Diary of a Croatian larper

Hello dear readers! This blog has been inactive for a while. That's because I was on vacation, swimming in the Adriatic sea, relaxing with my family, reading a few books and recharging my batteries. So what happened in these two weeks? I'll start with two larp reviews first. They were played two weeks ago and I was on them but I didn't get the chance to review them before I went to my vacation. Both were played in the same location (Kinoklub Zagreb aka KKZ) on two consecutive days (July 11 for Star Wars 2 and July 12 for Camarilla Agram 5). Star Wars larp 2 (by Ivo Turk and Matija Mihoković) continued the campaign which started in February . But just to clarify: the larp is simply called Star Wars larp, it has nothing to do with the second movie. Its' timeline is just after the end of the Return of the Jedi. Everything that was written for the first event was still pretty much true, most features - positive and negative - remained pretty much the same as in the ...

Three short larps (so far, unless something new pops up) will be held on the weekend July 13th and 14th. All of them fantasy. Saturday will bring us Maksimir 69 by Ognjeni Mač - starting and ending later than usual. At the same time, another larp will start in Ivanovac, near Osijek - the Korogyvar fortress that's a regular location of the Utvrda Svijetlosti larp. This will be an overnight larp adventure called "Nasljeđe" (Inheritance), and the sign up is here . It will finish at Sunday morning - when cars from Zagreb will head to Jarče Polje where a water battlegame "Labuđa Rijeka 3" will be held. If weather's gonna be cold, it will be canceled in favor of regular Krvomeđe battlegames later in the afternoon. I'll be at the wedding, so I'd probably skip all these.

Last week marked the end of bad weather in Croatia. Snow and rain season seems to be over and the summer is finally here, bringing with it the unbearable heat... But it seems like it will cool down a few degrees this weekend for a more bearable experience. Hopefully, bearable enough to make two larps coming this weekend (June 21-23) into something enjoyable... The big one is Utvrda Svjetlosti 2013 in Ivanovac, near Osijek. The larp is run by Gaia, Osijek's SF association, and it's currently the only larp series being held (annually) by a team based out of Zagreb. I was there in 2011 and 2012 , so read my past reviews for a feeling what's it like. Events outside of their yearly event are rare, but they sometimes happen . Anyway, the entrance fee will be 50 kn, which will include a saturday meal of bean stew. From the announcement it seems like there will be extra focus on in-character games (as last year's "svinjska alka" had been quite fun, there will p...

Just over a week ago, the sci-fi club Gaia from Osijek announced the Utvrda Svijetlosti larp in Ivanovac, near Osijek. Just to remove some confusion, this larp series has been called various names since its inception (including Utvrda Svijetlosti, Istočna Anarhija, Istočna Monarhija, Larp Ivanovac, Larp Osijek and possibly some more names), all of them referring to the in-game or off-game name of the place or area as the time went by. It's also one of the oldest larps in Croatia. No details about the larp are known yet (despite the fact it starts in two weeks), but the following can be reasonably assumed from past experience: ruleset used will be Amtgard 7.6 or 7.7, entry fee will be low, and there will probably be a break during the day due to heat. Here's a few videos from the past couple of years, to let you know what to expect (plus some very nice hospitality from Osijek group, which are at the moment only Croats larping apart from the Zagreb scene): More ...

If we look at the history of Croatian LARP and how it developed, we could divide it into several distinct time periods, eras, ages, or however you want to call it. This is not an "official" division or anything - I will explain the criteria which I used to divide the periods further below. The First Age (1997 - 2001) The first age was about one larp only - Summer Session (also known as Kutina LARP), a fantasy LARP organized in Katoličke Čaire near Kutina. It was organized once a year, and it was the game which unified pretty much all Croatian LARPers - a game which was basically synonymous with Croatian LARP, and pretty much defined what mainstream LARP looks like in Croatia now. LARP was spreading around and getting more popular, and events were getting better and better. Summer Session 2001 had a population of 60-ish players. The Second Age (2002 - 2006) I put the start of the second age in 2002, the year first non-Summer Session LARP (Motovun LARP) appeared in C...

The story about Crolarp is a rather long one. Ever since the first Croatian LARP (Summer Session in Kutina) went down, Croatia was without the single "main LARP event" of the year which would get majority of the players to attend it. The largest events in the past few years switched. In 2010, it was Utvrda Svjetlosti as the only LARP which broke the 40+ limit. In 2011, it was Jaska 8 with close to 60 players. Still, it was far from the numbers that old Summer Sessions had which were over 100 for several years in a row. While general LARP quality improved greatly since that time - every major LARP I've recently attended was objectively better than any Summer Session I was ever on - there was something special about those old events which attracted people. Perhaps it was the fact that for a long time it was not only the main LARP of the year, it was the only one and there was nowhere else to go. Perhaps it was the Summer Session's inclusiveness, and perhaps...

As I mentioned in my previous post , I recorded some videos on this year's Utvrda Svjetlosti (The Fortress of Light). They've been edited and uploaded to Youtube. Enjoy! Scenes: A walkaround of the guest camp A walkaround of the fortress Fighting scenes from the 1vs1 tournament

I just came back from this year's Utvrda Svjetlosti (Fortress of Light) LARP. As it was the last year , it was certainly a very special LARP, organized by Osijek LARPers in the ruins of 13th century fortress of Korogyvar at Ivanovac, near the city of Osijek. The stereotype of people from Slavonia is that they're hospitable, with good rakija and hot and spicy food. All of this proved correct, as we were welcomed warmly, and given plenty of attention by the locals. The fortress was decorated better than last time, making it appear even more epic. One of the bad sides of the terrain is that it's not too friendly for either rainy weather, or for the hot and sunny weather. This year - as well as the last - it was hot and sunny weather that was the issue, making the game during the midday impossible, so on Saturday everything was pretty much offgame until afternoon. That made some players unhappy, but on the other side intensified the night play. The bugs - which a...

Utvrda Svjetlosti (Fortress of Light), also known as Istočna Anarhija (Eastern Anarchy), one of the longest-running LARPs in Croatia is being held this weekend, in its standard location (Ivanovac) near the city of Osijek. This year it seems to be going upscale - it costs more than last year, and includes a warm meal in its price. Last year it was great , dramatic storyline, excellent roleplay and very friendly hosts (not to mention the awesome fortress), and I believe it will still hold true this year. I'm looking forward to visiting them again this weekend, and I hope the weather (and bugs) remain kind to us.

The big LARP season in Croatia is typically opened with a four-day Jaska LARP by Ognjeni Mač, and so it will be this year as well. Jaska 10 starts today. Two photos from last year's Jaska 8 Situated in Gornja Kupčina location, the story for this year appears to be grim, as usual. There's a "shade" questline that has been started some time ago by our organizers, and developed across the Ognjeni Mač short LARPs. Not just Maksimir LARPs, but also Sljeme LARP two weeks ago and last week's feast at Robert's place. The feast was organized in a very similar fashion to my Terra Nova intro feast - single-day event, people brought only drinks, and the food was covered by the people who were otherwise celebrating. It was barbecue, and it was really nicely done. Apart from the good food and drink, the feast presented some action (these things never seem to go peaceful), large area of play (whole house with back and front yards - which was under-utilized by pl...

Apparently, the LARP season is not over for this year - and we all thought it was. There will be two medium-sized overnight LARPs until the end of the year - one in Osijek, which should be last weekend of November, and the feast on Rajski Vrhovi which will be on December 10th. Small events are also running smooth - this weekend will be another double event. Maksimir 51 on Saturday, and Krvomeđe on Sunday. Next Maksimir events are scheduled for Nov 26th and Dec 17th, and next Krvomeđe will be either on December 4th or 18th - thus we might have a pre-Christmas double weekend too. Video from Jaska 9. We had a great time there. This is actually surprizing - and I'll say a good trend. So far there's been a large drop in activity every year from November (or even mid-October) to late February. We've all been having our winter's sleep during all the previous years, with LARPs happening every now and then - I wrote about that previously here . It remains to be seen ...

Back in August I visited the Rajski Vrhovi XV event. It was with my new character, so this would be my first event where I'd play a Frenchman for the first time. Basically, the roleplay was awesome - after 8 years of playing my previous character it was quite a refreshment. I even got a girlfriend or three during the event (purely in-game of course). One of those in-game relationships would grow into something else in the next couple of weeks at Lubena event... But I'll talk about that in its own article. The event was home to probably the best dungeon I've seen in Croatian LARPs. Lots and lots of traps. Perhaps it took a bit too long to solve, but it was memorable for sure. The lost crystals of Veles were not found, which spells trouble for the next Rajski Vrhovi event (draught and stuff). And a vojar appeared - they are a particularly troublesome bunch of near-invulnerable dark elven undead warrior-necromancers, originating from Osijek LARPs at Utvrda Svijetlosti ...

This year in June, I decided to visit the Utvrda Svjetlosti LARP (The Fortress of Light) in Ivanovac, close to the city of Osijek. It's one of the older LARPs in Croatia. For a while it's been holding a bad rep between some of our players (exact reason why is a long story), but I heard extremely positive comments from those who visited it last year - they were telling stories of a huge improvement. And indeed, Utvrda Svjetlosti 2010 was the largest LARP in the last few years, it's only been topped by Jaska 8 this July. I decided it's worth a cost of a road trip and I'm glad to say I was right - it was definitely worth it. For the record: It's the farthest to the east I've ever been to :) This is where you actually play... The Korođvar fortress First of all: the fortress! It's extremely, extremely epic! And yes, I actually had my tent in there. Two other guys from my group also came to this LARP, they set themselves up in another camp. They came ...