Nordic Larp

Category: Techniques

  • All Quiet on the Safety Front: About the Invisibility of Safety Work

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    All Quiet on the Safety Front: About the Invisibility of Safety Work

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    There has been said a lot regarding safety mechanics, tools and the safety mindset on nordiclarp.org over the last ten to fifteen years: Design discussions have taken place, talks and workshops have been held at Knutepunkt/Solmukohta, publications in the respective books have been published, and discussions between people who are volunteering — meaning working — in safety, have raised awareness about the need for safety at larps.

    One topic that has not been talked or written about much is the work and visibility of a Larp Safety person. 

    Articles from 2017 give very good insight into the work. Problems and techniques of working as a Safety person have been addressed, such as giving players the space to express their feelings without being judged, when overwhelmed or anxious, offering them empathy, and validating their experiences and emotions. We have discussed how it fits into the community work as a whole, such as advising organizers on safety concerns and designing workshops or debriefs. 

    One thing that remains ironically obscure for many players is the invisibility of the person and their investment itself. With this invisibility also comes missing appreciation and the risk of creating a lack of people willing to engage in this important community work. 

    It seems the requirements to work as a Safety person are not widely known. Also, most players and even some organizers might not know what a Safety person actually does and what the experiences before, during and after a larp are like for them. We often know about the strains and stresses of organizer’s work, know about burnout risks and talk about what players struggle with, but what about the people in Safety teams? 

    What I experienced at an international larp I was doing Safety for, was players asking me after the game if I had a good time, or how my game was. I was a bit baffled to be honest. Of course, they meant well and maybe intended it as a conversation opener. But then a realization hit me: while the Safety people are often recognized in their role, their actual work and the individuals behind the role stay mostly invisible. Players rarely ask themselves if this job is easy or not, enjoyable or not? 

    Why Is Safety Hard?

    As a Safety person, you’re skipping out on a perfectly fantastic larp you’re not actually participating in. You actively invest your time, vacation days, sometimes travel costs and energy to care for others. For this, you put other people’s needs first, making their well-being your priority. 

    People usually don’t come to the safety person when the larp runs “well” for them and they are happy, proud of something, or want to talk about how great everything is. Players usually also don’t interact with the Safety person if they do not have a specific safety need. Thus, the Safety person might be invisible to those who didn’t need them, during the game or even at the after-larp party. 

    To make sure everybody is emotionally safe, Safety people use various techniques, including: validating people’s experiences, being compassionate, being empathic, and offering space to the players who might need exactly that — a safe space to feel and deal with their emotions without being shamed, judged, or left alone. 

    Effective Safety people try actively not to give in to very human impulses like the need to “fix things” for other people that have a problem before they are ready. Often the “fixing” comes only after a player feels heard and having their concerns taken seriously before looking forward and being able to focus on getting their game or larp experience back on track. They also try not to quickly get out of an uncomfortable situation, even if it would be easier for them. 

    Another aspect of Safety that might pose difficulties is that you often have to keep things said or experienced anonymous and/or confidential — depending on what the person affected wants — as much as you might like to vent or share your “burden” afterwards. A player with a safety issue needs to trust the Safety working in their best interest as well as they are not seen as a “problem player” afterwards. This means you have to be as careful with what you communicate – similar to a lawyer or priest, just without the vows and training. Sometimes it is not possible to maintain confidentiality even if the person wants that, for example if a crime has been committed, or other kinds of situations. Anonymity yes, but confidentiality, not always. Similarly, a safety person should make the main organizers aware if there is a problematic person in the group. Also with the wrong information going out you and /or the affected player might face retaliation from other players or the community.

    One strenuous factor is the “on-call” or “standby” situation that Safety people are in most of the time. People who have ever experienced on-call service or standby duty in work life know that this can be exhausting, creating internal tension as one can always expect to be called to action.

    An important ability to have is self-regulation skills, because sometimes, even a Safety person can’t help with a problem. This means having to endure the helplessness of not being able to “do” something about a problem. Or there are situations where their own insecurities or past traumas are triggered, they become emotional themselves and they still have to try and focus to not get distracted with their own thoughts or bodily reactions – which is a strong argument for having a Safety person instead of loading that responsibility onto the shoulders of a single person. This, and the work that comes before (designing Safety mechanics and workshops, being involved in the flagging process if there is one, holding workshops) and after (doing debriefs, taking care of issues that might come up, after the actual event is over) takes a lot of energy out of many Safety people I have seen working on larps.

    Additionally, people frequently underestimate the role of Safety. Sometimes, organizers, writers, and designers also do the Safety job — and in most cases they are usually pretty much detached from the larp (which is sometimes their own!) As an organizer or writer, they suddenly stop sharing player’s or even organizer’s overall experiences, seeing and hearing mostly the negative experiences that people had with content, scenes, other players, or even themselves. 

    The Gender Factor?

    One factor weighing into the invisibility is that many people acting as safety people — in my experience — are socialized as women. Care work, putting the emotional wellbeing of others into the center of their work, being empathetic and trustworthy – these jobs are often taken on by people with female socialization and are mostly also silent and invisible. Women organizers can struggle with invisibility. And maybe this care work often done by people socialized as women is taken for granted as well. People socialized as men might be afraid of being called out themselves, which might make them behave in ways that are dismissive and even hostile to safety people (especially in public conversations, but also in defense of their friends, critiquing safety culture, etc.). Furthermore some participants may not feel comfortable talking about safety problems with a man Safety member — particularly if the problem is a gendered one, as they often can be.

    At one larp event in the past, two other people and me, who were doing Safety on top of other tasks like writing and designing the larp — all socialized as women — experienced complete invisibility, not even being invited to team meetings or being credited after the game by the main organizers.

    This is frustrating, demotivating and creates the opposite of the will to encourage community service, especially if the nature of that work aims to be discreet and low-key to protect the involved players which in turn can lead people who are not involved to assume there weren’t any issues at all. To keep larps safe for all people involved, this problem also reflects our communal societal need for change.

    Visibility-Enhancing Checklist for Your Next Larp

    Taking over the function as a Safety person is important and meaningful. Many larps need a Safety person to support players especially in conflict-heavy games, but also in games that may be light-hearted on the surface. And to be able to support someone, helping people to feel understood is its own valuable experience. 

    The following recommendations and behaviors are meant as tips and ideas, targeted at all parts of the community. They might make it easier for safety people who are spending their time to help us feel more empowered, safer and braver. And maybe they help encourage other people to become active in the community.

    Safety People 

    • Prioritize your own well-being, practice setting boundaries, and state your needs bravely. 
    • Talk more about your work! Demand visibility even if your instinct is to be a “silent supporter.”
    • Connect and share knowledge with each other and maybe even with like-minded / interested people.
    • Design workshops / trainings to teach Safety techniques to others and support each other as peers.
    • Find players or people from the organizing team who check up on you regularly.
    • When and where possible, work in a team to support each other, not feel alone and also be able to take sufficient breaks or tap out yourself if need be.
    • Don’t do Safety at your own larp – beside from the potential disconnect with the joy of seeing how your work turned out, players may be reluctant to voice a problem to the safety person, if it’s an issue with the organization or with the design – for fear that it will be seen as criticism.

    Organizers

    • Introduce Safety people as well as how to contact and where to find them thoroughly before the larp. 
    • Inform yourself about what your Safety people are doing. 
    • When possible, make sure your safety people are not responsible for other runtime logistics and especially do not have them play any important role in the game to not confuse their responsibilities / loyalties.
    • Care for your Safety team member as a person with needs and emotions. 
    • Check-in with them every now and then.
    • Involve the Safety people throughout the process as safety is important at all points of design and implementation.
    • Put together an Internal Procedures document (Stavropoulos et al. 2024) to establish clear courses of action in crisis situations.
    • If there are decisions to be made about issuing bans and the like, please separate this from Safety. It should be the main organizers who issue warnings and bans, not the safety people themselves. Safety people can make a recommendation that someone be expelled from the larp, but in the end it is the organizers of the event who have responsibility to take that decision. Also it decreases the risk of being targeted for enacting consequences or for not doing enough.
    • To make them feel included and part of the team, ask if they want to join GM meetings or other team meetings. (It can also be helpful as Safety, to know how the game is running). 
    • Ask if they’re interested in having updates about the game.
    • Credit & thank them after the event (as you would your fellow organizers, kitchen crew, tech support, etc.)

    Players

    • Remember the name(s) of the people in the Safety team and show them (especially at the afterparty) that you care for them as individual people.
    • Learn to identify and communicate your needs so that a Safety person knows how and what to offer.
    • Safety people are not in a therapeutic relationship with players. They can provide support in times of overwhelm or crisis, but they should defer to external help, such as ambulances with mental health professionals, if the crisis continues and longer term support is needed. It is also not their job to mediate disputes within the community.
    • Take reflection and self-regulation seriously and practice identifying your emotions and setting boundaries outside of larp.
    • Be mindful of what you are asking for – don’t use the Safety room or the Safety person as entertainment for a couple of hours, just because you don’t want to play or be alone.
    • If you don’t know what to do to make people feel safer but are interested in learning: Read up on those skills (like “validation”) and ask Safety people you know if you have questions. Most are open and happy to help you and share their knowledge and skills.
    • Take responsibility for your well-being, do your own risk- assessment of whether a larp is for you, and plan how to respond beforehand if troubles come up.
    • If you know about your triggers, medicational needs, or even what helps you in moments of emotional flooding or overwhelm: Communicate that to the Safety people before the larp so they can better support you individually.

    Let’s make this community even more competent and safe for everyone – including the Safety people who try to make sure everybody feels safe at a larp. Let’s be mindful of how we’re treating them, so that we have more people in the future interested in doing this work. 

    Acknowledgements

    The author would like to acknowledge the editorial team at Nordiclarp.org for their comments: Mo Holkar, Elina Gouliou, Kaya Toft Thejls, and Sarah Lynne Bowman.

    References 

    Bowman, Sarah Lynne, Maury Brown, Brodie Atwater, and Alexis Rowland. 2017. “Larp Counselors – An Additional Safety Net.” Nordiclarp.org, August 7.

    Brown, Maury. 2017. “Safety Coordinators for Communities: Why, What & How.” Nordiclarp.org, April 17.

    Lindve, Petra, and Rebel Rehbinder. 2023. “We Organized These Larps Too!” Presentation at Knudepunkt, Sweden, May 19.

    Kocabaş, Ezgi Özek, and Meltem Üstündağ-Budak. 2017. “Validation Skills in Counselling and Psychotherapy.” International Journal of Scientific Study 5, no. 8: 319-322.

    Rather, Jill H., and Alec L. Miller. 2015. DBT Skills Manual for Adolescents. Guilford Press.

    Stavropoulos, John, et al. 2018. “Living Games Conference: Internal Procedures.” Google Docs.

    Cover Photo: Image by Mariam Antadze on Pexels. Photo has been cropped.

  • How to Do Night Scenes

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    How to Do Night Scenes

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    I have been to so many larps that tried to make a scene in the middle of the night, when the characters are suddenly awoken and something cool happens. Perhaps being dragged from their beds and kidnapped. Perhaps they will all share a vivid nightmare. Perhaps they will be visited by a ghost.

    Yet, all attempts to suddenly awaken players for a cool night scene tends to turn anticlimactic. Why?

    People woken in the middle of the night tend to be:

    • Sluggish
    • Really hard to wake
    • Confused (“Is it an out of character emergency? Why is everyone shouting?” )
    • Bursting and needing to go to the bathroom
    • Bad tempered
    • Very not in character
    • Not wearing their contact lenses and blind as bats
    • Out of costume and not in character makeup (“Why is the evil wizard in a Winnie the Pooh t-shirt?”)
    • Just wanting to get back to sleep
    • In need of interrupted sleep for medical reasons

    Generally, being woken in the middle of the night just doesn’t make a great larping. It is also inaccessible for anyone sleeping out of character or away from the location.

    Yet, there is so much potential in those kinds of scenes. Who wouldn’t love to be dragged from their bed by a monster, or woken by a ghost’s gentle touch?

    Ready to drag you from your bed. På Gott och Ont (Of Good and Evil) photoshoot 2019. Photo by Emmet Nordström
    Ready to drag you from your bed. På Gott och Ont (Of Good and Evil) photoshoot 2019. Photo by Emmet Nordström

    One Solution

    One way to do night scenes without the drawbacks of actually waking the players is by doing “set time” night scenes. The horror larp campaign På Gott of Ont (Of Good and Evil) generally employs a lot of those scenes as they are such a staple in the horror genre, that being dragged from your bed by unspeakable terrors is simply a must.

    When you do set time night scenes, give the players a bedtime, by which time all characters should be in their beds resting, and then inform them that 15-20 minutes after lights out something is going to happen.

    That’s it. But to go into some more detail.

    Instructions

    Preparation for Bedtime

    • At a designated time, let’s say around 10:00 PM, players have been instructed to retire to their beds, lights out and be “asleep”.
    • Before bedtime, players go through their characters’ night times routines like they were getting ready for bed. Brushing their hair and changing into comfy pajamas and whatnot.
    • Out of character aspects of going to bed, like taking sleeping medication that make you drowsy, or taking out contact lenses can wait until after the night scene so that everyone can have the best possible experience.

    The Night Scene

    • At 15-30 minutes after light out, let’s say at 10:20 PM, the night scene unfolds.
    • Players only know that something will happen soon after they have gone to bed, not what’s going to happen, keeping them in suspense. Perhaps they will be awoken by an unearthly scream, perhaps by armed soldiers, who knows?
    • In-character, the scene may occur much later during the night, but out of character having the scene a short after bedtime means that you have the feeling of being in bed for a while, but without too much tedious waiting. Who wants to wait until 3 in the morning?
    • If you are going to drag players outside it is nice to give them a hint to perhaps keep their shoes close by or something similar.

    Pros and Cons with This Approach

    Pros

    • Players get to experience the thrill of being jolted awake by a scream or ensnared in a vivid nightmare, without real disruptions to their actual sleep. (Or at least jolted awake from relaxing in darkness or a light slumber.)
    • After the scene concludes, players can silently finish their out of character bedtime routines, like taking out their contact lenses, taking their meds and returning to bed.
    • Night owls who like playing late into the night can also do so. It is easy to say that some character awoke after the dream scene, or couldn’t go back to bed right away after being faced by the monster. So night owls can keep playing into the wee hours, catering to different player preferences.
    • Players sleeping out of character or off location are given a place to lie down for the bedtime scene, even if it is just “curl up on the couch with a blanket” or “lie down on this air mattress for a short while in the sleeping quarters”. Providing some short term place to sit or lie down to rest is generally doable.
    • If someone wants to opt out for any reason, it is really easy. Just be somewhere else at that time.

    Cons

    • Setting a bedtime for the players is awkward. No matter what time you chose it will probably be too early for some players and too late for others. Early birds and night owls can never agree.
    • The evening can feel rushed when all players suddenly realize they need to head to bed at the same time, and it usually takes longer than planned. That 10:00 PM bedtime means that people won’t actually be in their beds lights out until 10:10 PM.
    • Some of the chaos of a night scene, like people tripping over each other and stepping on each other’s stuff in the dark is still the same. Be strategic about night lights. Electric tea lights placed around the room are generally great.
    Armed. På Gott och Ont (Of Good and Evil) photoshoot 2018. Photo by Emmet Nordström
    Armed. På Gott och Ont (Of Good and Evil) photoshoot 2018. Photo by Emmet Nordström

    Other Solutions?

    So far I have not seen any other solutions for night scenes than doing a set time night scene, or to really try to wake people up. I suppose you could do it as a black box scene too during the day, but then you miss out on even more of the night experience. Yet I am curious about other solutions. Please get in touch and tell me if you know of any.

    Conclusion

    We all want cool night scenes but waking people up in the middle of the night sucks. One way to get around it is to give people a time when their character should be in their beds and that something will happen soon after bedtime.

    Cover photo: Asleep. Photo taken during play. På Gott och Ont – Thorns (2016) Photo by Linn Vikman.

  • The Hated Children of Nordic Larp – Why We Need to Improve on Workshops and Debriefs

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    The Hated Children of Nordic Larp – Why We Need to Improve on Workshops and Debriefs

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    In Nordic and Nordic inspired larp, we do love our workshops. However, it feels like there’s a trend to workshop for the sake of workshopping. At the same time, there seems to be a lot less love and attention for debriefs. Both in workshops and debriefs, we tend to stick to the same exercises without giving it any further thought. Instead, we could come up with some specific exercises that fit the larp and the experience we want to create. Workshops and debriefs have the potential to become more valuable elements in our game and experience design than they currently often are.

    Workshops as building blocks

    Workshops are principally used as tools to familiarise our players with the techniques and playstyles of our larps. Because this is their main purpose, we tend to easily resort to known formulas and fixed ways of workshopping. However, I hope more of us would dare to step out of this almost traditional way of doing things and think about designing a flow of workshops that would also contribute to setting the mood of the game. Then, the workshops would become a seamless part of the larp experience and at the same time help the participants get into the right mindset for the larp. A good example of this is how the workshops for the larp Daemon (Denmark 2021) gradually build up the intensity and trust in the connection between the pair of players who would be playing two parts of the same character together. This was done through different exercises that varied in physicality and emotional and physical intimacy.

    Additionally, setting the mood like this can be an integral part of managing the expectations for a larp. Workshops have the advantage of offering a moment of direct dialogue between the facilitator(s) of a game and its participants, which is an opportunity for making sure expectations are set and mitigated. In addition to explaining the setting and the intentions of a game, workshops can be used to create a space where expectations are shared and negotiated, and where feedback is shared with an open mindset. 

    Finally, workshops can also be used to make a larp more accessible. The tendency to fall back on known formulas for workshops bears the risk of falling into the trap that we keep designing workshops for the same returning audiences. This raises the threshold for people from outside of that audience. For example, line-up exercises can seem easy to many larpers but they are not simple for people who do not know them. When I used them in coachings, I at times had to do more explaining than I expected. Moreover, it seems that they are sometimes added to larp workshops just because they are seen as one of the “standard” exercises, while they are also easily taken over by the participants and turned into overly long discussions instead of the planned five minute exercise. So, honestly, does your larp really benefit from yet another line-up exercise? 

    Simple and easy to understand workshops that contribute to the game and absorb the participants into the whole of the larp should be an aim, and not just an option. Moreover, accessibility for larps can easily be increased with simple measures, like having a moment of stating the agenda of the entire larp before starting the rest of the workshops, or by having a short moment to put people’s minds at ease if they are non-native speakers playing a larp in English or if they are playing a Nordic style larp for the very first time, etc.

    Debriefs as tools for closure

    To the same extent in which we overuse workshops and at times make them redundant by resorting to well-known workshops which don’t necessarily fit the intentions behind our larps, we tend to underuse and underdesign debriefs in our larp design. Debriefs have the potential to improve the experience as a whole, as they can become anything from a soft landing spot to a space for venting and leaving behind negativity, or a last resort for expectation calibration. 

    If we want to consider framework design an essential part of larp design, then it is a logical consequence to consider closing that framework in the form of a debrief as essential. This doesn’t mean that we should (re-)turn to extensive debriefs with a whole array of exercises, as that risks falling into the same trap as we do in our workshops. However, leaning on some basic exercises that are repeated and never questioned neglects giving the experience a sense of closure.

    In the same way workshops are the building blocks in shaping the larp experience, debriefs are the place where we give the experience a sense of closure, and hence, where we wrap up and tie everything together. It serves to look at debriefs as more than just an optional emotional safety tool. They can serve as a tool for making the flow of the larp end coherently and in a way that fits the whole of the experience, rather than leaving the participants hanging in a space of tension and unfinished business.

    If we neglect our debriefs, we not only neglect the emotional safety of the players but also fail to hold on to our engagement to design the entirety of an experience for them. We have brought our participants to a high point by bringing them to the end of the game and the story but we are not catching them after. We have to be there to offer them a way and a space to land, and to wrap up their experience and take home only the parts they wish to.

    For the chamber larp Equinox Retreat (United Kingdom 2021), I designed a slow visualisation and breathing exercise that gives players time to digest emotions and to remember a positive moment in the larp experience. Such an exercise can be a valuable last part of a debrief and help people get in an energy and mindset to step out of the larp and into the everyday world again. Hiding ourselves behind optional debriefs with the same exercises that are constantly repeated and never improved or designed specifically to fit the design and experience of the game does not serve our players and their experience.

    Workshops and debriefs as evolving toolboxes for designing the larp experience

    If we want to employ workshops and debriefs as elements that help building the larp experience as a whole, we need to rethink how we tackle them and put adequate care in designing the right workshop and debrief tools that fit our larp, instead of leaning on our current perceived traditions of doing things and instead of going for the hype of the moment. We shouldn’t just be maintaining our existing toolboxes, but we should strive to also make them more accessible and easy to find. Moreover, we have to dare to add to them and to experiment more with the format, and to be more open to new approaches. 

    If we want to attain this point of creating big workshop and debrief toolboxes for designers to roam in freely for the creation of their larps, we also need to be more open to share and exchange best practices and lessons learned. We need to have more willingness to share as well as to reflect about what worked and what didn’t, as well as an openness to take inspiration from each other and to offer this inspiration to others. Moreover, we need to accept that these tools can be tweaked in function of the designs that are being created instead of holding on too rigidly to already established formats.

    Workshops and debriefs shouldn’t become inert holy houses that we stick to for the comfort of it. They have the potential to be an engine of creativity, care and change in the larp design process. 

    Ludography

    Daemon (2021). Denmark. Katrine Wind.

    Equinox Retreat (2021). United Kingdom. Sandy Bailly.

    This article has been reprinted with permission from the Solmukohta 2024 book. Please cite as:

    Bailly, Sandy. 2024. “The Hated Children of Nordic Larp – Why We Need to Improve on Workshops and Debriefs.” In Liminal Encounters: Evolving Discourse in Nordic and Nordic Inspired Larp, edited by Kaisa Kangas, Jonne Arjoranta, and Ruska Kevätkoski. Helsinki, Finland: Ropecon ry.

    Cover photo: Photo by Priscilla Du Preez 🇨🇦 on Unsplash.

  • Innovations in the Drama Classroom with Larp

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    Innovations in the Drama Classroom with Larp

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    In September 2022, I began a new job as the middle school drama teacher at a school in upper Manhattan, New York City. In the months before, I had been picturing a dream job in which I was teaching both theatre and larp. When I accepted this position I imagined that after a year or two, I could create an after-school larp club.

    To my surprise, during orientation, my principal, Rinaldo Lumumba Murray, told me that he had complete trust in me as an artist. He said I was free to design my curriculum however I saw fit. What a gift that turned out to be!  

    New Heights Academy Charter School has about 100 students per grade, split into four sections. I taught ages eleven to fourteen, and had a different section of children each quarter. This meant I had opportunities to start fresh, adjust my curriculum, and ultimately, experiment with utilizing larp.

    The first larp emerged as a result of unexpected behavior from one of my 7th grade students (age thirteen), whom I’ll call J. He walked into class with a sweatshirt stuffed in his shirt, making him appear pregnant. He walked slowly holding his big belly, modeling the exact gait and posture of someone close to giving birth. I complimented his physical acting and asked how he was able to portray that so realistically.  

    “Is someone in your family pregnant?” I questioned. “No”, he said simply, and gave no further explanation.  

    The next day, he did the same thing with his sweatshirt as he entered. “So when is the baby due?” I asked.  

    “Soon”, J said, and I commented in front of the class that someone should really be helping carry J’s heavy backpack.  

    This continued (but never disrupted class), and by the fourth day I laughed and said, “I think we need to throw you a baby shower or something!” 

    A lightbulb went off in my head. I hadn’t yet assigned this class’s final project, and realized J had inadvertently created the perfect inspiration for a larp.

    The larp lasted one period, and followed the format of a baby shower. Students could choose to play J’s family, friends, or co-workers. As their final project grade, everyone had to participate in the larp. However, there were a number of ways to achieve this. The goal was that the students would be in character throughout the class and interact with others. For my introverted students, I also offered credit for creating costumes, making a gift for J, bringing snacks/supplies, being the DJ or creating a song list, serving snacks during the party (in character) etc. There were hilarious speeches, different kinds of snacks, and dancing. 

    The Baby Shower was a huge success, and the halls were abuzz in the days that followed with talk of the party. Over the course of the year, I created two more larps with other classes. One was a birthday party for a 47 year old man named Theodore who had moved to Europe, and the other was called Leprechaun Academy, about a group of preteen Leprechauns who went to the same school.  

    All of these larps were born out of my focus on emergence. This is a tenet of devised theatre, which I was exposed to during my time in a conservatory theatre university program at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia. The Oxford dictionary defines emergence as “the process of coming into existence or prominence”.  

    I will next explain some of my methods used to create these larps.

    There are many benefits to using the setting of a party for larps. Kids know how to act at a party and alibi is already present, since the guests are there for a reason. Relationship ties are already partly established, meaning that my students knew exactly how a grandmother would greet her grandson when she walked through the door. Two boys instinctively knew that if they played cousins who were the same age, they could get into trouble during the family function, until they were caught by the girl who played their Tia (Aunt in Spanish). Another benefit to this setting is that school higher-ups are familiar with classroom parties. My principal and deans knew they could expect to hear some music and extra noise coming from my room, just for that one period. 

    Over the course of the year, I found a method that allowed students to quickly co-create the details of the larp in a fun way. In the U.S., lessons often begin with a “Do-Now”, a quick, five-minute activity to get students sitting, quiet, and focused. I always assign my Do-Nows on Google Classroom. Students respond to prompts on their laptops, and once they click submit, I can show all of their answers in a list on the Smartboard in my room. For those without Google Classroom, this can be accomplished using other programs, such as Google Sheets.

    For my second larp, I had my students brainstorm the details of a birthday party we were going to throw in class on Google Classroom. Students came up with who the birthday child was, where the party was taking place, who the guests were, and many more details. It is very fun to read the different answers aloud, and I would choose my top three favorites. The class would vote, and voila! We had designed all of the details around the larp setting. We even co-created plot points that would occur during the party.  

    Creating larps specifically for certain classes was highly enjoyable for me, and I loved the challenge of finding inspiration from the students themselves. Children are full of idiosyncrasies and love to make jokes. In the case of the baby shower, I would consider J’s behavior a bit, which is a repeated joke. Rather than shutting him down, I deemed this silly “bit” the seed of something special, and J became the center of the larp. I am guessing that him acting pregnant was attention-seeking behavior. It was very special to funnel that into something creative, and he got a chance to be the center of a larp. More than that, he experienced having a baby shower thrown for him, which he described as a once in a lifetime experience. 

    I found that I was able to bring role-playing into classes, even when we did not co-create a full larp. My most successful and well-received activity was called “The Drama Club Podcast”. We recreated the recording of a podcast in class, where I played a host who would invite students up to play guests. The secret benefit to this setting is that it requires everyone in the “audience” to be quiet, since we were “recording”. This detail is crucial with classes that fall on the chatty end of the spectrum. We didn’t actually record a podcast, though due to the hilarity that would often ensue, I began to record videos on my phone. I said we were “creating behind-the-scenes content for the podcast’s Youtube channel”. 

    This is a very scalable activity, because students can play characters close to themselves or not, they can impersonate celebrities etc. The topics discussed and characters can also be connected to content being covered in class. The podcast can run for a few minutes or a whole period. I found that the possibilities are endless! Even more reserved students could participate as callers from the audience, who would pretend to phone in and ask questions of the interviewees. I also enlisted volunteers to come up with Tweets that our “listeners” were tweeting in response to our episode.  

    I realized that my discoveries from this past year could be helpful in the overall mission of bringing larp into classrooms in America. While there are numerous individuals and organizations achieving this in Scandinavia, it is much less common in the U.S., especially at this age level. Some schools offer Drama/theatre classes where larp could be utilized, but not all.

    An obstacle to bringing larp into the general classroom is that core subject teachers have so much material to cover, and must prepare students for state exams and standardized testing. However, I found that by using only five minutes or so at the beginning of class over a few days to flesh out their characters, students were able to successfully larp, with no workshop other than practicing safety mechanics. Even my eleven year-olds, who had never taken drama before, successfully larped from the beginning.  

    My next steps will be to continue to iterate using these methods to create not only larps, but edularp with specific learning outcomes in mind (cf. Westborg 2023). In the coming year, I hope to use my methods of co-creation with my students to create larps that directly correlate with what they are learning in other subjects, with specific learning outcomes. I hope to collaborate with my students’ other teachers, and I look forward to seeing what we will discover.

    If you enjoyed what you’ve read so far, you can head to Nordiclarp.org and search my  name or “Adding Larp to a Drama Teacher’s Curriculum – Year 1”. There you can watch the talk I gave at the Knudepunkt 2023 conference on this exact subject! You will find many more details on the topics covered here, as well as a live demonstration of my Drama Club Podcast Activity.

    References

    Josefin Westborg (2023): The Educational Role-Playing Game Design Matrix: Mapping Design Components onto Types of Education. In International Journal of Role-Playing, no. 13, 2023, pp. 18–30, https://doi.org/10.33063/ijrp.vi13.306. 

    This article has been reprinted with permission from the Solmukohta 2024 book. Please cite as:

    Wolgel, Lindsay. 2024. “Innovations in the Drama Classroom with Larp.” In Liminal Encounters: Evolving Discourse in Nordic and Nordic Inspired Larp, edited by Kaisa Kangas, Jonne Arjoranta, and Ruska Kevätkoski. Helsinki, Finland: Ropecon ry.

    Cover photo: Photo by Kyle Head on Unsplash.

  • Play Boldly – Let Yourself Be Vulnerable

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    Play Boldly – Let Yourself Be Vulnerable

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    Challenge yourself. Go beyond your comfort zone. Decide to do something you are not sure you can actually pull off. Try something new. Let your character be made a fool, or be seduced by the enemy.

    Play boldly. Let yourself be vulnerable. 

    It’s about you, your wants, and your fears. By challenging yourself and going beyond your comfort zone, you learn and grow as a larper. It’s about doing what you want even if it’s scary. About trying something new or letting someone else make your story take an unexpected turn.

    Playing boldly and letting yourself be vulnerable isn’t about what you do, but why you do it.

    Playing boldly

    Being bold is about doing things that feel scary but that you really want to do. It’s about making new choices. Getting your character in trouble, instead of avoiding it. Going ahead with a cool idea, even if you don’t know how to pull it off. Playing a new type of character even if you are not sure about how to do it.

    Playing boldly is not about the character. It’s about you. Be bold. 

    If a certain subject feels scary but you want to do it, approach it anyway. Play the romantic scene even if you are blushing. Do the thing you want to do, even if you worry that someone might think it’s silly. Dare to deal with serious subjects. 

    Playing boldly doesn’t come naturally. You need to push yourself to play boldly, to go beyond your comfort zone. To find the point where you hesitate, say “fuck it”, and do it anyway.

    As players it’s natural to want to feel safe. To stay away from things that scare us. No matter if it’s about physical harm or social shame, or worry of hurting others. Some caution is natural and healthy, but too much caution can harm your larp experience. 

    Too much caution can make you:

    • Pick a “safe” character concept, rather than the character you want to play or the concept that would challenge you in a fun way. 
    • Censor yourself and stay passive in order to not say or do anything wrong.
    • Distant and unengaged, because caring too much might get you hurt.
    • Block everyone else’s initiatives because you are scared of losing control.
    • Not take the initiative, because it feels safer to wait until someone else does it.
    • Focus on pleasing everyone else, while not enjoying yourself.
    • Be too focused on yourself, and see everyone else as a threat to your experience.
    • Repetitive, always playing the same type of characters and making the same sort of choices larp after larp.

    If you focus too much on staying safe, then nothing really happens, good or bad, because you don’t take any risks. Despite playing it safe you might still spend your time worrying about those risks or being bored and disengaged because you run on autopilot. Being overprotective can ruin your own larp and it also makes you a much less fun and creative co-player.

    So how do you play boldly? Begin by figuring out what you want to try even if it scares you.

    What we want differs, and so do our fears. What you find scary might be different from what scares me. If someone is used to fast paced action, then low-key emotional play might be challenging. For someone used to playing family drama, a boffer fight might be completely out of their comfort zone.  For someone who usually plays extroverted characters that drive the story, then picking a more introverted character and responding to events rather than driving them might be a bold move.

    You can always find some way to challenge yourself. Perhaps you want to try a different type of character, perhaps you want to play a scary scene with a friend you trust, or perhaps you want to wear a costume that shows more skin than you are used to. It doesn’t have to be something huge.  

    Letting yourself be vulnerable

    At knifepoint. Photo taken during play. På Gott och Ont - Illmarig (2023) Photo by Linn Vikman
    At knifepoint. Photo taken during play. På Gott och Ont – Illmarig (2023) Photo by Linn Vikman

    Doing scary stuff is hard, but letting yourself be vulnerable can be even scarier. Because letting yourself be vulnerable is about not being in control. 

    Letting yourself be vulnerable is the other side of playing boldly. It’s about trusting and opening up your play to others. Vulnerability can mean letting someone else’s actions take the story in an unexpected direction, or letting their actions affect your character. It can mean letting someone successfully kidnap your character even if it’s scary and takes the story in an unexpected direction. It can mean letting your character be really hurt by the insult someone hurled at them, even if playing on humiliation makes you feel nervous. Vulnerability can also be letting your character fall madly in love when someone else’s character flirts with them.

    When you let yourself be vulnerable you can still set boundaries for how far you want to take it. For example, allowing your character to be kidnapped but whispering to the other players that you are okay with being taken prisoner but not with brutality.

    Don’t go overboard

    Whatever boldness and vulnerability might mean to you, there is no need to take it too far. It should be like taking a roller coaster ride. Scary, but fun. Scary, but safe. (Not like jumping off a cliff and being smashed against the rocks, okay?)

    You shouldn’t challenge your every fear at any single larp. That is just reckless. Take care of yourself.

    Playing boldly and letting yourself be vulnerable isn’t a perfectly smooth ride either. Trying new things and letting others take the story in unexpected directions means that you are taking a risk. Sometimes that risk will pay off spectacularly, giving you an amazing larp, sometimes it will be just okay, and sometimes things don’t work out. You might be disappointed or hurt.

    But by playing boldly and letting yourself be vulnerable you will evolve as a player. You will learn from the experience, no matter if the result is good, bad or average. This will lead to more awesome larps in the future, even if this particular thing didn’t work out.

    I also want to say that there is time and place for everything. Sometimes you just want comfort food and a cozy blanket, not boldness and vulnerability. That is okay. Larps can be a place to relax and recover. Not challenging yourself is just as valid a way of larping.

    Playing with others

    So far this article has focused on your own play, but larp is about interaction with other players. 

    When we play boldly, we must keep in mind that while we challenge our own comfort zones we must also respect the comfort zones of others.

    Let’s say Amira want to try something that is out of her comfort zone, like a violent torture scene (or an intimate love scene for that matter) with her fellow player Maggie. If Amira knows that she is going to be super uncomfortable during that scene, she should give Maggie a heads-up and check out if Maggie feels okay with Amira challenging her boundaries together with her too.

    “Psst. Out of character. I haven’t played this type of scene before. I want to give it a try, but it’s a bit  out of my comfort zone, so I am nervous and uncomfortable and might have to de-escalate the scene. Would you be okay with that, or should we take play in some other direction?”

    Because Maggie might not feel up for playing that type of intense scene with someone who is hesitant. Challenge your own boundaries but respect the boundaries of others.

    You can also invite others to play boldly and to let themselves be vulnerable, but you should never push them. 

    Remember the roller coaster ride? Inviting others to play boldly should be like asking “Hey, wanna come ride the roller coaster with me? ” and letting the other player gracefully decline if they don’t feel like it. It should never be like pushing someone into a roller coaster cart against their will! Consent is central.

    An invitation to play boldly can be an out of character discussion before or during the larp, but it can also happen in character. You just give the other player an opportunity to challenge themselves. If you know that Maggie has never been in a boffer fight, you can give her character a chance to join the war raid, but also give her a chance to gracefully decline if she doesn’t feel like it. “We could use a pair of extra hands during the raid. Are you up for it or are you needed elsewhere?”

    Playing boldly and letting yourself be vulnerable can be an infectious playstyle. If you play boldly by trying new things, then others may feel braver and also step up to play more boldly. If you let yourself be vulnerable by letting others take your story in unexpected directions, others will trust you to do the same. If you are bold enough to show vulnerability then others might also do that.

    It promotes trust, lets people try new things, and makes the larp more interesting and more fun. You lead by example.

    Conclusion

    Armed. På Gott och Ont, photoshoot 2017. Photo by Emmet Nordström
    Armed. På Gott och Ont, photoshoot 2017. Photo by Emmet Nordström

    Play boldly. Let yourself be vulnerable. But there is no need to go overboard with it. A little boldness and vulnerability goes a long way.

    Sometimes the results will be amazing, sometimes things might not give you the results you wanted, but it will make things more interesting, and it will help you grow as a larper.

    Challenge your own comfort zones, but respect others’. Communicate. Lead by example, and others will dare to play a bit more boldly and be a bit more vulnerable.

    Play boldly.

    Further reading

    There are other articles on great ways to play. We can play to lift, play to lose, and play unsafe. All of those ways to play are great approaches on how to create a better larp experience. You can combine all those with playing boldly and letting yourself be vulnerable however you want. Another link to check out can be this article on Brave Spaces in larp.

    Cover image: An intense gaze. Photo taken during play. På Gott och Ont – Illmarig (2023) Photo by Linn Vikman

  • Villain Self Care

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    Villain Self Care

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    I vividly remember the first time I played a villain. After years of always opting for and being cast as the sweet and innocent characters, I signed up to a larp with a group of friends and dared ask the big question: “Can I try playing the villain?”

    Thus started my travels down the road of larp villainy – a travel filled with plenty of bumps in the road! Already during the larp, I started feeling increasingly bad. And after the larp concluded, I became riddled with guilt. I felt physically sick from what I had done to people I cared about, being the manipulative and scheming horror of a person behind many of the transgressive actions of the larp.

    I started doubting myself: Since I had been capable of playing that character, did it mean I was secretly a terrible person? After all, it might have been imaginary, but it was my brain that imagined it – every thing I said and action I took came from somewhere inside of me. Not just the character, me.

    Now, many years later, my minor identity crisis has subsided, and I have managed to not only come to peace with playing a villain, but to enjoy a good antagonist story.

    As a part of that process, I developed a strategy (or a series of steps) to help me play an antagonist in a way I find both manageable and rewarding, as well as help with the potential negative emotional effects both during and after the larp:

    1. Don’t be the lone villain.

    It can be an isolating experience playing the antagonist, so team up beforehand with someone you trust. If you are able to create an in-game relation to the person, make sure it’s one that provides positive interactions and doesn’t fall apart immediately, when confronted with your actions. If you can’t establish such an in-game relation, make sure you at least have the support off-game, e.g., someone who checks up on you, makes sure you take care of yourself, someone to brainstorm horrible actions with, or confirm you are indeed not a bad person in reality.

    2. Know your boundaries.

    A villain can be and do a multitude of things. Consider what kind of villainy you are capable of and interested in portraying – and what you should steer away from. An antagonist can be everything from the physically and emotionally violent spouse or schoolyard bully, to the disengaged leader causing the suffering of hundreds with their actions (or lack thereof). What kind of play, themes, or actions are difficult or impossible for you to do? What is a soft limit you might want to explore, and a hard boundary you shouldn’t cross? It is as essential for you as the pretend-perpetrator to know and respect your boundaries, as it is for the pretend-victim.

    3. Understand your character’s motivation and beliefs.

    Unless you play an evil cartoon villain, most villains don’t perceive themself as evil. They act according to their moral compass, however flawed that might be. Consider how your character justify their actions and explain away their behavior. What is at the center of their decisions, driving them forward, and what brought them to this point? It’s both easier being antagonistic if you feel excellent – or righteous – doing it, and potentially horrifying to everyone else observing it.

    Photo of person in black makeup and gold armor sitting at a stone table
    The author in the larp Høstspillet. Photo by Bjørn-Morten Vang Gundersen. Image has been cropped.

    4. Prepare your play and potential interactions.

    Playing a villain puts you in the role of the aggressor, often having to generate new ideas for transgressive actions towards multiple co-players. It can be tiring and draining, both regarding energy and capacity for new ideas. First step is to consider what your low effort villainy is like. What can you always do if low on energy? Some mean bullying, hateful glaring, or sabotaging someone else’s life and relations? Secondly, can you plan some (inter)actions ahead? Either pre-calibrated scenes with other players (especially good for the start of a larp, as it kicks everyone, including yourself, into action and sets the tone) or “a catalogue of evil ideas” you can draw inspiration from during the larp.

    5. Let your victims be creative.

    See if you can make your victims come up with the perfect transgressive actions towards them. After all, they know what would hurt them the most. It can both be done in-game, which might even add another layer to the scene, making them tell you how to hurt them, or as a part of an off-game calibration, with the player of the victim brainstorming or suggesting ideas to you. Do, however, make sure you don’t end up as a facilitator of their larp. Their ideas might not match your character’s motivation and beliefs (no.3) or even more importantly, it might be against your own boundaries (no.2).

    6. Steer for a conclusion to your character.

    Consider what kind of ending you want your character to have. Do you want your villain-self to suffer for their actions? To experience redemption and forgiveness? To ride off into the sunset, preparing their next villainy deed? You might not be able to decide yourself, and it might change throughout the course of the larp, but steering for catharsis of your antagonist story arc, can add value to your experience – or be a full stop separating you from your character. It is especially relevant, if you are suddenly facing an ending you are not comfortable with, e.g., revenge from your victims. Remember to consider your boundaries. You might be comfortable playing the perpetrator, but not comfortable ending as the victim. And that is okay.

    7. Check in with your victims – and yourself!

    Checking in with your victims is necessary to make sure they are okay, the larp is safe for them, and the interactions aren’t crossing their boundaries. But it is equally important to check in with yourself, especially after hard scenes! What do YOU need? A comforting hug? A cup of coffee? A nap or a positive interaction-break? Being behind the transgressive actions can be just as emotional and taxing an experience as being on the receiving end. Use your support-person (no. 1) if necessary; your victim might not be the one wanting to hug you right after the scene – and that’s okay too.

    8. Plan for larp aftercare.

    Consider what do you need after the larp has ended, after all, villains might need aftercare too. Your needs are valid, even if they might not be possible to fulfill. You might want to change out of your costume to distance yourself from the character – or stay in costume to reconnect it with yourself. Maybe a hot shower is at the top of your list, or a sit-down conversation with your victims? Maybe you want to sit by yourself and digest the experience in peace? Some of it you can plan for, like packing your favorite snack and a soft sweater, other things require specific facilities or interactions with co-players. Be mindful of how you can best take of yourself, while also being mindful of your co-players and their needs. Sometimes you might need a little more help, especially if you find yourself cast as a main antagonist at a larp. In that case:

    9. Collaborate with the organizers.

    Villains don’t exist in a vacuum, and what seemed like an excellent plan prior to the larp, might fall short as soon as confronted with the runtime reality of the game. On location organizers can often help improve, steer, or brainstorm solutions with you, if you find yourself and your character stuck in a bad situation and/or dynamic.

    Cover photo: The author in the larp Høstspillet. Photo by Bjørn-Morten Vang Gundersen. Image has been cropped.

  • Designing Power Dynamics Between Adults and Children in Larps

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    When every part of a larp is a designable surface, we as designers are faced with both the opportunities and the responsibilities that this implies (Koljonen, 2019). As a wide age range exists in the larp community, it is essential to design for softening up the impacts that off-game power dynamics born from participants’ age and experience level can have on the interactions. This article deals with why and how you design balanced power dynamics between adult and child participants. This design approach is practice-based, utilized at the mythical fantasy larp campaign Fladlandssagaen (Denmark 2006-, Eng. The Flatland Saga) as well as the edu-larps and leisure larps I have run at Østerskov Efterskole in 2023.

    Why design spaces that allow children to influence the larp?

    As a co-creative, collaborative medium, larp becomes breathtaking when its participants experience co-ownership as the larp unfolds. In larp, different age-groups’ perceived areas of agency and social legitimation to participate in the activities of the larp are formed by our design choices – absence of design maintains status quo and ensures that those with the off-game social power to define acceptable social behavior will do so in-game as well; in this context, adults will define the larp’s social frame for children. Counteracting this requires conscious design of in-game spaces in which the children have agency and power to influence the larp, without alienating the adults. I recognize that there are differences between adults and children, and that adults ultimately bear off-game responsibility for everyone’s safety and experience throughout the larp. I argue, however, that we can create a framework in which children can be allowed to explore, lead, mentalize and be taken seriously, to let them expand their social skill set and experience being a part of the associated community.

    A framework for designing balanced power dynamics

    The following section reviews the design strategies I use to create balanced power dynamics in larp. Each design step describes how, and is followed by an example, marked with an arrow, from the player-group Umbrafalkene (Eng. The Umbra Falcons) at Fladlandssagaen (Denmark 2006-, Eng. The Flatland Saga):

    • The participants play former soldiers and children of former soldiers, who try to make a new life for themselves in a troubled area. Throughout their storylines and plots, the players face situations wherein they learn to deal with anger, sorrow, loss and a craving for revenge. The themes were selected because our young players find it difficult to recognize and deal with the associated feelings in their own lives.
    Photo of three people of various ages in fantasy clothes huddles closely together.
    The author (left) at Fladlandssagaen (2023). Photo by Susse Kobberø Chapman.

    1) Set concrete design goals for the power dynamics and social interactions in the larp. Define and formulate the intention, so you can communicate, measure, and test your choices.

    • The goal was to create a dynamic in which the children address the team’s difficulties through collaboration, their courage to be honest and their willingness to act together, while the adults escalate the problems through their old habits and stubborn beliefs.

    2) Designate a coordinator that knows how to work with children. The person needs to be introduced early and be readily available, so that the children know where to find them in case they need help. It is advantageous if the person discreetly checks in on the children during the larp, asks about their experience and offers to help them reflect on their experiences.

    • We usually have multiple coordinators who share the responsibility. When we have the resources, we divide the children into smaller groups so we can interact with them on their terms and facilitate play accordingly: one of us has the youngest players (4-8 years), one has the slightly older children (9-12), and one has the teenagers (13-15 years).

    3) Then, design the overall narratives and dynamics. The narrative reasoning and legitimation for the dynamics must be experienced as meaningful and authentic to play on for both the adults and the children. Significant design areas that you can focus on are, among others, defined standards for social interactions that grant both agency and alibi, rites of passage, easily usable safety measures, and formed spaces. Within these spaces the players can explore their chosen themes by themselves or with each other, without excluding or invalidating the focus of other players. Design who wields the social power, as well as when and how the characters handle in-game conflicts across age groups so it doesn’t break immersion nor default to the off-game power dynamics. Remember both groups’ needs.

    • The children are staged as experts in how to live peacefully as a part of a community, while the adults are staged as experts in conflicts and making tough choices. The children wield the social power to de-escalate situations, while adults steadily escalate scenes towards the point where weapons must be drawn. Furthermore, the children are the only ones who can handle the mythical creatures living in the nearby dangerous magical forest, while the adults are the only ones that can carry titles and be punished by law.
    Photo of children in fantasy clothes with black robed figures in the forest
    Fladlandssagaen (2023). Photo by Susse Kobberø Chapman. Image has been cropped.

    4) Create character development, plots, and tasks that support, maintain, and necessitate the chosen dynamic in basic routines, keeping both adults and children in mind. Players need meaningful activities during the larp that serve a purpose in the larp as a whole (Kangas 2019). Here, you shape the children’s areas of agency; their plots and actions must be important for the overall larp with consequences they can take responsibility for and react to during the runtime. It is essential to prioritize explanation of the context and consequences of a scene, so the children understand their agency and choices, for example through a narrative voice where the facilitator meta-communicates what will happen if they follow through with their actions. This teaches the children how they can navigate and decode a scene. Creating an alibi for making the choices together and sharing the responsibility, connected to an explanation of why the adults cannot help, is beneficial.

    • The Umbra Falcons had been asked to help in a nearby battle. The children were in doubt. Before they made a decision, one of the adults, who was their facilitator and knew that there would be fighting in that plotline, said: “If we go to battle, it will be dangerous. Maybe, there will be fighting, in which case we could die. But our help is needed, and we do not have time to find others instead. What should we do?” Here, the theme and the impending actions were meta-communicated to the children, so they knew what they were getting into if they chose to follow through with the plot.
    • Plotlines created specifically to our teenagers and adults are played on when there are no children around. When a child joins a scene, everyone will adjust their playstyle to make room for the child’s perspective, rather than forcing the child to adopt a grown-up perspective on matters. In-game, the narrative explanation is that the adults try to protect the children from the darker aspects of the world – they will get to know it in time. This clearly marks the space for adult plots. 
    Photo of people of various ages in fantasy clothes, some raising their hands.
    Fladlandssagaen (2023). Photo by Susse Kobberø Chapman.

    5) Communicate the design before, during, and after the larp through both shared and divided briefings, workshops, intro-scenes, and debriefings. This makes it easier to form consensus and calibrate collectively, while ensuring safe spaces wherein both adults and children can express their thoughts and difficulties and practice the dynamics among peers while supervised by a facilitator. Debriefings and post-play activities, in which everyone can reconnect, reflect and recuperate their experience together (Brown, 2019) and establish a narrativized tale are essential factors in building a sense of community afterwards.

    • We have a collective briefing for all players and a briefing for The Umbra Falcons in which we coordinate the day together. Sometimes, rules are mentioned again (for example that children, who don’t understand that game masters dressed in black are invisible, can interact with them as their “imaginary fantasy friends”, while the invisible spirits are ignored by the rest of us). After the play, we do a follow up talk with the children individually or together with their parents.

    The most important thing you can do when you design these larps is to focus on building a trusting culture in which your participants can play and explore together. It requires respect, patience, and curiosity from everyone involved, but if we as designers design a safe space, adults and children will conjure up larp magic together.

    Bibliography

    Kangas, Kaisa. 2019. “Functional Design.” In Larp Design: Creating Role-play Experiences, edited by Johanna Koljonen, Jaakko Stenros, Anne Serup Grove, Aina D. Skjønsfjell, and Elin Nilsen. Copenhagen, Denmark: Landsforeningen Bifrost.

    Koljonen, Johanna. 2019. “An Introduction to Bespoke Larp.” In Larp Design: Creating Role-play Experiences, edited by Johanna Koljonen, Jaakko Stenros, Anne Serup Grove, Aina D. Skjønsfjell, and Elin Nilsen. Copenhagen, Denmark: Landsforeningen Bifrost.

    Brown, Maury Elizabeth. 2019. “Post-Play Activities.” In Larp Design: Creating Role-play Experiences, edited by Johanna Koljonen, Jaakko Stenros, Anne Serup Grove, Aina D. Skjønsfjell, and Elin Nilsen. Copenhagen, Denmark: Landsforeningen Bifrost.

    Ludography

    Fladlandssagaen (2023): Denmark. The organizer team of Fladlandssagaen.

    This article has been reprinted with permission from the Solmukohta 2024 book. Please cite as:

    Høyer, Frederikke Sofie Bech. 2024. “Designing Power Dynamics Between Adults and Children in Larps.” In Liminal Encounters: Evolving Discourse in Nordic and Nordic Inspired Larp, edited by Kaisa Kangas, Jonne Arjoranta, and Ruska Kevätkoski. Helsinki, Finland: Ropecon ry.

    Cover photo: Fladlandssagaen (2023). Photo by Susse Kobberø Chapman. Image has been cropped.

  • How I Learned to Stop Faking It and Be Real

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    How I Learned to Stop Faking It and Be Real

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    In my opinion, one of the most important things in being a good larper is to have self-awareness. This means knowing one’s strengths and weaknesses and being able to provide play for other players – but also knowing what one wants out of a larp and how it aligns with the vision and themes of the larp.

    After larping for some years, I thought I had a good perception of my strengths and weaknesses. For example, I knew that I was lousy with directions, so I should not try to play Aragorn. However, I knew that I was really good at organizing things and playing a leader, so I thought I should actually try to play Aragorn.

    It all came down to balance and knowing that I could play most of the characters I wanted to as long as I tweaked them, had trusted friends around, and communicated well with the organizers. In addition, I was very good at making sure that my body was strong enough to carry heavy things at a larp if a character demanded it and letting the organizers know if there was something that needed to be adjusted or not played on. For example, I could tell them that I am really bad when it comes to close combat since I am short and lazy.

    Over the years, I learned more about what kinds of characters I could give the most for and what characters I could grow into. But while I was great at communicating about my practical skills and all my larp needs related to them, I was not up to par with being transparent about my health. Or rather, my mental health.

    As all people, I had ups and downs. But to tell it bluntly, there were some years when I was in a downward spiral. While I had been very outspoken to my friends about my mental health and the importance of self care, I was adamant that it would not impact my larping.

    Woman in white in a white room near a painting with a finger over her mouth
    The author at the larp House of Cravings (2023). Photo by Martin Østlie Lindelien.

    Mental health issues can range from depression and PTSD to anxiety, self harm, and eating disorders (to only mention a few examples). All of these should be taken seriously and treated as reasons to get help. It does not matter what my mental health issues were. What is important is how they impacted my larping. The biggest thing they brought to me was shame over feeling the way I did and having the issues I had.

    I wanted to play pretend in my hobby and to be strong without letting my issues bleed over to my co-larpers. And I was hesitant to communicate what I needed to my co-larpers since I did not fully know what I needed. Was it sympathy? Maybe concrete hands-on help if I would not be able to play out a scene? Understanding if I needed to break the game for a time? Underneath these thoughts there was a fear of being rejected. What if people thought I was too broken to play with?

    With that, I made a promise to myself to basically take care of myself, to be a great larper and be open in every way – but not when it came to what I needed from my co-larpers and organizers with my trauma and mental health issues.

    Of course, in retrospect, that was a horrible idea.

    When things got hard or triggered something in me, I had to hide it. I rather pushed it down than caused trouble. I pushed myself to the breaking point when it came to organizing and being available to my co-players – just to prove that I was not broken. I did not cancel a single larp, but in the end, I played for my co-players, not for myself. I tried to make sure that they had fun but ended up having less fun myself.

    On the other hand, I was adamant in advising my friends and co-larpers to do the opposite of what I was doing. I always encouraged them to be open with all their needs and health issues. I was the one who took people aside to sit down and have a chat. I was the one who offered a shoulder to cry on during larps.

    Then something happened a couple of years ago. It was a standard larp with no hard themes — and played with trusted friends. I was responsible for a small group and all was well. Apart from that it was not. Around this time in life, I was struggling more than ever. I wanted to stay at home all the time and the only thing that pushed me to the larp was the knowledge that I had people relying on me.

    There was a scene, some larp fight – and suddenly I blacked out with over ten minutes of which I have no memory of. People told me that I did a great scene with screaming and fighting, and that they were surprised over seeing me get that physical.

    I have no memory of this. The next thing I remember is sitting in the darkness by a lake and silently crying my eyes out. I felt so ashamed and broken. Most of all, I did not know how to handle this or how to reach out to friends. So I cried a bit more and then went back into the tent and took care of my group.

    The big change came only recently. I had gotten used to hiding how I felt at larps or conferences and just faking it all the way. Always smiling, always acting like I did not care, doing my best to be the steady port for others.

    I thought I had a great system for handling myself in the larp community. And then came a larp when it just did not work anymore. I had, again, the responsibility for a small group. I should have been able to keep it together, so I just ignored the feeling of terror. But for the first time, I could not push myself anymore.

    I contacted my group. I told them that I had limited energy and told them to make sure to steer their larp away from relying on only me. I told them that I would need breaks but that I could handle it.

    Then I contacted the organizers. I told them everything. On how I was at my limit but that I really wanted to give the larp a try. I told them what could be done, both for me and my group. They were wonderful in assuring that things were ok and that I was welcome with limited energy and all my brokenness.

    The larp was a bit of a blur. I was really tired and had to rest a lot. I cried off-game in an organizer’s arms. I was sitting and resting on a friend’s lap and had her pat my hair until I could breathe again. But I had the energy to give my everything and to feel into myself. I created magic for my co-larpers and for myself. And for the first time in years I felt I was larping for myself. 

    I went home from that larp with a sense of sadness and peace. Sadness over how easy it had been and how many years I had robbed from myself. Peace in knowing that it would be so much easier from now on.

    That experience changed larping for me. I no longer take on responsibilities for groups alone. I put myself first when it comes to how I travel to, sleep, and eat during larps. I share my needs before and after a larp, both with organizers and with my friends. I try to be open with my co-players if things are hard. When they ask how they can support me, I answer their questions honestly. 

    Woman in Viking gear sitting in the woods
    The author in Viking garb (2021).

    During any larp, I take the time to rest, and I step off-game when I need to. If I feel I don’t have the energy for something, I cancel it and try to do it in good time. After a larp, I take the time to land. I might not always succeed in it but I do my best. And I give myself that time. 

    A while ago, I went to a very challenging larp. Even before the larp, my sleep pattern was non-existent and I had mental health issues that were acting up. I opened up to a co-larper when she asked if I needed anything and that helped a lot. Then after the first part of the larp, I just crashed. There were no triggers or bad things involved. I had just pushed myself too hard and too much.

    The main takeaway was that I could accept the help from organizers who just sat together with me in a dark room while I cried. I managed to explain my needs and reached out to a loved one who came and held me. And with those small means of accepting help, speaking about my needs and just being honest, I could breathe and pick myself up for the rest of the larp. Looking back, I have come very far in how I handle myself, and I try to make sure to take care of my needs. Does it make me feel better? Absolutely not. I feel more vulnerable than in years and so broken. But I hope that it will pass in time. I will rather do this than go through another 20 years faking it.

    This article has been reprinted with permission from the Solmukohta 2024 book. Please cite as:

    Erlandsson, Anna. 2024. “How I Learned to Stop Faking It and Be Real.” In Liminal Encounters: Evolving Discourse in Nordic and Nordic Inspired Larp, edited by Kaisa Kangas, Jonne Arjoranta, and Ruska Kevätkoski. Helsinki, Finland: Ropecon ry.

    Cover photo: Photo by jaygeorge on Pixabay. Image has been cropped.

  • An Introvert’s Guide to Playing High Status Characters

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    An Introvert’s Guide to Playing High Status Characters

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    As someone who is nominally a rather quiet introverted type of person but who absolutely loves playing the complete opposite – big commanding character types, I am often asked for advice on how to do it well. So here is my collection of tips and tricks that I have accrued over 20+ years of larping. I hope they can be useful.

    You may think that to be a convincing leader, you need to be loud, charismatic, outgoing and confident in real life. However, I have found a number of strategies that can be used to ‘fake it’. And indeed, it is highly likely that many real life leaders are actually ‘faking it’ by using very similar strategies.

    Please note that some of these techniques should be calibrated with other people in advance so that everyone is on the same page and no one gets hurt by your antics!

    With that, let’s go!

    Goetia, photo by Kai Simon Fredriksen Goetia, photo by Kai Simon Fredriksen

    Take up Space

    This for me is the core rule. Many of us in real life (especially those of us born with the curse of being British) are taught from an early age to not take up space. To not be a hassle or a bother. To not get in other people’s way. To not make a scene. So, the golden rule is to throw all of that out of the window. If you are high status, take up as much space as possible. Some simple ways of doing that:

    • Wear big clothing. Obviously costuming will depend greatly on the setting of your larp, but there are always ways to go big. Whether that’s wearing a great billowy cloak, a huge bustle, a ridiculous hat… If your clothing is big, you will look big and people will pay more attention to you. You can also add accoutrements to your outfit to look more extravagant (ie, bling bling bling!), but even a simple costume will demand respect if it fills the room.
    • Move! And keep moving! Don’t ever be static. Use the space around you. Stride across the room. Pace around while talking. Use your hands and arms to gesture. If you keep moving, people have to keep adjusting themselves to watch you, and that means you have their attention.
    • Where possible, be higher than those around you. If there is a stage or podium, use it. If there is a high table, sit at it. Otherwise, try ordering everyone around you to sit while you remain standing. Or reverse that – be the only one sitting while everyone else has to stand.
    • Walk through people not around them. In a typical larp, there will be clusters of people talking. Don’t go around them. Barge through the middle of them, forcing them to move aside for you.

    Example: At Goetia – Night of 100 Demons, I played Belial, the King of Pride. I wore a coat with an attached cape that billowed while I kept moving around. I strode about like I owned the place, and people had to dive aside to get out of my way!

    Goetia, photo by Kai Simon Fredriksen Goetia, photo by Kai Simon Fredriksen

    Meanwhile at Wicked Hearts, a short American larp about Imperial Russian fairytales. I was playing Old Man Winter. The costume brief was to dress extravagantly for the Imperial court, but I decided to subvert that and instead wore a simple ragged robe and bare feet. It definitely made the desired statement and made me stick out!

    Claim Your Territory

    A good tactic that has worked for me is to claim a space at the larp – whether that’s a room, a table, or a corner with a good chair – and make it my own. Decorating it adds to the effect, but the main aim is to make it clear to everybody in the larp that this is YOUR space. If interlopers try to move into your space… get them evicted. Use the people under your command to hustle them out.

    Use that space. Occupy it. Demand that people come to you. I have spent entire larps in just one place. People who want to talk to me HAVE to come to me. And even if it is me wanting to talk to another person, they still have to come to me, not the other way around. Having underlings helps a lot with this. Dispatch them with the message that you want to talk to someone and get them to bring that person to you. In a good play-to-lift environment, people should be more than willing to go along with this.

    Cyberpunk London, photo by Alex Helm Cyberpunk London, photo by Alex Helm

    I used this technique at Cyberpunk London where I was playing a London gangster boss. I claimed a booth in the nightclub and didn’t move from that spot for the entire game. Instead, a constant stream of visitors came to me.

    You Don’t Have to be Loud, but You Do Need to be Clear

    Having a loud booming voice definitely helps but is by no means essential. As a naturally quiet person, I have achieved much by speaking in a low but ultra clear tone. Be very precise with your language. Make statements not questions. Say exactly what you want and what you mean. Do not hesitate in your language, just demand. Keep it calm and clear, and people will listen. And if someone tries to interrupt you, interrupt them back: “I AM SPEAKING!”.

    As another mob boss in Tenement 67 (a British take on Cyberpunk style game), I exuded calm and quiet confidence throughout the game. I never raised my voice once. People said they found it quite intimidating as they began to realise that the quieter I was, the more furious my character had become, and they quaked accordingly.

    Cardinal Wolsey at Meeting of Monarchs, photo by Oliver Facey Cardinal Wolsey at Meeting of Monarchs, photo by Oliver Facey

    Be Unpredictable

    If people are not paying attention to you, or if they are disrespecting you… get their attention by doing something they are not expecting. Here are some suggestions:

    • If someone disrespects you, calmly stand up, stride across the floor and slam them against the wall (get quick consent first, of course!). Then calmly return to your place.
    • If the tone in the room is serious, crack a joke.
    • Make a ridiculous demand. Call for food or a new chair, or simply demand the people around you shuffle around into a more pleasing arrangement.
    • Walk away mid-conversation. Nothing is more infuriating than someone declaring they are bored of you and leaving you to it. So, infuriate people in this way.

    At Goetia (again), the King of Pride was furious for being snubbed by the chefs in the banquet (if you know about the trifle, you know…), and demanded chocolate as compensation. Minions and NPCs alike scurried around to fulfil this demand! Later on in the game, I strode out of the banquet in a fury, screaming that nobody was paying attention to me! (I was the King of Pride after all).

    Use Your Underlings

    If everyone is playing to lift, the people under your command or beneath you in the setting hierarchy will want to do what they can to big you up. Calibrate with them so they know what you need. If one of them does have a particularly loud voice, use them to announce your arrival or to silence the room when you want to talk. Dispatch your minions across the room to deliver messages for you, to intrude on other people’s conversations in your name, to spy and obtain gossip, or to simply tell everyone how great you are. The more people talking about you, the better.

    As a Sith Lord, photo by Alex Helm As a Sith Lord, photo by Alex Helm

    Do Not Tolerate Disrespect

    This for me is the hardest aspect to manage. If someone disrespects your status, then what do you do? I’ve found a few things to try:

    • Turn to your underlings and loudly ask them if this person is seriously disrespecting you. It’s a rhetorical question, but signals to them to support you.
    • Be over the top in your reaction. Huff and pant in annoyance. Shake your fist. Throw a tantrum. Make it very very clear that you are annoyed, and other people around will start to notice.
    • Demand an apology or compensation.
    • If you have some supernatural power or equivalent to display your might, use it. Especially if it forces them to the floor before you.
    • If you have some societal authority or similar, then invoke it. Demand they bow or kneel or salute.

    If nothing seems to work, then it’s time for calibration. Grab the offending player OC and talk it out. Often they are simply enthusiastic about their character and are not intentionally trying to bring you down, so a quick chat will resolve things. And if that doesn’t work, then involve the game organiser, who will generally be keen to help.

    At Mörkveden, I was playing a terrifying 800 year old undead draugr warrior, but was being snubbed by some mortals. This was proving impossible to resolve in character without taking actions that would remove someone from the game, so instead, I asked their group leader for some calibration. It was quickly revealed that they hadn’t intended the disrespect effect and apologised profusely. From there we were all able to work out what to do next to make everyone feel as badass as desired.

    Those are my techniques, but I am sure there are more, so if you are reading this, feel free to add something in the comments!

    Ludography

    Goetia: Night of 100 Demons by OmenStar. Ingestre Hall, UK, October 2023. There will be another run in 2024/25. www.omenstar.com
    Mörkveden also by OmenStar. Berghem Lajvby, Sweden, August 2023.
    Cyberpunk London, OmenStar again! Camden Underworld, London, UK. October 2022.
    Tenement 67 by Carcosa Dreams. Oakham, UK. August 2019
    Wicked Hearts by Alison Joy Schafer and Kristen Patten, run at Consequences, UK in 2023, but it has also run several times at Intercon in the US.

    Photo by Resafey, from Harvest Dance. Image has been cropped.

  • Participatory Ritual Vocalization

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    Participatory Ritual Vocalization

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    How to use vocalization to create a sense of shared ritual?

    Redemption was a larp about the last days of the Romanovs before the revolution changed everything, at a retreat organized by a breakaway Orthodox sect who believed that to achieve redemption one must sin. The larp’s sound design was created by Anni Tolvanen who also came up with the larp’s signature ritual technique, participatory ritual vocalization.

    The core team for the larp consisted of Maria Pettersson, Massi Hannula, and myself. I was particularly happy with the vocalization technique Tolvanen created because it was accessible even to somebody like myself with no singing ability. As long as I was able to hum O or A, I was able to participate.

    Here, Tolvanen answers a few questions about how this technique works.

     

    Anni, what are the design reasons behind this technique? What’s the effect it’s intended to have?

    The main goal of the technique was to create an inclusive and intuitive way for all participants to join in on or run their own rituals during runtime. The technique aims to give everyone the feeling of “doing it for real,” without requiring time-consuming pre-runtime practice, or previous experience in ritualistic singing or chanting. The technique is designed to blend into the general soundscape of the larp; to become part of it and add to it in a diegetic manner.

    Each participant has equal agency to impact the ritual’s mood and content through their personal contribution to the shared soundscape. One is not merely allowed to accompany an appointed ritual leader, but to improvise their own content within the parameters of the technique.

    The technique forms an intuitively understandable frame around a ritual scene. By joining the technique you are joining the ritual.

     

    Can you explain how participatory ritual vocalization works? What do people do?

    All participants are free to start using the technique at any time. When someone starts praying or chanting, other participants taking part in the scene find a shared note to hum. This hum provides the anchor – the drone – to the ritual recital. The drone is collectively carried on throughout the ritual, and does not stop until the ritual ends.

    The drone acts as a musical base for the ritual leader or leaders. They can recite and improvise text either by sticking to the same note, or by freely chanting or speaking on top of it. In the workshop for the technique participants practiced a simple musical scale of 2-4 notes while acting as ritual leaders – but sticking to the scale is obviously not mandatory.

    Ritual leaders are not meant to be solo performers: Participants doing the drone are also invited to improvise content, for example by repeating particular words or sentences of the leaders, shouting inspired remarks, or making the drone change in intensity, volume, and tone color.

    When the ritual leader wants to end the ritual, they end their recital with an emphasized end phrase (in Redemption, “Amen”). This phrase or word is then repeated by everyone in the scene, after which the drone stops, and the ritual is over.

     

    What’s the deeper musical thinking and history behind the technique?

    Using one’s voice to contribute to a soundscape is an ancient and deeply human activity to take part of. While singing or chanting with others, we do not merely join into making music. We also sync our expression, our internal pacing, and even our breath with others around us. It is a powerful experience, which forms its own temporary magic circle: You join the circle by adding your voice to the soundscape.

    Musically speaking, the core benchmarks for the technique are the use of drone notes, improvised recital on top of the drone, and (optionally) the simplistic scale used by ritual leaders. At Redemption, the latter was modeled after the medieval theme “Dies Irae” – a particular four note scale which is nowadays used by composers all around the world to communicate tension, ardor, and fatality. (In other words, it’s a musical meme.)

     

    How does the technique work if people have wildly varying levels of musical skills? Some have none, others are great singers.

    For practical purposes, singing skill does not have a meaningful impact on the technique. It is in fact advisable to instruct more experienced singers to stick to the basic drone and recital, and avoid more complex musical improvisation.

    The power of the technique comes from its simplicity. Most people can find and stick to a drone note, and even if they can’t, doing things “correctly” is not nearly as relevant as following the collective ebb and flow of the ritual. Everyone’s voice contributes to the soundscape, and the soundscape creates the magic circle for the ritual.

     

    How does the technique interact with the broader soundscape of a larp?

    The auditory streams from the ritual (the drone and the recital) communicate to participants in different spaces that a ritual is taking place. The ritual becomes part of the larp’s soundscape and impacts the mood of the larp as a whole. At the same time, any pre-existing soundscape (for example, background music, other participants’ activities, other rituals) impacts the soundscape of the ritual.

    When implementing background music in particular, some sound design ahead of time is needed. Background noise and ambient music may lower the threshold for using the technique, as participants can lean onto other sounds to find a coherent, shared drone, and get the ritual going. On the other hand, too dominant background music may make it harder for participants to use the technique freely, as music will set boundaries to what kind of sounds make sense during the ritual.

    Cover photo: Anni Tolvanen at the larp Redemption (2021). Photo by Kai Simon Fredriksen. Photo has been cropped.

    This article is published in the Knutpunkt 2022 magazine Distance of Touch and is published here with permission. Please cite this text as:

    Pettersson, Juhana. 2022. “Participatory Ritual Vocalization.” In Distance of Touch: The Knutpunkt 2022 Magazine, edited by Juhana Pettersson, 51-54. Knutpunkt 2022 and Pohjoismaisen roolipelaamisen seura.