The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games - Michael J. Tresca [117]
NINE
LIVE ACTION ROLE-PLAYING GAMES
Introduction
Live action role-playing games (LARPs) are games in which players are physically present, acting out their roles without exclusively sitting at a table. The Turku School defines LARPs as “a game where you try to do everything as concretely as possible, and do your best to avoid any means that are not part of the game world” (Pohjola 2003).
Unlike traditional tabletop role-playing games, LARPs have few universal elements to them. There are usually referees and player characters who work together to form an interactive story, but the similarities end there. LARPs focus more on storytelling than simulation. To help create agency, players sometimes dress as their characters or use physical props (Harrigan and Wardrip-Fruin 2007:2). Some games also take a considerable amount of time. The effort put into producing and participating in a LARP makes it one of the most time intensive of any form of fantasy gaming (Faidutti 2007:95).
Live action role-playing also encompasses a variety of other formats that blur the line between improv acting and gaming. Renaissance Fairs have their own rules for participants. These rules are not necessarily gaming rules, but the actors depicting nonplayer characters have a certain code of conduct for staying within character. Games like True Dungeon translate the tabletop dungeoncrawl experience into live action without requiring the player to become fully immersed in the role. There are also crossover events like “bashes” or “cons” where MMORPG gamers come dressed as their characters (Taylor 2006:2).
History
LARPs have always been with us. Any childhood game involving imagination and a role could be classified as the first live action role-playing game. From shamans acting out mythological tales to children performing a school play, the foundation of the LARP has always been part of the human experience. The Commedia dell’Arte tradition of the 16th century is a particularly notable early form of live action role-playing games.
In 1905, G.K. Chesterton published The Club of Queer Trades, which includes a story describing an organization that stages LARPs for its customers, laying the framework for the gaming medium we know today. In the 1920s, Model League of Nations formed LARPs as a recreational pastime. Also during this time, Jacob L. Moreno used the LARP format for psychotherapeutic purposes, calling it psychodrama. Modern improvisation began in the 1950s with the theater games of Viola Spolin and Keith Johnstone. Spolin used these games to train actors rather than as purely entertainment.
Fantasy live action role-playing took off in 1966 with the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA), as a result of a party hosted by Diana Paxson in Berkeley, California. In addition to popular fantasy author Poul Anderson (author of Three Hearts and Three Lions, the inspiration for paladins and trolls in Dungeons & Dragons), Steve Perrin and Steve Henderson went on to create Runequest from Chaosium, Inc. (Raymond 1994). Richard Garriot began Ultima IV with a visit to a “RenFair” (Barton 2008:21). All were members of the SCA.
The SCA was soon followed by the Markland Medieval Mercenary Militia in 1969. Both the SCA and Markland were less concerned about fantasy than with the accurate representation of medieval culture and history. It was only after the publication of Dungeons & Dragons that LARPs came into their own.
Dagohir Outdoor Improvisational Battle Games was founded by Bryan Weise in 1977, and in 1980 the Assassin’s Guild was created at the Massachusetts Institute