It Takes a Community To Build a LARP
Overview
LARP Portal recently sponsored the American LARP Awards (ALA) to celebrate our 10th anniversary. We wanted to do something that would engage and connect the broader LARP community nationwide and to celebrate the incredible campaigns and players who share a love for Live Action Role Play.
This was our largest outreach project to date. We contacted over 600 LARPS and over 2000 LARP Portal users. Would we get any engagement? Would it only be the LARP Portal User who engaged? We didn’t know what to expect.
The process and experience was great from start to finish. We met new LARPs and LARPers, we flexed our marketing muscles, we commissioned some incredible artwork, received nominations, and notified 10 incredible LARPS and LARPers that they had been voted winners by our randomly selected panel of judges. The feedback throughout was overwhelmingly positive. Our inaugural event was terrific and we know next year will be an even bigger success.
The largest win of all, in my opinion, was that the 2024 ALA provided me with so many more examples of how incredibly supportive LARPers can be. I have often described my fellow LARPers as my extended family. Like a family, so many of them give back to their community, donating their time and talents. As a longtime LARPer I know we all appreciate how Game Owners, General Managers, and the incredible Plot and Logistics teams work to put together event after event. In this blog, I want to celebrate some of the additional ways that our community shines.
10 Ways That LARPers Support the LARP Community
1. Creating Eye Catching NPC Costumes
Are you one of the many very talented seamstresses who craft costumes for NPCs? Or someone who cranks out tabards? So many LARPers own sewing machines and use their talents for their own PC costumes but when the call goes out, they’re willing to stitch something for others. There are costume swaps and many have loaned costumes to make an event special. We featured best-costume as one of our photo categories in 2024. I’m betting that the community will vote this as a category to keep for 2025, so get those cameras out now and take lots of photos this year.
2. Designing and Building Incredible Props To Enhance a Campaign Plot
Similar to the costume category, I feel fairly certain that “best prop of the year” will remain as a top ALA category. There are so many innovative prop builders in our community. Over the years I have seen hundreds of one-of-a-kind props built by LARPers to enhance the role-playing experience of their fellow LARPers. From artwork, jewelry, customized weapons and shields to larger-than-life dragons. Crafters of all types enhance our LARPing experience every day by spending countless hours bringing the Plot writers’ visions to life. It was awesome to see master prop builders acknowledged by their players in the nomination and votes.
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3. Donating Props, Food or Supplies
Many players support the LARP community by donating items to campaigns. This can be perishables like food and supplies to feed the NPCs or props to enrich the game. The concept of donations is not new, but it is more organized and broadly adopted. Regardless of exchanges for character “Points”, we couldn’t talk about LARPers support without including this category. It keeps the cost of events down for all players to have the ability to donate needed items to the campaign.
4. Being a Permanent NPC To Play Pivotal Long-Term Roles Plot Enriching Roles
LARPs are so dependent on NPCs to ensure a successful event. You don’t have to be plot or logistic staff to have a meaningful impact. Supporting a campaign as a Permanent NPC challenges us as LARPers to enrich every weekend by playing many roles to entertain the PCs and bring the world to life.
John is an excellent example and we are thrilled he won LARP Villain of the Year for his portrayal of Lord Harris Cooper at Cottington Woods.
5. Posting Blogs and Newsletters That Provide Insights and Info on LARPing
Many LARPers publically share their experiences and opinions about the LARPs they have attended via blogs or posting on social media. These accounts help other LARPers to connect with like-minded players. LARP Portal has been very fortunate in the last year to have several guest bloggers share their writing talent with our audience. Here are some examples of blogs that share info and bring the community closer.
6. Planning and Staffing LARP Conventions
I recently attended my first ever LARP convention in March. I know, it’s surprising as a thirty-five-year LARPer that it took me so long to attend one. Just like running a game, organizing a convention is a lot of work. The many tasks and roles are likely lost on the attendees who get to play, shop and socialize. Hats off to the planners and staff of Intercon for the great 2024 Voices Event and all that give us these unique experiences.
7. Surveying Players and Analyzing Data
SImilar to many of the previous examples where LARPers use their work or life skills to benefit other LARPers, we recently talked with a LARPer who writes a newsletter and has created LARP surveys for players and staff. Using job related skills, Silver Lining Strategy has conducted surveys to gather information that could be helpful for players interested in starting their own LARP or for existing games looking to improve their player experience.
You can find Silver Lining Strategy’s surveys at:
2024 LARP Owners and Operations Survey
8. Fundraising To Support LARPs and LARPers
LARPers know how to step up when their fellow LARPers are in need. We know of kickstarters to help games get off the ground, but players so often step in to help other players with fundraising efforts to help individual LARPers in need in the community. There are many examples and kudos to the community for helping those in need. This year our judges picked Emanations as the LARP Event of the year. Emanations was built and run to raise money to honor a fellow LARPer who has passed away.
9. Buying and Developing Locations Specific for LARPing
This is a hugely unique method of supporting the community for those few entrepreneurial-minded LARPers. I know it's not easy to buy a camp and create an environment conducive to the LARP community but several LARPers have done just that.
10. Running a LARP
This is probably the biggest labor of love that any person or group of people can do to give back to the community. Running a game can take up to a couple of years of planning, from building a world, gathering a staff, finding a site, investing lots of your own money, and so much more. This is not for the faint of heart and without these brave souls there would be no LARPing. These are truly the biggest heroes for supporting the LARP community.
Closing
In this blog I shared the top 10 ways that I believe LARPers support the LARP community. Each is a way to share our time and talent to give back and help sustain this great hobby. LARPing is an experience but it builds a wonderful community of friends and family.
Share Your Thoughts
We want to hear your thoughts! Please share what you think about our great community and the many ways that LARPers support the community.
Call to Action
Check out the winners of the 2024 American LARP Awards and our most recent blogs and newsletters.
Remember LARP Portal simplifies your administrative processes and gives you and your players more time to play the game. Contact us at demo@larportal.com today for a free demo.
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