What is LARP: The Theoretical Side

May 13, 2025

LARP, or LARPing, stands for Live Action Role-Playing. In the most basic description, you could see LARP as participating in a role-playing game like Dungeons and Dragons (D&D), but then brought from the table into the physical world. Together with other LARPers, supporting actors, storytellers and other participants, you create and take part in a shared story. Most LARP sagas last multiple years, spread across different events per year that last days, weekends or weeks.

LARP isn't very well known in large parts of the world, and due to misinformation, misinterpretation and misrepresentation in some forms of media, it sometimes gets a bad reputation. In this blog series I want to explain what LARP is and how you can prepare for your first (or second, or twentieth) LARP adventure!

A short history

The phenomenon of Live Action Role-Playing Games (LARPs) is about as old as the first Tabletop Role-Playing Games (TTRPGs) like D&D. The first LARPs were founded in the 1970s. There is no clear starting point for LARPs, neither in time nor location, but the same idea emerged around the same time in different locations in North America, Europe and Oceania: to make these TTRPGs more physical and immersive. The first registered LARP is Dagorhir and was founded in 1977 in the United States by Bryan Wiese. This LARP takes place in a fantasy world and still has regular events today! The first registered LARP in the UK was formed in 1982 and is called Treasure Trap. This LARP only ran for three years and ended in 1985, although some clubs emerged that continued some elements of Treasure Trap. In the Netherlands, some of the oldest known LARPs were founded in 1994 and include Emphebion and Arcana, both fantasy-oriented LARPs that are still active to this day. After the establishment of the first LARPs, the phenomenon spread quickly, and nowadays many different types of LARPs are played worldwide, so there's a game for every type of LARPer.

The goal of LARP

While the main goal of LARP is to entertain the participants, some LARPs also have additional goals. Most LARPs challenge their participants, physically, mentally and emotionally, by having them solve puzzles, plan and execute battles, run (fictional) factions, overcome (fictional) fears and hardships, and take on many more challenges. Many real-world events are reflected in LARPs in a more manageable setting, such as political events, religion, loss, sexuality or social interaction in general. This can help participants of a LARP event learn new ways to deal with these events in real life. Due to the immense number of possibilities within LARP, it's even possible to teach participants something by using role-playing to completely immerse them in a subject, teaching many aspects at once, such as social sciences, language and natural sciences, but also problem-solving, creativity and dealing with emotions. So yes, the main goal of LARP is entertainment, but many other aspects can come to the fore, planned or unplanned, depending on the type and genre of the LARP, which I'll briefly explain below.

Types of LARPs

There's a wide variety of LARP styles, which often have some overlap between the different styles. While some LARP events are specifically targeted at adults or children, with a minimum or maximum age requirement, others are open to participants of all ages. All LARPs have an overarching play style, of which I'll briefly touch on the most popular ones here.

Theater style

This type of LARP is also called freeform and is largely planned in advance by the gamemasters. The gamemasters create characters for all participants, including their (short) backstories, mannerisms and motives. Players have little to no preparation in terms of creating their character, but can spend a lot of time on their costume design if they want. This type of LARP usually has no large fight scenes and events typically last just a few hours, spread across an afternoon or evening.

Fests

Short for festivals, fests are very large LARP events. They often have hundreds to thousands of participants, coming from all over the world and forming smaller (but still large) factions or camps that interact with each other. These events take place at very large locations, last multiple days and require participants to camp in-character. So you eat, cook, sleep, wash and play in character throughout the entire event. Due to their size and the difficulty of finding a suitable location to house so many participants, there aren't many of this style of LARP events. Some of the most well-known Fests are Bicolline in Canada and ConQuest of Mythodea and DrachenFest in Germany.

Nordic LARP

As the name suggests, this style of LARP started in Scandinavia and Finland. The rules for this style are deliberately kept relatively simple to ensure that immersion is broken as little as possible and to give more focus to emotionally complex issues with a variety of themes, such as politics or history. Character building is central to Nordic LARP, so that participants can experience intense and fully immersive emotional experiences during events. The plot is specifically written with this idea in mind and focuses more on cooperation than competition. This style of LARP often has a strong influence on the emotions of the players, as well as the characters. The goal of a Nordic LARP is not always to be thematically very heavy, as these types of LARPs are sometimes specifically written to be lighthearted and to center the creativity and artistic skills of participants in the story.

Script murder games

Also referred to by the Chinese name Jubensha, script murder games or parlour LARPs originated in China and became popular in the 2010s. This type of LARP is sometimes described as a mix between traditional board games, escape rooms and LARP. Script murder games often last just a few hours at a time and have a small number of participants at once. Inspired by whodunit (reality) TV shows, the goal of these types of LARP events is usually, as the name suggests, to solve a dramatic murder, whether as a group or as an individual.

Larp genres

In addition to styles, LARPs also have a wide variety of genres and subgenres. To offer a small break from reality, many LARPs are based on fiction, inspired by existing works of fiction, myths or folklore, or completely invented by the storytellers. The LARPs mentioned earlier drew most of their inspiration from fantasy works such as J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings series or role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons, but LARP story writers can draw inspiration from anything, from books, television shows and films to games or even events in the real world. Due to the imaginative nature of LARP, there are many options available, including the existence of magic, cryptids, extraterrestrial life, space, time and planar travel, post-apocalyptic events, alternative history or an alternative present. The genres of LARP can be roughly divided into 4 categories: historical LARP, fantasy LARP, modern LARP and futuristic LARP, which all have an almost infinite number of subcategories.

Historical LARP

Historical LARPs are based on real historical events. Stories that are played out can be derived from major historical events such as large wars and battles, but can also reflect everyday life in a particular historical period. These types of LARP events are most similar to historical re-enactment, with some more freedom to deviate from pure historical practice. While in re-enactment participants stick to historical truth as much as possible, including (recreating) clothing and accessories as well as social norms and even the food that is consumed, in historical LARP it is more tolerated to use modern fabrics, sewing techniques or changes in social norms to allow a more modern approach, making this a slightly more accessible way to try re-enactment. However, many participants will choose to stick to true historical practices as much as possible. Besides the freedom in interpreting historical events, historical LARP differs from re-enactment in that it is much more focused on story building, rather than reliving history exactly as it was.

Fantasy LARP

One of the most common genres of LARP is fantasy LARP. While fantasy LARPs often take place in a historical setting, this is not always the case, and it's not always clear what time period applies to a fantasy LARP. Beyond the vague historical setting, nature often plays an important role in fantasy LARPs. It can be presented as a conscious being, as a presence that grants special powers or as an entity that the story revolves around. What distinguishes this type of LARP from other genres are the fantasy elements. These can be presented in many ways, such as fantasy races (elves, dwarves, orcs, etc.), the availability of magic with diverse sources, the existence of mythological creatures, cryptids and/or supernatural creatures and many more fantasy elements. Any combination of these fantasy elements can be used to greater or lesser degrees, leading to a large number of subgenres. An example of such a subgenre is high fantasy LARP, in the style of, for example, Tolkien's Middle-earth or George R.R. Martin's World of Westeros, where the fantasy elements are an integral part of the world and everyone in the world is aware of the existence of fantasy races, magic, dragons, etc. In contrast to this, there are also low fantasy LARPs or urban fantasy LARPs, where the fantasy elements are more hidden and possibly concealed from a large part of the world's population. Examples of low fantasy and urban fantasy are J.K. Rowling's Wizarding World and Jim Butcher's Dresden Files respectively, where the magical world is hidden from muggles and set in modern Chicago with a layer of magical, supernatural and cryptid elements that must be kept secret from the general public. Another subgenre of fantasy LARP is horror LARP, where the main inspiration is drawn from horror fiction. H.P. Lovecraft's works, including his Cthulhu Mythos and At the Mountains of Madness, have influenced many of these horror LARPs. Another major source of inspiration for horror LARPs is the World of Darkness game series by White Wolf Publishing, including Vampires: The Masquerade and Werewolves, focusing on supernatural creatures such as vampires and werewolves. White Wolf Publishing has even released a fully developed set of LARP rules called Mind's Eye Theatre, which is used worldwide.

Modern LARP

Modern LARPs can revolve around everyday concerns, such as politics or sexuality, but can also deal with more specific interests, including warfare or espionage. During these latter types of LARP events, it's not uncommon for players to use airsoft, paintball or laser guns to resolve combat, rather than the more historical weapons like swords, bows and/or crossbows that are used in most other types of LARP.

Modern LARPs can also incorporate elements of fantasy LARP, especially the lower and urban fantasy and horror types of LARP often take place in a modern setting. In these mixed genres, an alternative reality is created where players can be challenged in the same way they would be in a more semi-historical type of fantasy LARP.

Futuristic LARP

There are also LARPs that take place in a fictional future. These futuristic LARPs often have a high level of technology and little to no (naturally occurring) magic. Some futuristic LARPs are about space exploration and extraterrestrial life, drawing inspiration from, for example, Star Wars and Star Trek, while others take place in a future on earth. These earth-bound futuristic LARPs can involve political intrigue, portray dystopian civilizations, such as George Orwell's 1984 or Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, or be inspired by post-apocalyptic works of fiction, cyberpunk and/or space opera. These futuristic, and particularly post-apocalyptic, LARPs can deal with, for example, zombie or mutant outbreaks, deadly viruses and the like. Because this LARP genre takes place in an era that hasn't happened yet, it can sometimes be harder to create your costume or think about what types of weapons or accessories you'd want to use. A good rule of thumb is to read the world setting of a particular LARP, maybe look at photos if they're available, or ask participants or members of the organization what the best approach would be.

Now that we've looked at the theoretical side of what LARP involves, I want to tell you in the next blog what LARP is from a more practical standpoint. I'll talk about the three main pillars of a LARP event, how you can get started and some words and phrases that are used in most, if not all LARP events.

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