I joined some friends at a local LARP group this weekend, after being talked into it last month. It was an old fashioned medieval high fantasy "bunch of nerds running around in the woods" sort of group, though I'm told they do other stuff (steampunk and modern magic realism) outside of their regular weekend meetings.
I enjoyed myself, broadly speaking. I wrestled a guy in some mud, someone stole our treasure, we did an ambush. Cracking stuff. This was the first LARP or re-enactment type thing I have done in years and the first I've ever done with a group mostly comprised of strangers. Without a doubt, I consider it a good experience but I think I will not be doing it again. I found a lot of the rules arbitrary and frustrating, with the effect of funnelling the whole experience into a blander and more rigid affair than it needs to be.
I think the single largest part of my disaffection with this LARP meeting was one that could very easily be particular to this organisation, and not necessarily global to all LARPing. That was a fairly heavy insistence on PvP combat as an indispensable aspect of the game. Of course, I like hitting people with pretend weapons as much as (in fact, probably quite a lot more than) the next person, but I already have an outlet for that desire in my indulgent martial arts hobbies. I'm no fan of the way LARP tends to handle its combat, anyway, and this group's system seemed particularly limiting. It doesn't help that a great many storylines and scenarios make it essentially mandatory, forcing players to deal with it to access other, more enjoyable aspects of them.
Does anyone here participate in LARP? If so, what are your experiences? What do you play?