Editing Role-playing game (section)

===Live action===
{{Main|Live action role-playing game}}
[[File:Hardenstein 2014 - Adventurers.jpg|thumb|right|A fantasy LARP group]]
A LARP is played more like [[improvisational theatre]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Kilgallon |first1=John |title=Rules to Live by: A Live Action Roleplaying Conflict Resolution System |last2=Sandy Antunes |last3=Mike Young |publisher=Interactivities Ink |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-9708356-0-4 |page=1 |quote=A live action roleplaying game is a cross between a traditional 'tabletop' roleplaying game and improvisational theatre.}}</ref> Participants act out their characters' actions instead of describing them, and the real environment is used to represent the imaginary setting of the game world.<ref name="TychsenEtAl2006DefiningLARP" /> Players are often costumed as their characters and use appropriate props, and the venue may be decorated to resemble the fictional setting.<ref name="FalkDevonport2004Costume">{{Cite book |last1=Falk |first1=Jennica |title=Entertainment Computing – ICEC 2004 |last2=Davenport, Glorianna |publisher=Springer Berlin / Heidelberg |year=2004 |isbn=978-3-540-22947-6 |series=Lecture Notes in Computer Science |volume=3166 |pages=131 |chapter=Live Role-Playing Games: Implications for Pervasive Gaming |quote=The LRP player, like a stage actor, is a person who undergoes a transformation into a character. The character's costume and accessories, or kit, aids this transformation ... Physical structures may be used as game locations, and sometimes even purposely constructed to enhance the game world ... Players frequently use physical artifacts as props and tools in their role-play, primarily to back up their character roles. |author-link2=Glorianna Davenport |access-date=28 October 2008 |chapter-url=http://springerlink.com/content/up8k3p2xywdf49ag/?p=c2914626bfa243b299327f78722deb90&pi=1 |chapter-format=PDF |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130202212705/http://springerlink.com/content/up8k3p2xywdf49ag/?p=c2914626bfa243b299327f78722deb90&pi=1 |archive-date=2 February 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>(Heliö 2004) "Naturally, an off-game object does not actually transform into the object it is imagined as being in-game: for instance, if an airplane in the sky becomes a dragon in some larpers' imaginations, it does not actually turn into a dragon – and even the players do not actually think so. The group of players has a common contract stating how to behave in the situation because they willingly share the game's make-believe world. In order to sustain the agreed immersion, the 'dragon's' airplaneness' should not, in any case, be directly voiced aloud."</ref> Some live-action role-playing games use [[rock paper scissors]] or comparison of attributes to resolve conflicts symbolically, while other LARPs use physical combat with simulated arms such as [[airsoft gun]]s or [[foam weapon]]s.<ref name="Young2003Resolution">{{Cite book |title=The Book of LARP |publisher=Interactivities Ink |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-9708356-8-0 |editor-last=Young |editor-first=Mike |pages=7–8 |quote="Live combat... requires the players' abilities to perform an action. You want to hit someone with a sword? You have to actually hit the player with a prop representing a sword, usually a padded weapon. ... Simulated combat is more abstract. It uses an external method that does not rely on player ability. For example, if you want to hit the other person with a sword, you may have to make a rock-paper-scissors challenge. |author-link=Mike Young (game designer)}}</ref>

LARPs vary in size from a handful of players to several thousand, and in duration from a couple of hours to several days.<ref name="Widing2008">{{Cite book |last=Widing |first=Gabriel |title=Playground Worlds |publisher=Ropecon ry |year=2008 |isbn=978-952-92-3579-7 |editor-last=Markus |editor-first=Montola |chapter=We Lost Our World and Made New Ones: Live Role-Playing in Modern Times |quote=...the participants sustain these temporary worlds for a few hours or several days |editor-last2=Jaakko |editor-first2=Stenros}}</ref><ref>(Tychsen et al. 2006:258) "Games range in size from a handful to more than 4,000 players"</ref> Because the number of players in a LARP is usually larger than in a tabletop role-playing game, and the players may be interacting in separate physical spaces, there is typically less of an emphasis on tightly maintaining a narrative or directly entertaining the players, and game sessions are often managed in a more distributed manner.<ref>(Tychsen et al. 2005:218) "[The LARP GM is] 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 the 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."</ref>