r/Amtgard

Having watched #metoo appear and die out before it affected the LARP community, I'm sitting here watching the Cornell7 play out wondering when if ever the US LARP community will actually look itself in the mirror and actually do something about missing stairs instead of the people that report them?

I was assaulted at a LARP. By a friend of the LARP runner. Guess what happened.

His friends followed me to another LARP. Guess what happened.

I "flagged" him. Guess what happened.

I don't LARP anymore.

A friend tried to get me back into it, LARP changed, it's better now, there are these conventions at hotels where everything is safe. That's what she said.

Except now they just host "unofficial social events" that aren't part of the conventions so the cons can turn a blind eye to them. One con has an admitted SAer use the fact that his spouse is on their safety committee to bully victims into not reporting things. The con knows. They don't care. He's popular.

It's better to be popular or run a good LARP than trustworthy, I guess.

What's most frustrating is that the LARP community doesn't just permit missing stairs, it lets them build staircases. Whole LARPs built around manipulating people into consenting to things they wouldn't consent to, run by people with various allegations against them?

The system is broken, y'all. What's it going to take to weed out the bad actors that have positioned themselves at the top of the community so they can keep doing it by just running their own LARPs?

Im going to do my best to explain this without naming names or parks.

Backstory: I was playing at my park fine but someone brought up (apparently for a group of people) that people feel uncomfortable with me being there because there were rumors spread about members of my polycule supposedly pressuring young men to drink in order to get with them. I know this is false for 2 reasons. 1, the primary member, who also used to be a part of the park but hadn't come in a couple months, doesnt get with anyone below the age of 25 nor has the money to buy people drinks on the regular and 2. The other member of my polycule accused is a lesbian. So yeah not targeting young MEN. She's also 22 so is young herself.

Anyway, the rumors spread, it became a talk with park leadership and the supposed face of the group that basically said: im still allowed at park but dont bug people who dont wanna talk to you. Fair enough. The issue is the rumors spread to basically everyone in the park and it basically became like 3 people willing to talk to me. It was clear no one really wanted me there.

Now I left for a couple reasons. 1. No one came to here my side of the story and just believed everything they heard. 2. Its clear I wasn't wanted and im not gonna stay where im not wanted. 3. I would want to make friends with people but no one wanted to be friends with me after the rumors. So for these reasons I left.

Its been a few months now and I miss fighting and I have no real solutions to it. There are no other parks close to me. Nearest one is like 4 hours away. The belegarth group in my town shares alot of members with amptguard so it'd be the same issue. There is no jugger group. Im open to fencing and hema fighting but those both cost alot of money to get into and im a broke bitch. So I have no real solution and I was hoping yall might have something?

Also, for those of you who may recognize me, unless the park has changed significantly I probably wouldn't want to come back if im still just gonna be ostracized.