Nordic Larp

Month: November 2016

  • Real Men – Defining Gender Identities

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    Real Men – Defining Gender Identities

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    Take your mind back, I don’t know when
    Sometime when it always seemed
    To be just us and them
    Girls that wore pink
    And boys that wore blue
    Boys that always grew up better men
    Than me and you

    Joe Jackson, Real Men

    Real Men is a chamber larp for 4–8 players, lasting four hours, designed by Kevin Burns and Mo Holkar. It’s about the lives and friendships of men – taking a group of characters who meet as young adults, and following them through thirty years as events befall them and their relationships evolve and develop.

    Real Men

    The precursor to Real Men is a similar game, known variously as Women on the Verge… or These Are the Days of Our Lives, in which players build a group of female characters and trace their friendship as their lives develop.

    When we started working together on a parallel larp for men, we decided to focus on the challenges men have in friendship: in being vulnerable to each other; in showing their feelings; and in asking for and receiving help. Male difficulty in communicating, and the pressure that patriarchal society places upon men to behave in a certain range of ways, became major themes of the Real Men game.

    Manhood and Masculinity

    Kevin reflects on masculinity: “When I was young I didn’t feel that being a man in a patriarchal sense had much to offer, and it’s only since I turned 40 that I’ve begun to try to explore and reclaim an authentic masculinity. This has led me to participate in men’s groups, to playing the masculinity guru Kohana in Just a Little Lovin’ (Denmark 2015), and to writing Real Men with Mo.”

    One of the design problems in the larp was the confusion around ‘maleness’ and ‘masculinity’. As an example of this, consider these words by 1990s masculinity guru Marvin Allen((Quoted in Steve Biddulph Manhood (1998) p 33.)):

    I like to think what I do is masculine – when I hold a little baby and kiss it, that’s the masculine part of me holding that little baby. When I have tears because I’m scared, or because I’m full of joy, they’re all masculine. There’s not a female thing about them.

    Marvin Allen, quoted in Manhood by Steve Biddulph

    If a man can only have ‘masculine’ qualities, then masculinity simply means ‘anything pertaining to males’ and this makes it difficult to explore the question. In the 2015 runs of Real Men, in Lewes, UK and at Grenselandet in Oslo, we saw that the (all-male) players struggled with this problem.

    We had to find a way to displace the default gender.

    yinyangIt was not until the third run in Lewes (7th May 2016), after a major rewrite, that we were able to make headway with this. The ancient Chinese concept of Yin-Yang allowed us to decouple behaviours from physical gender. Instead of ‘masculine’ we used Yang, and ‘feminine’ became Yin. In Real Men, Yang behaviour is about dominance, status, outward expression and career; while the Yin aspect is a man’s inner life, his emotionality, his soulful quality, his sensitivity, his secret vulnerability and longing.

    We adapted the ‘metabox’ meta-technique, which allows players to give their character’s internal monologue, which we renamed the ‘Yin-Yang Meta-technique’. Players could be as Yang as they wished outwardly, and use this technique to show their hidden Yin qualities of vulnerability, fragility and self-doubt.

    The second important difference with this run was that it involved female players (4 men, 3 women). Having women involved meant spelling out what it meant to be a man. In the workshop players were taught how to be Yang – taking up space, dominating a room or conversation, establishing status. “At last, we felt we had found a way to play with being a man,” says Kevin.

    Gender and Sexuality

    It should be stressed that we talk about the characters in Real Men (and the related games with female characters) from the point of view of gender as binary, because that’s predominant in the 1980s culture from which the characters emerge. However, questioning binarity, and every other aspect of gender which young people take as given, is an important part of the larp’s potential. The characters start Real Men generally perceived as male, but that can cover or develop into a range of genderqueerness, which players may wish to explore. And players of any or of no gender can, we hope, get an interesting and valuable experience from the larp.

    We should also note that the characters’ sexuality isn’t prescribed or suggested. Each player can define their character’s sexuality as they wish, and again the journey of exploring that as it develops is one that we hope will be a productive one.

    The Game

    The game spans 30 years, beginning in the 1980s of the Joe Jackson song ‘Real Men’, redolent of that decade’s confusion around male identity, masculinity and sexuality.

    What’s a man now, what’s a man mean?
    Is he rough or is he rugged?
    Is he cultural and clean?

    …

    Time to get scared, time to change plan
    Don’t know how to treat a lady
    Don’t know how to be a man

    Joe Jackson, Real Men

    The characters are then aged nineteen and have just completed their schooling. Another innovation in the most recent run was that the first scene takes place following a meeting the characters have attended of the ‘Real Man Group’. This group is the brainchild of James Tyler, a post-feminist masculinity guru, and it opens the characters’ minds to new possibilities in being men. Tyler doesn’t have all the answers, and turns out to have feet of clay, but he has sown a seed in which some of the characters may grow.

    Subsequent scenes, each of 30 minutes, and accompanied by a period-appropriate soundtrack, were set in the 1990s, 2000s, and in the present day, as the characters, who have become friends, reunite in various situations to explore their relationships and reflect on their life’s journey over the previous decade. James Tyler’s suicide rocks their belief in him, leading some to question more deeply, and others to cynicism. Throughout, the song ‘Real Men’ is used as a focus. The meaning of the song’s lyrics – its questioning approach to the perception of masculinity – will shift for each player, as their character evolves through the scenes towards middle-age.

    Character Psychology

    Kevin, who has a background in psychotherapy, created a new approach to character psychology for the game. Each character (see example below) was assigned a secret fear which signified a deep psychological issue that would drive behaviour over a whole lifetime. The characters were offered two responses to the fear: The first was a fantasy, which was the vain hope that they could simply avoid dealing with the problem; and the other was a dream, which was a vision of life in which others would be less likely to suffer in the way that the character had.

    T_______

    The Showman

    Your secret fear (unknown even to yourself): ‘I’m worthless’.

    This compels you to perform and prove yourself constantly.

    Your fantasy is fame, success and adulation.

    The impossible dream is that your ordinariness will be accepted.

    So for example, a character with a secret fear of ‘I’m worthless’ would have the fantasy that he could convince others of his value, thus avoiding the pain of the wound; however, the dream would involve a deeper engagement with the fear of worthlessness, and perhaps inspire a life’s work helping people who are seen as worthless by mainstream society.

    The Future of Real Men

    In response to comments from players, we are in the process of developing Real Men from its current four-hour extent into a one-day experience. The pre-game workshop would consist mainly of a recreation of the imaginary ‘Real Man Group’, with exercises in which the characters talk to each other about their fears, fantasies and dreams. Afterwards we will leave time for a full debrief. Real Men will be aimed at the general public and at mixed gender groups.

    Kevin is working on a short film based on Real Men in collaboration with artist Christian Thompson.

    Player Responses

    We will end with some anonymised player responses, which say better than we can what the impact of Real Men was. All seven players in the latest run wrote at least one piece about their experience.

    Real Men

    On reflection there is something of my Dad in Peter. I didn’t feel loved by my father. He abused me when I was young. He thought I was there to serve him in some way I guess. He was dark and mysterious and very unavailable. He became more available when he had been drinking; only the next day to return to a dark, morose character, working hard and not there for his family. I feel such compassion when I think of my Dad and Peter. How would their lives be different if they had experienced a fully loving and present father; and how would mine be, too?

    ‘Peter’

    I’ve been feeling a lot of bleed about the larp… it was an interesting and intense play experience. The way that Shaun felt intimidated by Peter and Mick, and his discomfort when the banter and teasing turned towards him, flashes me back to my own youthful experiences of trying to fit in with groups of young men who were generally more yang-forward than me. And the way that gaining confidence with age led to him making a considerable arsehole out of himself, confusing arrogance with self-belief; that was I guess a writ-large version of the stupid and sometimes unkind things that I did, once I’d come into myself a bit more. (And, sadly, continue to do occasionally, when I’m not being thoughtful).

    ‘Shaun’

    The paradox is that his secret fear was overcome not by his compulsion or his fantasy (to dominate others), but by laying them aside. This paradox, however, would be unresolvable by Mick: he could not see that he had found the significance and status that he desperately sought. A conception of masculinity that became clear to me as I played, is that it is a suit of armour (or, more accurately, a variety of suits of armour) that one puts on.

    Mick simply could not bear the feeling of nakedness and vulnerability that came from being without his armour.

    …

    So what have I learned – if anything – about myself?

    Masculinity as armour: do I have this? If there is any doubt, one has only to read what I have written here. When trying to talk openly and sincerely about myself, I adopt a sort of hyper-formality (note the obsessive disinclination to dangle prepositions, for example). This is like a shield that keeps ‘too much truth’ at a distance, and protects my vulnerability. Perhaps this is something that I need to work on.

    (See what I did there?)

    ‘Mick’

    Yesterday was very emotional, powerful and touching. I can’t even begin to unravel it.

    I wrote a letter to Dean this morning asking him if he’d be my friend. I realised I have disowned the part of myself that is him quite substantially.

    He may need time to answer.

    I imagined climbing a mountain with him and holding his lonely hand as we looked at the view silently…

    My father, much like Dean’s character, was a runaway. I met him at 22. This week he wrote to me like a lost little boy to tell me his partner is dying.

    It’s hard to know how to support someone so not present… not even to themselves.

    All of my sadness around this played out in a colossal text argument with my boyfriend when I got home who is also going through huge father stuff. His father has cancer.

    The argument was good though. I let Dean speak and be his total arsehole self and it was a release.

    Something got released.

    ‘Dean’

    Real Men

    Real Men

    Credits: Designed by Kevin Burns and Mo Holkar; GMed by Kevin Burns

    Dates: 4 Oct 2015 (Lewes), 31 Oct 2015 (Grenselandet, Oslo), 7 May 2016 (Lewes)

    Length: 4 hours

    Players: 4–8

    Game Mechanics: meta-box for internal monologues; music for timing

    This article was initially published in The Nordic Larp Yearbook 2015 published by Rollespilsakademiet and edited by Charles Bo Nielsen, Erik Sonne Georg, et al.

    Cover photo: Tommy (centre) welcomes his friends to his beachside villa. Real Men playtest, Lewes, UK; by Kevin Burns. 4th October 2015. All other photos from the second Lewes run, 7th May 2016, by Christian Thompson. All photos provided by the authors.

  • Krigshjärta 7 – The Gamification of Nordic Fantasy Larp

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    Krigshjärta 7 – The Gamification of Nordic Fantasy Larp

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    Krigshjärta 7 was the latest addition to the Krigshjärta (Heart of War) campaign, a Swedish war larp campaign that has gained international recognition since its founding in 2006. The campaign uses a collectively developed renaissance low-fantasy fiction available online for public use. The main story follows the ongoing conflict between the capitalistic trade federation Gillet (The Guild) and the fascist-communist empire of Cordovien (Cordovia).

    The setting of Krigshjärta 7 was a small incursion into the Cordovian homeland by Guild special forces as part of a war over a natural resource known as Cordovium, required to cure a viral disease that was spreading all over the world. The scenario took place in the mining areas of Cordovia, where this resource is extracted, and focused primarily on holding and extracting this resource instead of eliminating the enemy force. All players played soldiers or civilians in attachment to one of the armies, each with a main camp for immersion-style role-playing.

    Both camps were separated from one another by a small game area used for combat, consisting of primarily wide open fields, a lake and some forested areas. At this game area three outposts and two minor bases were built and decorated to be used during the game as control points. The game attracted roughly 400 players and took place between Tuesday the 9th and Sunday the 14th of June 2015. Players were in-game around the clock between Wednesday lunch and Saturday afternoon.

    Swedish War Larp 101

    War larp in Sweden is not only widespread and grand, but a style that has rapidly grown in popularity during the last years. Where traditional Swedish fantasy larp generally avoids the international brand “Nordic larp”, major productions like Granland or Krigshjärta actively describes themselves as Nordic larp in order to attract international players. The style tries to uphold an immersionist tradition, while at the same time promoting gamistic elements like combat.

    Swedish war-larping has many similarities to Swedish fantasy-larping, primarily a long tradition of historical design and craftsmanship mixed with a strong culture of DIY. Both personal costumes and shared equipment (like tents, furniture and banners) are amongst many players’ top priorities.

    Because of this, Swedish fantasy-larping fields some of the highest-quality costumes and equipment available on the market today. Swedish war-larping is no different. At a Swedish war larp, the group is the organizational basis of the game. Groups create their own fiction and characters (though strictly within the bounds of the scenario) and are in charge of food, lodging and transportation as well as of all costumes and props. Because of this, most groups also play as a squad together. Most games have substantial demands on in-game tents and furniture being historically accurate, and generally do not offer an off-game camping site. Almost all games take place at locations in the wilderness. Organizers supply the overall scenario and fiction, the location as well as drinking water and sanitary solutions for all participants.

    Location, Location, Location!

    Traditionally, Swedish fantasy larp organizers look for a cheap location in order to save money, the result almost always being several logistical problems and a lot of gametime wasted taking care of easily solvable logistics like getting water or having to go very far to get to the bathroom. Sweden has also often had problems with large distances between the two camps, resulting in less action on the game area and long marching distances tiring the players. We wanted to change this. We rented a fantastic location with toilets and fresh water easily accessible all over the game area. A big lake alongside the entire area for in-game bathing, as well as off-game showers and electricity right by the camp. The area was a maximum of one square kilometer large, resulting in very short marching distances and the feeling that the enemy was always close by… Which they also were! We adapted the scenario accordingly, issuing a constant “hold the line”-order, allowing all squads to go into battle whenever they wanted – without having to wait for in-game orders from commanders.

    The Rejuvenation of Swedish War Larp

    Making Krigshjärta 7 we wanted to breathe new life into a scene that had been doing the same thing for ten years. We wanted to take a new look at the game design, so we did. To this end, the organisers recruited controversial game designer Hampus Ahlbom as well as the original founder of the campaign, Robin Berglund. The idea was to find a new approach to many of the common problems that had been plaguing Swedish war larps for years. We did.

    The first thing we realized was that the entire game was heavily reliant on players of in-game officers on both sides successfully synchronizing the time and place for battles using (literally) medieval methods that failed most of the time. Instead, we created a system where the players were required to occupy different control points at scheduled times, earning points if they succeeded. We put a lot of energy into informing the players about this and thus managed to create several “naturally occurring” times and locations for those who wanted combat. It worked wonders. We had at least three times as much combat as ever before, something that we had always wanted. When the officers no longer had to worry about synchronizing battles, they could suddenly focus more on role-playing and upholding the immersion in camp. We wanted to use this, and we also wanted to make the players feel and think that the in-game world was bigger than only the larp area. So we started using NPCs and missions.

    NPCs and Missions

    Four to five times a day the game masters would send in a mission to the in-game officers, usually one mission per side. The objectives were very specific, and if the mission was successful, the team was awarded points. The missions would arrive in the form of a printed off-game document with some short fictional information plus the time, the place and the mission objective. The officers would then use that information to create an in-game order, adding all the fiction and roleplaying required to uphold the illusion. A squad would be dispatched, which was limited to a certain amount of soldiers and armor in order to ensure that they met a balanced resistance whenever possible. As most players participated in the game as part of a squad, the goal was that each squad at the game would get to experience at least one mission. Many had two.

    The missions added an extra flavor to the game. This was partly because the players would almost always only encounter NPCs on the missions, thus adding to the illusion of there being a world outside the game area (new faces), but also because suddenly the game was more than just fighting the other side and hoping to win. The quests rarely had winning a battle as the objective – more often they were about rescuing someone, infiltrating a place or laying an ambush (and much more). The idea was to give the players a broader immersion into the life of a soldier. Because the missions were always created and performed by the game masters and NPCs we could guarantee a time and place to the players. As none of our NPCs participated in the actual game, but rather stayed in an off-game house when not performing missions – ready to act whenever required.

    Winning the Game

    For a long time Swedish fantasy-larping has frowned upon the concept of winning a larp, arguing that competitiveness creates friction and conflicts and that larp is an experience we create together.

    This works well until you involve large gamistic elements, where the will to win is a fundamental driving factor. Krigshjärta has always had an outspoken policy that one team can win the game, and traditionally this has been done by winning the final battle on the last day, thus ignoring all battles up until then. We thought this to be unfair and cheap.

    Instead, we created the system with control points to be controlled and missions to win. Players would generate points for their team (Gillet or Cordovien) and at the end of the game the winning team would be granted victory in the fiction. Winning a battle didn’t generate any points at all, thus making it possible to win all the battles but still lose the war. The result was a more fair competition, but it also made mastering not only combat but also logistics, endurance, speed and tactics necessary in order to win the game. The current score was updated several times a day throughout the game, and published at a discrete location in each camp. In the end the result was very close – with a victory for Cordovien.

    Conclusion

    One of the most important things to know is that this new, and somewhat controversial, game design was in no way mandatory for the players to use. We actually called it Krigshjärta Plus and presented it as an add-on to the traditional way of playing Krigshjärta. Players were free to use it (or not) as they pleased. That being said, the goal of the new game design was primarily three things:

    • To improve the quality and quantity of battles.
    • To solve off-game communication problems between the two sides.
    • To give players more control over their in-game experience, while at the same time maintaining the illusion of a military hierarchy.

    This makes the game design of Krigshjärta 7 different from many other game designs in the Nordic larp tradition, primarily because very little of it focused on improving roleplaying or character immersion. Instead, it was a game in the word’s more traditional meaning, with a clear set of rules for achieving victory, a scoreboard and a tactical scenario. By creating an in-game scenario with a constant in-game order (hold the line) we gave players the option of commandeering themselves into battle when they wished, without feeling that they betrayed the illusion by doing so. This was highly appreciated and saved many players a lot of downtime.

    By creating a clear set of rules for achieving victory, we ensured that the game was not dependent on off-game communication between the officers of both sides in order to synchronize battles. This left these players free to instead create bonus content that the game was not dependent on, for example focusing on maintaining and improving the in-game illusion. This removed a lot of off-game responsibility from the officer players, which led to an improved experience for both them and those playing soldiers.

    By using control points to generate points at specific times every day we managed to create a naturally occurring time and place for battle, so that those who wished to fight could do that without feeling that they were breaking the illusion. This made it possible for players to schedule their game, allowing them to plan festivities, heavy scenes or battles for themselves in good time. This allowed each player to have a broader playing style, being able to focus on different play during the game – without having the threat of an alarm constantly hanging over them.

    The game design was a huge success and is already influencing future war games being created, both in Sweden and abroad.

    Krigshjärta 7 (Heart of War 7)

    Credits: Hampus Ahlbom, Robin Berglund, Peter Edgar and Maria Rodén.

    Dates: June 9–14, 2015

    Location: Kopparbo, Västmanlands län. Sweden.

    Duration: 3.5 days in-game. 5 days with workshops.

    Participants: 400

    Participation Fee: €50, €70 or €100, depending on income.

    Game Mechanics: Immersive camp game and gamistic wargame

    Website: http://www.krigshjarta7.com/

    This article was initially published in The Nordic Larp Yearbook 2015 published by Rollespilsakademiet and edited by Charles Bo Nielsen, Erik Sonne Georg, et al.

    Cover photo: Battle ensues (play, Kalle Burbeck).

  • SHOWTIME – How a Silly Joke Turned into an Experimental Larp

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    SHOWTIME – How a Silly Joke Turned into an Experimental Larp

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    During a Christmas dinner last year, my friend (and then boss) Claus Raasted got drunk and played “truth or dare”. He ended up getting dared to announce a larp that same evening. Being of a minimalist nature, he got the idea of announcing a larp with absolutely no information, except for a title, some organizers and a date. People had to sign up and pay without knowing anything more than that.

    His original thought was that when people signed up, he would send them their money back and tell them not to trust such a silly scam. For better or worse, he put my name as co-organizer together with Anders Ebbehøj (who had bought the rights to be named as main organizer at a Rollespilsfabrikken larp years back – but that’s another story). Claus and I were at the time high on College of Wizardry madness, so it seemed natural that he’d just put my name on a weird project without asking.

    Unlike him, I didn’t wanna pass up the chance to actually make a larp, though. Especially not when my name was on a mysterious website about said larp! So I ended up telling Claus: “Fuck your plan! We are going to do this! I will write a draft for it!”

    We stuck to the idea of running a larp in complete secrecy. Participants had to pay 250 DKK (35€) up front, with no knowledge whatsoever of the content. Even the location was just listed as “somewhere in Copenhagen”.

    Piling on the Silliness

    Once we agreed on doing it and on keeping it silly and fun, the ideas we threw into the pile had no end. “How about if the main game mechanic is players drinking champagne?”, “We’ll make a gimmick out of Anders Ebbehøj being the only actual organizer and being super pretentious!”, “Let’s have players meet up on a public bar and hand them a letter and say we know nothing!”, “There should be a real prize for winning the larp. 1000 DKK sounds right!”

    I hadn’t had this much fun creating a larp since I created a parody larp making fun of Swedish Jeepform. It was called We Åker Jeep – The game, but it was a lot more fun than it sounded. Anyway, this was even more fun than that. We basically laughed every time we got new ideas and said yes to everything

    A Highly Competitive Larp about Pretentious Larp Organizers

    We – that is me and Claus, and definitely NOT Anders, whose role will be explained later – ended up creating a five act larp about a group of pretentious organizers meeting up after the first College of Wizardry; dedicated to making a better larp than that mess. It was heavily inspired by Martin Jordö’s, Stina Almered’s and Karolina Staël’s comedy larp from 2014 about pretentious Nordic larpers; The Alpha Elite Larp of All Times. Except ours was even more outrageous and self-congratulatory.

    Every act started with them opening a bottle of champagne and ended when it was empty. At the end of every act, they had to rate each other on their larping. We gave no rules for how to rate people, only that everyone had to give one of the other players a sticker for being an awesome larper. At the end, the one with most stickers would get a grand prize of 1000 DKK. Yes; real money. Also, it was about half our budget. The other half was spent on champagne. The third half we spent on pizza, thereby blowing our budget.

    Anders Ebbehøj Presents

    We decided early on that it would be Anders’ larp. Anders had no intention of working on it, though, but neither Claus nor I saw this as a particular hindrance. In fact, this was even more fun. So Anders’ role in the project was simple – he would be the star in an instructional in-game (oh, sorry, diegetic, you pretentious fuckers!) video that we put together, and we were to be his henchmen. He would be the diva of the production; showing up for our filming session and reading from an already-prepared script while dressed in various silly outfits. For the actual larp he’d do nothing but appear at the after party and get the war stories and fame. Just as planned.

    No Organizers on Site

    We (Claus and I; NOT Anders) met the players at a bar and gave them a letter with a map and keys to the location. They asked a lot of questions, but we told them that we didn’t know anything either. It was all part of Anders’ brilliant design and we were just the messengers. We also bought them beer. Then we wished them good luck and prayed for the best. On location we had prepared bottles of champagne and the video with Anders explaining the larp and how it should be played. What could possibly go wrong!?

    They Nearly Sent Away the Pizza Man

    None of us were on site for the larp itself, but “Anders” had ordered pizza for them. They weren’t aware of this, so when the pizza guy arrived with pizzas that were already paid for, they almost sent him away. Luckily, one of the players did a “Oh, wait, I ordered pizzas for everyone!” and let her character take the credit for it. More on credit-hogging later.

    Rerunnable Larp

    Since the complete design of the larp is described in the self-explanatory video we made in English, the larp can easily be run again by anyone interested in something crazy and fun.

    This larp is clearly not for everyone, but when we met up with the players later after the larp, they didn’t know what was up and down and had had a quite funny experience. Our only German player won, and walked home with a 1000 DKK cash prize, and of course we had players complaining about how they should have won instead, but played to lose. Beautiful.

    Game Mechanics

    The Rule of I

    In SHOWTIME you only talk about yourself, and never say “we”. This is about your achievements and contribution. (This was a mechanic meant to create alibi for even more outrageous competitive play.)

    Sounding Important is More Important than Being Important

    This is a larp about being pretentious and sounding pretentious, so you should play according to that, by focusing more on sounding important than on actual results.

    Fear

    Since this is a competitive larp, you should embrace your fear of losing and use that fear as a motivator to outplay the other participants.

    Conclusion

    There are a few things I take with me from creating SHOWTIME.

    1. If you have fun while organizing, your players are more likely to do the same.
    2. Sometimes it’s great to just create a larp, without overthinking it.
    3. Videos with a person explaining what is going to happen actually work!
    4. Intentionally breaking with the rules of good design can be a great learning experience.
    5. Watching the video one year later is hilarious.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmeNVsuF2Y8

    SHOWTIME

    Credits: Anders Ebbehøj and co. (Charles Bo Nielsen and Claus Raasted).

    Date: January 17, 2015

    Location: Rollespilsakademiet, Denmark

    Duration: 1 evening

    Participants: 13

    Budget: €435

    Participation Fee: €35

    Game Mechanics: “The Rule of I”, “Sounding important is more important than being important”, “Fear”

    This article was initially published in The Nordic Larp Yearbook 2015 published by Rollespilsakademiet and edited by Charles Bo Nielsen, Erik Sonne Georg, et al.

    Cover photo: Anders giving instructions (Still from the YouTube video).

  • Rebels on the Mountain – The Last Night of Montelupo

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    Rebels on the Mountain – The Last Night of Montelupo

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    I ribelli della montagna: l’ultima notte di Montelupo (The Rebels on the Mountain: The Last Night of Montelupo) was a larp played in Lusernetta (TO), in Italy, in two runs during July 2015. It was the first historical larp of Terre Spezzate, a larping group active in northern Italy, originally dedicated to fantasy larps. In the last years, however, the group has moved its focus towards one-shots in various settings.

    The opportunity for enacting this larp was the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the Resistance antifascist movement and the Liberation of Italy from the Nazi-Fascist forces during World War II. It was inspired by the tragic slaughter that occurred between the 29th of September and the 4th of October 1944 in the region of Monte Sole. The goals of the organisers were to keep the memory of historical facts alive and to support reflections among the participants about those terrible days. Moreover, the potential of the larp allowed the player to fully identify with the people involved in those events and experience the stress, anxiety and fears of such days.

    One of the main intentions of the authors was to confront the player with choices which were difficult or even impossible to make. Ideals, political issues, religion, personal beliefs, opportunism and family were some of the conflicting key factors that determined the choices of the characters involved. Since, as a deliberate choice of the authors, it was the personal choices of the characters that determined the course of history; one of the most important things that players had to feel was the burden of such responsibility.

    The larp was organised under the aegis of A.N.P.I. – Associazione Nazionale Partigiani Italiani (National Association of Italian Partisans).

    ISTORETO – Istituto Piemontese per la Storia della Resistenza e della Società Contemporanea “Giorgio Agosti” (Piedmontese Institute for the History of Resistance and of Contemporary Society “Giorgio Agosti”), a historical archive of national relevance, helped with the iconographic search, giving our press office some original historical photos.

    After the end of the second run, Maria Airaudo, an actual partisan dispatch rider during the years of fascism, met the players to tell them her first-hand war experience.

    Perception

    Although the events of I ribelli della montagna happened 70 years ago, the proposed themes are still sensitive topics in Italy, having strong connections to current political and social issues. Many of the usual players of Terre Spezzate did not feel at ease at the idea of facing tragical historical events. The re-enacting of the circumstances in which real people were killed was perceived as a lack of respect by some people, and some did not want to be disrespectful towards partisans who sacrificed their lives fighting against Nazi-Fascists. Many were worried about playing the part of a war criminal. The distance between character and player was much shorter in I ribelli della montagna than in other larps. It was closer in terms of realism: I ribelli della montagna was inspired by real events and sought to recreate an authentic mood of anguish due to the constant menace of death and violence.

    Events, places and even characters were not entirely imaginary, but rather relied heavily on inspirations from the real world: we made a serious effort to blend fictional and historical features seamlessly. The fantastical style of fantasy larps, and even the fictional one of contemporary-setting larps, were totally missing, forcing the player to endure a realistic, stifling and long-lasting condition in which they couldn’t find easy ways out.

    It wasn’t far in terms of temporal distance, either. Even if 70 years is a long time, the events of those days still have a remarkable impact on present day. Fascism and the Resistance are still hot topics in Italian political debates of today, often leading to reviews and deliberate misinterpretations of history. They are controversial subjects, difficult to discuss with objectivity, which often leads to arguments and partial, misleading interpretations.

    Finally, the separation between player and character was reduced compared to other larps. The player experienced what their grandparents could have suffered; and this implied a strong emotional involvement and, in some cases, incapability to fully detach from the characters after the larp. Conversely, the larp interested a lot of people not familiar with larping, many of whom had their first experience with the phenomenon. Since the larp was presented like an event less oriented towards entertainment and leisure and more like an occasion of reflection and in-depth insight, it was able to attract many people interested in this approach. In particular, some of the characters were reserved for foreign players, coming from outside Italy.

    It was the first time for Terre Spezzate to have international players in a larp and, as far as the organisers know, also in Italy. Non-Italian players were given foreign, English-speaking characters and, to avoid issues arising from the linguistic difference, many Italian characters were able to speak English according to their background. Of course, understanding and speaking English was a requirement in order to play such characters, but an English-speaking player could not use a foreign language if their character wasn’t able to. This was deliberately meant to recreate the confusing final days of World War II in Italy, when Anglo-American downed pilots and stranded paratroopers could pass months among villagers who were barely able to communicate with them.

    The larp benefited from a high level of attention from the media, who usually do not consider larps newsworthy at all – and are not even familiar with them. In addition to A.N.P.I. mentioned above, the larp was reported by local newspapers, web radio stations and even national radio. The event received some great media coverage, compared to that of other larps.

    The Game

    I Ribelli della Montagna was a three-day continuous larp. The absence of breaks during the game was one of the first things decided upon by the staff. In order to effectively recreate the feeling of continuous danger and uncertainty, it was agreed that the overall recreated reality was not to be interrupted by scheduled suspensions of the game.

    Three main groups of characters were designed for this game: The inhabitants of Montelupo, the rebel partisans and the Nazi-Fascists. But these groups had a lot of differences, both internally and regarding how they related to each other. The inhabitants of Montelupo, the majority of which were women, included fascist supporters, secret partisan associates, and neutral people who accepted the current condition. The town was managed by the fascist Black Shirts, who were born and had grown up in the town. They were natives of the town, and they had strong connections with their fellow citizens, friends and relatives, as well as with the members of the local partisan cell, the Stella Rossa (Red Star). This may seem like a paradox, but it is a fact that, during those days, many lifelong friends found themselves being enemies; and yet, they still met each other at the local tavern and such.

    However, not all the partisans were from Montelupo: Members of the Fiamme Verdi (Green Flames) and CLN, driven by Catholic and communist ideals respectively, reached the town. But partisans were not the only foreigners arriving in Montelupo: There were the German Waffen-SS, heading North during their withdrawal, as well as their Italian allies, loyal to the R.S.I. (Repubblica Sociale Italiana or Italian Social Republic); the state proclaimed by Mussolini after he lost the favor of the king. It’s easy to see that the groups were not homogeneous and did not constitute compact fronts divided along a single line. There were many divergences inside each faction about motivations, ideals, political and ethical issues. This was another deliberate choice, made to reflect the complexity of the historical scenario, and a preeminent point on which the authors focused. They shared the view that the outcomes of historical events have always been determined by the final choices of the people involved.

    Personal responsibilities and faults are always the consequences of the actions we decide to take – or not to take.

    Moreover, the groups were largely unbalanced in terms of resources and power. Even if resources were scarce for everybody, the Nazi-Fascists could rely on a slightly higher supply of weapons and ammunitions, at least in the very first part of the war. They also had the power, both military and political, to impose their will on and take what they needed from the inhabitants of Montelupo. On the other hand, partisans were hiding in the woods in a makeshift camp, their food supplies running short. Again, this was done to properly recreate the historical conditions in which the conflict was fought during those years. However, an important part of the control applied to the game was related to mortality. To avoid players having their characters killed in the first hours of the game, there was a specific rule stating that wounded characters could die only in the last day of the game. Moreover, the initial scarcity of weapons was introduced to discourage too fast an escalation of violence and deaths, which would be a very probable result in a real situation.

    Final Considerations

    I ribelli della montagna was a successful experience, but most of all an instructive one: Both organisers and players learnt valuable lessons.

    First of all, this larp proved that even sensitive topics and tragical events can be approached through larp in a proper way, while keeping a respectful perspective: for the historical facts, the victims involved and the personal sensibilities of the participants.

    The organisation of the larp offered the opportunity to examine many aspects of Italy during Fascism and the Second World War in-depth. It was an occasion for everybody, players and staff alike, to shed light on their own country and history, discovering circumstances, background episodes and little-known details. Finally, the event was appreciated for its balance between thrilling and action-oriented scenes, like firefights, rescues, assaults and even a night bombing; and a strong emotional involvement, due to the uncertain fate of Montelupo, the personal dilemmas of the characters and the fragile, daily habits being shaken and threatened. Brutal interrogations, scarce supplies of food and public executions: The hardcore element was well present.

    The writing and playing of I ribelli della montagna was a great experience: Everybody felt enriched and proud for having contributed to an activity furthering the understanding of the past and the perpetuating of the memory.

    Picture from the larp (play, Lisa Muner).
    Picture from the larp (play, Lisa Muner).

    I ribelli della montagna: l’ultima notte di Montelupo (The Rebels on the Mountain: The Last Night of Montelupo)

    Credits: Andrea Capone, Elio Biffi (main organizers), Aladino Amantini, Andrana Vigone, Annalisa Corbo, Federico Barcella, Matteo Miceli, Mauro Vettori, Paolo Benedetti.

    Date: July 10–12 and 17–19, 2015

    Location: Villaggio delle Stelle (a small private mountain village near the town of Lusernetta), Torino, Italy.

    Duration: Approximately 2 days and 2 nights, including workshops, starting from Friday afternoon until Sunday noon.

    Participants: 65 per run

    Participation Fee: €60 for international players, €70 regular price for villager and female Nazi characters, €80 for partisan characters, €115 for male Nazi and Fascist characters. The entry fee for Nazi and Fascist characters, as well as the one for international players, included the rental fee for a costume.

    Game Mechanics: Single Act Structure, Pre-written characters, Play to Lose, Pre-larp Workshops, Light use of fate play.

    This article was initially published in The Nordic Larp Yearbook 2015 published by Rollespilsakademiet and edited by Charles Bo Nielsen, Erik Sonne Georg, et al.

    Cover photo: Partisans in action (play, Lisa Muner).

  • Content Larp Manifesto

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    Content Larp Manifesto

    Written by

    The Content Larp Manifesto was originally presented on the Content Larp Manifesto website. We have re-printed it with their permission without editing the language.

    In this text, we, the undersigned, would like to present the current position of content larp; the key rules of its design; and its characteristic features.

    The term was coined in the Czech Republic to describe a specific type of larps in the Czech scene, which is typical by focusing primarily on pre-written content provided by the organizers. However, we do not want to limit the term to one national scene and we think it can be used for any game that fits the description, regardless of what scene it comes from. We see content larp as an independent and specific style of larping, both within the Czech larping scene and in a wider international context.

    While the larps that fall within this category are quite diverse, they are linked by several basic features, which distinctly distinguish them from other Czech and international larps. In our opinion, this difference makes it necessary to create at least a rough outline of content larp and to present it as an independent style of larping.

    Roots

    We see content larp as a historically separate and relatively coherent movement. The individual works that belong in this category are primarily inspired by other, preceding content larps and only secondarily by other impulses. Content larp has originated from the Czech larping tradition and we see it as a strong part of the Czech larp culture.

    While the final form of individual content larps can resemble that of some works of the Nordic scene, the design principles used to achieve that form are based on a different ideological and cultural framework. We therefore do not want to be seen as a part of the Nordic larp((Not even when taken according to the broader definition formulated by Stenros. [Stenros, Jaakko. 2014 “What Does ‘Nordic Larp’ Mean?.” Pp. 147-156 in: Back, John (ed.). The Cutting Edge of Nordic Larp. Knutpunkt.])) movement, although we fully respect it and see it as an interesting form and a valid source of inspiration.

    We think that we are only one of many streams of diverse national larping traditions, which were mostly passed down only orally or documented in their respective national languages, which limited the possibilities for international reflection. We hope that this manifesto will be a step that might contribute to a change: to an emergence of an international theoretical discourse, in which content larp will only be one of many design approaches.

    Specific Features of Content Larp

    1. A larp is prepared primarily by the organisation team. Apart from practical aspects of organization, the team is also responsible for creating a robust game design and complex characters for the players, which have enough content (plots, relationships, goals) for the whole time of the game. That means that the player’s role is not to co-create content before the larp, but to develop and interpret the pre-written content.
    2. Until the larp itself, the character is fully separate from the player. The player does not participate on creating their role (they do not prepare their own plots, relationships, etc.) and no role is designed by the organizers for a specific participant. In principle, that means that a role in content larp is quite close to a role in a theatre play: The participant can identify with the character and interpret it, but its purpose in the story and the boundaries that limit it do not change. That means that in case of a rerun, any other player can play the character just as well.
    3. Every character can be interpreted as the leading one. Every character has its indispensable place in the story and enough game content to place it in the centre of a specific segment of plotlines((We are aware of the issues that games, which work with many dramatic arches and plotlines, necessarily face; such as a superfluous amount of storylines or a lack of thematic unity. However, we think that the advantages of this approach outweigh the problems.)). The goal of content larp is to give every player in any role the same richness of experience.
    4. In key moments, the players’ freedom of decision is limited, in order to make it possible to achieve dramatically strong moments. The participant is not robbed of the opportunity to make important decisions, but the designer limits the range of their choices to those that have an interesting effect on the story and other players’ characters((There is naturally also some limit on situations where the decision of one player could significantly and unproductively disturb the play of others: for example by a drastic change of the story’s development or by removing another character from play prematurely. For these cases, larps generally employ some set of corrective measures; be they diegetic (e.g. the characters respect the decisions of a leader, who can step in, in character, in case there is a danger of an undesirable development) or meta-game (e.g. a rule stating that character’s injury can only cause death in the last part of the game).)). Because of that, the larp design can use a pre-planned structure of difficult choices and meaningful consequences, which support a dramatic and emotionally strong story.
    5. A content larp offers a prepared, dramatically strong story. Both the larp’s overarching story and the individual characters’ stories have pre-scripted arches, twists and key themes in a content larp. The form prefers this pre-designed and interconnected structure to open improvisation or a pure simulation of a life in a different reality.
    6. One of the goals of content larp is to be seen as a form of art. We believe, that the designer’s intent is embodied in the larp’s content and design, but we are also aware that, as is the case with many other performative activities, the final work of art can only appear with the players’ participations. We therefore see players as respected partners in creation.

    We want to make our games accessible to players from outside of the Czech scene; we want to play international larps and we want to be inspired by other larp traditions. We do not wish to become isolated and we do not see content larp as a more valuable form than any other larp styles in the Czech Republic and in the international scene. However, we do see it as an independent category both in the Czech and in the international scene, which is what we want to express by this manifesto.

    Signed:

    • Filip “Drirr” Appl
    • Kamil Buchtík
    • Martin “Pirosh” Buchtík
    • Pavel Gotthard
    • Michal Havelka
    • Petr Kuběnský
    • Jindřich “Estanor” Mašek
    • Jakub Míšek
    • Tereza Staňková
    • Jiří Rosol
    • Iva Vávrová
    • David František Wagner
  • Pneuma – The Game

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    Pneuma – The Game

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    Pneuma is a surreal mystery-drama, seemingly about a random gathering of people stuck on a bus in the middle of nowhere. The larp is played over four acts. The style is inquisitive and dark. We are trying to attain a feeling of mysteries and confusion. The larp was a brain-child of Hallgeir; it also used elements from escape-rooms like riddles, puzzle-boxes and a cryptex.

    Before Game

    We decided to try something new regarding the workshops before the start of the larp. To that end, we gave the players some instructions on certain actions that should be taken during the workshop. This ranged from “3 times during the workshop you should try to be defiant” to “3 times during the workshop you should say something racist”. We wanted to do this to make the divide between the player and the character a bit blurry from the get-go. We also debriefed about this after the larp, so that the player forced to be a racist was able to explain.

    Bullshit Personality-text

    We wanted the players to feel that the character was written for them, and only them. To do this, we asked all the players some bullshit before the larp started, like: “What is your star-sign?”, “What is your favourite colour?”, “Which animal represents you?” and “Write down 3 words that represent you”.

    In addition to this, we started all characters with the following:

    “We have tried to write the personality of your character based on which player is playing them. We do this to increase your empathy with your character and how to play the role. This is not the main theme of the larp, but we would like to use it as much as possible. If we have some misses, you are totally free to use whatever parts you want to use for play.”

    After that, all characters had the same text (written by Derren Brown):

    “You are a person prone to bouts of self-examination. This is in sharp contrast to a striking ability you have developed to appear very socially engaged, even the life and soul of the party; but in a way that only convinces others. You are all too aware of it being a façade…”

    Playing

    The magical mirrors were an efficient tool for creating a surreal atmosphere (play, Tim Esborn). The magical mirrors were an efficient tool for creating a surreal atmosphere (play, Tim Esborn).

    We divided the larp into acts in order to be able to change the black box and to give instructions and information to the players. All the characters were really aspects of one person’s personality, and inspired by a deadly sin or heavenly virtue. They were all a part of a mentally ill man’s psyche. There were two stories playing out during this larp: What happened inside the two black boxes (the consciousness and the subconscious) and the story outside.

    This meant that all players had their “opposite”, and we tried to create conflicts there from the workshops before the larp. The two black boxes were set up to be the consciousness and subconscious of the character of whom the participants were playing aspects. He was a disturbed man contemplating killing his 5-year-old daughter, and what the players were really doing was deciding whether to kill her or not. So when, at the start of act 3, we held back two players and put them into the subconscious, only being able to communicate with the consciousness (the other black box) through a magical mirror, the players could start figuring out what was happening and who they were. We used some riddle-solving and actual puzzles in addition to the meta-game that was going on. It is difficult to predict how hard riddles and puzzles need to be in order to take the appropriate amount of time to solve. This is the first crack we have had at black-boxes and also the first larp we have made that was explicitly intended for reruns.

    Pneuma

    Credits: Hallgeir Gustavsen, Tim Esborn & Ståle Askerød Johansen

    Duration: 5–6 hours, 4 hours play time

    Participants: 14. Organizers can’t participate as ordinary players.

    Organizers & Helpers: 2–3

    Workload: Medium

    Possible Locations: Black box, gallery, classroom, conference room

    Equipment: Tables, chairs, sound-system of sorts, video-projector (not necessary, but better)

    Playing Style: Realistic, riddle-solving, but with plenty of improvisation

    Notes: Inspired by Agatha Christie´s And Then There Were None, and the movie Identity (2003). This larp used two connected black boxes and pre-recorded video and audio together with two “magical mirrors”. The players were not allowed to speak about the game between acts; a decision we would change in retrospect, as this could have helped solving the plot.

    This article was initially published in The Nordic Larp Yearbook 2015 published by Rollespilsakademiet and edited by Charles Bo Nielsen, Erik Sonne Georg, et al.

    Cover photo: The setting of the game was as enigmatic as it was abstract (play, Tim Esborn).