Editorial note: Any views expressed in an article published in Nordiclarp.org do not necessarily represent the views of the editors or an endorsement of the article.
This anonymous article was originally published in the Knudepunkt 2023 underground book larp truths ready to see the light (editors unknown). It was then republished in the Solmukohta 2024 book, and has been reprinted from there with the editors’ permission. It has not been edited by Nordiclarp.org.
* * *
Forward by editor Kaisa Kangas for the 2024 Solmukohta book: It has been a tradition to publish a book like this one in connection with SK/KP – a tradition so honored that the lack of an official book last year caused a small outrage (see Pettersson 2023). Even then, there was an underground pdf book known as The Secret Book of Butterflies that consisted of short essays by anonymous writers. I have decided to republish some of them here.
* * *
There’s a longstanding tradition of larps that foreground sexually-transgressive behaviour in play: from Hamlet to Pan to BAPHOMET to Nocturne to Redemption to House of Craving to…
We might call these ‘debauchery larps’, because it seems that the main selling point is ‘you will get to do cool degenerate sexy stuff in this larp, where conventional morality has been subverted within the fictional play space’.
It probably is in theory possible to design, and to participate in, this kind of larp from the purest of motives: to seriously investigate what happens to human values and feelings, when the moral structure that we take for granted in the real world is removed – and so on. This is usually the official pitch.
But that’s not, in general, why people do it. For most participants, it’s seen simply as fun to take advantage of the opportunity provided, and to use character alibi to do things that offgame would be socially difficult or impossible. Be it nudity, diegetic sex, kink play around D/s and consent, or whatever.
Which is fine! – if everyone has that understanding, then great, let’s not judge or shame anyone.
It’s just that it seems like debauchery larp is accorded an unearned status within the hobby – portrayed as the ultimate kind of larp experience, edgy, boundary-breaking, redefining what larp is, are you even a real larper if you don’t dare to try it, etc. When really from a more objective point of view, it’s just a bunch of people getting their jollies, in the most predictable way.
Anyone can come up with an excuse to put a bunch of people in a house to lust after each other, and call it a larp: and they will not be short of applicants. It’s a pity that debauchery larp takes the spotlight away from other larps that are genuinely interesting.
References
Pettersson, Juhana. 2023. “The Wisdom of the Community.” Nordic Larp Talks. YouTube, May 28.
Please cite as:
Anonymous. 2024. “Debauchery: Meh.” In Liminal Encounters: Evolving Discourse in Nordic and Nordic Inspired Larp, edited by Kaisa Kangas, Jonne Arjoranta, and Ruska Kevätkoski. Helsinki, Finland: Ropecon ry.
Cover photo: Image by Engin Akyurt from Pixabay
