Can You Be Good At Larp?

When we talk about larping — the actual activity of live action role-play — we often talk about how to do things better. This ranges from theoretical (“How do we play to lift?”) to specific (“What are good ways to role-play a romantic relation?”) to technical (“Should we try to do an accent?”).  But all of these questions have a fundamental assumption: that role-play is something we can do better or worse. And this question has a lot of implications.

The Problem of Good Larpers

There are people we think of as “good” larpers. They do things we enjoy, and perhaps things we wish we could do ourselves. We might try to learn from them, or imitate them, or maybe we just want to play with them. But what makes them good?

Maybe we just like playing with them. When we say they’re “good,” what we really mean is, “I enjoy playing with them.” This isn’t a value judgment, it’s an expression of taste, and in this sense, “good” isn’t problematic. It doesn’t actually say anything about the quality of their play, it’s just what we enjoy.

However, our behavior doesn’t really align with that perspective. When we like playing with someone, we generally say: “I enjoy playing with you.” It’s often accompanied by praise: “You were so good when you gave that speech” or “You really made me feel scared when you cornered me.” When we slip from expressing the joy we get from playing with them to praising the manner in which they play, we really behave as if we mean that person is “good” at larping. 

And the problem is that if someone is good at larping… it also means someone else is probably bad at it.

Larping As A Skill Set

Applying positive or negative judgments to someone’s role-play happens when we treat larping as a skill, or more accurately, a set of skills. While we can address what makes for good or bad play, we have to address the underlying assumption: that role-play is a skill set.  When we discuss someone’s ability to do things well or poorly in any way, we establish that there is some expertise involved in that ability. 

But larping is a pastime; it’s something we do for fun. We also have an egalitarian trend in larp, where we don’t want to elevate or denigrate individuals for their experience and expertise (or lack thereof). And if we treat larping as a skill, we enable anxieties about someone’s role-play “not being good enough” and feelings of inadequacy.

This concern is valid. However, there are many pastimes that involve skill. Many of us have played sports - few of us are professional athletes. We can enjoy video games and board games, and even when these are cooperative, they usually involve learning and increasing one’s proficiency. Just because we do something for fun doesn’t mean we can’t be “good” at it, and being “bad” at it doesn’t mean we necessarily enjoy it. 

But What If You Can’t Be Bad At It?

Still, there’s something to be said for the perspective that you can’t be “bad” at larping as long as you’re enjoying yourself and not hurting anyone. Personally, I think there’s merit to this attitude. Someone can show up to a boffer larp simply to hit their friends with padded swords, have a wonderful time, and never approach any significant levels of immersion or emotional involvement… and that’s fine. Someone can come to a larp, sit quietly in the corner, and just be happy to be part of the community… and there’s nothing wrong with that. I don’t think that someone who has theatrical training and years of experience is necessarily larping “better” than anyone else.

However, for me, personally, larping is a skill. It’s something that I do, and I feel I can be better at it. I think it’s possible to possess this attitude without judgment: we can learn what elements of role-play are more difficult and learn skills to achieve without evaluating the play of others. But I also believe avoiding judgment does require an attitude where we’re eager to learn and express, but not necessarily achieve. After all, we’re not doing this so that people think we deserve the Academy Award for larping — we’re doing this to have a good time.