From the introduction: Larp needs understanding. Understanding requires knowledge. Finding knowledge involves digging into the murky material and getting your hands dirty. Finding understanding requires the will to dissect your own knowledge. Nearly all writers on larp are avid larpers them selves. This makes the process of finding understanding a lot more difficult than most people outside the field would think. Larp can at its best be intensely emotional and inspirational, even a defining element of ones life. At its worst larp’s just boring. Getting to understand larp demands that the writer is willing to cast aside the fondness they feel for their subject, to evaluate the failures and boring bits. You cannot dissect without taking your subject apart. This is the dissection, here are their findings.