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Larp Combat: An Overview
As an avid LARPer, Ren Faire patron, martial artist, stage combat participator, and aficionado of ancient and medieval military history, there’s one thing that stands out to me more than anything else whenever I watch anyone at a LARP or Faire, or when I participate myself: the combat.
Now, I realize that there’s a lot involved in being a succesful fighter at LARP, and that every person’s style is different, but often times I find myself watching people fighting and thinking to myself “well why would they do something like that?” Having been involved in LARP fighting for nearly eight years at this point, as well as having a solid six years of intense martial arts training, I have a tendency to dissect people’s combat styles every time I watch them, and I have to say, I’m often disappointed.
For me, close quarters combat is one of the most satisfying things about LARP. I can have an absolutely awful weekend for my character in terms of plot, I can have the most terrible things imaginable happen over the course of an event, but I can still label the entire weekend a success if the combat was particularly enjoyable for me.
So, with that in mind, I thought that I’d try to write a series of articles (mostly whenever I have time to write them) about combat, specifically guides and other such things to help people learn new techniques, new ideas, and to help everyone keep their LARP fighting safe and enjoyable. So, for this first article, I’ll examine a common question that everyone asks themselves when they first start looking into a game: What level of combat am I comfortable with?
There are really three basic levels of combat that are commonly seen at LARP games, with many shades of gray between them. These levels are Light Combat, Medium Combat, and Heavy Combat. Now, ALL LARPs inherently have some kind of combat aspect to them, so your enjoyment of a game will have a great deal to do with finding a game that has the right level of combat for what you like.
Light Combat
While there’s no way to quantify what each combat level entails, I can try to do it in extremely general terms. Games with Light Combat tend to focus on the Role Play between characters as the driving force behind the plot, and most combat occurs either on modules or with a very specific intent within the town itself. In general, combat happens with large gaps of time in between each battle, and the “enemy” side is almost invariably weaker and fewer in number than the “good guys”. In my experience, games like this use Combat as a mechanic to cause plot to move forward, by having certain NPCs or forces introduced, or having a combat component to completing major objectives, but not for much else.
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I admit that when I first glanced over your post and saw the 3 classifications on combat I had something else in mind.
Game Combat: This is when the rules of the game dictate all forms of 'combat.' There is little or no actual physical engagement between parties. Often dice are rolled, beads are drawn, sticks are selected, cards are drawn, or hand shakes are performed. The victor is determined by a pre-set of rules governing combat for that game.
Light Combat: In these games players engage in physical combat. All combat attacks are designed to lightly touch or "tap" the victim. No body contact is allowed except through sanctioned and safe weapons.
Medium Combat: The physical nature of these games is much like Light Combat except that a solid strike must be felt in order for the blow to be considered effective. Often players will call "light" on an attack that they feel was not a solid blow. Some games with Medium combat allow for limited touching such as grabbing an arm, or restraining a weapon.
Heavy Combat: These games require a solid blow to land before it is considered a legal hit. They also tend to allow for "full body contact" such as grappling, and restraining your victim. Some variations of heavy combat styles include live steel events or rattan weapons.
What styles of combat do you participate in, and what are you looking for when you judge the combatants?
Cheers,
Kevin Tjia
www.LARPSource.com
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That's a great question, and I get where the confusion comes from. Personally, I like to describe combat intensity like that in terms of sparring levels that I've learned from martial arts. The "game combat" you described would be "Non-contact" where as the "heavy combat" you described would be "Full-Contact", with a whole continuum in between.
Personally, I prefer a game where the idea is to just make sure that the other person knows that they got hit, but not to go too much harder than that. I understand the attraction of full-contact games, and I like to live by the old saying "if you haven't broken something, you're not playing the game right", but I also really like keeping my blood inside my body.
See, I've found it's easiest to fight against people I've never met before using the light-contact system (just hard enough so they know they got hit), because it makes sure that they don't misunderstand my intensity for something other than a love of sparring. When I'm fighting against friends, on the other hand, I'll ratchet up the intensity in proportion to how long I've known them (the friend I've spared with the longest and I go at it pretty furiously).
In terms of what I'm looking for in judging other fighters in different intensities and combat systems, what I'm really looking for is how well people stick to the rules that are set up (such as not stabbing me in the solar plexus with a latex sword every 20 seconds) and how well they can work within those rules to be an effective fighter. One of the best fighters that I've gotten to spar against is a shield fighter who is absurdly effective and almost never goes outside of the rules.
But, all things considered, the games that I have the most fun at are the light-contact to medium-contact games, where I can use my role-playing and combat experience to give my character a unique fighting style without signing myself up to be injured.
Thanks for the question!
James