Live action role-playing game - LARP

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A live action role-playing game (LARP) is a form of role-playing game where the participants physically act out their characters' actions. The players pursue goals within a fictional setting represented by the real world 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.

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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.^[1] It is sometimes written in lowercase, as larp.^[2] The live action in LARP is analogous to the term live action used in film and video to differentiate works with human actors from animation. Playing a LARP is often calledlarping, and one who does it is a larper.

History

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LARP does not have a single point of origin, but was invented independently by groups in North America, Europe, and Australia.^[20] These groups shared an experience with genre fiction or tabletop role-playing games, and a desire to physically experience such settings. In addition to tabletop role-playing, LARP is rooted in childhood games of make believe, play fighting, costume parties, roleplay simulations, Commedia dell'arte, improvisational theatre, psychodrama, military simulations, and historical reenactment groups such as the Society for Creative Anachronism.

The earliest recorded LARP group is Dagorhir, which was founded in 1977 in the USA 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, theInternational 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 releasedMind's Eye Theatre, which is still played internationally and is probably the most commercially successful published LARP.^[30] The first German events were in about 1994, 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]

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.^[32]