Rules
Many LARPs have game rules that determine how characters can affect each other and the setting. The rules may be defined in a publication or created by the gamemasters. These rules may define characters' capabilities, what can be done with various objects that exist in the setting, and what characters can do during the downtime between LARP events. Because referees are often not available to mediate all character actions, players are relied upon to be honest in their application of the rules.
Some LARP rules call for the use of simulated weapons such as foam weapons or airsoft guns to determine whether characters succeed in hitting one another in combat situations. The alternative is to pause role-play and determine the outcome of an action symbolically, for example by rolling dice, playing rock-paper-scissors or comparing character attributes.
In Western LARP gaming, "safe" weapons such as swords made of foam or airsoft guns are used. Some other traditions of live-action roleplaying, such as the Russian one, tend to use more realistic weapons such as swords made of hard plastics (composite epoxy material is the most common material for LARP swords in Russia) or 4.7mm BB guns. The Russian tradition, adhered to in many post-Soviet countries, has more focus on weapon realism issues such as weight and balance of swords, so CEM, a very hard, very resilient plastic close to metal in density was chosen. Other common materials include wood and duraluminium.
There are also LARPs that do without rules, instead relying on players to use their common sense or feel for dramatic appropriateness to cooperatively decide what the outcome of their actions will be.
Read more about this topic: Live Action Role-playing Game
Famous quotes containing the word rules:
“Let’s start with the three fundamental Rules of Robotics.... We have: one, a robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. Two, a robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. And three, a robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.”
—Isaac Asimov (1920–1992)
“... geometry became a symbol for human relations, except that it was better, because in geometry things never go bad. If certain things occur, if certain lines meet, an angle is born. You cannot fail. It’s not going to fail; it is eternal. I found in rules of mathematics a peace and a trust that I could not place in human beings. This sublimation was total and remained total. Thus, I’m able to avoid or manipulate or process pain.”
—Louise Bourgeois (b. 1911)
“The duce of any other rule have I to govern myself by in this affair—and if I had one ... I would twist it and tear it to pieces, and throw it into the fire when I had done—Am I warm? I am, and the cause demands it—a pretty story! is a man to follow rules—or rules to follow him?”
—Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)