Diary of a Croatian larper

In the Steampunk larp series Para pokreće svijet by Sven Nemet, World War 1 started over a decade too early, mostly due to the act of several random assholes *whistles innocently*. So, considering there were several "spin off" events for Para pokreće svijet - one of them which involved us actually climbing in the indoor rock climbing gym, and another which involved a chase in the snow-covered mountains - this was another such spin-off event, meant to add depth to the larp world while being different to the usual social larping style. It would involve a few people trying to move the plotline of the larp in new directions by controlling the armies in the world which already went far away from its' historical inspirations. Our larp location was an apartment of one of our players. In total there were 9 of us: 4 per side, plus one of the GMs. As my usual character on the Steampunk larp was a French ambassador who turned out to become a minister of war, I played that ...

Ten days ago I played a larp based on the Dishonored PC game. Unfortunately, I didn't have the opportunity to play Dishonored (and to be frank, I still have a long list of games on Steam that I have yet to play), but the larp organizers - Nikola Habek and Andriana Lacković - assured us that this was not required. The larp itself was set 10 years after the events of the PC game. Well, for the sake of completion here's a PC game trailer: The larp itself was labeled as a steampunk larp. Naturally, this brings a question to mind - how different can it be from an already existing Steampunk campaign that we've grown accustomed to, Para pokreće svijet? Well, the answer is: quite a lot. Para pokreće svijet is a wacky, lighthearted larp based on international diplomacy and crazy technology. Dishonored is a disease-ridden dystopia, leaning strongly on exploitation and poverty. How well was the setting from the game represented, I cannot say - I will leave that to those wh...

Cug is a Croatian spelling of the German word Zug, which means train. In several Croatian dialects, it is still commonly used to refer to trains, rather than the Croatian word for train, vlak. Cug is also a name of the train-themed cafe bar near Zagreb's main railroad station, where the new installment of Steampunk larp "Para pokreće svijet" was held. The name of the event was also Cug, and - unsurprisingly - the location represented a train in-character. A super-fast Steampunk train running a zig-zag north-south route through the fictional version of 1902's Austria-Hungary. The event - held 10 days ago - was structured around certain train stops, which provided embarkation / disembarkation points for various player characters and NPCs. The train would remain at the railroad station for a while (giving characters the opportunity to exit the train) and then it continued along the way. Since the larp was held on Sunday - a bit odd time for larps - that actuall...

The PoRtaL larp convention for 2015. has been announced! For those of you that don't know, it's a regional larp conference and it returns to Zagreb this year. It will take place on February 28th - March 1st this year. Entrance is free. By larpers, for larpers. Content will be provided by the participants. For more info, check out the website or facebook . In another news: Steampunk larp "Para pokreće svijet" returns! The only event in 2014 was "Chase", a spin-off event for a rather few people. A new location has been found (that is not a climbing gym). The event will be called Cug (from German Zug, meaning train) and it will represent a train journey.

As this blog has gone a bit silent, you might have been wondering what's been going on recently. Well, to be honest a lot of that. There's been so much going on that I barely have enough time to write a post. That's mostly due to running Izgon 2, and there's a lot involved in running it. It has four times the number of people of first Izgon larp (minus a few who burned out and/or whose characters got killed) - and it left me with too little time to even talk to everyone I want to talk to. The only reason I'm writing this article now is that it's gotten a bit slower so I managed to catch some breath. The debriefing, the documentation, the analysis of everything - it's gonna be great. Expect it to start popping up in a few days. The larp officially finishes Sunday at noon - the next Krvomeđe will be almost immediately after, at 1 PM - and the Zagreb debriefing will be held afterwards. However, depending on player actions, it might end sooner for some or al...

This Sunday's Krvomeđe fighting day was a bit desolate - only three of us came, which is sadly not enough for battlegames and not nearly the numbers Krvomeđe can make (it can swing up to 20 people at times). So I'm gonna make a public call to everyone in Zagreb (and Croatia in general) who'd like to do some fighting practice - come next time, join the mailing list to be informed when the next game's gonna be and ask any questions you might have. A lot of Croatian larpers could use some fighting training - this is a perfect opportunity. Now that's out of the way - this Saturday there's gonna be another Steampunk larp from the "Para pokreće svijet" series. Due to location issues, it will be once again in the "SPK Fothia" interior climbing gym - however, it will be a social event, not the one focused on climbing. This event will be titled "Fronti nulla fides", and it will be played late at night - from 10 PM to 3 AM. Like a...

Hello, climbing The Steampunk event from "Para pokreće svijet" series this Saturday was something special. Unlike previous ones it was not held in its usual location at Eko selo Žumberak - instead it was held at the indoor climbing facility SPK Fothia west in Zagreb. It was divided into two parts. The expedition getting ready First part lasted for 2 hours and it simulated an expedition into the heart of Africa: entering illegally into Congo and raiding a cave that belonged to an ancient ruler for treasures. In how the story was created, it succeeded in being both a wonderful "Indiana Jones"-esque story with a heavy pulp feel, and a social commentary of colonial practices of the era. Climbers on the wall going horizontally from one edge side to the other Of course, the challenges at the climbing facility represented rock faces and cave walls that needed to be scaled in-character. For most of us it was a new experience - and we eagerly went on and d...

250 is a bit symbolic. A quarter of a thousand somehow looks more important than 50, 150 or 350. It also means I wrote 50 posts in four months . It also means I'm gonna ask you once again for feedback about this blog, this time on our new comment system . Tell me what you like about the blog, what you don't, what you enjoy reading about and what would you enjoy reading about even more. Drop in to say hi. Subscribe to this blog , or start or expand a larp scene . Right now is an excellent time. Anyway, here are some more announcements about this summer. This weekend is, of course, Rajski Vrhovi XVIII. It had already been announced on this blog, so I'm not going to repeat what's already been said - Facebook event is here . The next weekend - on Sunday, July 7th - there will be a Labuđa Rijeka 3 event by the same organizer - a summer battlegame in water. It will be held in Jarče Polje, on Dobra river. Several games have been announced in the water, including ...

Here's a short recap of three small larps which happened in the last three weekends which so far I haven't found the time to write about. They are: Krvomeđe, April 21 (a battlegame event) Maksimir 66, April 27 (a battlegame event) Ognjeni Mač feast, May 5th (a feast ) With the nice weather returning, Krvomeđe got really populous again. I did not fight this time - I helped Ivo run everything, so I was a reeve this time, acting as a referee on the field in which several interesting battlegames were played - two variants of capture the flag, and a "goblin football" match (a very simplified variant of jugger). I had to leave this Krvomeđe slightly earlier, as I was due to a certain board game. And it was not just any kind of board game - Sven, who runs the steampunk larp "Para pokreće svijet" is a board game designer. This specific board game was very much tied into the "world control" overtones of this larp, and it was a really nice to...

The fourth larp in the "Para pokreće svijet" steampunk series, "Vrste", announced over 6 months ago took place last night. All in all, a total of 30 people took part in it (the number was capped). I haven't been on the first larp in the series, but I've been on the second and third one - I helped to organize this one, together with Vjeko, Ksenija, Marko and of course Sven who's the head GM of the Para pokreće svijet series. The rulebook , which gets slight updates now features a photo of me under "diplomat" class, which is very flattering :) Vrste (Species) was also quite international - apart from Croats, we also had visitors from three other countries. One from Austria (she's a Croat though - it was her first larp), one from Serbia (who previously visited us on Crolarp), and two from Bosnia (who previously visited us on Tragači zore). Unfortunately, no good pics are up, so I'll just upload a few that I managed to snap with m...