What Do Adult Participants Get Out of Larp? A qualitative survey based on SWORDCRAFT Australia

Editorial note: This article was originally published in the Knutepunkt 2025 book Anatomy of Larp Thoughts, a breathing corpus. It has been reprinted from there with the editors’ and authors’ permission. It has not been edited by Nordiclarp.org.

The purpose of this qualitative survey study was to discover the perceived benefits for adults participating in Live Action Role-Play (larp) games or events. The study builds on and contributes to work in creativity theory, Self-Determination Theory, and student engagement theory. The constructs from these salient theories include autonomy, collaboration, perceived competence, and emotional, behavioral and cognitive engagement. Knowing the answers to what motivates adults to spend time, money, and emotional energy on a game seemingly not valued, may provide insights into developing roleplay further as pedagogy beyond recreation.

The context: SWORDCRAFT Australia

Australia has over thirty-seven larp groups throughout the country. The Australian larp community “Swordcraft” is the largest larp community in Australia, boasting the largest medieval battle game and live action roleplay events. Set in the medieval “Warhammer Fantasy Universe” (originally a board game), it follows the storyline of the Border Lands. Their website describes the game as follows:

“Our battles boast the involvement of hundreds of people in large scale field and forest battles, sieges and skirmishes.…we fight with authentic-looking foam weapons and real steel armour, chain maille, leather, and high-quality costumes…Swordcraft hosts weekly battle games across Australia.”

The Swordcraft website describes week-long “Quests” that happen annually. The event brings larpers and merchants from all over Australia to “roleplay, eat, drink, and battle.”

Swordcraft began in 2011 and is a well-established not-for-profit organisation that seeks to “develop an inclusive community”. Leadership positions include president, treasurer, secretary and founders. Other positions include logistics and new player training, community liaison compliance, quest event organizer and head martial. Additionally, you have officers for rules and equipment, community engagement, public relations and media liaison. There are ten chapters of Swordcraft in Australia, including Brisbane, Melbourne and South Australia.

Swordcraft is set in one world involving battles in the medieval Warhammer universe. Participants’ characters are inspired from the vast list created for the board game and Swordcraft battles take place in field settings across Australia. Despite its obvious differences with Nordic larp, what I wanted to study is rooted in collaboration among players and organizers, something universal to larp.

Methods: An Open-ended Online Survey

Swordcraft agreed to sponsor my research survey on their websites.^[1]The research used a Qualtrics online survey that ensured the ethical requirements were met: all respondents had to indicate that they were 18 years of age or older before beginning the survey, and all survey respondents were anonymous. All data collected is securely stored at James Cook University in Townsville, Australia. A total of 58 respondents completed the survey over a six month period. The survey consisted of four questions, with no limit to the length of responses allowed:

1. What factors influenced your decision to join a larp group?
2. List, describe, explain the different benefits you get from participating in larp.
3. List, describe, explain the different challenges you face participating in larp.
4. What would you like others to know about participating in larp?

The questions were open-ended, because I wanted to investigate larp as a lived human experience. Self-reflexivity and references to personal experiences were the primary sources. I recognized and respected the participants’ subjective meaning contained within their statements. I chose this approach, because roleplaying and game-playing itself involves constructing subjective meaning.

Theoretical frame: Creativity, Autonomy and Self-Determination Theory (SDT)

Education and training platforms are increasingly calling for the development of critical skills, which Lisa Gjeddes identifies as “creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, and communication” (Gjeddes 2013, 90).

During this study, I was interested in looking at creativity as developed through social environments that foster “autonomy” (Manucci, Orazi, and de Valck 2021, 650). As defined by Blumenfeld, Kempler and Krajcik (2006), “autonomy” is experienced when the social context of the activity affords adults with a sense of psychological freedom and perceived choice over one’s own actions. Sam Bolton, who also wrote about Swordcraft, makes clear that the basic requirements for creativity, namely collaboration and autonomy, are key in larp:

“There is a shared sense of creation, a constant reinforcement that your imagination means something to the collective. Swordcraft promotes collaboration and asks you to immerse yourself not only in a roughly medieval fantasy world of epic battle and adventure, but in a much richer community of like-minded participants, working toward the same vision” (Bolton 2013, 36).

In my research, I have combined these references to the frame of Self-Determination Theory (SDT), which is a macro theory of human motivation. There, autonomy, perceived competence, and relatedness are identified as psychological needs innate to the individual, and fulfilling these needs facilitates intrinsic motivation (Ryan and Deci 2000). As Finnish scholar Tuomas Harvianen notes, there is much speculation on player motivation. While most studies use a predetermined list of motivators,^[2]See McDiarmid (2011), Stark (2012), and Yee (2012). Bienia allowed participants to add their own (Bienia 2013). Bienia then found that “Support” was an added motivator from 44 individuals, “…stressing the motivation of supporting other players and the game”. This notion of “support” speaks to the construct “perceived competence” in SDT theory, making it a motivator but also part of the constructs of relatedness (collaboration) and autonomy, which are key to developing “creativity” in creativity theory.

Research questions

Respondents to the survey do not point to autonomy and perceived competence: Autonomy is built into the larp experience, and participation happens through the supportive larp network, enabling feelings of competence. To keep my theoretical frame at the center of this study, I used three main questions when analyzing the larp participants’ open-ended survey responses:

1. What indicators of the constructs of engagement (emotional, behavioral, and cognitive) are reported by larp survey respondents?
2. What indicators of the constructs of autonomy, collaboration, and perceived competence are reported by larp survey respondents?
3. Will the qualitative data be corroborated by the quantitative data? The validity of inferences arising from research findings will be strengthened through this analysis, showing magnitude (Creswell, Plano Clark, Gutmann, and Hanson 2003).

Methodology

I used deductive thematic analysis, utilizing both qualitative and quantitative approaches, aligning with content analysis to assess the magnitude of responses. The frequency of responses indicating an identified construct are shown as percentages. For example, if a question has 46 “social indicating” responses out of 58 participants, the percentage or strength of that response is 79%. I also averaged the responses for each construct over the four questions. Some responses to individual questions pointed to more than one engagement construct. Tabulations were made for each engagement construct for each question.

I included quotations for some of the responses which can illustrate motivating factors and key types of engagement. Sample responses are indicative of the most commonly represented.

Data Analysis: What Resonated Most in the Four Question Responses

Social: (71%, 79%, 48%, 47%) – Average= 61.25%
Emotion: (24%, 62%, 41%, 69%) – Average= 49%
Cognitive: (47%, 43%, 33%, 59%) – Average=45.5%
Physical: (40%, 72%, 24%, 24%) – Average=40%
Creativity: (22%, 50%, 19%, 21%) – Average=28%

Although larp provides emotional, cognitive and physical engagement, and although larpers enjoy the creativity of developing their character and kit, what stands out most is the social benefits.

Question 1: What factors influenced your decision to join a larp group?

Social, Community, Friends (Relatedness): 71%
Cognitive: 47%
Physical: 40%
Emotion: 24%
Creativity: 22%

Quotes from the Respondents:

SOCIAL: “Find friends with similar hobbies and interests to me”…”Now, 7 years later I’ve made lifelong friends”

COGNITIVE: “Interests in fantasy storytelling”…”interest in historical martial arts”

PHYSICAL: “a physical element of battle games, active hobby”…”recreational activity”

EMOTION: “My enjoyment of cosplay, dnd and fantasy”…”Fun activities, escape, pop culture enjoyment”

CREATIVITY: “immersing myself into a new activity”…”roleplay, costume crafting”

Question 2: List, describe, explain the different benefits you get from participating in larp.

Social, Community, Friends (Relatedness): 79%
Physical: 72%
Emotion: 62%
Creativity: 50%
Cognitive: 43%

Quotes from the respondents:

SOCIAL: “I have met a huge group of people with common interests and made many new friends”…”Having this amazing and friendly community to be a part of, socialization”

PHYSICAL: “fitness”…”it is really good exercise, physical health”

EMOTION: “I discovered a new confidence in myself, stress levels have gone down”

CREATIVITY: “drives me to be creative in my costuming and characterisation, it pushes me to try new things”

COGNITIVE: “skill gain, increased confidence, organizational skills”…”Practice skills like leadership and critical thinking”

Question 3: List, describe, explain the different challenges you face participating in larp.

Social, Community, Friends, (Relatedness): 48%
Emotion: 41%
Cognitive: 33%
Physical: 24%
Creativity: 19%

Quotes from the respondents:

SOCIAL: “Mostly social issues”…”with any community there are some bad eggs”

EMOTION: “people anxiety, fear of judgement, burn out”

COGNITIVE: “communication a challenge sometimes”…”role playing can be very hard”

PHYSICAL: “combat, fighting, injuries”

CREATIVITY: “my limited skills at making clothing is sometimes at odds when trying to recreate an historical or fantasy outfit”

Factors of money, time, costumes and gear were additional challenges identified in the survey.

Question 4: What would you like others to know about participating in larp?

Emotion: 69%
Cognitive: 59%
Social, Community, Friends, (Relatedness): 47%
Physical: 24%
Creativity: 21%

Quotes from the respondents:

EMOTION: “It’s bloody fun”…”it can be a very engaging and rewarding hobby”

COGNITIVE: “learn new skills in a community with a wide range of skills, knowledge, and passions”

SOCIAL: “that there is a broad range of people that participate, we have teachers, plumbers, electricians, it really is its own little community”

PHYSICAL: “There is competitiveness, adrenalin, fighting, physical combat”

CREATIVITY: “recreating costumes to fit the era”…”immersion”

Note: While the survey shows that social motivation is central to larpers, larp also suffers from negative stereotypes that, in turn, can impact participants’ social status. However, when questioned about these negative stereotypes, the respondents further advocated for larp as an opportunity to be part of a community and do something fun.

Reflections

In my teaching career I found roleplay to be an extremely effective way to learn, both in live simulations and writing in role. Similarly, larp-like simulations, both physical and virtual, are employed in a wide range of settings including the military, various workplaces, and higher education. The constructs embedded in the larp experience showcase the power of roleplaying beyond leisure. Larp benefits are seen as especially important for the development of “21st century skills” such as creativity, social and interpersonal skills etc. Larps are being used to enable people to engage with history, heritage, and culture. Larp can be instrumental in creating positive change for communities through raising awareness and generating solutions and possible interventions.

McDiarmid, who also studied the motivations, benefits, and challenges facing larpers, urged further research in this area with a call to “compare larp motivations internationally” (McDiarmid 2011, 102). My study’s findings regarding the motivations of Australian larpers and how they are engaged by the activity aims to contribute to this dialogue with Nordic larp researchers. Of particular interest to me is McDiarmid’s assertion, “With the rise of mobile computing and augmented reality technology, more possibilities for different ways of larping arise” (McDiarmid 2011, 102), predicting further interesting comparisons between traditions of larping and player’s motivation.

References

Bienia, Rafael. 2013. “Why Do They Larp? Motivations for Larping in Germany”. In The
Wyrd Con Companion Book, edited by Sarah Lynne Bowman and Aaron Vanek. Creative Commons.

Bolton, Sam 2013. “Crusades and kinship: Live action role play in Melbourne”, Kill your
darlings new fiction, essays, commentary and reviews. 29-36. The INFORMAT.

Blumenfeld, P.C., Kempler, T.M., and Krajcik, J.S..2006. “Motivation and cognitive
engagement in learning environments”. In The Cambridge handbook of the learning sciences, edited by R.K. Sawyer. Cambridge University Press.

Creswell, Plano-Clark, Gutmann and Hanson. 2003. “Advanced mixed methods research
designs”. In Handbook of mixed methods in social and behavioural research, edited by A. Tashakkori and C. Teddie. SAGE.

Gjedde, Lisa. 2013. “Role Game Playing as a Platform for Creative and Collaborative
Learning”. European Conference on Games Based Learning. Proquest.com.

Manucci, P.V., Orazi, D.C., and de Valck, K. 2021. “Developing Improvisational Skills: The
Influence of Individual Orientation”. Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 66 (3): 612-658. SAGE. DOI: 10.1177/000183922095697

McDiarmid, Rob. 2011. “Analyzing Player Motives to Inform larp Design”. In Branches of
Play: The 2011 Wyrd Con Academic Companion, edited by Amber Eagar. Creative Commons.

Ryan, R.M., and Deci, E.L. 2000. “Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic
motivation, social development, and well-being”. American Psychologist, 55(1): 68-78. Doi: 10.1037//0003-066X.55.1.68

SWORDCRAFT 2025. What is Swordcraft? https://www.swordcraft.com.au.

This article is republished from the Knutepunkt 2025 book. Please cite it as:
Barta, Sam. 2025. “What Do Adult Participants Get Out of Larp? A qualitative survey based on SWORDCRAFT Australia.” In Anatomy of Larp Thoughts, a breathing corpus: Knutepunkt Conference 2025. Oslo. Fantasiforbundet.

Cover image: Photo by Luis Quintero on Pexels.