I’m a bit of a jack of all trades. When I work on a project I use anything from woodworking and sewing to chemistry and physics to human physiology and psychology. I also like reading up then chatting about random science and history and art stuff. I like working with computers occasionally, and I’ll just randomly throw some basic geometry or algebra into a project, but I was also an art student so I’m not half bad at making things visually appealing either.
I have a job where I often get a chance to use my various areas of semi-expertise when I pick up a side project, but that’s led me into getting waaay overinvolved in my work and neglecting my outside relationships. What hobbies or other non-professional things could I get involved in that would give me that same opportunity to flex my creativity when solving a problem?
Because you talk about hobby, what about LARP ?
It’s creative, is about problem solving, and involves a lot of skills including
Sewing and crafting, the community has a huge DIY culture (even though nowadays, there is a few brands doing larp fashion, and it’s cheaper to buy and chainmail, than to buy it’s weight in steel wire). So getting all these awesome kits is the opportunity to craft a lot
Acting : As it’s name stand larp is about role-playing, which is basically improvisation theatre with a scenario known only by the director. So you try to put up your best acting to be a realistic, mafia boss, naive kid, or lord
Problem solving and social interactions : Larp are a social game, where people face a common problem and need to find a solution, while finding the right balance between their character faction/interest and the common interest. So there is a lot of social negotiation (often around some spiced wine), mystery investigation, and exploration to solve the main problem
Combat, in some larp, if you play a fighter character, you may even have the opportunity to fight. On my experience, I end-up fighting in less than half of the game, there is game with no combats, games where my character either can fight or is too busy with other stuff to fight, and some games where I go fighting.
Came here for this. You can basically use LARP as an excuse to further almost any creative hobby. For PAX Unplugged I made a LARP Escape Room, and that was an excuse for me to learn how to use Arduino controllers and wire hardware in order to make a robot puzzle for the event.
Any kind of RP is good for that. Personally I find LARP/Cosplay kinda cringe, but TTRPGs also encourage creativity in problem solving.
American ?
I really have the impression that on this side of the pond larp gets well accepted. And it offers way more way to be creative/craft than TTPRG. But i understand that if you’re used to see people in Short-Tshirt fighting each other with pool noodle in a public park and calling it “LARP” you have a biased view of the scene
Canadian. And yeah either that or the LARP scene from Peep Show.
Just check the “drachenfest” (Larger larp in the word, in Germany) trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1IQO3xer-Q it’s still a “mass larp” so not the most intense/immersive/strange,and tell me if it’s still feel “cringe”