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Performing Dominant
Dominant characters come in different forms: authority figures (benevolent or not), antagonists, or outright villains. However, each of these figures presents the same challenges: establishing and displaying dominance in a credible manner, managing interactions with dominated characters, and balancing character domination with respect for player agency.
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Learning from NPCs
Supporting characters tend to accept invitations to play more easily than some player characters (or some players.) This is the most important lesson we can learn from supporting characters: to always find a reason to engage, to initiate play, and to offer other players alibi to engage with you.
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Beyond the Funny Hat
When larping, players don’t always wear costumes, and even when costumed, a character ought to be more than a funny hat. Here, we offer practical ways to flesh out how a character moves and speaks, in the hope of making it easier for you to do so.
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Artificial Affluenzas
Playing a super-rich character in a larp probably sounds fun and easy. It is neither, at least not at all times. Centrally, it requires a fine line of balancing, in order to not take the role over the top, but sufficiently close, in order to provide the most optimal playable content to other participants.
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Knutepunkt 2021 Call for Papers
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Knudepunkt 2021 has issued a call for papers! Pitches are due 10 July 2020 and the theme of the conference, and book, is “Where the magic happens”.
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Larp and Prejudice: Expressing, Erasing, Exploring, and the Fun Tax
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Designers of larps with a real-world setting face questions about how to deal with prejudice. This article looks at three possible approaches.
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Sleeping Areas, Off-Game Areas, and the Black/White Ribbon Metatechnique
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The black/white ribbon metatechnique, as used at Libertines (2020), to signal if you want play in your sleeping area or not.
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Beauty in Larp
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What makes a thing beautiful to do? In this text Jaakko Stenros and James Lórien MacDonald explore a general aesthetic theory for larp.
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Labor and Play
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Have you gone to a larp requiring more work than your day job? Have you done work in a larp and been compensated with fictional resources rather than money?
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The Paradox of Inclusivity
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Trying to provide a clearer vision of what inclusivity does, and can, mean; as well as offer practical advice to help us build more inclusive communities.