Diary of a Croatian larper

Steampunk picks up the steam again

2025-04-14T19:34:00.001+02:00

After taking a 2.5 year break, the Croatian Steampunk larp Para pokreće svijet (translation: Steam makes the world go round) is back. And it's grown into something more, as nowadays it's having the honor of being the longest-running active larp campaign in Croatia (and likely the last one still standing). Long-time readers of this blog might remember when I wrote about first event being announced back in early 2012.

Few things have changed since then. Fairly lightweight rules which were once in place (and often ignored in favor of improvisation) were dropped, and some other logistical complexities were lost over the years. However, this is still a larp that is fairly lightweight in its themes, not too serious, and about everyone having a fun time together.

September last year saw the first of new events - Back to the future. Also a fairly significant one, since it involved some time-travel shenanigans, and basically reset the 10 years of story and in-character political scheming - and much to the benefit to the game, in my opinion. The real-world location was in one of the players' weekend houses in Stari Brod, near Kupa river, and the environment was very atmospheric for a Steampunk larp. The plot itself marked it as one of the most unique larps in the entire series.

Story-wise, this was followed by a tabletop experience a month later, Around the world in 65 days. Another one of Sven's boardgame inventions, it was fun and fairly collaborative. The plot was fairly similar to the Jules Verne's novel of a similar name, combined with "choose your own path" style of play, with a touch of "guess the name of a city on a blank map".

The next larp in the series was Shapers of the World, two weeks ago. It took place at the Crni Mačak caffe - the first time Steampunk larp ran in the Mesnička street location since the caffe moved. This one marked a return to political play, though in a different form than prior larps, and involved a lot of poker. And a few unexpected situations due to the time-travel stuff.

And the next event - The Edge of the First Spark - is already announced for early May this year, although this will be a limited-number tabletop experience again.

Discord is up

2024-08-10T14:00:00.011+02:00

More stuff from my PoRtaL XII talk, Larps and Information Technology, seem to be coming true. In particular, the part about technology becoming old.

And so it is with this blog. The technology it's built on is getting old and starts to not play as nice with modern browsers, plugins and smartphones as it used to. Specifically, the comment section doesn't seem to work for anyone.

So I decided to open a discord to help us all connect in an easier way. If you are interested, join the Crolarper discord server here.

It's been way too long without any updates

2024-06-12T21:10:00.004+02:00

I'm just back from PoRtaL XII, which was back in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, 6 years after PoRtaL VI, which is - incidentally - only 3 posts below this one on my blog, and I still remember it like it was yesterday.

And this means I failed to review the past two year's PoRtaLs, also excellent. Here's some representation for them.

Back during PoRtaL 10 in Krakow, I did a presentation called Designing larps with intent. It was streamed, and can be found on Youtube.

For PoRtaL 10, I also wrote and ran a larp Journey to Tau Ceti - an expanded version of the Arrival at Tau Ceti. I was a mess at documenting it, and it still remains in an unpublishable state. Both of these were run on Friday, which means I haven't really see much else on the convention that day, but I did on Saturday, when I was also able to play Ties that Bind larp by Alexandros Alexiou. I skipped Sunday, as we had to go early to drive home. For documentation purposes, full program listing is here.

At next year's PoRtaL XI - back in Budapest for the third time - I went full tourist mode, the first time so far, and just enjoyed the program. And I wanted more, considering that I missed some fun stuff during the previous year. Here is the full schedule - as long as the site remains up - but I have to single out the fantastic Reaching Out larp by Nina Runa Essendrop, and a lot of great workshops. Still had to leave before the official end of the conference to catch the bus back to Zagreb, but not as early as previous year. Another important achievement of this PoRtaL was a contest that led to publishing several larp scenarios in four different languages.

And now this brings us back to the present and recently finished PoRtaL XII in Plovdiv. I was ready to put some creativity into practice, so I did a presentation on Larps and Information Technology and a newly written larp, Tribes of the Valley, freely available under Creative Commons. While this year only had two program tracks - less then previous years - it was packed with good content, and Sunday program lasted longer than usual, until 18:00. As I flew to the convention this year, and my return flight was only on Monday, this meant I stayed and had an extra day compared to usual. This gave me the opportunity to also play a run of Forgotten Gods city larp created by the multi-country Nausika, Selkie and Erea teams, and facilitated by the Croatian-Greek team of Chiara and Manu; Flavius, a Terrible Creations larp facilitated by Siro; and finally The Pull, a non-verbal game by Alexandros Alexiou. Full agenda is available here.

Two tribes mourning the loss

There were also multiple talks and presentations I've attended, as well as the meets, drinks, dinners and parties after convention time itself, which have been amazing as usual. A lot of participants of the previous years were missed on PoRtaL XII, but there were some new ones, including a group from Belgium. I was asked about some of my old projects.

And they were unavailable.

I failed to take my own advice from Larps and Information Technology. Or rather, I didn't double check everything after the changes of the service they were on.

So I got to work to bring most of my old projects back up online. Even if they are only for archival purposes. Because documentation is important.

And it seems a lot of you think that way. Over the past year, I had record readership on this blog. Even considering I haven't posted anything in almost three years, I had 70% over my previous peak in 2013.

If you're a new reader, let me know in the comments below. I am curious.

From PoRtaL to PoRtaL

2021-09-15T00:30:00.005+02:00

The PoRtaL conference had truly gone international. After the first year it had gone to Hungary. It switched between Budapest and Zagreb several times, until it went to Plovdiv, Bulgaria in 2018. I skipped the seventh, which was in Kyiv, Ukraine as I could not have made the journey at the time. I was on the eighth one - in Zagreb, in March of 2020., subtitled "Infinite play" and ran by Terrible Creations.

PoRtaL 8, pre-pandemic

To say it was great would be seriously underselling it. It was very diverse, with a lot of friends, new faces, and some big names in international larp. I might have fanboyed a little too hard over finally meeting (and playing with) Mike Pohjola whom I interviewed on this blog all the way back in 2012. Great talks, larps in the evening, and hanging out in general.

During the event, I promised to write about it on this blog but (until now) I never did. The week after PoRtaL 8, everything changed and the world turned to a living nightmare due to the pandemic. I was really not feeling my best self.

People got sick. Some didn't make it. Public life, as we've known it, pretty much stopped. Businesses broke down. And it was not only the pandemic, there were also earthquakes and floods in that period causing significant damage.

Some larps still happened, but they were usually out in the open and with a very few people attending. SFeraKon, traditionally the largest convention in Croatia, happened twice - but both times outdoors, and with many precautions. It was not completely devoid of anything - a year ago, I attended a fun larp by Sven Nemet inspired by the Labyrinth movie. I wrote a small Ferengi-based larp called Lobes for Business for the Star Trek fan club Sekcija 31, and I ran it privately and on latest SFeraKon. But overall, these were like drops of water in the desert. Precious, but few.

PoRtaL 9 would be set in Athens, Greece - but it was apparent that the traditional dates for PoRtaL, around late February or early March, could not be kept. After shifting the date to September 2021, and a later venue change, PoRtaL 9 still happened - subtitled "Larp Within Between and Beyond".

Due to work stuff, I almost didn't make it. Some last minute arrangements took place. I got my overly expensive last-minute plane tickets, submitted two chamber larps I previously ran (Izgon: The Experiment, Arrival at Tau Ceti), and flew to Athens, with my vaccination certificate (so I can enter the venue) and the passenger locator form required by the Greek government.

Organizers of PoRtaL 9

Christos, a friend and a PoRtaL regular since PoRtaL 4 and now one of the PoRtaL 9 organizers himself, was kind enough to host me, and given the choice I always find couchsurfing with friends more fun than airbnb or hostels.

The venue (Vault Theatre Plus) was large and well organized, with a bar and terrace on the ground floor. Every program item took place either in the basement, or on the two floors set up as theatres. Which means there were often three full tracks of presentations, panels, workshops and larps. Some of the talks were streamed, and are available on this channel.

Prior to the convention proper was the part connected to the Erasmus+ project "Transition of LARP to the field of adult education" - I missed that part, but I was there for the convention proper. Apart from running the larps I brought during Friday and Saturday evenings, the tracks I chose to attend were workshops and larps during the day which I found interesting.

Arrival at Tau Ceti

And oh my... they were amazing. The larps and workshops I've been on; the experience of running larps for my players; talking to others during the breaks, and when we went out for meals or drinks after the convention. There seemed to be a shared sentiment, of many of us who were excited to finally be doing something larp-related, with other great, innovative larpers and creators. After all this time, it finally rained in the desert. The organizers shared this sentiment on Facebook, and for me it hits every possible mark: "We cannot even begin to describe how grateful we are for this community and the impact this experience had after a long one and a half year of plague."

I skipped Sunday, the last day of the convention, as my flight was early in the morning. I still miss some faces I've been used to seeing on the previous PoRtaL conventions. But for me, this was a weekend that will remain close to my heart.

See you next year in Krakow?

Game Wrap 3

2019-09-25T19:18:00.000+02:00

Just got it in the mail - Game Wrap 3, published by New England Interactive Literature.

In it, you'll find my article on the history and current status of Croatian larp scene (accurate as of August 2018) and my larp Arrival at Tau Ceti, alongside articles and larps of other talented authors - give them a read, it's worth it :)

You can buy the print version - or simply read it online or download pdf for free, as everything is published under Creative Commons BY-SA - on this website: https://gamewrap.interactiveliterature.org/vol3/

Hereby, I'd love to express big thanks to the staff of Game Wrap and NEIL, especially Adina Schreiber, as without her none of this would have happened, as well as Viktoriya Fuzaylova and Phoebe Roberts for their fantastic and thorough editing work.

PoRtaL VI - a visit to the Bulgarian larp community

2018-03-05T13:14:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I returned from PoRtaL VI, and it was amazing.

In case you're unfamiliar with PoRtaL, it's been the regional larp conference for the past few years. First one was organized in Zagreb, Croatia, and until this one it's been switching between Zagreb and Budapest, Hungary until this year, as our larping communities made a majority there. The Hungarian participation has been sorely missed lately (seriously, we miss you guys). So far the Bulgarian larp community maintained a small, but constant presence during PoRtaL conventions, and this year's PoRtaL VI was something new, as it was held in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.

Four people from Croatia went there - myself, and members of Terrible Creations team, Matija, Siro and Vatra sat in a car and made a 12 hour road trip through Serbia, and into Bulgaria (or to be accurate, 3 of us went into the car - Vatra went by plane some time later, but returned with us). We reached Plovdiv on Thursday evening, hitting some bars and going to sleep afterwards - the convention would start on Friday. Apart from us guys from Croatia, other non-local guests were Zofia from Poland, Christos from Greece, Dhionis from Albania, Yaraslau from Belarus, and Daniel from Israel.

Compared to previous PoRtaL conventions, this one was heavily focused on panels, discussions, and exposing the Bulgarian larp community to the playstyles we're doing elsewhere. This made the entire feel of the convention different from what I usually had on PoRtaL - as this time I was less of a student and more of a lecturer.

In a way, I felt severely underqualified for that task, and tense about it. I mean, I know my stuff - however, Bulgaria is famous for making largest fantasy larps in southeastern Europe, heavily oriented towards physical challenges and play-to-win style. It's a completely different scenario from Croatia, where fantasy larp is barely represented in the overall larp scene nowadays, and even during its strongest days it was never organized in a similar way as it is in Bulgaria. So for me, the main trouble was - how do I approach this community? How do I present my stuff in a way which could be relateable, or at least understandable to them?

The organizers at the opening talk and the first discussion about biochemistry in larp

Thankfully, we were not going first. Meeting Ilina, one of the organizers, as soon as we reached Plovdiv, followed by the night of hanging out in the bar allowed us to socialize with people and talk to them about larp informally. Friday morning we arrived to the convention and the opening talk by George Vlaykov made sure we were not going first...

This was followed by Plovdiv Watch, a treasure hunting city game inspired by Sergei Lukyanenko’s "Watch" series. The introduction revealed a game of rather light role-play, and very rigid rules which were to be followed strictly (but left some potential unanswered questions). Two teams were trying to find some stuff in the city, and it was extremely balanced based on team compositions and the distances we were to cover.

What followed next was not what I expected. When we were running comparable games in Croatia, they were chill experiences of people socializing while walking around the city, having a good time, and taking some public transport between distant points.

Run uphill, get an item next to ancient Roman ruins.
The run up the next hill.

Here, it was a long distance running race. Uphill, in snow, both ways (seriously). I have no trouble running long distance - and I say this clutching my half-marathon finisher medal - but I struggled to keep up with two girls from my half of the team, who picked me up after I was feared by Christos after the first few blocks of the race. I consoled myself with the fact I had their combined age and weight, but it was still a humbling experience. The city is known as the city of the seven hills, and the name was also taken by the local larp clan. I assure you - the name is completely justified.

Both teams ended up finding the same amount of items - one which would decide our fate was probably taken by some civilian. The other team did better in the secondary objective, which was photographing certain dogs and cats you'd see on street. We had a showdown at the end of the larp, next to the convention entrance.

This experience, and listening to the Bulgarian larpers' war stories, helped me form a context for Bulgarian larps in my mind. Their clans function as local sport clubs, gathering the local larp community, and they have regular training sessions which prepare them for big larps. Just like sport clubs train to prepare for tournaments. Their big larps are very physical events, where their clans aka teams compete against each other in various ways, including some which are hinted by quests and other activities. Their concept of larp safety doesn't seem to include much mechanics or meta techniques to handle it - but it includes training, which is mostly focused on the physical aspect - as the larps themselves, not going deeply into relationships or internal roleplay.

I might be wrong, or this might be incomplete, but it was the image formed in my mind after talking to the locals, and seeing them interact with each other in a very similar way sports team members often do. I decided to approach my presentations and larps with this in mind.

The next item was a Terrible Creations workshop about making a larp in one hour. I ended up in a very diverse group, and we made an interesting larp - which, unfortunately, we didn't get to try out (or to try out others' ideas) as there was simply no time to do that.

On our way to Tau Ceti, on Friday

After that it was chamber larp time. Terrible Creations made a rerun of their Famiglia Bonifacio: The Evening Before, while I ran a premiere of my family drama in space - Arrival at Tau Ceti, which I playtested two weeks earlier and adjusted since. Both events were a big success, and everyone who was at the convention at that time played one of them.

Also, we'll always have Friday. Let's make every day a Friday. If you don't understand, it's ok since this is one of those "you had to be there" things.

Last item on Friday was a bar visit, but somehow we ended up split between two different bars...

Saturday was a day with a lot of panels, and I was one of the panelists in quite a few of those, talking about Croatian larp, some of my past, current and future projects, PR, and love, romance and relationships in larp.

Apart from those, there was a panel about the conflict, two academic presentations, and a drama panel. The full program could be seen here, some things were rescheduled but it was that in general.

RANDOM SELFIE IS RANDOM

Saturday night, two chamber larps were scheduled - Love is Blue and Star Wars: Endor, both produced by Terrible Creations. However since the demand was huge, we also reran our larps from the night before. All four at the same time. That has to be a record for PoRtaL.

We hit a bar later, and this night we all found ourselves in the same one.

Sunday was a day for the Craft Action Panel in the morning. We had to say our goodbyes then - I took the Monday off as well, but some people could not, so we couldn't stay till the convention ended as we all shared a car.

We hugged and said our goodbyes, tears in our eyes, making sure we let everyone knows how much it was appreciated and how we'll miss them. Also, making one last attempt to share our bacteria and viruses with each other. So now I'm writing this with a sore throat and a runny nose. And yes, it was worth it. On our way back, we stopped for a dinner and a chat with Erlin, a larper from Belgrade, and his soon-to-be-wife. And then we made our way home...

Dinner in Belgrade

Overall, reflecting back to this weekend - it was a great experience. There were some logistical issues (with the hostel and convention schedule), but everything turned alright, handled and sorted out by the hard work and enthusiasm of the organizers, who never failed to smile, and made us feel really welcome. We showed our playstyles, focus and techniques, and we were made a part of the local community's energy, enthusiasm, camaraderie and friendship, as they led us around, partied with us and tied red and white martenitsa ribbons around our wrists - a local March custom.

Were we a changing force in the local community - time has yet to show it. Personally, I'd like if more people showed up - both from Bulgaria and the international larp community. However, I think we established a good dialogue, making people aware of how we do some stuff, and realizing the same about them. That's a good start, at least. And yes, the thing about Friday became a con thing.

Yesterday I returned from PoRtaL VI, and it was amazing.

TESC IV: Ebonheart review

2017-11-02T13:40:00.002+01:00

TESC is a Croatian Elder Scrolls-inspired larp, started by Marko Zadro and ran by him and his team for more than 4 years so far. During its first two years of existence, four larps were ran (the second was the one actually counted as first, as first larp was counted as playtest) which were well-received, well-visited and raised the visual level of Croatian fantasy larps.

Yet TESC IV: Ebonheart was a whole different beast altogether. General ideas were formed by organizers far before the logistics to do them became available, and 2.5 years elapsed between the previous larp of the series and this one. Also, this is the first larp so far directly inspired by the organizer's (and mine) favorite game of the series, Morrowind.

Inspired by the European blockbuster castle larps, TESC IV became the first Croatian blockbuster castle larp - although at the far lower entrance price (€85 as opposed to €500+ price typical of those). While this means production values weren't exactly as high as in those instances, they blazed past every other Croatian larp done so far (which are usually done with a budget that has 4x-10x lower entrance fee, or less), and raised a bar high in the local larp community. The Cygnus society joined the organizing team providing tons of logistic support, as did a group of volunteers who played the staff personnel.

What was new, or mostly new? Here's a few details:

The castle Lukavec, although already used for Croatian Conclave, was decorated by a ton of props, including fake mushrooms, skulls, an enchanting table, banners of the Empire and all Great Houses of Morrowind, and much more.

Full catering service - five meals prepared by the Taberna Historica, who specialize in local historical dishes. Also, they were served by the larp staff, who also did the dishwashing and plenty of other game support. Meaning us players had to pack less, and the downtime due to eating was minimal.

Make-up and several pieces of costume were provided by the organizers, providing high-quality look which was very unified across the in-game races and factions.

The ruleset was also heavily redesigned for this larp, going for increased simplicity and improvisation. Available here, some of the inspirations included the Demgard series, my own Terra Nova series, Black Friday, as well as several experiences from players who attended College of Wizardry. Like the larp itself (in which I also noticed some structural similarities to the Croatian Conclave), it was a mix of previous, more system-heavy and exact rulesets, and Nordic-like improvisation and trust based systems. As a result, both the system and the larp itself were designed in a way which were in some way familiar to everyone who ever played any larp (or an Elder Scrolls computer game), regardless of their background - but there were still some things to learn.

One of the things I didn't like in the rules was the lockpicking system, which was based around connect-the-dots puzzle solving, and as such was very non-visual. Thankfully, my character didn't have to deal with it - and easy locks could be bypassed by the Unlock spell for everyone skilled in Alteration magic.

Some time after we paid and signed up, we were cast and got teasers of our characters. Then a few weeks before the larp started, we got the full versions, which also included our characters' and factions' agendas, as well as the general guide to the events of the larp, covering lore and the asset trading system used by several Councilors. We were put in Facebook groups according to our factions.

Great House Redoran - Athyn Sarethi, Fathasa Llethri and Miner Arobar

Many (or most?) of the characters were pulled straight from Morrowind. I played Miner Arobar, Councilor of the Great House Redoran. Two other players played Redorans (all of us were Dunmer - Dark Elves of the setting), and we did a meeting before the larp started. A lot of the larp was shrouded in secrecy, so we were asked not to reveal too much, and we didn't really have the chance to arrange some of the stuff with players of the other characters - even if our characters knew them in the backstory.

Week before the larp started was hectic regarding preparations, as my wife made large parts of my costume, and one for our friend, and various people were at my place to try out some gear. In the end, we ended up partially equipping five players other than me - with latex weapons, armor, clothes, or more. The Hungarian players who arrived also brought a lot of their extra weapons, which they lent to other players, since Croatian larpers who own non-boffer fantasy weapons are in the minority. I arrived to the larp with my friend Gabriela, whom I met in Berlin and who flew in all the way from UK.

The event started on Friday with pre-game workshops. They were supposed to start at 15:00, but they started a few hours late due to various players being late. As such, they ended up later than they were supposed to, and they were cut a bit shorter than they were planned. The workshops went through all the rules - I thought they were a bit too long, but there were plenty of players who had a lot of questions about the details, so it would seem they were necessary since players arrived from vastly different backgrounds and larp cultures. We went to sleep after that (sleeping was on the council room floor), since the wake-up was at 8 AM.

Saturday morning started out of character, after waking up and preparation we had breakfast and makeup done by a group of organizers, staff and volunteers - us Dunmer players were airbrushed first, and then we went to the contouring station, and there were different workflows for different races. Group photos were taken then, and we were late again - instead of planned start around 10 AM, we actually started to play around noon.

We started with our introduction at the castle grounds, after which we made our way to the council chamber. The first day basically consisted of several council sessions, in-between which we had breaks which allowed us to play with characters who were not a part of the council, as well as have lunch and dinner.

Basically, us characters on the council had a vastly different play than those not on the council, with interaction limited to when we had a recess. Frankly, I'm a bit burned out regarding the long, subtle political play, as I played that kind of larps too much for my own liking - thankfully, I was cast as the best possible councilor for that purpose, since my character had little patience for delays and wasting time, and was a great fan of brevity and effectiveness, often cutting in others' arguments to stop wasting everyone's time and hurry up. Also, my character's bullshit tolerance was about zero.

Apart from the political play - set as the apocryphal version of a Grand Council in Ebonheart, several years before the game events of Morrowind, and based on renegotiating the Armistice between Empire and Morrowind - there were some other stuff we managed to do - plotting with others, creating alliances, discovering the new info, stealing heretical texts from the library (which was stocked with texts from Morrowind) and handing them to the Tribunal Temple, etc. The Imperial Legion was largely busy trying to deal with Telvanni Master Neloth's summoned Dremora who was giving them some trouble.

The highlight of the evening was the appearance of Sixth House, and their attempt to gain admittance to the council. Except for Morag Tong assassinating the Duke on Sunday, this was the only time when someone changed their costumes in order to temporarily play other characters. Naturally, they were repealed, but some time later the Council got disturbing visions from Dagoth Ur. Saturday's play ended with a soft end, and after a while we went to sleep.

Sunday started off much like Saturday, but we started the play quicker as the makeup artists got their workflows faster, there was no photo shoot, and the introduction went faster. Most of the Sunday was one big council session, with a lunch break, and there was less play out of it.

However, the last hour of play was probably the most intensive one in the larp. Everything happened back then. We quickly voted the new Armistice, pressed for time, while we had heretics, dissident Nerevarine priests, Daedra worshippers, Sixth House sleepers, assassinations and everything else happening at once. There was no time to resolve all that chaos properly before larp ended, so a lot of these were swept under the rug to maintain a chance of peace. If they only popped out earlier...

The larp ended in the afternoon, and after a debrief it was time to hang out and chat, as well as pack our stuff. Sooner or later we all went home, most of us wishing we had more time...

Personally, I had excellent time. Lots of people experienced post-larp depression. And while this larp was not perfect - seriously, which one really is? - it marked a huge leap forward in the Croatian larp as a whole. And even the downsides were not that bad - true, it was late like everything in Croatia, but the organizers made a huge effort to not make it late, and the staff ensured the players' downtime is minimal. I didn't like the lockpicking system, but I never had to interact with it. I didn't like the long political sessions, but it was in character for me to tell them where to stuff it. And this was very appreciated. The environment, the props, the makeup and the costumes were objectively the best of any larp so far held in Croatia.

And more than anything, I enjoyed the chance to finally play a proper Dunmer, something that I wanted to do for 15 years, this time supported by the larp, the environment, the wonderful make-up artists, and my wife who made some really cool costume props and cut my hair in the Dunmer style... yes, this was the first time ever I went for the larp-specific haircut.

I was immersed completely. The larp left me in post-larp high, which is only now slowly shifting to a post-larp depression. Part of the character and the larp world remained with me, and I even started a new game of Morrowind the day after I came home.

This larp wasn't a revolution - but it was an evolution of the local larp scene to the next level, and most certainly a landmark larp in the local larp scene and history.

Photos by Tibor Rogulja.

The ending of the words is ALMSIVI.

What's been going on recently

2017-10-31T09:48:00.002+01:00

Last update on this blog was three and a half months ago. Plenty of things happened in that time, which I didn't write about. Not because there was nothing to write about, but because what I could write about them wouldn't merit a full article. So let's do a quick summary.

Photo by ConQuest photo team

First of all - ConQuest 2017. World's largest larp. It was a great experience, but you probably know most about it if you read my previous ConQuest articles (I didn't get to Drachenfest this year either, but one of the main topic on ConQuest was about the ridiculous amount of rain and mud they had to deal with the week before on Drachenfest). To make it short - the story returned to Mythodea again, and we - as bad guys - had a really nice fortress which we manned and defended (and assaulted in the big final battle when it was taken from us). The camps were organized in a different manner - similar to how they used to be back in 2012 and 2013. There were a few times when I actually got temporary command of my unit, and getting some command experience was very cool. Our schedule, however, was very hectic - as NPCs were on defensive this time rather than the offensive. Far less marching than in previous year when we fought in a faraway part of the terrain, but a lot more waiting for stuff to happen. If you've never been on ConQuest, it's still an experience I recommend you do at least once.

Returning from ConQuest, I had a chance to stop at Hannover and visit some of the friends I met in Berlin, who were playing a Vampire larp which sprung as a sort-of unofficial sequel from the events which we played at Enlightenment in Blood. Good times were had, and I ran the chamber larp Izgon: The Experiment for them in the evening - modifying it a bit in the process to fit the situation, and these modifications made it in a new updated version I ran once again in Terrible Creations in Zagreb a month ago.

Izgon: Ascendancy preparations are underway, funding requirements are achieved, and character signups will start in a few days. While we're at it, I noticed there's been a marked change in how I approach larp recently. These days I'm less of a firebrand trying to change the entire community, compared to the person I was years ago. I've been burned out in that regard, and recently I've become more of a person who tries to give the best possible larp experience to a limited circle of friends. Izgon: Ascendancy is the only project in the last two years in which I'm really reaching out to a wider population. I'm confident about it, and I'm giving it more time and effort than in any larp so far. I'm anxious and curious at the same time to see how it will play out.

My VtM Sabbat larp - Noćne Kronike - is also progressing nicely. We got some newspaper coverage, and we're preparing our major event of the year - a Palla Grande - which will take place this Saturday. I wrote the new, short, simple ruleset - inspired by the Nordic rulesets used in Enlightenment in Blood and Convention of Thorns - which we'll use for visible, social parts of the larp, and the playtest will finish after Palla Grande (MET will continue to provide much of the behind-the-screen crunch and inspiration for us organizers).

Last but not the least, I spent the last weekend on TESC IV: Ebonheart larp. But this one merits an article of its own, which I'll do as soon as the photos become available.

Announcing Izgon: Ascendancy

2017-07-15T13:15:00.004+02:00

"Another Izgon larp?", a friend asked me two years ago as I announced the previous larp of the series. "How about doing something new?"

I was stuck with these questions for a time. New stuff. Well, of course there was innovation in every Izgon larp - an urban fantasy pervasive series which I started four years ago. Some stuff worked. Some didn't. In the background, however, the same principles still did apply. There was secrecy. Long playtime of being in-character. Mana gathering to open a portal back home. It worked. Lots of people had fun and amazing experience, it became the first Croatian larp that was novelized, and as with any larp there were some people it didn't work for.

But that question about doing something new remained.

Izgon: Ascendancy is very much a new larp, although it shares the setting with the previous ones. There will be different structure. Different character building. Different focus. Different mechanics. And a very much different feel. It will reflect stuff I learned over the years, such as during Enlightenment in Blood which is a major influence in design of Izgon: Ascendancy.

It'll be a spiritual successor of the first Izgon regarding ambition, to do something new that hasn't been done around these parts. A new experience for everyone involved. To redefine preconceived notions of how a larp can be made and played.

This larp is built for its' players, featuring highly collaborative play and tools to facilitate it. Players' perspective, playstyle, goals and viewpoints will be of highest priority, and this is truly being designed as a larp for its' players.

You may expect lots of interactions, and lots of stuff to do - as well as the ability to carve your own path, and go for your own personal ending.

Izgon: Ascendancy will be held December 1st-3rd in Zagreb, Croatia. More info is available on the website and facebook group.

Creating a quick larp in 1 hour

2017-07-14T17:43:00.000+02:00

Creating a larp in one hour can be a quick, practical, creative and enabling exercise - and most of all fun. I'll share some techniques, perspectives and examples here, and I'm including this article in the start a larp series (which is seriously outdated, but you might still find it useful). But first of all let's cover some local history...

Flashback 1

In ancient times - over four years ago - we ran PoRtaL, the first larp conference in Croatia. At that time, the idea of quick, short, repeatable chamber larps was new around this parts. Ana & Božo, founders of the now-inactive Lateralus association and main organizers of PoRtaL premiered the style by importing and translating Love is Blue, an Italian chamber larp which still holds the record of most runs in the country. I wrote the first locally-written larp of the style - Death of the Japanese Emperor - and PoRtaL featured the premiere of the second locally-written larp of the style, Koliba (The Cabin).

Considering the topic was very hot and new at the time, I ran the first "let's make a larp" workshop in the country. It was certainly not done in less than an hour, in fact it was quite demanding - three days, three meetings of over an hour, and running the larp afterwards. Plus some "homework" to do between that time.

Only four people signed up (Marko, Ivana, Vesna and Brittany), and I was moderating their design process while they provided the creative force and logistics. We brainstormed, used The Mixing Desk of Larp to decide a style we wanted to use, and in the end we ended up with a larp called (Re)union, a family inheritance drama with reasonably fleshed out characters for 10 players + 5 organizers in the support roles. It went reasonably well.

Flashback 2

PoRtaL 5 this March started exactly four years after the first one ended. Only now it was a regional conference, gathering larpers from Southeastern Europe and beyond, and switching between Croatia and Hungary KP-style - in fact, Bulgaria is entering the location rotation from now on. Organized in a very professional capacity by Terrible Creations collective and ZFC, it brought many famous speakers from Europe.

"Don't Touch That Marmelade" nanolarp - photo by Irena Hartmann

One of them was Mikołaj Wicher from Liveform / Dziobak Studio in Poland, who are best known for their world famous Castle of Wizardry larps. And while he did have a presentation on making and running a blockbuster larp, he also ran a workshop covering the other end of the spectrum - The Nanolarp Challenge.

Laser-focused and precise, it cut off what was not needed, and focused on the situation as the core larp experience, using the Pareto principle (80% of the experience for 20% of the effort) to get us to build a prototype that is playable. We split into three groups and each of us built a larp - you can see the original workshop presentation here (in English and Polish, you should read it). The larp which my group (Matija, Tamas and myself) built was called "Who let the dog out", and it involved a... well OK, it was a family inheritance drama again, like (Re)union, although way different in tone. I swear, I don't have a fetish for that stuff. To my knowledge, only The Family Andersson covered that subject apart from the occasional workshop larps.

It was quick brainstorming and then production - the goal was to make it playable, not perfect. Compared to the workshop I ran four years earlier, this one was way more productive than what I basically pulled out of my ass back then. True, time was short and some games ran in parallel, so I didn't get to play any of these nanolarps, although I was present on the run we had.

LARPaTon

And we're back in the writing time of this article. Terrible Creations is now a company with their own dedicated larp space, and they opened the first larp bar in Croatia, Crni Mačak. Yesterday they ran their own workshop at an event called LARPaTon (they still insist in writing larp in uppercase which makes my eyes bleed, I made my case years ago). It's actually starting to be a regular monthly thing "every second Thursday in a month", considering the first workshop was one month ago. I didn't take part in that one due to having to do some terribly important things. Like swimming at the beach. #toughlife (edit: I misunderstood, there will be a meeting every month, but not all of them will be this worhshop - even though last two were.)

But I made it to the workshop this time around. Actually, LARPaTon was structured in a very similar way to the Nanolarp Challenge, but with more time to spare. A bit less focused creation advice, some extra local history and locally-relevant advice. And we started. The design process took an hour and looked like this:

10-minute brainstorming, writing down whatever ideas we have
Organizer helps us select 4 ideas out of those we wrote
Write a first draft
Adjust it
Produce materials we need

And then we played these larps - all in succession. First larp was heavy and dramatic - we all played characters who committed suicide, and were stuck in Limbo. Only one of us would get out, and there was actually a mechanic using which we could support others. The briefing took a while, as organizers had a basic idea of the character, and they developed it together with the player. My character's history might have had something to do with a family inheritance drama (Not. A. Word). It was a 10-player larp, but in the end there was simply no time left for things to develop properly.

The second larp was from my group (with Wata and Martin) - a light-hearted 8 player larp with a twist about the rivalry of wizards and voodoo priests, as they attempted to decide who will solve a puzzle.

There was a spell mechanic, and people ended up controlling each other to do the really, really fun stuff. Actually, it was a crazy, creative chaos out there. We used a lot of props (a drawn map separated in two parts, two cups each with one half of the potion, and much more), and on the other hand we probably wrote the thinnest characters out of all (they just had a faction and an item), and the larp was over soon as players finished their stuff - before the time slot we had ended.

And then came the third larp. Interesting trivia: like the first one on that PoRtaL years ago, an American woman was part of the writing team, so it was not done by locals only. They actually didn't complete the larp in time, and they've kept writing stuff in all the breaks we had, so I was curious to see what they produced.

Basically, we played patients. We had three emotional conditions we got (switching between them), and a task which was our "therapy". Then, between 8 and 10 minutes something happened, and we switched to act 2. Emotions and tasks got rearranged randomly, and we played a new mix of those - from the start, Groundhog Day style. For another period. And then another time, for act 3. It was like playing the same 10-minute larp three times back to back, with some rearranging to make it different enough each time.

It was one of the best (if not the best) short chamber larps I played in Croatia. Probably in my top 10 total category. Both because of organizers and the players, who did not shy from writing and playing stuff most of the established groups wouldn't dare. Impressive. Most impressive.

And that would conclude my review. But the point I'm making is - if you have a chance to visit some of these workshops, do so. The environment is highly creative, and the potential for fun is very high. Or grab some buddies and do it - ten of us spent more time playing these three larps than we spent writing them and preparing everything we need. I know what I'll do the next party I run... let's do some larps!

Update: After publishing this article, I was also pointed at this interesting workshop called LarpJam (free download) which does a similar thing but in a different way, and with some extra help and challenges :) Takes about two hours plus intro.

Running a workshop on Thursday in Terrible Lair

2017-05-22T13:06:00.002+02:00

Terrible Creations, a Zagreb-based larp collective active for over 2 years, and the most prolific Croatian authors and organizers of chamber larps in that period, recently opened Zagreb's first larp-specific space, aptly named Terrible Lair. Several larps had already been held there, including their own productions as well as an Zagreb by Night event last Saturday.

I'm deeply honored by the opportunity to run a first workshop that will be held there this Thursday at 8 - based on my experiences from Enlightenment in Blood. It's my hope that what I learned over there will be useful to larp players and designers alike. I, for one, would certainly wish to repeat that experience, and I got the feeling (and feedback) that the mini-workshop I did last Wednesday before my Vampire game (Noćne kronike) had a good effect on players' role-play, trust and safety.

If you're around, I'd love to see you there.

Facebook event - website announcement (in Croatian).

First Croatian blockbuster castle larp announced

2017-05-21T21:54:00.002+02:00

TESC (The Elder Scrolls Chronicles) is not a new larp - it started with the playtest back in 2013, had two events in 2014, and the last event was exactly 2 years from the date of posting this. As a fantasy larp, all of its runs have been quite impressive compared to other Croatian fantasy larps of the era, regarding production, costumes, hype and much more - though it needs to be said, because of their obvious failure to raise a shrine to Kynareth, weather issues on previous larps are as legendary as the larps themselves.

Yet, after producing one larp every six months (approximately), TESC has been silent for two years. And oh boy it comes back in style. A lot has changed in these two years.

First of all, the blockbuster larps in the Nordic/progressive tradition happening around the world started affecting us as well, as some Croatian larpers visited those. College of Wizardry. Black Friday. Enlightenment in Blood. And others as well. This blockbuster larp experience (and especially Black Friday) contributed heavily to the design of the upcoming TESC4: Ebonheart. This can be seen in the rules document - although they retain the similarity to old rules, they now show a much more progressive experience design and meta-techniques.

All TESC larps have been one-shots, so far covering the areas and timelines described in Elder Scrolls games Skyrim (playtest and TESC1), Elder Scrolls Online (TESC2) and Oblivion (TESC3). TESC4 will finally cover the area and timeline of clearly the most superior game of the series, Morrowind, and its' story will be set in the Castle Ebonheart a few years before the events of the game itself.

At €85 entry fee, it will be the most expensive Croatian larp so far. By the factor of four. Almost five times more expensive than previous TESC larps. OK, this is still laughably cheap compared to some other blockbuster larps out there, but it does include a LOT that Croatian larps so far did not offer, such as:

full, period-appropriate catering service
costume items, makeup and masks for certain characters

The larp will take place in Lukavec castle, same one which was used on the Croatian Conclave. Not far from the Zagreb airport either. 50 player limit, all characters will be fully cast.

You can check the website here. See you there?

Update: it got moved from its' original date (Oct 20-22) to one weekend later (Oct 20-27)

World of Darkness Berlin and Enlightenment in Blood

2017-05-20T14:23:00.000+02:00

How do I even start this article? Fair warning: it will be long (TL;DR - best larp experience of my life). It will be emotional. Sometimes rambling, or jumping from one subject to another. It will include both what took part on the con, before it, after it, and some of my own thoughts and reflections on it. And it will not include a lot of photos of the larp itself, because of the photo policy I signed.

Last weekend I took a part in World of Darkness Berlin convention - first of its' type in Europe. Unfortunately, it was in the same time slot as SFeraKon in Zagreb, but when you have an opportunity such as this - well, you don't miss it. The convention, most of it taking place in Mercure hotel MOA Berlin (with several events in other venues), had covered almost every possible expression of World of Darkness, it's licensees and IPs - tabletop role-play, larps, V:TES collectible card game, and more.

Let's be frank - if you're reading my blog, you're probably in for the larp content. If you know a few things about me, you can probably guess this was the main thing for me as well. The biggest event was Enlightenment in Blood - a pervasive larp which I'll write about in detail later in this article. There were also two runs of End of the Line - after the first run in Helsinki and second in New Orleans. Since talking to the people who've been on it, I've realized I made a horrible mistake - I should have taken an extra day or two off to visit one of the runs. I've been banging my head into the wall ever since, as it really sounded like something I wanted to be on. Sarah Lynne Bowman wrote an article on first EotL run in Helsinki over a year ago, so you can see what the larp is about - from people who've been on previous runs, I've heard said that Berlin runs were bigger on safety/calibration mechanics, and in a bigger location - for all the good and bad it implies.

Besides these larps - written by Participation|Design|Agency and charged in addition to the convention ticket - there were others too, such as Dance me to the End of Love, a 25-player by Ben Haedrich, a Berlin native. Unfortunately, it was already full when I bought my convention ticket, but I heard the run went great. There was also For One Night, a 10-player larp by Shoshanna Kessock, who arrived from New Jersey. Unfortunately, it was also full when I bought my convention ticket, and I heard it was canceled due to players not showing up, as it was scheduled against Dance me to the End of Love and V5 playtest. There was Dancing with the Clans, a fun and silly larp/dance-off which was going on at all times, but I just didn't have enough time to join. There was also a variety of freeform scenarios which could be played, and some of theme were very larpish.

And the scheduling was one of the problems with the convention. There was just so many awesome and interesting stuff to do at the same time. Though, admittedly, it's a good problem to have compared to the alternative. I missed out on so much amazing stuff, because I was somewhere else doing other amazing stuff, or preparing for it. I missed the documentary screenings. I missed on the freeforms and Dancing with the Clans. I didn't find time to learn V:TES. However, there were a lot of famous people there - from World of Darkness scene, from Nordic larp scene, or both. I felt they were very approachable, friendly and interested in stuff we've been doing in Croatia.

Culture shock: Nordic and German people have a very different understanding of time and scheduling than us Croats, on conventions and larps. When something starts at 8, it will start at 8 sharp and the entire audience will already be there. Unlike in Croatia, where "starts at 8" would usually mean "start gathering at 8", or "8 is when the organizer is finishing his dinner and considers starting his trip to the event, unless he has something better to do". I'm not sure how to deal with this precision, but I like it.

Answering some important questions

On Friday, I got just in time for the awesome White Wolf keynote, which was recorded so I'm pretty sure it will pop up somewhere on the internet soon-ish. It really made me enthusiastic about the future of this IP and all the cool stuff coming soon. This was immediately followed by a drama/collaboration workshop by Ysadora Farkas, and I got to the EiB briefing after that (which was provided 3 times during the day). My EiB group - the Church of Caine - had a meeting soon after. And then it was time to dress up and go larping.

Enlightenment in Blood had almost 250 participants, including NPCs, and had a runtime of 4 hours and 45 minutes in total. Yet the reach and extent of the larp went far beyond that. Character creation was supposed to open on my birthday in March, but it was late and opened up on April 10th, just barely over a month before larp.

The system used for character creation was the Larpweaver software, which premiered with this larp. The software was developed by US-based Incognita Ltd., and from the user side it provided quite an interesting and very automated compromise between pre-generated and self-created characters. It was a form with several steps - first you needed to choose a primary group. Major factions in larp all had several primary groups, but some of the primary groups were the "masquerade" groups which included a lot of different character types, mortal and supernatural-alike. I picked up "Blood Gardeners", a subgroup of the Church of Caine based on recruitment and tending new vampires. Church was mainly an Anarch sub-faction, and one of the new things in this larp. Yet the best name award probably goes to "Trash Fuckers", a Bone Gnawer group.

Second step was choosing a character seed - a brief background idea to serve as a starting point for all characters. There were several named canon characters which one could choose - I picked up one such character, Joseph Fischer. That character even got his own V:TES card.

Third step was choosing a creature type. As I was playing a canon character, I was limited only to my choice of playing a vampire - a Gangrel. At the fourth step, we would choose our powers, two of them. Much of the lingo from regular WoD games was removed and made accessible for new players, and the powers were written in the same way they were invoked. From the list available, I chose "You really really want to chill completely out" and "You really really want to let the monster inside you go", sort of open-ended versions of Animalism 3 and 5 powers from regular systems. The "really really" part was a keyword - the mechanic required you to look the victim in the eyes and touch the player or their clothes, and say your line. It was up to the victim to play it out as they see fit, for up to 10 minutes. We didn't have the rules yet while we were creating the characters (got them on April 27th), but despite some specific questions it was simple to understand how that would work on larp.

After that, we chose our worldview - a religion, philosophy or something else. I picked up the Church of Caine. And we got to choose a secondary group - I picked up the Loser's Club, which was basically this larp's version of the Fight Club (and everyone called it the Fight Club at a larp), and a masquerade group.

The second group of questions were personality questions - they were a bit more opaque than the first group, because it was not clear what they would mean to me. Why am I angry at the Camarilla? Because of Camarilla pettiness, was my choice. What was my Embrace like? Distant, as it sounds fitting with the character seed I got. I also picked up love concrete motivation (need to fall in love and do something crazy in order to live again), personality conflict control (freedom/independence vs sense of belonging conflict), and exploring the philosophical limits of existence (and death).

Last step was to enter a name - but as I picked a canon character, I needed to enter their name. This created my final character sheet, and all of my choices were expanded upon in the final version - and many sections had some secret info, or provided motivation and goals. Most of them also had some examples and advice on playing that. Some of them were quite conflicting, and resolving them in one way or another (or ignoring them completely) was up to us. The descriptions were edgier than usual Vampire descriptions, with advice such as "Often it feels like nothing better than being a junkie. Your fix is blood and you need to get it, however you can." and "Drink blood. It's the best. Every vampire is a connoisseur of blood, and curiosity is a good reason to take a bite. You hear a rumor that someone is particularly tasty, give it a go" which would eventually come to influence the way we played - more wild, careless and instinctual than in typical Vampire larps. Info on larpweaver would get updates as the time progressed - with scenes, info and group connections added to it.

There was one issue with this process - there were a lot of groups, and the number of available spots (and character seeds) in them was limited. There were a lot of players who complained they couldn't get the characters they wanted - some of them were the people who started the sign-up process 15 minutes after it opened. Some people already made their picks, as they were involved in testing the system. I camped in front of my PC on the sign-up evening, started immediately when they opened, and got the character I wanted.

After this was done, we got in some Facebook groups - there were 60 of these groups, for all the groups and choices we made in the first question group. I got into groups for Vampires, Anarchs, Gangrel, Church of Caine, Blood Gardeners, Loser's Club, and last but not the least - Mortals and those pretending to be mortals. There were some issues with the groups, mostly because of Facebook algorithms figuring out something wonky was going on with the same people creating lots of groups at once. In these groups, we would seek other characters with whom our characters would connect, and build our shared stories. There was no specific way to do that, we'd just take notes (or not) in a whatever way. And some group participants made amazing materials for the larp itself.

Through my character's relationship with other characters, we decided our common stories together. Of course, there were all the regular group affiliations and membership in them - but these ended up deeply detailed, deeply personal, often across group lines. There was no organizer involvement in our stories, no checking them out - we were given the trust and responsibility to make our own stories, but in the end our stories were not just our own - they were built with other people, a collaborative effort. I ended up with my character connected to 18 other characters beyond the basic level of group membership - the nature of these relationships spanning from a single sentence to several pages of text.

And it was these relationships which eventually fleshed out the most detailed and complex character I ever ran. I built my character around bloodshed, an attempt of redemption and return to mortal ideals which kept failing, dysfunctional love relationships which ended badly, and power, pain, curiosity, and pushing on his own physical and mental limitations in order to find his own way. Knowing a few things about Nordic larp, I knew what I wanted to play, and perhaps how - but I was not prepared for what awaited me. But more on that later. Suffice it to say, I wanted to play a character on the edge, trying to find its' own way, meaning and purpose in the night of revolution - and if he could drink some Camarilla blood, or form his own Sabbat pack, even better. The Church would probably end up betrayed, as several of my character's chosen motivations pulled in that direction.

And it was OK to go for that. Some people wanted a more prominent spot in the revolution. Some people just wanted to party hard. With the number of participants there, all of it and more were possible. And due to the nature of collaborative character building we did, most features of my character were someone else's history as well. All of the elements, all of the characters intertwined in very complex ways - in case this larp gets rerun, the person who gets to play Joseph next time will probably build a very different character. There are just so many variables to play with.

A few days before the larp started, Undernet launched. It's an in-character social network based on Kin platform, the same one which runs Czochabook on College of Wizardry larps. It worked like a combination of facebook and twitter, since apart from some groups and PMs most of the stuff there was public, for more info sharing and drama. It was awesome, as it gave us our first in-character interactions. But I felt it was perhaps a bit too late - as some people already started their trip to the convention, perhaps releasing it a few days earlier would have made its impact bigger.

The briefing before the larp by Johanna Koljonen drilled some safety, calibration and consent mechanics in us, and we went once again through most important stuff and logistics. No main characters, no main plot, no planned end battles - each one of us is a main character, and we run this together. Taking care of other players. Sharing your secrets. And we got told what would (in general) happen in the first half hour of the larp. After that, we would be on our own. The organizers wouldn't know what would happen next either.

After the briefing, we signed the photo policy and got our player pack - an armband, which would allow us to get into (some) private locations for this larp, a map of locations (12 play locations, plus GM headquarters), all in the same district, and a short reminder and ritual which we were to perform at the start of the larp. Our location would be at one of the protestant churches - not the main hall, but one of the smaller ones which still looked great - especially since I was wearing red-tinted glasses.

I should note a few things about rituals here. In most local larps, they're basically cool scenes you perform to achieve some goal, which take some time and are vulnerable to disruption. In German fantasy larps they're mostly the same, although typically longer and look better. But here, rituals were something else - there were both out-of-character rituals and in-character rituals, which were great moment helping players (and, through bleed-in, characters as well) to get into a certain focus, mindset etc., to direct focus and emotions of all the participants towards a certain goal. They were deep and exhilarating experiences.

And after reading the starting ritual, the larp started with our in-character ritual, taking some 25-ish minutes. It was led by Martin Ericsson, who played one of our Church Shepherds (members of the leadership). He gave a speech, and called out for confessions, which we gave - and I spilled my biggest secrets in the first moments of the larp. He asked us how the Camarilla wronged us, and drove our emotions into fervor when we decided we would avenge these wrongs sevenfold. And to this frenzied mass of vampires, his character asked to give himself in a sacrament to Caine, as an offering - to take our sins to him to be washed away. We fell upon him, feasting on his blood and his gift of love, while he screamed his last words in fear and agony... you can see how twisted this larp started.

Red Liberation flyer

And then chaos started. We got the news. Sheriff is dead. Camarilla is coming. Red Liberation is coming. I met some of my connections, and used my powers for the first time to calm one of them down - Tori, my character's contact and on-and-off lover (currently off), a Tremere whom her current boyfriend Davey apparently wanted to kill. Davey was one of my "light" contacts, as we've known of each other as Gangrels, but never had much developed interaction. I ran down to face him and made a scene "you're fucking MY girlfriend and now you want to kill her?", but the scene de-escalated quickly, as he said he's not out for her, and as we changed the topic to killing the Camarilla I decided he's a rather cool guy, and we should kill some Camarilla together. (Edit: Correcting myself - Joseph actually got into a scene with his friend named Twitch, also from Red Lib - and then talked to Davey. Leaving the original text as is.)

One of my Church connections - Isaiah Palmer, played by Ben Haedrich, who recruited my character in the Church, found himself torpid and non-responsive, and I managed to rouse his Beast to wake him up.

My character's nemesis Peter Kleist entered the Church as well, and after several scenes we ended up drinking him publicly on stage despite protests by one of our Shepherds played by Shoshanna Kessock (he ended up torpid, as apart from NPCs character death was possible only in the last hour of play - indeed, it would suck for one's experience if they died quickly without chance to play much, on a larp which costs this much and which had so long prep). For me it was my first turning scene, and I decided I was out for blood. With some other Church members, I joined Davey and the big Anarch group - we'd go to a Camarilla bar Raumklang, to kill the Prince.

Walk to the Raumklang was quite long, about 20 minutes in the Friedrichshain district of Berlin. We spent our trip in-character and role-playing - an experience which was new to many players, although I was quite familiar with it, as it was one of the core experiences of Izgon and Week of Darkness I ran, as well as Astra larp I participated in. In this larp, it provided a good way to talk to someone for a while without distractions of the surrounding chaos. Another of my contacts, Aisha az-Zahra, whom Joseph recruited in Church started talking against it - but as my character was not so deep into Church, I didn't react badly when I heard that. There was also a guy from the Hope Foundation who tried to recruit me, but I wasn't really that much interested in it. Raumklang turned out emptier than we expected, and we took over the bar, and dealt with the in-character owner (played by Mark Rein-Hagen).

During the bar stay, I participated in a meditation and ritual led by another of my contacts, Numina (played by Sarah Lynne Bowman), reflecting and focusing inwards - this got my character rid of the bloodlust, and made him regret the heinous frenzied acts which he did. When she said I should forgive myself, I actually cried - a turning point for my character that evening.

The group proceeded to the Anarch bar Jägerhütte, in the RAW-Gelände squat area, which ended up to be my final destination, as it was also the location of the afterparty. I talked to Aisha and Mila Sunderland (another one of my connections, very important for my character's early life in Berlin in the story we co-wrote) about leaving the Church, to a Stirner Group guy, and to another guy I tried to recruit in the Church - only to catch Mila's surprised look, and my character realized he's doing things out of habit, not things he would really believe in anymore.

Jägerhütte was huge and populated. I got to meet Smiling Jack. And Matthew Webb's character Sin, who was running some flashy scripts on his laptop, which made it look like Hollywood-quality movie hacking. I also got to play on my Fight Club background, and I ended up in an impromptu grappling match with another character which was very fun. Almost ended up fighting some werewolves, but near the end one of them was very pissed and took off a few heads, so I wisely reconsidered getting into the grinder.

I had a great encounter with a Changeling called Myra - my character would get to drink some of her blood, and she'd get to hear my dreams. The blood and interaction left me thinking even further, and heavily influenced the way my character would continue.

Eventually, the decision was made - I made a pact with Aisha and Luise, another character from the Church. We'd go together, as a pack, and we would be Sabbat. We did the Vaulderie behind the bar, and our fate was decided. I texted one of my friends Emily to admit it openly (and nobody came to kill me). We ran off to recruit several more members into the pack. The Prince appeared, and was torn to pieces by the frenzied crowd. The Church of Caine offed Prince's torturer, but found themselves antagonizing the main Anarch group because of too much diablerie going on - and, just like Camarilla, they were left down to their last remnants. I was faced, and I stood publicly in the center of Jägerhütte, screaming "fuck the Church" to all the gathered Anarch from top of my lungs.

Our last recruit was a ghoul formerly from the Church whom I Embraced in the last 5 minutes of the larp. However, I didn't find out in time about her two werewolf protectors. On one hand, I claimed her for the clan Gangrel, and told them I freed her from the blood bond, and from the Church that would get her killed. I did the political thing, said that Werewolves and Gangrel are allies - yet I also openly admitted my vampirical status, and begged them for the taste of their own blood. Which I got. And I survived the encounter, somehow - they walked away.

Yet the true reason for these actions was not care, nor really the desire to increase the size of the pack. It was a play on my last, so far unused character trait - a distant embrace. And a straight, hateful middle finger to Joseph's sire.

With this, the alarm we all set for 1:00 rang, and the larp was done. There was a speech, and a short closing ritual similar to the opening one. And then we set drinking and sharing our war stories.

And everyone's play was so different. Down to fundamental levels. There were people partying, hacking, trying to steal money, openly involved in main combat stuff going on, doing political play, and so much more. My experience was my own - shared in part with some of my co-players - but everyone did their own story, their own thing, stuff which they found interesting.

To say that I had a blast would be seriously downplaying it. It was a life-changing experience. Reading about this style of play and experiencing it in person are two completely different things. I found myself completely hooked, and a jumble of emotions and thoughts. It forced me to re-think safety, larp in general, and many, many things I should have done better in the past to make myself and other people safer, as well as to make my larps safer - if you got hurt because of my activities, inactivities or wrong decisions, I'm truly sorry.

In a way, what helps me is remembering the words of Numina... oh fuck that was in-character. Why was everything there so meaningful to me out-of-character as well? OK, now I imagine a lot of you readers probably wondering which drugs did I take. And the experienced larpers of the Nordic tradition probably nodding and smiling.

Things will never be the same again for me. But the convention was not over yet.

On Saturday, I cleared my head a bit when I went on a short, fast tourist trip of Berlin's center with Thorsten from my group on ConQuest. I got back in time for VtM V5 playtest. I loved it - simple, dynamic, somewhat chaotic, and very much fun and fresh. Great new rules regarding blood and hunger. We had to return the documents, but something should get released publicly soon-ish.

The game we played was an aftermath of Enlightenment in Blood - one evening after, as we tried to rescue a character our characters were blood bound to. Scenario and characters were pre-written, but there was still a lot of reading to learn the system and prep for scenario quickly. I got to play a sassy Toreador called Bruno.

The playtest took a while, and when it was done it was time to grab some dinner and get to the con afterparty location. Which was brilliant. Great DJ, great atmosphere, great people, and it looked like something out of Bloodlines.

Sunday 10:00 was too early for most people to wake up, and I left Berlin strongly affected by my experience there. A week after the larp was over, I still get the post-con blues. Talking to my fellow co-players helps. Some of the projects we started together - like forum role-play - also help. And now, writing this article was another way for me to go over everything that happened, re-analyze it and cope with it better.

Fellow players, organizers, other visitors - thank you for everything. It was an event to remember. An event which changed everything for me.

News from our neighbors in Bulgaria: PoRtaL and Fog larp

2017-05-16T17:37:00.000+02:00

While I'm still digesting the events of last weekend with WoD Berlin, here's two quick and important news from our neighbors in Bulgaria.

First, the PoRtaL larp convention. PoRtaL 1, 3 and this year's 5 were in Zagreb. 2 and 4 were in Budapest. Yeah, I know, I failed to review the last two of them. My bad. But they were great. PoRtaL 6 has already been announced - March 2-4 2018 in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. This marks the first time our Bulgarian friends are joining us as the organizers, as the convention expands to its third country. Also, the event date has never been known so early. So - save the date, and follow the PoRtaL convention news on facebook.

In other news, Fog larp - the biggest fantasy larp in Bulgaria - is running a kickstarter in order to fund some improvements on their larp - check it out.

ZbN Croatian Conclave 2017 review

2017-05-10T00:43:00.000+02:00

This weekend I attended the Croatian Conclave, a two-night Vampire the Masquerade castle larp organized by Zagreb by Night (ZbN). It was a big international Vampire larp, drawing many members of the games from the VIC network, as well as some others - apart from us locals, the visitors arrived from Slovenia, Hungary, Austria, Slovakia, Poland, UK and Israel. Throughout the review I'll attempt to avoid spoilers, as well as write in a way which will also be readable to the non-VtM readers of this blog.

The larp took place in Lukavec castle, a (comparatively small) two-story mid-18th century castle near Zagreb. There were several available rooms, including a large room which served as a throne room where central parts of the Conclave took part. The castle had a central open courtyard which served as a place for many public events in the larp.

Considering the entrance fee was only about €20, the production value of the larp was outstanding. Apart from the use of castle for 2 days (some players slept there as well, in sleeping bags), it included a lot of props, non-alcoholic drinks for participants, special lighting in parts, about a thousand candles burned, goat skulls, smoke machine, and tons of printed materials which also included character sheets, some favor cards and a ruleset booklet - ZbN typically uses By Night Studios rules with some house ruling, but a more compact ruleset was developed for this larp which also included some special mechanics used on the event, as well as a quick rundown on story and the most well-known characters.

The booklet also contained a schedule for the larp, however on the first day it started several hours late. During the introduction by organizers, safety and specific mechanics were discussed in details. Then the larp itself started. I played my ongoing character on that larp, a local primogen of the Ventrue clan. The first part was very formal, as everyone made their introductions. Yet there were some surprises along the way, which kickstarted one of the central plotlines of the event. After that, there was time to play freely.

While the social role-play was starting, I decided to try the mechanics regarding the Sheriff's office. Basically, you would apply for a mission and get it in an envelope, you'd write a plan for it with up to four other characters, submit the plan to the Sheriff, take a secret vote whether you're going with the plan or against it, and afterwards it would be resolved, and the coterie (=party) would gain some info, rewards and/or consequences. While I am satisfied with the quality of the resolution, the popularity of this proved to be quite a bottleneck - only a half of planned missions would be completed by the end of the larp, and this added more waiting. The first night some players went to do some stuff outside of the castle, which also made gathering everyone a challenging task.

My personal role-play for the first night was cautious - as there were a lot of players whose playstyle I was not familiar with. And while the surroundings were amazing, all the waiting killed my own play somewhat, and I left the event after it ended with mixed feelings.

Yet all of this meant I was better prepared for the next day - and so were others, players and organizers alike, although not everyone was present on both days. The larp started sooner (though it was still late), the introductory parts went quicker, and the queues at the Sheriff's office were gone, though the waiting was still there (we reformed the coterie after 2 members were not here for the day, and ran another round). The plot was more compact, and more charged, as story-wise this was the main part of the Conclave. This was the day when the most important social aspects came into play.

My play opened up (as more things went on, and there was actually more time to play), and I started pushing some fun scenes and creating trouble. I finally managed to organize a quick clan meeting, although very few players played Ventrue characters. My character nearly died once - and if it did, it would have been a memorable scene. Due to the events happening, my character was close to frenzying for the most of the larp - his fight-or-flight instinct, need to put on a calm appearance and preserve dignity, and personal agendas all pulling him at different sides at once. Even gave a speech at the conclave discussion topic under this condition.

These speeches had to be registered with the Seneschal, and were tied in the reputation mechanic
which was digitally available to the organizers and mostly managed by the Harpy. Another fun part was a "game of bouquets" organized by the Harpy, where two opponents would give "compliments" (of the backhanded variety) to each other - ineffective "compliments", non-subtle insults and not keeping to the given subject were faults which would eventually lead to the loss of one side.

After the discussion part of the conclave, it was time for a short closing ceremony and the larp closed at 2 AM. Since only half of the Sheriff's missions were done by that point, it remained open for that even after the in-game part ended - but I left and went home, as it was late I had to avoid getting fired at work several hours later.

Overall impressions? I'm still to have a good night of sleep, but I had a great time - second night was way better than first night in almost every aspect, and other players I talked to agree. The organizers put in a big effort, and (at least for us locals) the event provided a jaw-dropping value for the money it cost. Would play a similar larp again.

Thanks to the organizers and co-players for the larp. Special thanks to Željka and Ivana for my makeup. Photos by Tibor Rogulja.

Izgnani review

2017-01-24T14:40:00.003+01:00

I already reviewed several books on this blog, but these have all been larp-specific rulebooks. This is the first time I'm posting a review for a novel. Having said that, Izgnani ("Exiled") by Ivana Delač is not just any novel - it's a first Croatian novel based on a larp - which I ran. It's hard to convey how honored I feel because of that. It's the first time something like that has been done in Croatia, and reading a novel based in the Izgon setting which I wrote, with characters I created and many of my friends played - it was a warm, incredible feeling reading Ivana's novelization of the larp and setting. This is why it's hard for me to review Izgnani purely as a novel - for me, it's also a novelization of the larp I ran, an unique take of the setting and introspective into larp design.

However, it does work very well as a novel. As a quick refresher if you don't know the backstory - the plot is urban fantasy, it focuses on energy beings who arrived on Earth, and possessed human host bodies, trying to get back home. It's marketed as a young adult novel, and apart from all the fantastic elements it features a lesbian relationship - yet another first for that genre in Croatia, AFAIK.

Some stuff from the larp was condensed, changed, omitted and/or simplified in order to work better in the novel format, and provide for a stronger plot. The main plot was shortened from over a month to one week. This also means several characters in the novel do things they didn't (or wouldn't) in the larp - but this is OK from the point of setting continuity, as alternate realities are a thing in the setting. Some of these elements can be seen later in the novel, as although it was primarily based on the events of first Izgon larp, it also includes several elements from Izgon 2 and Izgon 1.1. The story as presented makes for a stronger novel than pure novelization of larp would, and presents a few plot twists and surprises even to the players of the larp - comparing it to the original character diary (in Croatian) is quite interesting, and while the diary is a brilliant work itself, the novel presents a plot which works much better as a novel, and provides for a lot more explanations to someone new to the setting and less familiar with the characters involved.

As the organizer of Izgon, it made me rethink a few things about how these larps were organized. About how some of that stuff was actually personal to the players involved. Taking a wider outlook on the things often misses important personal details. Also, reading about the character which I role-played during the larp made me feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside.

Overall, I really liked the novel - both from the perspective of reader and larp organizer. I would recommend you read it. Yes, I'm totally biased - but that doesn't change my opinion :D

The 300-page Izgnani novel was printed in Croatian, in a limited run. It's available via Inverzija webshop, in person on some Croatian conventions during the presentation, and several Croatian libraries stock it. There's a free excerpt too in Eridan 17. While nothing is decided yet, there are always possibilities of eventual English translation, print on demand once the initial run is sold, and maybe even a sequel of the novel. More Izgon larps? That's in works too... :)

Die Katakomben Halloween 2016

2016-11-07T15:01:00.000+01:00

I've larped in Germany before, three times on ConQuest and twice on Drachenfest. These are the biggest larps in the world, arguably very different from smaller larps that most people are used to. Ever since my first time there, I've been hearing about Katakomben - a larp tavern in Cologne (or Köln, for those of you using the German name of the city). So I decided to visit the Halloween event they had.

Katakomben is organized as a monthly larp event, and it's played in a fort on the outskirts of the old city, close to the South Bridge over Rhine river. Once a month, the interior of this fort is decorated and plays a part of the in-character tavern... which can appear anywhere, and change layout... I took the photos during the day, as during the event itself (6 PM - 2 AM) it was dark and very dimly lit - plus, characters were already role-playing, and I felt bad taking my phone out. However, a photographer Kira Hagen was there, and made a lot of character portraits so you can see how some of the costumes looked like.

Regarding the rules, a hard-to-find note mentions that Dragon-Sys ruleset is used, but any other rule system is generally OK and SLs (game masters / organizers) are available to discuss character ideas and implementation. In practice, as it is common on German larps nobody really paid much attention to rules and playing was about pure DKWDDK improvisation.

My outfit was rather simple (black pants, off-white tunic, grey hood, some pouches, and fake nails), as I flew in the city with my in-cabin baggage only. I arrived at the event with a group of friends, which was an interesting experience as we dressed up beforehand and took a tram there. We were far from only people taking a public transport in costumes, as the location doesn't really have any space to change. I borrowed a sword as well, since bringing my two-handed Calimacil sword was not something I was looking forward to, considering the hassle on airport.

The signup included simply paying the entrance fee, and getting a security stamp on hand. The entrance fee was 10€, however 2€ of that was returned in a form of drink coupons. The drinks were very reasonably priced for the area (1.5€ for 0.33l of beer or 0.1l of mead). The larp organizers (called Twilight... you're probably thinking the same thing I was thinking right now) are running a system which rewards frequent visitors (tracked via cards that get stamped) with silver, golden and platinum cards, carrying some benefits such as reduced entrance fees, certain amount of free drinks (or entrances), gifts, access to special areas, partner discount etc.

Courtyard and main entrance (during the day)

Interior decoration was very nice - they did the extra effort to make a spooky Halloween atmosphere. There was fake spiderweb everywhere, and it often clung to costumes or people. Tables were illuminated by spiderweb-covered candelabra, and there were large candle chandeliers hanging from the ceiling - the in-character feeling of those slightly broken by modern red stage lights mounted next to them, which gave a nice red illumination to the entire tavern.

Most of the plot was left to players role-playing together, but there were some things organized by the organizers. Apart from the "tavern" itself (and the courtyard where a lot of play took place), there was also a dungeon accessible through a dark and narrow stairway that spiraled downwards. The way down was dark, with narrow corridors and low ceiling which created some trouble for taller players like me. At the end there was a room with hanging skeletons (headless), an empty coffin, and several other clues. My group didn't figure out what it was about - perhaps we arrived too late, too early or without proper preparation.

Even though I saw some familiar faces from ConQuest and Drachenfest, most of my play was with the group I came in, whom I met on ConQuest. Along with the photographer (who was American), I was the only non-German there, and since my knowledge of German could use much more improvement, spontaneous role-playing was challenging in that situation - but that doesn't mean nothing happened. Apart from exploring the dungeon, a couple of us joined a fight which formed in the courtyard after some Chaos guys caused some trouble. I got a taste of line fighting once again, even though the combat was rather short and with not a lot of participants. We also did some practice dueling afterwards.

Overall, the event was quite nice. I didn't notice any issues (although it seems there were some, according to the discussions on internet - but that tends to be a common thing in all larps). It seemed to be about 200-ish people, but I'm eyeballing the number here - it was a small larp for Germany, but bigger than anything ever organized in Croatia. I recommend a visit if you're ever in the area - the larp has a facebook group.

Mind's Eye Theatre: Werewolf The Apocalypse rulebook review

2016-10-25T18:59:00.000+02:00

Available on DriveThruRPG

Just under three years ago I wrote a review for Mind’s Eye Theatre: Vampire the Masquerade rulebook. It was the first book published by By Nights Studio, and a year later I reviewed one of its supplements - Storyteller Secrets.

Now, after a long period of work, after the success of their kickstarter campaign, By Night Studios finally released the full version of the new larp rules for Werewolf the Apocalypse setting. This was preceded by various alpha, beta, gamma, delta and omega slices - each containing a different playtest version of the rules, slowly released from September last year until July this year.

First impressions were that the artwork is very cool, and that the book is HUGE. Numbering at 762 pages, that's over 200 pages more than Vampire the Masquerade.

But before I start going in-depth, I'd like to mention that this blog's readers come from various backgrounds - and I'll adjust my review accordingly. I assume I'll have some larpers who haven't played World of Darkness larps before, some who played Vampire (whether using By Nights Studios rules or not), and those otherwise familiar with other Werewolf the Apocalypse products (whether tabletop or larp versions). Note: this is not nWoD/CoD game Werewolf the Forsaken (tabletop, but it can be larped using nWoD MET rules) - they are separate worlds/product lines. So depending on your background, some stuff mentioned here in the review might sound extremely basic, or quite detailed. If this is too much, TL;DR summary will be provided in the end. Let's start from the beginning.

Basically, this ruleset provides the setting and mechanics for playing World of Darkness version of werewolves (or Garou, as they call themselves within World of Darkness). As this system and setting originated from the tabletop RPG line, here's what you can expect from it:

Almost all types of fictional werewolves can be played in World of Darkness setting as player characters. They will, however, have to conform with the general setting and mythology presented for werewolves in the World of Darkness. This is similar to how other WoD settings work, e.g. Vampire.

As this larp system is based on tabletop, expect a system which is complex and has a lot of mechanics. The basics are quite simple, but there's a huge variety of choices presented. Even though larps done using these rulebook will be running mostly without interruptions, they can still happen. Rolling dice from tabletop is replaced here by a rock-paper-scissors system, and it will eventually come into play. The book itself provides no specific plot or stories, but it provides plenty of story hooks that a Storyteller (WoD term for organizer / game master etc.) can use in larps.

For those of you who played the publisher's Vampire the Masquerade, you know what you're in for - all the good stuff from that system was basically transfered here. Comparing the two books, I'd actually go as far as to say that Werewolf book is done better. Vampire book had a few navigating issues, such as with setting-specific mechanics being listed separately from general ones, and there were a few cases where you had to check several places to combine them into one piece of information which you needed (such as with sect position and statuses). Generally, I haven't seen such issues with this book. The downtime system has also been improved, with one new action - helping allies - and the quest system which expands on the downtime system. The NPC section of the book has everything the Vampire one has... and way more, e.g. some very powerful spirits can go up to NPC rating 30... It also has much more setting material written, which accounts for 200 more pages compared to Vampire book.

Werewolves also tend to be much more customizable than vampires - you get to select your tribe, auspice and breed, which all determine the gifts (comparable to discipline powers) which you can buy. And you're not just locked down into discipline tracks - you can simply buy gifts you're eligible for. This makes every werewolf more unique mechanically - but also slightly more complex to manage. Lore also plays a bigger role in werewolf games, unlike in Vampire games when it can often be... maybe not handwaved away, but very suppressed for young characters. There are rituals and other parts which touch on character's spirituality, so make sure that you as a player are OK with playing that.

Bastet (a werecat)

If werewolves are not enough for you, the book also provides plenty of other Fera (changing species) for you, so if you want to play a wererat, werebear, wereraven, werespider, werefox, werecat, wereshark and many more - you can. This book also brought significant updates to werewolf politics and social play, and now they're as complex and interesting as in Vampire. Furthermore, there's a new chapter provided for compatibility with Vampire book, with explanations of how disciplines affect werewolves and vice versa, and examples and scenarios on how Vampires and Werewolves could both be played in the chronicle (due to new lore, they're not necessarily kill on sight anymore).

This also means that this is probably the first Werewolf product where vampires and werewolves are... sorta balanced enough to be playable. Werewolves still tend to be more powerful, but not to the same level as before - a combat-built vampire has a good chance against a non-combat werewolf.

For those of you who previously played Werewolf the Apocalypse - you're in for a big surprise. The entire setting has been changed and updated. The Apocalypse is NOW and to put it simply SHTF. Silver Fangs king is gone, most caerns (except for 13) are gone, but they produced smaller shard caerns. The Garou Nation is now split in two major factions, consisting of 6 tribes each - Sanctum of Gaia (led by Silver Fangs), which works similar to Garou society as you know it though it's somewhat more conservative and traditional, and Concordat of Stars (led by Shadow Lords), advocating a more open and modern approach, as well as cooperation with other Fera and even other supernaturals. Silent Striders are neutral, and other characters are not necessarily locked into one of those factions. The story differs here from the original setting far more than in Vampire. Older story could be hacked in if you prefer though.

Mechanics are also simpler compared to tabletop. Rage is no longer a full blown resource, but it's instead on a sliding scale, making it simpler to manage. Other stuff is also simplified to limit the math required. As in the new Vampire rules, 9 attributes are replaced with 3 main ones + focuses. The Fera list is quite comprehensive (though not complete) and detailed - it includes Ajaba, Ananasi, Bastet, Corax, Gurahl, Kitsune, Nuwisha, Ratkin and Rokea, and they are all playable - though that might depend on your RP environment (there are also Mokole in the NPC section). There's a lot of mechanics revolving around status, renown, moots, and many other things. Overall, it's a huge and well-rounded book, and it has plenty of content which would (usually) be found in various supplements.

In the first half of 2016, we did a few Werewolf larps here in Zagreb using beta, gamma and delta rule previews, which were linked with our regular Vampire game, Noćne kronike - culminating in a major pervasive event we called "Week of Darkness", played live all over the city. From my experience, these larps worked quite well - although they attracted a smaller number of players compared to our Vampire game. They would've worked even better had we used the full version of the ruleset, with all the info presented there. The game is currently on hiatus - maybe we restart it at some point if we get more interested players...

Anyways, time for the final verdict.

This rulebook will NOT provide a faithful conversion of the tabletop system, nor will it provide for a simple, rules-light Nordic experience (like one used on Convention of Thorns vampire larp). It IS able to provide a fun game, with loads of content included as well as probably best politics and Vampire compatibility ever seen in the WtA so far. If you like it, you can get it here (note: at the moment of writing only PDF version is available, printed version should be after they're shipped for Kickstarter backers, which is currently scheduled for December).

Warcraft Live 2016 review

2016-10-21T14:15:00.000+02:00

Before I visited ConQuest, I went to a Warcraft Live larp in Hungary, seventh part of its' series. Like last year, it was played at the same terrain near Tatabánya (about 60 km west from Budapest), where Chronicles of Demgard is also played (on a side note, there was no "international" Demgard event this year, so this year Warcraft was the only larp I've been to in Hungary - alongside with PoRtaL of course). As its' name suggests, Warcraft Live was built pretty strongly with Warcraft lore in mind, and the main story relies on it - I will be using some Warcraft terms in this review, if you find something unfamiliar you can refer to wowwiki or another similar resource.

The setting was in the non-canon place called Principality of Hummingbird, but since it's located in the currently inaccessible part of the world map this was not really an issue. Although, the weather on this year's event was so hot and humid that it could have easily been set in the Stranglethorn Vale... Anyways, the principality was an outlaw haven, ruled by an unknown entity (supposedly a powerful wizard) called the Hummingbird, who created a protective shield around it. The timeline was sometime during the Wrath of the Lich King expansion - perhaps near the end, as worgen and archaeology also played some interesting parts of the story. There were several rules in the town - public worship was forbidden, as was use of magic and killing other residents.

I decided to create a character using a common Warcraft trope - a generally good guy, who wants to do good things, ends up doing bad stuff due to circumstances. "Road to Hell is paved with good intentions" trope. My character was human, a former captain of Kul Tiras navy, who - after making some unfortunate alliances - deserted and fled, using a cover identity of a simple fisherman. I did actually sell fish on the event for the ingame currency (canned sardines - "in a gnomish preservation device").

During sign up, we had a choice of several factions to sign up for. I chose the "secret cult", to make it even more interesting. Other factions were quite interesting as well - a beached pirate ship which was serving as a local tavern, hunters' guild which hunted some exotic monsters (and had special clues around the terrain - also one of the members there knew the truth about my past), an archaeology and cartographer shop, a trinket merchant (I bought a very cool hearthstone from him), and an elven garden.

The secret cult we signed up for turned out to be a cult of Hummingbird himself. We were to help him ascend to true godhood. The cult had only a few members, and we were quite diverse. I admit, this year I was a bit lazy with my costume - it was not terribly original, as most of it was reusing my ConQuest gear, as I was going to ConQuest after. There were some amazing costumes on the event, especially of the elves (high, night and blood elf kind), and a female dwarf that played as well (with beard, furs and Wildhammer "tattoos" on her).

Elves - Unara and Gvenodhien (photo by Judit Fehér)

Friday evening started slow, with mostly socializing and hanging out. On Saturday morning we got a task to do some rituals at several places of power (rituals were very short and very loud), which resembled the end of last year's Warcraft live a bit. Along with those marked places of power, there were three ritual sites, for different types of rituals - one was an altar to Elune, other was a fel sacrificial place, and the third was a magical circle. They also had different effect on people based on conditions they got during the play. I found two interesting items along the way - the ritual to restore the memories, and a fel dagger (which was custom made, and really looking like something out of Warcraft). Once we did what was required of us, it slowed down a bit - at least for us, as we no longer had a common goal to work towards, so we basically went our separate ways, led by our own interpretations of what should be done next and playing with other players. As a reward, we got some extra powers during the game for serving the Hummingbird. At one point, I was asked by the GM to pass along the memory ritual to other players (which I probably would've done earlier if anyone asked me about it), so I got rid of it.

On Saturday afternoon, Hummingbird finally revealed himself. Or should I say "themselves". There were three entities claiming the same name, and they were all "Hummingbird". One of them was a being blessed with the Holy Light, the other was a primal troll loa, and the third was a Nathrezim demon. The plot revealed that the altar of Elune was built on top of a prison of an Old God, or a part of it, or a very powerful servant of one... and it was about to break out. From all the solutions presented, the demon's plan was actually the most coherent - he proposed that if we help him free his brother, he will reinforce the Old God barrier, relinquish the title of Hummingbird, and let us leave the place if we want to, so that was what was done (after some negotiation with the champion of players, who was a worgen who received Elune's blessing). As I was seen kneeling in front of this demon (since my logic was my character should worship him as long as he holds the name), I found myself murdered (backstabbed, throat slit) as we were walking to the altar of Elune to do that. And as I was waiting my resurrection timer at the Spirit Healer, the larp ended and we went to debriefing and partying...

Overall, the larp was well done and it went much smoother than last year, although it was far less physical and with less combat - which was something I didn't miss, as it was very hot and humid and I was about to spend a week on ConQuest. The core rules are kept really simple, and they mainly work based on the "trust system" which is also used in Demgard, which is mostly improvised. In addition, health and mana were refered to in percentages, and there was a lot of "hidden rules" and hints known only by some players, as well as info marked on cards only readable by some players. The level of people being in character was high, almost all players spoke English, and would usually switch over when I was in the hearing range, which was very commendable. It was fun and I'm looking forward to the next one...

ConQuest 2016

2016-08-22T14:28:00.001+02:00

World's largest larp event. There's really no other like it. This was my third ConQuest - I've been there in 2012 and 2013, and every time I've been humbled by the sheer size and massiveness of the experience. It's impossible to review an event like this as a single person, since so many things are going on that you don't get to see or know the vast majority of it. Perhaps that's what makes it so special. The sheer scale makes it a world of its' own, and makes things possible which are simply not possible on small larps. The one thing that is possible is writing one's own experiences about it.

I arrived to the terrain on Monday morning, 2 days before larp started, after traveling from Hungary where I've been on Warcraft Live event (another story for an upcoming article). Early setup made it possible for me to get everything sorted out, set up my probably smallest tent at the event, help others put up their tents, wash and dry my laundry from previous event, check out the trade district in detail, spend some quality time with friends both old and new, and rest and relax for a while.

A lot has changed in those three years. You might have noticed that my last 2 reviews have been titled "ConQuest of Mythodea", but this one is simply "ConQuest". This is because it is no longer played in the in-character land of Mythodea since the first chapter of the story ended in 2013. The land of Mythodea is not lost - player characters still arrive from it, and there's a new big larp Chronicles of Mythodea in late April, as well as already existing JDS ("Beyond the Seals") in late May, as well as several player-made but organizer-supported Mythodea larps. All of them are still played in the in-character land of Mythodea, however none of them approach the scale of ConQuest. The world ConQuest is now played in is Kelriothar, the Mirrorworld - an artificially created world bereft of resources. This story change also put additional pressure on player characters, both in role-play and the larp mechanics which were more merciless for players this time around.

Once again I joined the NPCs of Swarm 1 of the Black Ice. I met plenty of my old friends there. Some couldn't make it this year, but there were several new faces to make friends with. Being a part of Swarm 1 made me feel like my combat experience is gonna be much like in the previous two times I went to ConQuest, but I was wrong. It was much better. Even though I was impressed with the level of organization 3 and 4 years ago, this year it was brought to another level. Costuming was better overall, as there was much less skin exposed in effort to make us look unique. My own level of costume, which was decent enough few years ago, was barely adequate this year. Our in-character feel was much improved by using the special in-character commands for combat manuevers (which existed before, but our swarm hadn't used it to such level). And there were plenty of new manuevers, and our swarm had greatly improved its' effectiveness in manuevering individual fists (squads, basically), but in a manner which is coordinated by the swarm.

Our duty roster was also exceptionally well done this year - pairing us in the same shift as Swarm 2 and Lairdom 2, Flowerfield. Evenly spaced, with sometimes long shifts but always enough time to rest, eat and get cleaned up. However, fights themselves were neither as big nor as epic as in the first two times I've been there. Part of it was due to the nature of the setting, which was more punishing for players this time around - getting wounded was a much more serious issue, and players couldn't get healed back to the same levels as before. This made them less inclined to fight. And for this reason, there were also no camp sieges this year - it would make it even more punishing for the players, and many of them were also (reportedly) already pushed to the brink of demoralization.

Almost all combat happened on one of the two fields, holding important plot points. Sieges were sadly nonexistent this year (which everyone commented on - perhaps they make a comeback in the future). The majority of massive combat resembled a large and complex game of point control, as one side would gain control of the point, push the other side back, and possibly make a ritual which would do something in the plot. I took part in two such rituals myself - one of them was a big ritual which culminated in a major NPC appearing (and the rest of us falling down like dominoes). The other time was in a small ritual, in which I got sacrificed near the end. It was quite cool seeing that side of the game, something different from usual marching and combat that I do (and which I love, so don't take it as a criticism).

NPC armies on ConQuest changed a bit compared to 3 years ago. There was still the Undead, and the Black Ice. The new army was Ratio - which we got a preview of at the 2013 debriefing, and it's been regular since 2014. The Pestilence was not present (although they still exist on other events which take place in Mythodea), and what was left of the Void army went together with Ratio... Main NPCs were largely new, especially on player side. Gone were the Avatars, and most of the large-shouldered major NPCs of old. The new main NPCs were especially well done, with masks and everything. I've heard several players who were really fans of major NPCs - I guess it's only on the big larps such as this one that the significant players and NPCs can get something approaching the rock-star fame...

What I didn't like here was our level of plot involvement. Although we were involved in many of the major plots, we simply didn't know what they were. We went, we fought, and did as we were told to. The Black Ice manual contains some rather good descriptions of the general plot and story so far, but on the field I'd have liked if there was some more communication. In previous years I've been to, there was an Undead newspaper which was published every day, and even though it was only in German, it helped - but it was missing this year. And there was a language barrier too. Perhaps it would be a good idea if the organizers posted somewhere (like, on their tent) daily report of the main things that happened. Purely to help NPCs (the ones who are interested at least) better understand the story that we're trying to create.

Us fighting against the KidsTown

The weather on ConQuest was rather OK. It was rainy and wet, but not really stormy and the rain was not that bad. It wasn't overly hot and oppressive either, so fighting in full gear was quite tolerable. Partly beacuse of that - and partly because I've actually been in better shape this time around than the first two times I've been to ConQuest - I wasn't dead tired after my shifts ended, so I volunteered at the GM's tent for more stuff to do. I won't publicly disclose what I had to do (that might include some unwanted spoilers), but let's just say it was covert and what I managed to do was very fun.

All the camps this year were connected in one larp mega-city with thousands of tents. It would take about 40 minutes by foot to reach from one edge to another north to south - all of it a vast network of major streets and shady alleys. The heart of the city was the "Tross" camp - out-of-character camp with traders, food stalls, stage, taverns, supermarket, guilds and much more. Surrounding it were player districts - I've only stepped my foot in half of them, that's how big they were. The NPC camp was on south and out-of-character, divided from the player section by the Fantastica Festival, a separate medieval/fantasy fair which was open for non-player tourists who couldn't get to the game site, but they could observe it from a camouflaged watchtower.

And yes, this means that partying on ConQuest is incredible. On Tuesday there was the opening party, with bands and other artist groups taking place on a central stage. Although it was true that you could find anything every night - plenty of taverns of every style, with their own sorts of crowd, bands, drummers, bards, fire breathers, belly dancers, irish step dancers, and much more - at that day most of it was at one place. That doesn't include hundreds of private parties - after that party I ended up on the glowstick party at one of the undead camps... The game started on Wednesday at 18:00, and during that time atmosphere in the city was far more in-character, although less so in the Tross part than in the other areas of the city. Last night - Saturday - was also a party night, not only because it was the last night, but because the largest tavern this year - Black Pearl - was closing for good. Our swarm went partying on Friday, we took a few cases of beer (and few bottles of mead), and enjoyed some good time in the city. We went as random settlers, of course, not as the enemy army. But the party was full of laughter, singing, and internal jokes. A very memorable night.

That doesn't mean the city was safe otherwise. Walking (with some company) down the dark road next to the walls of one of the camps, we noticed some hooded figures. One of them started following us, and I saw a flash of the sword. I was the only one armed (although only with a dagger), so while continuing to walk I warned about the upcoming figure and drew my dagger from my belt. This seemed to discourage the hooded figure following us, and it left - as it couldn't get us by surprise, an injury was probably not worth taking a risk...

Apart from assassins / robbers / whatever these guys were, the city was full of gangs, "families", and other entities who took an interest in it. Some guys who were a part of Swarm 1 in previous years were playing a fire brigade in the city this year (in-character one, as there were actually real firemen there as well). From what I've heard, playing in the city is quite a political minefield...

There was some off-game danger as well. Some players seemingly tend to think of NPCs as someone they can hit hard with no reprecussions. The above pic was from one of my Swarm-mates, Mario - the armor dented by latex swords (which should probably be re-inspected for safety), and the hand injury he suffered when he slipped. Another Swarm-mate was pummeled very hard several times after she was surrounded alone by a group of 5 players. Myself, I got a hard strike in my temple which left my vision wobbly for about half an hour, and then the strike in the same place with a gauntlet. Not cool, at least not for a family-friendly larp. Watch your strikes, people - or say in advance if you want to fight hard, I can roll with that...

With all the good and bad on ConQuest, it was still amazing. When it all ended, I was sad. I'm still having larp blues, despite the fact that over 2 weeks have already passed. ConQuest is still an experience of its' own - mind-blowing and larger than life... Add to that the fact that the setting of ConQuest is constantly expanding - now also in a novel form, though sadly only in German - it can get really overwhelming... And perhaps I should finally learn to speak German well. ConQuest is a big incentive for that.

Ticket sales for ConQuest 2017 start tomorrow at noon.

Bis nächstes Jahr...

(many of these photos were pulled from ConQuest photo stick, and they're owned by their respective photographers)

The Family Andersson review

2016-04-05T01:03:00.001+02:00

The Family Andersson is a Swedish chamber larp written by Åke Nolemo and Johan Röklander. I played a run yesterday in Zagreb, Croatia, organized by Miroslav Wranka (aka Siro), based on English translation by Tor Kjetil Edland and Håken Lied.

This was the larp's third run in Croatia, but first one in Zagreb - it was run in the cities of Rijeka and Osijek before that, as part of the "Larp day" events which presented several chamber larps to the general public. Zagreb has yet to receive a similar event - this was a separate run, under the renewed SRP.

The Family Andersson is a modern-era family drama for 8-10 people, which deals with family inheritance distribution (as well as some Christmas plans) between the siblings. This is a simple premise, however there's a twist - the number of characters is half that of the players, and each character is played by two players in a tag-team sort of way - the players switch and alternatively play the same character.

Everything is fully described in larp documentation, which is available for free. The larp itself is fairly simple, but in fact it worked really smooth (both in our group's experience, and previous Croatian groups). Our group was 8 players, and we dropped the character of Robin for this run. I ended up co-playing the character of Kim, a nurse studying to become a priest.

It's interesting to note that of our group, half were the first-time larpers, and only two of us were larping for several years. Several of these new players provided a really strong and intensive play - both in their negotiations and their relationships to other siblings (and some very memorable responses and burns). Indeed, the discussions were so heated that the "team tag" mechanic was very useful as it allowed the passive player to go back for a while, to regain some energy for further play.

Should you get a chance to play (or run) this larp, I highly recommend it.

Divlja Krajina 1 review

2016-04-05T00:22:00.002+02:00

Who are player characters? What is their purpose? Each larp defines that differently. Or perhaps it would be better to say, early Croatian fantasy larps did not do that at all, they were designed as a blank canvas allowing (at least in theory) every player to choose that for themselves. As these larps themselves progressed, various concepts would be more or less viable and playable.

Terra Nova 2012 was the first fantasy larp to cast player characters specifically as colonists of a foreign land (other factions were added later, and from this year new setting will have factions designed from various player choices in last 4 years). TESC larps were a series of one-shots, each with their own factions which generally helped form what players are.

And now comes Divlja Krajina, which focuses on a very specific role: all player characters are adventurers, braving the undiscovered divlja krajina ("wild region" would be an approximate translation) in hopes of fame and fortune.

Divlja Krajina is a new larp by Ognjeni Mač. It has a history though. The first era of Ognjeni Mač larps were played between 2006 and 2013, starting from once common Croatian setting, played using Amtgard 7.0 rules - which were quickly modified, and more modifications were added as the time went by. This was followed by a setting and rules reboot in 2014, which used the new "Trinity" ruleset focused around three forces, three classes etc., but only three larps were played using these rules: a demo event, Put istine and Maska sumraka. The reactions to them were mixed though, and Ognjeni Mač ran no larps for over a year, until Orahovačke Kronike historical larp which was overall good, except for the murder spree that happened in the evening.

Divlja Krajina builds upon the first two phases - it uses what is by name the same setting as the original phase, but moved forward into the future. As a ruleset, it uses redesigned and streamlined Trinity rules. The pre-event for this setting was already done last summer...

Actually, it is the same setting in name only. And that is perhaps the best thing about it - the origin regions of characters is divided into several villages which players can originate from, all with their specific flavor and sets of prejudices against others. In that way, it's more similar to a lightweight version of Tragači zore than Rajski vrhovi (which continues the original setting).

The setting itself takes itself less seriously than other fantasy settings - the locations, religions etc. are full of humor and puns. However, it's not really a full parody setting like some larps can be.

The game offers two classes, "ordinary" and "magically gifted". I rolled a "magically gifted" character (which seem to be in majority), playing a warrior-monk of a sardine goddess from a fisherman village of Padele, trying to amass richess for his temple.

Divlja Krajina 1 was played in Maksimir park on April 2, and the attendance was free - both of these were features of previous short larps organized by Ognjeni Mač in that same location. First 72 were numbered, then there was Put istine, so this would in fact be Maksimir 74 under the old numbering scheme. The exact location was slightly changed, so it felt fresh.

The larp design was familiar. It was not linear like Put istine - rather, after we arrived in our village groups and met near the center (which was also the off site, so this was a bit of an unfortunate choice), there would be different encounters near that site at various points of time. Organizers and NPCs played various roles, and there would be some downtime until they changed - apart from village relations, no character structures existed and the rest of plot was external. This part will likely improve as time passes, and characters manage to build up their personal relations.

There were some encounters which were fun though, mostly due to NPCs putting on a good act. There were also some new costumes and new monsters, which helped this larp feel different from older Ognjeni Mač larps.

Next event was generally announced as "in a month", so it will be interesting to see how it develops further - and what challenges await the adventurers...

Photos by Petar Ratković

Terra Nova larp rules and setting public beta

2016-03-17T08:00:00.000+01:00

This year's Terra Nova larp - planned for May 20-22 - will feature a new setting and a set of rules. This year a larger group of organizers joined the Terra Nova team. Plans for this year are considerable: new rules, new direction in design, more plot and props than ever before.

In fact, rules are why I'm writing this post - I'd like to invite you to read them. Comment on them (or below). Write about what you like and what you don't like. We will take all feedback into consideration, and finalize the rules in the next two weeks. They're also under Creative Commons, so if you wish to use them feel free.

Portal 4+ announced and other convention stuff

2016-03-16T12:57:00.000+01:00

This is the big news. The fourth PoRtaL convention was announced, and it will take place in a month - April 15 to 17. True, it is a bit later than usual - so far it has been organized late February or early March - but it is happening. In Budapest, like the second convention (I was involved with organizing first and third conventions in Zagreb).

The program for fourth convention will provide more focus on the educational and interdisciplinary content, and besides the presentations, discussions and panels, there will also be chamber larps, larp exhibit, and there's a planned publication. There's a CFP for it, and presenters can send their presentations in article form to be included as well.

The main website (with registrations) is available here. You can also check the Facebook page and event for further info.

As a refresher, PoRtaL is the biggest larp convention in this part of Europe. And only one, because apart from PoRtaL, there are really no larp-specific conventions around. However, there is some larp content on other conventions.

GobliCon (web / facebook) is a major Slovenian convention, focused on tabletop RPG but also with some larp content. I had fun there last year. Unfortunately, this year it's in the same timeslot as PoRtaL.

Istrakon (April 8-10) and SFeraKon (May 13-15) are also close, and they are major Croatian conventions - mainly focused on SF and fantasy. They will also have some larp content. I plan to be on SFeraKon.

In Italy, there will be a gaming Play convention in Modena on April 1-3. I was there last year, talking about Izgon and the convention is huge. There will be tabletop, larp and freeform content during the convention. Most of it will be in Italian, but a sci-fi larp A Thousand Stars and No Home will also be available in English on Saturday evening, allowing you to play a refugee in a space opera setting.

One of the inspirations for PoRtaL was a major Nordic larp convention, which changes the name as it changes the four countries. It's Knutepunkt in Norway, Knutpunkt in Sweden, last year it was Knudepunkt in Denmark... and this year it was Solmukohta in Finland. As they do every year, they released convention books for free in PDF form. If you like progressive content and theory, check them out here.

Larp World Magazine Issue #1 Review

2016-03-10T13:05:00.003+01:00

A commercial larp publication? I was intrigued from the first moment when I heard about it. The question, of course, is whether it justifies the $5 fee. I don't think I bought a magazine in over 15 years. With the growth of online portals - deriving their revenue mainly from advertising - I just found a lot of info available online for free in the main area of my interest at the time, which were computer games.

However, at that time finding decent info about larping online has been almost impossible. Even these days, when the situation is better than it has ever been before, larping is not only undocumented but also very context-dependent. Larpers might find a publication written for another larping scene difficult to apply to their own situation, because of different goals, issues, customs, player base, legal situation and much more.

It's no surprise that - being US based - Larp World Magazine is US-centric. It's published by Joseph Valenti (the owner of NERO), and edited by Aaron Vanek - some of the most well-known people in US larp. However, LWM remains highly aware of the international scene - especially larps highly visible to English-speaking audience, such as the Nordic and progressive scene. You can get your digital copy here. My review of the magazine follows.

In the beginning of the magazine, there are a few ads, news, short articles about some interesting projects and some US-specific legal stuff. The ongoing legal battle of larping.org and Archery Tag about the sale of larp arrows, cosplay and copyright law, etc.

The first major part of the magazine is called "Up Your Game". It consists of three articles:

The Art of Being a Bastard by B Simon Smith - this article provides tips for scheming characters in PvE (or more accurately CvE) environments. Hints and tips about manipulating others to get to your goals. Many larps run this way, so I'm sure this will be helpful to many even though advice is just some solid basics.
The Land of If by Piotr Milewski - advice on how to use real history as an inspiration to create interesting and powerful stories. I liked these. Stuff that works IRL tends to work in fiction as well.
Team and Squad Tactics by Aaron Pirnack - again, some sound basic advice, but to be honest most Croatian larpers fail at this and should probably read this article.

Second major part of the magazine is "Features". Longer and in my opinion very interesting articles.

Higher Education by Kaza Marie Ayersman aka Larp Girl. She presents a long and detailed review of College of Wizardry larp in Poland.
A Tale of Two Hamlets by Pablo Valcárcel. This article talks about two very different adaptations of Hamlet, and also discusses larp adaptations of other artistic works into larp... and going beyond it.
What We Talk About When We Talk About Community by Amanda Douglas - a long article about community. The article even quotes me on the page 32 :) and many other larpers as well. I have to say this is my favorite article in the issue. At times critical and honest, but very detailed. I would recommend this article to everyone.
Illuminating the World of Darkness with Martin Ericsson by James Snetsinger - well, the title says it all, doesn't it? Those of you who've been following the WoD scene know that CCP sold White Wolf to Paradox Interactive, and Martin Ericsson is the new lead Storyteller. Lots of info on what's coming, sounds like it will be interesting :)

Third major part is "Larp fundamentals".

Kitchen Sorcery: Hand Pies! by Cindy Kapp is a cooking recipe. Requires an oven, so you might or might not be able to cook it on your larp. Also, it would've been useful if ingredients were listed in metric units as well... converting units on the larp site might be tricky.
Crafting: A Beginner’s Guide to Making Leather Bracers by B Simon Smith - a simple, detailed bracer tutorial. Lots of pictures for every step.
Larp & the Law by Dave Miner - some basic, universal and sound advice on what to do if interrupted by police.

Next there is a reviews section, where you can find reviews of several media dealing with larp (reviewed by Kristin Brumley), as well as of one published larp (reviewed by Malcolm Harbrow).

This is followed by a short larp glossary, and an interesting "War Stories" method of what to do during low intensity of a larp. And the magazine ends, at 73 pages total.

Four digital issues a year are planned, and also one in print. Digital format works well for this magazine, because in these articles there are a lot of links leading to websites and resources where you can find more info.

Personally, I like the fact that it has something for all sorts of larpers - new players, old players, organizers, traditional, progressive etc., which is something very few publications manage to do.

Larp World Magazine had some initial distribution and layout issues, but they have been solved and it's available on DriveThruRPG.