You might have spotted him wielding a foam sword in the Wellness Center or donning a viking costume on the Montgomery Library Lawn during Welcome Week, all while talking to students under the History Club tent. Meet James Tuttle, a Campbellsville University sophomore from Marion County, Kentucky. Tuttle hopes to start a Live Action Role Play (LARP) club on campus this spring, provided he can rally enough fellow enthusiasts to join him.
“Think [of LARP] as Dungeons & Dragons, but in person,” said Tuttle, a history major with a minor in theater. “In D&D, you roll dice to determine what happens. But with LARP, everyone is actually playing out their part. It’s more like a theater production. There’s just a rush of adrenaline you get from running around smacking your friends. It’s great.”
Tuttle’s love for crafting costumes and weapons started when he was in middle school, making weapons out of cardboard with his friends. His dad also loved making costumes and going to events.
“My dad helping me with it was a lot of incentive to get into it because he has a lot of good ideas and has been doing it a lot longer than I have,” said Tuttle. “It’s really sweet to share that with him.”
Now as an adult, Tuttle even helps make weapons for his 12-year-old sister.
“We play together with short swords so it’s fair,” he said. “She still gets mad whenever I kick her butt, but then she likes to gloat whenever she wins.”
Beyond sibling rivalry, Tuttle’s passion for the hobby also thrives in a larger community setting, where he finds joy in LARP.
“My three favorite things about LARP – the first thing obviously is the fellowship, hanging out with people who are like-minded and enjoy spending time with you,” he said. “The second thing is the creativity that I get from being able to build my own stuff and display it and show people. The third thing I like about it is being physically active, being able to keep myself in shape and do it in a fun way, because I’m not a sports guy.”
Tuttle said no matter a student’s personality or interests, there’s something in LARP for them.
“There’s the acting aspect because you’re playing a character that you’ve created,” he said. “There’s the costume and weapon creation aspect where you get to build and design. There’s the story aspect of how these characters are going to interact and present themselves and express what they believe and their morals. Then you have the physical aspect of it, like how long can you put up a fight, how good is your dexterity. Are you going to sit back and be cautious, or come in with a counter strike? There’s the fantasy aspect, because I want to fight dragons. And the history aspect too, because you’re looking up weird obscure history stuff and basing outfits off of that.”
Tuttle is determined to get a LARP club started on campus.
“I’ve been trying for so long to get a club started,” he said. “The problem is finding people. I’ve been told I need at least 10 students. I don’t think I need a sponsor if it’s just an activity-based club.”
Tuttle is asking any students interested to email him at [email protected].
“The way I would do it if I was able to start a club would be don’t worry about costumes, don’t worry about anything. We’ll provide weapons. I know how to make them safe,” he said. “I know what to do to get waivers and stuff to make sure they don’t get hurt. There is no reason you shouldn’t be able to join. I want us to be able to develop a close brother and sisterhood of people interested and fully invested.”
Tuttle’s close friend Joseph “Billy” Osborne, a sophomore computer science major at CU, is also very passionate about LARP, attending a renaissance fair with Tuttle and the History Club, and sparring with Tuttle in the Wellness Center.
“I work full time, go to school full time…in between classes [LARP] allows me to unwind and relax. It always releases any built-up tension in the muscles or mind without harming anyone,” said Osborne. “My favorite thing about LARPing is thinking of new ways to outsmart the opponent. It’s a very complicated thing to do… but it’s rewarding. Once you win, you get a greater sense of accomplishment.”
Osborne is equally enthusiastic about the possibility of a LARP club on campus.
“A LARP club would be amazing,” he said. “Not only does [LARP] combine both physicality and a mental aspect, it could be used to learn more about history and how people fought back then, and how to translate it into LARP fighting.”
Dr. Matthew Egbert, instructor of history at CU and the sponsor for CU’s branch of Phi Alpha Theta (the National History Honor Society), took a group of students, including Tuttle and his friend Osborne, to the Kentucky Highlands Renaissance Festival this past summer.
“[Tuttle] wore this garb to the festival, as one does at Renaissance fairs,” said Egbert. “We thought it would be an excellent opportunity to draw some attention to the club if he were to also wear it during the Welcome Week festivities. Several people commented on it, and it seems to have drawn a lot of eyes to our tent. There are many people on our campus who might be interested in history, historical
re-enactments, or LARPing, but they just don’t have the connections to know how many like-minded individuals there are in our community.”
So, whether you’re a seasoned LARPer or someone simply just curious about the experience, there’s a foam sword waiting for you.
