Love affairs, LARPers and Letters of Doom
This will be a long one as I have to go into the dim recesses of my life at University when I was but a little Cockroach.

'Twas back at the beginning of the 2nd year and I was living in a shared housw with the then-boyfriend Vampy-boy, a guy from sci-fi soc and another guy called Thomas. Now VB, Thomas and I were all members of the university LARP society (Live Action Roleplay) I am aware that there are some b3tans who are LARPers but for the benefits of those who are not, we got to dress up at the weekend and play with big fake weapons in the local woods, which was a great deal of fun and got you out whatever the weather.

Anyway back on topic, as is often the case in societies people had paired up quickly in 1st year with pretty much all my friends inside the LARP society and outside having a partner. All except Thomas. Now it wasn't that Thomas was unattractive or no fun its just that he was somewhat nervous and generally felt awkward having been to a rather repressive private school and was only now relaxing into University life and persuing interests beyond parental control like cross-dressing for instance - he was mosty into LARP because he could play female characters and could pull that off pretty well.

He felt the lack of a girlfriend particularly keenly so he was overjoyed when someone introduced a new girl to the society called Jordan. Now Jordan was a bit older than us, was an ex-student and didn't exactly look after herself, what with being overweight and rather fond of the ciggies and had what looked like a receeding hairline. But she was smitten with Thomas and so was he so they became an item.

All well and good you might say. But since we lived together some rather odd behaviour started emerging. She had a tendency to try and grab your attention, including once when she burst into my room wearing Thomas's basque and stockings asking how she looked. Or offering to give lifts into town and then dissappering at the agreed time. Strange balls of red hair started appearing round the house - one of her other quirks was a rather nasty case of tritchotillomania whic explained the receeding hair line. Still Thomas seemed happy and a happier Thomas made for a happier house.

Until the fateful day that a rather stunned Thomas comes back from lectures announcing that Jordan has dumped him for some 1st year LARPer known to us as Greasy for that is what he was. Thomas was still a bit stunned by the evening but was up for going to the weekly LARP Tavern night. So we, that is VB, Thomas and I trooped down to the Union for the tavern night.

Only to find Jordan and Greasy spending the whole evening in the mddle of the tavern kissing and snogging and generally getting a lot of kicks from rubbing it in Thomas's face. Not good when your planned night out involved hitting goblins and smiting undead, not trying to calm a distressed housemate.
Thomas, who was a sensitive soul at the best of times spent the rest of the evening in tears while we spend most of it consoling him. One of our friends ended up giving us a lift home as he was in such a state.

So once safely home our house held a Council of War. Having ruled out any revenge involving GBH, sabotage or anything that could break the law, Thomas hit upon the ultimate plan: Write a letter.

Now JOrdan's relationship with her mother whom she lived with was a tad strained to say the least. So Thomas wrote her a letter detailing all of Jordan's misdemenors in the past month - including unauthorised credit card spending to buy Greasy a kilt and 'borrowing' of her mothers car without her knowledge - and of cause all the more salacious stuff.

So he wrote it, posted it and we waited. Thomas was getting over the dumping and coped with seeing Greasy and Jordan together by leaving the room.

Until the fateful day when Jordan steamed up to me white with rage and looking not unlike a tugboat in a moth-eaten ginger wig saying "I knew it was Thomas who wrote that letter to my mother. Did you put him up to it!"

All I could do was bite my bottom lip and croak out a "No" and hurry somewhere where I could laugh my arse off out of earshot. Apparently everyone on the lower level of the Union could hear her when she finally found Thomas. He wasn't phased by it as he spent the rest of the evening giggling about it too.

The result of the letter was that her mother did not speak to her for 3 months. And just after she'd started speaking to Jordan, Jordan "borrows" her car and manages to write it off and break her arm. Cue another 3 months of not speaking.

Well done for getting this far.
(Cockroach-Sombrero Cook Pass Babtridge, Tue 27 Jul 2010, 23:56, 3 replies)

A click for effort
and in sympathy for your mate. No-one needs that kind of shit, and good on you for helping him out.
( Bats, Wed 28 Jul 2010, 10:09, closed)

I'll be honest
With your description of the people involved, you're not really selling the whole 'LARP' experience very well

That may just be me, though. To me, LARP has always seemed like a low-tech and more boring version of soldiers (or 'sodjies' for those born in Scotland), and playing soldiers kind of lost it's appeal after teenagehood and the discovery of alcohol
(Godwin's Lawyer is more evil than Hitler, Wed 28 Jul 2010, 13:11, closed)

The joys of LARP
I know it doesn't look impressive from above, but I have had some wonderful times LARPing as character, monster and ref. It is fun to dress up and be part of a different world for a few hours, do great deeds of derring do, die heroically and be able to talk about it in the pub. There's the camaraderie as well, whether there be songs by the campfire or battling a sudden squall of sleet in Febuary. It has taught me numerous skills like dress-making and cold metal working and gotten me into re-enactment.

Still there are certain personality types which do tend to be drawn to LARP who can be a bit socially wobbly not to mention a bit "degree-suicide" once they discover it. And some who take it VERY seriously. The year I was in seemed to have a larger number of these types on average. But in any niche hobby you get a wide spread of people.
(Cockroach-Sombrero Cook Pass Babtridge, Wed 28 Jul 2010, 19:20, closed)