Your ideas for LARPing in games?

[theSavant]

Tell me your ideas of LARPing in games (doesn't matter which game). As a rough reminder: LARPing is when you impose your own restrictions, rules and ideas onto a game, and play the game after them. Examples:


- You play as a peaceful guy and try to avoid combat whenever possible. Being stealthy is your friend. Stunning or charming enemies is acceptable as well. Running away is better than killing someone.

- You think the world has become shit, and the only solution is to destroy everything. So you try to destroy and kill everything and everyone in your path. You make no difference between good and bad. You make no allies. You even kill NPC shop owners and remove yourself from acquiring specific shop items (choices & consequences). The weapon always speaks first. Even if the game magically protects some NPCs, you will show them your hostility as much as possible.

- You join and serve only one faction in the game. You will stay with this faction until the end of the game. Your faction is your home. You will also dress yourself in the same clothes as the other members of that faction. For example you will dress yourself in the same robes as the characters from the mage faction you joined. You pretend to be nothing special, "just another random guy of this faction“. Wherever you go in the game you see yourself as a representative of this faction.

- You dislike capitalism and don't want to support it in any circumstance. You restrict yourself by never buying or selling items in any NPC shops. You can only use items which you either get as a reward, find in the game world or are dropped by enemies (I got this idea from Lands of Lore 3 where you spend a lot of time selling shit). You can also steal items (if your conscience allows it) or craft items from ingredients you found.

 

[Citizen]

Not using DD in HoMM3 in singleplayer maps

 

[theSavant]

Got another one (may be usable for Deus Ex or Crysis):

- You play like a James Bond: lika a James Bond you have access to various gadgets or item enhancers. However as a James Bond you must also appear as a casual guy, which means you can't have any large weapons on you. Your only weapon is a handgun, preferably with a silencer. No other weapon shall be used in the game, unless there's no other way to bypass an obstacle. In that case you imagine your organisation just dropped an airpackage with the required weapon for you to continue your mission (and which you drop afterwards again).

 

[Swigen]

Well, playing Trails in the Sky SC right now with Olivier in my party purely ‘cause I like having him around. Combat wise I would be better off with Tita or Zane but that’s no fun.

 

[deama]

Never use blackjack in thief.

 

[Valestein]

Well, playing Trails in the Sky SC right now with Olivier in my party purely ‘cause I like having him around. Combat wise I would be better off with Tita or Zane but that’s no fun.

You aren't playing Tits properly without Olivier in your party at all possible times.

 

[Falksi]

Skyrim is actually a decent game if you play constantly wanking and with the mindset of a rapist

 

[thesecret1]

LARPing in games

OP, how do I Live Action in a video game?

 

[Ismaul]

1. Pretend your character is a LARPer.
2. Through time and experience he comes to learn that the only consequence to his LARPing choices is indifference from NPCs.
3. Realize you've wasted your character's life.
4. Have him suicide.

 

[theSavant]

From an abandoned thread https://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/core-ideas-for-larping-in-rpg.69002/ by laclongquan

Let's list the way you can larp in certain RPGs
The key is that you choose to play in certain way to gain certain things, not just limit yourself. Your larping must aim toward somethings

Like in Unreal World, you can larp a cannibal. It's feasible only because there's a lot of wandering hunters, and slavers.
In Fallout Tactic, you can larp a vegetarian, gathering and eating much fruits to get the most out of two perks (STR bonus for eating fruit).

So what's your idea.

- Larping a carnivore or herbivore/vegan also works in games like "The Settlers" or "Anno".

- Which reminds me, that you can larp to regularly have to eat something. You have to take food with you and eat a meal once per day. When the game has a day-night-cycle you can also larp that you will only travel by day. You always have to seek shelter or a bed for the night.

Eventually it comes to mind, that TES games offer the most potential for larping... Isn't there also Moonsugar available, so you could larp a drug addict and regularly need an injection? Or participate in producing and selling it yourself?

 

[FeelTheRads]

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Roleplaying

 

[agentorange]

LARP as Anton Chigurh from No Country. Every time you are in a dialogue and there is an option which will initiate combat/attempt to kill the person you are talking to etc, flip a coin, if it lands heads you have to pick that option.

 

[laclongquan]

From an abandoned thread https://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/core-ideas-for-larping-in-rpg.69002/ by laclongquan

NO idea why that thread was retardo~ Did some mod get touched in some indescribable place or something.

Aaanyway, back to topic.

Absolutely no stealing in BG2. I am certain that was a hard larping, considering the ease of shoplifting. Also, that would reduce Bard's useability by half.

Long play of low level in Fallout New Vegas. Install a mod to raise level threshold so you have to stay longer at lower level. It is a very interesting challenge, I tried that before. Triple the threshold should be enough. At low level and dealing with brigands blocking the way to high level shops, we had to use all the arsenal and gaming skills to get past them.

 

[DraQ]

Tell me your ideas of LARPing in games (doesn't matter which game). As a rough reminder: LARPing is when you impose your own restrictions, rules and ideas onto a game, and play the game after them. Examples:

- You play as a peaceful guy and try to avoid combat whenever possible. Being stealthy is your friend. Stunning or charming enemies is acceptable as well. Running away is better than killing someone

That's not LARPing. LARPing is when you engage in activities clearly not supported mechanically by the game.
For example dressing up as guard and spending days walking back and forth along castle walls, even though the game doesn't recognize that, doesn't have guards as joinable faction and if it did, it would actually have provided some more interesting quests as part of that.

Pacifist playstyle (as long as the game is not heavily kill-XP dependent) or most other background/personality based gameplay choices are not larping unless specifically counterfactual (say you larp a local if the game has you explicitly be an outsider), or unworkable mechanically (playing pacifist in game that has no viable alternatives to lethal combat and relies on kill XP/loot for later game viability).

So the example listed is not LARPing barring additional consideration.

The remaining examples are borderline (and borderline retarded):

• How can your character hate something (capitalism) that has likely not been invented in universe?
• Single faction dress-up might be borderline retarded (see guard example above), but not if the game has uniforms as mechanics, if adopting clothing style is just a cosmetic choice or if the player actually does anything rather than standing around and pretending to be an NPC.
• Murder everything playstyle it's generally a variety of stupid evil which, like it's siblings - lawful stupid, chaotic stupid, stupid good, neutral stupid and Leeroy Jenkings, is domain of retarded players and might not be actually supported even if game allows killing anyone.

 

[theSavant]

That's merely your own definition of LARPing. And I can't see this definition anywhere else. The meaning of LARPing has been discussed in the past in this forum, and the consensus seems to be, that it's just what I described in my first post. If you disagree with it and want to discuss "the one true meaning of xyz" please create a topic for that.

 

[DraQ]

That's merely your own definition of LARPing.

I don't really care whether or not you insist on using the wrong one.

 

[theSavant]

That's merely your own definition of LARPing.

I don't really care whether or not you insist on using the wrong one.

I don't care about your own definitions, you just pulled out of your ass.

 

[Lemming42]

In games with character creation, I sometimes write out whole backstories for characters in MS Word, and then refer back to the document while playing the game. It feels extremely lame but I've done it multiple times for Fallout/Fallout 2/Fallout: NV and LARPed with those backstories and traits in mind and I honestly think it takes cRPGs to the next level.

Also a big fan of the pacifist run, whether the game wants you to do it or not. In stealth games, I like to take it further by doing no KO wherever possible, because knockouts are total nonsense in every game except Hitman 2.

Oh, and for another layer of LARP, I sometimes break pacifist runs intentionally to kill certain specific people. I always kill Garl in Fallout and Metzger in Fallout 2 (and then try not to kill the rest of the raiders/slavers, rationalising that they'll probably fall apart without leadership or some stupid shit like that). Also always kill rapists in the few games that explicitly have them, because why not.

 

[RNGsus]

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Roleplaying

Roleplaying is an optional way of playing the game...

 

[DraQ]

In games with character creation, I sometimes write out whole backstories for characters in MS Word, and then refer back to the document while playing the game. It feels extremely lame but I've done it multiple times for Fallout/Fallout 2/Fallout: NV and LARPed with those backstories and traits in mind and I honestly think it takes cRPGs to the next level.

Well, it is lame as fuck - I mean why not just .txt? (Although the most I have done was a short blurb in the build-planning txt file - most of the time I just sketch out the minimum background to have the feel of the character, rarely write it down.)

Also a big fan of the pacifist run, whether the game wants you to do it or not. In stealth games, I like to take it further by doing no KO wherever possible, because knockouts are total nonsense in every game except Hitman 2.

KOs are also shit in how they trivialize stealth. I really liked (not mechanically, but narratively) what Missing Link did regarding "Hurr I'm a pacifist, I gently put people to sleep by punching them in the face with muh robotic arms".

Oh, and for another layer of LARP, I sometimes break pacifist runs intentionally to kill certain specific people. I always kill Garl in Fallout and Metzger in Fallout 2 (and then try not to kill the rest of the raiders/slavers, rationalising that they'll probably fall apart without leadership or some stupid shit like that). Also always kill rapists in the few games that explicitly have them, because why not.

 

[Ismaul]

That's merely your own definition of LARPing. And I can't see this definition anywhere else. The meaning of LARPing has been discussed in the past in this forum, and the consensus seems to be, that it's just what I described in my first post.

You can LARP that the definition of LARPing as applied to computer games is what you think it is, and even pretend that the consensus is aligned with your opinion, but that won't make it so.

LARPing for cRPGs was first used as a term on the Codex to make fun of Morrowind and Bioware fanboys who pretended their character had certains traits / jobs / relationships / possessions despite there being no mechanical or story support for that pretense.

In other words,

Joined: Oct 3, 2012

 

[theSavant]

I don't think that most people see the term "larping" as nitpicky as you and DraQ. Otherwise the term wouldn't be used in so many different contexts. The truth is, that I even checked the codex search for a clear definition before opening the thread (titles check only). But that didn't help at all. You'll find the term "larping" used in so many different contexts that you cannot know its true definition. All you get is a rough idea of it. And I don't raise a claim on anything else.
If you are not satisfied in how people use this term, then educate them - in a topic which can easily be found by the people (probably sufficient to have the keywords "definition" and "larping" in its title). This way everyone can reference it. I'm looking forward to this topic. Until then don't complain about it anymore.

 

[Viata]

No elves in my party, unless the game force me to do so. If the game force me to do so, the game sucks badly and if I can't make a party the game also sucks badly.

 

[DraQ]

I don't think that most people see the term "larping" as nitpicky as you and DraQ. Otherwise the term wouldn't be used in so many different contexts. The truth is, that I even checked the codex search for a clear definition before opening the thread (titles check only). But that didn't help at all. You'll find the term "larping" used in so many different contexts that you cannot know its true definition. All you get is a rough idea of it. And I don't raise a claim on anything else.
If you are not satisfied in how people use this term, then educate them - in a topic which can easily be found by the people (probably sufficient to have the keywords "definition" and "larping" in its title). This way everyone can reference it. I'm looking forward to this topic. Until then don't complain about it anymore.

So, because a bunch of shit-for-brains decided to parrot the term and use it for pretty much everything, you decided to join the merry crowd as well?

 

[Viata]

In games with character creation, I sometimes write out whole backstories for characters in MS Word, and then refer back to the document while playing the game. It feels extremely lame but I've done it multiple times for Fallout/Fallout 2/Fallout: NV and LARPed with those backstories and traits in mind and I honestly think it takes cRPGs to the next level.

How do you connect your backstories with the game? Like, I can understand if you playing the game for the second time, since you know how things goes you can make some backstories that connects to the game(locations and what not) and even if has no connection with the plot, it still connects with the world of the game. An example is how you character in FO1 has a curiosity with the world outside the vault and that is the reason he was picked and so on.