Life and death - for fun!

As an adult, I've attempted to play Dungeons & Dragons twice but each time, the enjoyment factor was foiled by farfetched situations ("What the hell is a Level 30 Red Dragon doing outside the pub? I quit!"). My pink D&D die set sits on my desk, gathering dust, right now.

But, screw my pink D&D die! I've found a new way to escape reality. I found the following report from CBC Radio's The Current (reproduced in part below):

"The people who spend time Live Action Role Playing -- or LARPing-- fantasize about much more elaborate worlds where characters can be heroic or murderous, angelic or evil. And this is serious business----people get quite swept up in their characters... living out parts of themselves that might otherwise be repressed in the real world.

But Larping takes place very much in the real world. Last fall our producer, Nicola Luksic immersed herself in one game called "Mortality." The event unfolded over the course of an entire weekend on a five acre patch of land just north-east of Toronto. The game's creators built up a mini-village for the gamers, complete with sleeping quarters and a tavern. The night began around a campfire in the middle of a dense forest.

The Live Action Role Playing game of Mortality continues this summer. If you're wanting a plot update, we've learned that the mythical town of Epticoira was sacked by raiders and the villagers fled for protection to a monastery of the Oberian Order."

It horrifies yet amuses me to imagine middle class Canadians running and screaming from 'raiders' before climbing into their SUVs at the end of the day, then debating whether to get McDonalds or KFC. Meanwhile, halfway around the world, a group of villagers are running and screaming, then running and screaming some more, all without the reassuring glow of a McDonalds or KFC in sight.