Diary of a Croatian larper

Testing my wizard costume the evening before It looked like any other larp preparations. Costumes were getting ready. Carpooling preparations, last-minute costume design, packing - rather light, since we're not camping but staying inside - and watching the weather carefully. Not because we thought rainfall could be overly dangerous as there was a large and quite waterproof building on the terrain, but it could be annoying. I was already good to go. Organizers announced they will be there around 9 AM, and so I already thought to start around 9:30, pick up some people in Zagreb at 10, and be on the terrain around 11 - which should give enough time to dress up, socialize, get ready to play, get the intro speech done etc., before the larp starts at 2 PM. Simple. 8:58 I'm getting a call from a fellow player. Larp got canceled due to floods. Roads are closed and blocked by the police. I call the organizers and it is confirmed. At some time later we found out there was act...

The summer break is over, and larping population started to recover. In our Vampire larp, last week's Elysium 29 had 17 players who took part in the game - five of them first time larpers, who gave the larp quite positive reviews. With Elysium 30 this evening, the game is now successfully over a year old. 16 players took part in today's larp - it would be 17 if I were there, but I was not able to make it. A special Terra Nova event - End of an Empire - was announced last week. Set for this autumn, there's a few logistic kinks which need to be sorted out, but I'll be able to go out with full details. This weekend there's the second main Elder Scrolls Chronicles larp, called Soulburst. The last event was the biggest Croatian fantasy larp of this year so far, and so far it looks like this weekend's event will be of a similar size. Of course, expect a review after the event. Here's a preview of some of my props. Next larp after TESC? Elysium 31 ...

Sandbox is a word which is probably overused in larps. Like immersion, it's often listed as a desirable characteristic, and it is often argued about whether or not a particular larp is sandbox-y or not. Most often, these problems are a result of "sandbox" being very loosely defined as a term. The word was originally adapted from the children sand playgrounds, like the one in your local park where children can freely play with the sand and do whatever. This imagery of freedom was passed on to the video game adaptation of the sandbox term, usually featuring open world and the ability to do whatever you want to and at your own pace, as opposed to regular games offering more of a railroaded experience (see the distinction between famous computer RPG series: Elder Scrolls vs Final Fantasy). This computer gaming term is important because it is often directly used in larping with its' meaning unchanged from its' roots. And as such it showcases two different approa...

The sixth major Camarilla Agram event of this year was played on Saturday in Kino klub Zagreb. As we're running it as a storyteller (GM) team, unfortunately this event's storyteller (Domagoj Krpan) got some work obligations - this ended in two of us running his plot. Several other players were missing due to Liburnicon and Renaissance festival in Koprivnica, so we were down to 21 players this event. Without divulging any potential spoilers, I'll just say it was a lot of fun. Social setting, personal plots and power play, pushing for certain actions, solving some details and plots (and opening new questions), intertwined with mysterious messages and visions. Almost a year has passed since our first Vampire event , and a lot has changed since then. With 3 major intro larps last year, 6 major larps this year, and 29 (together with tomorrow's Elysium 29 ) small weekly events, that would make 38 events in a year. Plenty of time for these changes to come. In thi...