Kjell Hedgard Hugaas

Kjell Hedgard Hugaas
Born	(1978-10-18) October 18, 1978
Nationality	Norway
Years active	2000–present
Organization	Kairosis

Kjell Hedgard Hugaas is a northern Norwegian larp designer, organizer, writer, and trained actor. He has been active within Nordic larp communities for about two decades and contributes to the ongoing discussions on larp theory on a regular basis, his particular field of interest being the transformative effects of larp. As such, he is one of the authors of the Butterfly Effect Manifesto.

He writes and designs on a freelance basis for a number of different larp studios and creators and creates chamber larps on his own. His design work tends to be quite political and often addresses societal issues. He theorized the ways in which ideas impact larpers through the process of memetic bleed and how the physicality of larping impact larpers through the process of procedural bleed.

He has also done safety consultant work for an number of different studios and organizations.

He holds two MAs in Game Design, and in his daily life he works as a Project Manager at Region Gotland. In addition he works with local, regional and national trade unions, and is a part-time legal consultant.

Games

Writer/Co-Designer

• The Forbidden History (2018 & 2020)
• Tale of The North Wind (2019)
• 1912 (2019)
• Beyond the Neural Horizon (2019)
• Vætter i Natten (2019)
• Sahara Expedition (2020)
• If I Could See Your Face Again (2021)
• Agents of Empowerment (2021-2023)
• Conflict Transformation Academy (2021-23)
• The Last Song (2022)

Larpwright

• Norwegian Prine (2018)
• Hello In There (2019)
• [[0.[ZERO] K]] (2021)
• Summers End (2022)
• Take The Star Out Of The Window (2022)

Voice Acting / Other

• Demeter (2017)
• Requiem: Reichskinder (2019)
• Re:Boot (2021)
• If I Could See Your Face Again (2021)
• SoulShift (2022)

Articles on Larp

• Investigating types of bleed in larp - emotional, procedural and memetic by Kjell Hedgard Hugaas
• The Butterfly Effect Manifesto by Kjell Hedgard Hugaas and Sarah Lynne Bowman
• Transformative Role-Play: Design, Implementation, and Integration by Kjell Hedgard Hugaas and Sarah Lynne Bowman
• Speechcraft by Kjell Hedgard Hugaas
• Magic is Real: How Role-playing Can Transform Our Identities, Our Communities, and Our Lives by Kjell Hedgard Hugaas and Sarah Lynne Bowman
• Bleed and Identity: A Conceptual Model of Bleed and How Bleed-out from Role-Playing Games can Affect a Player’s Sense of Self by Kjell Hedgard Hugaas
• Liminal Intimacy: Role-Playing Games as Catalysts for Interpersonal Growth and Relating by Sarah Lynne Bowman , Josephine Baird , and Kjell Hedgard Hugaas
• A Conceptual Model of Bleed: Introducing The Bleed Perception Threshold, the Relational Matrix of Bleed, and Identity Bleed (In press) by Kjell Hedgard Hugaas
• Practicing Dying: How Role-playing Games Can Help Us Accept Death and Boost Our Quality of Life (In press) by Kjell Hedgard Hugaas

Talks On Larp and Larp Related Topics

• To Bleed or Not to Bleed - KP 2017
• A Trinity of Consciousness - KP 2018
• Memetic Bleed - A tool for Societal and Political change - KP 2019
• Fra rolle til karakter - Spillerom 2019
• Nordic Larp - A tool for teaching History - TEMA 2019
• Designing for Transformative Impacts - Keynote Solmukohta 2020
• Roleplaying for transformation - Panel discussion - The KP Magic Book Online Conference 2021
• The Transformative Play Initiative - Edu-Larp Conference 2021
• The Final Chapter - Practicing Dying Through Play - KP 2021
• The Transformative Play Initiative - KP 2021
• Liminal Intimacy: Role-playing Games as Catalysts for Interpersonal Growth and Relating - Future and Reality Of Gaming 2021
• Agents Of Empowerment - Gamification for Sustainable Development Symposium 2021
• Death and Dying in Games - Exploring Age Old Questions of Mortality through Role-playing Games - PCA 2022
• The Transformative Play Initiative: A Research and Education Report - Portal 2022
• Bleed and Identity - Uppsala University - PoP GGC 2022
• The Transformative Play Initiative: A Research and Education Report - Knutpunkt 2022
• A Conceptual Model of Bleed: Introducing The Bleed Perception Threshold, the Relational Matrix of Bleed, and Identity Bleed - TPI Seminar 2022
• Employing Educational Live Action Role-playing Games to Train Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration - Nordic Digra 2023
• Playing Dead: How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love Larping Again - KP 2023
• Playing Dead: How Role-Play Game Experiences Can Influence Player's DAP-R - PoP GGC 2023
• Cultivating a Soulful and Sustainable Academic Journey - Kaunas University's 7th International PhD Summer School 2023
• Imagination Is Free: How Tabletop RPGs Are Creating Uncensored Exploratory Play Spaces for Iranian Youth - GENeration Analog 2023
• Philosophies of Psychological Safety in Analog Role-playing Game Discourses - DiGRA Italia 2023