Diary of a Croatian larper

Armored templars. Zombies. Partisans. Nazis. Does anything else really need to be said or have I sold you the idea of larp already? This. But in summer. Sine Requie is an upcoming larp which will be held in Croatia... by the Italians. It's (AFAIK) the first time something like that is being done in Croatia, although from what I hear there have been larps organized by Italians in Slovenia. (Of course, there will be plenty of local larpers to help the organizers too) Its name comes from a tabletop Italian role-playing game (read about it here ), but basically it's the alternate history 1957. The world got changed forever when in 1944., on the D-day a zombie apocalypse happened. The larp will be run in the western Istria, in an abandoned village near the town of Buje. It will be a 12-hour larp, starting on June 13 at 14:00 (with a prep time couple of hours earlier), and ending on June 14, 02:00. The cultures in-game will be represented by actual player cultures, a...

Izgon larp had some hiccups in the beginning, but it's progressing along very nicely. It took a couple of days to get going fully... which is very interesting, but highly expected. I'm documenting every step of the larp and I'll publish it once it's done. At this point, I'm really curious how the participants like it so far, but of course it would be breaking character for them to answer, so I'll withold those questions until larp ends in a month. You can still sign up to participate in this larp and have plenty of meaningful stuff to do - sign-ups for secondary roles are open  until one week before larp ends... Sunčev potočić event that happened last weekend (third in the series) was by most reports a success. This paragraph is all second-hand knowledge, as I didn't participate in the larp. Apparently, there were some hiccups (mostly with organizer synchronization) and some painful night fighting, but most people there had a good time. The content was la...

Semantics and cultural assumptions are some of the biggest enemies of being understood when talking about larp terms, and "convention" is one of the worst culprits. For some other larp terms, plenty of style guides were written (I'm using this one  on this blog), but before I even tackle the word "convention" let's talk about what the word "larp" can refer to: larp can refer to the technique itself it can refer to the particular larp event in a series (e.g. Terra Nova: Zimograd larp) it can refer to the series itself (e.g. Terra Nova larp) it can refer to all the larp events by a certain organizer, regardless of the series' (e.g. Ognjeni Mač larps, where you can find Maksimir larps, Jaska larps etc., and down to a specific event; or My larps section of this blog) it can refer to the particular one-shot larp (e.g. Love is Blue larp), whether as a written material or a particular run of it (e.g. Love is Blue larp on PoRtaL 2013.) C...

There have been many larps and larp related stuff already this year. Both stand-alone events and the great experience that was PoRtaL  (btw, that article also got translated into Italian by  +Andrea Castellani , and a revised version should be up soon on larping.org ). But the season fully kicks in tomorrow when stuff will happen continuously until in summer. The small town of Pazin in the middle of Istria is a host to the second largest Sci-fi & Fantasy convention in Croatia, Istrakon. It starts today and lasts for the weekend - this year's incarnation is called "Elementi". The larp related stuff will be tomorrow evening - two things happening simultaneously at 8 PM. The first one will be a presentation by Ana Rajner and Božo Špoljarić: The Renaissance of larp: Discoveries and inventions on the Croatian larp scene . It will be held in the small concert hall. The second will be a third public run of Koliba (The Cabin) by Ivana Delač and Vesna Kurilić. It w...

Izgon (or: The Exile)  preparations are going great. Sign-ups are over ( or are they really? ), the rules, setting and all characters have been written and sent to players. A little bit more preparatory work, and it will be all ready to start this Sunday morning! (If anyone who signed up didn't get the rules or the character or has any questions don't hesitate to contact me) Some people might be on Istrakon or Sunčev Kotar which will happen on the same weekend... That's all addressed in the larp design :) And some news from the worldwide larp scene. "The Monitor Celestra", the high-budget Swedish Battlestar Galactica larp we already wrote about (and probably the most hyped larp of this year, worldwide) finished its third (and last) run the last weekend, and it was well received. Read the out-of-character and in-character recaps of the second run by Thomas Be, a French larper living in Switzerland, check out the Celestra site and the movie below to get a glim...

It was time for the second Hangout of The Larp Group, a series of online discussion panels sponsored by Larping.org, and consisting of Kaza and Callie from USA, Martin from Denmark and yours truly. Today we shared some experience from our first events, remembered how it was back then, shared some of our silliness, shared old photos and gave some advice to new players. Compared to last time, we also shortened it to 1 hour run time. If you missed it live, check it out below:

Today's Ognjeni Mač meeting (starting in a few minutes after this article is published) will apparently feature several debates (if enough people will be interested in them). The debate subjects will be: Social positions of the NPCs in the world Mannerisms and etiquette of the historical period in which the game is roughly placed Are there any differences between PCs and NPCs? What does being fantasy mean? These sound like quite interesting subjects. Are you going to be there? Feel free to comment on this post and mention how it went.

Just a quick update for today. Yesterday was Krvomeđe. With the weather being somewhat wet, a total of five players showed up. Unfortunately, I was not there either as other things came up. But I heard they had some fun. Apparently there was an archery contest, and some battles. Next event will be not Krvomeđe, but Sunčev Kotar in two weeks. It's a third event in the series - first Sunčev Potočić was a small feast in late autumn of 2010., second one was in March last year by Green Banner Croatia, and the third one will be on March 23rd, in shared organization of Green Banner Croatia, Krvomeđe and Ognjeni Mač - a similar model to the one used on Crolarp last year. It will once again be organized in Eko Selo Žumberak. More info here (in Croatian). On the same date there will be Istrakon, one of the largest sci-fi conventions in Croatia in the town of Pazin. It should also have some larp content on it, such as another run of Koliba (The Cabin). Istrakon logo I probab...

After almost two years , I was talking about larp on national TV again, together with a larper colleague, +Ana Rajner   :) This time we got slightly under four minutes of programming. Here's our story - and a couple of larp trailers played along: If you don't understand Croatian, it's basically a general description of what larp is. It was shown this Friday afternoon on HRT2, and it had a rerun today around noon on HRT3. In better resolution than what they released for online viewing, but I digress. You can watch the entire show here  if you're interested. Just select the 8.3.2013. date. Also, a digression - a friend of mine dug up some old photos. Including the photo of me from the first larp I was ever on. A 17-year old me playing a young barbarian on Kutina Summer Session 2001... My first larp Which was really cool. I thought there was no surviving photos from that era. Here's another from the old Motovun larp (after it was done and before we went ...

Me as Kain - dragging myself over the forests of Maksimir... The 64th Maksimir was different. Since time immemorial (read: the first Maksimir larp in 2007.), it was held at the western side of the fifth lake in the Maksimir park. Two years ago, the location switched to another, some 100 meters away. Today, the larp location was on the eastern side of the lake - yay for a change! :) An Uruk-hai sitting down. We found the new location, and prepared for the game to start. There were some delays as some people were late and busy armoring themselves up, and GMs wanted to start with everyone around here. Templars and a friendly nun The story was a continuation of that on Maksimir 63 - true to it, it was also in a different in-character location. There was a funny looking village in front, one half of it burned. This is how it was represented Basically, after some chatting with the villagers the demons attacked. Apparently, some portals to Hell got opened. ...

"Women on larp" is a common discussion in larping circles - and an appropriate article for March 8th, the international women's day, don't you think? (Happy March 8th to all the female readers of Crolarper!) Most larp groups are usually concerned with low ratio of female to male players. On Croatian larps, this has historically been somewhere between 10 and 40 percent of the larping population - depending on the larp in question and when it was played. Stereotype There were plenty of discussions concerning this. Not only in Croatia, but in other groups as well. However, in the fantasy scene there's often plenty of stereotypes about the role of women. Some of these stereotypes are: Girl Casters - "fighting is a man's job, therefore girls should ideally be suited for caster role" is the usual reasoning. Woman Warriors - seen as "men with boobs". Usually seen as something between "I am no man" Eowyn from Lord of the Rin...

Izgon (or The Exile as it would be its translation into English) will be a pervasive urban fantasy larp (with elements of SF) that I'm preparing. It will last over a month - from March 24th to April 28th. March 17th is the deadline for signups. Here's a few things you can expect: Play a double life - what you did so far (which can include other larps) and what you'll do this larp. Zagreb-centered but playable worldwide - most of the players and content will be in Zagreb. However, everyone in the world will be able to play and contribute in some meaningful way (I might limit applications from abroad to some 10-ish max if plenty people sign up - if I talked to you about it you're in regardless). Expect plenty of online communication. This larp and its participants will not intrude into your work or your personal life. You can expect some 20 hours of gameplay (if in Zagreb) over the month. More or less if you decide to do it that way. Around tenth to fifth of tha...

"The Larp Group" which I'm a part of - we did the live panel on Hangouts recently, if you remember - is meeting once again in ten days. I'll join Kaza "Larp Girl", Callie and Martin  on Saturday, March 16th and it will be broadcast live on larping.org youtube channel, like last time. If you live in USA on the east coast, it will be one hour earlier than the previous Hangout - at 11 AM EDT. If you're in Europe, it will be TWO hours earlier - at 16:00 CET. The reason for this is the USA switching to daylight saving time earlier (March 10th) than us Europeans switching to summer time (March 31st). We'll be discussing how to get started on larp, and our personal experiences. Our first video if you missed it - Physical Combat Rules This was a busy weekend. While many Croatian larpers were on PoRtaL, and there was also a huge convention in the USA (Intercon M), two Larp Group panelists - Kaza and Callie - went to the first event of Callie's Era...

Previously: Day 2 The day started with goodbyes. After we fed our guests with some burek and yogurt (well, they have to get the authentic experience), our guests left. Hungarians back towards the border, and Rebecca to her family - and then off to Samobor where a reenactment battle was being held. I'd probably go there if there was no PoRtaL this weekend. Many hugs were exchanged, and after a quick shower I was back on my feet - and off to the convention. The morning started with some hands-on stuff. Brittany and Sean, an American couple who did the SCA presentation with Rebecca yesterday, were teaching us how to make the authentic medieval stuff. At the same time, there was another acting improvisation workshop - this one by Andrej Štefan. Brittany's presentation was "Gores and Gussets: A Practical Introduction to Medieval Pattern Making". At this point I have to say I'm not much into practical aspects of costuming - sewing or tailoring. I have very little ...

Like I did with the Death of the Japanese Emperor , here's my complete publication of A Party Full of Secrets - it's there for you to run, republish, modify, learn from or build upon as it's published under Creative Commons: Get the English version of the larp here. A Party Full of Secrets was run on the PoRtaL - first Croatian larp convention on March 2nd. The run has been shortened a bit from what was written due to running a bit late - only 1 connection was made with the Ball of Yarn, and the larp was shortened some 15 minutes (near the beginning) from what is written here. I did note some key songs - they are of course replacable if you believe you found a more fitting song, and the entire playlist is something you'd probably make depending on the people arriving to party... Anyways, the run on PoRtaL was very intensive and powerful (read more about it here ) - a lot of people were on Ars Amandi workshop that morning and were looking for an excuse to pu...

Previously: Day 1 Saturday started off nicely. The Hungarian visitors - who slept at my place - woke up early enough for another day at convention. Jasminka made toast sandwiches, waffles and large amounts of coffee for breakfast. Awakened, we arrived just in time. First on the program were two workshops - Dunja was holding one about acting improvisation (I heard those who went there were quite pleased), while I did the Ars Amandi workshop. Ars Amandi workshop on PoRtaL Ars Amandi was probably the one thing I was most nervous about on this convention - how would it go? It's a mechanic for simulating romance and sex on a larp using hands, arms, shoulders and neck - the very subject would usually make people nervous and cringing. In the end, 10 brave people (three men and seven women) signed up for the workshop, which really surprised me. And we had people of all nationalities present on the con - 2 Serbian girls, a Bulgarian couple, a Hungarian girl, and the rest were fille...