Every now and then it’s tempting to try a new persona on for size.
Hundreds of people will be doing just that for the next few days at the Hyatt Morristown, scene of the DEXCON 13 convention.
It’s a gathering of LARPs–Live Action Role Players–and board game aficionados.
There are colorful costumes, convoluted plots and piles of cookies and potato chips. Games run into the wee hours with no winners or losers, kind of like early rounds of the World Cup.
“Celestial otters,” “time-traveling trees,” “mogwips” and “post-apocalyptic boffer larps” are on the itinerary. Tickets range from $30 per day to $65 for the whole show, which runs through Sunday.
“For me, it’s really an escape. You can be someone else for a little while,” said Walter Soto, 27, of Union. His skin was painted goblin-green last night, in preparation for the medieval role-playing fantasy game, Knight Realms.
For heightened adventure, Walter and friends sometimes play outdoors at camps in Sparta and in the Poconos of Pennsylvania.
Walter works in a college bookstore in Caldwell and did some acting in his student days.
“That’s what LARPing is–a lot of people pretending to be someone else,” he said. “We wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t fun.”
Stay tuned for more dispatches from LARPville.
VIDEOS AND MORE FROM THE WORLD OF LARPS
LARPing the night away in Morristown
Video: A ‘shootout’ at the Hyatt Morristown
‘Deadlands’ slide show from Morristown gamers convention
More colorful imagery from Dexcon 12 in Morristown
Video: Dreamation convention invades Morristown…all in good fun
In Morristown, life is just a game
Let the Games begin: Dreamation offers guests chance to play different role in life
