Angie Clever

If you’re like me there are a couple of game types that really grab you, so I’m going to start at the top of my list with table-top role playing and live action role playing (LARP) games. I think they’ve always been my favorite just because they are the most creative. There are a couple of fundamentals, but all in all you have free reign to build something unique.

For anyone out there not intimately familiar with role playing games, there are many systems, but the overall theme is that you are a character with a set number of stats and abilities (often these are how you handle weapons, your athletic abilities, and your mental goods- you get the idea).

Live action role playing was my first love. There is nothing like beating the snot out of each other with foam swords in the dark. I started on the opposite end of RPG as most people. In high school, I was attending Friday night to Sunday morning RPG events at least once a month. We wore full costumes, and for those of you familiar with latex and duct tape weapons—well, we went there the whole nine yards. (For those of you not familiar with making foam swords check out The Almighty Guru Sword Making to get an idea of what I am talking about).

From there it really didn’t take much to get into a few editions of D&D, some off beat table-tops we picked up at a flea market, and best of all White-Wolf. After playing hundreds of RPGS, I still think the system that grabs me most (at least of any of the mainstream games) is White-Wolf. The system just allows for so much more freedom than your standard D&D based game. In many ways it reminds me of Live action role playing in that the characters are developed as strong personalities, a bit more independent of stats that D&D systems.

If you want a role playing to be a numbers game, buy a console and start playing Final Fantasy. It saves you a lot of tedious time and effort of adding up numbers from endless sheets of them (and confusing acronyms). The greatest success of the White-Wolf system is that it is user friendly, and forces the players to do more than count stats. The “Story Teller” (the equivalent to Dungeons and Dragons “Game Master”) has ultimate control and is expected to be just that—a story teller.

It takes an organized, intelligent, and creative person to “Story Tell” instead of just handing out stats. It becomes the responsibility of the Story teller to lead the characters on a path of adventure and self discover, leveling up stats and gaining abilities while personal growing. Role playing systems in this format rely more heavily on acting and social skills—you can see why us LARPers (Live Action Role Players lover it).

If you haven’t had a chance to role play in this format I would recommend checking out the White-Wolf site.