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Larp videos: what is larp?

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Recently I've been asked "what's that thing that you do" by more than one person in my friend list. And I have to admit, the description on my blog is a bit lacking. It may be because I target my writing more towards the existing larpers than towards new, potential larpers? It might be so, but Wikipedia article is also not too helpful. Larping can sometimes be difficult to describe. Here's a recent video from Stephanie from USA talking about the very same thing.


But back to the business: what is actually larp? Here's a video that I often link to people, simply because it's awesome. But it's in Czech, so you might need to open the full youtube screen to turn on the subtitles.


Fantasy larp is probably the most popular around. Kristin from USA does a very detailed introduction to such larp styles:


Soon you can also expect a web series from her, Basic Adventuring 101. Speaking about series, did you read a recent interview about another larp webseries, named LARPs: The Series? So far I'm finding the series quite enjoyable and more in line with how things look like than a lot of commercial movie attempts at depicting larp. Since the interview, episodes 3, 4 and 5 also got out - you can see them on the series website.

However, besides the fiction there were also some documentaries. We're currently awaiting on Treasure Trapped - if it fulfills its' promises it's gonna be awesome. Seriously, just check out the mini-documentary they filmed about Panopticorp, a larp about advertising agency.


Panopticorp was an art-style Nordic larp. There's a lot of stuff written about Nordic larp (if you have time, seriously, read that), and some stuff can be controversial and provoke discussions.


There's even a discussion of how it's spelled. Of course, to many the mere mention of larp makes them think about fantasy combat games. And that's OK too - they're larps too and it's a sporty, adrenaline-filled part of the scene. Here's a new documentary about a Seattle group Dargarth.


Just remember:


This may seem like a lot, but to be truthful - larping is a lot of things to many people, and everybody's in it for their own reason. Some like playing other characters, others like making or wearing costumes, some are in for the story, some to be challenged, etc. - reasons are many, as well as the combination of reasons.

Feel free to discuss larping movies, videos and everything else on the forum, check out details about the Croatian larp scene and if you feel I missed anything or have any further questions, please leave a comment below. If you're new to the scene, I hope these movies were informative and that you'll decide to join an existing larp or start something yourself. And for the veterans - this post includes some new stuff that you might find useful :)
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