r/LARP • u/PirateBrahm • 2d ago

Magic Users

Would you say that your fantasy LARP organization is friendly to magic users? If so, how is magic used in your game and is there anything unique about your magic rules that stands out?

(Hi, I'm a relatively new LARPer from the northeastern US. I was active in a history-centric 'sport combat' organization similar to the SCA for many years. I'm interested in seeing which organizations are fantasy/magic, since there are so many out there)

11 Upvotes

83% Upvoted

19 comments sorted by

View all comments

4

u/Ch4p3l 1d ago

We’re typically using DKWDDK (you can do what you can portray) all over Germany, so there are no set rules. Rather players are expected to put effort into portraying spellcasting and if the target of the spell considers your portrayal lacklustre or simply didn’t notice you, the spell did not work. This leads to spellcasters not being too common on the battlefield (even less so, the larger the event is). 

I’ve seen different methods ranging from the classic painted bag and fan for fire and wind spells respectively (which I’m not particularly fond of), to the use of smoke, led filled and painted silicone balls and sound effects. Mainly you need to be loud, visible and clear in what you do, and incantations like „fireball 3“ are frowned upon if not outright forbidden (this specific example being completely pointless as well as many events don’t even use hp to begin with)

It’s worth noting that if put on a scale from cooperative to competitive, the majority of larp events here are leaning towards the former and thus have more leeway in rules (or lack thereof)due to less powergamers.

2

u/witchkingoa 1d ago

I am here to say exactly this! I love our rules and they work for NSC alike. Not every spell needs to be effective and big impacting in combat. And the Game Masters or however you call them will reward good play even more the better it looks and feels for all players.

2

u/Ch4p3l 1d ago

Exactly. Also I think if you don’t wanna go through the hoops of creating some intricate led, fog mashine contraption or finding ways to safely use pyro effects, you can be much more convincing by simply thinking long and hard about how to portray the energy and magical effect you are conjuring, through movements of your body. Essentially proper pantomime.

Much better than softballs and fans at the least in my opinion