Your First LARP Character: Physical

May 13, 2025

Now that you have a good understanding of the style of LARP you're going to play and what kind of character you'll be creating for this LARP, it's time to start thinking about how to bring this character to life physically. There are three main components to focus on when planning your character: your costume, your weapons, and additional props and accessories. In this blog, I'll guide you through making choices within these three categories.

Costume

The first thing your fellow players will see is your costume. This includes the clothing you choose for your character, but also any face paint or make-up you wear, and what you do with your hair. Through your costume, you can show at a glance whether you're a wealthy, noble person, or a hardworking guild member, or even a poor pauper. Choosing the right fabrics and colours can also help convey your social status and/or profession. A character who spends a lot of time on the battlefield would wear different materials than a political character, and someone who needs to hide easily in the forest would wear different colours than someone who likes to be in the spotlight. Some LARPs even describe in their world history, the people's book, or other documents what clothing belongs to certain races and whether colour also makes a difference. When putting together your costume, it's really important that your character's background, origins, and profession are well thought out.

Of course, it's also important to keep in mind what type of LARP you're going to play: you'll wear different clothing at a historical LARP than at a high fantasy LARP, and the difference is even greater when you're participating in a modern or even futuristic LARP. Keep this in mind when choosing the different elements of your costume.

Because of temperature differences between different events—some events are in the summer when it's very hot, and some in the winter when it can be bitterly cold—it's useful to think about layering.

Base layer

For example, you could think of an underdress or chemise for a female character. When choosing your base layers, you can also show your character's status. For most people, natural, undyed linen or wool was used for making undergarments, but very wealthy or noble ladies often wore silk underwear. For gentlemen, you could think of an undershirt or blouse and trousers. For the men, you can also play with different materials, such as linen or wool for the middle class, or silk for wealthier gentlemen with more influence.

Middle layer

This is the most visible part of your costume and can consist of, for example, a nice tunic or a (wam)buis and trousers in the style of your LARP, or a dress or skirt with a bodice or corset. In the middle layer, you can do the most to show your social class and profession through the materials, colours, and styles of your clothing. A (noble)smith, for example, would wear relatively simple and comfortable clothing with the addition of a (leather) apron, while a wizard would rather wear a long robe. And a king would use deep colours and expensive fabrics, such as velvet and silk, while a worker would wear more natural tones and simpler fabrics, such as linen.

Top layer

Finally, you can think about a top layer to keep you warm and/or safe. For the top layer, you could think of warm jackets or cloaks that keep out the cold during winter events and cold summer evenings. But armour and suits of mail also fall under the top layer. These are usually only put on when fights are about to break out, or when a warrior is standing guard.

You can make all these layers as elaborate as you like, and the nice thing about playing the same character for a long time is that you can also add elements to your costume over the years. So you really don't need to have a fully developed costume ready for your very first event. In fact, it's often wise to keep your costume relatively simple for your first event and invest in the most important elements, such as a dress, or a blouse with a skirt, or an armour, (wam)buis or doublet with matching trousers. As your character experiences more, and you also get a better idea of whether you want to continue the hobby, you can then add elements to your costume. Additionally, depending on your budget and skills, you can choose to make your costume yourself or buy parts. DIY costumes can be cheaper in some cases and you have complete control over the design, but you can also customize purchased costumes to your own wishes by adding embroidery, lace trim or family crests, dyeing your costume with (textile) paint or giving it an aged look through a tea or coffee bath or working it over with mud.

Finally, keep your own comfort in mind. This is not only about warmth, but also about wearability and the fabrics you choose. A rococo-style ball dress with a matching wig looks absolutely amazing, but if you know you're going to be fighting and walking through the forest, you might be better off choosing a shorter skirt or trousers to give yourself more freedom of movement. And if you know beforehand that your skin doesn't do well with wool, it's totally fine to choose a different fabric to keep you warm. Take into account what your body can handle and what your physical plans are for the event, and adjust your costume accordingly. Make sure your costume isn't too difficult to put on and take off, because you'll probably have to undress yourself in the dark in the evening, and you'll be putting it on again very tiredly in the morning. Plus, it's handy to be able to easily use the toilet.

Weapons

In addition to your costume, your weapons are an important part of your character's appearance. A really cool knight with extensive armour using a simple dagger gives a different impression than when you're wielding an imposing longsword. And that same longsword in the hands of a woodsman is way too heavy and impractical. A sword with a gilded blade looks nice in the hands of a nobleman, but wouldn't make sense for a poor farmer. So when choosing an appropriate weapon for your character, think about what would make sense: what could your character logically afford and carry around? Fortunately, the world of LARP weapons is so extensive that there's a suitable weapon for every character, so you can always defend yourself. Whether it's an obvious weapon like a sword, dagger, axe or hammer, or a utility object like a rolling pin or a beer mug. Or if your character doesn't use physical weapons at all, but practises magic, priesthood, or the elements, you can express this with LARP weapons too. You could, for example, use an alchemical throwing weapon to make it clear you're throwing poison at someone, or use little foam flames to indicate a fire spell. These kinds of additions to your character can make the game more lively and can make the difference between a cohesive whole and a disjointed group of individuals.

Props and accessories

Within a LARP, it's not just the clothing and weapons that make the character, but it's with the use of beautiful, fitting props and accessories that you can give that extra step that really brings your character to life. After all, you're not fighting or sharpening your weapons the entire LARP event, but your character also lives within the participant group in between. For the moments between fights, it's useful to think about what your character might be doing, and how you can dress that up. If you have an affinity for (al)chemistry, for example, it can be fun to show this with copper or (cast) iron pots, glass bottles and jars, old-fashioned scales with weights, and you can really top it off with real herbs and possibly colourful liquids, so you can actually show that you're preparing poisons, medicines, or other alchemical concoctions. Or if your character is interested in the fine arts, you could think of a nice notebook, rolls of parchment or even an easel, with matching writing and painting supplies, or maybe even a historical musical instrument to entertain your fellow participants with a tune during quiet moments. These kinds of smaller, intimate play moments can create really beautiful memories and deep bonds with other characters.

Now that you have a good picture of how your character is put together, what your play goals and skills are, and also what you'll look like during your first LARP event, it's finally time to take the plunge and attend your first event.

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