Live action

A fantasy LARP group

A LARP is played more like improvisational theatre.^[19] Participants act out their characters' actions instead of describing them, and the real environment is used to represent the imaginary setting of the game world.^[3] Players are often costumed as their characters and use appropriate props, and the venue may be decorated to resemble the fictional setting.^[20][21] Some live action role-playing games use rock-paper-scissors or comparison of attributes to resolve conflicts symbolically, while other LARPs use physical combat with simulated arms such as airsoft guns or foam weapons.^[22]
LARPs vary in size from a handful of players to several thousand, and in duration from a couple of hours to several days.^[23][24] Because the number of players in a LARP is usually larger than in a tabletop role-playing game, and the players may be interacting in separate physical spaces, there is typically less of an emphasis on tightly maintaining a narrative or directly entertaining the players, and game sessions are often managed in a more distributed manner.^[25]