Diary of a Croatian larper

Maksimir 61 is tomorrow, and people are quite excited about it. I already got several people messaging me if I'm going to attend (to answer it publicly, yes, I intend to). Like some sort of excitment is in the air. Which is not unusual. Maksimir larp has commonly been organized once-twice a month. People got accustomed to it, and really few people got excited about one more Maksimir. This time, however, it's been three months since last Maksimir, and that one was battlegame-based, not storyline based. Anticipation got built up. And that is good. Ognjeni Mač forums have been unusually silent lately. Maybe Maksimir 61 and the upcoming Jaska 11 will give them a boost once again. Autumn has always been the time for most lively online discussions. It also shows that perhaps lower quantity can generate more interest. Speaking about interest, it's unusually high for the upcoming Para pokreće svijet: Vrste steampunk larp. April 6 is over half a year away, however player qu...

The survey I did for Terra Nova is not yet complete as it will run until winter, in late December - it's never too late to share your thoughts and opinions, and they just might make the difference even if they're last-minute stuff. However, the results so far are quite interesting, so I decided to share them with you. I'll do it again in a few months, once the survey is closed. Remember you can edit what you wrote. If you haven't filled the survey, you can do so here . If you have, thank you :) Participants in the survey were mostly Croatian players from Zagreb, with a few Osijek players responding. We also had a few people from Slovenia, Hungary and Serbia filling the survey. 45% of the surveyed players noted that they plan to come to Terra Nova: Zimograd, and 45% are still considering it. Only three people said they won't be able to attend Zimograd. It's slightly less certain for the next summer Terra Nova - 40% of the respondants are planning to attend...

The fourth Para Pokreće Svijet larp has just been anounced. Named "Vrste" (Species), it has been announced for April 6th next year, weekend after Easter. It's gonna be a long wait, but considering how awesome the last larp was, I guess it's worth the wait. Also, looks like I might be helping out with the event. I don't think there's ever been an event here scheduled over 6 months in advance. Anyway, this makes it the second known larp date in 2013, after Terra Nova: Zimograd's January 11-13. Well, we can guess some others: Jaska 12 on May 16-19 or 23-26, and Crolarp 2013. on July 18-21 or 25-28, but we'll probably have to wait some half a year until these dates are confirmed... By the way, I just noticed I've been writing about steampunk for the last 4 days...

After a long pause - three months really - Maksimir larp returns this Saturday as 61st Maksimir larp. If you just recently joined us, Maksimir larps are short campaign fantasy larps lasting several hours, held in a secluded area of Zagreb's largest park, Maksimir. Ran by Ognjeni Mač association, Maksimir larps are connected to Jaska larps. And concerning Jaska larps - Jaska 11 has just been confirmed to take place in its regular location on October 13-14. Anyways, this Saturday's Maksimir larp is going to take place from 2 PM till 6 PM and it will serve as an introduction to Jaska 11. It's not the only thing happening this Saturday though. Right after it's finished - from 7 PM onwards - there will be a small steampunk convention called "Croatian Blimp", in "22000 milja" bar in Zagreb, Frankopanska 22. What makes Croatian Blimp special is the fact that it's a part of EuroSteamCon - loads of Steampunk events and conventions happenin...

Like  I announced yesterday , last night was Steampunk larp. As you could have guessed from that announcement, I was quite excited as I was expecting a pretty good larp. What I did not expect to have is one of the best larps of my life. I've been larping for over a decade, and these days there are really few things that surprise me. I get there, enjoy what is offered, do my stuff , have a good time and try to improve on larps I'm doing or helping with. And write about all that stuff on this blog. That's what I do, it's my hobby, I've seen a lot of things, read about a lot of things, and something has to be really special to blow my mind. And last night something like that happened. I did expect a good larp. Four months ago, Automaton was awesome . But Gates of War, third larp in the "Para pokreće svijet" (Steam runs the world) series, was several notches above its second installment. There are several reasons why, and I'll try to recount them. ...

The Steampunk larp "Para pokreće svijet" is here in its third installment today, called "Vrata rata" (Gates of War). First two events happened this spring - I missed the first one, but the second event was pretty much awesome. With an interesting atmosphere (and a timeline which took only two events to greatly diverge from its mostly-historically-correct origins), Steampunk larp is nicely shaping up. So far the development is going pretty well. Timeline is being developed based on player actions every event, there's a great deal of materials prepared for every event (including newspapers etc) and other activities (we were betting in-game money on fictional world championship results, some hints were released and overall it was quite fun), the setting is quite detailed and personally I'm eagerly awaiting to return to alternate-history 1901. this evening. As always, I'll let you know how it went.

You might have noticed a subtle change recently. I've started lowercasing the word larp, and I no longer write it as LARP. In a way, this mirrors the growing trend in the world, with the acronym LARP becoming a proper noun, larp. Especially in places where it's going more popular and closer to the mainstream. And it's not the first time it happened, acronyms become nouns all the time - RADAR (RAdio Detection And Ranging) and LASER (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) are just some of the former acronyms which became nouns over time. Also, it's a growing linguistical trend in the world - nordic larpers notably having fully commited to it, and more and more larpers around the globe accepting the change. It's still live action role playing, just having its own word now. It's not the first time change happened here - a few years ago it was standard practice in Croatia to write it as "L.A.R.P." which is even more unwieldy, technical...

Summer is gone, and colder weather is here. Yet there are still larps around in Croatia. Tragači zore and Jaska 11 will be overnight larps, and some of us are going to Hungary on Chronicles of Demgard, which is a camping larp as well. Most people are used to camping only in summer time, and recent Rajski Vrhovi XVII suffered due to rain and cold, even though people were more prepared for it than usual. Here's a few tips (in no particular order) that will allow you to camp in comfort and have a good time on a larp in colder weather, even in winter: Wool is your friend. Wear it, a lot. It's water resistant, windproof, and historically accurate. From socks to cloaks, you can't go wrong with wool. Multiple layers of cotton don't help and can't emulate wool. Don't try this. You'll have a bad time. Wear long underwear and hats (woolen, if possible). Wear them in autumn, even if you don't regularly wear them in winter in your daily life. Fleece can emulate...

Larp. It's your game, not the organizer's. It's about you. And others, but from your perspective it's about you. So make it yours. What I'm talking about here is - you're responsible for your own fun. Bring your roleplay, involve others in it. Make your character in a way that it involves others. Then make it happen. In that way, you're also making the event more fun for others. And they make it more fun for you. Step up to the challenge, and don't just sit around the campfire waiting for one of the organizers to arrive and entertain you. Just don't. Organizers are not clowns, and while on most larps they will have some plot going on, it's your responsibility to make larp alive. Because it's also your game. Larp is about participation. If you're sitting there waiting to be entertained, you're just a little bit more interactive than someone watching a show. Have your own game. Roleplay everything, roleplay daily life, roleplay w...

I've updated the " Who's who in Croatian LARP " portal. It now reflects changes since the first time I put it on ten months ago, and now allows you to click on the event and find out who the organizer is. It's light and easy to read, so I suggest checking it out - it will give a nice background to what I'm writing about. I also wrote the history part of it, to let you know why and how some changes were made and how they shifted in time. And it will probably make the survey results more understandable - I plan to publish some interesting stuff after a few more people complete the survey. That means you (if you haven't completed it yet). Whoever you are, if you're reading this, I'd want to know your opinion. It will be valued. Even if you're in another part of the world. Good ideas are good ideas nevertheless. Click here to fill out the survey. Also, are you on Google+? Crolarper posts will now be shared from this page instead of my per...

I've put up a larp survey online yesterday. It's bilingual - in Croatian and English - and it's first and foremost the survey for the upcoming Terra Nova: Zimograd larp. But, it's much more than that. It's an open feedback survey, and you're invited to fill it out even if you're not joining Terra Nova (or any other larp I'm organizing or co-organizing - and if you're not joining I'd still like to know why, and how we could make your experience a better one). Your opinion matters, as well as your ideas, and our idea is to make Terra Nova an event which is not only enjoyable and fun for everyone, but also an experience you will remember. Help us to make this an excellent event for you, your friends and everyone involved. Thanks to everyone who participated so far and shared their opinions. For the rest of you, click here to fill out the survey.

This summer has been quite interesting, not only considering Croatian larp development, but other larp projects that were happening around. One of the more visible ones is Realm of LARP, a series about a party of larpers produced in USA's Seventh Kingdom IGE group. Yesterday the last episode of the first season of this English-language show that's been following us for the entire summer came out. Looking at the way it's both played and filmed is interesting. It's quite different from Croatian LARP, it looks more railroaded and gamey but there are certainly some interesting ideas that could be seen. Here are all 11 episodes of the show's first season (hopefully, not the last). Enjoy!

Croatia is a small country, and we don't have a large larp population. Most of our players are in Zagreb, which despite being a capital of Croatia is still a rather small city by world standards. Despite that, Croatian larp community is quite active on the Internet, and there are plenty of discussions going around. Long, long time ago everything was done the old-fashioned way. Meetings, usually over a coffee and beer, word-of-mouth (with plenty of misinformation going around), commonly involving travel and large phone bills. But it all changed with the arrival of a younger, more technical generation over 10 years ago, skilled in their usage of e-mail and Usenet. We wanted something more than just hear-say. And so zglarp mailing list was born in the May of 2002. Created on Yahoo groups, it was the main active place of Croatian larp for several years. It was eventually replaced by the zglarp forum which I created in January 2005, but eventually both communities died due to all ...

The second part of Croatian summer season was a bit slow this year. With most larps scheduled in June - July, there were fewer larps than expected in August and early September - also, Majčin Gaj got cancelled and Rajski Vrhovi XVII got cut short due to rain. This will turn around now, giving us possibly the biggest streak of "Larp every week" that ever happened in Croatian autumn. We really do a lot of larps for our population... Krvomeđe will open the season on Sunday, September 16. A series of battlegames for those who like some action and fighting. This one will be organized by me, and I'm planning to do some new stuff. It will continue the next weekend, September 22-23 with Sven Nemet's Steampunk - Para pokreće svijet series, third larp: Gates of war. There has been so far a great ammount of pre-game effort put into preparation for this game, and if it's going to be similar to the previous event. There was supposed to be a second Krvomeđe ...

As one of the organizers and GMs of Rajski Vrhovi XVII, I was pretty excited about the experience we were to provide players with. There are just some larps where the weather simply doesn't agree with you, but never before have I seen it in such a measure as on Rajski Vrhovi XVII this weekend. Friday was OK... Somewhat damp and very misty, it provided some great atmosphere. We managed to accomplish what we planned for the night, although we had some delays. It looked like a great start for a great event, with the storyline going on, a player wedding party, and some escalating tensions. Number of players overtook Rajski Vrhovi XVI , making this currently second biggest larp of the year - and we had plenty of new players, this was their first event. Everything was going well until some 2 AM on Saturday. Then it started raining. Not really heavy, as in a thunderstorm, but it was a strong rain... And it refused to stop. It just never stopped. It slowed down twice for maybe a...