Nordic Larp

Tag: age

  • Words of Advice from an Old Witch to Aging Larpers

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    Words of Advice from an Old Witch to Aging Larpers

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    I started larping late in life. In the last eight years I have played with larpers of all ages, some of whom are now facing the passage of time. I hear them lament the fact that they can no longer play as they used to do. Something has changed.

    I am old. As I have grown older, I hide behind layers upon layers of knowledge and experience. Like a carapace it hides me from prying eyes and hurting remarks. It will happen to all of us. Like Kafka’s Gregor Samsa we will suddenly wake up one morning as a monstrous vermin. Or at least that is what we think will happen as we grow old. But is it true? Do we have to end up as a petrified version of our younger self?

    The answer is no – but if you want to change you will need to recognize that your current self is a construct born of social circumstances and the expectations of family and society. There is a certain power to this construct. You are allowed to say and do things that younger people will not get away with, but to do so you must stay inside the boundaries expected from someone of your age and gender. And your body has betrayed you – your hurting knees, sagging boobs, and wrinkled skin. You cannot be young again, but larp is make-believe. If you play a young character nobody expects you to actually be young, but to act young.

    Tattooed woman on the beach
    Image of the author. Photo by Thursarn.

    When you play a character, the knowledge you have gained during a long life will help to create a deeper understanding. Often you will be surprised by what is useful for character building, no matter what age the character is. The character may be a person interested in poetry, and suddenly your old interest in romantic poets is useful, as happened to me in Forbidden History: Paradise Lost (Poland 2023). Perhaps the character is a cult member, and suddenly your tarot cards, bought when you were twenty, come into use like in Lord of Lies (Sweden, 2021). Your knowledge of how a prison panopticon constructs your mind according to the French philosopher Michel Foucault (1987, see also Foucault & Rabinow 1991) can be surprisingly useful when you create your character for a prison larp such as The Quota (United Kingdom 2018). It may all sound banal, but as you grow older your repertoire grows bigger.

    When you age, you will have had more firsthand personal experiences than a young person. You may have had a child and seen them grow up with all the joys and worries that entails; lost close personal friends; had good or bad work experiences. This is part of what makes you into a real person, even though some of these experiences may be painful. Using your personal doubts, fears, and failings when you play a mother lost in a dysfunctional family – such as the one in A Nice Evening With the Family (Sweden 2018) – can be a powerful and transformative experience. It is part of what makes you human – and being human is what makes us able to play. I may no longer remember what it is to be young, years of experience has taken that from me. But I know how to create the illusion of being young because I know the consequences of my good and bad choices. It brings depth to a character, even when the person you portray is much younger than you.

    Tattooed woman on the beach
    Image of the author. Photo by Thursarn.

    Larping is a collaborative experience where all the players must interact to create magic. In the best games all are equal. Old players may think that it is their responsibility to create possibilities for play for younger players. It is not. The most demanding thing to do as an old larper is to let go of the power that age gives you – including the power that helping others gives you. But that is what you must do if you want to play. You must be vulnerable; you must shed the layers that you have built around the person you are deep down. You must be human.

    So, what does that mean? We are all human – right? Yes, and as humans, old or young, we are at the same time powerful and impotent, depending on circumstances and choices. This is even more true in a larp. Anni Tolvanen and James Lórien MacDonald (2020) talk about ensemble play and how important it is. But they are also aware of social bias in larps, and age is certainly part of it. No matter what you do you will meet players biased about your age. It cannot be avoided. Just like a lack of chemistry between players or bad weather, it is a part of life. But most of the time your co-players will be generous and kind, always remember that.

    Woman on the beach holding a staff
    Image of the author. Photo by Thursarn.

    So, when you play, remember this:

    • Be selfish – after all it is your own story in the larp that you are here to play.
    • Be kind – kindness is always important, repay the generosity of your fellow players.
    • Be curious – you think you know everything, have seen everything – but there is always something new to learn, new experiences to be had.

    And as a much wiser old witch informed a young friend of hers:

    If you want to amount to anything as a witch, Magrat Garlick, you got to learn three things. What’s real, what’s not real, and what’s the difference.((The quote is from Terry Pratchett’s Witches Abroad (Discworld 12) (Unfortunately I am closer to Nanny Ogg than Granny Weatherwax).))

    Tattooed woman on the beach
    Image of the author. Photo by Thursarn.

    Bibliography

    Michel Foucault (1987): Øvervakning och straff. Lund.

    Michel Foucault and Paul Rabinow (ed.) (1991): The Foucault Reader. Penguin Books.

    Anni Tolvanen and James Lórien MacDonald (2020): Ensemble Play. In What Do We Do When We Play, edited by Eleanor Saitta & al. Solmukohta 2020.

    Terry Pratchett (1991): Witches Abroad.

    Ludography

    Forbidden History: Paradise Lost (2023): Poland. Atropos.

    Lord of Lies (2021): Sweden. Atropos.

    The Quota (2018): United Kingdom. Avalon Larp Studio.

    A Nice Evening with the Family (2018): Sweden. Anna Westerling, Anders Hultman, Tobias Wrigstad, Anna-Karin Linder, Elsa Helin and Patrik Balint.

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

    Petersen, Inge-Mette. 2024. “Words of Advice from an Old Witch to Aging Larpers.” 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: by Jakub Zeman from Pixabay.

  • Experience vs. Imagination – Effects of Player Age

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    Experience vs. Imagination – Effects of Player Age

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    Larp is a broad-ranging hobby, covering a plethora of subjects and every situation and scenario under the sun, with participants aged from 8 to 80. It is often stated that imagination is the limit – that anyone can play any role – but is that the reality?

    We rely on the alibi of larp to allow us to play different roles, the acceptance that the reality of the characters and the setting may diverge from our perceptions. Young can play old and a school can be a spaceship, because we agree it is so.

    However, while in a fantasy larp the difference from our reality applies equally to all characters and their players, for larps set in the recent past this disconnect may be less clear-cut. One player’s fictional reality may be something that other players have actually lived through. In these larps, the player’s age and/or experiences may alter their experience and thus the actions of their character.

    Are age and generational experience something players and designers need to take into account, and if so, what impact do such factors have on play experience?

    Emotions and knowledge

    The 1980s and 1990s serve as the backdrop for a number of larps. In some, like Just a Little Lovin’ (aka JaLL, Norway 2011), which is set in the early years of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, the era is an integral part of the game narrative.

    For many designers and players, these years are just a retro era that provides a cool setting, something they have heard of from older members of their family, seen in TV shows like Stranger Things (USA 2016), or played in tabletop role-playing gamess like Tales from the Loop (Sweden 2017). But older players may have actually lived through these events, so their significance and the emotional associations older players have with them may greatly vary from those of younger players. Such associations may alter the play experience, leading to a bleed-in of personal experiences and emotions that in turn shape the character’s responses.

    A personal example from the UK run of JaLL: a 20-something co-player said the music of the early 1980s was cool and retro, but to me it was the music of my teenage years. It brought back personal memories and emotions of the era and its events and wasn’t just a piece of atmospheric set dressing. Another example is The Sisyphus (UK 2018), set in the early 1980s during the Falklands War. Many Brits experienced the conflict first-hand – I was a teenager and recall the news coverage – but for younger co-players, or those from overseas, it was a more abstract idea. My personal experience, my familiarity with the themes and events of the conflict coloured my perceptions of some aspects of the larp.

    In both JaLL and The Sisyphus I had prior knowledge of and an emotional connection to the setting that went beyond the material provided by the larp designers. In some regards that helped deepen my immersion – I didn’t need to imagine my response to these events and could draw on personal experiences to shape my character’s actions.

    However, the players’ personal connections to the events – e.g. knowing how they played out in the real world – can also be a distraction to the actual game. From a player perspective, the ideal would be to play only off what the character knows. But separating what the character knows (e.g. from briefing notes or workshops) and what the player knows (from personal experience) may not be a straightforward process. It’s also worth noting that strong emotional resonance with the setting of a larp isn’t limited solely to older players, but deeply personal associations are often more difficult to prepare for.

    Designing a larp set in a near-contemporary setting may require some consideration of the impact on players who actually lived through that era. Conversely, some larps may seek to exploit this personal connection. One example is the larp Reunion (UK 2023), which is set in both the late 1990s and modern day, with middle-aged players and characters. In such cases, the challenge may be to create an even experience between those players who lived through this particular period and those for whom it is a more abstract piece of history.

    Technology

    Cassette band on red background
    Photo by Daniel Schludi.

    The social and technological changes even within the 21st century can also lead to wildly different perceptions and experiences among players. Players in their 20s and 30s have had easy access to such modern technologies as mobile communications, the internet, and digital music their whole lives, which is not necessarily the case for older players. Going back even 25 years involves a massive shift in the availability of these technologies, making some near-contemporary larp settings almost an alien world to younger players. By contrast, older players may still recall those days and the challenges and activities associated with them, such as postal orders or cheques to send money, collect phone calls, dial-up modems, and library index cards.

    If these kinds of older technologies are to feature in a larp, designers may need to take steps to bridge the knowledge gap between younger and older players. Much like workshops explaining the social etiquette in a 1920s high society larp, there might need to be workshops for using the now obsolete technologies in retro-modern larps. A good example of this is Midsummer Disco (Germany 2023), set in the eighties, which had workshops explaining how to use some technologies of the era, such as how to use a cassette player – and how to rewind cassettes with a pencil!

    Physicality

    Player’s age has yet another impact on their play experience through their physical abilities. In school larps, such as College of Wizardry (Poland 2014), many play characters that are significantly younger than themselves. When larps have major physical elements such as sports matches, the players’ physical abilities may become a factor to consider. Can all such obstacles be cleared by imagination?

    In some larps, such as Legion: Siberian Story (Czech Republic 2014), this is clearly not an option. The physicality of marching and fighting in hostile conditions is an integral part of Legion and the physical reality of the player is the physical reality of the character (a significant challenge for this 50+ year old).

    But in other larps, imagination can be used to circumvent physical reality. In Avalon (Poland 2018), teenage characters raced to the top of a hill, fighting monsters, to capture a flag. Many of my younger co-players ran up the hill, but as a fifty-year-old player less physically capable of that feat, I instead slowly ambled up the hill. My 17-year-old character would have raced up that hill, and when asked about it later, no one disputed it when he said he had. Similarly, at Sahara (Tunisia 2020), some players did not participate in a long desert march but instead travelled to the next location via modern transport. It was agreed by all that these characters hadn’t vanished and miraculously reappeared, but had always been there with the others.

    Conclusions

    We should acknowledge that age can be a factor in play, be it because of differences in knowledge and experience or in the physical capabilities of the players. The ideal that anyone can play any role is a good aspiration, but it may not always be attainable. As a broad generalisation, it would be good to accept that older players may have more real-world experience to draw on in near-contemporary settings, whereas younger players may often be more physically capable. The ideal larp will blend the two, allowing players of all ages to combine their knowledge and experience into something greater than the individual parts.

    Ludography

    Avalon Larp Studio. Avalon. Poland, 2018.

    Carcossa Dreams. The Sisyphus. UK, 2018.

    Chaos League. Sahara. Tunisia, 2020.

    Dziobak Larp Studios. College of Wizardry. Poland, 2014.

    Edland, Tor Kjetil and Hanne Grasmo. Just A Little Lovin’. Norway, 2011.

    Hintze, Nils. Based on the art of Simon Stålenhag. Tales from the Loop. Sweden: Free League Publishing, 2017.

    On Location. Reunion. UK, 2023.

    Poltergeist LARP. Midsummer Disco. Germany, 2023.

    Rolling. Legion: Siberian Story. Czech Republic, 2014.

    Videography

    Duffer Brothers, Netflix. Stranger Things. USA, 2016.

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

    Hartford, Chris. 2024. “Experience vs Imagination – Effects of Player Age.” 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 Volodymyr Hryshchenko. Image has been cropped.

  • 10 (+1) Tips for Larpers Over 35

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    10 (+1) Tips for Larpers Over 35

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    [Editorial note: This article is intended as a parody. Please read it as such].

    1. Use your ageing body

    So you got some wrinkles now. Some grey hair. A sore back that doesn’t allow you to stand for too long. And a bad knee that doesn’t allow you to run. Instead of weeping over the past glory of your once young body, why not embrace the “war scars” and make them part of your backstory? And no, that does not mean that you are now obliged to play only older characters. What if the wrinkles are part of an ageing spell a witch once cast on you for trying to steal her partner? What if your hair turned prematurely grey overnight when your best friend died trying to save you from an assault? What if the bad knees are not due to age, but an “accident” you had while horse riding when a rival aristocrat sabotaged your stirrups to steal your seat in the council? Punchline: Less make-up on the face, more make-up on the backstory!

    2. Revamp older ideas

    Parthenogenesis rarely occurs in any form of art, larp included. That means larpers and larp designers often will “borrow” ideas from other forms of fiction, and that’s okay; but when the majority of larp enthusiasts have the same pop culture influences, things can and often will get repetitive. Well, guess what? You can actually bring some “innovation” into the fictional “gene pool”, merely by going further back into the past: Remember that old cartoon you were watching when you were 5, that youngsters these days haven’t even heard of? That series of comic books that are now out of print? That old b-movie that even its protagonist doesn’t remember having made? Dig up all the daguerreotypes and clay tablets from your back yard and borrow ideas from there… And have fun watching younger larpers get excited over how innovative and creative your imagination is!

    3. Stranger than fiction

    Another invaluable source of inspiration for characters and plots: Your own life. It might be a cliché, but life is stranger than fiction, and you’ve had a bigger share of life than most of the younger larpers (hence the wrinkles and “war scars” mentioned in Tip #1). So, go ahead and honour those wrinkles: Looking for a good villain character inspiration? How about that boss at your summer job when you were 19? Erratic character? How about that veteran hippie barista in the local pub of your old neighbourhood? Cunning character? How about that classmate of yours at university that managed to get a degree without ever opening a book? Epic adventure material? How about that camping weekend in the summer of 1989? Unfulfilled love material? How about that person from high school, remember their name? Yes, yes, of course you remember…

    4. Sit down noob, you’re in for a tale

    You were there when it all began. When the local larp community was first established in your area. When the first larp was run in the local park, and someone called the police on you. When the first article on larp appeared in the local newspaper and your relatives started making concerned phone calls to your parents after seeing your picture. You were there long before the younger larpers, and the stories you can share with them are wilder than their imagination (and probably funnier). Do share them! It will give them a more profound perspective on their beloved hobby, bond the community around its shared history, and make you look like a respected war veteran in their eyes. So go ahead, put that “I was there, Gandalf…” look on your face and mesmerize them!

    5. Back in my day…

    …However, beware of the trap of the glorious veteran: Just share the tales. Do not turn them into a lesson. Yes, of course back in your day things were different. Things felt different, sounded different, tasted different, were done differently… And yes, maybe some things were better back then. Maybe times were more innocent, less digitalized, less complicated, or more complicated… But that does not mean things are less meaningful now. Allow evolution to take place. Yes, even in your favourite hobby. Experience its innovation and creativity. And if not, well, then at least let the younger larpers enjoy it without judging them.

    6. Take your youth supplement

    George Bernard Shaw said that “we don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing”. Wise words that probably do not scare any larper! Larping is keeping us young, and all larpers probably have a very good relationship with their inner child. However, do you know what else can help keep us young, apart from larp itself? That’s right, hanging out with younger larpers. And not just hanging out to share our epic tales of yore (see Tip#4) or, even worse, tell them how things should be done (see Tip #5). Just hanging out to listen. To learn. To gain a more fresh perspective on things. To understand how the newer generations are thinking. Just hanging out… and absorbing the fresh, revitalizing air of youth. Or the fresh, revitalizing blood of youth, if you’re into vampire larps.

    7. Keep up with the lingo

    If you follow the advice of Tip #6, you will probably very soon face an unforeseen problem: You may very well not comprehend a substantial part of what they are saying! Depending on the age difference and the general amount of time you spend with young people in your everyday life, the percentage of unknown words may vary between 20% and 70%. Especially if you also communicate with them via texts and chats, you will also be faced with incomprehensible abbreviations that look more like secret codes or commands in some unknown programming language. This point is crucial: Do not get disappointed and do not give up! If you feel comfortable, ask for a translation. If not, Google is your friend. In any case, soon you will be proficient in a whole new world of slang, meta pop-references, memes and cool ways to feel 10 years younger when you’re texting.

    8. Don’t be everyone’s parent

    Another trap to be aware of if you end up forming close relationships with younger larpers. Do you want to form friendships? Great! But beware… no matter what you do… no matter how much you end up caring for these people… do yourself (and them) the favour of not becoming their parent! It may sound funny at first, but it’s a tricky balance to keep. Because, let’s face it. They don’t have your experience. They probably don’t have your maturity. And they may be vulnerable, still at a phase in their lives where they’re struggling to make sense of themselves and life in general. They can probably use all the care and love you are willing to genuinely give them. But becoming their babysitter will not allow them to grow, and will not allow you to enjoy your hobby. If you ever feel you may have fallen in this trap, consider saving a stray cat or dog instead, or get yourself some house plants.

    9. Larpers and larps growing old together

    Larp is, by definition, a hobby created by us, for us. As we grow older, more mature, and more experienced, or simply as we evolve and become different people than those we were yesterday, it is up to us to make sure our hobby can keep up with our development. The characters you are used to playing don’t feel meaningful anymore? Time for new character development. The larps you used to enjoy don’t thrill you anymore? Maybe it’s time for exploring new themes. Are you a larp designer, or are you in close contact with one? Contribute to creating new larps that speak to the psyches of the gradually maturing larp community. And if that means adding a little bit more of existential dread, grief and loss, and contemplations on the passing of time in the equation, so be it! We were never here only for the joyous themes, right?

    10. Energy management

    Approaching the end of this list, a message from your local physician: Take care of your body while larping. That is of course true for younger larpers as well, but, you know, they are still at the phase where they think they are invulnerable. Take care of yourself, so that you can keep enjoying your favourite hobby for many more years to come. Take breaks if you’re in a multiple-day event or festival. Take your vitamins if the gameplay is demanding. Don’t push yourself over your limits, not even the greatest larp of your life is worth you collapsing at the end. And lastly, don’t forget to hydrate!

    11. And for the end, the obligatory cliché…

    Just be yourself, enjoy larp, and make sure others enjoy it too. It may be a cliché, but it is timeless and ageless, just like you. 😉

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

    This article is published in the companion book Book of Magic: Vibrant Fragments of Larp Practices and is published here with permission. Please cite this text as:

    Diakolambrianou, Elektra. “10 (+1) Tips for Larpers Over 35.” In Book of Magic: Vibrant Fragments of Larp Practices, edited by Kari Kvittingen Djukastein, Marcus Irgens, Nadja Lipsyc, and Lars Kristian Løveng Sunde. Oslo, Norway: Knutepunkt, 2021.

  • A Ramble in Five Scenes

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    A Ramble in Five Scenes

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    She strode down the stairs, purpose forgotten in the new surroundings. She had done what she had never expected to do: signed up for the kind of event she had never been part of before, and travelled to Poland on her own. Until now it had been an amazing experience, perhaps the first of many.

    I have always thought of my body as my own, not something other people could own. Often it seems that I have more control of my body than my mind. Maybe that is why I have marked it with wolves and birds, lines and symbols. But the body is a canvas that can be filled out. At the time I played my first larp it almost was.

    Being part of a larp is an exhilarating experience. For a few days of your life you can be a queen or a pauper, a whore or a nun. But as you play more games you start to realize there is a price to pay, rules you must follow, parts you must play. As time passes you learn, and you start to make choices. And when you become as old as I am, your life’s experience and the knowledge you have achieved will be part of your game.

    And so, it begins.

    The author at Fairweather Manor 4 (2018). Photo by Dziobak Studios.

    Memory

    They came for us in the early evening. We were hurled into a bus; they only gave us time to collect the most necessary things. We were not told where we were going, why this was happening to us. After some time, the bus stopped, and we were unloaded. The officials processed us and led us into the stadium. I am here now, looking at faces I have seen before and faces I do not recognize; waiting for the next move, the next atrocity.

    I remember the real faces of the refugees from Pinochet’s Chile and the coup d’etat in 1973. I met them in 1978 just after I had moved to Copenhagen, young and without even the trace of an idea of what they had been through. I lived at Øresundskollegiet with the guy I would later marry. Just down the hall from us lived a famous Chilean harpist. We could hear her play when we came home.

    As time passed some of the refugees stayed. Others went to other countries or back home when it became possible. But their memory stayed with me. A memory, something that is part of your personal life or history, can be the trigger that allows you to realize the true horror of being lost in a situation you cannot control, whether it is a detention center on the Welsh border or a prisoner in Villa Grimaldi in Chile. You start to recognize the same patterns in society today. This is part of the magic.

    Larping can be an incredibly self-indulgent experience, even the very unpleasant scenarios.  Fulfilling my dreams and desires has never been enough for me. Hugaas and Bowman (2019) write in their “Butterfly Effect Manifesto” that bringing a personal experience into your character can have a profound effect on your game. You may think that being an older person also means that this transformative experience is no longer possible. You are wrong. No matter how old you are, it is never too late. So use your experience to create change in your life and your community.

    People huddled in coats and hats on arena chairs
    The author in Desaparecidos by Terre Spezzate (2019).

    Weakness

    She had failed them all, her husband, her daughters, her family. For years she had been silent, never complaining, always supportive of her husband, even when they had to leave their grand home in the country to live in this shoddy apartment in the city.  Why had she let it come to this? Why had she not said ‘no’ a long time ago? Now everything was gone, everyone had left her.

    Families are perhaps the most complex organism to use as the background for a larp. That complexity also makes them the perfect place for murder and mayhem, either symbolic or real. I have met and recognized parts of me that are different from how I normally perceive myself. I have met and played with amazing sons and daughters. Not just as the maternal figure who always supports her family, but sometimes also the monster. Sometimes you meet your own bad personal choices, your weakness in personal relationships, your failures in connection with your children or your family. I certainly did when I met this character.

    I always wish for an older character given the choice. I larp because I want to learn about myself and maybe change the person I am now, warts and all – not the person I was a long time ago.  Some of your choices in life may be wrong. As a human being, you constantly lie to yourself about your life and your relationships. In larps, you are sometimes forced to confront the bad choices and the lies. Often they will bleed into your character and be part of how you react to your “family.” You may not realize it until later, but they will come back to haunt you.

    Photo of a seated woman in a dress in a room with floral wallpaper
    The author at A Nice Evening With the Family (2018) by Anders Hultman and Anna Westerling. Photo by Caroline Holgersson.

    Choices

    My dear daughters,

    I think this will be the last letter I write to you. As you have probably already seen, I am now part of the Countdown Show, waiting to be killed. There is only one survivor and I very much doubt that it will be me at the moment. We are slowly being decimated person by person, but the violence has been hidden away, only visible in short outbursts. But enough about me – how are you doing? I hope my mother is looking after you both. If I am lucky, you now have her fame and are living in a nicer neighborhood. So, this will be my final goodbye. I hope you may have a better life than me and make better choices. — Your always loving Mum.

    In this game I am a woman who is caught in a reality show from hell. Her every move is seen by a whole nation, including her mother and her children. Every move she makes is on a knife’s edge. She is incredibly lonely even in the crowd. Every choice she makes will be recorded; the future of her children will depend on these choices.

    Children are important and having children is a joy.  Even when you reach my age you will still be apprehensive. As time goes by you will also learn the fear of losing them, of not being a good enough parent. And you will make mistakes. I used this knowledge to give strength to my character, to make her into a fighter. Love is often part of larps, but mostly as romantic love. The love between parents and children is different. It can be strong or weak, and is often accompanied by loss and misery on both sides. It is dangerous territory but if you want to dive deep into your character it is an interesting place to explore. You can dive into the magic of fairy tales and mythology and be a good mother, a bad stepmother, or a fairy Godmother – your choice. But when you meet someone like me – remember that being old also means that I have been all of these and more.

    Gluttony and Greed

    Menu for the summer party at a country estate around 1800

    Lunch

    Vegetable soup

    Salad

    Pie (meat, vegetable)

    Cold meat and fish (ham etc.)

    Bread and butter

    She was up early because the bread had to be prepared for the guests. Next she had to prepare the vegetable soup that his Lordship always insisted had to be served at lunch. An old friend had told him that it was good for the stamina required for the excesses experienced during the evenings and nights. This was the best time of the day. She enjoyed the quiet, the music and the occasional guest coming down for a cup of coffee. 

    Sometimes you can use personal work experience and knowledge collected through a lifetime as part of a larp. I know a lot about historic food. I was the cook at the summer party of Lord Mander at his country estate for the two runs of Libertines. The food had to be solid country fare, appropriate for keeping up the stamina of the house guests, something required of a true Libertine. The food was based on recipes from the era and served a la francaise, with all the dishes on the table at the same time. Luckily, I was blessed with a great kitchen staff, without whom this would not have been possible. But this was a larp, not reenactment,((As an old reenactor I agree with Harviainen (2011) in his differentiation between larp and reenactment.)) the food was not the center of the play and I was the cook, not a player – or was I? An old woman will have a certain role in this scenario: the undesired but all-knowing procuress or mother.((Angela Carter writes about this in The Sadeian Woman (1979).)) As the days went by, the line blurred.

    I used my experience to create the meals, but not the play around the dinner table. Still, the meals were part of the different acts of this play, almost like a ritual. The outcome is prewritten, but the participants create their own story using their own knowledge and experience just as I used mine. It created a special and safe magic circle, where you can take risks. Libertines did just that – and I like to play with fire.((More about this in Bettina Beck and Aaron Vanek’s (2018) “Let’s Play with Fire! Using Risk and its Power for Personal Transformation.”))

    Photo of a person chopping potatoes in 1700s clothing with others behind them, their hands to their faces
    The author at Libertines (2019) by Atropos Studio. Photo by Carl Nordblom.

    Age

    Love was easy for you; you had always known that you were beautiful in the eyes of others. When you looked in the mirror you saw what others saw. But now you are beginning to see another person in the cracked mirror, a skinny and haggard woman hiding beneath the doll’s face and dress. Will you always be loved even when you are no longer beautiful? And will you be able to connect and love anyone but yourself – and who are you?

    (Trial for a larp character in a larp not yet written)

    Larp is magic. If you dare to invest yourself and use your knowledge you can be part of the magic no matter how old you are, how broken your body.((But there is a physical limit that you must respect.)) I have presented you with ephemera from some of the larps I have attended since I started in 2016. Each piece represents an aspect of my journey, a piece to the puzzle. Together they represent aspects of what I already am, what I already know. They are also tools to be used in a personal journey. Jonaya Kemper (2020) talks about “wyrding the self.” She describes it like this: “When one does wyrd the self, they seek out emancipatory bleed, steer for liberation and investigate themselves through the lens of play.” But you can not do this by yourself.

    I am one of the wyrd sisters, forever toiling, forever looking for trouble.

    Come play with me!

    References

    Beck, Bettina, and Aaron Vanek. 2018. “Let’s Play with Fire! Using Risk and its Power for Personal Transformation.” Nordiclarp.org, March 1.

    Carter, Angela. 2015. The Sadeian Woman and the Ideology of Pornography. Virago, November 5.

    Harviainen, J. Tuomas. 2011. ”The Larping that is Not Larp.” In Think Larp: Academic Writings from KP2011, edited by Thomas D. Henriksen, Christian Bierlich, Kasper Friis Hansen, and Valdemar Kølle. Copenhagen, Denmark: Rollespilsakademiet.

    Hugaas, Kjell Hedgard, and Sarah Lynne Bowman. 2019. “The Butterfly Effect Manifesto.” Nordiclarp.org, August 20.

    Kemper, Jonaya. 2020. “Wyrding the Self.” In What Do We Do When We Play?, edited by Eleanor Saitta, Jukka Särkijärvi, and Johanna Koljonen. Helsinki, Finland: Solmukohta. Available at: https://nordiclarp.org/2020/05/18/wyrding-the-self/

    Cover photo: Photo of the author at Countdown (2019) by Not Only Larp. Photo by Martin Østlie Lindelien. Photo has been cropped.

    This article will be published in the upcoming companion book Book of Magic and is published here with permission. Please cite this text as:

    Petersen, Inge-Mette. 2021. “A Ramble in Five Scenes.” In Book of Magic, edited by Kari Kvittingen Djukastein, Marcus Irgens, Nadja Lipsyc, and Lars Kristian Løveng Sunde. Oslo, Norway: Knutepunkt, 2021. (In press).