The recent Dagohir event on the Boston Common inspired me to go to one of their practices for the first time. Now my definition of battle game needs to include full contact. Try a battle game before you’re old and injured. Like in your early 20’s. There is plenty of time later in your larping career to try lower impact campaign style larps. But trying a full contact battle game should really be done when you’re healthy. Fortunately sore legs and runners knee are my only complaints from this practice.

The practice was a blast. Considering I went in with an injury, and it was a new system, I fought fairly well. I died a lot, as expected. But got a few good kills in. What would be charging in other games (‘Charging’ aggressively approaching another player and hitting them with your body or shield) is allowed in Dag. Unfortunately it has been trained out of me for 20 years. There were plenty of times when the correct tactic would have been to run into someone, but I couldn’t instinctively do it.

One thing to realize about larp, or any similar activity, your reflexes get wired up in a certain way, and it becomes hard to retrain them. In both Dag and Mythical Journeys I landed way too many head shots, both games do not allow shots to the head as killing blows. In the case of MJ, switching to a spear solved the problem. It might initially seem like a bad idea to have a new player switch to a larger weapon. But in the case of an experienced player with tons of learned reflexes which, in the new game represent ‘bad habits’, switching to an unpracticed weapon helped.

The worst larping injury I’ve seen in 20 years did occur, a small cut to an ear that bleed more than it seemed it should have. Real injuries are rare for Dag and rarer for other kinds of larp, my presence was just a coincidence. The injury rate is really low considering the amount of physical contact allowed in this style of game.

Apparently Dagohir javelines, which are extremely fun to use, would not pass any other larp weapon building rules. Which is a shame because they are so much fun to throw. Many systems would probably not be ok with the PVC core of the weapon.

If your new to larp and still young, definitely find a Dagohir group nearby.