LARPERS
(LIVE ACTION ROLE-PLAYERS
LARPers. Where do you even begin? On the one hand you think, my Lord, what bravery, what savoir faire, what pluck and mettle, what spit-in-the-face courage under the tyranny of cool, etc. If anybody’s fighting the good fight, it’s these people. But on the other hand you’ve got to say, what? What? What?!
In case you’re unclear, “LARP is something you may have heard called Interactive Literature, Freeform, LRP, Live Action Roleplaying Game, or any similar term.”1 Or, more likely, you’ve never heard it called anything at all because you’re thinking (see above), what? But it’s true. It’s real, it exists, it’s not going away, and there’s nothing you can do about it. Maybe you’re not familiar with LARPing, as it’s called—the costumes, the quasi-Shakespearean banter, the costumes, the meticulously maintained period weaponry. Imagine a How to Host a Murder dinner party, but nobody’s making you go. Or better: Imagine the hipness of Dungeons and Dragons2 mated to the wit and, um, insouciant cleverness of improv. With crushed velvet. In some cases, a great deal of crushed velvet.
You begin to see the problem. The vampires,3 the crown princes, the quests, the whole IC/OOC thing,4 the long weekends of feasting and swordplay. Of course, this can’t be taken seriously. Which might be too bad. Our culture doesn’t merely tolerate but actually encourages a number of far more nonsensical and unhealthy behaviors, including but not limited to: celebrity-watching, obsession with professional sport, shopping at IKEA and other strange and gigantic stores, the collection of porcelain owls, amateur theater, chronic drinking, and even the wearing of phones and various other electronic crap on your belt (what, do you fight crime?). So in all truth, as far as evil is concerned, LARPing is largely in the clear.
1. This from LARPA, the Live Action Roleplayers Association (www.larpa.org).
2. Speaking of D&D: What was young Tom Hanks doing between Bosom Buddies and Splash? Geeking out in 1982’s Mazes and Monsters, a made-for-TV movie that can only be described as Reefer Madness for fantasy role-playing games. It actually contains this piece of choice Tom Hanks dialogue: “I am Pardu, a holy man. In reaching the ninth level, I have acquired many magic spells and charms, the greatest of which is the Graven Eye of Timor. But I also have a sword, which I only use when my magic fails me.”
3. At a gaming convention, an event already steeped in nearly radioactive levels of ambient geekiness, it would seem difficult to stand out as noticeably nerdy. But imagine some intent-looking goth guy walking with very deliberate strides, his arms crossed in front of him dramatically as if he were lying in state. “What’s that guy doing?” “He’s obfuscating.” “What?” “He’s invisible. Nobody can see him. He’s a vampire using his ability to obfuscate.” “Huh? What?” Yes: What?
4. Participants in a LARP are said to be In Character (IC)—actively playing and assuming their role as an earnest merchant or sullen goblin teenager or whatever—or Out of Character (OOC), what others might call “being themselves.” Non-LARPing folk might profit from meditating on this distinction.
Paul Hughes, Contrib.
