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Steampunk picks up the steam again



After taking a 2.5 year break, the Croatian Steampunk larp Para pokreće svijet (translation: Steam makes the world go round) is back. And it's grown into something more, as nowadays it's having the honor of being the longest-running active larp campaign in Croatia (and likely the last one still standing). Long-time readers of this blog might remember when I wrote about first event being announced back in early 2012.

Few things have changed since then. Fairly lightweight rules which were once in place (and often ignored in favor of improvisation) were dropped, and some other logistical complexities were lost over the years. However, this is still a larp that is fairly lightweight in its themes, not too serious, and about everyone having a fun time together.

September last year saw the first of new events - Back to the future. Also a fairly significant one, since it involved some time-travel shenanigans, and basically reset the 10 years of story and in-character political scheming - and much to the benefit to the game, in my opinion. The real-world location was in one of the players' weekend houses in Stari Brod, near Kupa river, and the environment was very atmospheric for a Steampunk larp. The plot itself marked it as one of the most unique larps in the entire series.

Story-wise, this was followed by a tabletop experience a month later, Around the world in 65 days. Another one of Sven's boardgame inventions, it was fun and fairly collaborative. The plot was fairly similar to the Jules Verne's novel of a similar name, combined with "choose your own path" style of play, with a touch of "guess the name of a city on a blank map".

The next larp in the series was Shapers of the World, two weeks ago. It took place at the Crni Mačak caffe - the first time Steampunk larp ran in the Mesnička street location since the caffe moved. This one marked a return to political play, though in a different form than prior larps, and involved a lot of poker. And a few unexpected situations due to the time-travel stuff.

And the next event - The Edge of the First Spark - is already announced for early May this year, although this will be a limited-number tabletop experience again.

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