A live action role-playing game (LARP) is a form of role-playing game where the participants physically portray their characters.[1] 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.
The first LARPs were run in the late 1970s, inspired by tabletop role-playing games and genre fiction. The activity spread internationally during the 1980s and has diversified into a wide variety of styles. Play may be very game-like or may be more concerned with dramatic or artistic expression. Events can also be designed to achieve educational or political goals. The fictional genres used vary greatly, from realistic modern or historical settings to fantastic or futuristic eras. Production values are sometimes minimal, but can involve elaborate venues and costumes. LARPs range in size from small private events lasting a few hours, to large public events with thousands of players lasting for days.
Terminology
LARP has also been referred to as live role-playing (LRP), interactive literature, and free form role-playing. Some of these terms are still in common use; however, LARP has become the most commonly accepted term.[2] It is sometimes written in lowercase, as larp.[3]
Play overview
The participants in a LARP physically portray characters in a fictional setting, improvising their characters' speech and movements somewhat like actors in improvisational theatre.[4] This is distinct from tabletop role-playing games, where character actions are described verbally.[1] LARPs may be played in a public or private area and may last for hours or days.[5][6] There is usually no audience.[7] Players may dress as their character and carry appropriate equipment, and the environment is sometimes decorated to resemble the setting.[8] LARPs can be one-off events or a series of events in the same setting, and events can vary in size from a handful of players to several thousand.[9][10]
Arrangers called gamemasters (GMs) determine the rules and setting of a LARP, and may also influence an event and act as referees while it is taking place.[11][12][13] The GMs may also do the logistical work, or there may be other arrangers who handle details such as advertising the event, booking a venue, and financial management. Unlike the GM in a tabletop role-playing game, a LARP GM seldom has an overview of everything that is happening during play because numerous participants may be interacting at once. For this reason, a LARP GM's role is often less concerned with tightly maintaining a narrative or directly entertaining the players, and more with arranging the structure of the LARP before play begins and facilitating the players and crew to maintain the fictional environment during play.[14]
Participants sometimes known as the crew may help the GMs to set up and maintain the environment of the LARP during play by acting as stagehands or playing non-player characters (NPCs) who fill out the setting.[15][16] Crew typically receive more information about the setting and more direction from the GMs than players do. In a tabletop role-playing game, a GM usually plays all the NPCs, whereas in a LARP, each NPC is typically played by a separate crew member.[17]
Much of play consists of interactions between characters. Some LARP scenarios primarily feature interaction between PCs. Other scenarios focus on interaction between PCs and aspects of the setting, including NPCs, that are under the direction of the GMs.[18][19]
The earliest recorded LARP group is Dagorhir, which was founded in 1977 in the United States and focuses on fantasy battles.[22] Soon after the release of the movie Logan's Run in 1976, rudimentary live role-playing games based on the movie were run at US science fiction conventions.[23] In 1981, the International Fantasy Gaming Society (IFGS) started, with rules influenced by Dungeons & Dragons.[24] IFGS was named after a fictional group in the 1981 novel Dream Park, which described futuristic LARPs.[25] In 1982, the Society for Interactive Literature, a predecessor of the Live Action Roleplayers Association (LARPA), formed as the first recorded theatre-style LARP group in the US.[26]
Treasure Trap, formed in 1982 at Peckforton Castle, was the first recorded LARP game in the UK and influenced the fantasy LARPs that followed there.[27][28] The first recorded LARP in Australia was run in 1983, using the science fiction Traveller setting.[29] In 1993, White Wolf Publishing released Mind's Eye Theatre, which is played internationally and is the most commercially successful published LARP.[30] The first German events were in the early 1990s, with fantasy LARP in particular growing quickly there, so that since 2001, two major German events have been run annually that have between 3000 and 7000 players each and attract players from around Europe.[31][32][33]
Today, LARP is a widespread activity internationally. Games with thousands of participants are run by for-profit companies, and a small industry exists to sell costume, armour and foam weapons intended primarily for LARP.[34] In 2023, Dicebreaker reported that "China has developed its own LARP phenomenon in recent years. Jubensha is far more commercially successful and influential than anything we have seen before even in Nordic countries – and there is a good chance it might change our perception of what live-action roleplaying games are capable of in the future".[35]
Purpose
Most LARPs are intended as games for entertainment. Enjoyable aspects can include the collaborative creation of a story, the attempt to overcome challenges in pursuit of a character's objectives, and a sense of immersion in a fictional setting.[36] LARPs may also include other game-like aspects such as intellectual puzzles, and sport-like aspects such as fighting with simulated weapons.[37]
Some LARPs stress artistic considerations such as dramatic interaction or challenging subject matter. Avant-garde or arthaus events have especially experimental approaches and high culture aspirations and are occasionally held in fine art contexts such as festivals or art museums. The themes of avant-garde events often include politics, culture, religion, sexuality and the human condition. Such LARPs are common in the Nordic countries but also present elsewhere.[38][39]
In addition to entertainment and artistic merit, LARP events may be designed for educational or political purposes. For example, the Danish secondary school Østerskov Efterskole[dk] uses LARP to teach most of its classes.[40] Language classes can be taught by immersing students in a role-playing scenario in which they are forced to improvise speech or writing in the language they are learning.[41] Politically-themed LARP events may attempt to awaken or shape political thinking within a culture.[42][43]
Because LARP involves a controlled artificial environment within which people interact, it has sometimes been used as a research tool to test theories in social fields such as economics or law. For example, LARP has been used to study the application of game theory to the development of criminal law.[44]
During a LARP, player actions in the real world represent character actions in an imaginary setting.[1] Game rules, physical symbols and theatrical improvisation are used to bridge differences between the real world and the setting. For example, a rope could signify an imaginary wall. Realistic-looking weapon props and risky physical activity are sometimes discouraged or forbidden for safety reasons.[45] While the fictional timeline in a tabletop RPG often progresses in game-time, which may be much faster or slower than the time passing for players, LARPs are different in that they usually run in real-time, with game-time only being used in special circumstances.[46]
There is a distinction between when a player is in character, meaning they are actively representing their character, and when the player is out-of-character, meaning they are being themselves. Some LARPs encourage players to stay consistently in character except in emergencies, while others accept players being out-of-character at times.[47] In a LARP, it is usually assumed that players are speaking and acting in character unless otherwise noted, which is the opposite of normal practice in tabletop role-playing games.[48]
While most LARPs maintain a clear distinction between the real world and the fictional setting, pervasive LARPs mingle fiction with modern reality in a fashion similar to alternate reality games. Bystanders who are unaware that a game is taking place may be treated as part of the fictional setting, and in-character materials may be incorporated into the real world.[49][50]
Many LARPs have game rules that determine how characters can affect each other and the setting.[51][52] The rules may be defined in a publication or created by the gamemasters.[53] Some LARP rules call for the use of simulated weapons such as foam weapons or airsoft guns[54] to determine whether characters succeed in hitting one another in combat situations. In Russian LARP events, weapons made of hard plastic, metal or wood are used.[55] The alternative to using simulated weapons is to pause role-play and determine the outcome of an action symbolically, for example by rolling dice, playing rock paper scissors or comparing character attributes.[56]
There are also LARPs that do without rules, instead relying on players to use their common sense or feel for dramatic appropriateness to cooperatively decide what the outcome of their actions will be.[57]
Genres
LARPs can have any genre, although many use themes and settings derived from genre fiction.[58] Some LARPs borrow a setting from an established work in another medium (e.g., The Lord of the Rings or the World of Darkness), while others use settings based on the real world or designed specifically for the LARP.[59]
LARP with a Victorian settingFantasy LARP
Fantasy is one of the most common LARP genres internationally and is the genre that the largest events use.[60] Fantasy LARPs are set in pseudo-historical worlds inspired by fantasy literature and fantasy role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons. These settings typically have magic, fantasy races, and limited technology. Many fantasy LARPs focus on adventure or on conflict between character factions. In contrast, science fiction LARPs take place in futuristic settings with high technology and sometimes with extraterrestrial life. This describes a broad array of LARPs, including politically themed LARPs depicting dystopian or utopian societies and settings inspired by cyberpunk, space opera and post-apocalyptic fiction.[61]
LARP events have a wide variety of styles that often overlap. Simple distinctions can be made regarding the genre used, the presence of simulated weapons or abstract rules, and whether players create their own characters or have them assigned by gamemasters. There is also a distinction between scenarios that are only run once and those that are designed to be repeatable.[63] While some LARPs are open to participants of all ages, others have a minimum age requirement. There are also youth LARPs, specifically intended for children and young people. Some are run through institutions such as schools, churches, or the Scouts. Denmark has an especially high number of youth LARPs.[64][65]
Fests
A battle with 2000 participants at Bicolline, Quebec (2005)
Some very large events known as fests (short for festival) have hundreds or thousands of participants who are usually split into competing character factions camped separately around a large venue. There are only a few fests in the world, all based in Europe and Canada; however, their size means that they have a significant influence on local LARP culture and design. At the other end of the size scale, some small events known as linear or line-course LARPs feature a small group of PCs facing a series of challenges from NPCs and are often more tightly planned and controlled by GMs than other styles of LARP.[66]
Nordic larp emphasises a collaborative "play to lose" strategy, keeping rules unobtrusive, and often explores emotionally complex issues.[67] The style emerged in Finland and Scandinavia during the 1990s with a focus on "collaborative storytelling around intense human experiences".[68]Wired commented that this style adds "distinct challenges, including the possibility of real emotional harm. To work out issues of how to keep players safe and push the limits of the form, the community gathers at Knutepunkt, an annual meeting that is as much hardcore game jam as academic conference".[68]
Script murder games, also known as jubensha (lit.'scripted murder'), are murder mystery LARP games that emerged in China.[69][70][35] Typically, script murder games can be experienced in a tabletop game format or a format which combines larping and escape rooms. Players are given different script options and are assigned characters to play through the murder mystery; these games often occur at dedicated gaming stores where players pay to participate.[69][71][72] The style become popularized in 2015 "when reality shows with names like 'Lying Man,' 'Dinner Party Seduction,' and later 'Who's The Murderer,' showed celebrities playing whodunits"[70] which led to the development of jubensha clubs that run games in this style.[35]
Roleplaying may be seen as part of a movement in Western culture towards participatory arts, as opposed to traditional spectator arts.[73] Participants in a LARP cast off the role of passive observer and take on new roles that are often outside of their daily life and contrary to their culture.[74] The arrangers of a LARP and the other participants act as co-creators of the game.[75] This collaborative process of creating shared fictional worlds may be associated with a broader burgeoning "geek" culture in developed societies that is in turn associated with prolonged education, high uptake of information technology and increased leisure time.[76] In comparison to the mainstream video-game industry, which is highly commercialized and often marketed towards a male audience, LARP is less commoditized, and women actively contribute as authors and participants.[77]
LARP is not well known in most countries and is sometimes confused with other role-playing, reenactment, costuming, or dramatic activities. While fan and gamer culture in general has become increasingly mainstream in developed countries, LARP has often not achieved the same degree of cultural acceptability. This may be due to intolerance of the resemblance to childhood games of pretend, a perceived risk of over-identification with the characters, and the absence of mass marketing.[78][79] In US films such as the 2006 documentary Darkon, the 2007 documentary Monster Camp, and the 2008 comedy Role Models, fantasy LARP is depicted as somewhat ridiculous and escapist, but also treated affectionately as a "constructive social outlet".[80][81][82] In the Nordic countries, LARP has achieved a high level of public recognition and popularity. It is often shown in a positive light in mainstream media, with an emphasis on the dramatic and creative aspects.[83] However, even in Norway, where LARP has greater recognition than in most other countries, it has still not achieved full recognition as a cultural activity by government bodies.[84]
Communities have formed around the creation, play and discussion of LARP. These communities have developed a subculture that crosses over with role-playing, fan, reenactment, and drama subcultures.[78][85] Early LARP subculture focused on Tolkien-like fantasy, but it later broadened to include appreciation of other genres, especially the horror genre with the rapid uptake of the World of Darkness setting in the 1990s.[85][86] Like many subcultures, LARP groups often have a common context of shared experience, language, humour, and clothing that can be regarded by some as a lifestyle.[78]
LARP has been a subject of academic research and theory. Much of this research originates from role-players, especially from the publications of the Nordic Knutepunkt role-playing conventions.[87] The broader academic community has recently begun to study LARP as well, both to compare it to other media and other varieties of interactive gaming, and also to evaluate it in its own right.[49][88] In 2010, William Bainbridge speculated that LARP may one day evolve into a major industry in the form of location-based games using ubiquitous computing.[89]
In Denmark, Østerskov Efterskole uses LARP as an educational method of teaching subjects to high school boarding students through interactivity and simulation.[90] LARP groups are also using simulations of current and historical events and topics like refugees and the AIDS crisis to roleplay and explore these subjects.[91]
In China, the script murder game industry (jubensha) has continued to grow since 2015. The New York Times reported that in 2021 "the number of scripted murder enterprises registered in China totaled about 6,500, a more than 60 percent increase from the prior year, according to state-run media".[70] The Agence France-Presse reported that "the live action murder mystery market appears to have captured the imagination of China's urban youth before the Covid-19 pandemic emerged".[69] During the COVID-19 pandemic, "Murder Mystery Game" (MMG) apps allowed people to play jubensha digitally and were "available to millions of people across" China.[35]Dicebreaker reported that following the easing of pandemic restrictions in China, "more than 45,000 [jubensha] shops" opened with "nearly 10 million active players. It is estimated that soon the Jubensha market will reach 23.89 billion Chinese Yuan".[35]Voice of America commented that, per the Chinese market research firm iResearch, script murder games are "the third most popular form of entertainment for Chinese people, after watching movies and participating in sports".[92]
The popularization of script murder games and industry growth in China has led to both national and governmental attention with the Chinese government considering formal regulation of the industry.[71][72][93] In September 2020, the Agence France-Presse commented that "a report on China National Radio last month voiced fears that too many of the scripts relied on murders, violent plots and sexual content, but others see the games as a way to get young people off their smartphones and back interacting with each other in real life".[69] In October 2021, the South China Morning Post reported that "advertisements for script-killing are prominent in China. [...] The fact that it is a new industry is precisely the problem in the eyes of the authorities. Since the Covid-19 case that brought 'script-killing' to national attention, the game has been getting mainstream traction, inviting official concerns and possible future regulations".[71] In October 2022, Polygon commented that Chinese "regulators are beginning to take notice of the genre's mature content. A story published Wednesday indicates that municipal and provincial authorities have now begun regulating content and demanding that some retailers remove certain materials from sale. [...] As a result, some store owners are now curating their selection to fall in line with government regulation".[72]China Daily, a publication owned by the Chinese Communist Party, reported in April 2023 that China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism was beginning to draft regulations for script murder games and "soliciting public opinions".[93] The draft regulations state that "the contents of such games must not smear the traditional Chinese culture or contain inappropriate materials involving obscenity, gambling, drugs, and other elements that could go against moral standards".[93] The regulations also include additional rules for minors such as not allowing "underage customers on school days" and that "children under the age of 14 must be accompanied by their parents or other guardians".[93]
A gamemaster is a person who acts as a facilitator, organizer, officiant regarding rules, arbitrator, and moderator for a multiplayer role-playing game. The act performed by a gamemaster is sometimes referred to as "gamemastering" or simply "GM-ing."
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.
A murder mystery game is a type of party game in which players investigate and solve fictitious murders. In many variations, a player secretly plays as a murderer while the others attempt to determine the murderer's identity.
Freeform role-playing games, also called freeforms, are a type of role-playing game which employ informal or simplified rule sets, emphasise costume and theatricality, and typically involve large numbers of players in a common setting. Actions are typically adjudicated on the spot by a referee, though variants exist whereby players jointly mediate their own actions.
The Diana Jones Award is an annual award for "excellence in gaming". The original award was made from a burned book encased in lucite. The award is unusual in two ways: first, it is not an award for a specific class of thing, but can be awarded to a person, product, publication, company, organization, event or trend – anything related to gaming; second, it does not count popularity or commercial success as a sign of "excellence". The award was first presented in 2001.
The history of role-playing games began when disparate traditions of historical reenactment, improvisational theatre, and parlour games combined with the rulesets of fantasy wargames in the 1970s to give rise to tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs). Multiple TTRPGs were produced between the 1970s and early 1990s. In the 1990s, TTRPGs faced a decline in popularity. Indie role-playing game design communities arose on the internet in the early 2000s and introduced new ideas. In the late 2010s and early 2020s, TTRPGs experienced renewed popularity due to videoconferencing, the rise of actual play, and online marketplaces.
Role-playing games (RPGs) have developed specialized terminology. This includes both terminology used within RPGs to describe in-game concepts and terminology used to describe RPGs. Role-playing games also have specialized slang and jargon associated with them.
The Knutepunkt is an annual role-playing game conference held annually in the Nordic countries since 1997. It has been a vital institution in establishing a Nordic role-playing identity, and in establishing the concept of "Nordic larp" as a unique approach. Though the conference started out strictly as a Live action role-playing event, it has since embraced role-playing games in a more general fashion. Today the conference still has an emphasis on larp, but programs devoted to traditional tabletop role-playing as well as newer arrivals such as freeform are common.
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.
A pervasive game is one where the gaming experience is extended out into the real world, or where the fictional world in which the game takes place blends with the physical world. The "It's Alive" mobile games company described pervasive games as "games that surround you," while Montola, Stenros, and Waern's book Pervasive Games defines them as having "one or more salient features that expand the contractual magic circle of play spatially, temporally, or socially." The concept of a "magic circle" draws from the work of Johan Huizinga, who describes the boundaries of play.
NERO International is a live action role-playing game (LARP) played in the United States. The NERO name originally was an acronym for "New England Role playing Organization", but the game has expanded well beyond its original New England roots and thus simply adopted the acronym as part of the official name.
Curious Pastimes is an organisation that runs one of the best-known live action role-playing campaigns in the UK. CuPa is a private, profit-making company headquartered in Moreton in the Wirral in Northern England. The company was formed in 1995, as a break away group from the Lorien Trust.
A tabletop role-playing game, also known as a pen-and-paper role-playing game, is a kind of role-playing game (RPG) in which the participants describe their characters' actions through speech and sometimes movements. Participants determine the actions of their characters based on their characterization, and the actions succeed or fail according to a set formal system of rules and guidelines, usually involving randomization. Within the rules, players have the freedom to improvise, and their choices shape the direction and outcome of the game.
A non-player character (NPC), also called a non-playable character, is a character in a game that is not controlled by a player. The term originated in traditional tabletop role-playing games where it applies to characters controlled by the gamemaster or referee rather than by another player. In video games, this usually means a character controlled by the computer that has a predetermined set of behaviors that potentially will impact gameplay, but will not necessarily be the product of true artificial intelligence.
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.
Profound Decisions is a company running live action role-playing games in the United Kingdom.
Jubensha, also known as script murder games, or simply script games, are a Chinese genre of live action role-playing (LARP) murder mystery game, similar to what's known as "Parlour LARP". This genre became popular in China in the late 2010s and has been described as a "mix of Cluedo, Werewolf and LARP".
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.
References
Citations
1 2 3 (Tychsen et al. 2006:255) "LARPs can be viewed as forming a distinct category of RPG because of two unique features: (a) The players physically embody their characters, and (b) the game takes place in a physical frame. Embodiment means that the physical actions of the player are regarded as those of the character. LARP participants may dress in the costume of their character and carry appropriate physical props (e.g., an 18th century militia LARP participant may wear a military uniform and carry a musket). Whereas in a RPG played by a group sitting around a table, players describe the actions of their characters (e.g., "I run to stand beside my friend"); in an equivalent situation in a LARP, a player would physically run to the appropriate point within the game space."
↑ (Tychsen et al. 2006:255) "LARP ... is the commonly accepted term in the gaming community."
↑ (Fatland 2005:1) "The non-Nordic reader should, however, keep in mind that there are some differences between the Nordic and Anglo-American uses of English when talking about larp. Most importantly, we treat 'larp' as a word in its own right, not an acronym (L.A.R.P.), and it is spelt lower-case."
↑ (Kilgallon et al. 2001:1) "A live action roleplaying game is a cross between a traditional 'tabletop' roleplaying game and improvisational theatre."
↑ Salen, Katie; Zimmerman, Eric (2003). Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals. The MIT Press. ISBN978-0-262-24045-1. Live-Action Role-Playing Games can take place in indoor or outdoor settings, in private or public spaces.
↑ Widing, Gabriel (2008). "We Lost Our World and Made New Ones: Live Role-Playing in Modern Times". In Markus Montola, Jaakko Stenros (ed.). Playground Worlds. Ropecon ry. ISBN978-952-92-3579-7. ...the participants sustain these temporary worlds for a few hours or several days
↑ (Falk & Davenport 2004:128) "...live role-playing games are devoid of the audience concept."
↑ (Falk & Davenport 2004:131) "The LRP player, like a stage actor, is a person who under-goes a transformation into a character. The character's costume and accessories, or kit, aids this transformation ... Physical structures may be used as game locations, and sometimes even purposely constructed to enhance the game world ... Players frequently use physical artifacts as props and tools in their role-play, primarily to back up their character roles."
↑ (Tychsen et al. 2006:259) "Most LARPs are either scenarios (or single-shots) or campaigns (also known as chronicles)"
↑ (Tychsen et al. 2006:258) "Games range in size from a handful to more than 4,000 players"
↑ (Tychsen et al. 2005:216) "In order to play, the players must have a fictional setting... In essence, the GM creates the magical circle around the game."
↑ (Montola, Stenros & Waern 2009) "Runtime game mastering is the process of influencing the flow of a game in real time."
↑ (Tychsen et al. 2005:218) "The GM may or may not be responsible for enforcing the rules between players... The GM can also be responsible of [sic] hunting down cheaters or other rule breakers."
↑ (Tychsen et al. 2005:218) "[The GM is] forced to let go of the game and let it take on a life of its own outside his or her control. While based on similar principles, the requirements [are] therefore very different in practice from GMs in PnP RPGs... The GM is generally, unless the LARP is small in terms of number of participants, not responsible for keeping the narrative flow. The GM can however oversee the progress of the game and help or influence where needed... Establishing a hierarchy of GMs and NPCs to monitor the game and ensure everyone is entertained and activated within the shared game space is a typical way of controlling large fantasy LARPS. This structure is usually established before the game commences."
↑ (Bestul 2006:26) "Finally, a person may also participate as a type of stagehand. Though not all games will require them, it is occasionally necessary to have a support staff to help coordinate events and NPCs as a stage manager or running crew might."
↑ (Tychsen et al. 2005:216) "The environment needs to be filled out with non-player controlled characters (NPCs)
↑ (Tresca 2010:188) "Where LARPs differ most from tabletop games is in the handling of non-player characters (NPCs). The physical performance necessary to pull off a performance in a LARP makes it impractical for a single person to handle many NPC roles. As a result, there is often a cast of characters who take on the roles of other NPCs. Unlike the players, the NPCs usually know the game's plot and have some idea of the narrative. NPCs, then, are a form of pseudo-player. They play the game, their characters have somewhat more limited goals, but they are ultimately constrained by the plot."
↑ (Young 2003:11) "The focus of interaction of larp... can be player to player or player to environment."
↑ (Tychsen et al. 2005:216) "LARP scenarios can likewise vary from detailed scripts of each participating character, to a loose association of GM-controlled NPCs in a fictional world setting."
↑ (Tychsen et al. 2006:256) "LARPs ... appear to have developed based on inspiration from tabletop RPGs such as Dungeons & Dragons, more or less simultaneously in North America, Europe, and Australia in the early 80s. Players from all of these continents claim to have hosted the oldest LARP, however, it appears that LARPs developed independently and with marked cultural differences."
↑ Lancaster, Kurt (1999). Warlocks and Warpdrive: Contemporary Fantasy Entertainments With Interactive and Virtual Environments. McFarland. p.34. As a likely result of the popularity of Dungeons and Dragons, in 1981 the International Fantasy Gaming Society (IFGS) was formed, and it published a set of rules for an outdoor, fantasy role-playing game similar to the medieval-fantasy environment of D&D.
↑ Olmstead-Dean, Gordon (1998). "Theatre Style Live Roleplaying Events". LARP Writing.org. Archived from the original on 2008-06-07. Retrieved 2008-05-29. In 1982, Walt Frietag and some friends at Harvard University "invented" what they called "interactive literature."... Frietag called his group the "Harvard Society for Interactive Literature", which was shortened to "Society for Interactive Literature" the next year.
↑ Cowell, Nicholas. "Free Form Role-Playing". Arcanacon I - 83 Handbook. 1: 10. Archived from the original on 2007-09-04. Retrieved 2007-10-21. ...in the pioneering freeform tournament at Canberra Games Convention '83 participating players were members of the crew of the ship 'Sarten Valador'... rather than sitting around a table... the players move about the game environment...
↑ Balzer, Myriel (2008). Live Action Role Playing. Die Entwicklung realer Kompetenzen in virtuellen Welten (in German). Tectum Verlag. ISBN978-3-8288-9816-5. Die erste offizielle LARP-Veranstaltung in Deutschland, fand hochstwahrscheinlich 1994 unter dem Namen Dracon statt. Seit dem ist ein stetiger Anstieg der LARP-Veranstalungen in Deutschland zu verzeichnen...Auch hierbei sind die LARP-veranstaltungen, welche im Genre des Fantasy angesiedelt sind, mit etwa 90% am weitaus stärksten vertreten ... Seit dem Jahr 2001 gibt es des Weiteren zwei Veranstalter, welche etwa einmal im Jahr so genannte Groß-Cons veranstalten, bei denen keine Maximalbegrenzung der Teilnehmerzahl besteht und in der Regel zwischen drei- bis siebentausend Live-Rollenspieler teilnehmen und auch Teilnehmer aus dem europäischen Ausland anzutreffen sind. (The first official LARP event in Germany most likely took place in 1994 under the name Dracon. Since then a steady rise in LARPs offered in Germany is recorded ... Also LARP events based in the fantasy genre are by far the largest here with about 90% representation ... Since the year 2001 there are two organisers who hold about once a year the so-called "big Cons" where there are no maximum limits to the number of participants and in which there are usually between three and seven thousand live action role-players including people from around Europe.)
↑ Jahnke, Alex (2009), "Gelebte Träume - eine (Vor-)Geschichte des LARPs", in Dombrowski, Karsten (ed.), LARP: Hinter den Kulissen. Aufsatzsammlung zum MittelPunkt 2009, Braunschweig: Zauberfeder, 1991 fand mit dem Draccon I der erste deutsche LARP-Con statt, womit unsere Zeitreise ein Ende hat. (In 1991 Draccon I, the first german LARP convention took place, which ends our journey through time.)
↑ (Tychsen et al. 2006:258) "Today, LARPing is a widespread hobby, especially within the United States and Europe, and caters to at least 100,000 players worldwide ... Professional, full-time LARP sites also exist ... a small industry has grown-up supplying latex weapons, costumes, theater props, and special effects, and numerous special effects and make-up artists work in the LARP environment for training purposes."
↑ Bøckman, Petter (2003). "The Three Way Model"(PDF). As Larp Grows Up. Knudepunkt 2003. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2011-07-19. Retrieved 2011-01-23.
↑ Hyltoft, Malik (2008). "The Role-Players' School: Østerskov Efterskole". In Markus Montola, Jaakko Stenros (ed.). Playground Worlds. Ropecon ry. ISBN978-952-92-3579-7.
↑ (Montola, Stenros & Waern 2009) "Some pervasive larps seek to engage in active dialogue with their social environment. The purpose of such dialogue can be politically or artistically motivated. These games have a message that is aimed either at the players, at bystanders, or society as a whole."
↑ Andersen, Anita Myhre; Aarebrot, Erik (2009). "Larp in Kamensky forest"(PDF). Larp, the Universe and Everything. Knutepunkt 2009. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2016-03-10. Retrieved 2009-05-05.
↑ For example, the Mind's Eye Theatre system forbids realistic looking weapons and contact. From the "Basic Rules" section: "#1 - No Touching. This means none whatsoever, even with consent ... #2 - No weapons as props ... real weapons or anything that even looks like a real weapon ... are a definite no-no." (Dansky 1996:136). Similarly, the Rules to Live By system forbids certain sorts of physical action, and recommends against realistic-looking weapons: "A participant should never have to run, climb, or jump over anything... Participants should never, ever use real weapons, even as props. They should be extremely cautious about anything that looks like a real weapon - police get nervous." (Kilgallon et al. 2001:2)
↑ (Bestul 2006:28) "All of this, with the occasional exceptions, takes place in real-time, with the idea of game-time only invoked in certain situations (combat or emergencies, for example). "
↑ (Waern, Montola & Stenros 2009:1550) "[In Nordic 360° illusion larp] the players stay in character continuously (unlike American larp as reported by Lancaster)"
↑ (Tresca 2010:190) "Generally speaking, players in a larp are usually expected to be in character first and then signal their desire to speak or act out-of-character second, the reverse of a tabletop game."
1 2 Markus, Montola; Jaakko Stenros (2008). "Introduction". In Markus Montola, Jaakko Stenros (ed.). Playground Worlds. Ropecon ry. ISBN978-952-92-3579-7. The third and youngest design ideal is pervasive larp. These pervasive LARPs blur the line between larp and life as the game spills onto the streets. The whole world becomes a playground...
↑ Markus, Montola (2007-09-24). "Tangible Pleasures of Pervasive Role-Playing"(PDF). In Baba, Akira (ed.). Proceedings of DiGRA 2007 Situated Play conference. The University of Tokyo. pp.178–185. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2011-09-27. Retrieved 2008-06-04. Alternate reality gaming is the most widely established subgenre of pervasive gaming, but others are evolving as well.
↑ (Tychsen et al. 2005:216) "Rules in RPGs ... focus on 1) How the fictional world operates; 2) How the players interact with the fictional world and its inhabitants and; 3) How the players interact with each other and the GM."
↑ Hitchens, Michael; Drachen, Anders (2009). "The many faces of role-playing games"(PDF). International Journal of Role-Playing. No.1. p.11. Archived(PDF) from the original on 2021-06-19. Retrieved 2009-09-12. While player enaction is emphasised, formal rule systems are commonly used for determination of the outcome of many character actions
↑ (Tychsen et al. 2005:218) "In PnP RPGs and LARPs, the GMs can be responsible for creating the rules, if an existing RPG rules system is not used."
↑ (Young 2003:7-8) "Live combat... requires the players' abilities to perform an action. You want to hit someone with a sword? You have to actually hit the player with a prop representing a sword, usually a padded weapon. ... Simulated combat is more abstract. It uses an external method that does not rely on player ability. For example, if you want to hit the other person with a sword, you may have to make a rock-paper-scissors challenge."
↑ (Tychsen et al. 2006:255) "...a LARP can be very similar to improvisational theater, with only a few guidelines for rules and a very low-powered GM."
↑ (Falk & Davenport 2004:129) "All LRP games of our definition take place within an agreed upon theme or narrative setting that provides the context for players' actions and character roles. This theme can be pretty much anything you can imagine; the possibilities are inexhaustible. To give some obvious and common examples, it may be fantasy and involve magic, heroes, and fantastic creatures, much like the game world settings of the classic tabletop role-playing games. Or, it may be realistic, based on historic events or contemporary life. Or it can be futuristic post apocalyptic environments, involving mutants and cyborgian characters dwelling in deserted cities. Or, it can be any combination of these"
↑ (Tychsen et al. 2006:261) "The world setting or framework for the fictional world in which the game takes place varies greatly in LARPs. Generally, these can be divided into either real-world settings or fictional settings."
↑ (Tychsen et al. 2006:258) "Exclusively, the large LARPs with hundreds or more players are set in fantasy/medieval world settings, which is the historic genre for LARPs."
↑ While many of these science fiction LARPs use rules created by the event arrangers, official LARP rules have been published for the popular space opera Star Wars, see (Russo & Heinig 1996)
↑ "According to the survey, 8% of children had participated in role-playing events in nature during the last month" Morten, Gade (2005). "Danish larp by numbers"(PDF). Dissecting larp. Knudepunkt 2005. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2007-06-10. Retrieved 2007-07-29.
↑ Larsson, Elge (2005). "Postmodernity and participation"(PDF). In Haggren, Kristoffer (ed.). Interacting Arts - International Issue 2005. Interacting Arts. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2008-05-14. Retrieved 2008-04-24.
↑ Werkman, Rachel (2001). "Vampire: The Masquerade - a countercultural performance". In Lancaster, Kurt; Mikotowicz, Thomas J (eds.). Performing the force. McFarland. ISBN978-0-7864-0895-5.
↑ Fron, Janine; Fullerton, Tracy; Jacquelyn Ford Morie, Jacquelyn Ford Morie; Pearce, Celia (2007). "The Hegemony of Play"(PDF). Proceedings of DiGRA 2007 Conference: Situated Play. Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA). Archived from the original(PDF) on 2021-03-05. Retrieved 2009-09-20. [The "hardcore" video gamer market] is characterized by an adolescent male sensibility that transcends physical age and embraces highly stylized graphical violence, male fantasies of power and domination, hyper-sexualized, objectified depictions of women, and rampant racial stereotyping and discrimination ... The "Geek" described by Konzack implies counter-culture, as characterized by The Lord of the Rings and Star Trek fan culture, Live-Action Role Playing Games (LARPs), MUDs and MOOs; he further points out that women are actively contributing to the third culture as both authors and participants, notably in LARPs, cosplay, fan fiction communities, as well as establishing the Game Grrls phenomenon and female fan networks. Conversely, mainstream gamer culture has been commoditized and commercialized...
↑ Tocci, Jason (2007-04-29). "The Well-Dressed Geek: Media Appropriation and Subcultural Style"(PDF). Proceedings of MiT5 conference. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2016-08-24. Retrieved 2009-04-24. Many of those with whom I spoke said that they have a number of different geeky interests, but draw the line at cosplay or live-action role-playing games (LARPs), hobbies in which players might dress in costume and act as a character... too closely resemble a child's game of "let's play pretend" to outside observers, thus standing on the less acceptable side of the divide "between the people who do these things and the people who live these things", as phrased by one of my interviewees... The LARPers may seem, as some of my interviewees would suggest, too geeky (i.e., too freely creative and immersed in media, too focused on use-value)
↑ Coffman, Jason (2008). "Role Models(2008)". Film Monthly.com. Archived from the original on 2021-02-24. Retrieved 2009-04-25. It's to the film's credit that LARPing comes across as both completely ridiculous and as a valid, constructive social outlet
↑ Cockrell, Eddie (2006). Darkon. Variety. Archived from the original on 2009-09-05. Retrieved 2009-04-25.
↑ (Fatland 2005) "The popularity of larp [in the Nordic countries] has recently made it a feature of 'common knowledge', so that a Swedish journalist may refer to something unrelated as 'larp-like', Finnish TV produces a teen soap opera about fantasy larpers, and a Norwegian professor of theatre history routinely ends his course by mentioning larp as the 'new theatre'."
↑ Montola, Marcus (2007). "Urban Role-Play: The Next Generation of Role-Playing in Urban Space". In von Borries, Friedrich; Walz, Steffen P; Böttger, Matthias (eds.). Space Time Play. Computer Games, Architecture and Urbanism: the Next Level. Birkhäuser Basel. ISBN978-3-7643-8415-9. That Lord of the Rings-induced stereotypical image of LARP started to crumble in the 90s as LARP based on anything from science fiction to Jane Austen began to emerge, taking gameplay from forests and castles into industrial halls, idyllic villas and city streets.
↑ (Waern, Montola & Stenros 2009:1550) "The community is well documented through annual self-reflective books published by the annual "Nodal Point" events where theorists and practitioners meet to discuss larp"
↑ Bainbridge, William Sims (2010). "Online Multiplayer Games". Synthesis Lectures on Information Concepts, Retrieval, and Services #13. Vol.1. Morgan & Claypool. p.3. doi:10.2200/S00232ED1V01Y200912ICR013. With ubiquitous Internet connectivity, and mobile access through cellphones or PDAs, it is possible this genre could grow into a major industry, possibly integrated with traditional activities such as history-oriented tourism, nature trail hiking, or stock market trading.
Kilgallon, John; Sandy Antunes; Mike Young (2001). Rules to Live by: A Live Action Roleplaying Conflict Resolution System. Interactivities Ink. ISBN978-0-9708356-0-4.
Tresca, Michael (2010). The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games. McFarland. ISBN978-0-7864-5895-0.
Tychsen, Anders; Hitchens, Michael; Brolund, Thea; Kavakli, Manolya (2005). "The Game Master". The Second Australasian Conference on Interactive Entertainment. Creativity and Cognition Studios Press. pp.215–222. Retrieved 2008-12-03.
Waern, Annika; Montola, Markus; Stenros, Jaakko (2009-04-08). "The three-sixty illusion: designing for immersion in pervasive games". Proceedings of the 27th international conference on Human factors in computing systems. Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. ACM.
Young, Mike, ed. (2003). The Book of LARP. Interactivities Ink. ISBN978-0-9708356-8-0.
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