So, youve just met someone whos into LARPing and has invited you to join them.
You might be tempted to call it cosplay.
What Is Cosplay?
Cosplay is putting on a costume to mimic or recreate the look of an existing character.
Heres what its not:
Its all about dressing up in a costume to look like a character.
Checkour list of the best female anime characters to cosplayfor further understanding.
As you might see, cosplay is as much a form of art as it is dress up.
What Is LARPing?
Still sounds confusing, right?
Honestly, it is kind of confusing at first, so lets dig into it a little deeper.
There are no costume competitions for LARPers.
The characters in LARPing can be designed by the player or by a Game Master.
The characters have to fit with the genre and theme of the LARP event.
What cool about LARP characters is that as the story advances, so do the skills of the character.
LARP vs Re-enactment: Is It The Same?
Well, not so fast there.
LARP and re-enactments are definitely not the same thing.
Another difference is that re-enactors typically use real weapons instead of the padded and blunt weapons used by LARPers.
So, lets look at what some other geeks have to say about the matter.
According toNyokun, LARP has its own world setting.
Kind of like live-action D&D.
According toAshofRebirth, the real difference between the two are the weapons.
So the weapons are usually made out of some kind of Larp-safe foam.
So thats why live steel or metal are almost never allowed.
Its made purely to be a presentation.
Cosplay is freeform and whatever-the-hell you want to do or be.
There is no structure to cosplay.
The only thing that makes cosplay cosplay is wearing a costume.
top image credit:Bastian,Flickr, CC 2.0
