Live-action roleplaying is popular among nerds the world over. But what they don’t realize is that the military hosts their own LARPing events to prepare for war.
While training for real-life combat, it’s important that the military runs simulations that get as close to the real thing as possible. But, when you start to really break it down, it becomes clear that the government is spending tons of money on opportunities for advanced LARPing — as they should be.
Here, we have a group of infantry LARPers attacking an enemy town.
(U.S. Marine Corps photo by Pfc. Rachel K. Porter)
You’re just pretending you’re at war
Make no mistake, there’s plenty of purpose behind it but, at the end of the day, your life is in very little real danger. A lot of times, you’re shooting pretend bullets at pretend targets in a pretend country.
Even when you get real bullets, you’re still fighting a made-up military in a made-up country.
Here, we have a berserker class clearing the way for the warriors.
(U.S. Marine Corps photo by Pfc. Rachel K. Porter)
You dress up as your selected class
Whether you chose to be a berserker (machine gunner), a warrior (rifleman), or a mage (mortarman), you get to dress up as your character and carry real equipment.
The bonus here is that the government spends tons of money training you in your selected class.
You get to fire real rockets!
(U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Aaron Henson)
You use real weapons
This is actually pretty cool considering that most LARPers don’t get to use real weapons. The government will spend lots of money for you to get a real weapon to use in your roleplay events, like Integrated Training Exercise (ITX). Meanwhile, not every LARPer is into live steel.
They’re there to create the most authentic of experiences.
(U.S. Army photo by Spc. Hubert D. Delany III)
Real props
You get to ride in helicopters to make the scenarios even more realistic. Sometimes, you’ll even get support from jets and tanks to truly sell an authentic experience.
Okay, so these props might be a tad cooler than getting to drink your own, real-life “health potion” that is probably just Sprite and grenadine…
They’re out there to help you… or hurt you.
(U.S Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Juan A. Soto-Delgado)
Other roleplayers are involved
When you go to ITX, they’ll bring in a bunch of people to act as townspeople and enemies. This makes the experience a lot more authentic, which makes it a lot more interesting and fun.
You can talk with these NPCs for extra experience.
(U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Alexis C. Schneider, 2d MARDIV Combat Camera)
There are non-player characters
The roleplayers that get brought in for the purpose of acting as the townspeople are very interactive NPCs. You’ll go on a patrol through the town and they’ll offer information or things to buy. Be careful, though, some might be working with the enemy!
The Coyotes even wear special items to specify they’re game masters.
(Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Levi Schultz)
There’s usually a game master
In a lot of cases, there will be someone acting as the GM, there to make sure people aren’t cheating and everyone dies when they’re supposed to. They might come in the form of your company Gunny (or a Coyote in the case of ITX). They keep things fair and they’ll evaluate your performance after the event is over.
Here, we have two LARPers from different countries interacting in a dialogue.
(U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Tiffany Edwards)
You get to roleplay with other countries
On a peacetime deployment, you basically go to other countries to train with their military if your unit is trustworthy enough for that responsibility. This means that you travel and meet with other LARPers as you share an event together.