LARP and other cool costume pictures!

[Xaq]

I decided to move this to its own thread, since I'm going to have more pictures to post in the near future... and I thought it would be great if other people could share THEIR funky pictures and tales of cool LARP experiences!

Got a cool costume pic? Post it! LARP RULES!!

(Shadowrun LARP pics to follow!)

[Xaq]

I've run 3 different Shadowrun LARPs now, so Cyberpunk is covered... I've also read about a Boffer-style Shadowrun LARP, where they used Airsoft guns (the ones that shoot foam pellets). I've participated (as staff or player) in several Cthulhu Live LARPs as well. There's a guy in Edmonton who runs an occasional summer LARP called "Black Creek", where his players stay at a cabin in the woods, and the organizers stay in some tents a good distance away... and the game goes all weekend, with random zombie attacks in the middle of the night, spooky noises, etc. One year the players had to find this grave site in the woods, where the organizers had actually burried a coffin in a shallow grave, with a fake corpse in it!! The players had to dig it up. Talk about freaky.

Superheroes I've heard of, but never seen. It could be rather cheesy, but it might be a lot of fun, too!

Anyway, here's a whole bunch of pictures of Shadowrun LARPs I've run in the past:

[DM_Topher]

All right. I'm the Highlander warrior. The druid is my friend Chuck Biscuits. (no, that's not his real last name.)

Yes, I'm wearing shorts under my kilt.

[Wxgirl]

Meet Prism my old werewolf WoD character while I was at ICC in Milwaukee, WI:

<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v606/ ... /Prism.jpg" border="0" alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket"></a>

It's a long story as to why there is ductape on my arm.

(( OK if pic does not work go here ... http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v606/ ... /Prism.jpg ))

[Mechalith]

OK, now I've got to know: why IS there duct tape on your arm?

[Wxgirl]

OK, now I've got to know: why IS there duct tape on your arm?

Long story short ... I was kinda adopted into a pack at ICC because no one was from my other pack back in Mt. P and well that pack is strong but lacks ummmm intelligence. They thought it would be brilliant that if you stood for something / agreed with the pack ( I forget but it involved the Pure ) to put duct tape onto everyone. Those who were actually in the pack got two strips of ductape (my second strip fell off). It was amusing having a random strip of ductape on my arm for half of a day.

[Thunderhowl]

I decided to move this to its own thread, since I'm going to have more pictures to post in the near future... and I thought it would be great if other people could share THEIR funky pictures and tales of cool LARP experiences!

Got a cool costume pic? Post it! LARP RULES!!

(Shadowrun LARP pics to follow!)

Hey mang! Do you have the pics youse guys took of me in that crazy Ork rat shaman costume I wore for the first SLARPcon?

Also, my mage cabal is here: http://www.saskatoonbynight.com/C_WICKED/WICKED.HTM#top
I'm the guy in the Wizard shirt...

[Lunaroki]

You played a guy named John Smith? O.o Dude, that's just scary!

[Thedon]

Me as Amythest my vamp.


me from a game back in first SLARPA event, don't remeber the game or the name of the character, was 2 years ago mind you.


Me as my bookie Jordon Michealson from MbN game.


my friend Inri, took us an hour to get him into the damn thing..armor was an sob to tye together.


me to the far right..can't see it but i have one of those card decker dealies from Yu-gi-oh.


me as Moonbeam from Kingdome Game, made Xaq's eyes hurt.

[Lunaroki]

me to the far right..can't see it but i have one of those card decker dealies from Yu-gi-oh.

Are you by any chance talking about a Duel Disk?

[Xaq]

That second-from-the-bottom picture always annoyed me, because of the camera flash. The room was pitch-black, and the floating head object and the foam boxes on sticks were both lined with glow-in-the-dark material. The room looked pretty awesome in the dark... not so much in the light!

[Thanatos5150]

I really envy you guys.
I feel obligated to drop a photo, but I don't have any LARP-ey photos to drop. Not like my everyday clothing doesn't look like I could be dropping a WoD or cyberpunk photo, anyway.
Keep 'im comin', ya'all.
^.^

[Xaq]

Hey mang! Do you have the pics youse guys took of me in that crazy Ork rat shaman costume I wore for the first SLARPcon?

Also, my mage cabal is here: http://www.saskatoonbynight.com/C_WICKED/WICKED.HTM#top
I'm the guy in the Wizard shirt...

Unfortunately, we didn't take pictures at that LARP... we used a hand-held video camera. I have the tapes, but I don't have a means of capturing the footage as digital, at least not yet. At some point I want to make AVIs or MPEGs out of them, so I can capture frames and show off all the costumes.

[Thunderhowl]

Hey mang! Do you have the pics youse guys took of me in that crazy Ork rat shaman costume I wore for the first SLARPcon?

Also, my mage cabal is here: http://www.saskatoonbynight.com/C_WICKED/WICKED.HTM#top
I'm the guy in the Wizard shirt...

Unfortunately, we didn't take pictures at that LARP... we used a hand-held video camera. I have the tapes, but I don't have a means of capturing the footage as digital, at least not yet. At some point I want to make AVIs or MPEGs out of them, so I can capture frames and show off all the costumes.

Ooooh yeah!

[Dustman]

So my mom finally got around to sending me these pictures from the RenFest earlier this year:


I'm the one on the right (that's my then-stepdad on the left). When I made the costume, I was not intending to look that much like an ewok basketball star. And yes, chainmaille eyepatches are the new ultimate in renaissance bling-bling.

Just in case you wanted a better view of my face. I don't know who the centaur is, but he did a jolly good job with his costume, eh? The eyepatch was starting to irritate my skin and turn my eyebrows green by this point, which is why it's in that goofball position.

I know there's more pixel-y goodness somewhere, but I don't know what happened to it. Also, I recently found out there's a larp near here, so hopefully I'll have some more pictures (and stories!) soon.

[Xaq]

Here's some pictures from this past summer, at a Legend of the Five Rings LARP (it's a medieval Japanese fantasy setting).

First, some pics of Alina, in her super-awesome costume!





This is what I wore... not quite as cool as Alina's, but still pretty neat:



Here are all of the Scorpion Clan:



Oh no, a deul!!



Two Courtiers are looking on:



Here's a few more random shots:

[Bonames]

I would like, if I may, use this chance to show some of my LARP-pictures I shot since 1994. Don't get confused by the copyright-statement in the lower right corner of the pictures - NC is me. And thus I asked myself for permission to post them here and luckily I was in a generous mood so I granted myself said permission.

Anyway. Let's see...




So this one was shot on my very first LARP, Silvester 1994/95. Back then I was still using my first Minolta camera with b/w film. I thought it would better fit the scenery.

We see the elven friends Eltarion (a fire war mage) and Tindome (classical ranger). Both of them impressed me with both, their play and their costumes.

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This one is from 1996 and shows Baron Wiglaf - another very impressive character. Indeed he was the first player I meet who from his whole apperance and atmosphere succeded to convince me that he _is_ a aristocratic. There are so many 16-18 year old boys out there pretending to be a king or whatever - and almost all of them are just boys in robes.

Ah, here I may mention one of the main-characteristics in German LARPing - you may play what you can make others belive you are. For example a 6ft tall man usually won't play a dwarf while a... well... let's say "well rounded" girl usually won't play an elf. Of course, it restrains the roles you may choose from. On the other hand the game-world becomes much more authentic.


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So if you want to play, let's say, an Orc, you won't just hang a sign around your neck with "Orc" written on it. No, you'd take some time and build the right costume.




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What I have said so far may lead you to the conclusion that we are very strict in Germany when it comes to costumes. No. Of course not. If you really want to you can play female fairy-wardancers - we don't take LARPing too serious


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Okay, time to introduce myself - well... at least what I was looking like 12 years ago. My, was I young by then

Anyway, back then I was one of those "leather-pants"-wearers. That was very commen back in the 90ies. But you will seldomly see those on today's German LARPs. There were many players out there in internet-chats, message-boards etc. who ranted against biker-pants until no one dared to wear them any longer.


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I should drop a line or two concerning armor. Every armor you plan to wear has to be real. This dwarf, for example, wears a real metal plate mail combined with a real metal chain mail. And only by wearing those he gets the according armor class.

A piece of silver colored cardboard bound around your chest with a string will give you the exact armor class of... well... a piece of cardboard.

The weapons however are another thing. Although some of them may look pretty real - they are all fake. I think you call them boffer, don't you? It's the same with the shields so that you may hurt no one for real should you wag it around.


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Oh, and we do indeed use bows and arrows - although our bows arelimited to 25lbs (which makes them pretty much a toy) and the rules for arrows are pretty hard to match. They have to have a thick boffer-head, so big that it can't hurt you not even if you get hit in the eye.

And of course, you only hit if you hit. So your character is a master of archery? You better get your things together and go training with your bow.


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As for me I like to stick with my crossbow - it's really no match for a bow, but it looks much more fierce and belive me, NPCs fled from me just by coming face to face with my crossbow

By the way, this one was shot last year in Austria. As you can see I do no longer wear biker-pants. But the cheesy leather-armor ist still the same.


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Okay that's all for today. I hope I didn't bore you too much with my little stories.

If you like to hear more about LARPing in Germany, please let me know your questions. And I will try my best to answer them in word and picture

[Jfries289]

Bonames, I have to say that you german LARPers look quite impressive and your pictures are creating within me a strong desire to try out this 'LARPing' with some skilled fun-loving people. I'm afraid I've never had the chance to participate, nor have I ever actually met anyone who had (that I know of at least...).

Also, if I might add, meeting a female LARPer, or even D&Der, would be a mysterious and fantstical event, especially (and here I hope I do not offend) of the sort as that last Orc! Heh, I suppose my exposure has been somewhat limited (late starter with a small group in a smallish town...).

[Bonames]

Ah, yes... female LARPer. A good topic for a second installment...

Thinking back at my days back in school playing D&D or Shadowrun as Paper'n'Pen-roleplay I clearly can understand you. There were only few female players. When it comes to LARP this clearly changed - maybe because there are much more opportunities for "real" interaction in LARP and less dice-throwing. I dunno.

What I do know (as a GM) is that the quality of roleplay is increasing dramatically if you manage to keep the ratio of male and female players balanced.


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Should you ever see a female LARPer, just grab her and run

Well - that was maybe your first thought when you saw my picture of a female Orc earlier. Well - you wouldn't have to. I don't have numbers but my understanding is that the ratio male to female LARPers in Germany is 60% to 40%. So, no need to get nervous should you ever meet a female player - she won't be the last unicorn


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So, what roles do they play? Maybe "elves, of course" is the first thing that comes to your mind - true, there are many female elven pcs out there.


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And some even take the "typical female" role of healers, as you can see here by looking at some members of the "greencoats", the "mobile armed soilder hospital" (M*A*S*H).


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Another stereotype role would be that of a spellcaster. And indeed quite a few follow this path, like Isilmevaire of the coast elve tribe.


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All very peaceful roles? Well - they do also know how to defend themselves. And not only as archer, like Salesha Ben Surahn of the house of Surahn....


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...but also in heavy armor as fierce fighters. For good, or (as we can see here) for Chaos.


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Yes, you can also meet them on the dark side. Take for example the dark night feary Ithrathiel. She really kicked our butts (if I may say so) and is a good example that NPCs are more than just batting-puppets for boffer weapons.


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And it's clearly no good idea to hope for a candlelight-dinner, should you meet this house-mistress of the drow at night.


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They're even not afraid to challange mighty male warriors - like the puck "Blubb" does here...


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...and some of them like to play with fire.


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But don't let me scare you - female players are just as fun-loving as males are. And from my point of view I wouldn't want to miss them, especially in the evening at the campfire.


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There are many female LARPers out there - and you can meet them in many roles. Even as GM (like Ivy here in a white GM-robe).


I hope you liked the second part - and feel free to drop me a comment. I am always happy to read some feedback.

[Susan Calvin]

A few Swedes after a post-apocalyptic LARP inspired by Nausicaä.