Role-playing games jump off video screens to real-life fantasy
Role-playing moves from video games to live action
“3, 2, 1 … Lay on!”
Several groups of warriors charge fiercely toward each other with their shields up and swords ready to strike.
Arrows fly, and in minutes the battlefield is scattered with bodies.
“Is anyone still alive?” yells the lone warrior left standing. A collective “no” is heard from the bodies.
In an instant they jump up and prepare for another battle.
This is live-action role-playing, or LARPing, in which video games, books, history and fantasy are brought to life. LARPers play characters from those fictional worlds, embodying them in the way they dress, the weapons they wield and the worlds they come from.
There are hundreds of LARPing groups, based on everything from the Harry Potter books and Dungeons & Dragons games to historical events like World War II. “It’s like living a movie,” says Rick Servello, 23, of Fairport.
The LARPing group we spent time with — called Winterfell — is the Rochester chapter of the national Dagorhir organization, which formed in 1973 and is one of the first LARPing groups.
Originally inspired by The Lord of the Rings books, Dagorhir members fight fictional battles wielding foam weapons and shields. They personalize their characters based on everything from medieval historical figures — like Roman warriors — to Middle-Earth creatures, such as orcs and elves.
But the difference between Dagorhir and many of the other groups, says Richard Hewett, one of the organizers of the Rochester chapter, is that it’s “more about the action and less about the role-playing — Dagorhir is a combat sport.”
Winterfell attracted nearly 40 people to Genesee Valley Park on a recent Sunday afternoon. Among the medieval-inspired archery, shields and swords at the event were the clashing signs of modern life — cans of Mountain Dew, sneakers and camping chairs. Members exchanged tips on making the best foam weapons and making their garb more authentic before the battle began.
Based on a book by fantasy author George R.R. Martin, Winterfell is part of a community of Dagorhir chapters throughout western New York, Hewett says.
Members of Winterfell and members of LARPing groups from Buffalo and Syracuse often participate in each other’s events. It’s that sense of community that many members cite as a huge benefit to joining. “It’s really like a second family,” says Caity Gullekson, 21, a member of the Buffalo chapter.
LARPing has seen a huge boom in popularity since the Discovery Channel’s Wreckreation Nation featured a national Dagorhir event in an episode that aired in January. “We went from five members to 25 by the middle of February,” Hewett says of the Rochester chapter.
Darkon, another national LARPing group, was featured prominently in the 2008 Paul Rudd film Role Models. Although the movie poked fun at the LARPing community, many members, including Hewett, thought the film portrayed it accurately. “To some degree, the stereotypes are true,” he says. “We might be a little socially awkward, but I think we are more loyal than other groups are because we’re the only people we find that have the same interests and we can be comfortable around.”
Marcia and Steven Thompson are from Rome, Oneida County, and they bring their 3-year-old son and 1-year-old daughter to events dressed in full garb. Although the children don’t participate in the action quite yet, they do at home. “The kids really go at it at home with the foam weapons,” says Marcia Thompson, 37. “What’s so great about Dagorhir is that there’s such a wide range of ages participating — you’ve got 18-year-olds, 40-year-olds and people in their 20s. And we’ve made lifelong friends here.”
While Rome is a solid two-hour drive from Rochester, Dagorhir members travel from all over the country to participate in huge events like the weeklong Ragnarok in Ohio and The Battle of Badon Hill in Pennsylvania.
It’s easy to see why. Even newbies are welcomed into the community with open arms.
“I’ve always been the weird kid,” Gullekson says.
But when you think about it, LARPers aren’t weird. Everyone has been LARPing since childhood, playing cops and robbers and acting as their favorite cartoon characters and superheroes.
“If people actually worried less about stereotypes and actually tried it, they’d find out that it’s not a bunch of wackos doing something,” Hewett says. “It’s actually a lot of fun.”
Winterfell practice
When: 1 p.m. Sundays.
Where: Genesee Valley Park; Ellison Park beginning July 5.
Web: www.winterfell-dagorhir.com.
