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Leaving Mundania: Inside the Transformative World of Live Action Role-Playing Games

Exposing a subculture often dismissed as “geeky” by mainstream America, Leaving Mundania is the story of live action role-playing (LARP). A hybrid of games — such as Dungeons & Dragons, historical reenactment, fandom, and good old-fashioned pretend — larp is thriving, and this book explores its multifaceted communities and related phenomena, including the Society for Creative Anachronism, a medieval reenactment group that boasts more than 32,000 members. Author Lizzie Stark looks at the hobby from a variety of angles, from its history in the pageantry of Tudor England to its present use as a training tool for the US military. Along the way, she duels foes with foam-padded weapons, lets the great elder god Cthulhu destroy her parents’ beach house, and endures an existential awakening in the high-art larp scene of Scandinavia.

  • Format
  • paperback
  • Pages
  • 258
  • Language
  • english
  • ISBN
  • 9781569766057
  • Genres
  • gaming, games, sociology
  • Release date
  • 2012