Larp organizers have learned a thing or two about organizing scenarios. How have we applied those skills during the COVID-19 pandemic?
If nothing else, larping means engagement. Players invest themselves in bringing made-up characters to life, mapping a fictional world onto our real world. During the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic of the past several years, engagement became a scarce commodity.
Every organization, be it schools or businesses or governments, wanted to re-engage with its constituency who, through pandemic isolation and general neoliberal precarity, had understandably become detached from society and lacked the necessary motivation to do most activities of institutional benefit. You know: all of us.
Ironically, just as we ourselves as larpers could no longer gather – since our events are natural super-spreaders of any number of diseases, including COVID-19 – my own larp expertise began to be called upon as an asset and skillset. I started getting messages from Fortune 500 companies and major news outlets about this thing called “larp,” which could then be leveraged to win back – you guessed it – engagement from their customers, students, and volunteers.
My tales of pandemic-era collaborations in non-larp and larp-adjacent contexts highlight both the very special medium (of larp) with which we work, as well as the limitations of such collaborations.
Screenshot of the crucial Zoom call in which University of Cincinnati students role-played cardinals electing a pope.
Temptemus Papam
The 1492 Papal Election was an absolute shitshow, and I ran it as an online larp for a history class at my university.
The conversation began in fall 2020 when Dr. Susan Longfield-Karr in the History department at the University of Cincinnati reached out to me as Director of the UC Game Lab about running a “papal election larp” called Temptemus Papam that famous SF author and historian Ada Palmer ran at University of Chicago in 2018. I took one look at the materials as a larpwright and was overwhelmed: over 50 character sheets 6-12 pages in length, with many different overlapping subsystems for combat, intrigue, religious favors, economics, and inheritance. Hundreds upon hundreds of pages lay before me, all during a time when my own patience for this much reading was stretched to its natural limits. I agreed to do the project on one condition: I would need to substantively pare down the material and scope of the game, in addition to adapting it to a remote experience rather than an in-person one. Dr. Longfield-Karr agreed. The UC Papal Election Game was born.
We transformed Temptemus Papam into a correspondence game, like the old play-by-mail Diplomacy runs. Over the course of 8 weeks, player-characters would exchange virtual letters with each other while sending “orders” for any character action to me. Every week, a video would be posted online with updates and the results of the previous week’s orders, giving the players a sense of agency and impact. All of these videos and the letters would be stored in a shared online folder, from which the passive players taking on the roles of historians could assemble the history of this particular election based on player-generated “primary documents.”
Dr. Longfield-Karr and I tapped into 2 different funds available to us and hired ourselves a larp team: history student Matthew Photides made hundreds upon hundreds of shared folders to deposit letter correspondence, Erich Pfingstag made the videos, and Felicity Moran assisted with student communication. We had intrigue, kidnapping attempts, and even a few cat-and-mouse murders as letters flew.
Several faculty playing NPCs got very involved in their characters, leading me to believe that participant safety is equally important for non-players. Two Zoom meetings let us first conduct the papal election, and then inaugurate the new pope, who turned out to be Rodrigo Borgia, the very person actually elected pope in 1492.
One of the many shared online folders containing letter correspondence in the UC Papal Election Game.
D&D Speed Dating
Shared-folder correspondence was only one form of online larping I organized. Another was in the long-standing virtual community Second Life, as part of the event SLarpFest organized by Celia Pearce and Jenn Frank in 2021 at the IndieCade island. The game I ran was Marc Majcher’s First Impressions, a Dungeons & Dragons-style speed-dating larp from his book Twenty-Four Game Poems.
The premise of the game is simple: a group of fantasy adventurers go on a series of “dates” to determine whom they’d like to include in their questing party. Players get to embody fairly basic fantasy stereotypes while also deepening their own relationships with each other –– often role-players whom they’ve just met. In-person at conventions, I can run the game for 8 people in about an hour. The reason why I run it at conventions is also the reason why it worked well in Second Life: it’s short and it helps people navigate an awkward social situation. Most of our players knew either Second Life or larp, but almost no one knew both well. They’d switch partners maybe 3 or 4 times, with me calling them back to the tavern each time.
Players felt safe enough to experiment with their avatars and their roleplay without too much worry about the stakes or consequences. First Impressions in fact served as a “warm-up” larp for other, more intimate and serious SLarpFest games: Angel Falls, a funeral larp inspired by Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire (1987) by Pearce, Frank, and Annika Waern, Athena Peters’ Regency matchmaking game Romancing Jan, and The Sleepover by Julia B. Ellingboe and Kat Jones from the Honey and Hot Wax anthology, which deals with teen queerness and sexuality.
All of us at SLarpFest were veteran larp organizers, and thus understood the relationship of comfort, safety, and community-building even in an online space: seemingly “silly” games like First Impressions build the trust necessary to take further role-play risks. Many of us have been running games on Discord, Zoom, and now Second Life for several pandemic rules, and our previous in-person larp experience directly applies to building necessary trust and competence in online spheres.
Ongoing and Upwards
Organizing continues! Jones and I have joined the writing team for JEWEL, a 2-day interactive experience for Jewish teens in Cincinnati. We’re using the larp design toolbox to help plan an event in which the participants experience Moses’ teachings and then mourn at his funeral. JEWEL is intended to reconnect Jewish youth with the social-justice meanings and embodied nature of their beliefs. But it is also an opportunity. JEWEL lets us take part in an exciting new world of event planning, in which larp activities can be integrated into broader community events with large constituencies and deeper pockets.
“Larping exists in various other activities besides larps,” wrote J. Tuomas Harviainen in his 2011 article “The Larping that is Not Larp.” This persistent fact is solace during a time in which we’ve all become radically separated from one another and larps themselves are endangered by logistical and pandemic-level uncertainties. Our own generation of larpwrights are now, voluntarily or not, performing what Rudi Dutschke called “the long march through the institutions”: the incorporation of larping into whatever organizations we serve, with whomever will take a chance on our vibrant and evolving form.
These organizations have, at last, discovered that engagement isn’t to be taken for granted. We as larpwrights can now choose to engage, too.
References
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.
Cover photo: SLarpFest attendees hang out in the tavern on the IndieCade island in Second Life. Photo by Celia Pearce. Image 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:
Torner, Evan. 2022. “Pandemic Larp Improvisation.” In Distance of Touch: The Knutpunkt 2022Magazine, edited by Juhana Pettersson, 78-82. Knutpunkt 2022 and Pohjoismaisen roolipelaamisen seura.
Can the use of live action role plays (larps) be beneficial in the leadership training at the Royal Norwegian Naval Academy (RNNA)? This is the question I asked myself the autumn of 2019, as I began the work with my bachelor thesis in Military Studies, Operational Branch. Having played and designed larps since the summer of 2010, personal experience told me that larps hold great potential for personal development. At the same time, I missed more opportunities for practising leadership skills in my own education at the RNNA. To find an answer to the question above, I designed five larp sessions and ran them with the class of 2019-2022 at the RNNA. This article seeks to present what I found in my bachelor’s degree with a main focus on the larps.
Cadets on board the tall ship Statsraad Lehmkuhl participating in a larp session. Photo by the author.
Introduction
Military personnel are required to perform in times of crisis and war. These situations are characterized by complexity and uncertainty (Boe, 2016). Because the situations are too vast for one person to grasp alone, teams become necessary. For a team to function under such circumstances, the teamwork has to be robust (Sjøvold, 2006). This requires the team members to be capable of showing role flexibility. In this context, role flexibility refers to 1) the ability to read a situation and choose the appropriate behaviour to move the team towards their goal and 2) the range of behaviours one can comfortably choose from (Sjøvold, 2007). In order for a team to reach its full potential, four functions – nurture, control, opposition and dependence – must all be in harmony. Every team member should ideally be able to exercise behaviour that supports each function (Sjøvold, 2014).
Figure 1: The Balance of the Basic Group Functions in the Systematizing Person-Group Relations Model.
Educating officers who are capable of being role flexible, is however not a given. The natural tendency for members of newly formed groups is to fall back on roles they are comfortable and familiar with and staying there (Sjøvold, 2006). In this context, a role refers to Endre Sjøvold’s explanation of the word: “In an interaction, we have certain expectations regarding how others should behave. Such expectations of behaviour is called a role when they fulfil certain basic functions in a group” (Sjøvold, 2006). The pressure to succeed during training at the RNNA is great. This leads the cadets to fall back on behaviours and leadership styles with which they have previously had success, as opposed to trying new angles. This social pressure and the fear of failing hold the team members back from going outside their comfort zones, and thus hinders them from widening their behavioural spectrum. When this happens, a team’s success will consequently usually depend on one or a few strong team members who keep the team together (Sjøvold, 2006). I hypothesised that larps could be a solution to the challenge of developing role flexibility, as it offers a way to remove the barriers that hold team members back.
In a larp, the participants play out fictitious characters. The characters might inhabit traits that the participants want to practise or explore (Waade, 2006). By giving the cadets the alibi of a character within a fictitious context, the social pressures connected to the cadets’ personas can be removed. The responsibility for any failures within the larp falls on the characters. This can offer the cadets a safe arena to practise in, and adds a framework for direct feedback. When the social pressures that normally hold the cadets back were removed through larp, I hypothesised that they would dare to challenge themselves in roles with which they were uncomfortable. This in turn, could lead to them developing their role flexibility and make them robust members of their teams.
I worked with three hypotheses:
The cadets will become more role flexible after completing five larp sessions.
The cadets who are positively inclined towards the larp sessions and choose to play characters that challenge them will have the greatest development in their spectrum of behaviours.
The cadets who are positively inclined towards the larp sessions will have the greatest development in their ability to observe situations and select an appropriate behaviour.
Limitations
Due to the scope of the thesis, it was not possible to examine the long term effects of the larp sessions, which might differ from the short term results. Even though it is likely that the role plays had other effects than those on role flexibility, these are not examined here.
Research Process
Table 1: Timeline showing the research process
The research process began in December 2019. I designed many alternative larps scenarios with the goal of helping the cadets develop their ability to show role flexibility. Due to practical reasons, the sessions had to be run aboard the tall ship Statsraad Lehmkuhl while it crossed the Atlantic Ocean. The sessions were executed with the first year students in the class of 2019-2022, 64 students in total, 9 women and 55 men. They were divided according to their already existing teams of 7-8 members, which they remained part of for the duration of a year. Each team consisted of one woman and the rest men.
The framework for each session was as follows:
Goal: increase the participants’ role flexibility Purpose: educate capable officers Number of participants: 7-9 Target audience: military cadets with no prior experience with larp or theatre Time: 70 minutes Location: one room with a table and chairs
The tall ship Statsraad Lehmkuhl. Photo by the author.
In the end, the strict time constraint led to a design that focused almost completely on role flexibility, cutting away any elements not contributing to this. On January 27th 2020 two of the scenarios I chose were playtested with 16 students at Metis High School in Bergen. Though the high school students were younger than the cadets and not organized in teams the same way, the playtest still gave a general feel for how a group with no prior experience with larp would react to them. Through a questionnaire filled out by the students and an in-depth interview with one of them, valuable feedback was acquired, and the sessions adjusted accordingly. One of the larp sessions was playtested a second time on February 1st 2020 at the Norwegian larp festival Spillerom. These participants were all experienced larpers. Feedback was also received from this group, and some final adjustments were made.
The results of all the planning were three scenarios that were played over five larp sessions with each team. Every larp session consisted of a workshop, a larp and a debrief. During the larps half of the team played characters, while the other half trained observation skills. The participants who trained observation skills received an observation form written for one character they were going to pay special attention to, and took notes during the larp. The workshop and debrief were the same for the whole team. I personally ran all of the sessions. I played the role of “supervisor” in the larps, assigning the characters a task at the beginning of the larp and requesting a solution at the end. Sometimes a superior officer would sit in and provide additional feedback during the debrief.
Table 2: The structure of the larp sessions
The characters were written with one of the four base functions – nurture, control, opposition or dependence – at its core. The character sheets were one-pagers containing a character name; a “title” describing the type (for example the grandparent, the analytic, the inspirator, etc); a base function (nurture, control, opposition, etc); three keywords (business-like, effective, conforming, etc); two personal goals (keeping things the way they have always been, become the new boss of the company, etc); relations to the other characters; and finally a list of suggested actions (mimic others, ask how they are feeling, give praise, help and comfort, give a hug, etc).Typical traits from each function were exaggerated.
The scenarios were set in civilian settings, and were themselves designed to not take too much focus; the main focus was on practising the behaviours connected to the function each character represented. During the workshop, I gave a short presentation of each character. The cadets could then choose which character they wanted to play, and were encouraged to pick characters they thought would challenge them. They also made suggestions for what roles their teammates should practice based on their areas with potential for improvement. However, there were a limited number of characters for each larp, so everyone didn’t get the character they wanted the most every time.
The debriefs were an important part of the sessions, as a lot of learning happens when we reflect on past experiences (Lindholm, 2006). In this part, the cadets shared reflections from the scenarios and got feedback from the observers on points where they had succeeded in portraying their character. I also shared my own observations, and encouraged discussion around certain situations and topics. We tried to relate what happened in the larp to situations in real life where similar issues could arise, and how these could be handled.
Table 3: Overview of the five larp sessions each team participated in
Research Design
In order to determine the effects of the larp sessions, I used a pre-test post- test comparison-group design. I compared the development of two classes. The class of 2019-2022 participated in the five larp sessions. The class of 2018-2021 was used as a non-equivalent control group. The two classes included 124 cadets in total, and 116 of the students consented to their data being used in the research (including all the cadets from the class of 2019-2022).
Before the larp sessions, a Systematizing Person- Group Relation (SPGR) test was performed. The SPGR method is an operationalization of the spin theory and can be applied as a tool to illustrate the dynamics in a group. The spin theory perceives group dynamics as a balance phenomenon. It states that there is no one group dynamic that is ideal; the context is what determines which dynamic is useful in any given situation. In order for a team to reach its full potential, four functions – nurture, control, opposition and dependence – must all be in harmony (Sjøvold, 2014). SPGR tests have been used for several years at the RNNA to map the group dynamics within the teams and as a starting point for discussions around the topic. The test itself consists of a form where the team members rate how often they have observed certain behaviours in each other since the last test. Based on these ratings, each team member receives a score. This score can be represented in a coordinate system with an x, y and z-axis. A high z-score is considered desirable, as it signifies influence within the team and an ability to balance the four different functions within the group – nurturing, dependence, control and opposition. Sjøvold describes a high z-score as an indicator of robustness and role flexibility within a group (Sjøvold, 2006). The z-value was used as a measurement for role flexibility in the research.
The cadets filled in a questionnaire after the larp sessions. This consisted of 23 questions, and was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of the training in addition to getting feedback on how to improve the sessions in the future. Some days after the last larp session, a second SPGR-test was performed.
One of the teams playing a larp. They have their character sheets with suggestions for actions in front of them, most using them actively during the larp. Photo by the author.
Results and Discussion
This part presents the most central results from the research, and a short discussion on each hypothesis. If the reader wishes more details, please refer to the bachelor’s thesis this article is based on (Jensen, 2020).
Hypothesis 1
“The cadets will become more role flexible after completing five larp sessions.”
To determine if there had been any significant development in the ability to show role flexibility in the class of 2019-2022 – the class which took part in the larp sessions – as a whole, a paired samples t-test was carried out. The mean score on the z-axis was higher on the second SPGR-test (M= 0,88, SD = 3,124) than the first SPGR-test(M=0,27, SD=3,497). The difference was statistically significant***, with a mean increase of 0,609 of the z-score, CI[0,263, 0,956], t(63)=3,514, p<0,001, d=0,44. This means that a statistically significant development in the ability to show role flexibility had taken place in the class of 2019-2022 as a whole.
Figure 2: Visual representation of the mean z-scores of the class of 2019-2022 before and after the larp sessions.
To examine if this development was statistically greater than in the class of the previous year, 2018-2021, an independent samples t-test was performed. This test did not yield any significant difference in the development of the z-score in the class of 2019-2022 (Mean score=0,61) compared to that of 2018-2021 (Mean score=0,73), showing a mean difference of 0,12. This could indicate that the larp sessions had little or no influence on the class as a whole, and that hypothesis number 1 should be rejected.
Nevertheless, this cannot be concluded with certainty. There are several examples of previous classes at the RNNA where development has differed greatly between classes, in spite of seemingly similar frameworks (Nissestad, 2007). Furthermore, 40,6 percent of the cadets reported that their spectrum of behaviours had been broadened as a result of their participation in the larp sessions. 65,6 percent of the cadets reported that their ability to observe other cadets had improved as a result of their participation in the larp sessions. These numbers indicate that the development the cadets experienced not exclusively could be attributed to other factors on board.
Figure 3: Visual representation of the responses to the statement “My spectrum of behaviours has been broadened as a consequence of my participation in the larp sessions”.
Figure 4: Visual representation of the responses to the statement “My ability to observe the other cadets aboard has improved as a consequence of my participation in the larp sessions”.
Based on this, it was concluded that hypothesis number 1 should be partially accepted.
Hypothesis 2
“The cadets who are positively inclined towards the larp sessions and choose to play characters that challenge them will have the greatest development in their spectrum of behaviours”
Those who are motivated in a learning situation are prone to learn more, and so I hypothesised that the cadets that felt positively inclined towards the larp sessions would learn more than those who felt negatively inclined (Volet & Järvelä, 2001). Furthermore, a prerequisite for broadening the behavioural spectrum is stepping outside one’s comfort zone (Sjøvold, 2007). Due to this, I also included that the cadets who felt challenged by the characters they played would develop the most.
The second hypothesis was examined using both results from the questionnaire and the SPGR-tests. I worked with four groups of cadets, those who were:
Negatively inclined towards the sessions and played roles that were not challenging (N=16)
Negatively inclined towards the sessions and played roles that were challenging (N=6)
Positively inclined towards the sessions and played roles that were not challenging (N=10)
Positively inclined towards the sessions and played roles that were challenging (N=28)
A Kruskal-Wallis H test was conducted to determine if there were differences in self-reported broadening of the behavioural spectrum between four groups of cadets (Figure 3, 1=completely disagree, 5=completely agree). This data was acquired from the questionnaire. The test revealed a statistically significantly difference between group a) the cadets who were negatively inclined towards the sessions and played roles that were not challenging (Median = 2,50), and group d) the participants who were positively inclined towards the sessions and played roles that they found challenging (Median=4,00), p<0,0005.
Figure 5: Visual representation of the distribution of the responses from figure 3 according to the four groups.
Figure 6: The median and mean scores in self-reported broadening of the behavioural spectrum, showing values from figure 5.
A mixed two-way ANOVA examining the development of the ability to show role flexibility among various groups using the z-score as the measurement showed similar results. This data originated from the SPGR-tests. The results are illustrated in the figure below.
Figure 7: Graphs displaying the mean z-scores in the different groups before and after the larp sessions.
Figure 7 shows us that the groups who felt most challenged by the characters they played also had the lowest z-scores to begin with. This might indicate that the larp sessions in their current form are most beneficial to those with the least developed ability to show role flexibility to begin with. A general linear model procedure for the simple main effects of time showed that group d) the positively inclined and challenged cadets, saw a statistically significant*** effect of time on the z-score, F(1, 27)=18,481, p<0,0005, partial η2=0,406. This means that group d) was the only group which had a statistically significant development from the first measurement to the second.
Figure 8: The same z-scores as shown in figure 7, here in greater detail.
This data shows us that a statistically significantly greater development happened in the cadets who were positively inclined towards the larp sessions and who played characters that challenged them compared to the negatively inclined cadets who played characters they found unchallenging.
This leads us to the conclusion that hypothesis number 2 should be accepted.
Hypothesis 3
“The cadets who are positively inclined towards the larp sessions will have the greatest development in their ability to observe situations and select an appropriate behaviour.”
Like in hypothesis number 2, it was predicted that the participants who felt motivated would learn more during the sessions. A Mann-Whitney U test showed statistically significantly** higher self-reported observation development scores in the positively inclined cadets (Mdn= 4,00) compared to the negatively inclined cadets (Mdn=3,50). The numbers are from figure 4, “My ability to observe the other cadets aboard has improved as a consequence of my participation in the larp sessions” (1= completely disagree, 5 = completely agree).
Figure 9: Population pyramid from the Mann-Whitney U test, showing the distributing of the answers to the question in figure 4 based on inclination towards the larp sessions.
Figure 10: The numbers from the independent-samples Mann Whitney U test illustrated in figure 9.
These results are based on the cadets’ self-reported development, and a weakness is that they could be influenced by personal biases. However, the results seem plausible based on learning theory and logical deduction.
Based on this, it was concluded that hypothesis number 3 should be accepted.
Benefits other than those concerning role flexibility
As stated in the limitations, the scope of the article does not leave much room to examine the other possible benefits of the larp sessions other than those concerning role flexibility. It should however be mentioned that 78,1 percent of the cadets probably or definitely would recommend the larp sessions to another cadet if asked. As this number is much higher than those who reported to have had benefits concerning broadening of the behavioural spectrum and the ability to observe, it suggests that other benefits were experienced. Indeed, gaining a better understanding of the spin theory, acquiring new perspectives and achieving a greater understanding of group dynamics were reported in the questionnaire by several cadets when asked what they learned from the sessions.
Figure 11: Visual representation of the responses to the statement “I would recommend the larp sessions to another cadet if asked” from the questionnaire.
Conclusion
The following was concluded in regard to the hypotheses:
The cadets will become more role flexible after completing five larp sessions
=> Partially accepted
The cadets who are positively inclined towards the larp sessions will have the greatest development in their ability to observe situations and select an appropriate behaviour
=> Accepted
The cadets who are positively inclined towards the larp sessions and choose to play characters that challenge them will have the greatest development in their spectrum of behaviours
=> Accepted
Based on this and the fact that almost four out of five cadets would recommend the larp sessions to another cadet if asked, the answer to the research question is:
Yes, the use of larp can be beneficial in the leadership training at the RNNA.
Considering the conclusion, my recommendation was to keep the larp sessions in the training of future cadets at the RNNA. Based on the feedback from the cadets, I also recommended some changes to the sessions. These changes included creating five unique scenarios instead of replaying two of them. By replaying the scenarios with different players, I had hoped that recognizability and repetition would promote learning. However, as the cadets pointed out, this effect was achieved by having recognizable characters. Furthermore, the cadets desired more characters to choose from in each scenario, so everyone could practise the traits they wanted. I think this would be very interesting to try, though I have some reservations as this would make for some very unpredictable dynamics within the larps. The only way to know if it could work is to try! Finally, I recommended exploring the possibility of including more subject matter learning into the scenarios. I think this could help motivate a greater part of the cadet mass to participate, though I would only advise adding more to the scenarios if more time is allowed. My main concern with including more subject matter or making the scenarios more like a military mission is the challenge regarding staying in character with so little time to prepare. Keep in mind that each session only lasted 70 minutes in total. I worry that scenarios that are too personally engaging might lead the players to “play themselves” instead of the characters provided, thus missing out on the role flexibility training. However, I think more complex and relevant scenarios are a great idea with enough time to get properly into character!
Musings from the Author
I would like to round off this text with some personal thoughts on the subject of using larps for training personal development. I think most larpers can agree that larps can be great arenas to go outside the limits we set for ourselves in our everyday lives and to try new or challenging things. Having the alibi of a character, and thus this character to blame for our mistakes while within the setting of a larp, can feel very liberating. It can allow us to try things we would most likely never do as “ourselves”. Having experienced personal growth from many larps that were never designed for this purpose specifically made me wonder what would be possible to achieve when actually designing for personal growth!
The edu-larp scene has of course already explored this to some degree. It has previously been argued that a well-designed edu-larp can train several skills at once: both subject matter skills and social skills. I very much agree! However, it is my impression that subject matter often gets priority in edu-larps, as these results are considerably easier to measure. To promote the incorporation of personal growth into larps, I would like to share these two reflections that I made after writing my bachelor’s thesis.
Developing social skills can be very daunting, and so we as designers need to help the players get the hang of it! To help the players in my larp sessions, I made lists in the character sheets containing concrete actions that their characters could take during the larps. In my experience, experienced larpers don’t use their character sheets for support as much as new larpers. This was clearly illustrated during the playtests. One of the most distinct differences between these two groups was that the experienced larpers almost didn’t look at their character sheets with suggested actions after the workshop was finished. The unexperienced larpers, one the other hand, had the character sheets in front of them the whole time. An effect of this was that the unexperienced larpers used many more of the suggested actions. In doing so, they got a lot more actual practice than the experienced larpers. When designing for personal development, I think we should encourage tools that can help the players get the hang of it, not only in the workshop, but also during the larp itself! These could for example be lists to be carry around, meta-techniques, breaks during play to discuss, reminders on the bathroom door, and more. This could be included in any larp you design!
You can design your own character for personal growth in almost any kind of larp you play! This one might seem obvious, but doing this project made me realise how true this statement really is. One way to do this, is to first choose a character to play with traits you want to explore. Next, do a little research online; find inspiration in characters from books or movies who are talented at the traits you choose; think of people you know, etc and write down a list of concrete (this is important) actions they do. Finally, bring the list to the larp, read the actions regularly, and then do the actions as your character. Asking coplayers for feedback after or during the larp will help you see your progress more clearly. Even if the larp designers did not design for personal development, you can add it if you want to!
Sources
Boe, Ole. (2016). Character strengths and its relevance for military officers. Lesehefte, Forsvarets Høgskole.
Bowman, S. L. (2014). The Wyrd Con Companion Book 2014. Wyrd Con under Creative Commons License.
Jensen, Maria Kolseth. (2020). Larp in Leadership Development. Can the use of live action role plays (larps) be beneficial in the leadership training at the Royal Norwegian Naval Academy? FHS, Sjøkrigsskolen. https://hdl.handle.net/11250/2724530
Lindholm, M., Sverige, & Försvarsmakten. (2006). Pedagogiska grunder. Försvarsmakten.
Nissestad, Odd Arne. (2007). Leadership development: An empirical study of effectiveness of the leadership development program at The Royal Norwegian Naval Academy and its impact on preparing officers to execute leadership in today’s conflicts and the conflicts in the years ahead (Doctoral dissertation, Norges Handelshøyskole). From 21.06.20 https://fhs.brage.unit.no/fhs-xmlui/bitstream/handle/11250/2449975/Nissestad.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
Sjøvold, E. (2006). Teamet. Universitetsforlaget.
Sjøvold, E. (2007). “Systematizing Person-Group Relations (SPGR): A Field Theory of Social Interaction.” Small Group Research, 38(5), 615–635.
Sjøvold, E. (2014). Resultater gjennom team. Universitetsforlaget.
Volet, S., & Järvelä, S. (Eds.). (2001). Motivation in learning contexts: Theoretical advances and methodological implications (1. ed). Pergamon.
Waade, A. M. (2006). “Jeg – en actionhelt!” in K. Sandvik & A. M. Waade (Red.) Rollespil: – I æstetisk, pædagogisk og kulturel sammenhæng. Aarhus University Press.
Cover photo: Image
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:
Kolseth Jensen, Maria. “Larp in Leadership Development.” 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.
Josefin Westborg, Anders Berned, Kol Ford, Mike Pohjola
This programme item brings together the NGOs, companies and other entities that run magic schools for kids and youth. Each organisation will be presented with a focus on what they have in common, what they do differently and why, and how they can inspire each other. The aim is to create knowledge exchange and inspire others to start up magic schools. One goal in the programme is to agree on when we would like to have 500 magic schools for kids in Europe (and how to get the funds to start it up).
Q&A from the original viewing at Solmukohta 2020 Online event
Anon 1: I love the idea to create your own IP for the magic school based on the local culture, folk tales and myths. I’d love to know more about the Finnish magic school.
Anon 2: Agree! I run an ‘edularp’ for 4 Hungarian students weekly which is set in the HP universe and it uses the Hungarian Pálos rend (Order of Saint Paul the First Hermit) as a background
Anders Gredal Berner Anon 2: Sound awesome! What age group is the students?
Anon 2: 11-12yo. One of them already had tabletop RPG experience .
Mike Pohjola We’ve used local customs and beliefs when applicable. Like using an Easter tradition to create monsters (trulli) and a way to defeat them (Easter whips) for a larp played in Easter.
The school Houses are loosely inspired by different parts of heritage of this area, but that’s not something we’ve explained to the kids yet. Mostly they’re based on different personality traits.
Then many of the words we’ve created based on really old Finnish words, like marto (=dead) for a non-wizard. (Just to be different than Potterverse.)
Anon 4: Would be interesting to do a magic school intirely based on folklore
Anon 5: In magic school you can play out your wildest fantasy of going to school where the classes aren’t boring
Anon 6: I just listened to some of the interviews from last autumn about Finnish Velhokoulu, and some of the kids love stealing candy while invisible and teasing the teachers, so basically making things happen with “magic” in a very simple way
Anon 7: I would love to throw on (I work in a non profit association as game facilitator and children educator) but truly I don’t know where to begin. I have children from 6 to 15
Anders Gredal Berner Anon 7: Sound awesome. We had a long discussion after the recording, also touching on how to help others to starting up. Im sure the rest of the panel is also up for helping -And your very welcome to get our materiales, guides ect.
Anon 7: I would love that if it’s ok with you. :O
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Anon 3: Anders I would like that very much.
Anon 6: And kids love adults reacting to the magic the students perform
Anon 2: Do you think its ‘just’ the power of empowerment or is there something else in it?
Anon 6: I think it’s both: it’s also immersion, and having adults play with them in this imaginary world that to some feels very real and they keep playing their characters even at home with friends and family
Anon 2: They keep playing at home? THAT sounds interesting!
Mike Pohjola Essentially we teach them new children’s games. Like if you put your hands like this you’re invisible. Or this is a new version of catch-me-if-you-can that is the magical effect of the monster.
Anon 6: Velhokoulu.fi is the Finnish website, it’s all in Finnish at the moment but you can find a description and pictures of our houses there. Also video links and Instagram was recently added
Anon 5: magic schools have no homework
Anon 8: A side note, Josefin’s outfit is a blast <3
Anon 9: also yay for gender-neutral terms!
Anon 6: In general I like to use the work “taikoja” so a “magic user”, since I feel velho is more a boy term still but that’s mainly because in the books Harry Potter is a velho/wizard and Hermione is a noita/witch.
Mike Pohjola Yeah, that’s an Anglicism. In Finnish tradition they’re both gender neutral.
Anon 10: The adults keeps the world more real for the children, being a part of the immersion and magic. It’s easier for the children to be a part and take a part of the game as their characters when the adults encourages them in their characters. The younger the player, the more important it is.
Anon 7: It’s cool that things happen in the magic world. Like it’s not just a background and can be played anywhere
Anon 6: We have 40min class then 20min break where they can invade the teachers’ lounge, talk to creatures and explore.
Anon 6: Classes usually have handcrafts or taming magical creatures or spell tag
Anon 10: Not sure if I missed this, but (about) how many players you have in one game? Since we have about 50players a game in Velhokoulu.
Anon 6: Good question!
Anders Gredal Berner Our magic school is up to 50 participant + teachers, helpers, monsters.
Josefin Westborg In the library larp we have they meet famous children story characters from books that they need to help. One of them are Loki the Norse god. Last time we had a child that asked who I was when I showed up as Loki. I didn’t answer but mumbled something about that I needed to get back at my brother Thor. Then he looked at me and got wide eyes and said: Oh, no. I know who you are. You are Loki! I’m not gonna help you, I’m on your brothers side”. And then he walked away.
Anon 6: I like this test idea :OOO we could have that too in Ropecon etc!
Mike Pohjola Totally stealing it! 😀
Anon 5: does anyone ever fail anything in schools of magic?
Anon 6: If I understood correctly, I’d say the characters are not perfect in what they do, so the teacher will assist them during class and they will get better during the class
Anders Gredal Berner Anon 5: Yes 🙂 both on a personal level and plotlines – you can fail at our magic schools. But its a kids activities for 8 to 13 years and with a visions about producing better humans – so there is somethimes the PC takes over 😉
Anon 11: I remember a kid from my latest Velhokoulu who had a character who failed all the spells they tried until the end when they finally suceeded, they seemed to enjoy it a great deal
Mike Pohjola The most common failure is being too shy to participate or scared of our monster. Then we try to help them overcome this.
But of course they can also fail in, for example, translating ancient runes into modern alphabet.
Josefin Westborg Anon 10:: In the shortest little drop in larp we can run it with just 1 player but max 12. For the libraries, we have 1-16 and for the school one we take around 30. We have made a special version where we do it as a pleasure larp and not an edularp and then we can have up to 40 players.
Anon 6: We raised the prices since our expenses have risen, storage and book keeper have come into the picture. Also the locations are tricky to find within a reasonable price range as we need to run two games in one weekend for it to be financially smarter.
Anon 12: Hope you get City funding Mike. The entrance fee is a lot of money for many people. Not for what they get (a long, wonderful experience) but as a sum. The threshold for many people for applying for free admittance is high I think. Hope you reach that group of people, too. Perhaps channels/contacts with for example some children’s organisations might help in this?
Velhokoulu’s rock! <3
Anon 6: I’m envious of your cheap prices as I fear we’ll be unreachable for some players soon, even if we have the “discount ticket” of 10€ available as we can’t give it to everyone (so far we have managed to take everyone in who needs the discount ticket though)
Anon 2: Thats interesting because only 1 of my students from 4 wanted to have wizard parents!
Anon 2: I think you have a larger sample size, Josefin. I have to ask my students why do they like muggle parents 🙂
Josefin Westborg This is mainly in the school larps. It’s not as much with the slightly older students when we do it for leisure. The school larps are mandatory for the students. So that might be part of it. That the kids who come to magic school larps out of free will have another relation to it.
Anon 6: Our kids have an option to be part creature too. So far we’ve had one half-dragon, one son of Zeus (allegedly, he had no proof) and one half-Pigglet.
Mike Pohjola Oh yeah, I forgot to mention this! We added this option because so many wanted to be NPCs since then they could be magical creatures. But we didn’t want random 8-year olds as NPCs. 😀
Anon 6: We started a YouTube channel, we’re hoping to create content there that will amuse our players and will hopefully reach new players too.
Anon 3: Mike, is it possible to pool resources somehow?
Mike Pohjola I’m sure it would be!
Mike Pohjola I mean, yes! That’s one of the points of having this talk. In physical Solmukohta we would have had a bigger gathering after it.
Anon 6: I feel that after this presentation I’m actually feeling the real disappointment of not being able to see you all and discuss face to face :((((
Anon 6: Oh well, next time then!
Anders Gredal Berner We are creating a network of magic schools – both to inspire each others and especial to help others to start up their own magic schools for kids and youth.
Why to start a magic school for kids:
– Give the kids a good xp and change the world one step at the time
– Create stabel income for your larp NGO
– Create jobs for young larpers as instructors and larp runners
You can contact us at Orker@rollespilsfabrikken.dk or you can write here at FB :).
Edu-larp can be described as implementing live-action role-playing games in formal or informal educational contexts, “used to impart pre-determined pedagogical or didactic content” (Balzer & Kurz 2015). The aim of the Edu-larp Conference 2019 was to present and discuss recent international research as well as share best practice examples or innovative formats of edu-larp.The first edu-larp conference was held in 2014 in Sweden, organized by Carolina Dahlberg. From single workshops at the Nordic Larp Conferences Knudepunkt dealing with edu-larp, Carolina took to actually making a separate conference, taking place before the main event. In consecutive years, the edu-larp conference has been running every year since and will again in Finland 2020. Edu-larp conferences have also been hosted in the United States in a similar setup as the ones in the Nordic countries. They have taken place the day before the Living Games Conference, the US larpers’ version of Knudepunkt, and were hosted in 2016 (Austin, Texas) and 2018 (Boston, Massachussetts).
The Edu-larp Conference 2019 was held at Ungdomshuset in Odense (Denmark) on 7 February 2019 from 9-17. The organizers (Muriel Algayres, Charles Bo Nielsen, and Katrin Geneuss) had sent out an open call for papers via social media and all proposals were accepted. There were eight presentations in total, spanning research and development projects, as well as reports on specific ways of facilitating edu-larps and of implementing future projects. Furthermore, three workshops were held (described below) and the program included an optional trip to Efterskolen Epos, a boarding school that uses edu-larp as one of its teaching tools.
This article contains summaries of presentations, workshops, and the trip to Efterskolen Epos.
Josefin Westborg
Summary of the Eight Presentations
Josefin Westborg presented results from her bachelor’s thesis in a talk entitled “Who Sees What? Perceived Learning Areas After Participating in an Edu-larp.” Applying the model of Hammer et al. (2018), she handed out an existing survey using the constructs 1) portraying a character, 2) Manipulation a fictional world, 3) Altered sense of reality, and 4) Shared imagination. Further, she conducted qualitative interviews with four edu-larp participants who had different functions in the games. Their perceptions about learning from edu-larps are similar, regardless if they were a student or a teacher. The important factor seems to be how immersed a participant is in the larp. Based on her work, Westborg suggests adding the constructs agency and personal growth to the model of Hammer et al. (2018).
Carola Nebe from the German association Waldritter e.V. presented a short film which was produced to explain the method of edu-larp to an audience who might not be familiar with the technique. It can be found here.
Carola Nebe
Olivia Fischer from the College of Teacher Education in Vienna (PH Wien) presented a format for how to introduce edu-larp as a teaching method in teacher education. In short, she first explains edu-larp as a concept and then lets students participate in edu-larps with different purposes and focuses relevant to education. She proposed among other things that edu-larps holds potential for raising student self-efficacy, which concerns “people’s beliefs in their ability to influence events that affect their lives” (Bandura, 2010, p. 1) and contributing to “Bildung,” which refers to a tradition of self-cultivation, personal maturation, and identity development, which only to a certain extent can be translated with “literacy.”
Olivia Fischer
Katrin Geneuss presented parts of results from her PhD thesis “Die waren ja mittendrin! Ganzheitliches Lernen im Rollenspiel EduLARP” (Geneuss 2019). She focused on difficulties associated with using edu-larps during regular lessons of German, History, and Philosophy in Bavaria. Through semi-narrative interviews, she found that pedagogues were concerned with the perceived effort/result-ratio, meaning that edu-larps take a lot of time to design and to facilitate, but the learning outcome is difficult to measure. This connects to another challenge, which is how to set grades on the student’s performance. To meet the teacher’s needs and to decrease the time of preparation, it would be of help to offer ready-to-play material, as can be found here. Despite those and other minor concerns, the thesis reported that due to the high degree of motivation and active involvement of the students, the STARS-project in Munich is appreciated by teachers and pupils alike.
Katrin Geneuss
Muriel Algayres presented the results of the introduction of a role-playing game activity for secondary class students in History (Algayres 2019). She compared intrinsic and self determined motivation (see Ryan & Deci 2017) for a group of students involved in the activity with a control group. Though the quantitative levels of intrinsic and self-determined motivation were higher for the group of students involved in the activity, the sample of students was too small to establish statistical significance. However, based on the positive results, she highlighted the potential for educational role-playing games to increase intrinsic motivation in students.
Andrea Castellani
Andrea Castellani and Matteo Bisanti gave an overview over the Italian larp conference Edularp.it, which in its first year featured talks by 13 different speakers. Further, they presented Il Congegno di Leonardo, which is an edu-larp organization in Italy. Initially focusing on edu-larps for science education in secondary schools, they are currently expanding activities into other subjects and other target groups (primary school pupils, larpers, the general public, etc).
Matteo Bisanti
Jannick Trolliet introduced the audience to how edu-larp is used in Swiss holiday camps with youths. He pointed out that the remote location invites children and young adults to explore the natural environment as well as physical interaction.
Qla Zetterling from the Swedish company Lajvverkstaden summarized the project From Russia with Love in Belarus, where he facilitated edu-larps to teach sexual education in orphanages. Edu-larp can be a necessary vehicle to talk about topics that are socially not accepted or taboo otherwise.
Qla Zetterling
Workshops
Between the sets of presentations, the participants were offered three mid-day workshops. On the workshop on research, which was led by Sarah Lynne Bowman and Katrin Geneuss, participants worked together on definitions and terminology, as well as on making a map of participant research intentions and methodologies. This workshop showed that from a research perspective, edu-larps as a field of research is diverse and fragmented both in terms of the topics and methods used, when applying edu-larp in formal or informal settings. Furthermore, qualitative research in edu-larp makes use of a variety of theoretical and methodological perspectives, for example, thematic analysis (see Braun & Clarke, 2006), grounded theory (see Strauss & Corbin 1997), action research (see Stringer 2008), ethnography (see Balsiger & Lambelet 2014), motivation theory (see Ryan & Deci 2017), and network analysis (see Bruun & Evans 2018). These are some of the perspectives in use to answer equally diverse research questions. Many participants were in the beginning of their research careers and/or had edu-larps as one of many research interests. As can be expected from a budding field, researchers seem to bring in the theories and methodologies they know from other more or less related fields.
Another workshop was lead by Olivia Fischer, and was concerned with implementing drama techniques and edu-larps in teacher education. This workshop featured many hands-on exercises for the participants, several of which were inspired by improvisational theatre. A third workshop on edu-larp design was lead by Charles Bo Nielsen. The workshop to the format of what can be called “a larp jam:” Starting with a brainstorm of ideas from common “idea points,” the workshop participants proceeded to team up and develop ideas further. As an end product, the developed ideas were narrowed down by participants to finalized pitches, which were presented to the overall audience of the conference.
Visit to Efterskolen Epos
The conference had an optional add-on: the audience was offered a trip to the Danish boarding school Efterskolen Epos. It is one of two secondary schools in Denmark using role-playing games as an integrated part of their teaching strategy. The trip was co-organized by Esben Wilstrup and Charles Bo Nielsen. At Efterskolen Epos, participants engaged in joint discussions with pupils as well as teachers from the school. This gave different perspectives on how the school utilizes both pupil and teacher resources when designing games from which students may acquire knowledge, skills, and competencies required by the Danish school system (grades 9 – 10). In Denmark, an “efterskole” (the literal translation from Danish is “after school”) is a government-funded institution that acts as a transitional boarding school to prepare lower secondary students (8th, 9th, and 10th graders in the Danish school system) for upper secondary school. An “efterskole” usually has a focus, often related to particular fields of interest, such as sports, music, outdoors, or larp. This focus is often accompanied by a pedagogical vision and practice. As a government funded school, Efterskolen Epos follows the standard educational regulations of 9-10th grade including regulations for exams and grades.
Participants in a workshop at the Edu-Larp Conference 2019. Photo by Anders Berner
Outlook
The variation of the contributions to the edu-larp conference indicates that larp as an educational tool is applied in many different contexts, ranging from holiday camps to courses at colleges for teacher education. These formal and informal learning and teaching strategies demand well-trained teachers and facilitators, which is why multiple programs need to be developed. Research in edu-larps may be seen as a new bud in the young fields of game-based learning and gamification. As such, research in edu-larps is diverse both in terms of research questions and methods. Furthermore, research in edu-larps seems to be intimately tied to teacher practice and development of unique edu-larps, rather than investigations of standard materials. Finally and linked to the last point, the field has a great and diverse interdisciplinary potential, both in terms of research and design. As mentioned previously, this potential of edu-larp among others touches the fields of performative studies, drama education (Heathcote & Bolton 1995), and psychology, as well as interdisciplinary teaching, where edu-larps may help link, for example, the Humanities and the Sciences.
Balsiger, Philip, and Alexandre Lambelet. 2014. “Participant Observation.” In Methodological Practices in Social Movement Research, edited by Donatella Della Porta, 144-172. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hammer, Jessica, To, Alexandra, Schrier, Karen, Bowman, Sarah Lynne, and Geoff Kaufman. 2018. “Learning and Role-Playing Games.” In Role-Playing Game Studies: Transmedia Foundations, edited by José P. Zagal and Sebastian Deterding, 283-299. New York: Routledge.
Heathcote, Dorothy, and Gavin M. Bolton. 1995. Drama for Learning. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Ryan, Richard M., and Edward L. Deci. 2017. Self-Determination Theory: Basic Psychological Needs in Motivation, Development, and Wellness. Guilford Publications.
Strauss, Anselm, and Corbin, Juliet M. 1997. Grounded Theory in Practice. Sage.
Stringer, Ernie T. 2008. Action Research in Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Cover photo: Muriel Algayres in the foreground, Katrin Geneuss and Charles Bo Nielsen presenting.
This manifesto describes in detail our preference for playing, designing, and facilitating larp experiences with the explicit purpose of encouraging transformative impacts within participants. This work is a synthesis of countless conversations over the years and reflects the insights of many people within a number of regional and international larp communities from a variety of cultures. Ultimately, this manifesto reflects our personal perspectives built upon our exploration of dozens of different styles and genres of larps over the years.
This work also integrates concepts and language from group dynamics, psychoanalysis, and personal development work in order to enrich our discourse about the potential of the larp experience. Thus, while this work represents our own commitments and beliefs, we are indebted to our wider communities for much of the content of this manifesto.
While this work represents our current completed thoughts on this topic, we understand that as we progress further and deepen our knowledge in the field of transformative larping, the need for revisions and additions will present itself. When that happens, we will revise as necessary. This manifesto is intended to promote serious and respectful discussion rather than humor or antagonism. These words are offered in good faith with full knowledge that many may disagree. The authors welcome reflective and kind engagement for those who wish to discuss this approach.
If you are interested in larping, designing, and facilitating for transformation, we invite you to join us in exploring the next steps together. We have created a Facebook group called Larping for Transformation where we will discuss themes, strategies, experiences, techniques, and pitfalls pertaining to larping in this fashion.
Central Tenets
1. We believe in the power of larp as a tool for transformation, self-awareness, empathy, and personal growth. We actively and intentionally use our larp experiences toward cultivating these capacities. Like the transformation of a caterpillar to a butterfly, changing oneself can be painful and difficult, but ultimately rewarding. While sometimes messy, the transformation process can yield life-changing results if participants grant themselves and others grace throughout it.
2. As with the Butterfly Effect in chaos theory, we believe that even the smallest experience in a larp can have profound effects upon individual human and collective consciousness. A considerable number of people have shared the ways in which experiences in larps have helped them personally grow or become more engaged in their communities. We choose to honor and conscientiously amplify these impacts rather than think of them as secondary or serendipitous.
3. The world is often a dark, dehumanizing, and demoralizing place. Because we believe that these small experiences can have profound effects, we feel that we have the obligation as players, designers, facilitators, theorists, researchers, and documenters to amplify these transformative impacts in order to help make the world and people’s lives a little bit brighter.
4. We honor and respect all play experiences and motivations, while strongly expressing our preferences. While we do not discount or devalue the experiences of people who wish to larp for other reasons such as for instance entertainment, we choose to focus our intention toward these transformative impacts. We hold no ill will or criticism for people who play toward other purposes.
5. Transformation involves stretching our edges in order to grow. Transformation involves taking risks and playing outside our comfort zones. Transformation involves exploring the boundaries of what we consider ourselves to be. Transformation is nurtured by the consensual creation and maintenance of a container that is secure enough to emotionally hold participants.
6. We engage in transformative work with a deep reverence for our vulnerabilities, our sensitivities, and our hard limits. We acknowledge the bravery of anyone who chooses to push their edges, while equally honoring anyone who chooses to set healthy boundaries for themselves.
7. Transformation involves moments of expansion and contraction. We may have peak experiences within a larp or within the larger community where we experience intense catharsis, ride unparalleled highs, give tirelessly of our energy to provide an experience for others, or have profound realizations about ourselves. These experiences may feel as purposeful as our daily lives outside of a larp context.
8. Contraction is part of the expansion process. In order to explore the higher limits of our potential, we may also experience equally profound lows before, during, or after the event. Dips in energy, enthusiasm, sociability, feelings of profound loss, alienation, angst, or even post-larp depression are examples of contractions. These lows are part of the process and are invitations for us to reflect upon the change that is occurring within us.
9. These moments of contraction can be valuably informative, showing us the places within ourselves that need healing or change. Embracing the contraction with open arms can help us learn how to deeply care for ourselves and steward our own experiences of life.
10. When undergoing transformation, we give ourselves permission to ask for help from members of our community when we may feel at our most vulnerable. We may also be called to help others when they experience a profound low after a peak experience. Supporting one another as much as we are able is critical for creating a container where the needs of individuals having transformational experiences can be met in a secure environment. Co-creation has the power to catalyze powerful change. Mutual support provides nourishment throughout the process so that participants feel resourced.
11. If we complete a larp experience without learning something about ourselves that we can use to improve our daily lives, we feel that we have missed an opportunity.
12. We acknowledge that larp is not therapy unless facilitated by trained professionals.
13. We also acknowledge that people already widely and consistently use larp for transformative purposes. Increased awareness around the principles of facilitation for transformative larping will therefore help create a safer environment for these transformative experiences to transpire. Thus, we believe that all parties engaged in the creation and enactment of transformative larping have a responsibility to try to create a secure environment for such experiences to unfold.
Butterfly mural outside of St Martins Lane Hotel in London, England. Photo taken by the authors after the August 2019 run of Just a Little Lovin‘, a larp by Tor Kjetil Edland and Hanne Grasmo that has inspired transformation in many of its players.
Playing for Transformation
14. As players, one of the tools of transformative larping that we employ is actively steering toward bringing aspects of our lives into our character experiences and stories and vice versa. We mindfully work with and intentionally insert aspects of our own lives into our characters and stories in order to examine, explore, and innovate our sense of self.
15. As we believe that larp can be a transformative tool, we recommend treating the process of enactment with respect and reverence. Some players may bring into a larp content that is extremely personal and sensitive to them. We encourage this type of play when it is conscientiously used rather than disparage it, as it may lead to greater self-awareness and growth for the player and others within the community.
16. We also believe that each player should have the right to opt in and out of challenging and intimate experiences. Therefore, we err on the side of consent and communication when inviting co-players into a particular theme or experience.
17. Playing “close to home” — or close to one’s self-concept — may maximize the potential for transformative larping. Thus, we consider playing close to home a brave choice that we support whole-heartedly. The risks associated with playing close to home are lessened when the container surrounding the experience is held as supportively as possible.
18. Playing a character unlike the self may also lead to transformation. Playing far from home may create an opportunity to explore characteristics one might like to attain, discover new facets of their identity, or reveal traits that a person might never want to embody again. Playing for transformation involves recognizing the humanity in both the heroic and the shadow sides of any given character. This recognition of the full range of human potential can encourage dramatic shifts in understanding and awareness about the world around us and ourselves if the opportunity for reflection is taken.
Designing for Transformation
19. While any larp content can be potentially transformative, how designers and players choose to implement that content before, during, and after the larp greatly influences the impact that a particular theme, moment, or story can have upon its participants. Conscious implementation of any and all design choices matters.
20. As designers, we will choose themes, narratives, techniques, and facilitation principles that we believe have the potential to encourage transformative experiences. Of late, we have been interested in narratives that emphasize positive human potential, including traits such as compassion, empathy, humanization, personal growth, philosophical pondering, spiritual questing, conscious communication, and envisioning more optimal ways to build community.
21. While exploring the darker sides of the human experience can be valuable, we are increasingly finding less interest in telling stories that only focus on oppression or harmful personality traits without offering some pathway to hope and redemption, even if such positive reframing only occurs during the post-larp process. Without sufficient post-larp processing and integration, we believe that exploration of narratives about oppression have limited transformational potential. We believe that play upon these themes can be recontextualized within the players’ lives in a way that motivates reflection, positive change, or prosocial behavior.
22. We posit that all the stories we tell are connected to the world in which we live, even when exploring themes that seem fantastical. If we want to maximize the potential for transformation, then we need to contextualize these fictional narratives, anchoring them into the “real” world in a meaningful way.
23. Because we believe that all stories are connected to the “real” world in some way and that larp can have a transformative impact, we emphasize the need for designers to write responsibly and inclusively. The goal of this process is to help the widest range of players relate to and feel engaged with the content. The positive impacts are limited and larp content can even become potentially harmful when care is not taken to consider the lived experiences that players bring into the fictional world.
24. If a larp integrates themes of real world structural oppression, we believe that the design team must include and prioritize voices that represent people from those marginalized backgrounds as early and consistently as possible in the process. With greater nuance and care in representation, more people may experience a transformative impact from the larp.
Facilitating for Transformation
25. When facilitating a potentially transformative experience, organizers have a responsibility to create as secure and nurturing a container as possible so that the players feel held and respected through the experience. Building a strong container involves intentional and conscious co-creation and management of the social contracts between all participants; the safety structures that hold these contracts in place; and the content within the fictional world itself.
26. The container of the larp experience does not only refer to the time spent onsite and in-game. The container starts with the genesis of the idea and continues with the beginnings of the organizing phases; the interactions with players before, during, and after the larp; de-roling and debriefing strategies; documentation; and the opportunities for integration that are made available after the experience. We recommend considering each of these stages at the forefront of design and facilitation throughout the process.
27. When playing for transformation, everyone holds a piece of the responsibility for maintaining a strong container: the designers, the individual players, the play community, the organizers, and even the documenters, theorists, and researchers. Through shared responsibility and respect for the process, all parties can hold each other in a greater feeling of safety.
28. We believe that the transformative impacts of larp can be amplified and negative impacts ameliorated through the use of proper frameworks. These frameworks can include consciously designed workshops, debriefs, meta-techniques, consent negotiations, check-ins, calibration conversations, and other methods that align the group toward both individual and collective transformative goals.
Integration
29. We believe that the next step for maximizing the transformative potential of any given larp experience involves more extensive integration practices. Integration is the means by which a person or group can transition from a peak experience such as a larp back to their daily lives, evolving their own experience of themselves and the world in the process. Skills might transfer. Identities might shift. Social dynamics might change. Deeply buried pain may arise to be acknowledged. We encourage embracing the process of conscious and intentional integration from the fictional frame of reality to daily life, which involves facing and working with whatever arises.
30. The post-larp integration process often involves a complex ebb and flow of emotions and thoughts. Relationships may shift, communities may expand, and consciousness may evolve. Contractions may occur that call forth intensely uncomfortable emotions. Creating solid structures to facilitate these transitions and integrate these experiences is paramount.
31. Integration can also involve greater reflection upon the themes, the emotional dynamics, the social structures, and other aspects of the larp experience. Such reflection can occur through personal journaling, debriefing, documentation, discussion, theorizing, creating works of art, and many other processes. In larping for transformation, we understand that the larp does not end when the organizers call for the end of play.
32. Our hope for the future is that we become increasingly mindful and intentional when designing toward transformative play. Engagement of this sort requires consideration of the integration of larp experiences into daily life as a vital part of the growth process for everyone involved.
We appreciate your consideration of our manifesto. If you are interested in this style of play, come join us in the discussion at Larping for Transformation.
Content editing: Elina Gouliou, Mo Holkar, and Johannes Axner.
Valuable feedback on early drafts (alphabetical order): Arielle Brown, Clio Yun-su Davis, Dani Higgins, Jonaya Kemper, Joe Lasley, Lizzie Stark, and John Stavropoulos.
Figure 1: The Balance of the Basic Group Functions in the Systematizing Person-Group Relations Model.
Table 1: Timeline showing the research process
Table 2: The structure of the larp sessions
Table 3: Overview of the five larp sessions each team participated in
Figure 2: Visual representation of the mean z-scores of the class of 2019-2022 before and after the larp sessions.
Figure 3: Visual representation of the responses to the statement “My spectrum of behaviours has been broadened as a consequence of my participation in the larp sessions”.
Figure 4: Visual representation of the responses to the statement “My ability to observe the other cadets aboard has improved as a consequence of my participation in the larp sessions”.
Figure 5: Visual representation of the distribution of the responses from figure 3 according to the four groups.
Figure 6: The median and mean scores in self-reported broadening of the behavioural spectrum, showing values from figure 5.
Figure 7: Graphs displaying the mean z-scores in the different groups before and after the larp sessions.
Figure 8: The same z-scores as shown in figure 7, here in greater detail.
Figure 9: Population pyramid from the Mann-Whitney U test, showing the distributing of the answers to the question in figure 4 based on inclination towards the larp sessions.
Figure 10: The numbers from the independent-samples Mann Whitney U test illustrated in figure 9.
Figure 11: Visual representation of the responses to the statement “I would recommend the larp sessions to another cadet if asked” from the questionnaire.
