LARPING-For those who fight with honor

Move over Quill and Sword, there is a new brand of Medieval in town...

Live Action Role Play is a form of role playing game that has participants physically act out a specific character's actions. Players physically portray characters in a fictional setting, improvising their characters' speech and movements somewhat like actors in improvisational theater. (Wikipedia.com)

Here are some pictures of what I am talking about.

I heard about this on Monday from a co-worker and have not been able to stop researching it since. I have watched a plethora of you tube videos (some documentaries and some home video) of such events to familiarize myself with this pastime (see below).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3TEG9KbHSU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZ04mfAY2BU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oWAb5NVALw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtHhppoISBk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIKkd9ceBfI

So what have I learned so far? Well I know that there are many groups across the nation that are involved in this type of gaming. I also have learned that there are like 9 different groups of larpers here in Utah. These groups get together periodically and battle with each other. Some of these events last only for a few hours and others last several days (that means there is camping involved-these people do not mess around). Each person takes on a character that has different levels of specific powers. Also each character is a certain type of specie. Most of the time, people dress up according to character. Some costumes are very intricate, others are a little more homemade looking (as you can see from the pictures above). This is a group that likes to escape the "norm", but feel that there is something lost in the virtual gaming world. This is a whole underground world that I did not know anything about until now.

So this is what I propose to the Quill and Sword Club and BYU. I suggest that they look into having one of this type of event as a fundraiser. They would be very surprised by how many people would pay $5 to watch such a spectacle. I think that I might have to join the club just to get this ball rolling.