Back from Drachenfest and Mythodea 2013! Local larp news update.

Me as a Black Ice rakh on ConQuest 2013

I'm back from Germany! The drive there (and back) has been exhausting mostly due to traffic jams - 16 hours of travel from Zagreb to Diemelstadt where Drachenfest was held (with a 4,5 hour jam around Regensburg!), a 2 hour drive between events, and 17 hours from Brokeloh back to Zagreb ('only' 1,5 hour jam around Regensburg, and a 20 minute one around Leipzig, but we took longer breaks). Indeed, Stau (traffic jam) and Baustelle (construction site) are some of the first words you get acquainted with on German motorways, as you wait in long lines that usually don't move (without apparent reason), and all you can do is look at the 'motivational' Wir bauen für Sie sign that you've been standing next to for the past 20 minutes... Faster border checks than last year (as Croatia is now part of EU) did help a bit, but my car not really being the fastest one on the motorway made this a long long trip...

But enough ranting about the traffic. Yesterday was a holiday in Croatia, so I took the opportunity to grab some sleep and rest - and try to catch up on what was going on on Croatian larp scene in the meanwhile. This took a decent chunk of my day, as the scene is extremely busy this summer giving us probably the busiest August (and September) so far.

Two special Amtgard water battle events - Labuđa Rijeka 3 and 4 - took place in those two weeks (photos here and here - first two events took place), 5th one is probably going to be this weekend but the time has not been decided yet at the time of the writing.

Next weekend (August 16-18) there's another big Amtgard event - Rajski Vrhovi XIX. This time, I will not be a co-organizer. Terms, pricing and location is almost the same as it had been so far (though there will be some notable differences considering the change of the main organizer). Check the event on facebook.

Weekend after, August 24, there will be a playtest run of The Elder Scrolls Chronicles larp near Bjelovar, Croatia. From a simple rules playtest, an idea evolved - and it will be a fully featured one-day event. Click here for more info. On the same weekend, August 23-24 there will be a sci-fi and fantasy convention Liburnicon in Opatija that will also feature some larp content.

The final weekend of August, August 30 - September 1st, will feature two larps. Fallout 3 and a special Para Pokreće Svijet event (steampunk larp).

On Friday, September 6th, there will be a start of a Vampire: The Masquerade larp in Zagreb - check out the first event here. It will be a limited intro chronicle in three parts. I'll be the main organizer of the first event, however main organizers will rotate between events.

A week after there will be no larp (whew) but there will be a big meeting for the upcoming short Terra Nova event, Rise of Rashalan. A week later we're off to Hungary for Demgard on September 20th. Then a week off, and then it's time for Sine Requie on October 5th.

Looks like a very busy (and yummy) rest of the summer and early autumn.

But first things first. Next I'll be writing about Drachenfest and Mythodea. Time to remember all the details...

The 15 rules of larp

The following 15 rules (warning: strong language) were written some years ago in Great Britain, and have been pretty much generally accepted on the British larp scene. Especially popular is rule 7 - widely known by its number and commonly considered to be the most imortant rule of all (and I agree). Even the biggest British larp forum has taken Rule7 as its name. The rules have been originally created by the Drunken Monkeys and edited by Rick Wynne who added some extra stuff in the explanations to make them more understandable to international audience (it still contains some British larp lingo though), more work-safe and to throw in his two cents. (copy of the original wording is available here ) 1. Don’t play a mighty warrior; play a warrior and be mighty. Don’t label your character. As soon as you say that you are the best swordsman in the land someone will come along and kick your ass. Just get into the mindset of the person and role-play it out. 2. No one cares about you

Mind's Eye Theatre: Werewolf The Apocalypse rulebook review

Available on DriveThruRPG Just under three years ago I wrote a review for Mind’s Eye Theatre: Vampire the Masquerade rulebook . It was the first book published by By Nights Studio, and a year later I reviewed one of its supplements - Storyteller Secrets . Now, after a long period of work, after the success of their kickstarter campaign, By Night Studios finally released the full version of the new larp rules for Werewolf the Apocalypse setting. This was preceded by various alpha, beta, gamma, delta and omega slices - each containing a different playtest version of the rules, slowly released from September last year until July this year. First impressions were that the artwork is very cool, and that the book is HUGE. Numbering at 762 pages, that's over 200 pages more than Vampire the Masquerade. But before I start going in-depth, I'd like to mention that this blog's readers come from various backgrounds - and I'll adjust my review accordingly. I assume I'

Larps in EU

Today Croatia has acceeded into the European Union as its 28th state. EU has loads of diverse and different larp scenes and cultures in them. Some of them are local, some are national, some encompass all speakers of a certain language, some are regional, and some are world-famous. Here's a short window into a couple of EU larps and larp scenes, carefully selected and profiled by the criteria of "those I actually visited myself" and "those who bothered to answer my survey on facebook on a short notice", with a dash of "this is like elementary culture you should know". So this is not a full list - not even close - and not even the fully representative one, despite it being the largest post on this blog ever. Even keeping track of the Croatian scene is quite a job and there are still many language barriers around. But hopefully you'll find plenty of new and interesting material here. If you want your larp represented - whether it's battle

Diary of a Croatian larper

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