How many different kinds of larp are there?
One of the most interesting things I’ve noticed from my conversations with larpers of various backgrounds is the way terms get used. Larpers of different backgrounds will often use different terms to refer to the same things, or the identical terms to refer to different things. But almost all larpers have a tendency to consider whatever kind of larp they do most often as default, and refer to it simply as “larp”. All the other terms are then used to refer to other kinds of larp that need to be differentiated from their own default. I’m not making any value judgements about this, it’s a pretty normal human way to use language. But I think it pays to remember that your “normal larp” is someone else’s “weird conceptual offshoot.” It also means that a lot of these terms are largely defined by what they are not, rather than what they are.
This issue is further compounded by the opacity of larp as a hobby. Because larp is still a relatively small hobby that doesn’t have mainstream promotion or advertising budgets, larpers are generally aware of the larps they play and maybe a few that are a bit similar, but are much less likely to have heard of larps that are very different from their usual fare. So terms tend to be defined in ways that have a lot of assumptions about what a larp is and what will be happening at a larp. I’m sure I have some of that same bias myself, so feel free to correct me or add anything I might have missed in the comments.
All of this makes discussing larp with a varied audience a bit difficult at times. I need a way to describe the kinds of larp my thoughts apply to or how the ideas might present differently in a different kind of larp. So before I get into some more interesting articles, I figured I’d start with my own catalogue of larp varieties and terms. This is based largely on my own experiences playing a variety of larps in Australia and Europe. I don’t have as much experience with American larp, so I might miss some things from that tradition. Please feel free to comment with any terms or types of larp I might have missed.
In practice, most larps are more that one thing or have more than one element to them. I’ll be adding some examples of each concept, but several examples will appear more than once. Some terms also overlap, I’ve tried to make this clear where I’ve encountered it.
*** Editing to add a few additional categories and examples people have mentioned. ****
Combat or boffer larp
A larp where physical conflict is resolved by actually hitting people with weapons. There are usually rules about what kind of weapons can be used, such as thickly padded “boffer” weapons, realistic-looking latex-coated foam weapons, or even blunt-steel weapons. Blows are usually meant to be pulled at the last minute to minimise injury. The defining feature is that the actual combat skill of the player is what determines how the combat goes.
Generally this term refers to larps where the physical combat is a major focus of the game. Examples include Swordcraft and Exodus. However, some larps have more of a character roleplay or story focus, but still include combat of this nature, either in organised battles like Empire, or organically throughout the game like Avalon. Something like Zedtown, which uses nerf weapons, could also be described as a combat larp.
Parlour, chamber or theatre larp
A larp, usually played indoors, that focuses on social interactions between characters rather than physical combat or action. Conflicts and combat are resolved through negotiation between players or some kind of symbolic mechanic to represent the character’s skills and abilities, or simply through roleplay. However the understanding is that your physical prowess or fighting skill as a player is not the determinant of how a conflict goes.
Examples include the Camarilla or Beyond the Sunset World of Darkness larps, Convention of Thorns, College of Wizardry, Pax Europa, Good Society, most of the independent larps run in Canberra, and the freeforms run at Pheno.
This term can get a bit tricky for games where physical contact, and even combat is included, but it is governed by rules about negotiation, consent or tabletop-style mechanics. Arguably, Convention of Thorns, College of Wizardry, the Pan Trilogy (which includes Baphomet) and Threehold could all be in this nebulous or arguable category. Overall I would put them in the parlour or theatre category, simply because they are obviously not boffer or combat larps.
Freeform or blackbox larp (sometimes also chamber larp)
This is a term that gets used differently by different people. In much of Europe the term denotes a parlour-larp played with little to no set-dressing or costume. The group is usually fairly small 5–20 players.
Some Europeans and Americans use these terms to refer to larps that include significant jumps in time or significant abstractions of action and combat. People using the term like this generally favor larps where players act out every action in real time. If it takes you an hour to walk to the dungeon, then you walk for an hour to the dungeon. In a freeform, the organiser or game-master handwaves over that bit and jumps the group straight to the dungeon. Some people have described this style of larp as sitting between tabletop rpgs and true larps.
Some Europeans also use the term Jeepform to refer to a sub-set of freeform larps that are particularly avant garde or experimental. These kinds of larps are likely to use a lot of theatre sports techniques and focus on stories set in our real modern world with mundane characters.
In Australia, particularly amongst the Pheno crowd, the freeform term has come to mean a parlour larp with little to no system or mechanics. This differentiates it from other parlour larps, like the World of Darkness larps, with extensive rules and systems often echoing or recreating rules from the tabletop version of the rpg.
Campaign larp
A larp with multiple sessions where players play the same characters at each session in a consistent world that progresses over time. Characters might progress from session to session with experience points, or increases in power and status, or simply a personal narrative.
I have generally avoided other assumptions, but I will note that it is common in campaign larps for players to entirely create their own characters, within the limits set by the organisers. I think the greater ownership players assume of their characters is one of the important features of campaign larps.
The Beyond the Sunset and Camarilla larps with their monthly games and campaigns running for years are the classic example of this category of larp. But Blackpowder and Bloodlines also fits this category, running once a year for an anticipated 5 years. Other examples include Empire, Swordcraft Quest, and many of the short campaign larps of 3–12 sessions run by Caligo Mundi.
One-shot or single-session larp
A larp that runs for one session. Afterwards the characters are not played again and the world does not persist in subsequent games. The single session might be as short as 3 hours or less, or go for an extended weekend. The larp might be run multiple times, but each run is it’s own instance and does not reference previous runs.
It is much more common for one-shot larps to have characters completely or partially written by the game organisers.
Examples include most of the Pheno freeforms and the independent Canberra larps, Threehold, Pax Europa, Good Society, Convention of Thorns, De La Bete, and Avalon. Most commercially available pre-written larps will be one-shots, such as Arsenic and Lies, the Dance and the Dawn, and In the Shadow of the Lord.
Nominally College of Wizardry was supposed to be one-shot, with no story or characters between persisting between games. However in practice a lot of players sign up for subsequent runs to play the same character with the same relationships with other characters, and play out their own persistent story, that it has largely become a campaign larp. The new owners of the franchise are attempting to address this by breaking the game into various storylines that are separate from the core product. I’m not sure how well that’s working out in practice though, I expect time will tell.
The Pan Trilogy is another nebulous example. I’ve only played one, Baphoment, and it could very easily be described as a one-shot larp that has been run multiple times. However it exists as part of a trilogy of larps with shared themes and techniques. It is unclear whether the three larps all occur in the same universe. In practice, with different players in different runs of each larp, it is unlikely that they will feature characters or storylines persisting between games in a way the players would notice.
Scripted, story or content larp
A larp where the characters, their motivations and probably their relationships are pre-written by the larp writer. These are likely designed to interact together to produce some (fairly) predictable tensions and scenes. The larp generally needs the players to at least try to accomplish their character goals for the larp to work. Additional plots, NPCs or events might also be scripted to appear at set times during the larp.
De la Bete described itself as a Czech Story Larp and was heavily scripted, probably the most extreme example of this kind of larp. However, a lot of the Pheno and Canberra larps would also fit into this category. Avalon largely fit into this category, with it’s detailed plots linked to backstory and timed events, even though most of the characters were only lightly written or entirely written by the players. My Farscape larp, The Nebari Who Sold the World was largely a story larp; it had pre-written characters with plot elements that would emerge as the characters interacted with each other, even though I as organiser didn’t need to introduce any additional scripted elements during play.
The key differentiator is that these larps aren’t sandbox or open-world larps. Players can’t really set their own goals or write their own storylines, and they certainly can’t request NPCs or scenes from the organisers.
Interestingly, the World of Darkness larps run by the Camarilla and it’s descendants could be described as both story-larps and sandbox larps. Most Storytellers in those larps will be running their own plots, with 10pm monsters, mysteries to unravel and other stories written and controlled by the organisers. However many of those larps have also historically had strong sandbox elements where player characters can take on leadership roles, create new organisations and pursue their own goals, within some pre-defined limits.
I have heard one or two people use these terms to refer to non-combat or non-boffer larps (aka parlour or theatre larps). But I haven’t heard that term used widely enough to be confident they weren’t just trying to describe something they were unfamiliar with.
Sandbox or open-world larp
These are larps where the player has a lot more control over their character and their own storyline. Players can set and pursue their own goals, define their own relationships and find their own things to do within the structure of the larp. The larp organisers will set a framing structure for the game, but will otherwise not introduce plot or additional surprises or mysteries for the players to uncover.
College of Wizardry is the classic example of this kind of larp, with pretty much the entire game being defined by the players. As previously mentioned, many of the Camarilla games are historically very sand-boxy, despite also having organiser introduced plots.
Pax Europa was designed largely as a sandbox game, as was Threehold. Games like Empire and Swordcraft Quest also have a lot of sandbox elements.
Blockbuster or castle larp
Like their movie namesakes, these are larps with a bigger budget and higher production values. Often they are held in a large and spectacular venue like a medieval or renaissance castle in Europe. The standard of costuming is high and the larp strives for a 360 degree illusion in terms of sets, props, NPCs and special effects. Often this is funded by having hundreds of players and a ticket price in the hundreds of Euros. This ticket price usually includes accommodation, meals and possibly a costume, for the duration of the larp, often a long weekend. In practice many of these larps are still run on a shoestring though, so don’t expect “blockbuster” to necessarily mean highly profitable.
College of Wizardry and Convention of Thorns are the classic examples. As are De La Bete, Conscience, The Witcher School, Project Exodus, Outbound Hope, and Bunker 101. Slightly smaller larps like Baphomet, Fairweather Manor and Avalon can also fit into this category.
It’s difficult to find clear examples of blockbuster larps in Australia. Obviously castles are a bit hard to find, but there are a few larps trying for higher production values and cool settings. Swordcraft Brisbane’s recent Gates of Helsreik event was held in a reconstructed medieval-ish village. The Kingsford School of Witchcraft was held in a historic manor house. And obviously my own company, Immersio, is working on building up to some higher production value events. We recently ran a fully catered session of Good Society at Old Government House in Paramatta, which is a regency era building. However, none of these really have the level of scene dressing, special effects, NPC teams, organisational staff or awesomeness of venue of the European blockbusters. They also don’t share the ticket price. The most expensive larps in Australia are probably Blackpowder and Bloodlines ($250 per ticket, which includes meals and accommodation) and Swordcraft Quest ($160 for a long weekend ticket, more for the full week, no food or accommodation included).
Probably the closest Australia has come to a blockbuster larp is Zedtown. It certainly has the scale, production values and staff levels to qualify. But there are also those that don’t feel it has enough emphasis on playing a character to really qualify as a larp.
Festival (sometimes shortened to fest) larp
Very large larps of hundreds to thousands of players, usually held outdoors, where players camp in character and build a military style camp or small town. Daily mundane tasks, like cooking, eating, washing, shopping, preparing firewood or fetching water, are all done in character. Because of this, these larps can have a bit of a daily slice-of-life focus, even while there may also be epic plot or combat elements.
Examples include Empire and Swordcraft Quest. Blackpowder and Bloodlines possibly fits into this category too. Arguably, The Hobbits’ Hoedown also has a lot of festival larp elements.
“Nordic” larp
I’ve put “Nordic” in inverted commas here because it means so many different things to different people. There are also a lot of value judgements attached to the term, particularly in Australia. There are a lot of people who basically use “nordic larp” to refer to “this kind of larp that I do that is superior to what those trolls down the road do”. Which is unhelpful to say the least.
In Europe, Nordic larp appears to be trending towards simply being any larp largely organised or written by people from the Nordic countries of Denmark, Sweden, Iceland and Finland. But that’s not a terribly useful term and largely ignores the history of the term. It can also mean a larp coming from the evolving tradition surrounding the Knutpunkt larp convention.
To my mind, the term “Nordic larp” refers to a larp with some specific features and techniques that largeling originated in the Nordic larping scene but have now come into widespread use throughout the globe. These features include:
- 360 degree illusion, what you see is what you get, costumes and setting is of a high standard with little imagination required
- pre-game workshops
- collaborative consent or negotiation based mechanics
- calibration tools and mechanics
- focus on individual character experience, high degree of immersion
- bleed is seen as positive so long as it’s managed, the aim is to feel strong emotions during the larp
At their most extreme these can also be described as “crying in the mud” larps. These are larps that aim for a high level of physical and emotional discomfort, to achieve a cathartic and intense experience. Legion is probably the most extreme example of this that I’m aware of, but interestingly it is actually a Czech larp and the lack of transparency and heavily railroaded story would probably make most Nordic players balk.
Examples of Nordic larp generally are a bit hard to pin down, since almost anything I suggest will almost certainly have at least one person say that it’s “not really a Nordic larp”. Perhaps just read up at nordiclarp.org.
Political or trading larp
A larp that focuses on political machinations, in-character negotiations and bargaining over limited resouces or trade goods. My necessity these larps involve a lot of player-vs-player conflict, although that doesn’t necessarily equate to antagonism or combat.
My husband and I have developed a bit of a speciality in writing these for Pheno, so my Farscape game is a good example. Convention of Thorns is another example. Empire also has a significant political and trading element, as does Blackpowder and Bloodlines, even if it’s not perhaps the main focus of the larp. Most of your traditional Camarilla Vampire games have significant political game as well.
Walking or marching larp
A larp conducted while the players hike, walk or march over a long distance.
We don’t see many of these (or any?) in Australia, but there are a few in Europe. Legion is obviously one example.
Online larp
A larp conducted largely or entirely online through forums, social media, online chat platforms, video calls or online gaming platforms like Roll20.
This is where I will get a little bit judgemental about what is larp and what’s tabletop roleplay. I think if the online medium is diegetic or at least has some kind of alibi, then it can be called larp because you are acting out interacting with that medium. This could be scientists in different parts of a space station communicating via video chat, hackers communicating over an instant messaging service or witches and wizards communicating through a mystical portal. Alice is Missing is a great example of this, because the players are texting each other entirely in-character, with all the limitations that medium has.
In my opinion, once you’re getting to typing or saying “my character does this” to describe what you’re doing, instead of just doing it, you are no longer larping. It might still be roleplay, but it’s not larp. This is a similar issue to that described in the freeform definition.
Letter larp
Similar to an online larp, this is a larp conducted entirely through in-character letters. Usually these are physically handwritten and mailed letters, but they can also be simulated virtually with emailed images or pdfs, potentially even emails.
Importantly, while the letters might describe things the characters have done or are planning to do, the description is an in-character one through the in-character letter. There is no-breaking character to describe what you are doing.
The Innsmouth Papers is an example of this type of larp.
Megagames, multiforms and hybrid games
These are games that include a larp element in combination with another kind of game, like tabletop roleplay or a strategic board game. These terms are sometimes used interchangeably and sometimes used to refer to specific sub-types.
Generally I’ve seen the term megagames used to describe large strategic boardgames (or even computer games) that people play in costume and roleplay out diplomatic negotiations or other scenes in between turns. Rokugan Go was an example of this type of game. The Grandest LAN was also a bit like this. I will note that because a lot of these games, and their audience, are coming from the boardgaming and computer gaming tradition, rather than the rpg tradition, in practice roleplay elements tend to be a minor add on rather than a major focus of the event. Megagames written as larps first with a strategic boardgame or computer game added in tend to resemble larps more in actual play. Outbound Hope did this by including a flight simulation game for the fighter pilots.
Megagames can also refer to large scale games played in public or at public events, like treasure hunts or mystery solving games. The Game at Woodford Folk Festival is a good example. Half Monster Games is running something similar at the Abbey Medieval Festival in July this year. Clued Upp Games’ public treasure hunt games could also be considered in this category. Some of these might also be considered larp adjacent, given the lower emphasis on playing a character and the fact that the organisers don’t necessarily self-identify them as larps.
Multiforms more commonly refer to games that might have sessions of tabletop roleplaying interspersed with larp sessions, or tabletop roleplaying games where players occasionally get up to act out scenes or interactions. A lot of Firefly and Rogue Trader larps are structured this way, with tabletop sessions for each individual crew conducted in between larger larp sessions where all the crews meet in a cantina or similar.
Multiform has also been used at Pheno to refer to tabletop rpgs with a heavy emphasis on atmosphere, set dressing and props and which encourage players to move around the space and roleplay in a live way, only returning to the table for scenes that can’t be easily portrayed in the larp format. I have heard some Europeans and Americans also use the term “freeform” to describe this kind of larp, but they seem to be in a minority.
I have heard “hybrid game” used to describe all of these different games. However I have also heard the term used to refer to hybrids that don’t include a larp component, but might instead combine a boardgame and a tabletop rpg or card and miniatures games.
Larp adjacent and immersive entertainment
The immersive entertainment industry is growing globally quite quickly. No Proscenium does an extensive guide to “everything immersive” and an annual report on the state of the industry. While their reports certainly do not comprehensively cover all of the immersive entertainment that happens, they succeed in giving a glimpse at the scale and variety of the industry.
I use the term “larp adjacent” to refer to experiences that share a lot of features of larp, but are not describing themselves like larp. This can include things like “How to host a murder” parties, which are almost indistinguishable from parlour larps, to escape rooms, immersive and interactive theatre events, social deception games, alternative reality games, and potentially some virtual reality games. I’m not sure how widespread the use of “larp adjacent” is as a term, but every larper I’ve used it with has at least understood my meaning. However, I recognise that it’s a very larp-centric term and “other immersive entertainment” is probably a better way to recognise that larp is just one part of a very large and growing industry.
