Live Action Role-Playing: Transcending the Magic Circle through Play in Dagorhir

This study examines Dagorhir, a combat-oriented live action role-playing game founded in 1977, to test whether the "magic circle" that supposedly separates play from everyday life holds in a larp where fighting dominates. Drawing on symbolic interactionism, the author conducted a six-month ethnography with the Las Vegas realm, Barad'Dun, combining participant observation, semi-structured interviews with 18 participants, and thematic analysis. The central thesis is that in-game character choices, even in a combat-focused setting, shape players' sense of self and carry over into their lives outside the game.

The analysis identifies four principal themes. Players were divided between "stick jocks," who prioritize combat, and "flurbs," who emphasize role-play, a segregation that structured how people engaged with the game. Participants frequently treated their characters as reflections of their own identities, and self-critique sometimes led them to revise or abandon characters that no longer felt authentic. Across these processes, players reported growth in confidence and leadership, both within the game and in their wider lives. Together, these findings lead the author to conclude that character development extends beyond the game's boundaries.

The final part of the study refines this conclusion by showing that character development occurs regardless of how much players invest in role-play, and that the change they experience transcends the magic circle. Stick jocks appeared more disconnected from this developmental process, while flurbs, who built characters as extensions or evolutions of themselves, showed a clearer understanding of the interplay between player and character. The author cautions that these results are specific to Dagorhir and calls for comparable research across other larps to determine how broadly the findings apply.