Note: If you get 10 LARP players to tell you what a LARP is, you'll likely end up with 12 different answers! I have my own prejudices on the subject, but I'll try to be fair to everyone in my descriptions.

LARP stands for Live Action Role - Playing game. Odds are, you yourself have played at least one game of 'cops and robbers' growing up, LARPs are like that, except there a few more rules to avoid the 'I shot you first!' problem and the plots of most LARPs are significantly more complicated in plot.

There are several styles of LARP currently being played all over the world, but they tend to fall into two categories which are mostly separated by how they deal with combat between characters.

• Live Combat - In this style, used mostly for fantasy/medival settings, players resolve combat by physically attacking each other with simulated weapons or squirt guns (depending on the setting)
• Theatre style - On the other end of the action scale, Theatre style relies on some sort of abstract method of resolving combat (dice, cards or other). The most popular form of theatre style game currently is Mind's Eye Theatre's Vampire game.

Both styles tend emphasize costuming and player interaction. Both styles also tend require long playing times (often weekends at a time or weekly/monthy sessions.

If you find yourself curious about LARPs other than PlotLuck, one of the better resources is the Interactive Literature Foundation. You should be able to find almost anything you'd be interested in from there.

Interactive Literature Foundation

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PlotLuck is Copyright 1989 by Anne C. Moore