Cultural Languages of Role-Playing

Abstract

Role-play interaction in live role-playing games is also language interaction. Role-playing language is different from everyday language, because the worlds created in role-play are not just a reflection or extension of everyday life. We examine three examples of interaction in live action role-playing games. In all three, players rely on shared cultural knowledge. In the first example, two players employ the cultural conventions about the meanings of colors, objects and space as well as materials borrowed from myth and folklore in order to enact an encounter between a mage and a dragon. In the second, the organizers enact scenes from literary classics in order to construct the game plot. In the third, the players employ cultural stereotypes of personalities and behavior in order to present characters of diverse age and social status.