Star Trek: Tethys - USS Croatia run review

Many of you probably remember the first run of Star Trek: Tethys, early last December - here's both a description of the run and the full larp scenario. Yesterday, I ran it again - this time in Star Trek fan club USS Croatia, together with my sister-in-law. Despite a rather sudden announcement, this run went very smoothly - and gives a lot to be excited about.

Seven players were interested in playing - which meant one more than the game was written for. The seventh character was quickly improvised as "the counselor", monitoring the mental well-being of the crew. Players were a mix of regular clubmembers and more experienced role-players. A lot of them were wearing uniforms - one even got her uniform made on such a short notice. There were a few props around that were used - namely, a plush tribble and a cell phone with Star Trek sound effects that acted as a tricorder that the group managed to get working... In their version of the twist ending, what happened was not a reality - and characters were a subject of a Vulcan mind experiment.

Using the Ball of Yarn method to define character relations before the larp started

The run went well, and the players liked it. Afterwards we discussed larp for a while more, including some stuff like design elements, why were they included and how would some other elements work. The interest in a Star Trek larp was great, and in fact - having had a taste of larping now - USS Croatia is planning to start a series of Star Trek larps in the near future, expanding the larping scene. This is excellent news.

Players discussing their situation

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The 15 rules of larp

The following 15 rules (warning: strong language) were written some years ago in Great Britain, and have been pretty much generally accepted on the British larp scene. Especially popular is rule 7 - widely known by its number and commonly considered to be the most imortant rule of all (and I agree). Even the biggest British larp forum has taken Rule7 as its name. The rules have been originally created by the Drunken Monkeys and edited by Rick Wynne who added some extra stuff in the explanations to make them more understandable to international audience (it still contains some British larp lingo though), more work-safe and to throw in his two cents. (copy of the original wording is available here ) 1. Don’t play a mighty warrior; play a warrior and be mighty. Don’t label your character. As soon as you say that you are the best swordsman in the land someone will come along and kick your ass. Just get into the mindset of the person and role-play it out. 2. No one cares about you...

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TESC IV: Ebonheart review

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 exact...

Diary of a Croatian larper

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