The Nordic Larp Rulebook

Preface

At Solmukohta 2012, Lizzie Stark gave an excellent rant that for Nordic Larp to be accessible, the players should write a damn rulebook. This page is to be a draft of what that rulebook should look like.

Introduction

American Larps often have rulebooks, such as the NERO LARP Rulebook (9th edition) or The Book of LARP. The Nordic Larp book, edited by Jaakko Stenros and Markus Montola, is a good first step - but the ideal espoused is a short field guide for someone from another larp tradition to come into a Nordic Larp and understand what to expect and what to do.

Preparation

A vital part of Nordic Larp is the attitude which you come into it with.

If you have a character in advance, you should costume for this character. Unless otherwise specified, you do not need period materials, but the costume should look convincing.

Play

Once play has begun, everything the players say or do is interpreted as actions of the character. There are usually no rules for "off-character" interaction short of kutt or that a player discretely approaches another player and whispers off-game to check if the other player is OK or to clear out a misunderstanding.

Conflict Resolution

There are often no mechanics for resolving things like fights or other conflicts. Instead, the outcome is decided by social rules. (These should be elaborated here.)

Social Rules and Meta techniques governing resolving fights and other conflicts include:

• Play to Lose
• Honor System
• Transparency and Telegraphing
• Scene Change

Mechanical and Embodied Rules used to resolve conflict and other interactions:

• Boffer
• Ars Amandi
• Ars Ordo

Structure

Structures and consensus building techniques are also used to help create agreement about play:

• Pre-larp Workshop
• Fate Play
• Act Structure
• Pre-Written characters
• The Liquor on the Table
• Slow take-off
• Feather Play
• Ball of Yarn