Diary of a Croatian larper

Where does a simulation end and a larp begins? An interesting event had been organized in Croatia recently which could be said to clearly fulfill the definition of both, lasting two days and providing a good example of how a modern, political larp can work. Here's a description of the experience from +Aleksandar Gavrilović , one of the participants. The first of July marks Croatia's entrance into the European Union, a very big and game-changing step for our country. In this light, the European Forum Alpbach has organised a series of events, one of which has been a simulation game of the  European Council, where each player had a role either as an ambassador or head of state of a European country. For my part, I played Pedro Coehlo, the social-democratic prime minister of Portugal.  The game was set up by the Plan politik agency which is experienced in leading such simulations, and they provided all the players (2 per country, 16 countries total) with study materials...

Fantasy larp scene in Croatia is certainly developing. Until 2012, nearly all larps in Croatia were fantasy larps universally played in the same, shared world with more or less the same ruleset universally (Amtgard's or a modified version of the same). Then Terra Nova arrived, running on ConQuest ruleset, and already estabilishing itself as the "alternative" series. Tragači zore was also a significant larp, and a one-shot compared to other fantasy larp series. A mythology larp has already been planned for some time, and here's the freshest project. Enter the Elder Scrolls Chronicles. The Elder Scrolls is one of the most widely known role-playing game series for PC and consoles, and the most famous product of the Bethesda Game Studios. It's not the only one - Fallout is another, which had been acquired from its original owners, Interplay Productions - and it's the second PC RPG series that will be turned into a larp over here. Second after Fallo...

Yesterday's announcement about shortening of Rajski Vrhovi XVIII caused a wave of cancellations. This morning that decision was overturned in favor of postponing the event for the next weekend (but doing it hopefully in its fullness as a camping event instead of the shortened version). So please disregard the previous post. The new info is: Rajski Vrhovi XVIII have been postponed to the next weekend, July 5th - 7th. This will also push Labuđa Rijeka a week later to the Sunday after, July 14th.

This just came in: Rajski Vrhovi XVIII this weekend has just been shortened. Due to the unfortunate weather forecast (rain and low temperatures), the larp will end up a day earlier. The sleeping site has been moved from the regular campsite to the secondary location - the terrain owner's bar. You can check out photos from one of the older larps on the location to see what it looks like compared to the primary location. Use of regular exterior locations has been announced and entry fee has been reduced by 10 kn.

250 is a bit symbolic. A quarter of a thousand somehow looks more important than 50, 150 or 350. It also means I wrote 50 posts in four months . It also means I'm gonna ask you once again for feedback about this blog, this time on our new comment system . Tell me what you like about the blog, what you don't, what you enjoy reading about and what would you enjoy reading about even more. Drop in to say hi. Subscribe to this blog , or start or expand a larp scene . Right now is an excellent time. Anyway, here are some more announcements about this summer. This weekend is, of course, Rajski Vrhovi XVIII. It had already been announced on this blog, so I'm not going to repeat what's already been said - Facebook event is here . The next weekend - on Sunday, July 7th - there will be a Labuđa Rijeka 3 event by the same organizer - a summer battlegame in water. It will be held in Jarče Polje, on Dobra river. Several games have been announced in the water, including ...

As I mentioned earlier , I was unable to join either Maksimir 68 or Utvrda Svijetlosti 2013. I had friends who visited and stayed overnight - and we had a lovely time. It doesn't mean I spent the weekend completely unproductive larp-wise, however - it was time for some terrain scouting for +Terra Nova larp  (aha! Now on Google+) which included a total of over 250 km of cross-country driving... First order of business was a location in Subotica Podravska, near Koprivnica. The terrain is a private property which could take 100 people camping in comfort - and it would work well even if pushed to 200 people. It's a very diverse terrain which will host Terra Nova 2014  in May next year - and sorting it all out allowed us to announce it :) Afterwards, we scouted a second location which would be great for a shorter (single-day) Terra Nova spin-off event this autumn, Rise of Rashalan . We haven't really decided on this location yet as there are few more to scout - but it had ...

It's been a while since my last article in Start a larp series! Well, I do regard it as nearly complete for purposes of basic instruction. However, recently I found out about an awesome project called Larpfactory Book Project . It's a series of workshops on how to document games and methods used in larp that eventually will result in a book. The project will also result in a website with videos of all the workshop methods and drama enhancing techniques used in the larps, in addition to the game material needed. One of the first things they made public is a preliminary how-to in writing good larp scripts. This is one of the best articles I've seen on the matter, and it's of great importance if you're writing a single-shot larp which you plan to republish (like I'm doing with some of my single-shot larps, and I'll keep doing it in the future - I'll have these guidelines in mind though). The original article was written by Lizzie Stark, Elin Nilsen and...

The Italian/Croatian larp Sine Requie (post-zombie apocalypse alternate history 50's setting) which had been announced here before has been postponed from its original date of July 13th. There have been several reasons for that - several GMs ended up with work obligations on the weekend, and there have been several logistical issues. The larp has been moved to October 5th. To keep up with what's going on, check the event on Facebook . If you're from Croatia, a group has been opened for Croatian participants only . Come on in, join the discussion and let's get our characters ready!

It's been nine months since the last scene update on Who's who portal. In the meanwhile, there's been quite a growth pretty much everywhere - which is awesome. There has never been a larger number of larps organized in Croatia than now, and there's never been as much difference in various larps as it is now. The scene is vibrant and numbers can now match those of 10 years ago (although it's more separate now as there's more diversity than it used to be). The majority of larps organized still belong to the groups using Amtgard's or similar rules - which includes the Barony of Krvomeđe (which is the Amtgard chapter) and its events (Krvomeđe, Rajski Vrhovi, Labuđa Rijeka), Ognjeni Mač and its larps (Maksimir, Jaska, various feasts), Gaia's Utvrda Svjetlosti, Sunčev Potočić, and various other events. All these larps share a world, characters and storyline, and they culminate in a yearly national event: Crolarp, the largest larp in Croatia, and if indicati...

Last week marked the end of bad weather in Croatia. Snow and rain season seems to be over and the summer is finally here, bringing with it the unbearable heat... But it seems like it will cool down a few degrees this weekend for a more bearable experience. Hopefully, bearable enough to make two larps coming this weekend (June 21-23) into something enjoyable... The big one is Utvrda Svjetlosti 2013 in Ivanovac, near Osijek. The larp is run by Gaia, Osijek's SF association, and it's currently the only larp series being held (annually) by a team based out of Zagreb. I was there in 2011 and 2012 , so read my past reviews for a feeling what's it like. Events outside of their yearly event are rare, but they sometimes happen . Anyway, the entrance fee will be 50 kn, which will include a saturday meal of bean stew. From the announcement it seems like there will be extra focus on in-character games (as last year's "svinjska alka" had been quite fun, there will p...

The town of Novi Dom (New Home) It's been 10 months since the first Croatian fallout larp - and now it was the time for the second one - plot-wise, a direct continuation of the first one. It was also organized on the same terrain - an abandoned and ruined army property in Popovec, near Sesvete, with half-collapsed buildings, underground bunkers and much more. Some business signs Like last year I only half-visited this event due to other stuff I was doing, so I was there only on Saturday. This year had a different main organizer than the last year - Zoran instead of Mario - but both of them were the designers of the Croatian fallout larp, and Mario was still here, assisting. Rules were updated and shortened from 44 pages to 17 pages (both links are in Croatian), and they are inspired by both Amtgard rules of play and regular airsoft rules (plus, the last version also seems more inspired by Ognjeni Mač rules). Most of what was cut was fluff though, not mechanics. I...

Welcome to Limbo. Betwixt and between life and death. Beyond time. A waiting place to reflect on life as it has been so far before either returning to life once again or facing the unknown on the other side of death. Scenography setup Limbo is a nordic chamber larp written in 2007. by the Norwegian author Tor Kjetil Edland. It had been run several times since, by various organizers in various settings - even in this year. One of the significant runs this year was during A Week in Norway which was before this year's Knutepunkt. Another was this Saturday in Highland Park, New Jersey. The run in Croatia happened yesterday in my house, and it was played by a total of 17 players, 10 of them female and 7 male (plus me and Jasminka who organized it). The event was pretty much invite-only at the time. There were a couple of reasons for that, but chief amongst them was available space. With 17 people playing it, there was very little free space, but it served to create a nice ...

Just over a week ago, the sci-fi club Gaia from Osijek announced the Utvrda Svijetlosti larp in Ivanovac, near Osijek. Just to remove some confusion, this larp series has been called various names since its inception (including Utvrda Svijetlosti, Istočna Anarhija, Istočna Monarhija, Larp Ivanovac, Larp Osijek and possibly some more names), all of them referring to the in-game or off-game name of the place or area as the time went by. It's also one of the oldest larps in Croatia. No details about the larp are known yet (despite the fact it starts in two weeks), but the following can be reasonably assumed from past experience: ruleset used will be Amtgard 7.6 or 7.7, entry fee will be low, and there will probably be a break during the day due to heat. Here's a few videos from the past couple of years, to let you know what to expect (plus some very nice hospitality from Osijek group, which are at the moment only Croats larping apart from the Zagreb scene): More ...