Don't Let THIS Happen to You, LARP'ers!

[fenderlove]

Okay, I just sat through the most idiotic segment of Unsolved Mysteries evah. "Vampire Games: Ghoulish Fun or Sinister Trap for Impressionable Children?" Apparently, everyone who is involved in LARP must be some kind of sick freak monkey who wants to rape children and kill small fluffy creatures. Whoa. I totally didn't know that. I've got a lot of stuff to do in that case! Kidding. It's these asshole crazy people who make all LARP'ers look like, well, crazy people. They ruin the game for everyone! Let's have a look at the three cases that were discussed in this episode of Unsolved Mysteries which involved the "dark drama" of Vampire: The Masquerade! These cases were flanked by video footage of an actual V:tM LARP. I gotta say, the Bard games and players are soooo much cooler than those kids. ^_~



First Case:
In 1996, a happy-go-lucky cheerleader in Rochester, NY got swept up in online vampires games, eventually meeting Brooker Malte who ran a vampire chatroom called "The Black Rose Nightclub." Malte "kidnapped" the girl and deserted the air force to be with her. She was found in 1997 still with Brooker, whom she was living with as his sister in Illinois. He faced kidnapping charges and "carnal knowledge" with a minor.

Second Case:
John Christopher Bush is charged with 30 counts of rape, unlawful carnal knowledge, and crimes against nature after luring impressionable junior high girls to believe that he was a "very powerful vampire."

Third Case:
In Murray, Kentucky, five teens, led by sixteen year old Rod Ferrell, killed a fellow group member's parents. Heather Windorff, daughter of the murdered couple, gave the age-old cop-out of "I didn't know what was going to happen!" and sold out the other four group members. She escaped all charges, but her four friends were all found guilty on two counts of first degree murder. Rod Ferrell, instigator of the group, organized Vampire: the Masquerade games in an abandoned building known as "The Vampire Hotel." He and his four friends proclaimed that V:tM was a "birthright" not a game, eventually scaring off casual and less insane gamers.

Comments

[spankingfemme.livejournal.com]

Wow... That's just as bad as that really bad movie Mazes and Monsters put out to scare parents whose kids played D&D. People want something to blame; they find it hard to believe that people act out of their own free will verses it had to be the game! Ahh! So ridiculous! :I They live under the concept that if they don't understand it, it must be a bad thing. *sigh* Just interested, do you play? I haven't in a couple years due to a hectic life schedule, but I used to play all the time.
Jenna;)

[fenderlove.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm a gamer, LARP and tabletop. I've LARP'ed for a few years now. I was part of a game at Bard College last year that was Vampire: the Masquerade and the Requiem. Pretty fun, and no one was insane enough to think that they were really a vampire. Yeah, they were insane, but not THAT insane. ^_~

[spankingfemme.livejournal.com]

I like live action if there is a good GM. When I used to live in NYC, we had a VM game with 30+ people; it was awesome! We used the whole city as our playground. Mostly the pier, washington square park, and river side park. What was cool about Riverside was that they had an old concrete ampletheatre that we used like a great hall for all the clans to commerce. Ahh, the good old days... this was about 8 years ago *sigh* I tried to get in a game down here in Florida about two years back, but the people were lame and really lacked imagination... mostly power gamers not intelligent enough to really power game. :( I'm not a power gamer myself, but I don't mind power gamers if their characters are more than just stats. The game I've played most is D&D, it's the system I know most about(unfortunately, because I know the system so well, I never get to play because everyone wants me to be the DM) I've never played Requiem; Tell me what that is about:D
Jenna;)

[fenderlove.livejournal.com]

Requiem is like Masquerade, but much darker. It still takes place in the World of Darkness. There's similar clans and factions of vampires, but with the added element of covens. Really awesome game. I reccommend it. It comes in a red book instead of Masquerade's blue book, I think.

[spankingfemme.livejournal.com]

Thanks :) I'll check it out
Jenna;)

[drachekatze.livejournal.com]

See, these things have nothing to do with the fact that these people game, and everything to do with the fact that they are mentally unbalanced. Merf.

[fenderlove.livejournal.com]

Have to agree with you there. I sat there the whole time, like, thinking, "Are any of these nutbags actually involved in V:tM besides the insano kids?"

[commievampire.livejournal.com]

My brain hurts!!

[fenderlove.livejournal.com]

Indeed. To quote Lou Reed, it's all a problem of violence in the mind.

*glomps* No brain go splode-y!

[sistercuervo.livejournal.com]

Semi-related to the same subject. have you ever seen that documentary about the 3-4 boys *goths in a very small hillbilly burg* who were railroaded into death row with no proof whatsoever other than they were *weird*. I think the title is Murders in Robin Hood Lane, but not sure of the exact title. it was absolutely chilling to think that kids could be stuck in prison for no other reason than they liked heavy metal and wore black nail polish.

[fenderlove.livejournal.com]

No, I haven't seen that, but I need to now. God, it's like that case in Texas were a punk rock (who was a pretty nice kid who just happened to have a blue mohawk) was killed when a preppy jock ran over him several times with a Cadillac. The preppy kid got off scott free with parole for fifteen years (he eventually broke parole though and had to go to jail). The jury actually said if the case had been reversed and a punk had killed a jock, they would have sent him to death row in an instant.
I hate people.

Oh My.

[autumnrose27.livejournal.com]

My hubby used to play D&D (stop laughing!) and I used to play Vampire, The Masquerade... again stop laughing! :)
Somehow we have stayed sane and not killed anyone...

Re: Oh My.

[fenderlove.livejournal.com]

I have no reason to laugh as I play both of those. ^_~ I haven't killed anyone either, though I cannot vouch for my sanity, but I assure you it was long gone before I started gaming. XD

Re: Oh My.

[autumnrose27.livejournal.com]

LOL, I hear ya! :)
(Love the icon.)