume, and then focus on other aspects of the game. I know that this is not necessarily true for individuals, but as a culture this mentality is acceptable.
Now, if you were to go overseas, the culture itself prides itself on costume, and well combat is a big issue, people will applaud others simply for costume and no other reason. This is somewhat rare in our culture.
This needs to change.
There's a lot of examples in WAR Accelerant where we could have put a mechanical limitations in the rules - things like Bardic song, Sentinel speeches, armor representation. However, we specifically chose not to. All of those things are aspects that have the potential to really improve the atmosphere of the game, and we chose to give the players the opportunity to build a culture that applauds excellent kit and roleplay in these situations, rather than playing by the letter of the law.
Don't get me wrong, if it gets abused, we won't hesitate to start mandating things. We don't want to make people count in their head while they're giving speeches, and we certainly don't want to have to give you a full body pat-down just to see if you meet some arbitrary minimum of armor. But if our culture can't police itself, we'll have to.
As Jenn always says, I like nice things, you like nice things, let's have nice things together.
So, instead of worrying about the letter of the rules, let's do a little homework. Find someone that you don't normally associate with, who goes above and beyond the minimum requirements regarding kit and roleplay. And let them know that you really like what they're doing, and you're glad they're a part of your game.
You'd be amazed how an act like that can spread like wildfire...
So who do you know who goes above and beyond? Give them a shout out in the comments below!
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