6) Prejudice Be Damned, That’s a Big Ass Dragon
Fantasy worlds are full of bigots. Dwarves hates Elves, Elves hate Orcs, Mages hate everyone who isn’t as awesome as them. In fact stereotypical tensions are pretty much a perfect metaphor for all of the racism and prejudices that run rampant through our real world culture. When it comes down to it though, all those little bickering things fall apart when there is a big ass dragon ready to eat the entire lot of you. It’s easy for people to come together when they have a mutual problem to work on. Of course, once that threat is gone, they’ll be right back to hating each other.
People just like hating each other.
7) The Best Good Guys make the Most Diabolical Bad Guys
It’s pretty rare when someone wants to come into the game and play a bad guy. Usually everyone wants to play the big hero. The longer you go on, though, the more bored you get with the same ol’ savin’ people quests and what have you. That’s when you make the face-heel-flip and turn yourself into the mega villain of the story. The thing I’ve noticed is, the guys who have spent years cultivating the most righteous and pure persona are the guys that are going to eventually go insane with power and start getting their victims to talk by slowly but steadily grating their entire bodies into shredded cheese.
Seriously, it seems the more repressed and self disciplined a person is, the crazier they’re going to go in the end. That boy scout that helps old ladies cross the street? Yeah, he east puppies.
8) If You Can’t Go Around, Go Through
The general philosophy on objects is to find a way around it. There are times, though when no amount of sidestepping is going to get you past the guy in front of you. In those situations, you only have two choices, give up, or open up the path. Giving up is for pansies, so that leaves you with only one real option. My favorite way to get past most of my opponents is to just drop them, preferably very quickly.
I will admit, though, my specialty is usually to be the object someone has to go through. I’m sure that has nothing to do with me being a giant, lazy fatty.
9) The Smallest Guy Can Make the Biggest Impact
There is a trope in Martial Arts films where a little tiny dude comes out and someone makes fun of his size before getting beaten like a punching bag. It’s actually pretty common in LARPs, too. Most newer fighters seem to equate size for skill and generally look at a small agile fighter as being a joke. Usually it has to do with age, sometimes it’s even a gender thing. Most of the time, though, their is someone on the field that just doesn’t look like the bad ass they actually are. Veterans take a great pleasure in watching someone get educated to that fact also.
It never gets old to see the 4’6″ fourteen year old that’s been being trained to fight for 5 years walk onto a battlefield and kick the crap out of 5-6 full grown men. Usually men that made jokes about accidently “hurting” the kid in the first place. Just desserts is always hilarious to me.
10) Never Underestimate the Power of Words
Most minor disputes can be handled on the field of battle, where warriors are born from the scars and bruises. Real problems, though, those can only be solved by the most powerful weapon known to mankind: long, tedious, boring conversations that never really resolve anything but last long enough for everyone to just forget what they were bitching about to begin with. Actually, a lot of time is spent talking so that we can come up with a reason to fight each other in the first place.
It’s kind of a horrible cycle of violence and bitching…
Maybe there’s another lesson about life right there.
If you missed it, check out Part 1, or go ahead and read Part 3.