Knutepunkt 2017 Call for Papers. The next Knutepunkt conference will be held in Norway and now the organizers are asking for papers for next years books.
Knutebook 2017: “20 years of telling stories” Once Upon a Time …
Twenty years is a very long time. Long enough for legends to be created. Stories are told and retold and grow with each telling. The very act of telling a story goes in and out of fashion. Some believe that it has no place in larp, others that the whole point of larp is to make every single character the protagonist. This year we would like to sit down in a comfortable chair and have a word with ourselves about stories.
Concept:
The 2017 Knutepunkt book will look primarily at stories in larp. We’d like to interrogate the process of writing larps. We’d like to understand whether narrative is a dirty word. We want to investigate how larp storytelling can be translated into a political act. We want to look at how we tell stories in larp, how we write them, play them, steer them, shape them and report them. And we want to know what we might do with all of this in the future.
The book will contain three sections:
Yesterday – larps that have been run and techniques we have used in the past; looking back over 20 years of KP and 30+ years of larp Today – analysis of contemporary methods, cutting edge meta-techniques, really awesome games Tomorrow – possible futures, new ideas, wild-eyed dreaming
We are looking for a multitude of texts for the different sections, both theoretical and practical, opinion pieces with rebuttals, even tidbits, anecdotes and small verses connected to character stories.
You do not have to be an academic, a writer nor an experienced larper to contribute. We encourage everyone who has an idea to contact us; we would love to hear from you.
How to contribute:
We want to make sure we get a good balance of content and articles, so the first thing we need from you is a description of your idea (or an abstract). Send us your idea in 150-300 words with a pitch of what you would like to write.
The full articles should be between 1,000 – 5,000 words. Feel free to add illustrations, photos and the like. Bring what you have to the table and we’ll help with editing and to fit it into the book.
Timeline:
2016-07-15 Deadline for pitches
2016-07-31 Accepted pitches will be assigned an editor
2016-09-01 First Draft
2016-11-01 Final draft
2016-12-01 Book goes to print
Interested?
Get in touch! We will discuss your idea and help develop it if we can. Start writing. The sooner we have a pitch from you, the sooner we can fit it into the narrative.
Know anyone who should be writing?
Feel free to share this call with your friends. Maybe you have a great idea for an article but you aren’t the person to write it? Get in touch with us, we may be able to help!
Contact
Any and all questions, ideas and pitches can be directed to knutebook@gmail.com.
You can now support Nordiclarp.org on Patreon! By giving us a monthly donation through Patreon you can help us keep the site running. Our Patreon page, linked below, further explains how to donate and where the money goes.
Where Does the Money Go?
In short we’ll use your money to pay our bills for running the website (domain, hosting and software licenses) and increasing the quality of the content on the website. No amount is too small, every dollar helps. <3
The Finnish edition of the Nordic larp conference Knutepunkt, Solmukohta 2016, is now over. This post will be continuously updated with links to articles, reports, photo albums, videos, slides, books and other relevant documentation.
If you have any content you want published but lack a place to host it we will gladly host it here at Nordiclarp.org, please contact us on: contribute@nordiclarp.org
Last update: 2016-04-12, 09:30 CET
While not specifically written for Solmukohta 2016, Elin Nilsen’s guide to handling the post Solmukohta blues is quite relevant for participants:
Nordic Larp Talks is a series of short, entertaining, thought-provoking and mind-boggling lectures about projects and ideas from the tradition of Nordic Larp.
This year Nordic Larp Talks will be hosted in Helsinki, Tuesday March 8th at 19:00 and you are of course more than welcome to join us!
The event will be held at Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architechture (often called “Taik”, Hämeentie 135 C, Helsinki, on the 8th floor which is located about 20 min away from the central station by bus. The evening will be hosted by writer and radio & television host Johanna Koljonen.
Free admission. Doors opens at 18:30.
PROGRAM
19.00 – 21.00 Tuesday March 8th at Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture , Hämeentie 135 C, 8th Floor. The programme will start at 19.00 sharp.
A new Polish book about larp is out, this is what the authors has to say about it:
From the intense 5-players chamber larp to the post-apocalyptic week-long larp festival for almost 600 people. Polish larp scene is diverse and is rapidly evolving. In the first documentation book about polish larp scene you will have a look at 64 larps portrayed at 176 pages. Have a look beyond the blockbuster castle larps and discover variety of experiences created by Polish larp scene.
The Book of Polish Larp by more than 40 authors who in the short texts describe the games they created. Brought together by Mikołaj Wicher, one of the creators of College of Wizardry, published by Rollespilsakademiet.
The book is a glimpse of a certain period in Polish larp history. It does not strive to be not objective, or complete for that matter. However, it is a wonderful image of the Polish larp milieu.
Helsinki in the 1920’s: urbanization, the admiring gaze towards Europe; jazz and lipstick, daring women entering the public sphere; a country divided by the bitter civil war in 1918; prohibition and the tsunami of illegal alcohol and booze-related crimes. The perfect setting for a larp, and as Niina had published two novels set in the same milieu a reasonable amount of research was already done.
Helsinki as a city and a state of mind was a central theme in Tonnin stiflat (Thousand Mark Shoes). Therefore we decided to make the most of it and play in the streets. Helsinki has, of course, changed in 100 years, but especially in the city center plenty of old architecture, cafés, restaurants and parks still remain or have the same atmosphere as in the twenties. The omnipresent modernity cannot be avoided, though, so we focused the game to areas with the most suitable architecture and atmosphere. However, playing in Tonnin stiflat certainly demanded selective attention and active disregarding of a lot of surrounding anachronisms.
Stories
One of the main stories was, of course, bootlegging. Two leagues competed over clients and deals, and the plot thickened in the first game as the other boss was arrested and her right hand woman accidentally shot by a police officer.
This was pre-planned to create a power vacuum for other characters to fill. The arrest and the death also launched several smaller plots.
The civil war fought soon after the declaration of independence from Russia has effects even now, let alone only ten years later. Consequently, politics were present also in Tonnin stiflat and many characters had conflicts dating back to the civil war.
The stain of communism sat hard on the defeated – those who survived prison camps, diseases and hunger. The communist workers in Tonnin stiflat were hard working, sick and poor, but strong in their ideology. Their actions crossed with the security police, which resulted in one of the most violent scenes in the game.
The twenties can also be seen as a stage for art, obliquities and the decadent. Paris, for a few characters, glittered as a paradise full of drugs, luxury, art and love. This kind of life also had its reverse side of addiction, abuse, venereal disease and general not-being-in-the-paradise, a constant longing for something better. The young painter gave herself to her godfather’s use in exchange for money and art education, and sat finally by his bed when syphilis devoured him into painful death. The conservative teacher struggled with hopeless love and a death in his past, and the only escape was suicide.
Murder is part of the noir genre, and where there is murder, there is revenge. As death in larp easily becomes a short term curiosity and is soon forgotten, every death in the game was initiated or authorised by us. An apothecary found dead, triggered the detective’s game, and the death of the bootlegger caused her sweetheart and friends to seek revenge. Both cases were solved in their own way in the last game.
Characters
The 18 characters were written iteratively in collaboration. After the casting, the core concepts of the characters were written into full characters by us, and after the pregame workshop and players’ own additions and changes, the final version of the character was written. The players had a big responsibility in fleshing out their character and in specifying relations to other characters. In-depth personal histories etc. were also up to the players to develop, while we focused on the functional core of the character.
The players were chosen from the roughly 70 registrants. The casting was made on the basis of mainly two things: player’s enrolment info including her (or his) wishes and capabilities, and our aim to avoid conservative gender stereotypes.
The core character concepts were gender neutral, and players could also choose their character’s sex. Our principle – and our only explicit anachronism – was that gender should not limit the characters’ actions or possibilities in any way. To name a few, the cynical private detective was female and the luxury-yearning prostitute male, the heroic bootlegger was male but as smuggling bosses we had powerful queens, not kings. In the end, we were quite happy with the casting as players’ wishes and our vision aligned nicely.
It was also possible to enroll as supporting cast. The supporting cast of roughly 40 was the most central and multifaceted tool used in the game. Their task was to create preplanned scenes, enliven character histories, bring in new plots, surprises and information, be found dead or die in the hands of the characters, perform music and dance, etc. A supporting role could last the whole season and develop in different ways, or it could be a ten-minute scene with only one player in it. The supporting cast were instructed carefully for each scene they appeared in so they knew their purpose and the aim of the scene. They acted as instructed or improvised to the desired direction.
Design
The design in Tonnin stiflat aimed towards high precision experience design. The idea was to provide individually tailored experience for each player. This required a different set of tools than e.g. larps relying on brute force designed sandbox or 360-illusion. The small number of players enabled us to do precision work that would not have been possible in a larger larp without significant increase in resources.
The central design goal of S tifl at was high resolution social interaction between dramatically interesting yet realistically portrayed characters. For this we wanted a strong emphasis on power structures and relations between characters. It was essential that all plots and storylines would somehow concretely materialize during the game-play. The characters were forced to make choices that had consequences inside the game, and those choices would ultimately form a unique story arc for each character and climax in the third episode.
Most of the design tools used were tools that increase control over the larp. However it was of utmost importance that they were utilized in a manner that does not sacrifice what we consider the essence of roleplaying – immersion, action in character, high definition social interaction between characters and meaningful decision making that has consequences in the larp. Indeed, by increasing control and stepping away from purely open sandbox playing, we aimed at enabling those features and providing solid structures to support them.
Tools
Tonnin stiflat utilized a selected set of tools to enable gameplay that elicits the type of player experience we were after. Our toolset included pre-game workshopping, iterative character creation, supporting cast, pre-planned scenes, meta instructions, custom debriefing methods, reporting and multi directional feedback, etc. Preplanned and scheduled scenes were one of the defining design features of Stiflat.
In their written briefs before the game the players had a schedule for the game and typically from two to five different pre-planned scenes. The scenes varied significantly in duration, the amount preparations and supporting cast involved, and the degree of fateplay involved. These were designed in order to guide the storylines, dramatic structures and geographic locations of the players so that all players would have game that is meaningful, full but not too full – of action, where their wishes are fulfilled, and that would provide maximum support for character interaction and dynamics.
We also tried to schedule sufficient time for free flowing playing so that the prescheduled scenes would not dominate the larp entirely and that the players wouldn’t feel that they have no agency in the game.
Different types of meta instructions were also used in directing the players to act in a desired manner, to explicate interaction possibilities, and to enable interimmersion and the support of other players’ character concepts. These were always given well in advance so that the required steering would feel more natural. All characters had a weakness and a strength that was known to all players (“X is willing to do anything for money and luxury”, or “It is very easy to open up and discuss private matters with Y”). Also from episode to episode, we had varying meta instructions to direct the play and encourage certain interactions (e.g. “Accuse X of apothecary’s murder”, “Pay attention to Y’s mood”, “Recount how tough it is to be a private detective to the bartender”). We designed all meta instructions to activate, enable, and drive things forward instead of disabling or blocking anything.
In Retrospect
…this really was one of the best games I ever been to, and I don’t how to thank you so that it would convey the message.Technically this was very well conducted: railroading, scenes, the use of supporting cast and the whole structure of the game was all fantastic – I have never been in a game that would have been so much built for my character and that had such a clear story arc and still have so much everything else going on around you at the same time.
Player
This game showed me I can feel uncertainty, anxiety, guilt, comradeship, desperation and love in a refreshing way when larping. Not many games elicit these feelings.
Player
Looking back at Tonnin stiflat: Season One, we can say that we succeeded in what we set out to achieve. Not everything went 100% as planned and there is always room to improve, but overall we are very satisfied. We managed to share our vision with players, and players took it as their own and played in a terrific ensemble.
We are especially happy that the character interaction was as nuanced, immersive, powerful, and multi-faceted as we hoped it would be. We managed to build structures that gave meaning to different twists in the story and to the decisions characters had to make.
Also most storylines manifested as concrete action in the game, and they were brought to conclusion at the end of the season. All this was made possible by the smooth collaboration between all participants.
In retrospect, three games in three months was too tight schedule. The original idea was to design all three games before the start of the season, but it was soon clear that if we wanted players to contribute and decide what their characters do between the games, we can’t really design beyond the first game that much.
We also somewhat failed at communicating what is useful and actionable input regarding character’s actions and plans between the games. Yet, especially in the second game where we had the most input from the players, we ended up putting up too much content in the game and in result too little time for free play was left.
Among lessons learned are also how it is nearly impossible to arrange “coincidences” in street larp with any degree of certainty, how violence tends to escalate to rather extreme despite all efforts to the contrary, and how having both players and supporting cast can backfire when utilizing team spirit enhancing techniques.
Now that season one is finished, we are left with the option to stop here or to continue in one way or another. All the main storylines are finished, so whatever season two will be about, it will be something new and different.
Tonnin stiflat: Season One
Credits: Niina Niskanen (setting, background materials, characters, storylines, drama and interaction design, workshops, props), Simo Järvelä (characters, storylines, drama and interaction design, game mechanics, workshops, props), Tuomas Puikkonen (photography) Date: 16 August, 11 October & 22 November, 2014 Location: Helsinki, Finland Length: 8-9 hours each Players: 16 players, and 40 supporting cast Budget: €2,500 Participation Fee: €50 per game Game Mechanics: Supporting cast, meta instructions, preplanned scenes, workshops Website:http://tonninstiflatlarp.wordpress.com/
It’s time for another edit-a-thon! Previous events made many qualitative new articles and changes in the Wiki.
An edit-a-thon is an event where we gather and work very focused on putting in content into the Nordic Larp Wiki. Let’s make the great Nordic Larp Wiki even grander!
The larp is set in the beautiful Polish Czocha Castle and the first run was helt in November 2014 with follow-ups planned for April 2015.
Cosmic Joke, known for their larp documentary Treasure Trapped, was on location for the Harry Potter themed larp to film a documentary at the event. The film has now been released and can be viewed in it’s entirety on their Youtube channel:
Mare Incognitum was a Swedish Lovecraftian horror larp set on a ship (familiar to visitors to Monitor Celestra) in the 1950s. It was organized by Berättelsefrämjandet and had 78 players, spread over three runs, from Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Spain, UK and the US. All three runs were held during the weekend of 28-30 November, 2014.
Photographer Jonas Aronsson took some great photos during and before the larp and we got his permission to publish a few of them here:
The international larp census of 2014 has been launched, this is what the authors have to say about why you should answer it:
Although some countries have rough estimates of their larp population, there has not been a comprehensive global census taken of self-identifying larpers on this scale. We really want to count everyone who larps, has larped, and wants to larp.
The information we acquire will be publicly shared so scholars can analyze the data and make conclusions that will, hopefully, increase both the quantity and quality of larps around the globe.
In their written briefs before the game the players had a schedule for the game and typically from two to five different pre-planned scenes. The scenes varied significantly in duration, the amount preparations and supporting cast involved, and the degree of fateplay involved. These were designed in order to guide the storylines, dramatic structures and geographic locations of the players so that all players would have game that is meaningful, full but not too full – of action, where their wishes are fulfilled, and that would provide maximum support for character interaction and dynamics.
