A live action role-playing game (LARP) is a form of role-playing game where the participants physically portray their characters. The players pursue goals within a fictional setting represented by real-world environments while interacting with each other in character. The outcome of player actions may be mediated by game rules or determined by consensus among players. Event arrangers called gamemasters decide the setting and rules to be used and facilitate play.
A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting or through a process of structured decision-making regarding character development. Actions taken within many games succeed or fail according to a formal system of rules and guidelines.
The threefold model or GDS theory of roleplaying games is an attempt to distinguish three different goals in roleplaying. In its original formation, these are: Drama, simulation, and game. It was the inspiration for subsequent theories, such as the GNS theory, which retained a three-way division but altered other aspects of the model.
GURPS Alpha Centauri is a sourcebook for GURPS Third Edition.
Role-playing game theory is the study of role-playing games (RPGs) as a social or artistic phenomenon, also known as ludology. RPG theories seek to understand what role-playing games are, how they function, and how the gaming process can be refined in order to improve the play experience and produce better game products.
Live action role-playing games, known as LARPs, are a form of role-playing game in which live players/actors assume roles as specific characters and play out a scenario in-character. Technically, many childhood games may be thought of as simple LARPs, as they often involve the assumption of character roles. However, the scope of this article concerns itself mainly with LARPing in a technical sense: the organized live-action role-playing games whose origins are closely related to the invention of tabletop role-playing games in America in the 1970s.
Dragonbane was a large international live action roleplaying game (LARP) project. The game itself took place from July 27 to August 4, 2006 in Älvdalen, Sweden, close to the border with Norway. There were 325 players from several countries. While there was little media coverage in other countries, it received the attention of Scandinavian newspapers and gaming publications.
Mikko "Mike" Pohjola is a Finnish playwright, novelist, and game designer. He is the author of Sinä vuonna 1928, 1827, Maailman hauskin, Myrskyn aika, Star Wreck Roleplaying Game, Tähti, Kadonneet kyyneleet, Ihmisen poika, and Age of the Tempest. He is also the narrative designer and main writer of the Agemonia board game.
Jason Morningstar is an American indie role-playing game designer, publishing mostly through Bully Pulpit Games. Morningstar's games often forgo a game master and are set in situations that quickly take a turn for the worse for the player characters. Grey Ranks, for example, is about doomed child soldiers in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, and Fiasco is about impulsive crooks pulling heists that are sure to go terribly wrong. With these two games, Morningstar became the only named person to have won the Diana Jones award twice as of 2023. Morningstar also works with academia and industry, consulting on using games for teaching and learning in education, with a focus on health sciences.
Emily Care Boss is an indie roleplaying game designer, theorist and publisher. She was a foundational member of The Forge, an early leader in the indie role-playing game movement and is considered the creator of the American Freeform genre of roleplaying games, which combine indie RPG principles and mechanics with Nordic freeform and American chamber live action role-playing techniques. She has been referred to as the "Dean" of the North American school of structured freeform game design.
Cynthia M. Grund is an American philosopher and educator who, as of August 2016, is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the ⠀⠀University of Southern Denmark, where she is also Research Director for The Aesthetics of Music and Sound project.
The Finnish Museum of Games is a museum dedicated to the history of Finnish games located in Vapriikki Museum Centre in Tampere, Finland.
Lene Rachel Andersen is a Danish author, economist, futurist, and philosopher. She was born and raised in Taastrup, a suburb west of Copenhagen, Denmark. Her first books formed the series Baade-Og. her books in English are The Nordic Secret (2017), Metamodernity (2019), Bildung (2020), What is Bildung?, and Libertism (2022). In 2018, Andersen co-founded the Copenhagen based think-tank Nordic Bildung and the folk-Bildung association Fremvirke. In 2019, she was the main initiator of European Bildung Day and in 2020 the co-founder of the European Bildung Network. Since January 2019, Andersen has been a member of the Club of Rome.
Nina Grønnum is a Danish retired phonetician and associate professor emeritus from the University of Copenhagen. She is best known for her work on the pronunciation of Danish and especially her many studies on Danish intonation and prosody. She went by her married name Nina Thorsen or Nina Grønnum Thorsen until the 1980s.
Interactive Fantasy is a magazine was published in England by Hogshead Publishing that focused on role-playing games, especially game theory.
Sivilisasjonens venterom was a research larp held in Bergen in November 2021. It was designed to explore the potential of larps as a research methodology and as research dissemination, and was specifically intended to investigate ethical questions that arise when encountering new surveillance technologies.
Jonaya Kemper is an American game design academic and game writer/designer. Kemper's work includes LARP, tabletop role-playing games, and computer games. Kemper coined the term and developed the theory of "emancipatory bleed."
Nordic LARP is a style and tradition of live action role-playing games (LARPs) centered in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland. New games premiere at the annual Knutepunkt Nordic LARP conference. Gameplay draws upon acting techniques and typically addresses serious and complex historical, political, and/or intellectual themes. For example, Just a Little Lovin' deals with the AIDS pandemic within the LGBTQ community in early 1980s New York City. Games prioritize character development, worldbuilding, and intense emotional experiences, in contrast to American LARP, which prioritizes competition and strategy. Nordic LARP players use the term "bleed" to refer to the experience of continuing to feel emotions from gameplay after the game has ended.
