I ask, because that was the first thing the came to mind as I read the article. A bunch of guys (and gals) get together, dress in complicated (and sometimes very expensive) period costumes, and have pretend battles out in public. The biggest, real difference that I can see, is that the Civil War guys know who won, because they're following a "script" -- how do the LARPers figure out who wins?

Let me begin by saying that I have never, nor will I ever engage in any LARP-related activity. That said, I've seen it happen, and I've played a few video-game based role playing games in my life.

The gist of it is that players have statistics - numerical scores that represent things like their health, strength, or whatever attributes that apply to the game. While I imagine a civil war reenactor will more or less fall down "Dead" when he sees someone point a rifle at them and go Bang!, a LARPer will know just how much statistical "damage" they can sustain before they need to fall down.

Thus, proof that LARPers are, in fact, bigger dweebs than civil war reenactors

Wow you give civil war reenactors much greater credit than they deserve. At least the LARPers are creating something. Reenactment is always the same... the same battle, the same offensives/defensives, the same outcome. LARPers while inherently nerdy are at least doing something new!

Oh I can riff on civil war reenactors. But that would just be too easy.

Do Civil War reenactments count as LARPs? What about the people who work at Renaissance Fairs? I'm curious because the article claims there are "tens of thousands" of LARP players worldwide. What's the basis for that number?

Yeah... Darkon's full contact, including tackling, grappling and swinging your weapon at full force. It's a hit system, but very uncomplicated, someone swings a sword at you (thank God it's made of foam and pvc pipe and not steel) you feel the hit wherever they hit you, if it's in the torso you're dead, as you would happen to be if the sword were real, if it hits you in the limb you drop whatever you're holding or drop to your knee. Especially with the better, veteran players you know you've lost when they hit you.