Welcome to part 2 of our series of articles on how to use business development strategies in order to grow and improve your LARP. This is an exciting series we’re putting out in order to help with your LARP growth. You can read part 1 here.
I didn’t know what Part 2 would be about when I wrote Part 1, I just knew that I’d be posting the article in various places and would get a lot of interested feedback from the LARP community. I knew there would be a follow-up discussion to be had and hoped it would be big enough to merit its own post. It was! The subject for this post quickly became apparent as I got feedback from places like r/LARP, Larp Sactuary and Larp Haven.
There is no ‘right way’ to view LARP growth
I made comparisons to small businesses because some of the growth strategies for a small business would be applicable, and beneficial, to a LARP. That’s not to say that every LARP should be focused on growing or generating revenue. There are some serious considerations to be made before deciding to change your LARP. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, is an adage worth keeping in mind. Are you and your players happy with your LARP? Awesome. Why change it?
The only thing that really describes all LARPs and LARPers is diversity. We are diverse in our regions, our demographics, our interests, our styles of LARP, the size of our LARPs, our languages and our level of commitment. This applies to every LARP in the world and every player at every LARP, it’s one of the things that makes LARP so exciting.
You don’t get this level of diversity with other business verticals. No matter how different they may be, two coffee shops must invariably sell you coffee. The expected output for most business is fairly consistent within that business. That’s not how LARP works.
Regions are less important than population density
People talk about Euro vs North American vs Nordic vs a number of other styles, but it’s important to remember that there’s nothing about these styles of LARPs that can’t be transferred to another continent. It’s incredibly easy to research different styles of LARPs before starting one in order to weigh pros and cons. As a LARP organizer you can pick a style or you can take it to your community to see what the preference is. This is market research and I’ll talk more about it later.
Population density and ease of travel are what really create different LARP dynamics. They control your competition, and whether you view yourself as a business or not, you’ll still need to consider your regional competitors in order to determine your viability as a LARP. For example: let’s say there’s already a bigger Fantasy LARP in an area and you want to start one. It’s safe to assume that those players are pretty engaged and you’ll need to win them away in order to achieve LARP growth. That’ll take more energy. You need to differentiate yourself in order to draw people away from existing LARPs.
Be First, Better or Different
If you can’t describe your LARP as one of those things, and have enough people agree with you, your LARP will face an uphill struggle to find players and grow as a community. Fortunately it’s pretty easy to be one of these as a LARP. You’ll want to use market research in order to determine your best path forward. If your goal is LARP growth checking off one of the following will help.
Being first is pretty simple: is there a LARP within a reasonable distance of you? No? Awesome! This is usually the best way to start a new venture as you don’t need to worry about competition.
Being better can be harder. If you want to run a fantasy LARP but there’s already one established nearby you’ll need to have something exciting enough to draw players away from the competition. Lower prices? A better location? Better rules? Achieving success here by finding out what leaves players dissatisfied with current options in order to improve them. A fast way to potentially achieve a number of these objectives would be to look into getting a franchise for an existing LARP. Being better is also especially hard if you charge more for your games than your competition. Money considerations are vitally important. People expect, and deserve, good value.
Being different is quite easy in the LARP world compared to other business types. There are so many sub-genres of LARP, and so many different formats.
Franchises exist almost everywhere for a reason
I believe there’s a lot of value in franchising. Underworld LARP offers franchise agreements and we have franchises in multiple countries, but even if we didn’t this would still be true and I’d still be saying it. Many of the biggest businesses in the world offer franchise agreements. They represent what can be a mutually beneficial relationship. Large LARP organizations that offer franchises often have resources, rules, game world and brand recognition that is difficult to match as a solo LARP entrepreneur. When we help you start a LARP we want to make sure you have the best chance of success.
Starting a LARP involves, among other things, coming up with a game world and ruleset. This can represent a lot of work and it may not appeal to everyone. Coming up with your local lore for a specific region is different from coming up with the type of global history that could be used to make your world feel more alive and vibrant. Rules can also be quite tricky to balance if you’re bringing into play various elements like physical combat, ranged combat, magic, health and armour.
Being part of a franchise can also help with branding and marketing. Even if you don’t want your LARP to be huge you’ll need to attract some people. LARP growth is always required to some extent. Franchises can offer tangible assistance like brand rules and existing online infrastructure, or support from other franchise owners who have already done much of what you’re going through.
If you’re willing to offload the effort and energy required to built and maintain your game world, rules and other items, you can redirect that energy into running your individual games, growing your attendance and connecting with your players. If building a LARP world is important to you it may not be a good fit, but if running a LARP is your primary motivator: consider franchising.
Your LARP growth is about your preferences
You’ll put more work into running your LARP than anyone else, so you should be absolutely content with what you’re doing and how you’re doing it. You’ll run the spectrum from small and casual to large and formal, and there’s no right place to be on that spectrum.
In the discussions I had about the last article people made a lot of absolute statements. You know, saying things like “You can’t do X” or “You’ll need Y”. Absolute statements are often made about how something should be done in a specific way, and that can really hinder growth and progress. It’s better to see “In my experience, X is a big obstacle to success” or “I’ve seen that Y is very important to have”.
You’re less likely to cause conflict in such discussions by making statements that people, through their personal experience, can state as being false. When that happens the discussions often stop having any nuance to them. They simply become arguments about people defending absolute statements and immutable viewpoints. I’ve rarely encountered those as they apply to LARP. They certainly can, but LARP is so diverse that it’s hard to view them so statically.
Your LARP exists on a number of spectrums that help define it. Where you place it on those spectrums comes down to your views as the creator of that LARP. They can be:
- Funny or serious
- Fantasy or science fiction
- A casual or hardcore rule set
- A hobby project or a small business
- Small or large
It’s not about right or wrong
It’s about doing something that makes you happy and that you enjoy. Some paths to success are harder than others, but they can feel even more rewarding if you like the challenge. The opinions of others can be important. They may have more experience than you, or different insight, or they may be potential players at your LARP. Engage in these conversations constructively. Challenge yourself and your opinions, but don’t confuse a really engaging discussion online for actual market research.
Market research is about getting the most data possible and making the best decision available to you. I’ll be covering how to do that in an upcoming post and you’ll be able to see how market research helps with LARP growth. I’ll even use an example of the market research I did for the recent Underworld LARP website redesign.