Search results for: “bleed”
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Hinterland: Design for Real Knives and Misery
Hinterland was a Swedish post-apocalyptic larp about refugees and disease. It was language-neutral, in effect meaning that people did their best to switch to whichever language was most inclusive for the players present in any given scene. What follows is my personal take as a player on some aspects of its design, and in particular…
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The Art of Steering – Bringing the Player and the Character Back Together
in
The rhetorics of Nordic larp often imply that role-players play in an intuitive fashion guided by the character, rarely or never contemplating their actions during the game. In reality, however, we are often keenly aware of what we are doing as our characters and why. This paper explores the practice of making in-character decisions based
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Steering for Immersion in Five Nordic Larps – A New Understanding of Eläytyminen
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The concept of character immersion has been a cornerstone of Nordic larp discussion for fifteen years. I was surprised by how much the concept of steering introduced last year brought to my understanding of character immersion (“eläytyminen”). In this essay I look at five specific experiences with steering towards immersion, some successful, some not. More
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Now That We’ve Walked the Walk – Some New Additions to the Larp Vocabulary
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Larp is traditionally participatory in nature. Fortunately, there’s been a great introspective and analytical tradition accompanying the continuing push against the ever moving boundaries of what’s possible and what’s been attempted. Yet it seems that our vocabulary has not grown at the same rate as the art form itself. This article will attempt to cover
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Post-larp Depression
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Larp occupies a unique place among analog games, for it demands as much from players’ bodies as it does from their minds. It comes then as no surprise that many players find themselves in the situation of feeling confused, exhausted, and emotionally raw after a larp event.
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Returning to the Real World
in
Debriefing After Role-playing Games Debriefing is a somewhat controversial topic in role-playing communities today. While some individuals feel that games should remain distinct from the mundane world and debriefing is an unnecessary complication, many role-players have grown concerned about difficulties in the process of transitioning between intense game experiences back to mundane life. As part
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GMing Nordic Freeform: A Beginners’ Guide
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Though I’ve run dozens of Nordic freeform games for Americans in the last year or two, I’m probably still a rookie GM. But, as the saying goes, “You don’t need Santana to show you how to hold the guitar.” I suspect it’s true for GMing Nordic freeform too. There are many ways to run freeform…