Live action gaming

A live action game (LAG) is a form of game where the participants physically act out some or all of their characters' actions. Unlike LARPs, which were inspired by role-playing games and genre fiction, live action gaming traces it's root to recreation groups and computer games.

Terminology

There is disagreement as to whether LAG constitutes a sub-genre of LARP, or it's own separate activity. Live action gaming did not gain in popularity until the 1990s, and is primarily limited to North America, supporting the argument that it could be treated as a sub-genre.

Play overview

Players physically act out behavior (as fictional characters, or as themselves) in a real or fictional setting.

Play takes place within a defined physical space. This may be a public area or a private building or section that has been borrowed or hired for the purpose. Play usually starts and ends at pre-defined times, and may occur over hours or days.

Beyond these basic common features, LARPs vary greatly. In particular there is a broad spectrum of settings that play takes place in, methods of physically representing the characters and the settings, game rules, and types of activity that characters are involved in.

Production

Players may dress as their character and carry appropriate equipment, or costume and gear may be portrayed by physical symbols or entirely imagined. The environment in which play takes place may be dressed to resemble the imaginary setting, and special effects may be used to represent unusual occurrences in the setting.

In character versus out of character

There is a distinction between when a player is actively representing their character (called "in character", "IC", "in game" or "in play") and when the player is being themselves (called "out of character", "OOC", "off role", "out of game", "off game" or "offplay"). Some LARPs encourage players to stay consistently IC except in emergencies, while others accept players being OOC sometimes and use devices such as off-game areas, armbands, or gestures to signify when players are currently OOC. Information learned while OOC is usually considered distinct from information learned when IC, and characters making use of OOC information is a form of metagaming.

imulation and representation

A key tenet of live action gaming is that "What You See Is What You Get" (WYSIWYG). In other words, game rules and randomizers are not used as stand-ins for components of the imaginary environment. If a novice player cannot immediately understand a rules convention, that rules convention is not used.

Game rules

Live action game rules mirror those of "live action battle games" such as Dagorhir and the SCA. Referees are not used and players are relied upon to be honest in their application of the rules. A special effort is made to convey and adhere to the Spirit of the Game.

Player characters and non-player characters

Live action games generally distinguish between players and staff (also known as NPCs). The staff exist primarily to provide opponents and resources for the players, just as a monster or NPC in a computer game would full one of these roles.

However, this distinction is often blurred through the use of "Special Player Characters" (SPCs) that share some qualities of both players and staff. Moreover, the distinction between players and staff is not always known to all the players in the game. A character in the game world may appear to be played by a fellow player, even though he is actually an SPC or NPC.

ee also

;Related activities
*Alternate reality game
*Assassin (game)
*Historical reenactment

Notes

External links

* [http://www.liveactiongaming.org] - Live Action Gaming (a U.S. non-profit organization)