LARPer archetypes and how it affects who gets photos
When I first got into LARPing I did quite a lot of reading. Theres a great presentation by Jeff Diewald, titled “So You Want to Write a LARP: LARP Theory 101.” It has really influenced how I think about LARP. As of writing this post the presentation is still available on the Vortex of Chaos website and it is worth checking out if you haven’t seen it.
Amongst other valuable lessons, Jeff introduces the concept of player archetypes. He groups and labels different types of LARPers by how they tend to play. These archetypes can and do populate each larp in varying quantities.
The archetypes have fairly intuitive names but I will summarise Jeffs archetypes here:
Actors go for dramatic effect. They emote, draw attention to themselves, play to audiences.
Role-players focus on the characters inner thoughts and goals.
Problem Solvers like to explore, investigate, research and uncover secrets
Gun-slingers enjoy using game mechanics to extend their experience, including but not limited to combat.
Jeff mentions the archetypes to illustrate that differing playstyles exist but also to make larp writers think about character writing and casting. You need to match players to the kind of play activities their character is likely to provoke and you should want to write LARPs that cater to multiple play-styles simultaneously.
I am mentioning the archetypes for different reasons. As a passive observer and photographer of a LARP it's my experience that Actor players are more natural photographic subjects. Their ability to emote and draw in an audience will likely draw in photographers as well, which results in those archetypes doing rather well when it comes to getting photos.
As an extension to this Actor archetypes will often make the most extreme of costuming decisions in order to stand out from the crowd which becomes yet another way of gaining attention.
Correcting this bias requires the photographer to be aware of it. For a LARP with a large cast, this may not be easy. Taking breaks from shooting to evaluate who you have already shot can help you identify gaps or biases as long as sufficient game time exists to correct them.
The LARP design can also help a lot, particularly if it contains scenes that spread leadership and generate an audience for non-Actor archetypes at various points. Give lots of players their moment in the sun and tell the photographers when those moments are going to be so they can be there to capture it.