Playing First Contact in Eclipse, a 3-Day Sci-Fi Larp

LARP has given me some of the most intense experiences of my life (the only thing that rivals it is some SM scenes, which is probably not so far away in what you're doing), and yet in many years I haven't felt the need to return to it. Certainly this "New Italian" tradition sounds like it goes against the parts I liked best - if the players aren't driving the plot then the whole experience becomes a lot weaker, shading into megagames (which I found a very disappointing experience). I was also pretty surprised by the rigid statement that "The purpose of larp is to experience different points of view, then reflect seriously and critically upon them afterwards." - I'm pretty sure that wasn't the purpose of some of the best LARPs I've taken part in. What if that's not my purpose?

It's hard for one experience to serve two masters - I find there's always a tension between competitive and roleplay experiences, and the best games clearly prioritise one over the other. The idea that there's something important that people are supposed to learn from an experience like this sits awkwardly with the fact that it's an undeniably niche activity - I see a lot more downside than upside in the prospect of rehashing colonialism debates with a group that's going to be inherently very unrepresentative of wider human society, to say the least.

But, yeah, I've had some really magical experiences that had nothing like this level of material support, that were just a few nerds standing in a field with a couple of props. It doesn't always hit, but the highs are high. The prospect of a multi-day event that doesn't require camping is very appealing, even at the cost of eating vegan for that time.

> Chaos League’s Sahara Expedition, which really does take place in the Sahara

How close is this to just doing the thing for real? Can we entice people into old-school adventures by calling in LARPing? What could we do this with?

dunno if this will ever be for me, but it was a great read.

Expected a multiplayer plugin for Eclipse.