Skip to main content

Krvomeđe (December 20th) review


This year had been rather odd for Croatian fantasy larp in general, and looked very different from the previous years. And some of that change reflected in the Amtgard chapter of Krvomeđe.

We pretty much stopped doing regular battlegames and meetings back in Spring, after a few games where only 3 of us bothered to show up - and a far longer period which was very much doom and gloom and people slowly leaving (similar to other groups running similar events). Far from the (most recent) chapter's prime which lasted from late 2011 to early 2013. The only saving grace of the chapter were Rajski Vrhovi events, which are still among the biggest fantasy larps in Croatia, and which went quite well.


Out of the blue, after 8 months of inactivity, a battlegame day was announced for Saturday, December 20th. Expectations - due to recent experiences - were minimal.

The weather on Saturday turned out to be beautiful. Warm, sunny, and probably the best weather we've seen in over a month. A total of ten people - which is far more than what was expected under the recent circumstances - showed up and had an awesome time.

Capture the flag, team deathmatch, sparring, tournament, and archery competition. Time just flew. We went over our predicted time and kept on until the sun was just above the horizon, hitting each other with padded sticks and having a lot of fun overall. It was great training, and people asked for more.


Perhaps it marks the change in trends. Sometimes I got the feeling that in the past, Croatian larpers in general got that idea that a larp has to have everything in it: lots of fights, a complex GM-led plot yet complete freedom for players to do what they want, simulated monetary economy that works, etc. This year larps tended to specialize more in some aspects and ignore others. Perhaps this specialization also helped players enjoy a style of play for what it is, without feeling that their favorite style of larping is being threathened by it?

I certainly hope so. I'm not sure when the next Krvomeđe battle day is going to be, but I'm gonna post it here and you're gonna see me there.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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...
6 comments
Read more

LARPs: The Series interview

One of the most expected new projects in the English-speaking larp world has been the recently announced webseries, called simply "LARPs: The Series". It's not hard to understand why - the "Episode 0" they released has shown a pretty good portrayal of several fantasy larping elements. If you're wondering at the release date of the series, the answer is... today! Episodes 1 and 2 have been released a couple of hours ago, and you'll find them below in the article (and also on the project's website and youtube channel  - the entire first season will be released in the next couple of weeks). However, I had the opportunity to interview several cast and crew members of LARPs: The Series about their project - Jon Verrall, the series writer (who also plays Evan, the GM in the series), and the actors Scott Humphrey (Will), Elizabeth Neale (Shane), Jonathan Silver (Arthur) and Charlotte Rogers (Brittany). This is their story, of how this series came to b...
Post a Comment
Read more

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 sch...
Post a Comment
Read more