LARPers vs. Law

What is better than a bike commute that takes you through a park? A bike commute that takes you through a park where a LARP is! A LARP is a Live Action Role Playing game, and a LARPer is someone who dresses up in awesome fantasy gear and then they fight other LARPers.


On Sunday I was riding through the park when I came upon a group of four LARPers, in the midst of a full plastic broadsword brawl. There are many terrible things you can come across as a cyclist - SUVs with giant blind spots, little children who get in your way with their stupid tricycles, etc. But then there are things/people you come across that are absolutely amazing! Midday plastic broadsword battles betwixt people old enough to vote is definitely in the latter category.

These guys and girls (yes, that's right! Girls!) were battling, while a couple smaller bands of LARPers were off a little way and I think one had a plastic crossbow. Man, the broadsword guys were totally into it though - it was a pitched battle. Two female joggers had paused their jogging to watch - I am pretty sure that amped up the male LARPers so this was one epic fight!

I rode on after a bit...not wanting to catch a stray arrow or Elvish curse. I rode down the trail - it is a dirt/gravel mix trail about the width of a car - a little ways when who do I spy snaking my direction? Johnny Law! A Seattle police cruiser inching over the gravel - sirens off. He was clearly in stealth mode - also possibly did not want to startle any dog walkers. I stopped and let him pass. (Although I am fairly sure that if I were the hero of an epic '80s adventure movie where a group of misfit 10-year-olds have to save their neighborhood from "the man", I could have popped a wheelie and jumped the cruiser.) I must say there is nothing like pausing on your bicycle to let a powder blue police car skulk through the forest - it seems like a very Northwest thing. In Pittsburgh the police only take biking trails to avoid all the city's potholes (hey-o!)

So you know what this means: The Seattle police were going after the LARPers. I don't know who fired the first shot, but underground live action roleplaying has always contended with Law and Order. (Which is upsetting because both groups should get along. Both have a rigid respect for the rules, and also, it must take the same amount of fearlessness to wear this as it does to do this. )





So what did Johnny Law want from Johnny Lives-With-His-Parents? Was the Man cracking down on Elfen contraband? Can fighting during a LARP be considered street fighting? What about street-spellcasting? Even if it's questionable to stage broadsword battles in the middle of a public thoroughfare, do the Seattle Police have jurisdiction over events that take place in the imagination? All good questions.

Sadly, I never saw what happened when the Boys in Blue met the Men in Tights. I was going to turn around and witness the inevitable conflict, but I was afraid I would get rounded up with the LARPers. Once they put my name into their police computers, certain flags like the number of Magic: The Gathering cards I own would pop up, and I'd be taken downtown with the usual suspects.