The Norwegian edition of the Nordic larp conference Knutepunkt, Knutepunkt 2017, is now over. This post will be continuously updated with links to articles, reports, photo albums, videos, slides, books and other relevant documentation.
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Last update: 2017-03-13, 23:15 CET
While not specifically written for Knutepunkt 2017, Elin Nilsen’s guide to handling the post Knutepunkt blues is quite relevant for participants:
The official journal for Knutepunkt 2017 is called Once Upon a Nordic Larp… Twenty Years of Playing Stories and was edited by Martine Svanevik, Linn Carin Andreassen, Simon Brind, Elin Nilsen, and Grethe Sofie Bulterud Strand.
Nordiclarp.org Video Reports
We made a series of interviews on site during the conference. All 14 of them can be found in this playlist.
Markus Montola – A Cookbook Approach to Quantitative Larp Evaluation
Here you can download my cookbook slides, and an example excel sheet showing how to crunch those numbers. On the first page of the excel sheet there’s also a link to my living storage of survey items used so far.
We like to engage in larp through compelling and vivid characters. However, the available tools to create them are many and diverse: whether we go with short or detailed characters, give them a lot of background or just create a short frame for the players to develop, whether we leave the control of the story to the larpwright or give more leeway towards the player’s agenda. All of these approaches are tools that can be calibrated according to each designer’s purposes.
France has in the past fifteen years enjoyed the development of its specific, character based, drama-oriented larp scene called the romanesque genre. With a heavy emphasis on character development and personal relationships, this type of game has garnered a huge, devoted following. Though it has been but recently documented (Choupaut, 2013; Algayres, 2016a), the romanesque scene has steadily evolved through almost two decades and developed some specific traits regarding game design.
This article will endeavour to present the romanesque style larp in relation to other similar larp styles in Europe, and establish some tools we use to create characters and narration in this type of larps. The objectives are to expand both the knowledge about larp production in Europe and the narrator’s toolbox to create characters.
What Is the French Style Romanesque Genre?
An Overview of the Genre
Harem Son Saat (play, Joram Epis)
The romanesque term started being applied to games in 2010, by Frédéric Barnabé for l’Agonie du Poète (2010). However, that game was the last iteration of a long series of games coined as “emotional” or “dramatic,” which was almost as old as the practice of larp in the country. In its primary sense, romanesque means “which belongs to the realm of a novel,” a descriptive for dramatic events or actions. Therefore, it is used to describe games that are constructed as rich, narrative experiences, with pre-written characters whose rich backstory and psychology are the driving forces of the larp.
Since then, the term has been appropriated to qualify many games following the same general features. While these features might still be debated, we have focused on the following traits (Algayres, 2016a):
Focus on the character. Character creation is mostly in the hands of the organisers, and they will be very detailed, with a lot of intertwining backstory and built-in information.
A huge impact of the past which explains the details in the character. The backstory gets a significant importance in building the potential for narration and the character’s psyche. Some elements might be kept secret, to be discovered for dramatic impact.
An environment built as a microcosm. The diversity of characters serves as a means to establish the workings of society in the specific time and context of the game, which is why the romanesque usually love historically inspired settings.
The use of narrative archetypes. Romanesque larps often draw inspiration from literary classics and embrace the romanesque genre’s common tropes as a means to drive narration.
The dominance of tragedy, with character-based narrative integrating a lot of human drama, conflicts and character dilemma. This is not an absolute, though, some games advocate a lighter atmosphere or tragedy-comedy mix, such as Rêves d’Absinthe (Algayres and D’authie, 2011), or Prima La Musica (Primoot, 2016).
Tightly-knit narrative arcs, which are meant to reach their climax during the game, with characters living out an exceptional destiny or a defining moment of their lives over the course of the game.
A focus on the characters’ emotions and on each participant’s identification with their character, in the same manner as a reader identifies with a character in a work of fiction. Bleed may occur as a result of identification with the character.
The generally recognised strength of these larps is that they provide a very rich, detailed frame, with complex characters thoroughly inserted in their context and network of relationships. However, as a significant part of the world, character-building and control of the story remains in the hands of the organisers. This type of larp places greater limitations on players’ agenda and freedom (in character selection and creation especially). This is usually a design choice that creators justify by that they are using it to enrich the overall story and narrative, to create more closely connected characters and potential for tight narratives and complex story arcs.
The Historically Inspired Larp in France and in Europe
While the term romanesque has been coined to describe a very specific sub-genre of French larp culture, we can observe games with similar intent in several other European countries. It is also interesting to see that we can find similar traits in the games in the historically inspired genre. History and larp have always worked well together, since “a historical larp can have a more interesting and challenging gameplay because of the richly faceted social situations history brings with it” (Salomonsen, 2003, p. 94). Game designers from all over Europe have had the opportunity to exploit the richness of history all the while retaining the creative licence to twist accuracy for practical or dramatic purposes, and we’ll quote some significant, but by no means exhaustive, examples.
In Finland, historically-inspired larps are a part of the scene, with Viking history, the Victorian era, and Finnish history around the time of independence featured as time periods of interest. Finland, like France and for similar reasons, has had a tradition of long, very detailed characters, as the absence of workshops made it necessary to include a lot of information about the character’s psyche and environment in written form.
An interesting example is provided by the Czech larp Skoro Rassvet (Haladová, Platir et al., 2013).((Whose international runs were organised in Denmark through the organisation Solhverv.)) Skoro Rassvet is a game set in 19th century Russia, heavily influenced by Russian literature and especially Tolstoy. The game is played in a day, with a half day of workshops, and the action takes place during a family gathering for a formal dinner. In its approach and objectives, this game would certainly have been dubbed romanesque in France. The character design, however, differed sensibly. The written material was relatively short by historical larp standards (less than half a dozen pages), and most of the character development was done during the workshops, essentially through social codes and rituals, and role-playing scenes from the past (Hampejs, 2015).
Prima La Musica (play, Joram Epis).
Other examples from the obviously rich Czech scene include Salon Moravia (Bondy and Bondyová et al., 2104), set in a brothel during World War II, De la Bête (Pešta and Wagner et al., 2013), a super-production set in 18th century France, and Legion (Pešta and Wagner, 2015), which combines historical inspiration and hardcore larp in its depiction of a 1915 retreating military unit.
Norway also has a significant historical larp scene, which used to be dubbed “stocking larps” (Stark, 2013). Norwegian historical larps were presented at the French convention Les GNiales with great interest (Hansen, 2014). They appeared as very rich, deeply layered productions, with high requirements for historical and costume accuracy which put them close to historical reenactment, and, in keeping with Nordic larp, bigger creative agenda for the players where the building of interactions and narrative arcs were concerned. Kjærlighet uten strømper [Love without Stockings] (Voje and Stamnestrø et al., 2004) can be mentioned as an example of the historical drama inspiration. The game, set during a wedding in 1771, presents its objective as a mix of intrigue, personal and societal drama, integrating significant amounts of conflict and romance.
The rapidly blooming progressive scene in Italy, under the banner of the collective Terre Spezzate, has made several contributions to the historically inspired genre. I Ribelli della montagna [Rebels on the Mountain] (Capone and Bi , 2015) was a rich, vivid rendition of the last months of World War Two which got unprecedented media attention, support from A.N.P.I.—Associazione Nazionale Partigiani Italiani [National Association of Italian Partisans], and praise for its thoughtful and sensitive rendition of the conflict. Chiave di Volta [Keystone] (Tireabasso and Villa Avogadro, 2015), is a lush dramatisation of the 19th century centred around the theme of power, the possibility to play both masters and servants in a complicated power play, and a huge production value. Both of these productions have cleverly integrated design elements and techniques from Nordic larp (safety mechanics, workshops etc.) while retaining their own unique style, resulting in extremely well crafted larps.
And of course, the blockbuster larp also ventured into the historical drama setting with Fairweather Manor (Boruta, Raasted and Nielsen et al., 2015), a larp set in Edwardian England and inspired by the hit TV-show Downton Abbey. While the brute force design proved partially unfit to cover the complexity of a multi-layered society (including diversity of age, rank and function), the game was effective in carrying over a lot of content and player-generated interactions. The first iteration of the larp warranted an unofficial spinoff, a second run and a sequel over the course of the following year.
Back in France, the most recent larps of the romanesque genre have shown a clear ambition to expand on the genre and make it evolve for the better through the inclusion of those nordic style techniques whose use has become widespread in recent years (workshops, black box), keener focus on directing themes, and more refined work on the societal frame. Prima la Musica (Primoot, 2016) is a larp about the French opera scene of the 19th century, using opera-inspired dramatics and music both diegetically and non-diegetically through an open, black box system. Still Water Runs Deep (Ruhja, 2014) is a Jane Austen/Dickensian inspired larp with a sharp focus on class hierarchies and gender stereotypes, which was also played as a cross-gender experience, with participants praising the insight it gave them of the opposite genders’ constraints and problematics. Finally, Harem Son Saat (Algayres, 2016b) was the first international game of the genre, using English as a main language,((Which stood for Turkish in the 1913 Ottoman background, while French was in-game a diplomatic second language.)) built around the themes of oppression, gender segregation and culture shock.
Therefore, while romanesque is solidly a French term, character-driven literary and historically inspired larps have by no means been limited to a single geographic area. The rich potential of history and its dramatisation has been widely exploited and feels still rich with great potential.
Character Design and Narrations in the Romanesque Genre
Archetypes in the Romanesque Genre
Prima La Musica (play, Joram Epis).
Romanesque larps are character-centred games, with a significant part of the game design being devoted to the conception of the characters, all of them organiser-created. While length and composition of characters tend to vary from one larpwright to another, a couple of techniques can be pinpointed.
The first one is what I’d like to call the smart use of archetypes. This is a very thin line to tread, as any overused archetype can become a cliché and damage the necessary suspension of disbelief. Let’s use an example. You might hear French players harp about the “switched at birth” plot, used as an ironic commentary on romanesque clichés, though, to my knowledge, it has rarely been used in the scene, except in the prohibition-game era Chicago. Illegitimate children and foundlings, however, are definitely a staple of the genre, but this is fitting to historical periods when children born out of wedlock had no status in society.
Classic or archetypal plotlines or characters can be true to period, but also resonate with an audience of participants which has usually grown up learning and enjoying these stories. It has been argued that larp itself can be viewed as an incarnation of the monomyth, each participant’s experience echoing the traditional hero’s journey. (Hook, 2010, p.34)
So how do we go about practicing the clever use of archetypes? In a romanesque setting, we consider all characters protagonists. Therefore, we’ll use archetypes to define them through several angles:
The inner nature of the character: the patriarch, the overbearing matron, the hotheaded, the cynic, the ingénue, the rebel. This is very basic and can turn cliché if the character is limited to the inner archetype.
Their contrast in relation to others (also called foil). This is particularly frequent in pairs or trios of characters, such as siblings, close friends, etc. You’ll have the optimist to the realist, the extrovert to the introvert, the by-the-rules personality against the rebellious type, etc. Foils are really useful because, through simple characterisation, they create a lot of potential for conflict between the characters.
Their position within a network of relationships and in relation to others. Each character is the participant’s protagonist, but can be another’s sibling, a third’s best friend, the romantic interest of a fourth, the antagonist to a fifth and so on.
If we just use any archetype, a character stands a sure chance to become cliché, because its archetype will be instantly identifiable, and its characterisation weak. This is where several archetypes used in conjunction with the others become useful: the character becomes more layered, therefore more human. However, the archetypes at work can still have a universal meaning to participants, which makes them particularly effective.
The Dual Approach in Character Design
Another element of character design typical to the romanesque genre is what we call the dual approach. While it is by no means limited to the romanesque, it has also become typical of some of the games. The dual approach in character design is a combination of the following elements:
The initial approach: the character’s motif or raison d’être, their reason for being present. This can be accomplished through family ties, a function or specific job, a plot-related motif. This must answer the questions: why are they here? Why should they care? Why will they stay?
The final approach: what will the character’s potential arc be? What will be their greatest moment? It can be a reveal (hence the predominance of secrets in some larps), an epiphany, a staged grand scene, a necessary evolution, but an element (or several) which will make the character’s journey (and the participant’s experience) significant and meaningful.
In a typical design, both of these approaches, as well as the archetypes at play, are handled simultaneously, as the character (and the network of characters) is constructed bit by bit. The final criteria is to analyse if the characters are playable, interesting, and enjoyable.
The objective of this type of design is to provide the participant with potential for a rich story and interactions. Some games tend to follow a more streamlined route, and have even been criticised for railroading the character’s arc too much. However, most of these games definitely have a clear narrativist approach, only limited to what is coherent with the character’s context and psyche. For some time periods in history, these elements of context and the social pressure can really be played as antagonists of their own.
Conclusion
With more than ten years of established existence and a very rich history of diverse and celebrated games, the French style romanesque scene is certainly a prime example of a national scene which strives through its own specific identity, all the while getting enriched through contact with other genres and countries.
Hook, Nathan. Larp of a Thousand Faces. In Playing Reality. Edited by Elge Larsson. Stockholm, Sweden: Interacting Arts, 2010.
Salomonsen, Xenia. The use of History in larp. In As Larp grows up—Theory and Methods in Larp. Edited by Morten Gade, Line Thorup and Mikkel Sander. Fredericksberg, Denmark: Projektgruppen KP03, 2003.
Tirabasso, Chiara. Chiave Di Volta: The Devil is in the detail. In The Nordic Larp Yearbook 2015. Edited by Charles Bo Nielsen, Claus Raasted and Erik Sonne Georg. Copenhagen, Denmark: Rollespilsakademiet, 2016.
Personal Communication
Erlend Eidsem Hansen. Days of deeds, Nights of Myth— The Design tricks of Historic Larps in Norway. Les GNiales. Paris, France: Conference, 2014.
Ludography
Algayres, Muriel and Abbaye d’Authie. Rêves d’Absinthe [Dreams of Absinth]. Ouroux, France: Association Rôle, 2011.
Haladová, Markéta, Petr Platil, Martin Buchtík, et. al. Skoro Rassvet [Breaking Dawn]. Translated by Jeppe Bergmann Hamming, Maria Bergmann Hamming. Odense, Danmark: Association Solhverv, 2103. http://rassvet.cz/
Pešta, Adam and David František Wagner et al. De la Bête. Valeč Castle, Czech Republic, 2013. http://www.delabete.cz
Pešta, Adam and David František Wagner et al. Legion : Siberian Story. Hvožďany, Czech Republic: Association Rolling, 2015. http://legion.rolling.cz/
Primoot Team. Prima la Musica ou L’Opéra Terrible [Prima la Musica or the Opera Terrible]. Montbraye Castle, France: Association Urbicande Libérée, 2016.
Ruhja Team. Still Water Runs Deep. Paris, France: Association Rôle, 2014.
Tirabasso, Chiara and Daniele Cristina Villa Avogadro. Chiave di Volta [Keystone], Biella, Italy: Terre Spezzate, 2015 http://www.grv.it/chiave
Voje, Adrian Angelico and Anne Marie Stamnestrø et al. Kjærlighet uten strømper [Love without stockings]. Kleve gård, Norway: 2004. http://www.rollespill.no/rokokko/
A WARNING: This might be a bit more casual than the other essays in this book. From start to finish, my whole journey of success, I have been in way over my head. I have been surrounded by intelligent, capable people that know exactly what they are doing. If you would like to hear from them, check out literally any of the other pages. If you would like to hear my rambling about how I accidentally became a pseudo YouTube celebrity, keep reading and enjoy the ride.
My dungeons and dragons group made fun of me for going larping. I remember being so excited and talking to them all about the character I was making, and the game I had found, and how much fun I was going to have, and they went to YouTube. I began larping in an age when larp on YouTube was videos of lighting bolt packet throwers and fake looking fight scenes. They went on a marathon to show me how stupid I was going to look, and then we continued to roll dice and describe fighting magic orcs.
My name is Mo Mo O’Brien, and if there’s one thing you need to know about me it’s that I don’t care what people think, so despite the mockery from my tabletop group, I went larping anyway. It was everything I knew it would be, and so much more. I instantly knew this was going to take over my entire life. I went to more events, and uploaded more pictures to my social media, and more people started asking me questions.
I had recently started a YouTube channel, and I thought I’d answer all the questions in a video. I called the video “The Basics of larp” and it covered everything from the definition of larp, to the different genres, to what you needed to start playing. That was the video that began it all. My channel now has over 70,000 subscribers, that video now has almost 400,000 views, the comments are flooded with requests for more larp videos, and I can no longer go to any larp without at least one person coming up to me and telling me they were there because of me. My YouTube channel has even taken me to places like panelling at San Diego comic con and being in a popular candy commercial. Since then, larping YouTube channels have been exponentially growing, and are still growing. So, I thought I’d give people some tips for larp YouTube Channels!
1. Speak to Non-larpers
You don’t have to tell larpers why larp is awesome. They already know. If you see someone with a t-shirt for a band you like, you don’t walk over to them and try and convince them why that band is awesome. They’re already wearing the shirt. If a larper sees ANYTHING larp related, good chance is they’re probably going to like it regardless of content. Don’t limit your audience. Any video where I talk about larp, I always explain what it is as fast and as simply as I can within the first 20 seconds. How I describe it is “an adult game of make believe.” That seems to cover any genre of larp, no matter how experimental, and everyone can picture it since everyone knows what “make believe” is. Then I proceed to talk about it as if i’m explaining it to a group of veteran larpers, and noobies.((Slang on newbies, for beginners or people without any pre existing knowledge and experience.)) People are all secretly narcissistic and love seeing themselves in things. So, try to make videos that non-larpers could see themselves in. In every video I never assume the viewer knows what larp is, and then explain it in a way that could appeal to everyone. Larp is so broad and so many things, there is always something someone will like about it; costume designing, prop designing, writing, acting, combat. There are styles of larp that incorporate more sport, more tears, more competition, more costume showcasing, more set dressing. There’s a aspect and style of larp for everyone, so make sure everyone knows that. Which means….
2. Learn How to Tell a Larp Story
My friend Jamie who runs my main larp campaign once gave me a very long, slightly drunk, speech on how to tell a larp story to non-larpers. First of all: non-larpers do not care about mechanics, skills, or rules. Not at first anyway. When people ask “what was the last book you read?,” their first question will usually always be “What was it about?”, not whether it fit into the three act structure or took a more experimental approach. Do not tell non-larpers that you have a level four fire spell that allows you to hit a monster with 30 health for 10 flame damage. Say “I hit a monster with a fireball.” One of those stories sounds WAY more exciting than the other. Sell your larp adventures for the adventures you had, not the numbers it gave your character sheet. When you’re larping, the emotions are real, so tell the story as if you were ACTUALLY THERE because that’s what larp feels like. Not everyone likes numbers or behind the scenes information, but everyone loves a good story.
3. Sell Yourself
This is not as skeezy as it sounds. What i mean by this is just find all the best parts about yourself, and showcase them. YouTubers compared to a lot of other “celebrities” is that we are a far more personal art medium. We do “question and answers” where viewers can learn all about us, vlogs((Video blogs.)) where they can spend the day with us, and it’s a lot less “glitz and glamour” than other beings of well known status. People watch a video for the content, but they stick around and subscribe for the YouTuber. This doesn’t mean invent a new personality. This means find the parts of your personality people like, and electrify them. That goes for your characters as well.
To expand on this idea, you should check out another YouTuber that’s NOT a larper, but pretty close: Miranda Sings. Miranda is a fictional character with a YouTube channel, created by comedian and singer Colleen Ballinger. In 2008 Colleen started uploading purposefully bad song covers to YouTube as a joke, and Miranda has gained over 7 million subscribers since. As she developed the character of “Miranda” she says she just read her YouTube comments, took note of what viewers found weird or obnoxious, and started to do it even more. Take note of what aspects of your characters and yourself your viewers like, and do it more.
4. Make It Look Nice
Sit in front of a lit window or bright light source. Make sure any fans, or air conditioners, or any other machinery making noise is turned off. Make sure your camera isn’t making you look too orange or too blue (you can change this by adjusting your lighting. Natural light gives off a blue tint, unnatural gives off an orange.) Make sure your background looks tidy and nice.
For a while, I thought none of this really mattered…until I went back and watched my old videos. All these technical things are like the bass line of a song. You don’t notice when it’s there, but OH BOY do you notice when it’s not. So make sure you’re well lit, your sound is good, and your shot is set up nice. Which also means, pay attention to your background. If you want people to pay attention to nothing but your words, consider a blank wall behind you. Talking about costuming? Maybe display some of your pieces behind you. Want people to have a glimpse of your personality? Show your whole bedroom. Let your background tell a story.
5. Get That Larp Footage
Just talking to a camera is fine, but when you cut to something else, it makes sure the audience is paying attention, because it gives them some new to look at. Also it saves you the time and effort of trying to do your awesome larp justice. You can just show your audience so they don’t have to imagine it.
One of the biggest rules in visual storytelling: show, don’t tell.
Hide your camera, stay out of game for a while, ask for filming privileges in exchange for some pictures of the event, ask the organiser if they can make the camera cannon in the game.
Even if it’s just pictures someone else took, ask them if you may use the pictures.
6. Be Picky
Larp is really hard to translate to video because, a lot of the times it’s not a spectator sport. Its meant to be experienced, not watched for entertainment. So, try and pick the footage that portrays what larp FEELS like, not looks like. Add some music or sound effects to fight scenes, so it doesn’t just sound like latex hitting latex matched with grunting. Pick those intense scenes with dramatic lighting. Remember to market to non-larpers. People don’t want to see a larp, they want to feel it. Choose the footage, and edit it accordingly, that portrays how that moment felt when you were in it.
When you larp, a lot of the emotions and adrenaline is real, but this is a little harder to translate to film. When you watch a movie, a scene could have a completely different feel or intensity based on the cinematography, the editing, the music, the lighting. Picture a shot of a few kids splashing in the water. Now picture it with happy, upbeat, ukulele music. It’s a fun day at the beach! Viewers are content, and calm, and are reminded of carefree summer days. Now, picture the exact same shot, but with the jaws theme song underneath. Not a carefree beach day anymore is it? Footage provides what the larp looks like, but what you do with it determines how your viewers feel about it.
I tried to put together all of these things into one of my videos which I called “Lock Stock & Barrel: a five minute larp.” I was dared by another YouTube channel to create a larp that would last 5 minutes, and film it. So I created a simple life or death scenario; 6 people locked in a post apocalyptic shelter that was running out of air, and the maximum inhabitant capacity would drop by 1 every 1 minute. Meaning, in order to survive, one person had to be eliminated or evacuated every minute. They were given items like: booze, poison, water, a gun, bullets, cookies, and other items designed to kill each other. There was an also an exit to the shelter with a 30% chance of survival in the wasteland. This was apparently fun for the players, and they wished it was a little longer. For the sake of a youtube video though, it was the perfect length. Because it was such a short amount of time, it was high energy, panicked, and 5 minutes of intensity. There was no time for spaced out improvised beautiful dialogue. It worked better, because it was messy and all over the place, like the real situation would have been if it was filmed for an audience. I also held it in my own home so I set up my filming lights, I got to set the scene the way I wanted, all with filming this in mind. Like it was an improvised movie.
But the biggest tip I can give, not just to larp YouTubers, but all YouTubers in general: Just do it! Don’t worry about messing up, or having the right equipment, or not being ready. We all had to start somewhere. Watch the videos you make, figure out what you liked, and what you didn’t, and adjust accordingly. Just figure it out as you go along. Fall into your place. So get going!
As an addendum to this piece, Simon Brind conducted a brief interview with Mo Mo O’Brien; edited highlights are included here:
Simon Brind: Would you tell us a little more about the design for the five minute larp? Do the people have characters? Did you pre-write them or did the players do it? Was there a set?
Mo Mo O’Brien: It was very light rules, basically if they wanted to do anything physically, they just asked out loud and I told them if it went ok. They had characters they decided on themselves. Formed their own relationships and backstories. All the knowledge they were given was they had been in this bunker for almost a year. We made up the characters on the spot in a workshop before the game. The set, was my living room, with a spotlight in the middle. You can watch the whole thing here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgQFuLhe-ks
SB: Are there ways that larp could become a spectator sport? or a spectator event? Would it still be larp?
O’B: If larp was a spectator sport, it would be called improv theatre. If all the mechanics and techniques were designed to entertain an audience and not the player, it would be an episode of whose line is it anyway. Even if there was an audience to an actual larp event, by my definition, it would become improv theatre. Though I’m sure there’s 40 essays out there by people much smarter than me with different theories about it.
SB: How else could YouTube be used in larp? Could one be played out using YouTube videos and responses do you think? Or as a part of a game?
O’B: What I would love to see is YouTube being used as a tool in larp. We have all this new technology that I feel could be utilised better. I recently did a game called As we know it that took place entirely, on my own, sitting in a closet, and all the interactions were over text. It was a game about isolation and through technology, perfect isolation was able to be achieved. There’s so much people can do with video, I think it could be used in larp a lot more.
SB: Can you tell the story of a larp in video? Could the 5 minute experiment scale up to 30 minutes, 3 hours or even 3 days?
O’B: Could I tell the story of a 3 day larp in a 10 minute video? Absolutely. Especially when it comes to internet media, it is typically more likely to hold someone’s attention. It’s important to find the right balance between rambling, and cutting it short. Say what you NEED to say. Sometimes you need to cut what you WANT to say, which is the most heartbreaking thing about good editing. Take notes before you film. It helps you formulate your thoughts, keeps you from forgetting anything, and will help eliminate nonsense and rambling.
SB: Nordic larps have done a great job of documenting their games and they are producing some great promotional videos((Promotional videos for Fairweather Manor, Black Friday and the like.)) too. But what else would you like to see from game organisers? How could they improve?
O’B: Blockbuster nordic larps are EASILY the simplest kind of larp to film, because it is so close to improvised theatre. They usually have the best costumes, props, sets, and scenes since it’s more about characters, than character sheets. Since it’s typically more aesthetically pleasing than a lot of boffer larps, it’s easier to share, and easier to relate to, because you have to worry less about portraying how the experience feels, because it looks so nice from the outside. So I think what the western larp media needs, is to focus on what the western larp community HAS. Focus more on the competitive and self improving nature of western sport style larps, and learn how to translate that feeling of adrenaline and action to film.
The official book for Knutepunkt 2017 is called Once Upon a Nordic Larp… Twenty Years of Playing Stories and it’s out now!
It promises to be a very interesting read weighing in at an impressive 404 pages. Here’s how the editors introduce it:
Being a complex grimoire of received wisdom, forbidden wisdom, and questionable wisdom; techniques (both meta- and otherwise); lies, damn lies, and associated ephemera. It was written by an eclectic mix of wonderful people from across the globe and
edited by
Martine Svanevik, Linn Carin Andreassen, Simon Brind, Elin Nilsen, and Grethe Sofie Bulterud Strand.
In our never ending quest to be a resource to the larp scene we have gathered some humble equipment to help video production for larp. If you want to make a production diary, larp promo, interviews, larp report or anything else larp related we’ll lend you the gear free of charge.
You can read more about what equipment we have and how to borrow it on our new video equipment page.
Cover photo: A plush figure photographed using the simplest lights from our video equipment collection.
Convention of Thorns is an official White Wolf Nordic-style Vampire: the Masquerade larp. The first run was held between October 27-30, 2016 at Zamek Książ, a castle in Poland. The larp was a joint collaboration between White Wolf and Dziobak Larp Studios. This scenario plays out a crucial moment in the canon of vampiric history, in which representatives from various cities across Europe, Western Asia, and Northern Africa engage in peace talks at a meeting in Thorns, England in 1493.((For general information, see The Unofficial White Wolf Wiki, “Convention of Thorns,” Whitewolf.wika.com, December 4, 2015. http://whitewolf.wikia.com/wiki/Convention_of_Thorns))
The Nosferatu Josef von Bauren, one of the Founders of the Camarilla. Photo by John-Paul Bichard.
During this time, the Inquisition was purging many of the vampires throughout Europe. The Kindred were involved in a brutal civil war, in which elder members of the Establishment attempted to maintain their power while younger Anarchs rose up to kill and usurp them in a bloody revolution. The Convention represents an attempt to establish a code of rules – or Traditions — as well as to standardize a new form of government called the Camarilla, which is based mainly on Establishment values. In the White Wolf canon, this event leads to the official division between the Camarilla, the Anarchs, the Independent clans, and a new sect called the Sabbat. The latter factions ultimately reject the Camarilla’s authority, with the fledgling Sabbat declaring a war upon the Establishment that endures through the modern nights.
While larp groups have organized immersive, Nordic style Vampire games before,((Jaakko Stenros and Markus Montola, eds. Nordic Larp (Stockholm, Sweden: Fëa Livia, 2010).)) as well as several one-shots set in the canonical Convention of Thorns, this event marks a historically significant moment in the development of White Wolf larp. This larp represents an effort by White Wolf to embrace the blockbuster style of larp,((Eirik Fatland and Markus Montola, “The Blockbuster Formula – Brute Force Design in The Monitor Celestra and College of Wizardry,” Nordiclarp.org, May 6, 2015. https://nordiclarp.org/2015/05/06/the-blockbuster-formula-brute-force-design-in-the-monitor-celestra-and-college-of-wizardry/)) which features high production values, an expensive location, richly detailed setting information packed into pre-written characters, and some plots or NPCs deployed by the organizers during the game.
The Tzimisce Irenka Brozek, the White Spider. Photo by Przemysław Jendroska and Nadina Wiórkiewicz for Dziobak Larp Studios.
Blockbuster larps are a form of what one of Convention of Thorns’ designers, Claus Raasted, callslarp tourism, in which players can use time and resources usually reserved for a vacation to larp in an impressive setting and have an immersive experience.((Claus Raasted, “Claus Raasted: Larp Tourism (Produced for Nelco 2015).” YouTube, August 28, 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0Lu9ct_se4)) Such projects draw participants from around the world, are well documented, and garner a remarkable amount of mainstream attention, as witnessed by the media frenzy around the College of Wizardry larps. True to form, Convention of Thorns attracted players from several countries, producing impressive documentation photos of the authentic-looking castle, costuming, and prosthetics from several photographers, including John-Paul Bichard, Przemysław Jendroska, and Nadina Wiórkiewicz. These new White Wolf larps such as Convention of Thorns, End of the Line, and the upcoming Enlightenment in Blood are not intended to replace traditional Vampire games, but rather to augment them, by creating one-shot, uniquely immersive experiences set in the World of Darkness.
The Camarilla Ventrue Founder Hardestadt addresses the assembled Kindred in the opening scene. Photo by Przemysław Jendroska and Nadina Wiórkiewicz for Dziobak Larp Studios.
Consent Negotiations, Day Play, and Collaborative Style
While the blockbuster style is certainly visually impressive, the Nordic roots of these games also represent a departure from White Wolf’s usual type of larps in their embodiment of physicality. The game did feature a few mechanics, most notably in the use of the “really really” mechanic for simulating Discipline use. Originating in White Wolf and Odyssé’s End of the Line, a player could lay a hand on another player and issue a verbal command with the words “really really” to indicate the use of a Dominate, Presence, or Auspex command. However, physical combat was highly discouraged. Unlike most Vampire larps from the Mind’s Eye Theatre tradition, no traits are spent to perform actions and no rock-paper-scissor throws resolve conflict. Instead, Convention of Thorns used a consent-based style of play, in which players negotiate violence, intimacy, and feeding through a scripted off-game consent negotiation workshopped before the game. Developed and piloted at the New Orleans run of End of the Line, these negotiations required players to discuss openly physical and emotional boundaries before engaging in scenes with sensitive content.((For more on the safety and calibration tools developed for End of the Line, see Johanna Koljonen, Safety in Larp: Understanding Participation and Designing for Trust, September 18, 2019. https://participationsafety.wordpress.com))
Tzimisce enemies Premislav Aksinin and Piotr Danchina confront one another. In consent-based play, conflict resolution is negotiated off-game with all parties agreeing on the outcome. Photo by Przemysław Jendroska and Nadina Wiórkiewicz for Dziobak Larp Studios.
Additionally, in consent-based play, all participants agree upon the outcome of an event based upon their out-of-character needs, rather than their character’s abilities, points, or role-play driven motivations. Consent-based play has proven highly successful at creating a culture of safety, play-style calibration, and trust,((Game to Grow, “Game to Grow Webisode Project Episode 2: Emotionally Intense Play, Calibration, and Community Safety,” YouTube, September 1, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YtRJd5CR2I)) even in role-play environments such asNew World Magischola in the United States,((Maury Brown, “Creating a Culture of Trust through Safety and Calibration Larp Mechanics,” Nordiclarp.org, September 9, 2016. https://nordiclarp.org/2016/09/09/creating-culture-trust-safety-calibration-larp-mechanics/)) which attract both new players and larpers from more traditional settings with conflict resolution mechanics. These consent mechanics aligned with the overall goals of the Safety team at Convention of Thorns, of which I was a part: to create an environment where players felt safe to engage in whatever level of intensity of play they desired and, most importantly, felt comfortable disengaging or opting-out of content if needed. Therefore, an hour of workshop time was set aside to practice safety techniques and negotiation.((For the complete Safety workshop instructions, click here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yTgK4ZKqg9H9opBKau7nKZC3y5jOqwlo7D4PWCKPB5s/edit?usp=sharing))
Along these lines, a major point of departure from traditional Vampire larps was the emphasis on transparency in Convention of Thorns. In the Nordic style, the goal of the game is not to succeed or “win” in a traditional sense, but rather to “play to lose,” or “play for what is interesting.” For this reason, all of the character sheets, casting, and Domain relationships were visible to the players before the start of the larp. In a game that centers upon information hoarding, power dynamics, plotting, and secrecy, this design choice was remarkably effective. Similarly, in pre-game planning, participants were able to communicate their interests on Facebook for particular types of play, including posting Looking for Relations requests, creating groups, and asking for specific relationships such as sire/childe, love interests, rivals, etc. Players often aired their character’s secrets in public forums in order to create more drama in game, broadcasting to others what themes they find most interesting to play.
The Toreador Geneveve Orseau. Photo by Przemysław Jendroska and Nadina Wiórkiewicz for Dziobak Larp Studios.
For example, I played Geneveve Orseau, an Enlightenment-seeking Toreador co-Harpy in the Domain of Paris. Geneveve ran an art academy and salon, which functioned as a civilizing finishing school for young Kindred. Before game, I created a Facebook group for salon attendees and students, establishing a group of people who may not agree on important topics such as humanity, art, or philosophy, but who had met one another socially in the past.
Another player created a group called Correspondence in Humanities, for those of us interested in playing on the theme of trying to regain our humanity. In a sense, this group ended up having a double meaning, as the characters within it wrote one another long letters on the nature of vampiric existence, the practicalities of trying to grapple with the inner Beast, and reflections on spirituality that deeply resonated with the humanistic Renaissance setting. This sort of pre-play helped participants locate co-players interested in the same sorts of interactions and themes, establishing ties and creating relationships before arriving on site. In my experience, these ties greatly aid in facilitating excellent scenes with these co-players on-site. For example, the Humanities group developed a secret handshake to indicate their interest in Golconda and also organized a discussion on the nature of Enlightenment around an altar during the larp.
In addition, while game play took place at night, the daytime hours were reserved for Day Play and collaborative planning. As a player, this element of the game most inspired my participation. Building upon Nordic and American freeform techniques, I co-wrote the Day Play instructions((For the complete Day Play instructions, click here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YlYay_h2IctkRQ3Kt6jqXYMK87aMon9Q6d0xyR55qIc/edit?usp=sharing)) with Maury Brown, using a system I originally developed forPlanetfall larp in Austin, Texas.((Matthew Webb, “Imagining the Future with Planetfall: Mobile Technology and Hard Science in Science Fiction Larping,” in The Wyrd Con Companion Book 2015, edited by Sarah Lynne Bowman (Los Angeles, CA: Wyrd Con) https://www.dropbox.com/s/xslwh0uxa544029/WCCB15-Final.pdf?dl=0))
Day Play cards. Photo by Renee Ritchie.
In Day Play, facilitators led small groups of players through a series of scenes in which they could enact parts of their backstory, fantasies, dreams, or future events. In a game like Vampire, where characters are many decades or even centuries old, past memories and traumas are often formative to the psychological makeup of the Kindred. During Day Play, participants could enact their own characters, NPCs, or simply watch. Some players opted to create their own scenes; others used the card system, where participants drew an emotion and a scenario from two decks. The facilitator would then guide the group through developing the scene, using metatechniques such as angel and demon (a variant of bird-in-the-ear), monologue, rewind/fast forward, Last Line, and Switch.((See Day Play Instructions above for definitions.)) These scenes also contributed to the atmosphere of collaborative play and transparency. Participants witnessed scenes that would normally remain hidden, enabling them to steer toward content during the evening that would inspire deeper scenes. Day Play allowed participants insight into the motivations and emotions of the other characters.
The Malkavian Vasantasena comforts the Nosferatu Dáire mac Donnchada. While evening play took place in the castle with full costuming and scenography, Day Play was freeform style in street clothes. Photo by Przemysław Jendroska and Nadina Wiórkiewicz for Dziobak Larp Studios.
Participation in Day Play was strictly optional and some players opted to eat, socialize, sleep, or plan out-of-character. This relaxed atmosphere also lent to the collaborative style of play. While players did plot, as they often do in between Vampire larp sessions, they mostly did so as large groups. The consent-based play encouraged participants to negotiate and agree upon the outcomes of confrontations off-game.
Jürgen von Verden, who masqueraded as his sire, Hardestadt. Photo by Jean-Paul Bichard.
For example, my character Geneveve had maintained a centuries-long secret love affair with Jürgen von Verden, a Ventrue Crusader. Jürgen was hiding the relationship from his sire, Lord Hardestadt, who became one of the Founders of the Camarilla. A central canonical conceit of Convention of Thorns is that Hardestadt is killed by the Anarch Tyler decades before, and Jürgen must masquerade as his sire in order to keep the dream of the Camarilla alive. In our story line, the two characters had not seen one another since this transformation until the Convention. This relationship dynamic was player-driven rather than established by the canon or the team of writers, representing an alternate history version of events.
During the daytime hours before the final game session, we collectively planned several major events in our small groups. For example, we plotted the complete destabilization of the Domain of Paris due to the Prince becoming an Anarch and the Seneschal getting killed, as well as the selection of a new Prince, who had been the Sheriff. In addition, we decided that after the clans had voted on their participation in the Camarilla, Jürgen would run off to Paris to live with Geneveve, abandoning his mantle as Hardestadt and retiring from politics, at least temporarily. Many players were informed of this decision and the power vacuum created by Hardestadt’s departure was resolved through out-of-character discussion, with a new Justicar pre-determined to stand in his place. In traditional Vampire games, players would plan such maneuvers secretly, then enact them in game with uncertain results in a competitive style. Alternatively, we had determined these outcomes as larger collective groups, which did not diminish their intensity in play, but rather magnified it.
Player Agency Trumping Canonical Authenticity
These examples illustrate some key principles about Convention of Thorns: the emphasis on transparency, collaborative play, and the power of player agency to change canonical endings as their personal stories demanded. We were permitted a certain degree of freedom to play with canonical “truths,” as players were only required to read the Design Document and their character sheets.
While some political meetings occurred, the majority of social play transpired in the ballroom. Photo by Przemysław Jendroska and Nadina Wiórkiewicz for Dziobak Larp Studios.
The ability to change the outcome of the Convention was of particular interest to many players. The game was structured around clan meetings, council deliberations, and votes. However, these events were intended to be short and not dominate the social play of the game, which took place mainly in a large ballroom. In this regard, while we could not change the number of Traditions or the scheduled times of the votes, we could alter the wording of the Traditions, which resulted in some surprising departures from canon:
Photo courtesy of Eva Wei.
Additionally, clans that were normally considered Independent, such as the Giovanni and the Ravnos, ended up joining the Camarilla.
In this regard, players felt some flexibility not only to bend canon as desired, but also to bend history. Although the larp was set in the Renaissance, players were not expected to memorize historical facts or dress in strictly period-appropriate costuming. While White Wolf officially endorsed Convention of Thorns, these canonical changes are not meant to alter the existing timelines, but rather to serve as an alternative history. In future runs of the game, other deviations from established storylines are likely to emerge as players explore their own desired interests, relationships, and themes.
The Nosferatu Andrei Romanovich confers with his Clan. Photo by Przemysław Jendroska and Nadina Wiórkiewicz for Dziobak Larp Studios.
Variable Degrees of Engagement
While the castle itself offered a stunning location, complete with a gold-gilded ballroom for the opening scene and character portraits, the scenography team transformed several rooms in the castle to suit various moods and styles of play. The main floor of the castle was the primary area of play, including another ballroom and antechamber, where social and political scenes unfolded. Intact and destroyed areas of the castle were converted to Clan rooms, complete with themed music, special décor, and even unique smells. The top layer of the castle was reserved for players interested in darker, more visceral scenes, including rituals, intimacy, and violence.
The scenographers designed each Clan room with an individualized aesthetic. Photo by Przemysław Jendroska and Nadina Wiórkiewicz for Dziobak Larp Studios.
In this regard, players could choose their desired level of intensity with darker content based upon their location in the castle to a certain degree. NPCs were deployed primarily as monk retainers in service to the Abbey of Thorns or as humans to be fed upon in various ways. The emphasis on feeding served as a reminder of the Bestial nature of the vampiric existence, with the second major scene of the game after the opening speeches being a “feast,” complete with screaming villagers offered to the guests as meals. As my character, Geneveve, fed almost entirely on animal blood as a way to stave off her vampiric side, she completely avoided these screams, finding solace in the small antechamber. Throughout the larp, this space functioned as a makeshift salon and was relatively free of violence. In this way, the physical location and scenographic design afforded players some degree of control over the experiences they wished to explore.
The Lasombra Francesca Della Rovere. Photo by Przemysław Jendroska and Nadina Wiórkiewicz for Dziobak Larp Studios.
Similarly, the game was scaled structurally in terms of power level and intensity. Regardless of their power level, characters could only use low level Disciplines on the first night, medium level ones on the next night, and high ones on the last night. Similarly, characters could not die or be diablerized until the last night, encouraging players to ratchet up the tension and intensity until the climax of the game. Combined with the consent-based play, these techniques assuaged some of the fears of the participants regarding the inequity of power levels and the physicality of the playstyle.
The Brujah Anarch Tyler reviews the new Traditions. Photo by Przemysław Jendroska and Nadina Wiórkiewicz for Dziobak Larp Studios.
The organizers encouraged us to think of these peace talks as the equivalent of the vampiric UN — where violence would be rare and unseemly — rather than a battleground. In the final scene, the factions split onto two sides of the ballroom: one in favor of the Camarilla and one against. As many chanted the word “war” while staring at their opponents, the organizers ended the game. Therefore, the intensity of the violent intent remained, while the details of what happened in the future could be negotiated by players as they wished after the game or in Day Play scenes.
The Toreador Rosado Trastámara. Some Kindred played upon their more monstrous side, whereas others tried to preserve their Humanity. Photo by Przemysław Jendroska and Nadina Wiórkiewicz for Dziobak Larp Studios.
As a participant who primarily enjoys social, romantic, philosophical, and metaphysical play, I was pleased at the design of Convention of Thorns. The structure, themes, and spatial design were thoughtfully crafted to accommodate a variety of playstyles under the same roof. While the voting, Tradition wording, and meeting structure was a bit too under-designed for the smoothness of play that the organizers intended, the overall experience exceeded my expectations after seventeen years of White Wolf larping.
A Bright Future for the World of Darkness
Convention of Thorns represents the latest in a series of games developed by White Wolf in conjunction with designers in the Nordic scene. The organizers announced that they will rerun the larp next year, with details forthcoming. Meanwhile, several cities have expressed interest in hosting End of the Line, with two runs scheduled for World of Darkness Berlin, a White Wolf convention that will take place May 11-14, 2017. World of Darkness Berlin will also feature talks, workshops, the new documentary on the history of White Wolf, and the delightful dance-off larp, Dancing with the Clans. Finally, participants can look forward to Enlightenment in Blood, a several hundred person pervasive larp((“Pervasive Game,” Wikipedia, November 13, 2016. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pervasive_game)) set in modern times that spans multiple locations around the city of Berlin. In short, games like Convention of Thorns point strongly toward a bright future for the World of Darkness.
In the final scene, White Wolf Lead Storyteller Martin Elricsson narrates future events after the Convention, standing between the Kindred battle lines. Photo by Przemysław Jendroska and Nadina Wiórkiewicz for Dziobak Larp Studios.
Safety Team: Agata Świstak, Petra Lindve,Sarah Lynne Bowman, Maury Brown, Mila Ingalls, Claus Raasted Herløvsen
Main Character Writers: Anders Edgar, Jamie Snetsinger, Petra Lindve, Mia Devald Kyhn, Arvid Björklund, Simon Svensson, Frida Selvén, Jørn Slemdal, Anna-Lisa “Muckas” Gustavsson, Magnus Thirup Hansen
Volunteer Writers: Richard Svahn, Sorcières Cat, Andreas Svedin, Stefan Lunneborg, Freja Lunau, Elina Gouliou, Mathias Oliver Lykke Christensen, Garett Kopczynski, Marta Szyndler, Vilhelmīne Ozoliņa, Nika Anuk
Day Play Designers: Sarah Lynne Bowman and Maury Brown
Documentation: John-Paul Bichard, Magdalena Gutkowska, Aleksander Krzystyniak, Przemysław Jendroska, Maciej Nitka, Nadina Wiórkiewicz
Props: Yoru Kamiko, Marta Szyndler
Production assistants: Eevi Korhonen, Radek Gołdy, Halfdan Keller Justesen, Joanna Janik, Richard Svahn, Janina Wicher, Joanna Maryniak, Ania Gęborska, Ida Pawłowicz, Ole Risgaard Hansen, Samuel Arnold, Kasper Lundqvist, Johannessen, Freja Lunau, Yleine Aerts, Eva Helene Antonsen, Christine M. Christensen, Linnea Fredin, Katrine Kavli, Louise Svedsen, Kamilla Brichs, Mira Suovanen, Antti Kumpulainen, Lau K Lauritzen, Suus Matsaers, Stefan Lindgren, Casper Gatke, Dracan Dembiński, Herwig Kopp, Piotr “Kula” Milewski, Ola Wicher, Olivier Hoffman, Mila Ould Yahoui
Cover photo: The Malkavian Celestyn, The Librarian. Photo by Przemysław Jendroska and Nadina Wiórkiewicz for Dziobak Larp Studios.
Take your mind back, I don’t know when
Sometime when it always seemed
To be just us and them
Girls that wore pink
And boys that wore blue
Boys that always grew up better men
Than me and you
Real Men is a chamber larp for 4–8 players, lasting four hours, designed by Kevin Burns and Mo Holkar. It’s about the lives and friendships of men – taking a group of characters who meet as young adults, and following them through thirty years as events befall them and their relationships evolve and develop.
The precursor to Real Men is a similar game, known variously as Women on the Verge… or These Are the Days of Our Lives, in which players build a group of female characters and trace their friendship as their lives develop.
When we started working together on a parallel larp for men, we decided to focus on the challenges men have in friendship: in being vulnerable to each other; in showing their feelings; and in asking for and receiving help. Male difficulty in communicating, and the pressure that patriarchal society places upon men to behave in a certain range of ways, became major themes of the Real Men game.
Manhood and Masculinity
Kevin reflects on masculinity: “When I was young I didn’t feel that being a man in a patriarchal sense had much to offer, and it’s only since I turned 40 that I’ve begun to try to explore and reclaim an authentic masculinity. This has led me to participate in men’s groups, to playing the masculinity guru Kohana in Just a Little Lovin’ (Denmark 2015), and to writing Real Men with Mo.”
One of the design problems in the larp was the confusion around ‘maleness’ and ‘masculinity’. As an example of this, consider these words by 1990s masculinity guru Marvin Allen((Quoted in Steve Biddulph Manhood (1998) p 33.)):
I like to think what I do is masculine – when I hold a little baby and kiss it, that’s the masculine part of me holding that little baby. When I have tears because I’m scared, or because I’m full of joy, they’re all masculine. There’s not a female thing about them.
If a man can only have ‘masculine’ qualities, then masculinity simply means ‘anything pertaining to males’ and this makes it difficult to explore the question. In the 2015 runs of Real Men, in Lewes, UK and at Grenselandet in Oslo, we saw that the (all-male) players struggled with this problem.
We had to find a way to displace the default gender.
It was not until the third run in Lewes (7th May 2016), after a major rewrite, that we were able to make headway with this. The ancient Chinese concept of Yin-Yang allowed us to decouple behaviours from physical gender. Instead of ‘masculine’ we used Yang, and ‘feminine’ became Yin. In Real Men, Yang behaviour is about dominance, status, outward expression and career; while the Yin aspect is a man’s inner life, his emotionality, his soulful quality, his sensitivity, his secret vulnerability and longing.
We adapted the ‘metabox’ meta-technique, which allows players to give their character’s internal monologue, which we renamed the ‘Yin-Yang Meta-technique’. Players could be as Yang as they wished outwardly, and use this technique to show their hidden Yin qualities of vulnerability, fragility and self-doubt.
The second important difference with this run was that it involved female players (4 men, 3 women). Having women involved meant spelling out what it meant to be a man. In the workshop players were taught how to be Yang – taking up space, dominating a room or conversation, establishing status. “At last, we felt we had found a way to play with being a man,” says Kevin.
Gender and Sexuality
It should be stressed that we talk about the characters in Real Men (and the related games with female characters) from the point of view of gender as binary, because that’s predominant in the 1980s culture from which the characters emerge. However, questioning binarity, and every other aspect of gender which young people take as given, is an important part of the larp’s potential. The characters start Real Men generally perceived as male, but that can cover or develop into a range of genderqueerness, which players may wish to explore. And players of any or of no gender can, we hope, get an interesting and valuable experience from the larp.
We should also note that the characters’ sexuality isn’t prescribed or suggested. Each player can define their character’s sexuality as they wish, and again the journey of exploring that as it develops is one that we hope will be a productive one.
The Game
The game spans 30 years, beginning in the 1980s of the Joe Jackson song ‘Real Men’, redolent of that decade’s confusion around male identity, masculinity and sexuality.
What’s a man now, what’s a man mean?
Is he rough or is he rugged?
Is he cultural and clean?
…
Time to get scared, time to change plan
Don’t know how to treat a lady
Don’t know how to be a man
The characters are then aged nineteen and have just completed their schooling. Another innovation in the most recent run was that the first scene takes place following a meeting the characters have attended of the ‘Real Man Group’. This group is the brainchild of James Tyler, a post-feminist masculinity guru, and it opens the characters’ minds to new possibilities in being men. Tyler doesn’t have all the answers, and turns out to have feet of clay, but he has sown a seed in which some of the characters may grow.
Subsequent scenes, each of 30 minutes, and accompanied by a period-appropriate soundtrack, were set in the 1990s, 2000s, and in the present day, as the characters, who have become friends, reunite in various situations to explore their relationships and reflect on their life’s journey over the previous decade. James Tyler’s suicide rocks their belief in him, leading some to question more deeply, and others to cynicism. Throughout, the song ‘Real Men’ is used as a focus. The meaning of the song’s lyrics – its questioning approach to the perception of masculinity – will shift for each player, as their character evolves through the scenes towards middle-age.
Character Psychology
Kevin, who has a background in psychotherapy, created a new approach to character psychology for the game. Each character (see example below) was assigned a secret fear which signified a deep psychological issue that would drive behaviour over a whole lifetime. The characters were offered two responses to the fear: The first was a fantasy, which was the vain hope that they could simply avoid dealing with the problem; and the other was a dream, which was a vision of life in which others would be less likely to suffer in the way that the character had.
T_______
The Showman
Your secret fear (unknown even to yourself): ‘I’m worthless’.
This compels you to perform and prove yourself constantly.
Your fantasy is fame, success and adulation.
The impossible dream is that your ordinariness will be accepted.
So for example, a character with a secret fear of ‘I’m worthless’ would have the fantasy that he could convince others of his value, thus avoiding the pain of the wound; however, the dream would involve a deeper engagement with the fear of worthlessness, and perhaps inspire a life’s work helping people who are seen as worthless by mainstream society.
The Future of Real Men
In response to comments from players, we are in the process of developing Real Men from its current four-hour extent into a one-day experience. The pre-game workshop would consist mainly of a recreation of the imaginary ‘Real Man Group’, with exercises in which the characters talk to each other about their fears, fantasies and dreams. Afterwards we will leave time for a full debrief. Real Men will be aimed at the general public and at mixed gender groups.
Kevin is working on a short film based on Real Men in collaboration with artist Christian Thompson.
Player Responses
We will end with some anonymised player responses, which say better than we can what the impact of Real Men was. All seven players in the latest run wrote at least one piece about their experience.
On reflection there is something of my Dad in Peter. I didn’t feel loved by my father. He abused me when I was young. He thought I was there to serve him in some way I guess. He was dark and mysterious and very unavailable. He became more available when he had been drinking; only the next day to return to a dark, morose character, working hard and not there for his family. I feel such compassion when I think of my Dad and Peter. How would their lives be different if they had experienced a fully loving and present father; and how would mine be, too?
‘Peter’
I’ve been feeling a lot of bleed about the larp… it was an interesting and intense play experience. The way that Shaun felt intimidated by Peter and Mick, and his discomfort when the banter and teasing turned towards him, flashes me back to my own youthful experiences of trying to fit in with groups of young men who were generally more yang-forward than me. And the way that gaining confidence with age led to him making a considerable arsehole out of himself, confusing arrogance with self-belief; that was I guess a writ-large version of the stupid and sometimes unkind things that I did, once I’d come into myself a bit more. (And, sadly, continue to do occasionally, when I’m not being thoughtful).
‘Shaun’
The paradox is that his secret fear was overcome not by his compulsion or his fantasy (to dominate others), but by laying them aside. This paradox, however, would be unresolvable by Mick: he could not see that he had found the significance and status that he desperately sought. A conception of masculinity that became clear to me as I played, is that it is a suit of armour (or, more accurately, a variety of suits of armour) that one puts on.
Mick simply could not bear the feeling of nakedness and vulnerability that came from being without his armour.
…
So what have I learned – if anything – about myself?
Masculinity as armour: do I have this? If there is any doubt, one has only to read what I have written here. When trying to talk openly and sincerely about myself, I adopt a sort of hyper-formality (note the obsessive disinclination to dangle prepositions, for example). This is like a shield that keeps ‘too much truth’ at a distance, and protects my vulnerability. Perhaps this is something that I need to work on.
(See what I did there?)
‘Mick’
Yesterday was very emotional, powerful and touching. I can’t even begin to unravel it.
I wrote a letter to Dean this morning asking him if he’d be my friend. I realised I have disowned the part of myself that is him quite substantially.
He may need time to answer.
I imagined climbing a mountain with him and holding his lonely hand as we looked at the view silently…
My father, much like Dean’s character, was a runaway. I met him at 22. This week he wrote to me like a lost little boy to tell me his partner is dying.
It’s hard to know how to support someone so not present… not even to themselves.
All of my sadness around this played out in a colossal text argument with my boyfriend when I got home who is also going through huge father stuff. His father has cancer.
The argument was good though. I let Dean speak and be his total arsehole self and it was a release.
Something got released.
‘Dean’
Real Men
Credits: Designed by Kevin Burns and Mo Holkar; GMed by Kevin Burns
Dates: 4 Oct 2015 (Lewes), 31 Oct 2015 (Grenselandet, Oslo), 7 May 2016 (Lewes)
Length: 4 hours
Players: 4–8
Game Mechanics: meta-box for internal monologues; music for timing
Cover photo: Tommy (centre) welcomes his friends to his beachside villa. Real Men playtest, Lewes, UK; by Kevin Burns. 4th October 2015. All other photos from the second Lewes run, 7th May 2016, by Christian Thompson. All photos provided by the authors.
Krigshjärta 7 was the latest addition to the Krigshjärta (Heart of War) campaign, a Swedish war larp campaign that has gained international recognition since its founding in 2006. The campaign uses a collectively developed renaissance low-fantasy fiction available online for public use. The main story follows the ongoing conflict between the capitalistic trade federation Gillet (The Guild) and the fascist-communist empire of Cordovien (Cordovia).
The setting of Krigshjärta 7 was a small incursion into the Cordovian homeland by Guild special forces as part of a war over a natural resource known as Cordovium, required to cure a viral disease that was spreading all over the world. The scenario took place in the mining areas of Cordovia, where this resource is extracted, and focused primarily on holding and extracting this resource instead of eliminating the enemy force. All players played soldiers or civilians in attachment to one of the armies, each with a main camp for immersion-style role-playing.
Both camps were separated from one another by a small game area used for combat, consisting of primarily wide open fields, a lake and some forested areas. At this game area three outposts and two minor bases were built and decorated to be used during the game as control points. The game attracted roughly 400 players and took place between Tuesday the 9th and Sunday the 14th of June 2015. Players were in-game around the clock between Wednesday lunch and Saturday afternoon.
Swedish War Larp 101
War larp in Sweden is not only widespread and grand, but a style that has rapidly grown in popularity during the last years. Where traditional Swedish fantasy larp generally avoids the international brand “Nordic larp”, major productions like Granland or Krigshjärta actively describes themselves as Nordic larp in order to attract international players. The style tries to uphold an immersionist tradition, while at the same time promoting gamistic elements like combat.
Swedish war-larping has many similarities to Swedish fantasy-larping, primarily a long tradition of historical design and craftsmanship mixed with a strong culture of DIY. Both personal costumes and shared equipment (like tents, furniture and banners) are amongst many players’ top priorities.
Because of this, Swedish fantasy-larping fields some of the highest-quality costumes and equipment available on the market today. Swedish war-larping is no different. At a Swedish war larp, the group is the organizational basis of the game. Groups create their own fiction and characters (though strictly within the bounds of the scenario) and are in charge of food, lodging and transportation as well as of all costumes and props. Because of this, most groups also play as a squad together. Most games have substantial demands on in-game tents and furniture being historically accurate, and generally do not offer an off-game camping site. Almost all games take place at locations in the wilderness. Organizers supply the overall scenario and fiction, the location as well as drinking water and sanitary solutions for all participants.
Location, Location, Location!
Traditionally, Swedish fantasy larp organizers look for a cheap location in order to save money, the result almost always being several logistical problems and a lot of gametime wasted taking care of easily solvable logistics like getting water or having to go very far to get to the bathroom. Sweden has also often had problems with large distances between the two camps, resulting in less action on the game area and long marching distances tiring the players. We wanted to change this. We rented a fantastic location with toilets and fresh water easily accessible all over the game area. A big lake alongside the entire area for in-game bathing, as well as off-game showers and electricity right by the camp. The area was a maximum of one square kilometer large, resulting in very short marching distances and the feeling that the enemy was always close by… Which they also were! We adapted the scenario accordingly, issuing a constant “hold the line”-order, allowing all squads to go into battle whenever they wanted – without having to wait for in-game orders from commanders.
The Rejuvenation of Swedish War Larp
Making Krigshjärta 7 we wanted to breathe new life into a scene that had been doing the same thing for ten years. We wanted to take a new look at the game design, so we did. To this end, the organisers recruited controversial game designer Hampus Ahlbom as well as the original founder of the campaign, Robin Berglund. The idea was to find a new approach to many of the common problems that had been plaguing Swedish war larps for years. We did.
The first thing we realized was that the entire game was heavily reliant on players of in-game officers on both sides successfully synchronizing the time and place for battles using (literally) medieval methods that failed most of the time. Instead, we created a system where the players were required to occupy different control points at scheduled times, earning points if they succeeded. We put a lot of energy into informing the players about this and thus managed to create several “naturally occurring” times and locations for those who wanted combat. It worked wonders. We had at least three times as much combat as ever before, something that we had always wanted. When the officers no longer had to worry about synchronizing battles, they could suddenly focus more on role-playing and upholding the immersion in camp. We wanted to use this, and we also wanted to make the players feel and think that the in-game world was bigger than only the larp area. So we started using NPCs and missions.
NPCs and Missions
Four to five times a day the game masters would send in a mission to the in-game officers, usually one mission per side. The objectives were very specific, and if the mission was successful, the team was awarded points. The missions would arrive in the form of a printed off-game document with some short fictional information plus the time, the place and the mission objective. The officers would then use that information to create an in-game order, adding all the fiction and roleplaying required to uphold the illusion. A squad would be dispatched, which was limited to a certain amount of soldiers and armor in order to ensure that they met a balanced resistance whenever possible. As most players participated in the game as part of a squad, the goal was that each squad at the game would get to experience at least one mission. Many had two.
The missions added an extra flavor to the game. This was partly because the players would almost always only encounter NPCs on the missions, thus adding to the illusion of there being a world outside the game area (new faces), but also because suddenly the game was more than just fighting the other side and hoping to win. The quests rarely had winning a battle as the objective – more often they were about rescuing someone, infiltrating a place or laying an ambush (and much more). The idea was to give the players a broader immersion into the life of a soldier. Because the missions were always created and performed by the game masters and NPCs we could guarantee a time and place to the players. As none of our NPCs participated in the actual game, but rather stayed in an off-game house when not performing missions – ready to act whenever required.
Winning the Game
For a long time Swedish fantasy-larping has frowned upon the concept of winning a larp, arguing that competitiveness creates friction and conflicts and that larp is an experience we create together.
This works well until you involve large gamistic elements, where the will to win is a fundamental driving factor. Krigshjärta has always had an outspoken policy that one team can win the game, and traditionally this has been done by winning the final battle on the last day, thus ignoring all battles up until then. We thought this to be unfair and cheap.
Instead, we created the system with control points to be controlled and missions to win. Players would generate points for their team (Gillet or Cordovien) and at the end of the game the winning team would be granted victory in the fiction. Winning a battle didn’t generate any points at all, thus making it possible to win all the battles but still lose the war. The result was a more fair competition, but it also made mastering not only combat but also logistics, endurance, speed and tactics necessary in order to win the game. The current score was updated several times a day throughout the game, and published at a discrete location in each camp. In the end the result was very close – with a victory for Cordovien.
Conclusion
One of the most important things to know is that this new, and somewhat controversial, game design was in no way mandatory for the players to use. We actually called it Krigshjärta Plus and presented it as an add-on to the traditional way of playing Krigshjärta. Players were free to use it (or not) as they pleased. That being said, the goal of the new game design was primarily three things:
To improve the quality and quantity of battles.
To solve off-game communication problems between the two sides.
To give players more control over their in-game experience, while at the same time maintaining the illusion of a military hierarchy.
This makes the game design of Krigshjärta 7 different from many other game designs in the Nordic larp tradition, primarily because very little of it focused on improving roleplaying or character immersion. Instead, it was a game in the word’s more traditional meaning, with a clear set of rules for achieving victory, a scoreboard and a tactical scenario. By creating an in-game scenario with a constant in-game order (hold the line) we gave players the option of commandeering themselves into battle when they wished, without feeling that they betrayed the illusion by doing so. This was highly appreciated and saved many players a lot of downtime.
By creating a clear set of rules for achieving victory, we ensured that the game was not dependent on off-game communication between the officers of both sides in order to synchronize battles. This left these players free to instead create bonus content that the game was not dependent on, for example focusing on maintaining and improving the in-game illusion. This removed a lot of off-game responsibility from the officer players, which led to an improved experience for both them and those playing soldiers.
By using control points to generate points at specific times every day we managed to create a naturally occurring time and place for battle, so that those who wished to fight could do that without feeling that they were breaking the illusion. This made it possible for players to schedule their game, allowing them to plan festivities, heavy scenes or battles for themselves in good time. This allowed each player to have a broader playing style, being able to focus on different play during the game – without having the threat of an alarm constantly hanging over them.
The game design was a huge success and is already influencing future war games being created, both in Sweden and abroad.
Krigshjärta 7 (Heart of War 7)
Credits: Hampus Ahlbom, Robin Berglund, Peter Edgar and Maria Rodén.
Dates: June 9–14, 2015
Location: Kopparbo, Västmanlands län. Sweden.
Duration: 3.5 days in-game. 5 days with workshops.
Participants: 400
Participation Fee: €50, €70 or €100, depending on income.
Game Mechanics: Immersive camp game and gamistic wargame
During a Christmas dinner last year, my friend (and then boss) Claus Raasted got drunk and played “truth or dare”. He ended up getting dared to announce a larp that same evening. Being of a minimalist nature, he got the idea of announcing a larp with absolutely no information, except for a title, some organizers and a date. People had to sign up and pay without knowing anything more than that.
His original thought was that when people signed up, he would send them their money back and tell them not to trust such a silly scam. For better or worse, he put my name as co-organizer together with Anders Ebbehøj (who had bought the rights to be named as main organizer at a Rollespilsfabrikken larp years back – but that’s another story). Claus and I were at the time high on College of Wizardry madness, so it seemed natural that he’d just put my name on a weird project without asking.
Unlike him, I didn’t wanna pass up the chance to actually make a larp, though. Especially not when my name was on a mysterious website about said larp! So I ended up telling Claus: “Fuck your plan! We are going to do this! I will write a draft for it!”
We stuck to the idea of running a larp in complete secrecy. Participants had to pay 250 DKK (35€) up front, with no knowledge whatsoever of the content. Even the location was just listed as “somewhere in Copenhagen”.
Piling on the Silliness
Once we agreed on doing it and on keeping it silly and fun, the ideas we threw into the pile had no end. “How about if the main game mechanic is players drinking champagne?”, “We’ll make a gimmick out of Anders Ebbehøj being the only actual organizer and being super pretentious!”, “Let’s have players meet up on a public bar and hand them a letter and say we know nothing!”, “There should be a real prize for winning the larp. 1000 DKK sounds right!”
I hadn’t had this much fun creating a larp since I created a parody larp making fun of Swedish Jeepform. It was called We Åker Jeep – The game, but it was a lot more fun than it sounded. Anyway, this was even more fun than that. We basically laughed every time we got new ideas and said yes to everything
A Highly Competitive Larp about Pretentious Larp Organizers
We – that is me and Claus, and definitely NOT Anders, whose role will be explained later – ended up creating a five act larp about a group of pretentious organizers meeting up after the first College of Wizardry; dedicated to making a better larp than that mess. It was heavily inspired by Martin Jordö’s, Stina Almered’s and Karolina Staël’s comedy larp from 2014 about pretentious Nordic larpers; The Alpha Elite Larp of All Times. Except ours was even more outrageous and self-congratulatory.
Every act started with them opening a bottle of champagne and ended when it was empty. At the end of every act, they had to rate each other on their larping. We gave no rules for how to rate people, only that everyone had to give one of the other players a sticker for being an awesome larper. At the end, the one with most stickers would get a grand prize of 1000 DKK. Yes; real money. Also, it was about half our budget. The other half was spent on champagne. The third half we spent on pizza, thereby blowing our budget.
Anders Ebbehøj Presents
We decided early on that it would be Anders’ larp. Anders had no intention of working on it, though, but neither Claus nor I saw this as a particular hindrance. In fact, this was even more fun. So Anders’ role in the project was simple – he would be the star in an instructional in-game (oh, sorry, diegetic, you pretentious fuckers!) video that we put together, and we were to be his henchmen. He would be the diva of the production; showing up for our filming session and reading from an already-prepared script while dressed in various silly outfits. For the actual larp he’d do nothing but appear at the after party and get the war stories and fame. Just as planned.
No Organizers on Site
We (Claus and I; NOT Anders) met the players at a bar and gave them a letter with a map and keys to the location. They asked a lot of questions, but we told them that we didn’t know anything either. It was all part of Anders’ brilliant design and we were just the messengers. We also bought them beer. Then we wished them good luck and prayed for the best. On location we had prepared bottles of champagne and the video with Anders explaining the larp and how it should be played. What could possibly go wrong!?
They Nearly Sent Away the Pizza Man
None of us were on site for the larp itself, but “Anders” had ordered pizza for them. They weren’t aware of this, so when the pizza guy arrived with pizzas that were already paid for, they almost sent him away. Luckily, one of the players did a “Oh, wait, I ordered pizzas for everyone!” and let her character take the credit for it. More on credit-hogging later.
Rerunnable Larp
Since the complete design of the larp is described in the self-explanatory video we made in English, the larp can easily be run again by anyone interested in something crazy and fun.
This larp is clearly not for everyone, but when we met up with the players later after the larp, they didn’t know what was up and down and had had a quite funny experience. Our only German player won, and walked home with a 1000 DKK cash prize, and of course we had players complaining about how they should have won instead, but played to lose. Beautiful.
Game Mechanics
The Rule of I
In SHOWTIME you only talk about yourself, and never say “we”. This is about your achievements and contribution. (This was a mechanic meant to create alibi for even more outrageous competitive play.)
Sounding Important is More Important than Being Important
This is a larp about being pretentious and sounding pretentious, so you should play according to that, by focusing more on sounding important than on actual results.
Fear
Since this is a competitive larp, you should embrace your fear of losing and use that fear as a motivator to outplay the other participants.
Conclusion
There are a few things I take with me from creating SHOWTIME.
If you have fun while organizing, your players are more likely to do the same.
Sometimes it’s great to just create a larp, without overthinking it.
Videos with a person explaining what is going to happen actually work!
Intentionally breaking with the rules of good design can be a great learning experience.
I ribelli della montagna: l’ultima notte di Montelupo(The Rebels on the Mountain: The Last Night of Montelupo) was a larp played in Lusernetta (TO), in Italy, in two runs during July 2015. It was the first historical larp of Terre Spezzate, a larping group active in northern Italy, originally dedicated to fantasy larps. In the last years, however, the group has moved its focus towards one-shots in various settings.
The opportunity for enacting this larp was the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the Resistance antifascist movement and the Liberation of Italy from the Nazi-Fascist forces during World War II. It was inspired by the tragic slaughter that occurred between the 29th of September and the 4th of October 1944 in the region of Monte Sole. The goals of the organisers were to keep the memory of historical facts alive and to support reflections among the participants about those terrible days. Moreover, the potential of the larp allowed the player to fully identify with the people involved in those events and experience the stress, anxiety and fears of such days.
One of the main intentions of the authors was to confront the player with choices which were difficult or even impossible to make. Ideals, political issues, religion, personal beliefs, opportunism and family were some of the conflicting key factors that determined the choices of the characters involved. Since, as a deliberate choice of the authors, it was the personal choices of the characters that determined the course of history; one of the most important things that players had to feel was the burden of such responsibility.
The larp was organised under the aegis of A.N.P.I. – Associazione Nazionale Partigiani Italiani(National Association of Italian Partisans).
ISTORETO – Istituto Piemontese per la Storia della Resistenza e della Società Contemporanea “Giorgio Agosti”(Piedmontese Institute for the History of Resistance and of Contemporary Society “Giorgio Agosti”), a historical archive of national relevance, helped with the iconographic search, giving our press office some original historical photos.
After the end of the second run, Maria Airaudo, an actual partisan dispatch rider during the years of fascism, met the players to tell them her first-hand war experience.
Perception
Although the events of I ribelli della montagna happened 70 years ago, the proposed themes are still sensitive topics in Italy, having strong connections to current political and social issues. Many of the usual players of Terre Spezzate did not feel at ease at the idea of facing tragical historical events. The re-enacting of the circumstances in which real people were killed was perceived as a lack of respect by some people, and some did not want to be disrespectful towards partisans who sacrificed their lives fighting against Nazi-Fascists. Many were worried about playing the part of a war criminal. The distance between character and player was much shorter in I ribelli della montagna than in other larps. It was closer in terms of realism: I ribelli della montagna was inspired by real events and sought to recreate an authentic mood of anguish due to the constant menace of death and violence.
Events, places and even characters were not entirely imaginary, but rather relied heavily on inspirations from the real world: we made a serious effort to blend fictional and historical features seamlessly. The fantastical style of fantasy larps, and even the fictional one of contemporary-setting larps, were totally missing, forcing the player to endure a realistic, stifling and long-lasting condition in which they couldn’t find easy ways out.
It wasn’t far in terms of temporal distance, either. Even if 70 years is a long time, the events of those days still have a remarkable impact on present day. Fascism and the Resistance are still hot topics in Italian political debates of today, often leading to reviews and deliberate misinterpretations of history. They are controversial subjects, difficult to discuss with objectivity, which often leads to arguments and partial, misleading interpretations.
Finally, the separation between player and character was reduced compared to other larps. The player experienced what their grandparents could have suffered; and this implied a strong emotional involvement and, in some cases, incapability to fully detach from the characters after the larp. Conversely, the larp interested a lot of people not familiar with larping, many of whom had their first experience with the phenomenon. Since the larp was presented like an event less oriented towards entertainment and leisure and more like an occasion of reflection and in-depth insight, it was able to attract many people interested in this approach. In particular, some of the characters were reserved for foreign players, coming from outside Italy.
It was the first time for Terre Spezzate to have international players in a larp and, as far as the organisers know, also in Italy. Non-Italian players were given foreign, English-speaking characters and, to avoid issues arising from the linguistic difference, many Italian characters were able to speak English according to their background. Of course, understanding and speaking English was a requirement in order to play such characters, but an English-speaking player could not use a foreign language if their character wasn’t able to. This was deliberately meant to recreate the confusing final days of World War II in Italy, when Anglo-American downed pilots and stranded paratroopers could pass months among villagers who were barely able to communicate with them.
The larp benefited from a high level of attention from the media, who usually do not consider larps newsworthy at all – and are not even familiar with them. In addition to A.N.P.I. mentioned above, the larp was reported by local newspapers, web radio stations and even national radio. The event received some great media coverage, compared to that of other larps.
The Game
I Ribelli della Montagna was a three-day continuous larp. The absence of breaks during the game was one of the first things decided upon by the staff. In order to effectively recreate the feeling of continuous danger and uncertainty, it was agreed that the overall recreated reality was not to be interrupted by scheduled suspensions of the game.
Three main groups of characters were designed for this game: The inhabitants of Montelupo, the rebel partisans and the Nazi-Fascists. But these groups had a lot of differences, both internally and regarding how they related to each other. The inhabitants of Montelupo, the majority of which were women, included fascist supporters, secret partisan associates, and neutral people who accepted the current condition. The town was managed by the fascist Black Shirts, who were born and had grown up in the town. They were natives of the town, and they had strong connections with their fellow citizens, friends and relatives, as well as with the members of the local partisan cell, the Stella Rossa (Red Star). This may seem like a paradox, but it is a fact that, during those days, many lifelong friends found themselves being enemies; and yet, they still met each other at the local tavern and such.
However, not all the partisans were from Montelupo: Members of the Fiamme Verdi (Green Flames) and CLN, driven by Catholic and communist ideals respectively, reached the town. But partisans were not the only foreigners arriving in Montelupo: There were the German Waffen-SS, heading North during their withdrawal, as well as their Italian allies, loyal to the R.S.I. (Repubblica Sociale Italiana or Italian Social Republic); the state proclaimed by Mussolini after he lost the favor of the king. It’s easy to see that the groups were not homogeneous and did not constitute compact fronts divided along a single line. There were many divergences inside each faction about motivations, ideals, political and ethical issues. This was another deliberate choice, made to reflect the complexity of the historical scenario, and a preeminent point on which the authors focused. They shared the view that the outcomes of historical events have always been determined by the final choices of the people involved.
Personal responsibilities and faults are always the consequences of the actions we decide to take – or not to take.
Moreover, the groups were largely unbalanced in terms of resources and power. Even if resources were scarce for everybody, the Nazi-Fascists could rely on a slightly higher supply of weapons and ammunitions, at least in the very first part of the war. They also had the power, both military and political, to impose their will on and take what they needed from the inhabitants of Montelupo. On the other hand, partisans were hiding in the woods in a makeshift camp, their food supplies running short. Again, this was done to properly recreate the historical conditions in which the conflict was fought during those years. However, an important part of the control applied to the game was related to mortality. To avoid players having their characters killed in the first hours of the game, there was a specific rule stating that wounded characters could die only in the last day of the game. Moreover, the initial scarcity of weapons was introduced to discourage too fast an escalation of violence and deaths, which would be a very probable result in a real situation.
Final Considerations
I ribelli della montagna was a successful experience, but most of all an instructive one: Both organisers and players learnt valuable lessons.
First of all, this larp proved that even sensitive topics and tragical events can be approached through larp in a proper way, while keeping a respectful perspective: for the historical facts, the victims involved and the personal sensibilities of the participants.
The organisation of the larp offered the opportunity to examine many aspects of Italy during Fascism and the Second World War in-depth. It was an occasion for everybody, players and staff alike, to shed light on their own country and history, discovering circumstances, background episodes and little-known details. Finally, the event was appreciated for its balance between thrilling and action-oriented scenes, like firefights, rescues, assaults and even a night bombing; and a strong emotional involvement, due to the uncertain fate of Montelupo, the personal dilemmas of the characters and the fragile, daily habits being shaken and threatened. Brutal interrogations, scarce supplies of food and public executions: The hardcore element was well present.
The writing and playing of I ribelli della montagna was a great experience: Everybody felt enriched and proud for having contributed to an activity furthering the understanding of the past and the perpetuating of the memory.
Picture from the larp (play, Lisa Muner).
I ribelli della montagna: l’ultima notte di Montelupo (The Rebels on the Mountain: The Last Night of Montelupo)
Location: Villaggio delle Stelle (a small private mountain village near the town of Lusernetta), Torino, Italy.
Duration: Approximately 2 days and 2 nights, including workshops, starting from Friday afternoon until Sunday noon.
Participants: 65 per run
Participation Fee: €60 for international players, €70 regular price for villager and female Nazi characters, €80 for partisan characters, €115 for male Nazi and Fascist characters. The entry fee for Nazi and Fascist characters, as well as the one for international players, included the rental fee for a costume.
Game Mechanics: Single Act Structure, Pre-written characters, Play to Lose, Pre-larp Workshops, Light use of fate play.
It was not until the third run in Lewes (7th May 2016), after a major rewrite, that we were able to make headway with this. The ancient Chinese concept of Yin-Yang allowed us to decouple behaviours from physical gender. Instead of ‘masculine’ we used Yang, and ‘feminine’ became Yin. In Real Men, Yang behaviour is about dominance, status, outward expression and career; while the Yin aspect is a man’s inner life, his emotionality, his soulful quality, his sensitivity, his secret vulnerability and longing.
