What's Going On?

From www.larpa.org, the home site of the Live Action Roleplayers Association:

LARP is something you may have heard called Interactive Literature, Freeform, LRP, Live Action Roleplaying Game, or any similar term. We use the term LARP because it is the most common term in use today. We do not intend to exclude any one type of event.

Well, that just cleared everything up, didn't it?

The real basics:

LARP is a kind of roleplaying game, a distant cousin of such games as "Dungeons and Dragons" or "Call of Cthulhu". Some would say that just as these "tabletop" games evolved from their wargaming roots, LARP has continued the evolution, shedding as much abstraction as possible along the way.

But then some people are just snooty that way.

The truth is that just like any other niche hobby, there are a lot of differing viewpoints, some of them quite strongly held, as to what the common topic of interest is. But for our purposes, if it looks like a LARP and talks like a LARP, it's a LARP.

What most LARPers would agree on is that LARPing is fun. Unfortunately, LARPing can be a bit tricky to get into. Although some LARP events are held at relatively public functions, such as science fiction or gaming conventions, many of them take place on private property and can be hard to stumble across. But despite logistical concerns, LARPers are an accepting bunch, and always in need of new players. Even more so than tabletop role playing, LARPing needs a constant influx of new people to survive. Even the smallest LARP events tend to require many more people than a standard tabletop game. New faces are always welcome.

The tricky part is getting prospective new players (such as, we hope, the person reading this page) into contact with the people who are organizing LARP events. That's one of the primary goals of LARPA, which happens to be The LARPer's parent organization. LARPA maintains a calendar of events, most with email contact information.

There is a fairly active email mailing list devoted to discussion of LARP topics. Larpa-gen is open to all subscribers.

Many science fiction and gaming conventions will have a LARP or two lurking around in the shadows. Check out conventions in your area and scan through their program guide. The term "LARP" is becoming pretty universal, but also look for such key phrases as "live roleplaying", "theatre-style roleplaying", or "interactive literature". The word "murder" seems to show up quite a bit, as well.

An important thing to remember about LARPing is that it's a fairly broad activity. Two different LARP events may bear very little resemblence to each other. The point is that if you've tried LARPing before and disliked it, don't write off the whole hobby. You wouldn't give up watching all movies after just seeing Starship Troopers, would you? In particular, many people draw a distinction between "live combat" LARPs and "simulated combat" LARPs. (If you see two people beating each other up with foam weapons, you're in a live combat LARP. If you see two people rolling dice and pretending to be wounded, you're in a simulated combat LARP.) Try one, try both, see what you like.

In any case, if you're thinking about exploring the hobby, please feel welcome. If you enjoy tabletop roleplaying, theatre, improvisation, drama, costuming or just getting together with a bunch of generally nice people with similar interests, and then trying to kill them, then there's a good chance that you might enjoy LARPing.