Escape the world with LARPing

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LARPing, or Live Action Role Playing, is more commonly explained to be similar to the board game Dungeons and Dragons, but playing it live with costumes instead of playing it on the board.

LARPing is an interactive social game where players dress up for the part they are playing with costumes and makeup, follow the rules, act out the characters and play a game of survival with wars and quests. Anyone who is fascinated by crafts, costumes, stories, theatre, history or fantasy fiction will be able to relate to this activity.

“I went to a convention in Toronto, and I saw a booth where a bunch of people were holding fake weapons, and I thought, ‘That looks cool’,” said an anonymous LARPer from Underworld LARP. “I was 18-years-old, when I borrowed my parent’s car and went to a game by myself. It was terrifying at first, but I played once, and I was hooked. I have only missed two events since then in the last three years.”

LARPing is not a known activity in London, but the community that exists is friendly, welcoming and non-judgemental. There is a place for everyone in this community because it is a world of fantasy and fiction.

“I am a transgender individual, and with the stigma around it starts getting to me, LARPing really helps because here, I am nobody but the character that I play and everyone sees me as nothing but that. I play a character that is a cat person, and

I have a power to heal,” said another anonymous LARPer from the Alberta chapter at Underworld LARP. “LARPing is very personal to me. In fact, there was a game designed on my story once, which was so overwhelming. That’s the best part, every character has their own story when you are LARPing, and so everyone feels they are important and special.”

LARPing events are generally conducted over weekends where players go to a site and play for the whole weekend while camping and staying in tents. They live, eat and sleep while in character, which does not really allow you to think of much else.

The players generally perform improvisational comedy; however, there is no audience who is expecting something and you do it only for yourself which gets rid of the stage fright for the players.

“The name of my character is YaYa in the game which is such a pretty name. I play an oak person and I am basically a doctor. It might sound ridiculous if you haven’t played the game before, but when we are playing, we are so much in character, that in one of the games, I was supposed to treat an injured character who was about to die, and I performed a surgery on the character for an hour at the end of which she did not make it. And we don’t finish that onehour surgery in five minutes like they do in movies. I did work on her for an hour trying to save her, and then I had to roleplay where I had to come out and deliver the news to everyone that she did not make it. And when you do a role-play like that, it is just impossible to describe the whole feel. You just have to be there and experience that,” said another anonymous LARPer from Underworld LARP.

LARPing to most people is a way to escape. When life happens, LARPing is like a place where you can run away and be someone else, someone that is more powerful than their real self and this helps in facing the reality bravely when necessary.

“Sometimes fantasy feels so much better than the reality. And when you’re LARPing, you can fulfill all your fantasies; you can have magic, you can be a prince or a princess, or even choose to be invisible. And if you like more reality, you can also be a human with a special skill that you always wished you had. Basically you can be and do anything that you might or cannot in reality.” said Ivanna Ivasykiw, a LARPer and a staff person at Underworld LARP group.