What is LARPing?
By Matt Pearson

In today’s world, with its stress and complexity, there is a need for quality recreation that gives you a chance to get away from everyday issues we all face. Take a vacation from the mundane and try your hand at a Live Action Role-Playing game. In a Live Action Role- Playing Game (LARP) you not only create a character with a personality and back-story of your own design that can be very different from your own, but you actually act out the character in real time with other players.

There are different types of LARP games. Some games are reliant on judges and/or dice rolls or other abstract ways to decide the outcome of any conflict or actions that the players engage in. Others allow players to engage in safe combat using padded weapons to resolve combat and perform actions based on skills their character possesses in the game. Many readers of popular fantasy fiction become lost in the exciting worlds created by the author and form a picture of the worlds in their mind. In a LARP the story unfolds organically with no predetermined outcome. LARP players enjoy all the elements that make a good fantasy novel great and have an actual impact on how things develop and move forward. The depth of interaction and immersion in a well run LARP game simply cannot be matched by any tabletop, computer, or console game. In addition to acting your chosen role, players and staff use costuming, make-up, prosthetics and other types of special effects to look the part of the character they choose to play. An Elf looks like an Elf. An Orc looks like an Orc. As you put on your costume and make-up and interact with scores of other players the feeling that you are assuming the role you have created for yourself is undeniable and is something that cannot be achieved in any other gaming medium.

In large scale LARPs such as NERO® there is a dedicated staff of volunteers who write the back-story, the story framework, the encounters and act in the roles of the monster, villains, and common townsfolk you meet on your adventures to provide the work its organic feel. These people also work very hard between events writing new adventures and stories based on the players’ actions in the game. Large scale games commonly rent entire camps for entire weekends entertaining between 30 and 300 players from Friday night until Sunday.

Smaller scale LARP events typically run at conventions or at game stores. These smaller games are typically designed for a small group of players to move through a largely scripted adventure. These adventures are akin to “Modules” that we all know from table-top RPGing. Sometimes you get a pre-made character or guidelines for making one. These types of events are a great introduction to LARPing.

In addition there are also live-combat games that are not really true LARPs . The games are largely focused on combat and run more akin to paintball with foam swords than a true LARP. These games typically run for an afternoon and can be very fun and challenging even for the most athletic people and are a great way to practice your skills.