Did You Know...? LARPing

To continue our new segment about the amazing interests of our colleagues, Richard Lumb (Senior Library Assistant at the Walton Library) has written a piece for us:

20 odd years ago my dad invited me along to an event he was running the first aid for. I was a teenager at the time and very much with the ‘in’ crowd on the Dungeons and Dragon Scene in the North East. He said to me: ‘Hey son how would you like to do your games in person?’ 

So started a hobby that has shaped much of my life since.  

A company named Curious Pastimes ran the game in question. They run four events a year dotted around the country at various private campsites. The events they run are live role-play known by most as LARP (the A sometimes stands for action). This involves dressing up as various fantasy tropes elves, wizards dwarves etc. and playing out the role you have decided to play.  

Often (usually) this ends in a great big battle with hundreds of people on each side. Half the players at the event will stop playing their character for a few hours to dress as the enemy, be they goblins, human nations or anything really for the other half to fight (and vice versa the next day).  

The events themselves have a festival feel with real world traders, bars and performers on site and the players divided into nations with cities of tents erected. This all adds to the immersion of the game and makes it feel like a gathering of the fantasy forces you read about in the books.  

As I said above this has affected my life in a big way. There is a huge community of people involved in the hobby and I have met and made friends with some extraordinary people over the years. I met my wife at these events around ten years ago and it has been something we have enjoyed together since then.  

The main draw for me is that it is a form of self-expression. I create a character, I design their look and mannerisms, I insert them into the world and then see where this concept will take me. This, alongside my life long friends, means I get to play a hobby in the most childlike way possible.  

There are other games in other genres and styles of play that can be explored. From the fest style LARPs that span large spaces with mighty battles, to parlour LARPs which can take place in a single room and may represent more of a free form murder mystery.  All of these games let us live outside of the every day life and truly explore the concept that a change is as good as a rest.