LARP or Live Action Role-Playing is a game in which players take on the persona of a character and play out their actions in a role-play scenario. This research analyzes a community of Live Action Role-Players across the country and collects interviews and data from participant observation within the Alliance LARP, an organization that creates a single fantasy world for participants to play within. Because the organization exists nationally, players in Asheville, NC are able to travel to Gettysburg, PA and play the same character within the same world. Through this research the author focuses on the transition of players from their real life identities to the identities within the game. This transition, although somewhat unique to each player, has some universal themes within the community. The interplay between the “out of game” and the “in game” spheres of a person’s life is what draws so many people to the game and is also the root cause of many of the problems the community faces. LARP allows people from many different backgrounds to express themselves in ways regular societal standards would not allow. Not only are players transitioning from themselves to their characters, but from one group of societal standards to another.
