Editorial note: The following articles present an introductory overview of the history of larping, and of the present state of larp, in various countries around the world. They are based on the author’s own researches, and on information that he gained from larpers in those countries. It would be great to hear from other people who know about larp activity that isn’t mentioned here — please contact contribute@nordiclarp.org if you would like to write a supplementary article for this site, or contact andrzej.pi3rzchala@gmail.com to send updates and additions directly to the author to include in his country-by-country compilation.
Larp in Greece
Introduction
First of all, I wanted to thank Stavris Gianniaris, Joan Kim Moraiti, and especially Chris Panagiotopoulos for their help.
The Greek LARP scene has evolved, characterised by a unique, or at any rate unusual, combination of historical themes and fantasy. It has very strong links with the re-enactment movement, while most of their games draw from history or mythology. In general, larps in the Balkan region are much more often linked in campaigns, often spanning many years. Single and chamber games are much rarer, although they do of course happen. From the words of my interlocutors, it seems that the scene is torn by disputes between, as far as I understand, fans of fantasy and historical games. And disputes between groups of creators, somewhat reminding me of the situation in Poland from around 2010-14.
Their main larp group on Facebook, Larp Club of Greece, has 2200 members, albeit some no longer active. The activists themselves estimate the peak of active larpers at 450 people. This is not a very large community. There is also a fairly limited pool of larps per year. Sometimes there are months of intervals in between.
The community communicates mainly via Facebook and, to a much lesser extent, via Discord. This is interesting, because the Slovak or Swiss communities have mostly migrated to Discord. I am curious as to the reasons for these differences.
If you would like to start looking for something on the Greek scene, hit up the group: Κοινότητα LARP Ελλάδας ~ LARP Club of Greece. They are super helpful and have a group of responsive activists.
A second suggested group is the Fantasy Larp of Athena.
Characteristics
According to my interlocutors, Greece is at a rather early stage in the development of its community, if we understand it according to Polish, German, Nordic, etc. assumptions and standards. There is a lot of sad sarcasm and probably a certain regret about this state of affairs when talking about its ‘backwardness’. However, it is apparent that they are diligently trying to bounce back after the pandemic and are pushing forward intensely. A new generation is beginning to take an interest in larps and invest their commitment and time in it. The significant number of young creators, under the age of 25, who are committed to creating larps and their communities is highlighted. However, they still lack a proper ecosystem.
As for the reasons, they cite two decades of economic problems, meagre cultural spending and austerity, depleting Greeks’ purchasing power on the one hand and their willingness to engage in anything that requires extra mental effort on the other.
It was emphasised that the community continues to fight against toxic behaviour and attempts to educate participants about what larp is, beyond hitting each other with foam swords (most fantasy larps) and malicious intrigue (most vampire games — these are not now a large part of the Greek scene).
To quote Chris Panagiotopoulos:
“It’s a tough battle with ideological/social stakes, as sexists, homophobes, bigots and abusers continue to lurk on the scene, segmenting it into cults of personality. [ed. groups being led by charismatic ‘chiefs’, the cult of the individual, and other wonders we’ve managed to bury a lot of, but I still remember them in Polish larp as being massive once upon a time.] However, I am optimistic that sooner or later people will understand the message and start rejecting these bad actors to build a real community to run and play larps for fun.”
History
Since when has there been a larp scene in Greece? It started to form in the 1990s with the larps of Vampire: the Masquerade, but the modern history of the larp scene is set by those involved themselves to begin in 2015.
A brief history of larps in Greece, by Chris:
1990s – early 00s: The intersection of gaming, goth and metal subculture, larps were monthly events in boardgame shops and later in RPG clubs such as (ESPAIROS, founded in 1999). In the World of Darkness formula: most of them were Vampire: the Masquerade. There were also a few successful local common larp/ARG hybrids (unfortunately, the only surviving materials from these are physical books written in Greek). Vampire became synonymous with larp, with about 16 events a year, about 100 larps in total. Divided into 3 to 5 campaigns of 20-40 players each.
Late 00s – early 10s: the larp scene in Athens was absorbed by the role-playing game scene. Other cities (Heraklion, Thessaloniki, Patra) created and maintained separate vampire larp scenes with 10 to 30 players.
Early 2010s: Athens had practically no larp scene anymore. Heraklion and Thessaloniki were doing a bit better, but not much better. Conversations started in a Facebook group about fantasy larps, such as Mythodea and DrachenFest.
Late 10s: A new community formed in Athens — Aeonia — to play fantasy larps. Larps in Athens attracted a new generation of role-playing game players. Many more larps were created. Fantasy larps were mostly played in parks for free. Athens fantasy gamers started to visit Bulgaria for larps. The number of participants peaked in 2018, around 450 players (Greek games, plus Greeks at The Fog Larp in Bulgaria).
COVID: All larp events came to a halt throughout Greece. Most of the communities became dormant, as students went home for the lockdown. The only exception was Portal 2021, which took place in Athens
After Covid: New games appear, and some old games resume. With a reduced number of participants, but increasing plurality. The pandemic blocked the expected expansion of the scene, and destroyed many communities which disintegrated after more than two years without events. On the other hand, it drove away some of the toxic influences on the community and gave us, burnt out from trying to create games, a chance to reassess and consolidate our efforts. The result was the formation of Cerebral Productions. [Edited to include Chris].
Currently, only Aeonia and Primal regularly organise outdoor games (about 30-50 participants each). Athens also hosts occasional chamber larps (10-30 participants) and some hybrids of board games and larps. Larissa has its own board game/larp scene and efforts are being made to create new communities in Thessaloniki, Serres, Janina, and Patra
Larps active at the end of the previous decade in Athens:
- Aeonia
- Lands of Celestra
- Τάλως Brotherhood
- Dark Schemes
- Chronicles of Annor
- Kult: Divinity Lost
- Cerebro
Important games, and what they recommend, what is the situation with foreign players
The only international game currently running is Aeonia, which is developed and run in English. Participation in The Fog Larp [there is more about this in my article about the Bulgarian scene] was still significant until last summer. Most players do not leave their city to participate in larps. Efforts are being made to attract more international players.
On the LARP Club Greece Facebook group there is a list of available larps, all declaring themselves to be foreigner-friendly, in the sense that all GMs and the vast majority of the player base are able to communicate in English to some extent.
Contemporary larps that interviewees highlight as being particularly accessible to foreigners:
- Aeonia Larp (Cerebral Productions) (from June 2015 – the present)
Renaissance fantasy - Primal (Larponomicon) (2023 – present)
Post-Apocalyptic Drama
Larp in Romania
Introduction
This will be a rather short text about a small but interesting larp scene. Romania is not a country too close to us [ed. written from a Polish perspective], but with a rich culture. I hope their larp scene has its best years ahead of it. Let’s get started.
I collected the material thanks to Berna Okumus from Bucharest.
History
A few years ago, there was a Larp House team in Romania. Its Facebook group collected 1100 followers, albeit starting that at a time when Facebook reaches and likes were quite easy. Today, this attempt requires a lot of effort. Larp House appeared on the larp scene around 2015 and disappeared from communication channels with the end of 2017, according to some witnesses – although others place it in 2019, before the pandemic. It is inconclusive which of these versions is more likely. The team organised at least eight games over two years. Their prices hovered around €10-22. They probably numbered in the area of 10-20 participants.
After they disappeared there was a vacuum created. The current developers know little about them and in fact absolutely nothing about the times before them. I guess you could say that today’s Romanian creators survived their own dinosaur extinction or some other Jedi purge there.
Currently
At the moment, the scene is centred around a team called Ministry of Roleplay. They are made up of several creators. Berna Okumus, who answered my questions, started creating games two years ago, as Red Saga LARP | Bucharest. In her own words:
“[…] I started organising larps on my own, but it quickly became too difficult because it’s not a one-person job. Previously, we applied for Erasmus larp projects and organised several larps. […] We organise a larp once every few months and try to build a larp community in Romania. Our larps tend to be 10-20 players, but we have a group chat of about 60-70 people with people who have played one of our larps before or are very keen to join the next one.”
So there is no big larp scene in Romania, but there are similar communities to draw from. There are large airsoft groups that have an element of role-playing and narrative. There is also clearly a large community of improvisational theatre and rpg games.
My interviewees (Berna, and others who preferred to remain anonymous) are aware that re-enactment groups organise occasional events with elements of role-playing and storytelling, but have no contact with them and know little about them.
Larpers from Romania, actually from Bucharest, play mainly fantasy, but also other genres: comedy, thriller, competition, romance. Their games are usually 6 – 8 hours long.
Their sample projects:
- La Bloc – meaning ‘in the block’. A parody of Romanian life in a typical post-communist block neighbourhood. The characters were clichés of all the character tropes that can be found in a typical Romanian neighbourhood; thugs, old ladies gossiping about youth, drug dealers, a budding rapper/DJ, the building’s president, a gigolo uncle, children playing, people eating sunflower seeds, etc. [ed. which proves we, in Poland, are not too different].
- Veilbound – a larp Halloween fantasy event, with monsters in an abandoned Bucharest amphitheatre. It’s worth noting that they hit the front pages of the local newspapers at the time.
- Leylines of Los Angeles – a meeting-style game, set in the council of magicians.
- Circle of Shadows – an elimination larp, hosted as part of Larp Alchemy Nausika in Krakow. The game was about recruiting for the mafia.
They are now starting to expand their collaboration with the rpg community. They organised a live streamed larp about artificial intelligence as part of a 16-hour rpg marathon broadcast on Twitch.
Anything else? They have enthusiasm and are competing bravely – let’s keep our fingers crossed for them, we were there once too!
Larp in Switzerland
Introduction
Let’s talk about the Swiss larp scene today. It dates back to around 1999, although some sources suggest that it may be ten years older. Their larp groups are strongly affiliated to the Italian, German, and French language communities (mainly the latter two), and maintain strong contact with other larp communities playing in those languages. Switzerland is, let us emphasise, quadrilingual. The Confederation’s constitution recognises four languages as national languages, and they are also official in federal institutions: German, spoken by 63.7% of the population, French, spoken by 20.4% of the population, Italian spoken by 6.5% of the population and Romansh, spoken by 0.5% of the population.
In French, in German
French larper Thomas B. has published a very cool video presentation on the Swiss larp scene, which was originally prepared for Knudepunkt 2011. It’s a bit out of date, but in English and describes how the Swiss scene communities differ: the German and the French. The video presentation focuses mainly on the French-speaking scene.
Most games are played in groups of 10 to around 80 players, with a few larger events. To quote one of the larpers interviewed, Stephan Kaufmann: “Most of the community shares stories and friendships far beyond our Swiss borders.” Their larp calendar shows about twenty-something larps (mostly from the German-speaking community) per year.
The pandemic has killed many projects — as everywhere, unfortunately. After the pandemic, the Swiss tried to open as many as they could of the killed projects. With some they succeeded, with others they did not. This is significant because the core of their larp scene is in the form of long larp campaigns.
The larp scene consists of a hard core of around 100 players who go to almost every Swiss larp and who attend meetings such as Stammtisch (irregular social gatherings). There are about 1,100 people in the Larp Schweiz Facebook group, and their very lively Discord counts 200.
Again quoting, “Players from abroad are often part of us if they speak German (Austrians and Germans). You can also participate if you at least understand German and speak German or English.”
Most games in Switzerland are ‘bring your own character’ larps instead of casting and writing characters in advance. Many of their fantasy games are set in one dedicated world, collectively developed.
The world, or rather the country they play in, is called Candara. It was founded around 2010, when a number of organisers with their own world and storyline decided to merge them, to make it easier to play the same character in multiple games and have more games with the same background.
The German-speaking scene, the largest, is just heavily campaign-based, loose and not very mechanical. They claim to draw from the German school, but this is only partly true. German larpers divide in terms of their approach to mechanics and rules — mainly, north and south. There will be a text about this in my article about German larp, but note that the north is less battle-larp-oriented and has more rules, while the south is more battle-larp-oriented and has less rules and mechanics and more DKWDDK (Du kannst, was du darstellen kannst — you can do what you can represent.) So the Swiss are closer to the southern part of German larp.
The French-speaking scene is more chambery and one-shot oriented, more mechanical, structuring its games more strongly.
Most Swiss games include a location with room and board, so a certain set of comforts and an appropriate level of comfort. Purely outdoor, camp-based games are very rare. Which, given their climate, is not surprising.
Again quoting a local larp player, Lorenz:
“The big difference between Swiss larps (the German-speaking part) and French or German larps is the language. We all speak Swiss German, a local dialect that is only understood by our closest German or Austrian neighbours. In the game, ordinary German is spoken (the same German in which we already read and write). So basically, we are playing in a language other than our everyday language all the time. Swiss German is usually used for conversation outside the game during larps. I’ve only been to one game played in Swiss-German and most of the feedback was that people didn’t like it. French and German influences are very evident in Switzerland, with the French-speaking part largely adopting their style and the German-speaking part adopting the German influence.”
The Nordic larp style emerged quite late in Switzerland and is still not very widespread. ‘Nordic’, in the sense that our Polish scene is also Nordic, from their perspective.
A few years ago there was a large Vampire: the Masquerade community in Switzerland, which, as far as I know, is now mainly active on games in Germany, while others have either stopped playing VtM altogether or only do small VtM games.
Curiosities
Swiss people generally tend to have a very laid-back approach to games and avoid difficult topics.
The probably oldest Swiss LARP campaign, Tikon, had around 90 games from 1986 to 2005, set in a fantasy caliphate and was very much in the style of Terry Pratchett.
The community organizes regular offline meetings: every two weeks in Zurich, and also bi-weekly online on Discord. There have also been or currently are meetings in other cities, for example, there was a long-standing Stammtisch in Baden for Vampire: the Masquerade players.
They have an extensive website connected to a calendar. You can also find plenty of cool photos from their games there.
Cover image: diagram by Andrzej Pierzchała showing which countries are covered by his current research