Play to Lift, not Just to Lose
If we can trust that other players will Lift us to wins, we can focus on Playing to Lose. This article argues that the two techniques - Play to Lift, Play to Lose - are often most effective when used…
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Designing the Volunteer Experience
When producing larps we often rely on the help of volunteers. But we are currently not actively looking at the volunteer experience from a design perspective. This article proposes several ways of looking at volunteer experiences and the way we…
Just a Little Lovin’ USA 2017
This essay recounts the organizer experience of running the Norwegian larp Just a Little Lovin' in the USA in 2017. It specifically recounts challenges encountered with securing the site, managing controversy around the larp, and adapting it to US larpers.
The Larp Domino Effect
This article discusses some of the pros and cons of this larp domino effect, in which content from one area of the game spreads throughout the fiction like a wildfire as the result of emergent play. In larps where the…
Larp as Life
Some hints and tips for larpers who have decided to go pro and make their living from larp.
Immerton
Immerton is a 4-day larp written by women for women participants, taking place in a fictional society of women in a polytheistic goddess pantheon. Produced by Learn Larp, the game used a feminist sandbox design that emphasized rituals, relationships, collaborative…
More Than a Seat at the Feasting Table
As Larp as a medium of experience design and performance begins to take traction globally as a source of entertainment, increasingly larp communities are facing a problem that cannot be swept aside any longer: there is a distinct lack of…
Scripted Larps and a Neo-Noir Experience
A scripted larp is a larp structured through a pre-defined script with some theatrical appearance. It’s a kind of Play and Enjoy Watching larp. This article shows how this works, based on my personal experience as creator of Devil in…
Freak Show, an Autopsy
Freak Show, a larp held in an abandoned amusement park in Finland. The larp told the story of the last freak show and explored otherness through a romantic gothic horror setting. The participants played a family of outcasts and freaks…
Epiphany – A Collaborative Mage: the Ascension Larp
Epiphany was a collaborative larp based loosely on Mage: The Ascension that took place December 15-17, 2017 in Austin, Texas. The larp was set during a weekend-long spiritual retreat where mentors help initiate mages navigate their Awakenings and come into…