Diary of a Croatian larper

I've larped in Germany before, three times on ConQuest and twice on Drachenfest. These are the biggest larps in the world, arguably very different from smaller larps that most people are used to. Ever since my first time there, I've been hearing about Katakomben - a larp tavern in Cologne (or Köln, for those of you using the German name of the city). So I decided to visit the Halloween event they had. Katakomben is organized as a monthly larp event, and it's played in a fort on the outskirts of the old city, close to the South Bridge over Rhine river. Once a month, the interior of this fort is decorated and plays a part of the in-character tavern... which can appear anywhere, and change layout... I took the photos during the day, as during the event itself (6 PM - 2 AM) it was dark and very dimly lit - plus, characters were already role-playing, and I felt bad taking my phone out. However, a photographer Kira Hagen was there, and made a lot of character portraits  so...

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'...

Before I visited ConQuest , I went to a Warcraft Live larp in Hungary, seventh part of its' series. Like last year , it was played at the same terrain near Tatabánya (about 60 km west from Budapest), where Chronicles of Demgard is also played (on a side note, there was no "international" Demgard event this year, so this year Warcraft was the only larp I've been to in Hungary - alongside with PoRtaL of course). As its' name suggests, Warcraft Live was built pretty strongly with Warcraft lore in mind, and the main story relies on it - I will be using some Warcraft terms in this review, if you find something unfamiliar you can refer to wowwiki or another similar resource. The setting was in the non-canon place called Principality of Hummingbird, but since it's located in the currently inaccessible part of the world map this was not really an issue. Although, the weather on this year's event was so hot and humid that it could have easily been set in t...

World's largest larp event. There's really no other like it. This was my third ConQuest - I've been there in 2012 and 2013, and every time I've been humbled by the sheer size and massiveness of the experience. It's impossible to review an event like this as a single person, since so many things are going on that you don't get to see or know the vast majority of it. Perhaps that's what makes it so special. The sheer scale makes it a world of its' own, and makes things possible which are simply not possible on small larps. The one thing that is possible is writing one's own experiences about it. I arrived to the terrain on Monday morning, 2 days before larp started, after traveling from Hungary where I've been on Warcraft Live event (another story for an upcoming article). Early setup made it possible for me to get everything sorted out, set up my probably smallest tent at the event, help others put up their tents, wash and dry my laundr...

The Family Andersson is a Swedish chamber larp written by Åke Nolemo and Johan Röklander. I played a run yesterday in Zagreb, Croatia, organized by Miroslav Wranka (aka Siro), based on English translation by Tor Kjetil Edland and Håken Lied. This was the larp's third run in Croatia, but first one in Zagreb - it was run in the cities of Rijeka and Osijek before that, as part of the "Larp day" events which presented several chamber larps to the general public. Zagreb has yet to receive a similar event - this was a separate run, under the renewed SRP . The Family Andersson is a modern-era family drama for 8-10 people, which deals with family inheritance distribution (as well as some Christmas plans) between the siblings. This is a simple premise, however there's a twist - the number of characters is half that of the players, and each character is played by two players in a tag-team sort of way - the players switch and alternatively play the same character. Every...

Who are player characters? What is their purpose? Each larp defines that differently. Or perhaps it would be better to say, early Croatian fantasy larps did not do that at all, they were designed as a blank canvas allowing (at least in theory) every player to choose that for themselves. As these larps themselves progressed, various concepts would be more or less viable and playable. Terra Nova 2012 was the first fantasy larp to cast player characters specifically as colonists of a foreign land (other factions were added later, and from this year new setting will have factions designed from various player choices in last 4 years). TESC larps were a series of one-shots, each with their own factions which generally helped form what players are. And now comes Divlja Krajina, which focuses on a very specific role: all player characters are adventurers, braving the undiscovered divlja krajina ("wild region" would be an approximate translation) in hopes of fame and fortune. ...

This year's Terra Nova larp - planned for May 20-22 - will feature a new setting and a set of rules. This year a larger group of organizers joined the Terra Nova team. Plans for this year are considerable: new rules, new direction in design, more plot and props than ever before. In fact, rules are why I'm writing this post - I'd like to invite you to read them . Comment on them (or below). Write about what you like and what you don't like. We will take all feedback into consideration, and finalize the rules in the next two weeks. They're also under Creative Commons, so if you wish to use them feel free.