Diary of a Croatian larper

The books for the Nordic larp conference Knudepunkt are usually available around the time of conference. However, this year a new book seems to join the (extensive) collection - The Nordic larp yearbook 2014. Several years ago, the Nordic Larp book was released - a historical anthology of the most significant larps produced in over a decade and a half (nowadays it's available as free digital download). The Nordic larp yearbook 2014  (link will take you to PDF download) is a similar project, sort of a continuation of the idea, but within a smaller scope - only one year. However, it has expanded geographically: there are 18 larps represented there, from nine countries total. All of it is written on over 150 pages (though a large part of it is photos... gorgeous photos). Yes, it has the Harry Potter larp College of Wizardry in it. Did you even have to ask? It covers a lot of other stuff too. Legends. Myths. Horror. Politics. Economics. Zombies. Gender roles. Societies and ...

Two years ago was my first time that I went to a larp out of Croatia. It was Drachenfest 2012 . Not long after, I went to my first larp in Hungary - Chronicles of Demgard 2012/2 - The Secret of Hartwigstein . Traveling to another country to larp there? It was quite an adventure. However, time passed. Croatia joined EU , simplifying the border controls. I crossed the border again to play  Chronicles of Demgard 2013/2 - The Sternn Pass Incident , and then again in March for the second PoRtaL convention in Budapest . Going to Hungary for my third Demgard larp was... well, pretty much like a hop to the neighborhood. And due to my newborn daughter, probably my last international larp adventure this year. Unlike the previous 2 Demgard games I've been to, this one started earlier - however, this is a Demgard summer game (first one that's international), and the summer games they have are bigger. So Friday was also the playable day, and I arrived at the terrain near the city of Tatab...

Terra Nova 2014  was the sixth event of the series, in just a bit over two years. How quickly the time passes. Like all Terra Nova events so far, this one was played at a different terrain. The terrain of TN2014 was owned by the family of one of our players and co-organizers, Ivan Kalinić. In total, 30 players took part in Terra Nova 2014 - 23 Croats, 5 Hungarians and 2 Bulgarians. This was the first Terra Nova event where players were separated into several camps - there were three camps in total (the colonists' camp, a camp of the tribal Tuk-u culture, and the undead camp), and in addition the colonists' camp was split in two. The terrain was bigger than on previous Terra Nova events and - due to camps being spread around - better utilized, with a large part of the larp happening in the forest between the camps. Also, this was the first camping Terra Nova event where there was a specific NPC camp, with their own goals and missions - and a significant NPC population t...

Tamás (left) and Ranko (right), in Tamás' apartment on Friday I spent the last weekend in Budapest, on the second PoRtaL convention. If you've been following this blog or our local scene, you might remember that I was one of the organizers of the first PoRtaL convention last year, together with Ana Rajner and Božo Špoljarić. It was the first such event in region, and we decided it would be awesome if it became a traveling convention across several countries, like Knutepunkt is. The Hungarian team of Obreczán Tamás and Mesterházi Sándor stepped in eagerly and enthusiastically to create the second PoRtaL convention, and joined by Kinde Anna they did an awesome job out of it (note about names: Hungarians typically write family names first and given names second, so I'm also writing them in this order). Sándor was already there when we arrived Five of us traveled from Croatia. I traveled with Miroslav aka Siro, Lovro and Pavle, who are in leadership of Ognjeni Mač,...

When it comes to larps, I like to be well-organized far in advance. That's why I laid out the dates for all Camarilla Agram events in 2014 back in 2013. And that's why I announced Terra Nova 2014 almost a year ahead of time. However, as time went on problems started to arise with the proposed May 16-18 date. The largest Croatian sci-fi convention SFeraKon was also announced on that weekend, which meant that we would have to change the date one way or the other because a lot of Terra Nova players are regular SFeraKon attendees. But in the meantime, another thing came into focus. We're expecting another baby and my wife is due on that date. And when childbirth is involved, the only thing you can really plan for around that date is that you can't plan anything with any certainty. To cut the story short, I went over the new dates and there were no easy options. Most weekends were already taken by something else. The new date for Terra Nova 2014 is June 13-15 . It...

If you've been a regular on this site, you probably remember the PoRtaL convention that we did in March 2013 in Zagreb, Croatia. I was proud to be one of its' main organizers, together with Ana Rajner and Božo Špoljarić. It was the first larp convention in the region, drawing in larpers who traveled to the convention from Hungary, Serbia and Bulgaria, taking part in the program and doing presentations of their own. You can read the entire review in these three articles, written for different days: Friday , Saturday and Sunday . For various reasons, we decided that this convention would be a regional one and that it will travel to different organizers, in a way similar to Knutepunkt conventions. So the second convention will be organized March 8-9 in Budapest, Hungary by Tamás Obreczán and Sándor Mesterházi, experienced larpers who also had a large presentation on PoRtaL in Croatia. The second PoRtaL convention will be slightly shorter (no Friday program), but it will k...

As I mentioned earlier , I was unable to join either Maksimir 68 or Utvrda Svijetlosti 2013. I had friends who visited and stayed overnight - and we had a lovely time. It doesn't mean I spent the weekend completely unproductive larp-wise, however - it was time for some terrain scouting for +Terra Nova larp  (aha! Now on Google+) which included a total of over 250 km of cross-country driving... First order of business was a location in Subotica Podravska, near Koprivnica. The terrain is a private property which could take 100 people camping in comfort - and it would work well even if pushed to 200 people. It's a very diverse terrain which will host Terra Nova 2014  in May next year - and sorting it all out allowed us to announce it :) Afterwards, we scouted a second location which would be great for a shorter (single-day) Terra Nova spin-off event this autumn, Rise of Rashalan . We haven't really decided on this location yet as there are few more to scout - but it had ...