Johanna Koljonen is an experience designer and media analyst, with a continuing career as a writer, broadcaster, author and critic. She is a popular lecturer on larp and topics related to narrative participation. She was lead editor of and a significant contributor to the 2019 volume Larp Design. Her groundbreaking larp criticism, in essays like “Eye-Witness to the Illusion: The Impossibility of 360° Role-Playing” and “The Dragon Was the Least of it: Larp As Ephemera and Ruin” are widely quoted in the field. She is he co-author of the book-length larp autopsy Dragonbane – The Legacy. She also won the innovator category of the The Swedish Grand Journalism Prize of 2011.
Johanna Koljonen | |
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| Born | June 17, 1978 |
| Nationality | Finland |
| Citizenship | Sweden |
| Years active | 1995-present |
| Organization | |
| Website | johannakoljonen |
Johanna co-founded the the Nordic Larp Talks together with Andie Nordgren and Petter Karlsson and has hosted them since 2010.
Larps
Larpwright (designer/co-designer)
- Fenriskampanjen, ca 1996-1999
Additional Design
- Inside Hamlet, 2015, 2017, 2018, conceptual design; 2018, workshop design
- BAPHOMET, additional design
Executive producer
- Inside Hamlet, 2018
Character Writing
- Hamlet Inifrån, 2002
Lectures
- Safety and Calibration in Larp, Larpwriter Summerschool, July 2016
Short Talks
- Loyalty to World – Fader Talk, Larpwriter Summer School, July 2016
- Pressure on Player – Fader Talk, Larpwriter Summer School, July 2016
Editor
- Assistant editor, What Do We Do When We Play?, 2020.
- Larp Design: Creating Role-Play Experiences, Bifrost 2019, with Jaakko Stenros, Anne Serup Grove, Aina Skjønsfjell, and Elin Nielsen.
- Founder, with Jaakko Stenros, and editor in chief of the panclou role-playing game fanzine (1997-), which had a formative effect on the early developments of the live role-playing theory movement in the Nordic Countries.
Author
- 'Carolus Rex. The Flagship of Enclosed Space Opera.' in Markus Montola and Jaakko Stenros, eds: Nordic Larp, Fëa Livia 2010.
- 'En Stilla Middag Med Familjen. First Person Bourgeois Drama.' in Markus Montola and Jaakko Stenros, eds: Nordic Larp, Fëa Livia 2010.
- 'Dragonbane. Tangible Fantasy, Plausible Magic.' (with Tiinaliisa Multamäki) in Markus Montola and Jaakko Stenros, eds: Nordic Larp, Fëa Livia 2010.
- Introduction to the catalogue for Game Continent at the Aros Modern Museum in Aarhus. Game Continent was a 2010 work by Anders Bojen and Kristoffer Ørum.
- ’The Dragon Was the Least of It: Dragonbane and LARP as Ephemera and Ruin’, Montola & Stenros (eds): Playground Worlds. Creating and Evaluating Experiences of Role-Playing Games. Ropecon ry, 2008.
- ‘Eye-Witness to the Illusion. On the Impossibility of 360° Role-Playing’, Donnis, Gade, & Thorup (eds): Lifelike. Knudepunkt 2007, 2007.
- ‘I could a tale unfold whose lightest word would harrow up thy soul. Lessons from Hamlet’, Montola & Stenros (eds): Beyond Role and Play. Tools, Toys and Theory for Harnessing the Imagination. Ropecon ry 2004.
- ‘Why do bad LARPS happen to good people?’, Gade, Thorup & Sander (eds): As Larp Grows Up. Theory and Methods in Larp, Projektgruppen KP03, 2003.
Contributor to panclou, Roolipelaaja and Playground magazines.