Historical reenactment is losing to Larping. NOT A GOOD THING

[Galactic Journey]

I've been a die hard historical reenactor for several years and a competitive swordsman for most of my life. While I write in the fantasy genre, I read a great deal of historical fiction as well and one of my favorite series of books is Bernard Cornwall's Warlord Chronicles. His descriptions of what it's like to be in a shield wall during a push is spot on. While larping looks like a great deal of fun, it doesn't capture what its like to meet steel on steel in a full contact fight. It's a wonderful thing to draw from in terms of writing. I'd like to know ow other people might feel about this subject.

Different animals.

I got into reenactment to play a character. I have been disappointed in both the SCA and the Empire of Adria. It's about stick-jocking and politicking; no one is ever in character.(your mileage may vary; this has been my experience for 30 years). I got a combat (and an arts, and a ministry) knighthood in Adria, for rapier, but that was decades ago. Fighting is fun, but the Lodge aspect of medieval roleplay isn't.

I'm not really into LARP; tabletop is more my game, but a strongly character-based tabletop. But I'd love to find a reenactment group that was just about playing an historical person.

 

[Martin Gill]

LARP'ers sleep in a hotel room or some less-than-accurate facsimile of a cottage while swinging a cartoonish foam hammer that is so light you'd never get winded.

Wow.

So my current LARP loadout is my viking reenactment loadout. Riveted steel mail hauberk, 16 guage steel spectacle helm, steel splint vambraces and greaves. My foam sword weighs 1.5lbs (i just weighed it - its weighted with lead in the handle). My steel sword weighs 3.5lbs. They are actually pretty similar to fight with. My larp shield is significantly lighter than my reenactment one, I'll give you that, but then I can aggressively batter people with it without worrying about breaking their nose if they aren't wearing full face protection. That's pretty standard for the more historically inspired European groups.

These guys dig fighting pits, forage for roots, and build lean-to's to camp under for however long the events lasts

Nah. I've done 48 hr full time in LARPs sleeping in viking tents. I've done a WW2 LARP game where we slept in a ditch, posted stag all night, assaulted a German convoy and mounted a dawn raid. I've done reenactment in York for the Jorvik festival where we showed up, got changed in the car park, stood in a shield wall for an hour, then went to McDonalds.

I am not trying to offend anyone

Maybe - but you are making broad, sweeping, inaccurate statements of "fact". I've done both of these activities (LARP and reenactment) for more than 20 years. If you have experience of both activities, then great, but if you are basing your opinion on a Google search, I'd encourage you to apply a touch more critical thinking.

Have a look here... Gallery | Cry Havoc (more historical) and here...

(more mythical meets historical - celtic and norse) and tell me where the hotels, lack of fatigue and having to imagine everything is?

They are different activities. There are overlaps, and like a Venn diagram, there's things you can experience in each that's mutually exclusive - but I'd say the overlap is bigger than you realise.

 

[Theophania Elliott]

I used to do historical re-enactment. Did it for sixteen, seventeen years, both military and civilian. So did my husband. We've both moved on - he's now doing competitive full-contact stuff (HMB - the stuff mentioned as 'hardcore' earlier on! The promo video for this year's world championships is here). He's having a great time being beaten up by blokes who are six inches taller than him, thirty pounds heavier than him, and twenty-five years younger than him.

As I have crap proprioception, crap co-ordination, and need to have R and L on my gloves, I haven't gone with him (though I'm glad to note that there is now a UK women's team, which did rather well in its first outing in France this month). I was good enough fighter for the re-enactment field, but not for HMB.

My husband is also (when time allows) a table-top gamer - historical wargaming. Neither of us have felt the slightest inclination to have anything to do with LARP. Clearly other people get a lot of enjoyment out of it, but it's a bit like football: if you don't get it, it's just 22 men kicking a ball around a field and rather difficult to understand why so many people find it so fascinating. Still, horses for courses... and I have on occasion remarked, "What is this thing called 'fun' and how might one 'have' it?" I think a lot of people who do LARP know what 'fun' is and have mastered the difficult art of 'having' it.

And I might add... if historical re-enactment is losing people to LARP and other hobbies, maybe the remaining historical re-enactors might want to think about why that is. After all, you don't stop doing a hobby that you're enjoying (time permitting).

 

[Galactic Journey]

I have on occasion remarked, "What is this thing called 'fun' and how might one 'have' it?" I think a lot of people who do LARP know what 'fun' is and have mastered the difficult art of 'having' it.

As Ted said in The Sure Thing, "Look at these people! I bet they think they're having a good time!"

 

[Martin Gill]

He's having a great time being beaten up by blokes who are six inches taller than him, thirty pounds heavier than him, and twenty-five years younger than him.

I have a friend who lost his front teeth to that sport. As a 5'10" 170lb-er, I'll stick to what I can do, being faster and more devious, not stronger