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How to Run a Cheap Weekend Larp
Some tips and tricks on the practicalities of how to run a game like that, some things to keep in mind, what kind of game design works well for this format, and why to buy pre-chopped onions.
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Designing Vessels of Meaning
When it comes to larp design, the designer makes creative choices and steers the larpers; but the larpers are the ones that fill the vessel with their own meaning and story, to different extents depending on the larp.
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Relational Larp
“Relational larp” enables us to embrace the common vision and inspiration we have and work together on getting larp the acknowledgement it deserves among other forms of art, entertainment, self-expression, and means of transformation.
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A Transformative Journey of a Character in Larp
Content advisory: Spoilers, witnessing suicide, trauma recovery Introduction This character journey takes place in the larp Eclipse. Eclipse is an SF larp by Chaos League, where the participants are on a mission to establish if a planet is habitable for humanity. A certain amount of suspension of disbelief is needed, but none of this is…
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Permission to Play
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We provide adults with permission to play. We also provide children with the same permission but they need less help getting over the hurdles. Once they have been given permission to play again, they are free to explore the world with a sense of awe, wonder, and curiosity. This psychological emancipation permits the participant to…
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SOMA – A larp about Insanity, Intimacy, and Giant Robots
SOMA is a larp about intense human connection in a hopeless world, about people finding each other in the dark, even as they slowly lose themselves. This review covers the first international run of the LARP (following a beta test and a French run) in March 2026. Setting SOMA, which is according to the main…
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Joy is an Act of Rebellion
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This piece was originally published in the Italian Larp Festival magazine (ILF Mag) 2025, and is republished here with thanks. In a capitalistic world that thrives on conformity, joy becomes one of the most radical acts we can choose. More than just an emotion, joy is an expression of vitality and hope. Different from the…
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Why testing and exploration of different ideas matters
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On designing better larps through iterative playtesting “This mechanic is so bad, why didn’t they test this?” a co-player once said to us at a larp after-party. We had all experienced the larp together, and it was true — there was a design problem. But instead of staying in the rant, we wondered, since one…
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Larp Critique: Why We Need It and How To Write One
At the moment, there isn’t much in terms of culture of larp critique. There is no structured reflection on how to write a critique that is analytical, constructive and well documented. There are some very good examples, but nothing systematic or with a recurring format. However, there are a lot of discussions, because organizers and…
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The Prosocial Act of Larp Crime, and Some Thoughts on Odysseus
Author’s Note: The essay below is a design thinkpiece that contains many evidence-free assertions about player behavior. This anecdotal information has been gathered from a lifetime of gamemastering and larp organizing. Your own experience and data may vary, and I welcome rebuttals with those differences in hand. Larp is a medium of relation. We invent…