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

By Lizzie Stark

Book Overview

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
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1569766053
• ISBN13: 9781569766057
• Release Date: May 2012
• Publisher: Chicago Review Press
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.74 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.6" x 8.5"