I'm running under the assumption that Lemmonaid is a brand new player, and all I'm seeing here is people raining on her parade and excitement of joining our LARP. As a New Player Rep, this is extremely disheartening. We are supposed to a broad and welcoming group of people from all backgrounds and be helpful and supportive to new and interested players.
Having a background that is directly tied to the Chapter's World may or may not be a requirement. That would be up to the Chapter to let her know when she goes to finalize her character, and any good Player Rep or Plot team should be able to work with what she already has created and find a way to make it work within the confines of their existing realms. My plot team and I literally just spent the evening last night doing just that very same thing. Besides there could be something within that Chapter's culture packet that could be triggering to a player, everyone is different, and we have no right to assume their personal out of game background. We are not here to quash creativity, we are here to have fun, stretch the imagination and have role play, not force someone into a box.
There are many long standing players that play characters that exist from culture packets from lands that no longer exist. Chapters change campaigns, and lands disappear. Mists exist. Plot teams can approve player created culture packets - I play a character from one of those packets.
Having a hook into a setting doesn't mean you'll have a better experience, it's the people you're playing with, in my opinion that make you have a better experience. It's the role play, Oh, you're from somewhere new? Tell me about it, I want to learn. It's a give and take. Also it's the player's natural curiosity about the land they are in and how involved they want to be in the stories around them that make a good experience. What a player gives to plot during down times and what plot gives back to that player that gets them excited for the next game. That is sooo much more than a culture packet. And a lot of time a character's personal background may never even come up in game, so how much importance should we really, really put on that?
None of us are from HQ are we? We shouldn't tell a potential new player you can't do this, you shouldn't do this. This isn't how we do this in my chapter.
Please just think about how your words may negatively impact a new player coming into game for the first time, especially if this is something they have never done before. You may have literally turned them away from LARP forever because a chapter that's not yours is different.
