Live action role-playing game

 ( Combat Sports ) 

Arrangers called gamemasters ( GMs) determine the rules and setting of a LARP, and may also influence an event and act as referees while it is taking place.(Tychsen et al. 2005:216) "In order to play, the players must have a fictional setting... In essence, the GM creates the magical circle around the game."(Montola, Stenros & Waern 2009) "Runtime game mastering is the process of influencing the flow of a game in real time."(Tychsen et al. 2005:218) "The GM may or may not be responsible for enforcing the rules between players... The GM can also be responsible of hunting down cheaters or other rule breakers." The GMs may also do the logistical work, or there may be other arrangers who handle details such as advertising the event, booking a venue, and financial management. Unlike the GM in a tabletop role-playing game, a LARP GM seldom has an overview of everything that is happening during play because numerous participants may be interacting at once. For this reason, a LARP GM's role is often less concerned with tightly maintaining a narrative or directly entertaining the players, and more with arranging the structure of the LARP before play begins and facilitating the players and crew to maintain the fictional environment during play.(Tychsen et al. 2005:218) "The forced to let go of the game and let it take on a life of its own outside his or her control. While based on similar principles, the requirements are therefore very different in practice from GMs in PnP RPGs... The GM is generally, unless the LARP is small in terms of number of participants, not responsible for keeping the narrative flow. The GM can however oversee the progress of the game and help or influence where needed... Establishing a hierarchy of GMs and NPCs to monitor the game and ensure everyone is entertained and activated within the shared game space is a typical way of controlling large fantasy LARPS. This structure is usually established before the game commences."

Participants sometimes known as the crew may help the GMs to set up and maintain the environment of the LARP during play by acting as or playing non-player characters ( NPCs) who fill out the setting.(Bestul 2006:26) "Finally, a person may also participate as a type of stagehand. Though not all games will require them, it is occasionally necessary to have a support staff to help coordinate events and NPCs as a stage manager or running crew might."(Tychsen et al. 2005:216) "The environment needs to be filled out with non-player controlled characters (NPCs) Crew typically receive more information about the setting and more direction from the GMs than players do. In a tabletop role-playing game, a GM usually plays all the NPCs, whereas in a LARP, each NPC is typically played by a separate crew member.(Tresca 2010:188) "Where LARPs differ most from tabletop games is in the handling of non-player characters (NPCs). The physical performance necessary to pull off a performance in a LARP makes it impractical for a single person to handle many NPC roles. As a result, there is often a cast of characters who take on the roles of other NPCs. Unlike the players, the NPCs usually know the game's plot and have some idea of the narrative. NPCs, then, are a form of pseudo-player. They play the game, their characters have somewhat more limited goals, but they are ultimately constrained by the plot."

Much of play consists of interactions between characters. Some LARP scenarios primarily feature interaction between PCs. Other scenarios focus on interaction between PCs and aspects of the setting, including NPCs, that are under the direction of the GMs.(Young 2003:11) "The focus of interaction of larp... can be player to player or player to environment."(Tychsen et al. 2005:216) "LARP scenarios can likewise vary from detailed scripts of each participating character, to a loose association of GM-controlled NPCs in a fictional world setting."

The earliest recorded LARP group is Dagorhir, which was founded in 1977 in the United States and focuses on fantasy battles. Soon after the release of the movie Logan's Run in 1976, rudimentary live role-playing games based on the movie were run at US science fiction conventions. In 1981, the International Fantasy Gaming Society (IFGS) started, with rules influenced by Dungeons & Dragons. IFGS was named after a fictional group in the 1981 novel Dream Park, which described futuristic LARPs. In 1982, the Society for Interactive Literature, a predecessor of the Live Action Roleplayers Association (LARPA), formed as the first recorded theatre-style LARP group in the US.

Treasure Trap, formed in 1982 at Peckforton Castle, was the first recorded LARP game in the UK and influenced the fantasy LARPs that followed there.

Today, LARP is a widespread activity internationally. Games with thousands of participants are run by for-profit companies, and a small industry exists to sell costume, armour and foam weapons intended primarily for LARP.(Tychsen et al. 2006:258) "Today, LARPing is a widespread hobby, especially within the United States and Europe, and caters to at least 100,000 players worldwide ... Professional, full-time LARP sites also exist ... a small industry has grown-up supplying latex weapons, costumes, theater props, and special effects, and numerous special effects and make-up artists work in the LARP environment for training purposes." In 2023, Dicebreaker reported that "China has developed its own LARP phenomenon in recent years. Jubensha is far more commercially successful and influential than anything we have seen before even in Nordic countries – and there is a good chance it might change our perception of what live-action roleplaying games are capable of in the future".

Some LARPs stress artistic considerations such as dramatic interaction or challenging subject matter. Avant-garde or arthaus events have especially experimental approaches and high culture aspirations and are occasionally held in fine art contexts such as festivals or art museums. The themes of avant-garde events often include politics, culture, religion, sexuality and the human condition. Such LARPs are common in the Nordic countries but also present elsewhere.(Fatland 2005:5)

In addition to entertainment and artistic merit, LARP events may be designed for educational or political purposes. For example, the Danish secondary school uses LARP to teach most of its classes.

There is a distinction between when a player is in character, meaning they are actively representing their character, and when the player is out-of-character, meaning they are being themselves. Some LARPs encourage players to stay consistently in character except in emergencies, while others accept players being out-of-character at times.(Waern, Montola & Stenros 2009:1550) "In the players stay in character continuously (unlike American larp as reported by Lancaster)" In a LARP, it is usually assumed that players are speaking and acting in character unless otherwise noted, which is the opposite of normal practice in tabletop role-playing games.(Tresca 2010:190) "Generally speaking, players in a larp are usually expected to be in character first and then signal their desire to speak or act out-of-character second, the reverse of a tabletop game."

While most LARPs maintain a clear distinction between the real world and the fictional setting, pervasive LARPs mingle fiction with modern reality in a fashion similar to alternate reality games. Bystanders who are unaware that a game is taking place may be treated as part of the fictional setting, and in-character materials may be incorporated into the real world.