Why Would Anyone Want to LARP?

The role playing environment began many millennia ago when the first human being pretended to become a part of whatever story they were telling over their clan fire. Eventually this would become acting. Role playing at its heart is no different save for the inclusion of rules and normally some form of dice. In the 1970's this was taken a step further by groups that learned of and began participating in the game dungeons and dragons. Eventually this craze even dragged in Tom Hanks to play a lead role in the LARP themed movie "Mazes and Monsters" wherein he slowly went insane and believed he was his character. Strangely enough this movie convinced a lot of other people to try LARPing as opposed to seeing it as a warning about becoming too attached to your fictional personas.

Why LARP?

There are many reasons why someone would want to start a LARP group. Role playing has been around since the beginning of human history with children pretending to be their heroes or the villains of any cultural setting. It is by mimicking others and their actions that our children grow. Some people leave it at that and others do not.

Those who do not will take up the call to become actors, re-enactors, or gaming style role players. There is little difference between the three. The first has a script they perform and must adhere to. The second will sometimes be scripted but normally they do not. This is true even of important historical battles where in some instances of long term re-enactment the other side of the conflict might win in total as a comparison with true history. For instance, the south defeats the north in an American Civil War reenactment. Role players have extensive game rules and world settings plus heavily defined characters. Beyond these points though they are free to craft any story they want and it is also largely left up to fate via the dice role.

Those who choose to LARP, live action role play, take this a step further and act out their gaming scenes. Some will play a table top game and then act out individual scenes from it. Others will do away with the table top altogether and go wild within the limits of their setting while mixing the best of the role playing system with their own creativity and imagination.

The primary reason why people will LARP is that they want to fully immerse themselves within their character. In many ways it is no different than a child wrapping a towel around their neck and proclaiming in a loud chipmunk voice, "I am Superman!" or "Kneel before ZOD!" The costumes are more detailed and the game is more sophisticated but at heart people are still living out the lives of their favorite characters in a real and dramatic way.

Knives and Swords