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How LARP Works · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome to you Stuff you should Know from house Stuff
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and um, he's
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: got duct tape over some cardboard that he's wearing on
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: his chest, which means that this stuff you should know
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: the Lark podcast or all right, I'm just gonna say
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: that like every five minutes. Well, and this will be
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: a fun one larb. All right, I'm not gonna do
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: that ever again. Yeah, I think we should just call this, um,
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Dungeons and Dragons follow up, UM, D and D two
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: nerdier than you thought it could be. You know. Um,
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: some people, as is written in the end of this article,
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: believe that the in the introduction of Dungeon and Dragons
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: was the that's the citation for the beginning of Larpe. Yeah,
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: that makes sense. It's just like kind of one step further,
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: you know, the people that really get into D and
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: D and sort of role play at the table. That
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: makes sense to me that that grew into let's just
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: take this out to the park across the street, you know,
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: or hang out in front of a movie theater when
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: the New Star Wars is gonna premiere. Yeah, I guess
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: that's LARPing in a way, isn't it. Well? Do you
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: remember the wizard that came by for that Triumph, Yeah,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: when Triumph went to the Star Wars premiere. Yeah, I've
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: seen that guy in New York, the wizard. If he's
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: not a LARPer, I don't know what is. I think
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: that's he's just a wizard. So we should we should
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: probably tell people who don't know what LARPE is what
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: larpe is. LARPE stands for live action role playing and,
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: as you probably guess from context, UM is usually fantasy based,
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: sometimes sci fi, sometimes goth But basically it is everything
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: that a D and D game is or a role
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: playing game is, but actually physically acted out by people
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: who are dressed up as their characters, who are like
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: going through physical motions. Um, it's real battles, right, and
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: it is. It's because of that, because you're actually doing
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: these things, it's considered much more immersive than just an
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: average role playing game. Sure. Uh, and we should mention
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: that throughout this. We're gonna be um. There was an
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: interview conducted for this article. This is written by Tracy Wilson. UM.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: Stuff you missed in history class, and she interviewed someone
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: named Lari zoel Kosky. I did say that, you say that,
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: and she Larry, I guess is local. And I think
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: she has even invented her own larpe game. So what
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: she did is called King's Gate. Yeah, so Tracy interviewed her.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: So we're gonna be using bits and pieces from Lauri. Um,
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: so we thank her in abstincia. Um okay, So yeah,
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: I looked up King's Gate. It was purchased by Red
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: Button Productions. She actually sold it, yeah, and they brought
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: her on as the creative director. But um, I don't see,
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: I don't, I don't, I don't see like that was
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: in two thousands six. I believe I don't see her
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: um her name anywhere in regards to that, And I
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: don't see King's Gate. It's much more like archived now,
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: so I think it's like kind of had its day
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: or whatever. But hey, she still catched that check for
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: two seventy. I mean, I imagine, like making money from
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: creating a larp game is pretty unusual and rare. I
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: might look into that, actually, because when I was reading this,
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: I was thinking I could create a LARP game. I
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: might not want to play it, Yeah, but I could
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: totally create one. Have you seen some of like the
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: like the rules and all that, and like how granular
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: it gets. Yeah, I mean it's not something you rush into.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: In fact, I think Laurie said she spent about a
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: year or a year and a half creating King's Gate
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: and she even used existing rules. Yeah. Sure, what you
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: can do if you're creating a game, you can lease
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: rules from other game crews. We've gotten way. Let's let's yeah,
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: need to back this larp truck up. So you mentioned
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: that she creates this game like a larp is an
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: actual game. It's basically like creating a new universe and
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: saying the new universe is going to be at the
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: state Park on these three days, and if you come,
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: you either have to be a character that you've designed
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: or that have been improved by me, the game designer, um,
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: and you're you're going to follow the rules of this
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: universe and things are going to happen within this universe
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: and that will be our larp. Yeah. And like you said,
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: the universe isn't something that you can you think, well,
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: how hard could it be to sketch that out over
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: the course of like a week, but it gets really
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: grant new, like you said, and you've got to think
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: of everything, like what does race mean in this world?
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: Is there electricity? Can people read um? Or what what
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: are the classes like in the difference between the classes?
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: What kinds of weapons do they have? Um? Is their magic? Answer? Yes? Yeah,
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: always magic, that's the answer. UM. And like you said,
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: you can eat they. I guess they have existing rule
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: systems out there that you can nick from, or you
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: can make a combination of that in your own, or
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: you can just make up all your own rules, right,
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: which that has to be so involved, Yeah, because I
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: think one thing you don't want to do is invite
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: fifty nerds with foam rubber swords out to the park
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: and have unanswered questions, right or a dissatisfying game, you know,
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: like how could you not think of this? Like can
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: they read or can't they read? Um? And a lot
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: of it follows the same like rules that you'll find
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: in like a a like a traditional role playing game
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: like Dungeon and Dragons, Like there's armor classes, there's hit points,
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: there's things that determine since the people who are, like
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: you said, engaging in combat don't actually die, you have
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: to keep up with a way of simulating their death right.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: And so there's there's rules, the intuitive rules that you
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: can just kind of come up with just from playing
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: Dungeons and Dragons and being aware of that kind of thing.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: They apply to this too, but I think it is
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: a little more even more granular, because you have you
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: have not just the rules, but you have the game itself.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: So there are three different uh types of not types
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: of people, but different categories of character. I guess that
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: you can participate. You can just like a D and D,
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: you can be the game master um or because LARPA
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: is a bigger, more immersive time and sense of thing.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: It's probably just not run by one person that you're
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: probably you might have a plot committee and be on
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: you know, like a group with a group of folks
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: trying to like sus this out basically, right, Yeah, exactly,
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: especially if players break off into smaller groups and you
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: kind of know what's going on, like mutiny. Uh. There
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: are non player characters in PCs UH, and that I
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: wonder what the draw is for that. Those are people
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: that actually aren't advancing in the game or playing to win.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: Tracy gave the example of like you might be the
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: the innkeeper or the bartender in the pub that tells you,
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: you know, don't go that way, that the dragon is
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: that way, right, that's probably you're doing. That's like a
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: LARPer who has a drinking problem and doesn't like to
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: move around too muss, so they just sit in the
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: tavern and wait for people to come by and make
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: up stories about you know, bandits or whatever. I guess
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: the answer is it's the same person who would want
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: to or not the same person, but the same idea
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: behind someone who doesn't mind playing the tree in the play,
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: you know, as opposed to trying out for the lead role.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: Like we need our bit players and we need our stars.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: I think. Also, probably if you have a Larpe game, um,
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: and so like an actual three day weekend at the
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: park will be a game. Uh, and then those games
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: might take place over some sort of um, consecutive order
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: in the time that's in this Larpe world, um, and
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: that will form a campaign. But if you have like
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: a game like King's Gate that the lady who was
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: interviewed for this created, right, um, you're you're gonna have
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: kind of an organization of people who help you carry
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: out this game in real life, and I imagine they
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: probably play nonplayer characters. You think that's who I would think,
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: does it? That makes sense? You know, they're almost they're
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: almost like administrators of this right. They're not game masters
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: per se, but they're like the game master's right hand people.
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: They still like sit and break bread with the game master,
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: which I think some people like being the inner circle. Maybe.
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: All right, So then you have the player characters, and
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: those are they can develop new skills, they can learn things,
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: they're trying to win. They're actually a part of the story.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry. The NPCs are part of the story. The
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: PCs are experiencing that story, right. So, like, if you
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: are the game designer or the game master and you
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: created this particular game or campaign that you're sending people
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: out on, it's not just a free for all, like you,
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: if you need to keep the narrative moving along, you
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: will create like that bartender character, right, So that person
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: is there and they're going to be there when these
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: player characters come for the weekend um or there the
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: bandits that the bartender warns everybody about, they're gonna be
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: out there in the woods they're non player characters, but
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: they're part of the game. So anybody who's not part
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: of the designed game that is playing and has a
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: foam sword, that's a player character. I think I would
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: like to be like a wild card NPC, like the
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: right hand man to the gamemaster. And if the game
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: master was like, oh crap, I forgot like no one
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: knows how to get to the eerie Cave, I need
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: a need in an innkeeper, and I could just like
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: get in the character all right, I'm an innkeeper. What
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: do you need? What do you need from me? Innkeeper? Boom?
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: What do they call that? Is that character acting? Yeah,
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: i'd be I'd be a character actor. What if the
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: gamemasters like, crap, we didn't get enough bolognay for all
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: these people and they're gonna be upset come month's time.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: Can you go get some more? I can do that.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: I can be a bologna guy. Um. And you mentioned
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: the game the game itself. UM. A game session can
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: last a few hours, a few days, and that can
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: or cannot be, or may or may not be part
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: of a large your campaign. From what I saw, games
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: typically last like three days over a weekend. I think
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: the campaign thing is kind of cool though. Yeah, like
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: you you you have your battles over a weekend and
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: then you take that back and apply that to your
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: risk board or you know, your whatever maps you've drawn
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: up in the world, and like, all right, now we
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: know that, uh, this territory is now owned by whoever
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: the victor was. And what does that mean because now
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: they're advancing towards this group or something. Right. Yeah, from
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: the interaction of the players and the game both change.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: Like the players. A player might die, a player is
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: going to probably gain some experience points or maybe some
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: hit points or whatever, or a new weapon. Um the
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: game itself. Like if you created like a central monster
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: or something that needs to be killed, that monster may
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: be killed. So in this world that you created, that
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: monster no longer lives. So this this thing, it's it's
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: um dynamic, it's not static. It Yeah, another to evolve.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: It's really cool. Have you seen Step Brothers? That movie?
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: No I haven't. The Larpe features heavily in that. It's
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: pretty funny and it doesn't know role models too. Oh yeah,
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: Step Brothers d c Riley and Will Ferrell. Right, if
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: I hadn't seen it, so I didn't know, no, no no, no, Yeah,
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: role models, that's what I meant. Yeah, yeah, he gets
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: his confidence at the end. Yeah, and apparently people get
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: their confidence from larp in in some cases. Um yeah,
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: I thought that movie was better then I thought it
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: was gonna be. And apparently David Wayne, the director, said
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: that that's his highest compliment for that movie is for
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: he said, people come up to me often and say
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: it was a lot better than about What's Gonna be. Yeah.
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: The way it was marketed was really like dumb and
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: low brow and it was just gonna be just a
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: dunce of a movie. But it had like a lot
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: of heart and thoughts to it, and there was a
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: lot of conflict and it was funny too, like if
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: you get a LARP game going with my At Walsh
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: and Ken Jiong, you're you're on the right track. Comedy
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: was in it, alright, So, um, Stepbrothers, what a dope.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: I'm sure people were like, no Strothers. The great thing
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: is that they started their emails and then hopefully stop
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: mid sentence. Yeah, Stepbrothers funny too. The Catalina wine mixer, Um,
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: all right, so there are three like Catalina addressing no
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: cat the island of Catalina, the coast of l a um.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: So there are three different types of games, three ways
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: you can play the game. There's a battle game, and
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: that's actually when dudes and ladies get out there. They're
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: fully armored up in their cardboard and plastic and they
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: someone gives a signal and they charge each other like
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: it's you know, uh, what was the mel Gibson Braveheart
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: and they you know, they beat each other about the
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: head with foam swords. Yeah, and like there's there's restrictions
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: on how to make what's what's called a boffer. It's
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: a um it's a larpe weapon. And typically it's anything
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: from like a sword to mace shield, um yeah, battle ax,
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: bow and arrow. But there's there's standards for it. Like
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: they usually start with, um, a piece of PVC or
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: a piece of bamboo. It's heavily padded and wrapped in
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: duct tape and then you know it's it's tricked out
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: to like be to look like a sword or to
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: look like a bone arrow or whatever, and um it
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: it doesn't do any damage, but it looks cool, especially
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: when you're like this is a pretense sword and it's
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: mine and I built it and I'm gonna kill you
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: with it. Yeah, what are them? What's that website? Tracy
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: recommended it was. I went and checked it out. It
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: was actually pretty good, so did I. It was called
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: Leucrane's Guide to Boffer's l U k r Ai n
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: Apostrophe s and it's you go, and it's got all
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: the weapons there that you could ever imagine and how
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: to make them, an advice and all that good stuf
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: of um. All right, So that's the battle game and
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: Dark Con is one of the most popular ones, and
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: that is an award winning documentary as well. And I
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: checked out the trailer for that just to see it.
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: Did you see that They kind of echoed Braveheart, you know,
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: in the way they shot it, but it's, you know,
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: it is what it is. It's kind of funny. But
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: they interviewed some people in there that you could tell,
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: like this one lady was like, you know, I don't
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: have control at work, I don't have control, and here
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: I don't have control. They're like when I lark, I'm
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: in control and that's what it gives me. And this
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: other guy was like, you know, I became ended up
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: becoming the man, I wanted to be through the fantasy
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: of the character that I wanted to be. Yeah, I'm sure,
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: like if you kill a few elves over the course
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: of a weekend and come out of like a larpe game,
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: like really on top, that has to translate to the
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: rest of your life. Well, it's just like winning anything,
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: whether I mean, I don't care what sport or competition,
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: any kind of competition that you participate in and come
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: out on top or just get something out of, it's
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: gonna benefit you in your life. Yeah, it's just because
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: society deems of support is being worthy of paying somebody
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: tens of millions of dollars to be able to play it.
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: It doesn't mean it's any more valuable or victory there
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: is any more valuable than one elsewhere. Agreed, very open
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: minded Josh. So then you have theatrical games. Um, this
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: is mainly like sitting around in your house with storytelling
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: with cards and dice and things that I thought to know,
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: there's this whole world out there. Well it can be
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: that though that but that's like, that's what it is like.
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: If you sit around and do this in your house,
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: people are gonna be like, this is what you invited
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: us over for No, that's not true. There's all sorts
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: of of theatrical games that people just play, like on
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: a Friday night. Okay, the ones I found, we're all
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: like really involved, really widespread and kind of cool. Look, well,
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: it's all over the map. There's one called Fiasco that
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: I actually want to buy and play. It's a movie larp,
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: theatrical larp, and it's like very Coen Brothers ask like
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: the movie plots and you act out these characters. And
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: but that's the one where you sit around play with
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: your friends. All Right, it sounds kind of cool. But
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: so what's the other half. Well, the one I ran across,
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: the the big um, the legendary one is called Vampire
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: the Masquerade. Yeah, and there's like classes and tribes and
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: races of different vampires. And then there's other ones. There's
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: like ones based on mummies. There's one based on sin eaters.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: There's like demon ones. There's like just different um like
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: whole worlds. Man, they've created entire worlds. They have whole
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: histories and they're acting these things out and it's very
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: much like a large except it's far more subtle. Literally
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: the theater maybe in a theater. It'll be in a
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: much larger place than like somebody's living room, um, maybe
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: like a conference hall or something like that, with the
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: lights turned down or something, and everybody's decked out as
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: like vampires from like the Victorian eras, and it looks
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: really cool. If you go read up on these things,
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: like just just going from link to link, it just
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: becomes more and more and more involved, and you like
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: it's incredibly thought out. The rules are incredibly complex. The
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: big difference between that and like combat um LARPing is
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: that like if if say a vampire goes to attack
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: another vampire, they'll usually roll for the outcome. They'll play
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: like some sort of some variation of paper rock scissors
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: or something like that. Um And And that's how it's
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: more about the the story and intrigue and um and
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: that kind of thing, rather than like running into battle
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: against one another in the woods. I think if I
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: I would sneak in my big boffer when they were
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: like all right, Chuck, you know, do your rock, paper
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: or scissors, and then I would pull out the big
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: boffer and it just like a hush would follow over
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: the right, like you can't bring a boffer right, especially
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: because you would have fixed like a squeaky toy to
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: the egg when the head to make a really goofy
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: noise and they're like, you're not playing right, and I
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: would just boff everybody like you all dead, all right?
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: And the final is the role playing game. And I
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: didn't really understand the difference, to be honest, I was
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: gonna ask Tracy, so maybe you can explain it. Do
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: you know the difference between this and like a battle
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: game or is it sort of like theatrical combined with battle? Yes,
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: that's exactly what Okay. Battle game is just running against
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: one another and beating the tar out of each other.
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: So there's no larger story going on. No, no, necessarily.
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: I think if there's a larger story than you just
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: created a role playing game. Okay, all right, I get
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: it that I would want to play a role playing game.
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: Then it's got everything. It's got the best of both
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: worlds plus bologna um. And like we said, the rules
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: are really the most important thing. Like I get a
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: feeling that in all these games the rules are just
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: sac or sancta. If you don't follow the rules, then
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: people get upset, and then the whole thing just goes
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: into chaos, you know. So let's talk about some of them,
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: like combat rules. Well, like we said, um, you're simulating
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: death or injury. Yeah, you're not actually inflicting this, So
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: you have to be able to tell how, um how
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: how I guess how many hit points? How much health
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: a character has. When you're being hit with a sword,
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: like in a certain area, typically you you're forced to
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: call out how many points you just lost. So Tracy says,
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: the combatants call out how much damage they inflict. That
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: seems a little I would rather play a game where
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: it's up to you, as the one that's hit with
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: the foam arrow, to say, all right, that's three points
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: I get hit in the chest with the foam arrow,
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: rather than some jerk take all three points hit you
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: with my arrow, right, you know, right? Like, I think
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: it should be up to the person who gets inflicted.
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: That's just me, And ultimately it would be up to
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: the game designer to decide who who who calls that out?
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: That would be a rule, I guess. So. But if
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: some guy came up and bough me in the chest
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: and then stood over me to many how many points?
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: That would be a problem. I would say, probably you
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: should stay away from large games because I guarantee that's
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: what it's like. Okay, uh we mentioned magic. Imagine magic
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: plays a big part in most games because why not.
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: You know, if you're going to do a fantasy game,
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: you might as well throw magic in there. And throwing
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: is is pretty important. Well, yeah, I would like to
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: see some of this actually, um, because there's the two components.
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: One where you cast a spell and do an incantation,
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: and then when you cast your spell at the end,
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: like you said, like you might throw a bean bag
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: or a little pouch of bird seed and you have
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: to hit the other person with it for your spell
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: to have had there's physical skill involved, right, So physical
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: skill if you get the incantation wrong um or if
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: you um miss, the spell doesn't work. And um. Also
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: like if you're a new character, if there's not you're
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: only gonna have access to certain number types of spells. Yeah,
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: you can't just say like I can do this spell
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: as much as I want, exactly. That's that's part of
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: the rules as well. But you mentioned this skill like
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: throwing is an actual part of skill that's considered a
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: hard skill, Like in real life, you are good at throwing.
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: You have the skill with pigging people with little balls
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: of bird seed. Right, your soft skill would be magic
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: like the made up skill that you're carrying out, and
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: those two combined would make you good at casting spells. Right.
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: Or like Tracy says, if you're a good cook, you
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: may really cook or make the bologna sandwiches. If you're not,
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: and that is your character, you may have something that
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: like to find out how good you are. I thought
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: that was a little granular, but I'm sure that's important
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: in keeping like the immersion going. Yeah, you gotta stay
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: in character. You know death, Yeah, yeah, you can die.
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: That's sort of the point. But because no one wants
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: to spend two weeks making your outfit in your boffer
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: only to get stabbed in the chest within the first
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: eight seconds of a battle and then you're just all
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: you have left is your bologna sandwich. So most games
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: will allow you back in the game um again, depending
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: on certain rules. Resurrecting your character is generally part of
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: the front of it. Yeah, and so either like a
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: player character or nonplayer character can resurrect you using a spell. Um. Oftentimes,
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: there's limits to how many times the character can be resurrected. Yeah.
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: So I imagine if you're a character who's like on
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: your last life in a campaign, and you're headed toward
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: the state park this weekend. I but you're a little nervous. Yeah,
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: that desperation, like that's palpable. Sure, Like that adds to
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: the whole thing, the enjoyment in the drama, because people
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: are going to be gunning for you, or conversely, people
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: might be out to protect you too. That's true. You
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: might learn who your friends are that weekend. Um, a
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: lot of folks. Sometimes sometimes there's a scorekeeper that just
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: keeps track of all the stuff. Sometimes it's up to you. Yeah,
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: that's different from the game master. Yeah keepers just numbers. Yeah,
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: just spreadsheet. I imagine that's a very specific person as well. Um,
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: A lot of times you you have what's called a
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: life ring, and it's a key ring has these little
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: tags on it that say like whether I'm dead or
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: whether or not, Like I've got four spells I can
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: use and as I use them, I'll take them off
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: my little ring. Just too, I guess help you remember
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: keep track of everything that's going on because it's complicated,
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: or if it has hit points you're you're pulling them off,
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: going like oh that one hurt. Oh, I'm bleeding, I'm
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: about to die, meeting bologna sandwich. Ye. Uh. The other
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: thing too, they will have many times is a a
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: non participation area because that's where you guess so like
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: let's say you do get knocked out of the game,
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: like you don't want to just go sit in your
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: you know, chevette and you know like player music your yeah,
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: it probably has led zeppe um oh man, nothing will
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: get you more charged up for combat than like immigrant
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: song immigrants is um. So there will be like a
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: little cordoned off area where like you can go have
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: a cigarette if you're into that, although kids, you shouldn't
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: be smoking, um and just socialize, you know. It's just
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: a big part of it. You're making friends out there,
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: and who are your friends? Who are the people that
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: play these games? Well, uh, Lari Zlokovski says, um quote,
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: most of them are very imaginative, people have a taste
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: for genre fiction, are highly intelligent, and are in some
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: sense usually a little bit different socially, she says, um,
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: and that's a big part of it. Maybe you don't
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: have a lot of friends and this is a good
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: outlet for you to make friends and create this cool
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: fantasy world and like we said, like build up your
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: self esteem. Um yeah, man, that's just so neat. I
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: like that there's a place out there for people who
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: lack confidence. It can go like get it absolutely man,
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: because you know, the dumb jock might get that on
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: the football field. But Lucas may not be able to
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: play football. You know, he's too tiny. He's a little
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: Corey Hamees, so he might. You know, they had Larpe
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: when Lucas was around. He might have been able to
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: get the chick from the goonies. I can't remember her name.
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: But but he didn't, and he dies young because there's
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: no Larva. That's the right movie. Did Lucas die? I
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: don't know. That's why I'm asking you, Jerry, she says,
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: I think so? Does he really? Spoiler? No, I don't
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: think Lucas died. Keep thinking of Brian's song, Jerry. Yeah,
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: or Rudy Rudy, Rudy Diesudy still alive? Actually? Oh really,
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: who dies? She said, Lucas? Have you seen John dies
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: at the end? No? Is that good? It is good? Yeah?
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: All right, So spoilers all over the place. So well,
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: it's in the title. Well, no, no, no, I'm just
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: talking about Lucas, so, uh, you can't. What we're saying
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: is you can't pigeonhole, right, LARPers. You have to have
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: three pigeonholes for LARPers. Uh. It turns out there's a
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: guy named Peter Brockman. He wrote an essay called the
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: three Way Model UM and it was included in the
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: book as Lark Grows Up Theory and Methods and larp. Yeah,
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: there's another essay called the three way Model that it
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: has nothing to do with at least one other UM.
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: And Brockman says, Okay, there's basically three kinds of mindsets
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: among LARPers. You've got the dramatists, the gamist, and the immersionist.
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: And really, honestly, um, probably most LARPers are a combination
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: of these three. But there are three pure mindsets among LARPers. Yeah.
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: The dramatists obviously is going to be way into the
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: story and the plot maybe helps write the story. You know. Well,
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: you can also take all three of these and transpose
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: them onto the game designer as well, Like it applies
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: to the characters the player characters and the designers. Yeah,
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: the gami ist, Um, they're really into the mystery and
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: maybe uh creating these puzzles for players to discover. Um.
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: And then the immersionists. Immersionists obviously are like way into
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: becoming these characters. Yeah, I mean if you're if you're
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: the character and you're really into the character. Everything else
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: is kind of secondary to that for the immersionist. And
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: then there's the administrate administrationist. Yeah, the the the person
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: who keeps score. Yeah, it is a big deal though,
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: Like you can't just show up at a park with
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: seventy people and overrun picnickers. You know, you probably have
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: to reserve your spot and maybe look into insurance and
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: the licenses. Usually. Yeah, like there's a little more red
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: tape probably than you might imagine. Um. And thank god
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: there's people out there that are willing to pitch in
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: and help out like that exact. And usually it's the again,
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: the game designer's inner circle that is helping out. And uh,
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: Laura Zolkowski says, in this case, usually you're more looking
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: for reliability than even talent and creativity. Just having people
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: you can depend on is you know, worth its weight
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: in gold. Jerry just texted me from three feet away
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: and then said, Lucas doesn't die. That's great. I didn't
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: think he died because he's not sick, he's just small. Yeah,
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: he died in real life. Maybe that's what she was thinking.
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, Cory Haynes. But he was growing up then. Yeah. No,
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: there's like a kid dies young powder. Maybe we'll figure
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: it out one day. If you know the answer to that,
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: let us know. Uh, well, that's the end of Lark, buddy,
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: you got anything else. No, we'd like to hear from
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: Marker's for sure. Red that Red Button Productions that Zolkowski
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: sold King's Gate to. They do it like every month.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: M every month they have it Lark. Maybe I'll get
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: my feet wet and go watch. Oh you will be
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: sucked in immediately. Somebody will hand you a sword in
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: a blowny sandwich and you'll be like, I'm in. Well,
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: I'll bring my boffer just in case, but I'll just
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: go watch. Do you have one? Handy potato guns don't count.
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: You can't shoot people with those, or US retrofitted steampunk
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: nerf guns, yeah, which are pretty cool. Actually, Yeah, if
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: I had more time in the inclination. I would make one.
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: He can just by one, put duct tape on and
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: be like, look what I mane. If you want to
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: know more about LARP, you can type in l A
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: r P on the search bar how stuff works dot
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: Com and will bring up this article. Uh. And since
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: I said search bar, that means it's time for message
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: brick U now, Chuck, it's time for listener mail. Yeah,
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: this is called capgrass murder. Dude, dude, Oh yeah, I
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: heard just at the People's Court theme. No, I did
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: cat scratch fever. All right, that's what I thought you
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: were saying it like cat grass murder. Okay, I thought
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: you was in People's Court. Even still, this this is
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: pretty serious. Hey, guys, love the show. I have a
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: story about cap grass syndrome. What do you remember this one? Yeah? Okay.
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: In the early my family moved from Detroit, Michigan to
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: a small farming community in northern Michigan. Hillman. We got
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: a great deal in the house that we moved into,
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: and soon found out it was because there was a
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: double murder in that house. Unfortunately, his son murdered both
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: of his parents. We were able to determine where when
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: we changed the carpets. That's gross. It is super gross.
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: And you'll remember in crime scene remediation, Yeah, episode, someone
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: did a bad child, did a terrible job. You sup
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: to tear up that sub floor. Um. When questioned it's
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: the way he did it, he kept saying he did
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: not kill his parents because they were still living down state.
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: He was convinced that they were not his arrants but
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: instead impostors. I remember that one of his defenses was
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: was that he suffered from cap craw or capgrass syndrome. Dude,
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: we got lots of stairs in the neighborhood and we
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: weren't really sure why until we found out the names.
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: The people who were shot were named David and Norma Douglas.
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: My parents were David and Elizabeth Douglas. Creepy. The town,
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: being small and not very accepting of strangers, referred to
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: my mother as Norma he even though her name was Elizabeth.
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: That's not very nice, no, and that's creepy too. Um.
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: We were never really sure if it was out of
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: jess malice or other reasoning. It was a little concerning, though,
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: because we were always worried that if he ever got
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: out of jail, he may go back home only to
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: find that David Norman Douglas still lived in the house.
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: It's a val concern. Um. Thankfully that has never happened,
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: but it was definitely worrisome at the time, and we
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: occasionally still check from time to time to make sure
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: he's still locked up. And I hope I occasionally you mean,
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: like every three to six months, um, take care of
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: keep up the great shows. That is from John Peter Zak,
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: That poor guy man. That was one of those things
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: where it's like, oh my god, this is so what
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: a bizarre conditioning, and then like the more you learn
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: about you're like, oh, what a horribly debilitating condition. Yeah,
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: that was a sad one. There was also, maybe my opinion,
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: our most interesting episode subject. We um, there was a
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: guy in the neighborhood in New Jersey, in the small
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: town in New Jersey I looked in that murdered his
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: parents and he apparently wrote their names on the shotgun shells,
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: which is like there's a bullet with their name on
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: that kind of thing. I would say that was premeditated. Yeah,
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: there was no accident. Well thanks for that, Chuck. Sure,
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: that was like a listener mouse supplement's right, h if
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: you have something to say about one of our episodes,
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: or what were we asking about from the lark community.
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: Just you know, what's your experience been like. Has it
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: built up your confidence? Maybe? Oh, if you know the
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: movie we're thinking of about the kid who dies Young,
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: that too, and we're not talking about I Young, the
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: movie with Campbell Scott Roberts. There's another one. Any of
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: those things. Or if you want to just get in
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: touch with us, you can tweet to us at s
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: y s K podcast. You can join us on Facebook
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: dot com slash stuff you Should Know. You can send
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: us an email The Stuff podcasts at Discovery dot com,
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: and you can join us at our home on the web.
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: That's Stuff you Should Know dot com For more on
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: this and thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: works dot com? Hey, Netflix streams TV shows and movies
• 33:40
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• 33:44
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• 33:50
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