Well now, as the geeks continue to inherit the Earth, we find our attention on the world of LARPing. Now, I've LARPed. It can be fun. I prefer tabletop roleplaying, as sitting around a table with books, pencils, paper maps, dice, some minis, enhances the imagination and storytelling experience, at least for me. Getting up in costumes and traipsing around in a location, conversely, exposes the limitations of the same. BUT...with the right crew...magic can happen.
Which is one of the points of Knights of Badassdom. Get a crew of friends, throw them into an arena of roiling imagination and adventure, throw in some shameless poseur and a touch of sexitude, THEN put the added element, the chaos factor of "bona fide" hoodoo goins' on and let the good times roll. Ryan Kwaten (Jason Stackhouse on True Blood) is a guy whose life is in the toilet. His heavy metal dreams remain just that. His girlfriend, perceiving him going nowhere, kicks him to the curb. His roommates are a rich geek, Eric (Steve Zahn) and a stoner, Hung (Peter Dinklage). But they believe they have the cure for him. They get him stoned to the rafters, outfit him in LARPer kit and take him to the realm of "Evermoor" for a weekend of roleplaying hijinks. Joe is initially reluctant, but his friend remind him that he is miserable, and the "normalcy" he feels reflexively compelled to retreat to, mainly to please the "muggles", like his ex, has gotten him nowhere. They further remind him of his rpg roots in Dungeons and Dragons, that some of his exploits are STILL sung of in local gaming circles. Lighten up, for adventure is "what thou NEEDST"! And in Evermoor, "needst" is a proper word. So on with the game.
They meet their fellow gamers, which include a hottie played by geek goddess Summer Glau, whose character, though the girl playing her is just a weekend warrior, has some real fighting prowess. AND...some real magick, as the spell book Eric has is written in Enochian, the language of the angels. His playing around with it has brought in more supernatural chicanery than anyone was banking on dealing with that weekend. Thus, the mayhem ensues.
I'm a real fan of stories that show impassioned geeks in all their fannish enthusiasm, yet STILL, for all their awkwardness and sometimes rough handling of the "real world", are still flesh and blood people. Same feelings, same thoughts and cares. They are just...people plus, as their imaginations and open perspective take that magic sparkle we all knew as children...and place it into the adult world. I love stories which show them as "real people" negotiating that awkward interface between the consensus realm and the imaginative vistas that exist beyond the peripherals.
As an FYI, btw, director Joe Lynch also directed Kwaten in Truth in Journalism, a short film in which Kwaten portrays Eddie Brock/Venom. Check it out.
And check out Knights of Badassdom. It is a geekin' good time.
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