DESIGNING LARP FOR CHILDREN
//Merli Juustila
There are larps aimed at exclusively at children and larps that should not include children at all. This chapter is about family larps, which are designed for all age groups. With some modifications, most larps can include children as well, and there is a growing need for such larps. The player community is at a point where a second generation of larpers has been introduced to the hobby by parents, aunts and uncles.
CHILD DEVELOPMENT & ROLE-PLAY
To children, larp is play with friends. In a voung mind, reality and fantasy can mix, and tiiis is one of the reasons why children can delve into a character more easily than many adults. Play, and specifically role-play, represents an important part of child development: children engaged in (role-) play develop social skills through reflecting on what happened. Larp as a medium is to do just diis and a further reason why children love it — it is a way to get adults to play along.
YOUNG CHILDREN. 0-2 YEARS
This is the "living prop" stage. A child of this age cannot tell the difference between larp and reality. Mom means mom, dad means dad. A child does not pay attention to strange clothes and will not understand that a costume change might mean change of character. A child can react to other players' strong reactions by getting scared, but it's more like a reflex; they cannot follow the reactions. The child plays mostly with objects and likes to participate in simple tasks.
PLAYING AGE. 3-5 YEARS
At this stage the child will get attached to stories and wodds. They experience these stories as facts, will start feeling empathy, and can easily get upset if someone is crying, yelling or visibly displaying emotional states of mind. The child can not be expected to understand the cultural difference between right and wrong, and will struggle to understand the difference between ingame and offgame. At diis stage, the parent of die child should be their guardian. Parents
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should talk to their child in a similar way to that they do at home, as this will reassure the child. Some children react strongly to behavioural changes in their parents, so the parents should be aware how much they can push their own immersion. Naturally this depends a lot on die child's age and personality.
CHILDREN AGE 6 AND UP
The child is now old enough to tell the difference between reality and make-believe. They want their parents or guardians to be in-character, so remember to act accordingly The child understands people are behind the characters. They know they are part of a game and can make character performance fierce and exciting In the larp, the child will strive to win and to solve every problem. They might need a reminder once a while to include others. Rules and guidelines are important, and the child has to learn a few cultural rules. At this stage, the child believes good always triumphs over evil. This is not always the case in larps, which can be scary.
Three stages in a child's social development in larps
Age	What a child understands oflarp	What adults can do to support the child
0-2	Observing stage. A child mostly observes theirparent and their reactions to the larp.	Be calm and show the child that everything is fine in a strange environment.
3-5	Uving the story stage. A child will believe the stories and act as though they are real. They reflect the world from theirparents.	Avoid scenes with yelling or crying since the child nil I think something is wrong and it can ruin their game.
6+	Larp stage. A child understands the concept of larp and that it is not real. They want to participate fully in a larp.	Tell them about the people behind the characters. Give lots of tasks and activities.
CHARACTERS THE CHILD
Characters for the child should be light and fit their age. Children love tasks and light plots. You can include some specific tasks for each child to make them feel extra special. They should have character relations to the other children and also a couple of others, but not too many. Their characters should be written along with the guardians, so diat the guardian knows all the child's plots and can support them.
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THE GUARDIAN
Characters for guardians should be made as supporting characters. Their role is to support the child s game and should only have lighter plots witii additional plots to seek out should the child be doing great. Because the role as guardian will limit the player's movement, the character should be someone other players come to for information or aid. If there are more children, the guardian's relations should include some of the other guardians, creating agency for the children to interact.
BEFORE. DURING AND AFTER THE LARP BEFORE THE LARP
Talk to the guardians and the child, preferably a long time ahead. The best way is to meet with them in person; tiiis way the parents will know you and it will help the child feel safe. If that is not practical, set up a video call instead.
When you meet die child for the first time, sit down or concentrate on a simple task you can do together. Do not use baby talk or demeaning speech, just treat diem as any other player. They want to make die larp work and have fun just as much as any of die adult players. You can ask them to introduce themselves and talk about what they expect and what they are going to do at the larp. You can tell tiiem what you are planning to do and if there are tilings you can do to-gedier.
If diere is something in the larp the child might find scary, such as ores, trolls or loud fights during the game, make sure to talk to the child on location before you put on a mask. You can show them some of your props and tell them you are not really a troll. You and the child now share the secret tiiat you are not scary or going to really hurt anyone.
Briefing
Guardian and children might have to skip some of die briefings and workshops before die larp. An hour of listening to an organiser talking is a long time to sit still for a child. If possible, give the guardian access to the briefing material beforehand. They can then go through them with the child ahead of time, and be free to attend only die most necessary briefings. You can organise otiier activities like games for the children while die guardian is awav. These are good to plan ahead of the larp, so die child will know the adults will attend something while it plays. You can use tiiis opportunity to teach the children a game they might also be playing in character in the larp.
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DURING THE LARP Ingame
Younger children are motivated to do tasks and quests more dian talk to each other. The larp should support this and give diem specific quests designed just for children, with adults in supporting roles. These can be very simple in structure:
• Treasure hunt: Find map pieces and find the treasure.
• Something has broken, find out how to repair it.
• Deliver a message to someone, get something in return.
• Follow this specific person and report back where they went.
By lowering your voice as you tell them about it, you show the child how important this specific mission is and how important it is tiiat just tiiat child be part of it. This creates a feeling of a real adventure.
Breaks
Children need breaks and a place to relax; tiiere should be an offgame space available, like an out of character room. It should have light snacks like raisins, carrots, apples, cookies and bread available. You can also encourage parents to bring die child s favorite snacks. This space should also offer familiar activities such as favorite toys, colouring books, or die possibility of watching cartoons. A child's stress levels (incl. positive) drops instantly when they have something familiar to do.
A younger cliild needs more breaks, whereas an older child can handle more time ingame. You know it is time for a break when the child starts going out of character, for instance by making comments that reference die real world. It is important not to punish the cliild for this; thev are just getting tired and are in need of a break.
AFTER THE LARP
While adults debrief, children will have time to blow off steam. Thev have gotten new friends, and it is good to put on everyday clothes and let them plav freely. It is good to have at least one guardian to watch them, but do encourage the giard-ians to take turns, so everyone gets to debrief.
If there have been scary characters like trolls, those players should talk with the children and perhaps play with them for a bit while still in costume. It is also important for the children to see their ingame relations remove their props and masks and turn back into normal people.
Finally, don't forget to debrief widi die children. Ask them what their favorite part was and tell them you had fun playing with them. You may have given them an experience they will remember for the rest of their lives.
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Jonna Kangas (Ed.D. Finland), early childhood researcher, consulted on theoretical background on children and role-play for this chapter.
FURTHER READING:
nordiclarp.org/wiki/100.000_swords_can't_be_silenced nordiclarp.org/wiki/Keskikesan_tarinoita
Ben Schwartz: "Live Action Role Playing To Support Healthy Teen Development". ithrivegames.org. (12.12. 2018)
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LARP DESIGN
CREATING ROLE-PLAY EXPERIENCES
Edited by
Johanna Koljonen, Jaakko Stenros, Anne Seritp Grove, A.ina D. Skjonsfjell, and E/in Nilsen