Talk:History of live action role-playing games

I'm finishing a draft on a history of larp OR paper that may be coming out next year. I'll fix a lot of little errors here, in a few weeks. Bmorton3 18:38, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

General
I think the page focuses too much on anglo-american play development. I dont think that one can assume that "Larp" is the same in the different countries. I speak from my knowledge of the Russian and Nordic tradition. Geirtbr 18:26, 10 April 2007 (UTC)

Marie Antoinette created an elaborate faux village for the specific purpose of LARPing with her attendants. It is still standing at Versaille today, and has recently been restored, with live animals and a small boat, just like the ones Marie Antoinette used when she was role-playing the part of a poor village girl. There should probably be a mention of this in the History section, since it is earlier than any of the currently cited cases. It might also be a good idea to include a mention of the "frolics" of the Victorian era.

Still earlier, in Elizabethan England, the aristocrats' playing shepherds and shepherdesses.Svato (talk) 22:36, 9 December 2012 (UTC)

In 20th century in US and in Europe, the "Woodcraft Indians" (still quite alive in Czech Republic). Svato (talk) 22:36, 9 December 2012 (UTC)

UK LRP
There is (or was) a collaborative effort at documenting the history and relationships of UK LRP at. It's a bit hard to decypher, and might not be completely reliable, but currently it shows the relationships between over 120 different systems.

Might be helpful. Chris Thornett 12:42, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

Ok, I've just rewritten the entire UK history entry. I've tried to preserve most of the information that was previously there, although I've seriously abridged the advert-like mentions of Heroquest and Maelstrom.

My aims were 1) present the information in roughly chronological order, 2) make sure each item demonstrated a new development, or some other noteworthy feature, 3) mention things other than just a list of larp systems, such as weapons development and magazines, and 4) reduce POV.

I've probably introduced a whole load of inaccuracies, misconceptions, and ommissions, so there's still a lot of work to do... Chris Thornett 23:40, 20 October 2006 (UTC)


 * I've gone through and tidied it up; hopefully it's a little more readable now. It does seem quite advert-like still, so it probably needs more attention. It certainly needs more citations if any can be found. --178.248.34.17 (talk) 13:41, 16 December 2011 (UTC)

LRP vs LARP
I think its worth mentioning that the used to be a distinction between Live Role-Play (LRP) and Live Action Role-Play (LARP). LARP included contact combat such as is often done with D&D sytle LARPS with boffer weapons and throwing items to represent spells. LRP the Role Play is live the action is abstract. Uses other mechanics to resolve combats and action.

The distinction seems to have been lost. Probably because LARP makes a better acronym. Although thats speculation and difficult to demonstrate.

Still the origional distinction should be documentable. 203.46.224.202 00:32, 7 August 2007 (UTC)


 * I think that may be recent and anachronistic. It seems to just be two different ways of saying it, and some LRPers have added the distinction afterwards. Happy to be disproven, though. Davidtmoore 23:52, 9 November 2007 (UTC)


 * I've heard the exact opposite distinction before. I think these are just local interpretations of the terms, caused by locals who only practice one style and call it by a specific name. This sometimes leads people to assume that the term they use applies only to the style they play. As I understand it the "live action" in LARP refers to the film term live action, in that the characters are played by real people as opposed to imagined as in tabletop RPGs. However, the "action" appears to have sometimes been taken out of context and misinterpreted as meaning physical action. Bear in mind that Mind's Eye Theatre (the system used by Vampire) has called itself a LARP from the start and doesn't used a physical resolution system. --Ryan Paddy —Preceding comment was added at 21:05, 12 November 2007 (UTC)