[JAIDEN] It can be a little intimidating doing your first LARP.
INTENSE BATTLE ROAR
WEAPONS CLANGING
[VIOLET] Yeah, I’m having a lot of fun.
WEAPONS CLANGING
Fighting and beating all the guys because… why not?
ROARING AND CHANTING
[JAMES] You can just pretend to be who you want to be.
BATTLE DRUMS AND GUNSHOTS
[MAX] If you do like sports, you wanna run around, maybe hit some people with a stick.
SLICING AND THUDDING
And touch football isn’t doin’ it for ya, I’d recommend this.
WEAPONS CLANGING AND YELLING
[ANTHONY] You’ll find a warm, welcoming community.
INTENSE BATTLE ROAR
Everyone picks each other up, everyone takes care of each other.
[THOMAS] And we’re all friends here.
WEAPONS CLANGING AND SLICING
BATTLE DRUMS INTENSIFY
[VALEN] It is guy-dominated, but that’s why we need more girls to come do it.
More LGBT people doing it.
Everyone of every gender, come do LARP, it’s so much fun!
INTENSE BATTLE ROAR
SLOW MEDIEVAL MUSIC
[STUART] I’m an electrician.
[SAM] I’m a registered nurse.
[JARRED] I work in IT.
[BRIONY] I’m an office worker, I’m not very important.
Here at Wargrounds as ‘The Empress’ and as an Admin, I feel a sense of power, I guess.
Are you ready?
SHRIEKING AND ROARING
[BRIONY] Three... two... one... play on!
SLOW MOTION RUMBLING
WEAPONS CLANGING AND SLICING
ROARING AND SCREAMING
BATTLE SOUNDS AND MUSIC FADES
VIDEO GAME MUSIC
[REPORTER] For the uninitiated, LARP stands for Live Action Role Play
and Wargrounds is a LARPing league and community from Canberra.
It’s like any other weekend sport,
but the teams are known as factions,
they play tagged-based games with big padded weapons,
they do battle as enemies or allies
and it’s all about their characters and costumes.
LARP isn't confined to just one genre,
but it’s a mutual love of medieval fantasy that brings these people together at Wargrounds.
I'll let them tell their epic tale from here...
starting with the guy in the orc mask.
ELECTRONIC DRUM ROLL
[SAM] There's no getting used to wearing a full latex mask.
Being an orc is just a choice
and you know, I like having that ittle bit of a rambunctious, out there kind of character.
[BRIONY] To be honest, I wasn’t expecting people to take to my character as well as they did
but the first day I walked in and just declared myself ‘The Empress’, people were like,
“alright, all hail The Empress, fight for The Empress!”
The character's just so different from what I am in my everyday life.
VIDEO GAME MUSIC
[SAM] Being able to get into character, for a lot of people, can be some sort of relief.
It’s a great way to be in a different mindset for a couple of hours,
and also running around outside, good for the health, you know, so you’re ticking a lot of boxes and
you're meeting a lot of good people who share the same values.
[BRIONY] Look, a lot of people think that we’re nerds and we’re weird...
we absolutely are, we love it. Who cares?
BATTLE DRUMS AND VIKING HORN
HEARTBEATS
ARROW SWOOSHES
[THOMAS] My group, The Horde, just... we had no healers,
we just had to push and push and push,
but our enemies on the other end, The Empire and The North, they…
well, they had healers, so it was very much a game of rush and tactics
and you had to think on your feet very quickly, otherwise you're just down and out,
but I was very lucky, that I didn’t die.
SLOW ORCHESTRAL MUSIC
THUDDING AND SCREAMING
CLANGING WEAPONS AND SCREAMING
ORCHESTRAL MUSIC FADES
[JARRED] Every player’s responsible for counting their own hit points.
You wanna hit someone so that they feel it, but not so that they’re feeling it tomorrow.
VIDEO GAME MUSIC
[VIDEO GAME VOICES] Choose your character! Ready! Fight! Come get some!
[BRIONY GRAB] The less armour you have, the more sort of points you get for other things,
whether that’s healing or damage spells, and I like to use damage spells, so to me,
less armour equals more power.
[JARRED] There’s generally sort of three styles of LARP, you have Parlour LARP, Boffer LARPs and Battle Sports.
So, we sit firmly in the Battle Sports section...
there’s not too much role play going on, you’re not really interacting with other players in a diplomatic way,
you’re just purely engaging in combat.
VIDEO GAME MUSIC BUILDS AND FADES
[STUART] There’s this common misconception in LARP that we’re a bunch of nerdy virgins
that are socially awkward, and although we do have socially awkward people,
it's a place where I find a lot of people are able to come outside of themselves
and grow and communicate.
I met my partner - I’ve been living with her for over a year now - at LARP.
[BRIONY] We have a lot of neurodiverse people, people who identify as transgender.
[JARRED] You’ll have some people, you know, maybe they’ve been picked on for being a nerd their whole life,
you know, they’ll think they’ll be picked on more if they start doing this.
Some of the friends that I’ve made through LARP are now closer than family to me.
[STUART] A lot of adults forget how to play, and we find that really important,
and by playing we’re… become more confident and more relaxed in our day-to-day life.
MUFFLED BATTLE ROARS
[BRIONY] We play, we dress up, we fight, we have fun...
I feel my life might be quite miserable if I wasn’t out here doing this.
MUFFLED ROARING AND SHRIEKING
SLOW EMOTIVE ELECTRONIC MUSIC
[REPORTER] Gramercy, for lending us thine ears and eyes, good viewer.
Before I bid thee farewell, mayhap thee needeth new shoes, prithee thee consider FSW Shoes.
Their wares can be found by consulting the oracle at FSWshoes.com.au.
They deliver to thine door.
Until next #GoodShoutFriday... Anon.