The Story Manifesto
A manifesto about how to focus on the telling of a common story together through improvisation, creation and immersion. In essence, how to design and run a larp.
Featured
Emergence, Iteration, and Reincorporation in Larp
This essay proposes an aesthetic model for apprehending narrative and play, in-game and out-of-game experiences in terms of emergence, iteration, and reincorporation. Emergence can be judged with respect to its cultivation of the themes of the larp. Iteration regards the…
The Operations Behind the Road Trip Experience
In 2017 I was the business operations lead for the Roadtrip “rock band” larp that traveled across the United States, and never before have I dealt with such unique operations related complications in my life. The Roadtrip Experience was a…
Let’s Play with Fire! Using Risk and its Power for Personal Transformation
A current trend in larping focuses on extensive safety and consent techniques protecting the participants from harm. Yet people participate in, enjoy, and are profoundly transformed by risky experiences. There are potentially immense personal benefits within a designed experience that…
The Narrative Experience
The narrative experience is defined as a practical approach to larp design focused on narrativism. Through study of narrative inclined players and the toolbox of narrative concepts that are applied in contemporary larp design and larp culture the article attempts…
Group Improvisation of Larp Rituals
This article describes a 30-minute workshop which teaches on-the-spot collective improvisation of fake rituals for larp purposes.
Waiting Before the Beginning
This article looks at the waiting time before a game or a larp. It sees this time as part of the experience, and claims, that if we design this time properly, we will help our players be in a proper…
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…
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.
