While the forthcoming Leaving Mundania contains a well-stocked glossary, there are a few terms I just couldn’t shoehorn in that pertain to gaming in general, geek culture, or larp, specifically. This series endeavors to remedy the omissions.

Today’s term is part of the lexicon of American larp. For all I know, it’s slang specific to the New Jersey area.

Revenge larp — noun. A larp formed in opposition to a parent game after a fallout in leadership.

Everyone knows that larps inspire other larps. People start up new games all the time, drawing on what they know and tweaking or improving rule sets based on experience and personal preference. A revenge larp is more than just an offshoot of another game. It’s an offshoot made with malice and forethought, a game with a “we’re packing up our toys and playing elsewhere” motivation.

Often, the term is used pejoratively, to indicate that the game organizers have no original ideas of their own, aside from a motivation to get away from the original larp.