Hurtling toward Cougartown

[lisefrac]

I had a delightful conversation with Alison S. last night involving LARPs, romance plots, and macking on undergrads. "At what point do we start being considered cougars?" asked Alison, only partially in jest

Comments

[offside7]

I'm starting to think this is a fear/concern for all female LARPers who like romance plots (possibly all LARPers, but I've yet to hear a male express it.)

I still think of myself as a girl, and not a woman, and every now and then I get these little shocks, like the one you mention above-oh, this guy I'm flirting with... he can't even legally drink yet.

The one thing that I find somewhat reassuring is that I see LARPers who are much older than I getting cast in pretty pretty princess romance roles, and they seem to be enjoying it, and as far as I can tell, so are the LARPers playing opposite them in the romance.

[lisefrac]

The one thing that I find somewhat reassuring is that I see LARPers who are much older than I getting cast in pretty pretty princess romance roles, and they seem to be enjoying it, and as far as I can tell, so are the LARPers playing opposite them in the romance.

This is true. And I know lots of LARPers in relationships with older folks, too. We're pretty accepting on non-traditional ideas of beauty, on the whole.

Not sure that's going to get rid of the niggling doubts in the back of my head, but it's good to remember.

[laura47]

Oh, I have a gay male LARPer friend who has this concern! :-D To quote his app, "I care more about age then gender with love plots".

[offside7]

Now I wonder about trends among straight males and gay females. ^_^;;

[acousticshadow2]

a few topics here I would like to address

[lisefrac]

I love this comment :) And you're right, a lot of the reason I love LARPing is the fantasy. (Which is why I don't often see the appeal of Nordic/JEEPform LARP that insists on being in real-world settings). So thanks for your perspective :)

I especially wanted to reply to two things:

But for people who miss that uncertain excitement. LARP IS AWESOME! It should be part of relationship counseling around the world!

You know, this reminds me of how, in my run of Happily Ever After, when Prince Charming and Cindy were talking about their problems (no one knew about his sexuality in my run), Randy as Robin Hood made this awesomely meta comment like, "Maybe you consider some role-playing..."

“Jerry Springer meets the Real Housewives of Somewhereville”

I totally misread that as "Somerville." Which... yeah.

[laura47]

I have so been thinking about this, having just wound up casting people in love plots in the SNLB MIT runs who were closer to 20 years apart than 10... I try really hard not to cast people in super age difference love plots if I can without knowing the players are okay with it, but it was basically impossible here.

I had solidly reached a point where the only MIT undergrads I knew to any real degree were seniors or older, and silly me I thought it would stay that way, and then I played the MIT ten day game and suddenly I'm staying up all night listening to teenage angst. Which is fine, but unexpected! I just found out an undergrad I've been LARPing with went to the same K-12 Catholic school as me... and we were there are the same time, she was in first grade and I was in eleventh. I may have screamed and fled the room, because that just brought it home waaay too much.

[lisefrac]

just found out an undergrad I've been LARPing with went to the same K-12 Catholic school as me... and we were there are the same time, she was in first grade and I was in eleventh. I may have screamed and fled the room, because that just brought it home waaay too much.

*nod* I have had moments like that. I remembered when I was talking about playing AD&D2E in high school, and the people I was talking to finally piped up and said that the first version of D&D they remembered was 3rd ed...

[laura47]

hey, i starred with 3.5. :-D I just started late. :)

[offside7]

Few more thoughts- I don't need to feel any attraction to a LARPer in order to enjoy a romance plot with them. I wouldn't really want to play in a romance where the other person felt obligated because karma dictates that when he has a romance with someone who doesn't want to RP a romance with him, she'll suck it up and do it anyway, too. (I suppose I might end up enjoying it anyway because he's just that good at faking enjoying the romance plot with me

[lisefrac]

Also, romance plots for me aren't about experiencing new romance thrill- in fact, I'd say I'd have a preference for a romance plot with a LARPer I was actually in a relationship with.

Interestingly, I almost never app for love plots with Matt, but I think that has more to do with the fact that he rarely plays villains and I rarely play good guys :)

We do play a good estranged couple, though, as witnessed by Dragon and Intrigue in the Clouds :) I actually had a lot of fun in Dragon acting out the relationship angst, especially given that it was in a fictional setting I cared a lot about. ("Screw you, Steven Brust, I'm totally going to fix the Vlad/Cawti thing!")

[queenortart]

We have one couple where she will only let him do romance plots with her, and that's bloody annoying.

I absolutely relate to this, am beginning to wonder if I should stop wanting to be a young(ish) lover type girl.

What I cannot do is to suspend the disbelief to romance someone when I actively dislike the player and there are a couple of them!

[lightgamer]

I think about this, too. As one of the stereotypical nerd guys who is completely oblivious to what women think of him, I generally just assume that people are not interested in me. In fact, I have never asked someone out, and always been kind of surprised when people have asked me out.

In LARPs, I tend to avoid romance plots mostly out of concern for making the other person uncomfortable if they think I'm a troll out of character or what-have-you. I know that most people in the LARP community aren't like that, but the thought does still occur to me. I usually enjoy romance plots when I do get them, though.

[lisefrac]

You do know that Matt and I totally wanted to corrupt you your freshman year at Brandeis, right? ;)

I enjoyed our interaction in Better Off Dead, but I felt some hesitation--not because there's much of an age difference between us--but because, let's be honest, I've always found you attractive. And so there was definitely an aspect of, "Is this going to be weird?" Luckily that hesitance translated pretty well into teen romance, I thought. The character I was playing, too, was one that was all too easy to distance myself from--she had little in common with me--so I don't know if that helped or hurt.

You may be a shy geek boy who's never asked anyone out, but you're also one of the kindest people I know, and an amazing roleplayer, and cute, to boot. You have nothing to worry about in regards to being desirable in romance plots! (This probably doesn't help your self-esteem that much, but heck, it's Valentine's Day. I thought I'd put it out there).