Live action role-playing game

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A live action role-playing game (LARP or LRP) is a form of role-playing game where the participants perform some or all of the physical actions of the characters they are playing within a pre-determined space for a pre-determined span of time. LARP may be considered a form of improvisational theater.

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LARP basics

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In character vs. out of character

In LARPs, the player her(him)self represents the role-played character, and the player's actions directly represent the characters actions. This distinguishes LARPs from tabletop role-playing games, where character actions are described verbally ("My character says..."), and from computer role-playing games, where characters are controlled by the player through a computer interface. At a LARP, the player is treated as being the character - a player's actions are interpreted as character actions by the other players. Role-playing at LARPs is similar to acting in theatre and cinema, though character actions in LARPs are always improvised.

Most LARP systems make a distinction between when a player is actively representing the character (called "in-character", "IC", "in-game" or "in-play") and when the player is acting normally, independent of the character (called "out-of-character", "OOC", "off-role" , "out-of-game" or "offplay"). During a LARP, players are normally taken to be in-character - so that if a LARP player says "I am feeling sick", other players will assume that the character is sick while the player is merely acting sick. The ratio of in-character to off-character play varies widely between LARPs. Some LARPs encourage players to stay consistently in-character except in the case of an emergency, while other LARPs accept players being off-character for large portions of the LARP and use devices such as off-game areas, cards or gestures to signify when players are currently off-character.

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Simulation and representation

All LARPs occur in both a real and an imaginary environment - the latter called the "setting", "game world" or (in theory) "the diegesis" . Characters inhabit the imaginary environment, while players inhabit the real, physical environment. In all LARPs, the real environment to some degree represents the imaginary environment (for example, a real wall is normally also an imaginary wall) and player behaviour represents character behaviour. In cases where the real environment does not correspond to the imaginary environment, LARPs use different techniques to simulate events in the imaginary environment. These techniques may include game rules and randomizers (dice, cards), physical symbols (for example a rope signifying an imaginary wall) and theatrical improvisation.

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 and role-play a new character from scratch.

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LARP styles

LARP practices are notably diverse, with widely different kinds of events being described as "LARPs" in different regions, countries and groups. There is at present no universally agreed-upon taxonomy of live role-playing styles. Various distinctions divide LARP styles according to their system of combat resolution (physical or symbolic), their primary conflicts (player vs player or player vs GM), their duration (campaigns or single events), their stance on role-playing (immersive or theatrical) or their genre (fantasy, science fiction, contemporary etc.).

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Physical vs. symbolic combat

Image:Live action role play battle.jpg The two most common ways of simulating combat in LARP are through either physical representation or symbolic determination. Physical combat occurs without interruption in role-play, using Boffer representations of edged weapons or Latex weapons, Airsoft or Lasertag guns, and similar. A variety of physical combat uses relatively harmless versions of real weapons (blunt steel swords or firearms loaded with blanks) rather than representations. Games using physical combat are often known as "Boffer" or "Live Combat" LARPs.

Symbolic determination relies on players momentarily suspending role-playing in order to determine the outcome of combat, for example by rolling dice, playing rock-paper-scissors or comparing character attributes. In symbolic combat systems, weapons may be represented as cards or inaccurate replicas. A "no-touch" rule, prohibiting physical contact between players, is often in force. LARPs which feature symbolic combat may be known as Free-form role-playing games or Theatre Style games.

All symbolic combat systems, and most physical combat systems, utilize game rules governing attributes such as character strength, fighting skills and ability to endure physical pain in order to determine the outcome of a combat situation. An exception is honour system larps, where players are trusted to determine the outcomes of combat through free improvisation.

Physical representation is most common in, but not exclusive to, LARP styles where combat is seen as central to game-play. Conversely, symbolic determination and honour system LARPs tend to place less emphasis on combat.

Combat resolution is usually indicative of the design philosophy behind a specific LARP system. The same approaches as are taken to combat will often be used for other elements of LARP simulation such as magic, political power, character sexuality, scenery and propping. For this reason, combat resolution is the most widely used criterion for distinguishing between LARP styles.

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Genre and storylines

LARPs can have as many genres and settings as novels, plays, or movies. However, a majority of LARPs use settings derived from genre litterature. Fantasy, Science Fiction and historical settings are currently (as of 2006) the most common LARP genres, leading to costuming and history frequently being associated with LARP as a hobby. While some LARPs borrow a setting from an established work in another medium (e.g. "Lord of the Rings" or the "World of Darkness"), most LARPs take place in a setting designed specifically for the LARP. Re-usable custom-designed settings ("campaign worlds"), together with rulesets, are often the principal creative asset of LARP associations and LARP publishers.

The creative content of a LARP is produced by players in collaboration with organisers - called game masters (GMs), referees or larpwrights - who determine the fictive framework of a LARP. GMs may decide how characters are created by players, or write and distribute characters to the players. The characters allowed or authored by the GMs, along with conflicts placed between characters and possible interventions during the LARP, usually determine a LARPs possible plots.

LARP players will often narrate the events of a LARP as a story, with their character as protagonist, though it should be noted that few LARPs feature pre-determined or pre-scripted stories of the type common in litterature or cinema. Whether a LARP can or should "tell a story" is an intensely controversial issue amongst LARP players and theorists.

Some LARPs, such as Theatre Style games in the US, feature primarily conflicts between player characters or groups of characters. Others, sometimes called “Adventure Style LARPs, pit players against GM-controlled obstacles or antagonists. Another distinction is often made (especially in the UK) between player-led and GM-led plots, the former being improvised by players during play while the latter are consciously written by GMs - though may be subject to the players' improvisation.

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Game format

LARPs vary in size from a handful of players to several thousands, and in duration from a couple of hours to whole weeks. Most LARPs are either single, self-consistent events or form parts of a campaign - a series of LARP sessions featuring the same setting, the same rules and many of the same characters. Campaigns often contain a storyline which is run and coordinated by members over several episodes. Other campaigns do not have continuous or comprehensive story-lines; 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.

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History

Template:Main LARP does not have a single point of origin, but was "invented" independently by several different groups in the late 1970's. What these groups had in common was experience with tabletop role-playing games, especially Dungeons & Dragons, and a desire to make the game more physical. In addition to tabletop role-playing, the early LARP groups were preceded and possibly influenced by educational and therapeutic role-playing, Historical reenactment groups and the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA).

The earliest recorded US LARP group was the live-combat Dagorhir Outdoor Improvisational Battle Games (Dagorhir), founded in 1977 in the Washington, DC area, while the first Theatre Style LARP group was the Society for Interactive Literature (SIL), founded in 1981 at Harvard University. 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.

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Research and theory

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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:

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Academic works

  • Geir-Tore Brenne Making and maintaining frames - a study of metacommunication in laiv play[1]) . Graduate degree thesis, Department of Sociology and Human Geography, University of Oslo 2005. The study focus on 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.
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External links

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LARP wikis, FAQs and introductions

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English-language LARP portals

da:Live-rollespil de:Live Action Role Playing et:LARP es:Rol en vivo fr:Jeu de rôle grandeur nature it:Gioco di ruolo dal vivo lt:LARP nl:Live Action Role Playing Game no:Laiv pl:LARP pt:Live action ru:Ролевые игры живого действия fi:Live-roolipelaaminen sv:Levande rollspel zh:臨場動態角色扮演遊戲

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