Boutique Larp

Boutique Larp

Rarely can I find the origin of a larp phrase so easily and clearly as “boutique larp” — Mo Holkar coined it in the Larpers BFF Facebook group on January 21, 2017. It’s been nearly a decade since that post, and while the term is not common, it’s been used a decent amount. Personally, I’m quite fond of it, because boutique larps are having a moment. 

Mo defined a boutique larp by three criteria: I’m going to tweak it a bit with a suggestion by Daniel Sundström in the Facebook thread.  A boutique larp:

• Is a one-off event (I think the last word is important: a boutique larp is an event in and of itself).

• Has fewer than 50 people participating in it.

• Has a certain level of production value associated with it.

This last point is the tweak - Mo originally suggested “reasonable bodily comfort,” which I believe is relevant to most boutique larps, but I would associate, in most cases, with production value. Dan points out you can have extremely immersive larps that are explicitly not comfortable (the example given was a lifeboat larp in the middle of the ocean), this would meet my personal sniff test for production value, but definitely not comfort.

We can debate these criteria, but really, it’s easier to give examples of what we might mean. I’m interested in the term because I’m one of the designers of our own boutique larp, Monstrosity, but consider the company we keep.

• Recent larps from Participation Design, such as Baphomet, House of Craving, and Pan.

• A number of Atropos larps, including Fragment of a Novel

• The larps by Katrine Wind (et co), including Daemon and Helicon. 

To call these larps “blockbusters” doesn’t seem accurate. Blockbuster implies a lot of people, a ton of money, and a “once-a-year” feel (even if they run twice, back-to-back). Boutique, as a term, suggests smaller, more frequent, and a range of value. A boutique shop could be a designer clothing store in downtown New York City… or it can be the personal storefront of a tailor in a small town. The value of the production doesn’t necessarily come from money, but from effort and the high level of craftsmanship of the experience. 

This makes the term boutique both versatile and useful. The unique nature of each “boutique” experience signals that a potential participant has to read more: you don’t automatically know if it’s for four or forty people, or if it’s in a grand hotel or a particularly immersive basement. However, when appropriately applied, it signals intentionality - that someone made this with care, and its quality speaks for the ability and artistry of the designers. A boutique larp isn’t something you’d play at a convention; a boutique larp is an event in and of itself, and stands as its own work of art. 

I think it’s a pretty good term that could see a lot of use right now. Eventually, it’ll be overused and useless, and we’ll need something else.  But right now, let’s talk about boutique larps, because we’re playing in the time of quite a number of great ones.