A larp isn’t really an experience - it’s a chance to create your own experience with your friends. At Dystopia Rising New York, we offer many things to enhance that experience - antagonists, narratives and a beautiful campsite - and we have a lot of elements unique to Requiem. But what’s the core of the Dystopia Rising experience? When you and your friends get together and play Dystopia Rising, what do you expect? What about the game appeals to you?
We’ve come up with a few ideas… please let us know your thoughts.
Fighting Zombies (and Raiders and Critters…)
Dystopia Rising is a boffer larp, which means players expect there to be something to fight. It’s probably not the most common activity (if you have 6 to 8 hours of solid combat over a weekend, it’s probably a lot), but it defines the experience. You can hit your friends with foam swords at any boffer larp, but at Dystopia Rising, you get to fight zombies. It’s what makes the larp unique.
It’s also what makes it immersive, because the activity of boffer fighting aligns your body with what your character is doing. We may not be expert sword fighters or marksmen, but the act of swinging a foam sword in real-time in the chaos of a boffer battle feels more real than if we were playing a table-top game with dice. We think this is a major part of the appeal.
Hanging Out With Your Friends In The Woods In Costume
A big appeal of any larp is seeing your friends - larp is a social activity. Sometimes, we get too into it, and it’s our only social activity, but it’s a great way to reliably see a core group of friends every month. And when we do, we play… just like if we were in a bowling league or on a softball team, we play a game. This recharges us, because playing with friends (in this case role-playing) is a vital activity for adults to do.
With Dystopia Rising, we play in a particular aesthetic… and this aesthetic is important. We don’t just play for a couple of hours; we travel to the woods, put on post-apocalyptic costumes, and play for days. We don’t just role-play the exciting parts; we also cook in-character, we play music in-character, we craft in-character. Again, this is immersion, and it’s part of the unique appeal of a Dystopia Rising larp.
The Weird Stuff
We don’t mean “weird” in a bad way… we mean the stuff particular to Dystopia Rising larps that no one else offers. This could be Gravemind lore. It might be religious roleplay. The economy of the larp is unique and a tremendous draw for some people. There are lots of things that make Dystopia Rising unique, and each one is special to some player.
The important thing with the “weird stuff” is that there’s something for everyone, but not everyone likes the same thing. Some players will jump into a Gravemind scene every chance they get. Others spend hours collecting every blueprint. Having opportunities for both draws players to the game, where they’ll have the chance to hang out with their friends and fight zombies.
These are just our answers to “what is the appeal of Dystopia Rising?” What parts of Dystopia Rising do you come to game for?