Roleplaying advice
Back to the Tome of LARP
While learning about roleplaying is mostly about doing there are some things that can help along the way. The primary concept of roleplaying is the suspension of disbelief. You want to be able to believe that others are who they pretend to be and that they believe the same for you.
It is called LIVE ACTION for a reason
Roleplaying LARP is different to tabletop or computer games for many reasons but one of the biggest is that you need to act out what your character is doing. It might sound pretty basic but it bears repeating. It is far more than just what you say, body language and appearance also play a huge part of things.
It is hard to appear as a knight when dressed like a peasant, not impossible mind you but harder. The same can be said to playing a timid character if you have very powerful body language. Try to match they way you look and act to the character you are playing.
Characters and scenes
To be able to roleplay you need to have a role to play. This can either be a player character or a non player character as both operate very similarly when roleplaying. You can see here for advice about making a character.
Most times you can break a game down into scenes, much like a movie. A scene could be a conversation, a battle, a meal or just about any length of time that things remain fairly constant. As the scene progresses other players may come and go and the direction might change dramatically.
Improvisation
One of the keys to good roleplaying is the ability to improvise. In a traditional drama setting you would have set lines that allow you to move the scene along. As LARP is 'live' you need to make up things as you go along. This is actually easier than it sounds. You should have some knowledge about the world before the game starts and you can add to that with what you find out in game.
It should also be noted that you should not go overboard with the events that you improvise. If you declare that you served in a war between nations that have been at peace for decades it creates a situation where people are dragged out of the game to resolve the conflict of ideas.
Everyone looks silly
Yes it is true that if you look from the outside in people look silly by putting on voices and speaking as their character would. The flip side of that is once you start playing a character that all seems quite normal and any refference to the 'real world' seems out of place.
Know your limits
There can be times when playing difficult scenes it becomes overwhelming to continue. Try to know how you are going and steer the conversation/scene away from topics that will make it worse. In a good trusting game it can be a great chance to test the limits of your comfort zones but do so in a safe manner.