LARP Worlds & Settings: From Fantasy to Apocalypse – and the Biggest Events in Germany
What game worlds exist — and what makes each of them distinctive.
LARP plays in many worlds at once. While knights and elves roam forests in Bavaria on one weekend, survivors meet in a post-nuclear wasteland elsewhere — and somewhere in between, detectives in Victorian London are solving crimes that never happened. The range of LARP settings is remarkably wide. This article gives an overview of the major genres and what makes each of them distinctive as a game world.
Fantasy LARP: the most widely played genre
Fantasy LARP is the heart of the German and European scene. The best-known events — including Conquest of Mythodea and Drachenfest — draw thousands of participants into epic fantasy worlds that have developed their own geographies, factions, and histories.
High Fantasy with magic, diverse peoples (elves, dwarves, orcs, humans), gods, and prophecies is the dominant form. It allows maximum creativity in costume and character concept and supports combat-focused, political, and social play styles alike.
Low Fantasy reduces or eliminates magic and supernatural elements. The world is rawer, more political, more dangerous. Conflicts arise from human motivations — hunger for power, resource scarcity, betrayal. For players who prefer earthy, grounded settings over shining heroic epics.
The biggest LARP events in Germany – and how to join as an international player
If you know Empire in the UK or Bicolline in Canada, here is the German equivalent — with one difference: the German big cons are camp-based fantasy battles on a scale that surprises most first-time visitors. Attendance figures, locations and dates change from year to year — always check the organiser's official site before booking.
Drachenfest — one of the largest LARP events in Europe: several thousand players, in summer, strongly camp-based, with large battles between the participating camps. The one to pick if you want mass battles and camp life.
Conquest of Mythodea — among the largest fantasy LARPs worldwide, held in early August, with its own world that carries a continuing story from year to year. Epic set pieces, heavy politics, a world that remembers.
Epic Empires — a summer event with a focus on camp life, diplomacy and faction play.
Both Drachenfest and Mythodea have English-speaking groups and international guests every year; the in-game language is mostly German. Alongside them there are dozens of small and mid-sized events with 50 to 500 players — that's where the densest stories happen and where getting started is easiest. Tales&Legends events sit in that category: small enough to meet everyone, big enough for real adventure, and open to players who don't speak German.
Medieval, Viking and historical LARP
Historically inspired LARPs prioritise authenticity over magical elements. The range extends from loose medieval inspiration to highly detailed reconstructions where historical clothing, weaponry, and social structures are taken seriously.
What makes historical settings interesting: the friction between real history and the freedom of fiction. What if...? The tension between documented knowledge and creative elaboration often generates particularly dense atmosphere.
The challenge of historical settings: costume requirements are often higher, because visible deviations feel more jarring than in a fantasy setting that is allowed to invent its own rules.
Viking LARP
A special case among historical settings with its own, growing community: early medieval Nordic worlds, often with a light touch of mythology (gods, seers), lots of camp life, craft and trade. Costume is comparatively simple — wool tunic, wrap trousers, brooches — which makes it a popular way in.
Post-apocalyptic and sci-fi LARP
Post-apocalyptic settings — nuclear wasteland, zombie scenario, climate collapse, cyberpunk — have grown strongly in popularity in recent years. They enable different conflicts from fantasy: resource scarcity, moral grey areas, negotiating new social rules in a collapsed world.
What distinguishes these settings: high urgency, intense atmosphere, and the freedom to explore contemporary social questions through the fictional frame. Trust, loyalty, and survival are the currencies of these worlds.
For costume, the reverse applies compared to fantasy: worn, tattered, pieced-together looks more authentic than new, pristine equipment.
Horror, vampire and gothic LARP
Horror LARP lives on atmosphere, uncertainty, and the controlled use of fear as a gameplay tool. From Lovecraftian cosmic horror to vampire politics in gothic modernity to psychological chamber pieces — the genre requires particular care in handling player comfort and limits. This also covers gothic and Vampire: The Masquerade LARPs, usually indoor chamber games with politics instead of combat.
What makes horror LARP special: when it works well, it is hard to compare with anything else. The shared dread, the darkness, the resolution — these are experiences of high emotional intensity.
Important: horror LARPs need especially clear safety mechanisms and prior agreement on what is and isn't possible in terms of content. Trigger topics must be communicated in advance.
Nordic larp: a style, not a setting
"Nordic larp" isn't a genre — it's a Scandinavian play tradition: few rules, high immersion, often serious or realistic themes, a strong focus on a character's inner experience. Many of the safety and debrief techniques now used everywhere — meta-techniques, debriefing, the concept of bleed — come from this scene. If you're drawn to emotionally driven play, it's worth exploring. More in our glossary and our post on post-LARP blues & bleed.
What Makes a Good Setting
Whatever the genre: a good LARP setting has internal consistency. The rules of the world apply equally to everyone, contradictions are explained rather than ignored, and the game world responds credibly to what players do.
Well-developed settings integrate player backstories. The ruin a character mentions in their history actually appears on the game field. The legend another character knows is part of the official world history. This creates a sense of shared ownership and belonging.
And good settings develop: they are not static backdrops but living worlds that change through the actions of the players. What happens at this event has consequences for the next.
Know the Setting — Before You Start
Before creating a character, read the setting documents for your event carefully. Understand which peoples, factions, and social structures exist. Find out which play styles the setting favours.
A character who fits the setting perfectly makes play easier — for you and for everyone else.
Nils Jäkel has organized summer-theater events for five years and has attended LARP events for the same span; for four years he has also been a camp organizer at one of the largest camps at Conquest of Mythodea, the world's largest LARP event. He spent four years chairing a theater association's board, and for the past two years has served as board chair of the State Association for Amateur Theater Saxony (Landesverband für Amateurtheater Sachsen).
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