I was head ST for a vampire/werewolf larp for 5 years or so, and all it got me was two horrible relationships, grey hair and 20 lbs gained from crappy late night Dennys.
Dont do it, I have so many stories I won't even begin to put them here.
Last I heard, they were still playing the same game.
Share the stories
at start to heal those old wounds
Ok, here are a couple off of the top of my head:
We were running a scene at one of the locations that we played at, and in this game we had allowed the use of neon prop pistols, as long as they were toy guns that looked NOTHING like the real thing, orange, ray guns, whatever. It was an optional rule, and after running a giant mob combat, we went back inside the "bar" to mop up the scene socially. The next thing we know, three cruisers show up, and the local law enforcement are there wanting to know why they got a report of suspicious activity.
Cop: What are you people doing, why are you all dressed up like that? Is this some kind of cult or something?
Player A: It is something.
Needless to say I had to call game early, and give a statement, and explain the game, showing the rulebook and discussing it with the police. They really never left us alone after that, driving by slow and flashing lights, etc. Luckily we moved location. It was a pretty crappy night, and we learned our lesson with prop weapons, as well as talking back to police.
The second story is the better one:
We were running a scene in the student union at UMASS, and there was a mob of people there. One player, notorious for cheating, kept throwing late on his r.p.s. throws, really aggrivating the judge and ****ing off the other players.One player in particluar said, "If you keep trying to cheat, I am going to kick you in the face", we corrected him and said no one is kicking anyone, and the scene went on. Player A kept throwing late/cheating, and player B calmly got on a chair, then on the desk, and kicked player A in the face with size 12 Doc Martens. The kid goes down, eyes rolled back in his head. BAM
We crap our pants (the staff) grab the kid, forcibly ejecet him from the room, and call campus security. After a mess of explaining, we had to shut down for the night, and we never saw either player again.
Now, no matter how hard you try to reign people in, it just isn't worth the trouble to LARP. As the aformentioned story, people take it too personally if they "die" and too many bad feelings happen.
I did make some really solid life friends though, so It was worth it in the long run for that reason.
Next?