Lizzie Stark

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

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.