Current mood:	bouncy
Entry tags:	larp, potlatch

LARP for joy!
I have to admit, the thing that moved me most about Potlatch this year had nothing to do with writing, or the exalted book of honor. It was this awesome "new" thing I discovered--LARPing! Yes, yes, I realize that LARPing's been around forever, and yes, my hubby used to do it when we were teens and I thought it was a little too nerdy even for me. But! This was parlor LARPing, with no boffer weapons or anything. OK, the boffer weapons were probably cool, and I just missed the boat back then. Not that he ever invited me or anything.

But I digress! My main point here is that LARPing is super fun. Way more fun than just sitting around talking. Which says a lot, coming from me.

At Potlatch, there was this extremely competent guy, jhkimrpg, running the LARP. This seemed to be a crucial aspect of the whole thing being so fun.

Oh, for the one or two people out there that didn't discover LARPing before me, LARP stands for Live Action Role Playing. Basically, the way parlor LARPing works is one person ahead of time does a ton of work (or looks around on the Internet or buys a game) and sets up characters and goals and a rough plot structure. Then everyone shows up, moves some furniture around to represent sick bays and spaceship controls or whatnot, and is assigned a character. Then all the characters are let loose to interact with each other, trying to achieve their private goals and protect their secrets, while only knowing the public info of the other characters.

The fun, for me, was in the acting (I got to be a starship captain!). It reminded me a lot of being a small child and running around with my friends playing pretend. Except that everyone's got a fully mature intellect and developed social skills.

So now, I'm trying to round up about six local friends who would be willing to set aside their grown-up propriety and jump into the fun!