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Live action role-playing game

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A live action role-playing game (or LARP as it is often known) is a form of role-playing game where the participants perform some or all of the physical actions of the characters they are playing. LARP may be considered a form of storytelling-based improvisational theater. LARP is alternately called live action role-playing or live role-playing.

LARP basics

In character vs. out of character

In traditional tabletop role-playing games, a player usually describes the words or actions of his or her character, framing the descriptions with introductory statements such as "My character says..." or "My character does..." In a LARP, since the actions of a player become the actions of the character, a special distinction must be made between actions a player takes as himself (out-of-character, or "OOC" actions, sometimes called "off-role" , "out-of-game" or "offplay"), and actions a player takes as his character (in-character, or "IC" actions, sometimes called "in-role" , "in-game" or "inplay"). There are often symbols, such as cards, ribbons, or gestures, to symbolize that a player is out-of-character, so the other players know not to interpret his actions as his character's actions.

Some LARPs encourage, if not demand, total immersion into the game lore and setting. This requires players not simply "play" their characters, but instead to "be" them. If a player wants to attack something or someone, they may simply do so, but they do so with ramifications: such acts may have political or social effects on the player. In this setting, players strive to stay true to their characters. Many players indicate that the more in-character a player gets, the more complete the experience is. In such LARPs, during the event running times, out-of-character references to the "mundane" world are discouraged and may lead to a deduction in the number of points awarded to the character.

Character Life and Death

Like most tabletop role-playing games, such as Dungeons and Dragons, many LARPs feature character growth and progression, where points are awarded to players for various criteria, such as attendance, interactions, or role-playing. These points are then applied to the character, allowing a player’s character to "grow". Points may also affect a character's strength, affect resistance to magic or other effects, or afford additional abilities and powers.

Characters may also die in most LARPs. In some systems, this is merely a temporary phenomenon, putting the character out of play for a time. In most, it is a major setback, forcing a player to create a new character at base level and keeping the game system in balance. This ongoing life-and-death cycle within LARPs keeps them in a constant state of fluctuation, and can add emotion and excitement to each event. Most people who participate in LARPs will tell you that, at one time or another, the fear of character death has left them legitimately frightened, angry, happy or frustrated within game-play.

Physical vs. symbolic combat

A physical combat LARP battle at a Lorien Trust event

In traditional role-playing games, conflicts are usually resolved with charts, graphs, and dice to produce a random outcome. In LARPs, many players feel that dice-based systems interrupt the flow of the game, and use a variety of methods to replace them.

Live Combat

One major method to resolve combat is to use actual physical combat. Firearm combat can be simulated either with thrown bean bags, or with toy, Airsoft or Lasertag guns. To ensure safety, some systems use Boffer weapons made of PVC with foam-rubber coating, or latex weapons. The objective is never to hurt the opponent, but to score hits, which deal fake damage often quantified based on the type of weapon used in the attack. Magic-using characters either throw "spell-packs" (usually small bean bags) at opponents, serving as a physical representation of magic hitting its target, or simply pointing at their target and shouting some words describing the effect. Games using this method of combat are often known as "Boffer" or "Live Combat" LARPs.

Some LARPs have their own crew for special effects (FX) rigging effects of magic-using pyrotechnics, smoke machines and smelly material. These crews are often recruited from young film and theatre technicians wanting to create a total film experience with the effects engulfing the participants. These crews might have in-character first aid roles acting making sure wounded people look bloody and wounded as they are carried from the scene of battle back to their camps, so that storylines based on healing and caring might develop.

An extreme form of Live Combat is where all damage is real. For some Nordic LARPs the 'Two Week Rule' applies - people can receive any damage that will heal in less than two weeks. Sprained ankles are allowed, broken legs are not.

Symbolic Combat

The other major method in use is symbolic combat. The LARP might use a system like Odds and Evens or Rock, Paper, Scissors, where two players throw hand symbols to generate a random outcome. Other LARPs use cards or dice, although one major advantage of symbolic combat is that you don't need any physical objects to do it. Yet another method is entirely deterministic, every character has a fighting ability score and in the prelude to a fight they quietly compare scores and then act out the fight with the outcome already known. Another benefit of symbolic systems is that conflicts other than physical combat can potentially be resolved using the same mechanics. Freeform role-playing games typically feature symbolic combat.

Steel Weapon Combat

A lesser-known combat alternative is steel weapon combat system, developed in Scandinavia in the 1990s. This system employs unsharpened steel weapons, which may only be carried and used by players trained and tested by the organisers prior to the game, and therefore limits physical fighting to a weapon-carrying minority while other players pursue other goals and stimuli. Proponents of the steel weapon system claim that it encourages style and realism, rather than the competitiveness they see as a feature of the 'boffer' system.

Blunt steel weapons are often used in Historical reenactment groups, so the weapons and the skills to use them safely are readily available, especially given that many historical reenacters also play in LARPs.

No Combat

Some LARPs avoid combat whenever possible, leaving only minimal or non-existent combat systems. Many murder-mystery LARPs lack any combat system; the focus is entirely on social interaction and investigation. Some games that discourage and penalize combat might use very simple rules, like pointing a toy gun at someone and shouting "Bang!" means that the target character is dead.

Genre and setting

LARPs can have as many genres and settings as novels, plays, or movies. However, there are some standard genres that comprise the most common LARPs.

Fantasy genre LARPs are usually set in pseudo-historical worlds that are inspired by legends and fantasy literature. These settings generally have very low technology, some magic, and non-human species based on myth and legend. Examples include Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, Faeries, etc.

Sci-fi genre LARPs are a little less common but take place in futuristic settings with high technology and possibly aliens but usually without magic. Examples include combat-heavy post-apocalyptic LARPs, dystopian LARPs, utopian LARPs, space opera and cyberpunk.

Historic LARPs take place in our world, at some point in history. They can vary from a 1930s murder mystery to a feudal Japanese Samurai story. Historical accuracy is often prized in these LARPs, and there are similarities with Historical reenactment.

Published by White Wolf Game Studio under the brand name Mind's Eye Theatre, Gothic-Punk setting LARPs take place in the World of Darkness, a world much like our modern world, but with players taking on the roles of supernatural creatures, like vampires, werewolves, ghosts, mummies, and changelings. White Wolf also publishes a number of Historic Gothic-Punk style games, such as Dark Ages: Vampire and Wild West: Werewolf.

"Espionage" LARPs - For a number of years in the late 1980s, the International Fantasy Gaming Society (IFGS) ran "Undercover", a role-playing game set in the real community. Though many games were inspired by Ian Fleming's 007 novels, "The Man/Girl From U.N.C.L.E." TV series and even the "Get Smart" TV series, some were more related to realistic espionage adventures such as the "Three Days of the Condor" movie (marked down from "The Six Days of the Condor" novel). Player characters typically were formed in nation/state teams and pursued their missions in real world corporate offices, hotels, bus stations, doughnut shops, universities, movie theatres, parks and street corners, etc., where NPCs had been salted or were recruited, dead drops located, surveillance established or traps set. Combat, usually a minimal part of the game, was mostly by use of neon-colored water guns or spray bottles, water balloons and tagged items which served as poisons or explosives. Action sequences were usually reserved for venues controlled by the game organizers. Events such as escapes and car chases were resolved by a comparison of numbered cards, modified by player ability levels. There was an event, possibly an urban legend, involving a couple of exceptionally talented players in one game, who proved to have false real world names and addresses, and were reputedly a couple of agents of a real intelligence agency evaluating the game.

"Contemporary" LARPs occur in the present without the presence of the supernatural or supertechonological. Some are set in social situations easily recognizable to most players, such as a wedding, a family dinner or a high school class. Others are set situations that few players will have had direct experience of, such as organized crime, a Hollywood movie set, the UN security council.

Adapted LARPs are a sub-genre that can be found in any of the above types of game settings. Although other LARPs are often inspired by works of popular fiction, adapted LARPs are based entirely on a specific, usually well-known, fictional world. In these games, players may take on the roles of characters from the source material or those characters may appear as non-player characters. Examples of this sub-genre would include fantasy LARPs set in the World of Oz, the Lord of the Rings, or the Arabian Nights; historical LARPs set in the world of The Three Musketeers, the movies of Sergio Leone or the plays of William Shakespeare; or gothic-punk LARPs set in the worlds of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dracula, or The X-Files.

Game format

The style of LARP varies from game system to game system. Many of the regional LARPs are continuing campaigns, where a storyline is run and coordinated by members of the game. Other LARPs, including some of the largest ones such as Amtgard, do not have continuous or comprehensive storylines. The cohesion of the storyline of each character is left to the individual player to determine, and only special games or events contain an over-arching storyline.

A related element is how the players gather. Many LARPs (such as NERO, Amtgard and the Mind's Eye Theatre line) present most of their story with all their players gathered together, perhaps several dozen players politicking at a gathering or defending a besieged town. This gives player interaction more rein to form much of the plot, and lets expenses be concentrated on certain reusable props. Other LARPs such as IFGS rely more on courses of distinct encounters, that teams of perhaps four to eight players make their way through. This provides a less social but more traditionally dramatic adventure.

The timing of the LARP also varies from LARP to LARP. Some LARPs, and most notably those most-oriented towards continuous stories, only get together to play on specific occasions, usually about once a month. (NERO, which has its own splinter groups and spin-offs, is one such LARP.) Other LARPs meet every week. These groups, such as Amtgard, tend to have less focus on an over-arching storyline. Yet others, such as Maelstrom, organise events on the basis of three or four events a year, while even other systems run only once a year.

Many LARPs charge a fee to participate, which varies considerably from group to group and from region to region. For instance, the fee for Nordic LARPs ranges from a few euros for a half day event to upwards in excess of €150 for weeklong events; in the USA, a typical weekend-long freeform LARP might cost around $40 to $90. In Holland LARP fees can range from €5 for a one-day special to €120 for a four-day weekend event. Many organisations use a system that has fees of around €40 for early-paying participants and 65 for late (or gate) paying participants. Included in the fee are often food, tourist-tax, use of accommodations and some extra for the organisation to buy/make props.

There are no hard and fast rules on LARP categories, however. There are LARPs that are free and have little emphasis on plot-development that only meet once a month, while there are LARPs that meet every week that have an on-going, scripted storyline.

History

Technically, many childhood games are simple LARPs (even though they don't bear that name), and so in that sense LARPs may have been around since the dawn of humanity.

Fantasy LARPs (as distinct from pure historical re-enactments) probably originate with the founding of the Society for Creative Anachronism in Berkeley, California on May 1, 1966. A similar group, the Markland Medieval Mercenary Militia, began holding events on the University of Maryland, College Park in 1969. These groups were largely dedicated to accurately recreating medieval history and culture, however, with only mild fantasy elements. It was only after the publication of the first role-playing game (Dungeons & Dragons) in 1974 that LARPs truly came into their own.

Since LARPs rarely rely on print publications the way tabletop roleplaying does, but is dependent on local ideas and expertise, live roleplaying has been "invented" almost from scratch several times, though usually with the rumour of foreign LARPs as an inspiration. This has led to LARP practices and histories being extremely diverse. However, some LARPs, like Mind's Eye Theatre, have numerous manuals.

American History

Among the oldest documented fantastic live-combat groups is the Dagorhir Outdoor Improvisational Battle Games (Dagorhir), which was founded by Bryan Weise in the Washington, DC area in 1977, and is still in operation today. Dagorhir has been split, with many of its members choosing to fight amid Belegarth, a much more democratic version of the sport. The International Fantasy Gaming Society (IFGS), also live-combat but with a complex rules system more clearly influenced by Dungeons and Dragons, was started in 1981 in Boulder, Colorado. IFGS took its name from a fictional group in the novel Dream Park (by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes), which described highly realistic, futuristic LARPs. At about the same time (but before 1981), an Assassins' Guild was created at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston, Massachusetts, to pursue "killer" or "assassin" style live-combat games with toy guns, but also to encourage creative design in Live Roleplaying Games.

In 1981, the Society for Interactive Literature (SIL) was founded by Walter Freitag, Mike Massamilla and Rick Dutton at Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts. The club's first public event (called Rekon I) in February, 1983, at the Boskone Science fiction convention, probably marked the first fully modern theatre-style LARP game. A follow-on event (Reklone) was hosted by a different group at the Unicon Science fiction convention in Maryland in March.

A substantial part of the SIL membership broke off from that organization in 1991 and formed the Interactive Literature Foundation (ILF). The ILF organized semi-annual LARP conventions called Intercons. In 2000, the ILF changed its name to the Live Action Role-Players Association, though it continues to produce Intercons.

Amtgard is one of the most widespread groups in the US, and has chapters world wide as well. It began in 1983 in El Paso, Texas.

The Darkon Wargaming Club, located in the Washington, DC Metro Area, was founded in 1985 and provides both detailed combat and magic systems. It has small chapters in Wisconsin, Los Angeles, Idaho and a few other locations around the United States.

The Adrian empire was founded in 1987, and is portrays Western Europe from 1066 to 1603. It has chapters throughout the United States.

NERO live action roleplaying is another of the most widespread groups in the US, and was launched in 1988 by Ford Ivey in the Boston, Massachusetts area. There are currently over 50 NERO chapters in the US and Canada.

SOLAR, which stands for Southern Organization of Live Action Reenactments, is one of the more prevalent campaigns in the Southeastern United States. Founded in 1980 after splitting off from a NERO campaign due to game conflicts, its most well-known campaign, Clanthia, has been running for 15 years. Other smaller campaigns related to SOLAR Clanthia, such as Everhate, Cerroneth and Shadowmoor, have ended or are now owned by other groups.

In 1992, the LIVE/WIRE Conductor Corps debuted at the Winter Fantasy gaming convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Originally an offshoot of the RPGA, LIVE/WIRE became a major source for large-scale convention-run LARPs. LIVE/WIRE led to the formation of the Maze of Games at Gen Con and Origins.

The Northeastern US plays host to many, smaller, fantasy-based LARPs, such as Quest Interactive Productions and Mythical Journeys, both formed in the early 1990's by fantasy enthusiasts with a love for character roleplay and adventure but not for large player bases or complex rule systems. Some of these LARPs were formed as splinter groups of larger, more franchised LARPs, such as NERO. Most have long running, if not ever-running, plot arcs and are centered on interactions of the player-characters and the provided environment. Role-play interaction between player characters (PCs) and non-player characters (NPCs), who may also be referred to as "cast" or "staff", affects the plot direction. Smaller such LARP groups tend to run in the spring and autumn, utilizing summer camp facilities, such as 4H and group campgrounds, in their off-seasons.

UK History

Treasure Trap, formed in 1982 at Peckforton Castle, is generally recognised as the first LARP game in the UK, and most of the many hundreds of clubs and systems now active in the UK can trace their descent to it.

The largest and best-known of these groups is the Lorien Trust system, which grew out of Summerfest in the mid 1990s and hosts events with up to 4,000 players.

The UK now has an extremely wide variety of games and styles of games, covering genres from traditional swords-and-sorcery to science-fiction, gothic horror, pulp action adventure, wild west, and styles from story-telling to entirely player-led.

Curious Pastimes is a game that originated with a large number of players who aimed to create a similar fest-style system to the Lorien Trust with the aim of improving on the basic design to make a more enjoyable game. It was founded in the mid 90's it is a popular alternative to the Lorien Trust.

More recently, Profound Decisions has set up the Maelstrom game and gameworld as a large-scale alternative to the styles of game run by the older fest events. It is extremely popular and generally regarded as the herald of a new age of professionalism in LARP. It is also singular in that it is defined as player-led, where plot is eschewed in favour of players determining the events which take place. This system depends on large numbers of players with a wish to involve in politics, economics (Maelstrom possesses a complex and credible economic system) and personal interaction, but is seen by many players as very rewarding. Profound Decisions is run by Matt Pennington, who had formerly ran another widely popular system called Omega.

Evolution of LARP in the UK has been largely separate from US systems, with notable differences including the invention and widespread use of latex-covered weapon designs. Some UK players also play games in other Western European countries, which has led to some exchange of ideas between various European systems.

One major off-shoot of LARPs in the UK is the proliferation of Freeforms. These are events that typically last from four hours to three days, and are marked by little emphasis on either combat or character development, but more on plot development, and player interaction. There almost no NPCs, with GMs typically taking an overview role only. Most UK freefom characters are written specifically for that game, and tend to run to half a page for a short game, to ten or twelve pages for a weekend game. Major UK freeform events are GenCon UK, Dragonmeet and Continuum

Russian History

LARP has been played in Russia since at least the 1980s. The Russian word for LARP translates simply as "role-playing", since tabletop RPGs were unknown in Russia at the time LARP was invented or introduced there. Russian live role-playing is often practised under the banner of "Tolkienism" or Tolkien fandom. Regional traditions vary greatly in their history and practice, though the now defunct Soviet "Young Pioneers" organisation and the networks between former members seems to have played some role in spreading and coordinating the idea of live role-playing.

Nordic History

In the early 1980s, the Swedish LARP group Gyllene Hjorten [1] started a LARP campaign that is still going strong. This is probably the first LARP event in the Nordic countries. LARP in Finland started in 1985 and Norway was initiated in 1989, more or less simultaneously by groups in Oslo and Trondheim.

The Nordic LARP traditions, though usually invented independently of each other, have developed striking similarities and are also notably different from English language and German language LARPs. These differences are most obvious in the Nordic LARPs' skepticism towards game mechanics, a tendency to limit combat and magic - seeing these as "spice" rather than a necessary ingredient in LARP - and an emphasis on immersive environments where anachronisms and out of play elements (off-elements, such as visible cars or paved roads in a historical or fantasy setting) are avoided. The setting and roles may be given to the participants by the organizers, or suggested by the player to organizers, in either case usually based on a dialogue between the player and organizer. "character sheets", in the manner of tabletop RPGs, are for the most part not used.

When the game starts it lives its own life, wholly directed by the players (some predetermined events are often scheduled). A typical Swedish or Norwegian game lasts 2-5 days and has anywhere from fifty to hundreds of participants. A typical Danish or Finnish game lasts between four hours and a few days. Rules are designed for combat injury simulation and normally emphasize roleplaying of damage rather than abstract hitpoints (though this was not always so), featuring either padded weapons or blunt steel weapons. Each gaming organization uses custom rules, but simplicity and similarities make this less cumbersome than it would at first seem.

The annual Knutepunkt conference, first held in 1997, has been a vital institution in establishing a Nordic live role-playing identity, and in establishing the concept of "Nordic LARP" as a unique approach. A live-roleplaying avant-garde movement, which pursues radical experimentation and the recognition of role-playing as a form of art, has been connected to the Knutepunkt conferences. The scope of the Knutepunkt conference has expanded rather rapidly over the last few years with participants showing up from numerous non-Scandinavian countries. The last 2 or 3 years has seen participants from USA, Germany, France, Italy and Russia as well as from the main Scandinavian countries.

German history

The German LARP history is most easily found, by going to the German Larp calendar at Larp Kalender

The First LARP that has been cataloged is Samhain's Quest II on April 14, 1995, although Draccon 1 in 1991 is generally held to be the first event of significance. LarpWiki.de has a page on history.

South African history

LARP in South Africa is mostly single evening events of fewer than four hours in length, with 8 to 20 players. Larger, longer-term campaigns are occasionally run, most using World of Darkness: Vampire.

There is a heavy emphasis on roleplaying. In the single evening events this means that there is little use of non player characters, costumes are the norm, and simple game mechanics are used. The standard conflict-resolution systems are symbolic, usually involving dice and very simplified character proficiency statistics. Special abilities are generally handled using cards that the player using the ability shows to those affected by it. Players are usually given detailed character sheets, sometimes of up to eight pages. These included background, goals and knowledge of other characters.

Cape Town is reputed to be the LARPing capital of South Africa, and there is a large archive of LARPs written by Capetonian designers (see under External Links). In recent years, there has been an increase in LARP activity in other communities, such as Johannesburg.

New Zealand History

New Zealand has a growing community of LARPers. Several long-term campaigns have been and are currently running. Typical genres include vampire, medieval fantasy, science fiction (including popular single-evening events of live Paranoia and post-apocalyptic settings), horror, and 1920s/1930s gangsters.

Emphasis in long-term campaigns varies depends on the setting. For example, Mordavia is a medieval dark fantasy which emphasises roleplaying very strongly, where Skirmish is more combat-based, and games such as Vampire: The Requiem are strongly political.

Many games are non-contact, while some encourage live combat with foam weapons. Magical effects are most often symbolised by reading of scrolls, throwing of spell packets, and circles outlined in rope for traps and magical portals.

Level of costume varies. In long-term campaigns, great care is often taken on player character costumes, as the character (personality, abilities, and background) will most often be invented by the player themselves. Non-player character costume is sometimes less detailed, but favourite monsters or villains may reappear frequently as they become well-loved by the players.

There are LARP communities in all the major cities, especially Auckland and Wellington.

The New Zealand Live Action Role-Play Society is an umbrella organisation created to promote and support LARP throughout New Zealand. It is a parent organisation of Mordavia, and is affilliated with other groups such as Skirmish.

Research and theory

Knutepunkt

The first in a series of annual LARP congresses taking place in the Scandinavian countries, Knutepunkt, was organised in Oslo, Norway in 1997. The name of the convention varies with the organizing country (the meaning of the name being 'nodal point' in the language of the hosting country).

Nordic LARP theory

Nordic LARP theory is mainly bound to the annual Knutpunkt conventions. For an introduction to Nordic LARP theory see the following publications:

Academic works

  • Geir-Tore Brenne Making and maintaining frames - a study of metacommunication in laiv play[2]) . Graduate degree thesis, Department of Sociology and Human Geography, University of Oslo 2005. The study focus on the the Scandinavian tradition, being centred on the larp community in Oslo from 2001-2002. The text is in English, and is oriented towards introducing and presenting the activity to people who do not have much knowledge of Scandinavian larp in advance. It employs a sociological theoretical perspective.

LARP portals

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