Diary of a Croatian larper

"Another Izgon larp?", a friend asked me two years ago as I announced the previous larp of the series. "How about doing something new?" I was stuck with these questions for a time. New stuff. Well, of course there was innovation in every Izgon larp - an urban fantasy pervasive series which I started four years ago. Some stuff worked. Some didn't. In the background, however, the same principles still did apply. There was secrecy. Long playtime of being in-character. Mana gathering to open a portal back home. It worked. Lots of people had fun and amazing experience, it became the first Croatian larp that was novelized , and as with any larp there were some people it didn't work for. But that question about doing something new remained. Izgon: Ascendancy is very much a new larp, although it shares the setting with the previous ones. There will be different structure. Different character building. Different focus. Different mechanics. And a very much di...

Creating a larp in one hour can be a quick, practical, creative and enabling exercise - and most of all fun. I'll share some techniques, perspectives and examples here, and I'm including this article in the start a larp series (which is seriously outdated, but you might still find it useful). But first of all let's cover some local history... Flashback 1 In ancient times - over four years ago - we ran PoRtaL , the first larp conference in Croatia. At that time, the idea of quick, short, repeatable chamber larps was new around this parts. Ana & Božo, founders of the now-inactive Lateralus association and main organizers of PoRtaL premiered the style by importing and translating Love is Blue, an Italian chamber larp which still holds the record of most runs in the country. I wrote the first locally-written larp of the style - Death of the Japanese Emperor - and PoRtaL featured the premiere of the second locally-written larp of the style, Koliba (The Cabin). Consi...