Focus On: Live Roleplay

It has been a long while since I last posted and a very long time since I said I was going to write a Focus On: post about Live Roleplay. Having spent the last 2 weekends away at LRP events I am taking the chance to write a bit about what LRP is.

Live Roleplay, or Live Action Roleplay (LRP or LARP for short) take the basic premises of tabletop roleplaying games of players taking the role of a character but rather than describing the characters actions and calculating an actions success using cards or dice, the players act out actions in real time.

Greek Shield Wall at Profound Decisions Odyssey LRP

Photo © Tom Garnett used under a CC-A license

 

LRP covers a wide range of different settings from traditional high fantasy using foam weapons to decide combat, entirely non combat modern day horror events, games based in historical periods to Sci-Fi games using NERF, Lasertag or Airsoft. In the UK the first LRP was Treasure Trap formed way back in 1982, which generated substantial press coverage including this feature on Blue Peter.


  



Troops marching to battle at Empire LRP

Photo by Charlotte Moss © Profound Decisions.

Used with kind permission from Profound Decisions

There are now many different LRP groups in the UK from small local systems often based around University clubs to large festival events attracting several thousand participants. The two largest games in the UK are The Gathering run by Lorien Trust and Empire run by Profound Decisions.

There are a variety of different ways a LRP game can be organised . Linear adventures in which a group of heroes work their way through a series of encounters planning by a Games Master with the antagonists played by a team of crew are common at small to medium sized events. Social events without any combat, or an abstract combat system without weapons, is common in modern day horror such as Minds Eye Theatre (MET).

Large scale systems often have very small crew teams and primarily revolve around interactions between the player characters. Most large scale LRPs have massive battles with hundreds of participants on each side, whether these be between differening player factions or teams of enemy monsters depends on the setting.


Many games are run with limited props and costume, though there is a current trend towards high levels of production value to enable players to more easily suspend disbelief and improve the immersion within the game environment. One event that is at the forefront of this is Mythlore: New Lands which utilises the talents of professional props makers and special effects companies to produce a truly cutting edge LRP game.



Mythlore New Lands 3

SFX by LarpFX

Photo © Tom Garnett used under a CC-A License

The UK LARP Facebook page is a good point to start if you are interested in playing LRP games as well as the LARPevents listing page.