Hinterland

Hinterland was a larp about loss, grief and survival in a fictive post-war Sweden.

Setting and Themes
Survival and human nature in a kitchen-sink post-catastrophe setting.

Techniques
Hinterland made extensive use of player fatigue; the larp was designed so that players brought little to no comforts (the basic allowance being something to eat out of, something to eat with like a spoon, and an item of personal importance like a photo or letter), players had to scrounge for food and there there was little in the way of other comforts. The food that was available (buried or hidden) were things like rice, chickpeas or small cans of canned meat, which they could do what they wanted with (i.e. hiding it, eating it without sharing etc.). Nights were cold and there were few sources of heat and blankets. Mid-game the players lost most of their blankets, food and items (including one of the two firewood stoves available) to a raiding party.

In order to establish if characters had contracted the disease everyone was given a small ziploc bag containing one pill (for the second run this was increased to three), which they were instructed to eat sometime during Saturday. If the pill contained sugar, they were fine. If it contained salt, they had contracted the disease and could start showing symptoms, which in turn was represented by coughing, weakness, fever, rashes (red makeup powder on abdomen, armpits and/or neck) and bleeding (fake blood in nose or mouth).

Hinterland was designed to have as little runtime game mastering as possible - no plot trains, no "required outcome" and very little railroading. It was a (limited) sandbox game, even though there were NPCs for a few scenes (raiding party, cautions neighbours showing up etc.). During the second run there were a few players who played the first run come in and replay the game, with the expressed intent to drive certain dramatic themes and to counter game staleness.

In order to play out physical violence a set of different techniques were used; "the deadlies weapon controls the situation", "two are always more than one" and slow escalation, in combination with trigger words (the "don't rule") and safety techniques/words (like kutt, brems, tapping out and being passive/active in escalation). There were very few weapons (although quite a few real tools, knives etc.), although blank firing guns were used.

Photo Documentation

 * First run, pre-larp
 * First run, ingame
 * First run, post-larp
 * Second run, ingame
 * Second run, post-larp