I and some friends have a project of trying to watch all movies, tv episodes and other stuff with moving pictures related to roleplaying games ever made. We’re pretty far along on this goal. I’ll write here about old and new things we’ve found and watched.
Two recent, feature-length German larp documetaries both focus on the biggest larp in the world, ConQuest, and even feature some of the same people. Uta Bodenstein’s Die Herren der Spiele is from 2012, and Andreas Geiger’s Wochenendkrieger from 2013.
If Die Herren der Spiele has one thing going for it, the footage from the mass combat scenes is very cool. I know from experience that shooting larp is not always easy, but this time, the camera is right there in the middle of the battle.
Otherwise, the documentary is a portrait of different larpers. One is a pharmacist, another a school teacher. They’re quite articulate and good at explaining what they do and why, but the material is a little humdrum, as if it had been important to convey that larpers are just people too.
Wochenendkrieger doesn’t have Die Herren der Spiele’s kinetic action scenes, but otherwise it benefits from a more interesting artistic vision. Its take on the subject is more nuanced and the use of images more creative. An elderly local resident from the village where ConQuest takes place sounds proud of the larp and the inside look into the logistics of running a game on this scale is fascinating.
Among the revelations of the movie is a gay man who sculpted elf ears that sell 50,000 pairs annually all over Europe. He explained that when it was time to go out and meet guys, he favored a butch skinhead aesthetic.