Leaving Mundania
Leaving Mundania

Author: Lizzie Stark

Publisher: Chicago Review Press

Published: 2012-05-01

Total Pages: 274

ISBN-13: 1613740670

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Exposing a subculture only beginning to enter the imagination of mainstream America, this is the story of live action role-playing (LARP) games. A hybrid of games—such as Dungeons & Dragons, historical reenactment, fandom, and good old-fashioned pretend—LARP games are thriving and this book explores its multifaceted culture and related phenomenon, including the Society for Creative Anachronism, a medieval reenactment group that boasts more than 32,000 members. The history of LARP is detailed and is shown to have arisen from the pageantry of Tudor England and is currently being used as a training tool for the U.S. military. Along the way, the author duels foes with foam-padded weapons, lets the great elder god Cthulhu destroy her parents' beach house, and endures an existential awakening in the high-art LARP scene of Scandinavia.

On a LARP
On a LARP

Author: Stefani Deoul

Publisher: Bywater Books

Published: 2017-03-20

Total Pages: 158

ISBN-13: 161294096X

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Question: Do any of you know the truly scary part about being seventeen? Answer: Your brain doesn't actually know, understand or care what it can't do; and, while this sounds great in theory, in my particular case, my under-developed brain apparently didn't know I couldn't fly. So I jumped . . . And I plummeted . . . And I promise you, if I somehow manage to survive this act of immature-brain-encased-in-unbelievable-stupidity, I will gladly tell you exactly how I got here. Which, for the record, is chasing a dark-web killer through the middle of a live action role-playing game, better known as a LARP. On a LARP introduces readers to teen coder, Sid Rubin, a smartass—and super-smart—high school kid with a strong conscience and a knack for solving problems. This high concept, frenetic ride dives into the fascinating world of interactive role-playing when Sid recognizes the photo of a murder victim during an AP field trip to a police station. What starts out as an Aha! moment soon finds Sid and her unlikely posse of friends chasing a dark web killer through the middle of a live action role playing game. Sid and the gang work to unravel a deeply encrypted mystery while simultaneously enduring pop quizzes, endless Ted Talks, teenage heartbreak, suspicious parents, cosplay, and the irresistible lure of the NYC Public Library. Stefani Deoul is the author of the award-winning novel The Carousel. She has produced TV series such as The Dead Zone, Brave New Girl, and Haven, and was also the executive in charge of production for the series Dresden Files and Missing.

The Arts of LARP
The Arts of LARP

Author: David Simkins

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2014-12-24

Total Pages: 327

ISBN-13: 1476617309

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This ethnography of a live-action role play (LARP) community examines the structure of play, how new participants are introduced and apprenticed into the culture, player expectations and motivations, and games as they are designed and as they are performed. The main focus is on LARP's affordance for learning across a variety of disciplines and interests. The book is intended for LARP participants, academics interested in play or in collaborative development, those interested in new uses of familiar learning environments, and game developers with an interest in creating games with highly interactive narratives and co-creative play experiences in which the role of designer and player is blurred.

Of Dice and Men
Of Dice and Men

Author: David M. Ewalt

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2013-08-20

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 1451640501

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A definitive look at Dungeons & Dragons traces its origins on the battlefields of ancient Europe through the hysteria that linked it to satanic rituals and teen suicides and to its apotheosis as father of the modern video game industry.

The Modern Nerd's Guide to LARPing
The Modern Nerd's Guide to LARPing

Author: Mike Sciandra

Publisher: Gareth Stevens Publishing LLLP

Published: 2017-12-15

Total Pages: 34

ISBN-13: 1538212110

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LARPing, or live-action role playing, is one of the hottest hobbies today. Its devoted participants develop detailed characters, inventing names and personalities, as well as costumes and props. The improvisational nature and opportunity for creativity at LARP events makes for a new experience every time. Readers will dive headfirst into this fascinating pastime, guided by experienced LARPer and writer Michael Sciandra through the ins and outs of participation. Age-appropriate engaging text and full-color photography from actual LARPers brings readers into this whole new exciting world.

Media, Power and Empowerment
Media, Power and Empowerment

Author: Tereza Pavlíčková

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2014-10-16

Total Pages: 495

ISBN-13: 1443869449

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This collection brings together 71 papers by 83 authors from 20 countries presented at the 5th Central and Eastern European Communication and Media Conference, titled “Media, Power and Empowerment”, in Prague, Czech Republic, in April 2012. It maps out trends in CEE media research across the entire region and provides insight into the broad span of relevant topics. The contributors to the volume successfully voice the multiple, yet specific, questions relevant to the CEE countries; the papers offer original research results to the reader, and invite them to participate in further debate on CEE media and communications research. To date, there have not been many publications dedicated to outlining the media and communications research interests across the region. This collection shows that the countries of the region indeed have a lot in common – historically, politically, and socially – while also discussing the differences among them, including the multiple political particularities within the unifying label “the East”, and variations in the transformation process and the consequences for concerned societies and their media scenes, as well as the individual lived experiences of the people of the CEE countries.

Shuffling the Deck: The Knutpunkt 2018 Color Printed Companion
Shuffling the Deck: The Knutpunkt 2018 Color Printed Companion

Author: Johannes Axner

Publisher: Lulu.com

Published: 2018-01-30

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 1387535005

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The printed companion for Knutpunkt 2018, the yearly conference on Nordic larp that takes place in Sweden this year. It includes twenty selected essays on the theory and practice of larp design; including designer and organiser experiences, practical tips and tricks for designers as well as players, theoretical contributions, and debate articles.

Shuffling the Deck: The Knutpunkt 2018 Printed Companion
Shuffling the Deck: The Knutpunkt 2018 Printed Companion

Author: Johannes Axner

Publisher: Lulu.com

Published: 2018-01-30

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 1387535021

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The printed companion for Knutpunkt 2018, the yearly conference on Nordic larp that takes place in Sweden this year. It includes twenty selected essays on the theory and practice of larp design; including designer and organiser experiences, practical tips and tricks for designers as well as players, theoretical contributions, and debate articles.

Role-play as a Heritage Practice
Role-play as a Heritage Practice

Author: Michal Mochocki

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-03-29

Total Pages: 265

ISBN-13: 1000367657

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Role-play as a Heritage Practice is the first book to examine physically performed role-enactments, such as live-action role-play (LARP), tabletop role-playing games (TRPG), and hobbyist historical reenactment (RH), from a combined game studies and heritage studies perspective. Demonstrating that non-digital role-plays, such as TRPG and LARP, share many features with RH, the book contends that all three may be considered as heritage practices. Studying these role-plays as three distinct genres of playful, participatory and performative forms of engagement with cultural heritage, Mochocki demonstrates how an exploration of the affordances of each genre can be valuable. Showing that a player’s engagement with history or heritage material is always multi-layered, the book clarifies that the layers may be conceptualised simultaneously as types of heritage authenticity and as types of in-game immersion. It is also made clear that RH, TRPG and LARP share commonalities with a multitude of other media, including video games, historical fiction and film. Existing within, and contributing to, the fiction and non-fiction mediasphere, these role-enactments are shaped by the same large-scale narratives and discourses that persons, families, communities, and nations use to build memory and identity. Role-play as a Heritage Practice will be of great interest to academics and students engaged in the study of heritage, memory, nostalgia, role-playing, historical games, performance, fans and transmedia narratology.