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 forCreative 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.

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9781569766057

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Reviews

Lizzie Stark valiantly throws herself into the sword-swinging world of live-action role-playing games in Leaving Mundania . -- Vanity Fair

[Stark] shows us what larp is, from the inside -- playing long-term boffer larps, staging her own theatrical larp, and journeying to the Nordic countries-- to show us the compelling theater/game hybrids that the intellectual and even scholarly communities have created. Her purpose, at which she succeeds, is to convince us that far from being the preserve of the socially crippled, larping is the hobby of kings -- and, in careful hands, a strangely powerful new artform all its own. --Greg Costikyan, game designer and science fiction author

Whether you thoroughly appreciate the work of Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon [LARP's newly appointed overlord] or just have a mild interest in geek culture, Stark makes this world of pretend a little more real. --BUST

A fascinating look at the world of live-action role playing-with a book jacket that slays me. SchoolLibraryJournal.com

Author Information

Lizzie Stark is a freelance journalist whose work has appeared in the Daily Beast and the Philadelphia Inquirer. She is founder and editor of the literary journal Fringe and holds an MS in new media journalism from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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