Before beginning today's show, I want to acknowledge the protests that have been going on in this country

and around the world. I work in these episodes weeks or months in advance, so this episode is

very focused on the COVID-19 crisis. I am currently working on an episode about systemic racism,

but that won't be out until later in the summer. In the meantime, instead of asking you to support

imaginary worlds on Patreon, I'm asking instead if you would donate to an organization that fights for

social justice, like the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, or Campaign Zero, or the ACLU,

and consider making regular donations to them. Thank you and try and stay safe everyone.

Previously on imaginary worlds. LARPs are just ridiculously undervalued. If you're getting a tailored,

crafted story, just for you. A lot are like sandcalls. You build them, they can be beautiful,

but the moment they reach their perfection, the tide comes in and washes it all away.

There are relatively few experiences left where you have to be there. There's something about

life that captures the magic of the present moment. I cried during our conversation. You cried and

you were so sad and it was so good and it was amazing. I have always wanted to start the show like that.

This is the third episode in a mini series about LARPs, which is short for live-action roleplay.

The first episode from 2017 was called Winning the LARP. I looked at the history of live-action

roleplaying from college students dressing up as knights and hitting each other with foam swords,

to immersive experiences where people pretend to be characters from Battlestar Galactica

on a real decommissioned naval destroyer. And LARPs would even travel to other states or other

countries with their homemade costumes to play vampires or wizards for days at a time.

In my 2018 episode, How I Won the LARP, and when deep into larping myself.

And I used the word Winning or One in the title of those episodes because it refers to an inside joke.

I'm in one hand, LARPs are games. Your characters have goals, they're often across purposes,

...