Camarilla. A LARP that I was part of for about ten years. I met hundreds of people. A few girlfriends. There were chapters all over the world with a couch to crash on and a group of nerds into the same shit I was. I drifted from my local group and they fell apart a few years later. I’ve recently reconnected with some remnants of that group and in the blink of an eye I’ve found twenty friends and have a busy social life.
JiuJitsu. I don’t see it as an art. I don’t see it as a way to beat someone up. I see it as IRL PvP. I got into it from the early Joe Rogan podcasts where he had obscure interesting guests rather than the coco bananas direction he’s been on for the last 10+ years.
World of Warcraft 2. A pirated copy got me a job at my local collectible card store. They had a computer in the store but weren’t IT nerdy kids like I was. I’d downloaded it from a pirate BBS, YES BBS, that a friend at school ran. I like that Steam sees developers getting paid but man was DOS piracy next level easy, you were more likely to need the “decoder” that came with the game to act as the license.
I’ve done this, and it really is. It’s peak goth but also peak positive socialization. All the community and dress of a nightclub, with all the camaraderie of being around other gamers, but all the drama is completely (okay, mostly) made up and you can hear everyone talk. I spent so many wonderful summer evenings this way.
LARP is great like that. You will meet people. You will make friends. You may even get a few girlfriends like GP did.
Vampire LARP rules emphasize role-play and soft-skills, where combat falls to rock-paper-scissors and usually lasts mere seconds. So, more streamlined than the already streamlined tabletop version. It’s zero fun if you break character, and a lot more fun if you lean into improv and ham it up. I’ve also done this with a team of storytellers hosting the event which really kept things moving along. It’s good fun all around.
Not really computer games.
Camarilla. A LARP that I was part of for about ten years. I met hundreds of people. A few girlfriends. There were chapters all over the world with a couch to crash on and a group of nerds into the same shit I was. I drifted from my local group and they fell apart a few years later. I’ve recently reconnected with some remnants of that group and in the blink of an eye I’ve found twenty friends and have a busy social life.
JiuJitsu. I don’t see it as an art. I don’t see it as a way to beat someone up. I see it as IRL PvP. I got into it from the early Joe Rogan podcasts where he had obscure interesting guests rather than the coco bananas direction he’s been on for the last 10+ years.
World of Warcraft 2. A pirated copy got me a job at my local collectible card store. They had a computer in the store but weren’t IT nerdy kids like I was. I’d downloaded it from a pirate BBS, YES BBS, that a friend at school ran. I like that Steam sees developers getting paid but man was DOS piracy next level easy, you were more likely to need the “decoder” that came with the game to act as the license.
Was it a Vampire the Masquerade LARP?
yep
Ha! That sounds really neat!
I’ve done this, and it really is. It’s peak goth but also peak positive socialization. All the community and dress of a nightclub, with all the camaraderie of being around other gamers, but all the drama is completely (okay, mostly) made up and you can hear everyone talk. I spent so many wonderful summer evenings this way.
LARP is great like that. You will meet people. You will make friends. You may even get a few girlfriends like GP did.
Vampire LARP rules emphasize role-play and soft-skills, where combat falls to rock-paper-scissors and usually lasts mere seconds. So, more streamlined than the already streamlined tabletop version. It’s zero fun if you break character, and a lot more fun if you lean into improv and ham it up. I’ve also done this with a team of storytellers hosting the event which really kept things moving along. It’s good fun all around.