Live action role-playing game

A live action role-playing game, or LARP as it is commonly known, is a form of role-playing game where the participants perform some or all of the physical actions of the characters they play the role of. 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

Character Life and Death

One basic principle that applies to most LARPs is character growth and progression. This is similar to most tabletop role-playing game, such as Dungeons and Dragons. Points are awarded to players for various criteria, such as attendance, interactions, role-play, etc. These points are then applied to the character, allowing a player’s character to “grow”. It also affects their character’s strength, resistance to magic or other effects, as well as affording them additional abilities and powers.

In most LARPs, as is in life, death also occurs to a player's character. In some systems (such as Amtgard) 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. This adds emotion and excitement to each event. Most people who participate in LARPs will tell you that, at one time or another, they have been legitimately frightened, angry, happy or frustrated within game-play.

In character vs. out of character

In traditional tabletop role-playing games a player usually frames the words or actions of his or her character with introductory statements such as "My character says..." or "My character does..." In 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), and actions a player takes as his character (in character, or IC actions). 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 actions of a character. This distinction is also sometimes called "On-role" and "Off-role," or "In Game" and "Out of Game."

Other 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, allowing them to try different character types, ranging from good to evil, lawful to criminal, helpful to selfish, etc. 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, in many LARPs, points may even be deducted from the player’s awarded points, for frequent role-play infractions.

Physical vs. symbolic combat

A physical combat LARP battle at a Lorien Trust event

In traditional role-playing games, conflicts are usually resolved with complicated systems using 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 creative methods to replace them.

One major method to resolve combat is to use actual physical combat. Boffer weapons are used in many such systems in order to ensure safety. In the US these are usually made of PVC with foam-rubber coating. In Europe latex weapons are used. The object 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 are often known as "Boffer" or "Live Combat" LARPs. Additional, higher damage combat moves can be learned, making a character stronger as time progresses.

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.

The other major method is to use symbolic combat. Sometimes a system like Odds and Evens or Rock, Paper, Scissors, where two players throw hand symbols to generate a random outcome, is employed. In other cases, cards or dice are used, although one major advantage of symbolic combat is that you don't need any physical objects to do it. Another benefit of symbolic systems like this is that many more conflicts besides physical combat can potentially be resolved using symbolic methods.

A lesser-known combat alternative is the live steel 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 weaponcarrying minority while other players pursue other goals and stimuli. Proponents of the live steel system claim that it encourages style and realism, rather than the competitiveness they see as a feature of the 'boffer' system.

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.

Gothic-Punk LARPs bear mention because they are so popular and account for the spread of LARPing in America. 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 a few important differences. Supernatural creatures, like vampires, werewolves, ghosts, mummies, and changelings are real in the Gothic-Punk settings, and are in fact the roles taken on by the players. White Wolf also publishes a number of Historic Gothic-Punk style games, such as Dark Ages: Vampire and Wild West: Werewolf.

"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 Theater 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.

A final variation in the LARP theme is cost. Some LARPs, of which again Amtgard is an example, are free. There is no cost to participate beyond equipment. Other LARPs, most notably those that meet less often than weekly, charge a fee to participate. LARPs that charge a fee have a scripted, on-going storyline and plot much more often than those that are free. The cost to participate varies alot across geographical areas, with most of the Nordic LARPs for example having a fee to participate ranging from a few euros for a half day event to upwards in excess of €150 for weeklong events.

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. There are LARPs that meet every week that have an on-going, scripted storyline.

History

The history of LARPs has not been the subject of formal historical analysis, but some background is known.

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.

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 it's 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.

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 40 NERO chapters in the US and Canada.

The Northeastern US plays host to many, smaller, fantasy-based LARPs, such as Fantasy Quest and Mythical Journeys, both formed in the early 1990's by fantasy enthusiasts with a love for character role play and adventure but not for large player bases or complex rule systems. 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 (PC) and non-player characters (NPC), also referred to as “cast”, affects the plot direction. Smaller such LARP groups tend to run in the spring and autumn, utilizing summer camp facilities, like 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 5,000 players.

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 is is a popular alternative to the Lorien Trust.

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.

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' scepticism 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 full day. 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 live steel. 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. Vampire games are the most widespread. Popular single-evening events include Paranoia (a game in which players must escape a Big Brother-type regime), and post-apocalyptic settings.

Emphasis in long-term campaigns 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.

Most games are non-contact, but there are some that encourage full-contact combat with latex or boffer weapons. Magical effects are most often symbolised by reading of scrolls, spell packets, and circles outlined in rope for traps and Astral Gates.

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 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.

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).

• Knutepunkt 1997 Oslo, Norway
• Knutpunkt 1998 Stockholm, Sweden
• Knudepunkt 1999 Copenhagen, Denmark
• Solmukohta 2000 Helsinki, Finland
• Knutepunkt 2001 Oslo, Norway
• Knutpunkt 2002 Stockholm, Sweden
• Knudepunkt 2003 Copenhagen, Denmark (Feb. 2003)
• Solmukohta 2004 Helsinki, Finland (Feb. 2004)
• Knutepunkt 2005 Oslo, Norway (Feb. 2005)

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:

• Morten Gade, Line Thorup & Mikkel Sander (eds.): As Larp Grows Up. Knudepunkt 2003. ISBN 87-989377-0-7. http://www.laivforum.dk/kp03_book/
• Markus Montola & Jaakko Stenros (eds.): Beyond Role and Play. Solmukohta 2004. ISBN 952-91-6842-X. http://www.ropecon.fi/brap/
• Petter Bøckman & Ragnhild Hutchison (eds.): Dissecting Larp. Knutepunkt 2005. ISBN 82-997102-0-0 (print) ISBN 82-997102-1-9 (online)

External links

• The rec.games.frp.live-action FAQ
• LarpWiki.org - an international wiki style LARP repository

LARP portals

• LARP.COM - An international LARP portal.
• Formerly the Interactive Literature Foundation - a non-profit organisation in the US dedicated to LARP in all its forms, including a number of free "ready-to-run" games
• The Live Action Roleplayers Association
• Jessica Tiffin's list of Cape Town LARPs
• Pagga - open discussion of role-playing, UK.
• Searchengine for links to pictures of past LARP events in germany
• Shade's LARP List - An international LARP portal
• German LarpWiki
• Yahoo-style link archive for german LARP-related links
• Unsolicited, but Useful, Advice for LARPers - Advice for creators and players of LARPs - plot management, set building, character development, costuming
• larp.ee- Estonian LARP portal
• Gawain- Czech popular LARP site (in Czech)
• GeNoSpheRe- A French LARP Portal (in French)
• Fédération française de jeux de rôle grandeur nature - The French LARP Federation (in French)

Nordic LARP portals

• Larp.fi - Finnish LARP portal
• Laiv.org - Norwegian LARP portal
• LiveForum - Danish LARP portal
• Landsforeningen for Levende Rollespil - Danish national LARP organisation
• Sverok - Swedish gaming organisation that supports LARPs: SVEROK
• The Official Steel System Page