Editing Live action role-playing game (section)

==History==
{{main|History of live action role-playing games}}

LARP does not have a single point of origin, but was invented independently by groups in North America, Europe, and Australia.<ref name="Tychsen2006Origin">(Tychsen et al. 2006:256) "LARPs ... appear to have developed based on inspiration from tabletop RPGs such as Dungeons & Dragons, more or less simultaneously in North America, Europe, and Australia in the early 80s. Players from all of these continents claim to have hosted the oldest LARP, however, it appears that LARPs developed independently and with marked cultural differences."</ref> These groups shared an experience with genre fiction or tabletop role-playing games, and a desire to physically experience such settings. In addition to tabletop role-playing, LARP is rooted in childhood games of [[make believe]], play fighting, [[costume party|costume parties]], [[roleplay simulation]]s, [[Commedia dell'arte]], improvisational theatre, [[psychodrama]], [[military simulation]]s, and [[historical reenactment]] groups such as the [[Society for Creative Anachronism]].<ref name="Morton2007">{{cite book| last = Morton| first = Brian| title = Lifelike| chapter = Larps and their Cousins through the Ages| editor = Donnis, Gade & Thorup| publisher = Knudepunkt 2007| year = 2007| chapter-url = http://www.liveforum.dk/kp07book/lifelike_web.pdf| access-date = 2008-05-21| url-status = dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090205073521/http://www.liveforum.dk/kp07book/lifelike_web.pdf| archive-date = 2009-02-05}}</ref>

[[File:Dagorhir-2007-03.jpg|thumb|right|Two [[Dagorhir]] fighters use [[foam weapon]]s to duel.]]

The earliest recorded LARP group is ''[[Dagorhir]]'', which was founded in 1977 in the United States and focuses on [[fantasy]] battles.<ref name="dagorhirhistory">{{cite web|last=Dagorhir |title=The Origins of Dagorhir |work=Dagorhir website |url=http://www.dagorhir.com/dagorhir/history.htm |access-date=2007-07-28 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070629193916/http://www.dagorhir.com/dagorhir/history.htm |archive-date=2007-06-29 }}</ref> Soon after the release of the movie ''[[Logan's Run (1976 film)|Logan's Run]]'' in 1976, rudimentary live role-playing games based on the movie were run at US science fiction conventions.<ref name="history2">{{cite web| last = Muir| first = John Kenneth| author-link = John Kenneth Muir| title = Logan's Run: The Series| work = John Kenneth Muir website| url = http://www.johnkennethmuir.com/JohnKennethMuirsRetroTVFile_LogansRun.html| access-date = 2007-10-19| archive-date = 2021-04-12| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210412031632/http://www.johnkennethmuir.com/JohnKennethMuirsRetroTVFile_LogansRun.html| url-status = live}}</ref> In 1981, the ''International Fantasy Gaming Society'' (IFGS) started, with rules influenced by ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]''.<ref name="Lancaster1999">{{cite book|last=Lancaster|first=Kurt|title=Warlocks and Warpdrive: Contemporary Fantasy Entertainments With Interactive and Virtual Environments|page=34|publisher=McFarland|year=1999|quote=As a likely result of the popularity of ''Dungeons and Dragons'', in 1981 the International Fantasy Gaming Society (IFGS) was formed, and it published a set of rules for an outdoor, fantasy role-playing game similar to the medieval-fantasy environment of D&D.}}</ref> IFGS was named after a fictional group in the 1981 novel ''[[Dream Park]]'', which described futuristic LARPs.<ref name="ifgshistory">{{cite web| last = IFGS| title = History of the IFGS| work = IFGS website| url = http://www.ifgs.org/history.asp| access-date = 2007-07-29| archive-date = 2021-06-26| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210626053706/http://www.ifgs.org/history.asp| url-status = live}}</ref> In 1982, the ''Society for Interactive Literature'', a predecessor of the ''Live Action Roleplayers Association'' (LARPA), formed as the first recorded [[Theatre-style live action role-playing|theatre-style]] LARP group in the US.<ref name="OlmsteadDean1998">{{cite web|last=Olmstead-Dean |first=Gordon |title=Theatre Style Live Roleplaying Events |work=LARP Writing.org |year=1998 |url=http://www.larpwriting.org/essays/article_ts/ts8.shtml |quote=In 1982, Walt Frietag and some friends at Harvard University "invented" what they called "interactive literature."... Frietag called his group the "Harvard Society for Interactive Literature", which was shortened to "Society for Interactive Literature" the next year. |access-date=2008-05-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080607121135/http://www.larpwriting.org/essays/article_ts/ts8.shtml |archive-date=2008-06-07 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

''[[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.<ref>{{cite web|url = https://www.levelup.pub/treasure-trap-and-larp|title = Treasure Trap and LARP|author = Conor Kostick|website = Level Up|access-date = July 15, 2022|archive-date = April 19, 2022|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220419193808/https://www.levelup.pub/treasure-trap-and-larp|url-status = live}}</ref><ref name=Livingstone1>{{cite book|title=Dicing with Dragons|author=Ian Livingstone|pages=194&ndash;196|publisher=Routledge|year=1982|isbn=9780710094667|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UMY9AAAAIAAJ|access-date=2017-12-31|archive-date=2024-05-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240510183426/https://books.google.com/books?id=UMY9AAAAIAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref> The first recorded LARP in Australia was run in 1983, using the science fiction ''[[Traveller (role-playing game)|Traveller]]'' setting.<ref name="history5">{{cite journal| first1 = Nicholas| last1 = Cowell| title = Free Form Role-Playing| journal = Arcanacon I - 83 Handbook| volume = 1| page = 10| url = http://www.arcanacon.org/1983/page10.html| quote = ...in the pioneering freeform tournament at Canberra Games Convention '83 participating players were members of the crew of the ship 'Sarten Valador'... rather than sitting around a table... the players move about the game environment...| access-date = 2007-10-21| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070904033919/http://arcanacon.org/1983/page10.html| archive-date = 2007-09-04| url-status = dead}}</ref> In 1993, [[White Wolf Publishing]] released ''[[Mind's Eye Theatre]],'' which is played internationally and is the most commercially successful published LARP.<ref name="Appelcline2007MET"/> The first German events were in the early 1990s, with fantasy LARP in particular growing quickly there, so that since 2001, two major German events have been run annually that have between 3000 and 7000 players each and attract players from around Europe.<ref name="Balzer2008">{{cite book | last = Balzer | first = Myriel | title = Live Action Role Playing. Die Entwicklung realer Kompetenzen in virtuellen Welten | publisher = Tectum Verlag | year = 2008 | language = de | isbn = 978-3-8288-9816-5 | quote = Die erste offizielle LARP-Veranstaltung in Deutschland, fand hochstwahrscheinlich 1994 unter dem Namen Dracon statt. Seit dem ist ein stetiger Anstieg der LARP-Veranstalungen in Deutschland zu verzeichnen...Auch hierbei sind die LARP-veranstaltungen, welche im Genre des Fantasy angesiedelt sind, mit etwa 90% am weitaus stärksten vertreten ... Seit dem Jahr 2001 gibt es des Weiteren zwei Veranstalter, welche etwa einmal im Jahr so genannte Groß-Cons veranstalten, bei denen keine Maximalbegrenzung der Teilnehmerzahl besteht und in der Regel zwischen drei- bis siebentausend Live-Rollenspieler teilnehmen und auch Teilnehmer aus dem europäischen Ausland anzutreffen sind. (The first official LARP event in Germany most likely took place in 1994 under the name Dracon. Since then a steady rise in LARPs offered in Germany is recorded ... Also LARP events based in the fantasy genre are by far the largest here with about 90% representation ... Since the year 2001 there are two organisers who hold about once a year the so-called "big Cons" where there are no maximum limits to the number of participants and in which there are usually between three and seven thousand live action role-players including people from around Europe.)}}</ref><ref name="Jahnke2009">{{Citation | last = Jahnke | first = Alex | contribution = Gelebte Träume - eine (Vor-)Geschichte des LARPs | editor-last = Dombrowski | editor-first = Karsten | title= LARP: Hinter den Kulissen. Aufsatzsammlung zum MittelPunkt 2009  | publisher = Zauberfeder | place = Braunschweig | year = 2009 |quote = 1991 fand mit dem Draccon I der erste deutsche LARP-Con statt, womit unsere Zeitreise ein Ende hat. (In 1991 Draccon I, the first german LARP convention took place, which ends our journey through time.)}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url = http://www.feuersturm.net/larp/drakon_1.htm|title = Drakon I (August 1992)|access-date = April 25, 2014|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160117120027/http://www.feuersturm.net/larp/drakon_1.htm|archive-date = January 17, 2016|url-status = dead}}</ref>

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.<ref name="Tychsen2006Spread">(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."</ref> In 2023, ''[[Dicebreaker]]'' reported that "China has developed its own LARP phenomenon in recent years. [[#Jubensha|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".<ref name=":4" />