Cosplay vs LARPS

This thread is archived.

  • What is the mane difrences between Cosplay and LARPS? How much crossover is there between the two?

  • LARP is live action role-playing. It has it's own world setting. Kind of like live-action D&D. You pretty much create, dress, and act as your own character based on how that specific world works.

    Cosplay is more re-creating a pre-made character (with a few small exceptions in the video game and internet culture) and trying to emulate how that currently existing character is designed.

    Really, the only major difference is between pretending that you are someone that you made up versus pretending that you are someone that someone ELSE made up.

  • [QUOTE]Really, the only major difference is between pretending that you are someone that you made up versus pretending that you are someone that someone ELSE made up.
    [/QUOTE]
    This. Also for cosplaying, in-character pretending isn't as required as it is in LARPing.

  • LARPing is Roleplaying. Costumes are usually involved, as a side thing.

    Cosplaying is essentially costuming, strictly. While you can "roleplay" your character, not everyone does and sometimes it's even discouraged. Roleplaying isn't a requirement.


    Another thing: When you're making props for LARP you need to be sure you can hit someone (well, depending on the specific LARP) with your prop and not hurt them. Seriously. So the weapons are usually made out of some kind of "Larp-safe" foam.

    For Cosplaying props.. they just need to follow convention rules, which are usually "If I hit someone with it, the item /will/ break". So that's why live steel or metal are almost never allowed. But you can make it out of foam, wood, cardboard, whatever pleases you.


    [B]Tl;dr: Cosplaying is more of a visual art form. It's made purely to be a presentation.
    LARPing is roleplaying; a performance art even, where costuming is involved in it but not a main core.[/B]

  • I think this could be explained simpler.

    LARPing is a game (there are various established games of various genres), with settings, rules, terms of play, world and character creation, and all sorts of systems and structures.

    Cosplay is freeform and whatever-the-hell you want to do or be. There is no structure to cosplay. The only thing that makes cosplay cosplay is wearing a costume. That's it.

  • [QUOTE=dizzymonochrome;4525584]I think this could be explained simpler.

    LARPing is a game (there are various established games of various genres), with settings, rules, terms of play, world and character creation, and all sorts of systems and structures.

    Cosplay is freeform and whatever-the-hell you want to do or be. There is no structure to cosplay. The only thing that makes cosplay cosplay is wearing a costume. That's it.[/QUOTE]

    This 100%

  • Just wanted to point out that making an original character and costume (as was mentioned above my last post) does not a LARP make. And you do not have to cosplay an established character to be cosplaying. People cosplay original characters all the time. That is not the distinction between the two.

    Simply being OC or established character doesn't make it one or the other. Neither is the belief in whether or not it's required to roleplay when cosplaying. Some people honestly believe it's required. And that's okay! Some people are adamant about it being costumes AND roleplaying in cosplay, and some people say it's just costumes. Both can be correct. Which makes it a fuzzy line when trying to use it as a distinction between LARP and cosplay. Some people LARP as "original" characters but are obviously inspired by characters in movies/books/games/anime. That's okay too.

  • There is hardly any crossover with the exception of inspiration for LARP costuming. The main LARP genres, SCA and Belegarth require medieval quality attire rather than a costume based on a character. Not only that but if you end up in the fighting events, you have to make a weapon that is properly padded and 99.9% of the time it will look nothing like an anime weapon prop. Basically, you would be using a stick wrapped in foam.

  • Oh good, dizzymonochrome came in and said it better than I could have. :)

    Boffer groups aren't the only type of LARP, though. There are D&D style LARPs where there is no combat at all, or if it is it's by non-physical contact - a tag with the hand, a points system, spell cards, objects on cards, etc. I believe other tabletop systems also have LARP offshoots, like Vampire: the Masquerade and such. What they have in common with boffer-style LARP (actually smacking each other around with foam weapons) is that the costumes are more informal and not enforced, but roleplaying is highly if not strictly encouraged, to the point that some GMs will not interact with you outside of character.

    But cosplay is just wearing a costume. Level of quality, level of accuracy, type of character, and whether or not to roleplay is entirely up to the person wearing the costume.

  • [QUOTE=dizzymonochrome;4525584]I think this could be explained simpler.

    LARPing is a game (there are various established games of various genres), with settings, rules, terms of play, world and character creation, and all sorts of systems and structures.

    Cosplay is freeform and whatever-the-hell you want to do or be. There is no structure to cosplay. The only thing that makes cosplay cosplay is wearing a costume. That's it.[/QUOTE]

    There you go. You explained it alot better.