Editing Live action role-playing game (section)

==Rules==
[[Image:Latex weapons.jpg|right|thumb|100px|[[Foam weapon]]s are sometimes used for combat.]]

Many LARPs have game rules that determine how characters can affect each other and the setting.<ref>(Tychsen et al. 2005:216) "Rules in RPGs ... focus on 1) How the fictional world operates; 2) How the players interact with the fictional world and its inhabitants and; 3) How the players interact with each other and the GM."</ref><ref name="HitchensDrachen2009">{{Cite news|last1=Hitchens|first1=Michael|last2=Drachen|first2=Anders|title=The many faces of role-playing games|periodical=International Journal of Role-Playing|year=2009|issue=1|page=11|url=http://marinkacopier.nl/ijrp/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/hitchens_drachen_the_many_faces_of_rpgs.pdf|access-date=2009-09-12|quote=While player enaction is emphasised, formal rule systems are commonly used for determination of the outcome of many character actions|archive-date=2021-06-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210619201431/http://marinkacopier.nl/ijrp/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/hitchens_drachen_the_many_faces_of_rpgs.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> The rules may be defined in a publication or created by the gamemasters.<ref>(Tychsen et al. 2005:218) "In PnP RPGs and LARPs, the GMs can be responsible for creating the rules, if an existing RPG rules system is not used."</ref> Some LARP rules call for the use of simulated weapons such as [[foam weapon]]s or [[airsoft gun]]s<ref name="terrorwerksio9">{{cite web |url=http://io9.com/5019977/how-to-become-a-real-space-marine |title=How To Become a Real Space Marine |author= Ed Grabianowski |date=June 27, 2008 |publisher=io9/Gawker Media |access-date=29 July 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100604023122/http://io9.com/5019977/how-to-become-a-real-space-marine|url-status=live |archive-date=2010-06-04}}</ref> to determine whether characters succeed in hitting one another in combat situations. In Russian LARP events, weapons made of hard plastic, metal or wood are used.<ref name="KannRozkov2010">{{cite book|last=Kann|first=Taisia|author2=Rozhkov, Viacheslav|title=Larp graffiti: preistoria e presente dei giochi di ruolo dal vivo|chapter=Larp instead of communism: history and evolution of live-action role-playing in Russia|editor=A. Castellani|publisher=Larp Symposium 2010|year=2010|pages=171–182|chapter-url=http://www.larpsymposium.org/?page_id=409|access-date=2013-10-11|archive-date=2021-02-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224162122/http://www.larpsymposium.org/?page_id=409|url-status=live}}</ref> The alternative to using simulated weapons is to pause role-play and determine the outcome of an action symbolically, for example by rolling dice, playing [[rock paper scissors]] or comparing character attributes.<ref name="physym2">(Young 2003:7-8) "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."</ref>

There are also LARPs that do without rules, instead relying on players to use their common sense or feel for dramatic appropriateness to cooperatively decide what the outcome of their actions will be.<ref name="Tychsen2006LowRules">(Tychsen et al. 2006:255) "...a LARP can be very similar to improvisational theater, with only a few guidelines for rules and a very low-powered GM."</ref>