Diary of a Croatian larper

Playing area of the first event It has been just about two months since The Elder Scrolls Chronicles projects started . I still remember Marko telling me this idea of his, and me trying to convince him to do it. Only two months - and a chain reaction started then. A lot of people joined the project, in some way - nationally and internationally, whether working directly for the event or discussing elements of it online. I had a lot of chats and meetings with Marko, theorycrafting about the rules and actually playtesting a part of them once with him. After that, the rules were deemed stable enough to go public with them and the first event was scheduled for the March. Marko did some scouting, and a month ago the playtest event was announced (as I left for Germany for two weeks, I was late in reporting it). From the idea - which was supposed to be the out-of-character playtest of the rules - the full event actually emerged. And it was not just an event, it was a pretty serious even...

Preparing for the TESC playtest tomorrow has been different. Despite being called "playtest" it evolved into a full featured one-day event. In a two-month period the rules were written (a process that I helped with), using several sources (Chronicles of Demgard rules, ConQuest rules and game mechanics of the various Elder Scrolls PC games), slightly playtested and gone through several revisions. The "playtest" event had been announced a month ago, but I'd say "playtest" is more or less in name only. While Marko - who's GM-ing it - expects a detailed feedback regarding the larp and the mechanical rules, it will be a regular larp in its form and the way it works. Its' chosen form - which is the same as in the Hungarian Chronicles of Demgard larp - is a highly unusual one otherwhise. It's neither a one-shot larp nor a campaign, and yet it's both. Larps are connected one with another in some way, yet every one of them features its...

About 18 hours ago I have announced Izgon 2 on Facebook. A two week sequel to Izgon which will be played globally. To this point I have received almost the same number of sign-ups as I have initially received for original Izgon in total. That means it's happening. That means it's already got the required minimum number of players and it will only be growing. More people will be involved than in the first Izgon larp. There is a maximum number of players that I'll be taking, but for now on there's still plenty of room available if you want to sign up. I'd ask everyone to sign in as early as possible - that way I can do a lot of characters as early as possible, and keep the maximum number higher than if I have to prepare tons of characters in the last possible moment. Also, if more people from your area sign up it will be more fun for all of you :) The main info, design points and basic safety rules have been listed in the first document published for Izgon 2,...

Mladen as Gabriel wielding a big hammer (and a wig) Arriving on this Rajski Vrhovi event, I suddenly realized that this is the first weekend event this year on which I'm on for the full duration, and on which I'm not involved in organization or NPC-ing. It was a liberating thought - and this was the first Rajski Vrhovi event in two years where I'm not involved in event organization. The town walls and gates (made out of tarps) were up again, and apart from the big fire and several garden torches, it was fully lit by the night with candle lanterns. Rajski Vrhovi had a reputation of being one of the more casual weekend events around, and that much remained the truth. Despite the change in the main organizer and some notable changes in playstyle (including removal of the famous Night Hunt battlegame and the larp now including character death), the larp still felt a lot like Rajski Vrhovi - with 21 players attending, the plot ran in a fashion similar to what the playe...

A couple of days ago it was brought to my attention that a new pervasive larp was starting in Zagreb. I didn't have enough info to write an article by that time, but I got some new info today :) The larp - called Nova zora: Buđenje, or New Dawn: The Awakening - is currently ongoing, and it had been running for a few days now. Started by Tvrtko Samardžija as a closed invitation-only larp, it ran into some sort of organizational issues - yesterday it was taken over by Damjan Gavran and it got reworked and reorganized. Rules will be somewhat familiar to the people who participated in Izgon (both GMs were players there), though not the same. The setting is urban fantasy as well, but its' own original setting, not connected to Izgon. If you're interested in joining, if you're up for taking part in secret plots while mixed with general populace, then message the GM via Facebook  - new players might still get accepted.

The biggest larp event in the world. Over 8000 players, over 1200 NPCs, over 700 pages of plot written for it. How do you even write a review for that? Heck, there are only about 5-8 other larps in the world which have more players than ConQuest has NPCs. Huge number of people make Mythodea a living fantasy country - there's so much of the stuff going on that pretty much every player gets a unique experience. Same as last year , I was a NPC - I joined the Swarm 1 of the Black Ice. Compared to Drachenfest's charged atmosphere, being in the out-of-character NPC camp on ConQuest of Mythodea is peaceful (if we ignore Swarms 8 and 13, which have a party setup - however, it's not noticable from an in-game area), and it gave us two days of rest and light activity to prepare for what awaited us. The familiar area, nice green grass and the awesome shade of the treeline we were close to had a calming effect. For some reason, Mythodea felt like home. Me, armored up as a Black...

While Zagreb hosts the bigest SF/Fantasy convention "Sferakon", another hotspot in Croatia is the northern coastal region - a 50 kilometer stretch including Pazin, Opatija and Rijeka where the next three biggest conventions (Istrakon, Liburnicon and Rikon) are being held. And all of them are worth visiting. Liburnicon is the youngest of three, but it's quickly rising to fame due to ever-growing attendance, cool guests of honor (this year: Jacqueline Carey and Cheryl Morgan), and there's also the beach life during the day. Liburnicon usually has some larp content, typically in the form of presentations - and this year there will be two presentations one after another - both on Saturday, August 24th. First one will be about Terra Nova larp, it will be held by our players Ivana & Vesna (whom you might know in-character as Kolfinna and Sorqoqtani if you've been to Terra Nova). This short 30-minute presentation will be held in Atrium at 20:30. Immediately af...

The fourth banner is on the night watch this evening in the Copper camp. The gate guard, who perform that job during the day, are now resting, while we take the shifts. Mine is the first one, probably the busiest one yet the easiest one to stay awake on. People are on top of the gate, scouting, and I'm below near the gate with other soldiers guarding the entrance and helping to check the documents. Night life seems to be busy. Once the soldiers are done fighting and the air chills to the more comfortable levels, everybody else comes out and mingle. Yet this evening something is wrong. The order comes from above, and we're in lockdown - nobody comes in or out. Priests come out in droves, searching for the cursed dolls around the camp and warning us not to touch them if we encounter any. Some high positioned people can't go in or out, and that's a problem. Yet we are under orders, and we're not letting them out. Lady Zoe tries to push through. Avatar was angry ...