New Book Investigates the Wide, Wonderful World of LARP

However you describe this hobby/art form/performance -- Part Dungeons & Dragons game gone native, part walk-through choose-your-own adventure, part live video game with padded battle-axes and swords, part improv theater performance in the woods -- larp is experiencing a cultural surge. As Huey Lewis once sung, it's hip to be square. We all feel more comfortable in our geekiness. But also this: Perhaps gamers are tiring of getting their fantasy fixes via screens. Because larp requires being there -- in the flesh. You can't phone or Skype in a larp. Folks get their DIY geek on, crafting their own capes and slapping on their own make-up. If the game master says it's OK to play a French zombie-elf with a penchant for cheese, you run wild and do it. In the real world. Leaving Mundania: Inside the Transformative World of Live Action Role-Playing Games (Chicago Review Press), a new book by journalist Lizzie Stark, gets to the heart of these questions.

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