Nathan Hook is a British game and larp designer and academic.
Background
Nathan first became involved in the Nordic scene with Dragonbane in 2006, for which he wrote parts of the culture briefings and metaphysics. He regularly attends Knutpunkt and Fastaval and writes for the Knutpunkt books. Previously he had been involved with the UK larp scene since 1997 and the internatonal Camarilla organisation since 2000.
In the Knudepunkt book for 2007, he published 'The Bristol Manifesto.' Spoofing Magna Carta, this larp manifesto presents the position that players should focus on immersing in their characters, organisers should focus on simulating an internal consistent world (including modelling off-screen parts of the world, if needed), and story should be regarded as something that naturally and organicly develops from a sufficiently interesting setting.
In August 2008, Nathan presented 'And Not to Yield,' the first Nordic-style minilarp to be both written and organised in the UK at Grand Tribunal (an Ars Magica convention). It uses 'being trapped in faerie' as a metaphor for the Nordic larp scene, a conceptual place where emotional play comes to the fore. It has since been run at Fastaval, Knudepunkt, Stabcon, Grand Tribunal US, and elsewhere.
Academic background
In 2012, he compeleted MSc Psychological Research Methods with the Open University, UK with a dissertation researching larpers. His dissertation is available as a free download from lulu.com
Since 2013, Nathan has been a distance PhD student at University of Tampere, Finland, researching identity theory applied to roleplaying in games. In October 2015, he moved to Finland on a fellowship to work full-time on research.
Scenario publications
Nathan has published 3 scenario books in the Green Book, developing psychodrama scenarios as a form; drawing inspiration from psychological models to create replayable freeforms with strong emotional play. He has also published Heart's Blood, a literary scenario adapting Dracula to jeepform. His books are available online from lulu.com
recent activity
He presented in the 2014 Nordic larp talks http://nordiclarptalks.org/post/87238078318/identity-crafting-keeping-the-black-dog-at-bay
In April 2014, he co-organised an international run of Pan in Finland.
In May 2014, he published the board game Magus which was presented at Fastaval in 2015. https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/magus
In November 2014, he co-organised another international run of Pan in the UK. This is believed to be the first multi-day Nordic-style larp run in the UK.
In January 2015, he co-organised another international run of Pan in the Netherlands.
In March 2015, he co-organised a new expanded international run of Pan at a new location in Finland.
In August 2015, he published the hidden role card game Midsummer which will be presented at Fastaval in 2016. https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/midsummer
In October 2015, he entered the Golden Cobra scenario contest with a new freeform scenario, Just a Little Peril.
He is currently co-writing a new modern day psychological larp titled 'Price of Inspiration' to present in Finland in March, 2016. It is currently fully booked.