The International Fantasy Gaming Society, Inc. (IFGS) designs, runs, and sanctions various fantasy based live action role-playing game (LARP)s. IFGS is notable for being both a very early LARP group, as well as a very long lived one. IFGS is named after the fictional group described in the Dream Park series of novels (by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes) and bears many similarities to the organization in the novels. The authors attended an early IFGS Convention and Steven Barnes later played in an IFGS licensed game in Colorado and Larry Niven played in a game in California. The authors adopted the "real" IFGS as the historic background for their future one, and provided the "real" IFGS with publicity in subsequent "Dream Park" novels, as well as donating the original manuscript of one of the "Dream Park" series novels, for fund raising purposes. Similar to the organization described in the novels, the IFGS designs, runs, and sanctions various fantasy based live action role-playing games. For several years they also ran "Undercover", an espionage LARP.
The IFGS was founded in 1981 in Boulder, Colorado. It is a non-profit member run corporation. It employs a live-combat system with foam weapons and a complex rules system.
The IFGS Fantasy rules are class-based and allow for Clerics, Druids, Fighters, Knights, Magic-Users, Monks, Rangers, and Thieves. Each class has a list of powers and abilities that are either fueled by points, or, in the case of Fighters and Thieves, can be used a specific number of times per day.
The damage system is based on five separate hit-locations (torso, L arm, R arm, L leg, R leg) like many LARPs. Any time a character takes damage, a pool of Life Points is drained, until the character goes unconscious. Each limb has a number of points it can take before it becomes useless. Thus, if a person takes 3 points of damage to a limb (for example) it would drop the character by 3 Life Points, and, if that limb only had 3 points, it would become useless. Once a limb has been disabled, it no longer takes damage.
Armor complicates the issue, since it subtracts from all damage taken. Thus, 5 points of armor would reduce damage from each blow, spell, and other effect by 5.
There are Chapters of the IFGS in Colorado, Wisconsin, Texas, and the Pacific Northwest.