From The Martial Arts Encyclopedia

LARP is an acronym for Live Action Role Playing. LARPing is an interactive game in which the players assume a particular role (often of fantasy characters such as Vampires or Wizards) and act out a story.

Martial Arts LARPing

The term LARPing is used on the Bullshido Forums to refer to individuals who consider themselves Martial Artists but generally avoid most or any fighting or pressure testing of their skills.

These individuals often create elaborate excuses or loops of circular reasoning to explain why they should not have to fight or test their skills, but ultimately these are just used due to:

• The knowledge (conscious or unconscious) that they actually do not know how to fight
• Fear of significant contact
• The fact that they are only participating in the Martial Arts to put forth an image of who they wish to be, not who they really are.

Martial LARPist

This term was coined by forum member AnnaTrocity, likely to refer to many people on the MySpace.com Martial Arts group forums.