[ Dystopia Rising - SoCal ]

LARP, or Live Action Roleplaying, is a special type of in-person interactive storytelling . Participants in larps create fictional characters in a particular setting or genre. That involves not only creating the character’s mindset, outlooks, and idiosyncrasies, but also the gear and equipment that the character owns in the form of costuming and larp safe facsimile weapons. There are two sides of the standard larp experience - the “Players”, or protagonists of the game, and the people that portray the characters in the world that the Players interact with - we refer to them as Cast.

The way that these games run is that there is a group of people that organize the stories (our Writers) that are told each month when the event runs. Those stories are organized into quick scripts prior to the event, and Cast members dress up and go over the roles they will play before going into the game environment to make these stories come alive for the Players. We call the people that direct the Cast or work behind the scenes as Guides. In our larp (not all of them run like this), all players will allocate 4 hours of their typical 32 hours that they play in to represent Cast characters. Guides use the same 4 hours to be the framework of the game and keep it live and engaging for all the other players that are not Casting at the time.

This system ensures that we always have Cast members that are pushing the story that the the Writers, Guides, and Players (through their actions) collectively create. Without Guides, the game doesn’t function. Before we begin each Season (much like a TV show, we have Seasons that run over the course of a year, or twelve separate events), we recruit from our players the Guides and Writers to run our events. Our basic requirement is 3 games must be attended, with no disciplinary actions on record. If you have further questions, please read the information in the applications listed below.