this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2025
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[โ€“] skisnow@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Related but a lot of smaller LARP clubs (European style at least, can't speak for America) end up extremely culty because of a perfect storm of factors:

  • takes up loads of time and resources just to be average; making costumes, learning stats, downtime activities etc before you've even left the house

  • predominantly twenty-somethings who recently moved out of their parents' house and end up house-sharing with other LARPers from the same club

  • the RPG + Am Dram elements mean that it takes years to be able to access a lot of the game, whether it be types of spellcasting or a character in a position of power. This means that if you want to quit your club for another one, you're losing years of progression in a way that doesn't happen with sports or most arts-based hobbies.

  • spending whole weekends in the middle of the woods with no outside influence, where you have to follow instructions given by refs. It's also not unusual to be up until sunrise or even do all-nighters playing through the next day as well

  • success or failure at the game is often at the whims of said refs, MUCH more than in Warhammer

  • ...as a result of which, the club management hierarchy ends up translating into social hierarchy outside of official events. The people at the top are the ones that effectively determine whether a party, day trip or even a wedding is going to be a big event or not, and the regular membership treats them accordingly. So, culty as heck.

It's like a microcosm of society itself in a way, guess we human beings can't think outside of hierarchical structures