Attending any LARP for the first time you begin to experience nervousness. Excitement. Fear. And some of us? An anxious panic that doesn’t abide until you are comfortable in a circle of bodies that you can disappear in to. It is like sucking your thumb, or carrying around your blankie. Not good for us but we need it all the same.

Those very safety circles are what usually cause the most trouble at any social gathering with numerous people; summer camps, any sort of class, parties, LARPs etc. These circles are also known as cliques.

Ahhh cliques… how I despised them in high school, college and now they are following me still in LARPs. Let me explain to you that I’ve attended multiple LARPs over the years and at some of these LARPs the cliques are either painfully obvious, you have to look for the cliques to find them, OR there are no cliques to be heard of. I want you to understand that clique drama does not happen at some to most LARPs but if you do encounter them my hopes are that you are aware of what is going on and you can still escape unscathed.

Cliques are usually easy to spot. Large groups of people that generally look alike, share interests, views, purposes, or patterns of behavior can be the beginnings of a clique. They’ll usually have an elitist attitude and keep to themselves. Being a social type of gathering, cliques will throw a kink into the flow things at any LARP.

The staff of a LARP needs to constantly be on the look out for cliques and head them off before they are completely established. That is, if the staff even cares about their game or if they are just in it for the money. And a staff that cares about the game is a staff that you want to be supporting each month.