The Knudepunkt 2015 Companion Book

Edited by Charles Bo Nielsen & Claus Raasted The Knudepunkt 2015 Companion Book

Edited by Charles Bo Nielsen & Claus Raasted Formalia Table of contents

Foreword 6 The Knudepunkt 2015 Companion Book Claus Raasted First Edition, 2015 ISBN 978-87-92507-24-2 6 levels of substitution: The Behaviour Substitution Model 8 Lauri Lukka Editors Behind the larp census: 29.751 larpers can’t (all) be wrong 16 Charles Bo Nielsen, Claus Raasted Aaron Vanek Four Backstory Building Games You Can Play Anywhere!: Simple and effective 24 Editorial Assistants Peter Woodworth Mo Holkar, Karete Jacobsen Meland Infinite Firing Squads: The evolution of The Tribunal 30 J.Tuomas Harviainen Proofreaders Stefan Deutsch, Erlend Eidsem Hansen, Elisabeth Solbjerg Kaalund Keller, Dominika Ingame or offgame?: Towards a typology of frame switching 34 Kovacova, Elin Nilsen between in-character and out-of-character Olga Vorobyeva Layout Learning by playing: Larp as a teaching metod 42 Claus Raasted Myriel Balzer & Julia Kurz Looking at you: Larp, documentation and being watched 56 Cover Image Juhana Pettersson magicalhobo via sketchport.com under CC-BY. Now That We’ve Walked The Walk…: Some new additions to the larp vocabulary 62 Text Bjørn Flindt Temte Myriel Balzer, Whitney “Strix” Beltrán, Emily Care Boss, Stefan Deutsch, Eirik Fatland, On Publicity and Privacy: Or “How do you do your documentation?” 70 J.Tuomas Harviainen, Mo Holkar, Nathan Hook, Kaisa Kangas, Julia Kurz, Lauri Lukka, Jamie MacDonald Jamie MacDonald, Markus Montola, Jason Morningstar, Jacob Nielsen, Juhana Pettersson, Painting larp: Using art terms for clarity 78 Mike Pohjola, Claus Raasted, Eleanor Saitta, Jaakko Stenros, Bjørn Flindt Temte, Evan Jacob Nielsen Torner, Aaron Vanek, Olga Vorobyeva, Peter Woodworth Processing political larps: Framing larp experiences with strong agendas 82 Kaisa Kangas Publishing House Rollespilsakademiet, Copenhagen, Denmark Safe words: And how to use them 88 Published in conjunction with the Knudepunkt 2015 conference Nathan Hook Steering For Immersion in Five Nordic larps: A new understanding of eläytyminen 94 Free PDF version Mike Pohjola rollespilsakademiet.dk/webshop/kp2015companionbook.pdf The Art of Steering: Bringing the Player and the Character Back Together 106 Markus Montola, Jaakko Stenros & Eleanor Saitta The Blockbuster Formula: Brute Force Design in 118 The Monitor Celestra and College of Wizardry Eirik Fatland & Markus Montola The D-M creative agenda model: An axis instead of a pyramid 132 Nathan Hook The Golden Cobra Challenge: Amateur-Friendly Pervasive Freeform Design 138 Evan Torner, Whitney “Strix” Beltrán, Emily Care Boss & Jason Morningstar There is no Nordic larp: And yet we all know what it means 142 Stefan Deutsch Workshop practice: A functional workshop structure method 148 Mo Holkar Ending: The larper’s burden 156 Claus Raasted The Knudepunkt 2015 Companion Book Balzer: Learning by playing

Foreword

“I sat there for an hour or so, immersing in my backstory, imagining how my life was before I become a Nazi Zombie. It was quite a powerful experience, even though there were no other players around. It was a bit of a Turku moment, I guess.”

Dracan Dembinski

Larp is a strange beast, as the quote above In the Swedish tradition of the time, If one was a bit hip and pretentious, one And believe me, we’ve come a LONG from this Polish larper shows. There are characters were often created by the could refer to Holger Jacobsen’s Developing way. In my day job I work with larp people who will read those words and players, and some characters were even re- Character from The Book (2001), which professionally - mainly doing larps for think “I have nothing in common with this used in different fictional worlds. was published by the Norwegian KP2001 non-larpers. I can’t just tell some potential guy.” and others who will feel kinship. organizers. customers that we’re going to run a mafia The Finns had thought it sounded larp that’s 360, dramatist-oriented, heavy And that’s what this book is about. crazy when the Swedes talked of larps Now fast-forward ten years and we’re in on alibi and which uses Ars Amandi, Kinship. At the heart, larp theory and with hundreds of players, and didn’t see 2015. If I’m discussing larp, I can casually runtime gamemastering and non-diegetic analysis is about creating bridges so we can character creation as a major task. The drop references to GNS theory, talk about music. Inspired by The Executive Game. visit each others’ islands of imagination. Swedes didn’t understand why the Finns the virtues of bleed or shake my head at liked the small games. the new, fancy concept of steering (I love Sure, I could say those words, but they Does this sound a bit bizarre to you? Let steering, since it gives something I’ve done wouldn’t make sense to the people who me explain. After all, that’s what a foreword And all of this due to the fact that there for many years an easily explainable term). want to hire us. But to you and me, some is for, right? Setting the stage. wasn’t any clear agreement on what a (if not all) of these words mean a lot. character was, how one was created or who Oh, you don’t know about steering? Well, When and where the first larps were held was in charge of that process. luckily for you, there are two excellent And the reason the words mean a lot is is a heavily debated subject. One thing is articles on just that in this book! because someone went to the trouble of certain, though. When we started meeting This was back in 1999, before there were using them in certain ways, and defined each other, we started talking. And in the any KP books - and almost before there And while you might also be unfamiliar what was meant by them - sometimes beginning, some of those talks were fraught was any Knudepunkt at all. with GNS theory (it’s a bit old school these taking thorough verbal beatings along the with misunderstandings, because we didn’t days), I can point you to places where you way for not having thought things through. have the same frames of reference. Five years later, people talking about can learn about it. And if you think bleed characters could have referred to Petri is an idiotic term, we can discuss it without In the end, expanding not only our toolbox One of my favorite larp culture stories Lankoski’s Character Design Fundamentals having to discuss what it means first. but also our vocabulary is an important is about how it took the first three for Role-Playing Games (2004) or maybe Ari- part of growing as a hobby, art form, form Knudepunkts before a couple of my Pekka Lappi’s The Character Interpretation Many larpers feel that the Nordic of media and whatever else we call larp. Finnish and Swedish friends understood (2004). community is theory-obsessed and should that they had vastly different ideas of how do more larps instead of discussing so That doesn’t mean you can’t have fun characters were created. Both were in Beyond Role and Play - Tools, Toys much. I couldn’t disagree more. slaying orcs in the woods. It just means that and Theory for Harnessing the Imagination, when I tell you at dinner that even orcs can In the Finnish tradition of the late 90’s the KP book of 2004. The fact that some people are willing to have bleed, you can nod knowingly instead of characters were ALWAYS created by the discussions means that we can establish a thinking that I’m a bit of a psycho. organizers - much like today, though the common language, and that language means “always” has become a “almost always”. we can communicate with each other. Claus Raasted, January 2015

6 7 6 levels of substitution The Behaviour Substitution Model

Lauri Lukka The Knudepunkt 2015 Companion Book Lukka: The Behaviour Substitution Model

Introduction

You are gliding over the parquet, in a In order for these interpretations to be constant battle over who’s in charge. You valid, we must understand how big a lock eyes and tighten your grip pulling difference there is between the behaviour your partner just a bit closer. Your posture we observe and that of the character. This and precise footwork radiate confidence. article proposes a model of behaviour Other players are holding their breath to substitution by which the difference see which one gives up the battle first. between the behaviours in- and outside of Actually, there is much more at stake: the the game can be described hierarchically. dance is a metaphor for a duel. The game Level Description An Example In Fair Verona, held in Stockholm in 2012, In other words, the model can be used to used dancing to simulate aggression and assess whether a behaviour is simulated, No Substitution The behaviour is nearly equal Fighting is real passion. and in what way. The model proposes in the game world and outside six categories whose implications are of it There are many things that cannot be discussed. Finally, it is suggested that this acted out in a game – and for this reason model can also be applied to other genres Adaptation The behaviour is slightly Fighting slowly using safe the behaviours acted out by the player in which there is a fictional reality. adapted, yet it clearly resembles techniques cannot be identical to the behaviour of the one intended their character in the game world. The Behaviour Substitution Model Grotesque The behaviour is changed Fighting with grossly Firstly, the behaviours may be illicit, moderately, it requires effort to exaggerated movements unethical or dangerous to perform. The Behavior Substitution Model be interpreted describes to what extent the actions of Secondly, the behaviour of the character the player physically resemble those their Symbolical The behaviour is considerably Fighting is symbolized by can be simply impossible: sadly, we do character takes. When there is a high changed, and does not resemble dancing not actually have superpowers or control similarity between actions, the behaviour the original behaviour magic. of the player is easily and unambiguously interpreted by other people from close and Mechanical The behaviour is replaced by Fighting is resolved by a game Thirdly, the player may not have the skills afar. When the behaviours are not similar, agreed upon game mechanics, of rock-paper-scissors or a or the knowledge to perform as their they do not physically resemble each and acted out by the player computer game character. other, and they require prior knowledge to interpret. Abstract The behaviour is not acted out, The results of a fight are Fourth, the player may find it difficult to act but communicated through written down on a paper out as their character due to a significant The model proposes there is a continuum, other means discrepancy between the personality, traits divided into six categories, between the and demeanour of the player and the two extremes (Table 1). On one end, the character, or lacking skills or confidence as actions the player and the character take Table 1: The Behaviour Substitution Model an actor. are identical: there is no substitution.

Whatever the reason for the distinction On the other end, the behavior is between the actions, we strive to unrecognizable, impossible to understand understand them. We have a constant, and interpret without prior knowledge, or automatic tendency to seek meaning in there is no behavior at all. other people’s behaviour, and we attempt to attribute a cause for it. This requires us to make interpretations about each other.

10 11 The Knudepunkt 2015 Companion Book Lukka: The Behaviour Substitution Model

Dual Process Theory The Six Levels of Substitution

To understand the model proposed more These two systems work constantly #1: No substitution thoroughly, it is analysed through dual together. When we are writing a letter process theory. According to this theory, on a computer, or driving a car, we do not On this level, the behaviour of the player is The behaviour may be seen as true within we have two complementary information have to pay attention to the individual nearly identical to that of their characters’ the game reality, yet it seems somehow out processing systems: an implicit and an movements of our hands or feet. Rather, in the game world. No substitution is of place, unnatural, acted, or false. explicit one. The first system is very fast, the movements are automatic, guided by required because the player is able and automatic, nonverbal and unconscious. our implicit system. At the same time, our wants to physically, emotionally and The grotesqueness is exaggerated due For example, consider your friend pushes explicit system focuses on planning the socially act the behaviour out. Importantly, to the discrepant information received a bottle from a table at a party. You outline of the text or route. the player receives immediate, visceral through the two systems. The explicit instinctively try to catch it mid-air, without feedback within themselves while acting. system is telling the player they are doing any conscious thought. Not surprisingly, these two systems are This strengthens the immersion: the player one thing, but the information they receive active also while during role-playing, and feels what their character is feeling. through the implicit system does not Your reactions were guided by the implicit they tie closely to the proposed model: support this. For instance, the player may system that steered your attention to there is a correlation between the two The behaviours, however, have to occur walk but within the game they are running. the object, and your hand to grab it. The systems. When there is no substitution, inside the magic circle of the game. This explicit system operates in a very different the more the implicit system can be used. means that the player views themselves Yet, they are not sweating or out of breath. way. It is slower, linked to language, logical, The further we go toward the abstract end rather as a character in a game world At the same time, the other players struggle and often involves conscious reasoning. of the model, the more the explicit system than outside of it. At the same time, to interpret the behaviour. They have to This type of processing happens for comes in to play (Picture 1). This argument other players understand the player has remind themselves about the previously instance when we strive to learn something is elaborated below by each category. transgressed the line to the game world. agreed upon rules, forbidding running, to new, or try to figure out how to assemble This can be communicated through the understand the behaviour. Everyone has an Ikea chair. tone of one’s voice, clothing or the physical to invest conscious effort to correct the game space. When this distinction is clear, information received and possibly suppress the behaviour itself is easily, intuitively and conflicting physical reactions. This conflict swiftly interpreted by the other players. between two levels of information may break or weaken the immersion of the #2: Adaptation game. Compare this to T-1000 from the Terminator 2, or zombies: they are both On this level, the behaviour is slightly alive and dead at the same time, a key adapted to the situation, without conflict behind their unnaturalness. compromising its communicative function The explicit system to the player themselves and others. #4: Symbolical substitution is emphasised The player feels as if they are acting out behaviour, and other players often On the symbolical level, the behaviour is Grotesque zone unambiguously understand what the player given new meanings or it is substituted by is doing within the reality of the game. another, similar behaviour. In the above mentioned example, tango was used to The implicit system #3: Grotesque simulate interaction between two people. is emphasised The relationship between the behavior The behaviour is moderately changed to and its meaning is no longer completely suit the situation. In comparison to the transparent. Observers oblivious to No subsitution level Abstract level levels above, the behaviour is clearly a substitution may see the act as merely compromise: it is acted out, but it does intensive dancing, while the players no longer clearly resemble the action understand a fierce fight is occurring. portrayed. Therefore, it can be difficult Picture 1: The Behaviour Substitution Model and the Dual Process Theory to interpret, and in the worst cases it is This level can be used to give the player unintentionally comical or embarrassing. skills they do not have or cannot employ.

12 13 The Knudepunkt 2015 Companion Book Lukka: The Behaviour Substitution Model

Further, it can be used to simulate things The whole game could be a metaphor in This level can be used to introduce it may be frowned upon. The norms of the blatantly impossible using the skills the itself. A game could be about walking, a players to elements of mystery, or to avoid culture shape not only which behaviours player already has. The range of behaviours common metaphor for leading one’s life. mechanical substitution. At times, the should be substituted and simulated, but is no longer bound by the player’s skills The feeling of walking would give players behavior cannot objectively be deduced also how they are substituted. The more or the physical world. It is important the visceral feedback they could explicitly from the signifiers, but educated guesses unconventional something is, the more players receive sufficient practice in the interpret, making the core of the game. can be thrown around. This lets the players abstract the level of substitution should substitution before the game. The more The road would add another layer to use their imagination and storytelling be. For instance, sex can be such a taboo in the method is practiced, the easier it is the game: the surface, inclination, views skills which can result in more vivid and some cultures that it can only be indicated for the players to interpret in the game. and other travelers would be given new elaborate description than any above. This indirectly; but in other parts of the world it Also, the substituting behavior should be meanings. is especially true for such hard to simulate could be presented symbolically. The level something that is not often acted out in events such as magic, gross changes in the of substitution can often become silent the game. For instance, if knocking on the To sum up, on this level the behavior is environment, or communicating events to information: new players are unaware of door means casting a spell, some awkward interpreted through prior knowledge. players not present. the conventions of the group. Therefore, situations may arise. When the substituting behavior is physical, substitutions should be clearly stated, and intuitively connected to the behaviour Implications and Conclusions preferably written down, to assure a Even if one behaviour can be substituted portrayed, it can be used to convey a wide pleasant and safe game experience for new by nearly anything, it is not irrelevant at enough range of emotions. The six levels described above are already and old players alike. all by which it is replaced – the choice of widely used in live action role-playing substitution greatly affects all the players. #5: Mechanical substitution games. The model can be used to describe In summary For example, social interaction can be individual occurrences of substitutions, simulated by a game of tennis, tug of war, Playing poker in the game world is not a the range and the primary level used. It can The Behaviour Substitution Model or dancing. Each of these communicates mechanical substitution, but a case of also be extended beyond games, to genres describes the degree by which the actions differently to the player themselves and to no substitution, while playing poker to of arts where there is a fictional world. No of the player correspond to those their others. Some behaviours can more easily determine the winner of a gun fight would substitution is used as a primary level in character takes within the game world. and clearly convey emotions than others. be a mechanical substitution. This sort 360 degree live action role-playing games, At times, the behaviour of the player Basically, the more you have options to of substitution happens clearly outside historical enactment, and many theatre and the character is identical: there is no move about, use your voice and gestures, the game’s reality, and requires rules and productions. Adaptation is employed by substitution. In cases when the player the better your emotions will be conveyed. explicit explanation. As the name implies, many live action games, digital music games, is unable to act as their character due the substitution often includes rolling dice, and theatre performances. Grotesque level to their attributes, limitations of the The substitutive behaviour also crucially drawing cards, or comparing values. is generally not used as main level, but it physical world, or for ethical reasons, the affects the players acting it out. The is often briefly and unintentionally visited. behaviour may be substituted: simulated more the behavior physically resembles This is a fast and clear way to resolve The symbolic level is used in modern by something representing it. This can the original, the clearer the implicit anything from brief interactions to world- dance, and jeepform or freeform games. resemble the intended behaviour closely, connection is. Substituting bull-riding by changing events, but it can feel light. The Table-top and digital role-playing games symbolically or very remotely. dancing or pulling a rope does not give the substitution underscores that everything often mostly use the mechanical level. The same sort of visceral feedback. When the within the game world is merely agreed abstract level is used, for instance, in the How the behaviour is substituted should two behaviours are intuitively connected, upon, make-believe. This may break the description of games. be assessed in the light of several factors. they are easy to compare and interpret. immersion by reminding the player about Optimally, the behaviour should convey Consider again the example of dancing: the the rules, which can be a welcome break The level of substitution should be chosen the intended message clearly and richly, tone of the dance, which person leads, and from intense action. based on its overall suitability for the game it should be physical, and it should be how they hold their hands, is indicative of experience. The designer should carefully intuitively comparable to the activity the relationship to the viewers, the partner, #6: Abstract substitution choose the techniques and levels of portrayed. The result of the behaviour is and the player themselves. substitution to fit the message of the game, easily understood by all the participants. In On this level behaviour is no longer the theme, and the atmosphere. An ill- the best cases, the substituted behaviour The symbolical behavior can also be more required, as it is implied by the chosen level may break immersion, while adds to the game and gives it new depth. allegorical, an extended metaphor. The consequences. For example, there may be a a harmonious one can keep it up for hours. The way that something is substituted game I love Ana used group exercises, sheet of paper declaring there is a hovering The culture affects the level of substitution. should be explicitly stated before the support and writing rules to reinforce the sphere within the hallway. In some countries or subcultures hugging game, to ensure it is understood by all the players’ dedication to the cause. may be a convention, while in other places participants.

14 15 Behind the larp census 29.751 larpers can’t (all) be wrong

Aaron Vanek The Knudepunkt 2015 Companion Book Vanek: Behind the larp census

On January 10, 2015, 101 days after Regardless, the conversation turned to The Grind launching, the first global Larp Census other matters and never went anywhere. closed to replies. 29,751 responses were I kept the ideas in the back of my head, The first choice we faced fell between Ryan wanted more info (much more), logged from 123 different territories in 17 however. I repeated them at a workshop using a prepared polling system, such as which I quickly agreed with. We split different languages. The data from this session at Solmukohta 2012, where Claus Google’s, or develop our own. Ryan said the census into two parts: the first page survey is freely available via a Creative Raasted and a few others offered help in “Google Forms can only receive a limited of questions asked for only the required Commons1 license1 at LarpCensus.org. making the map-calendar: which has since amount of data (400,000 answers to info. Everything else was optional. Tough been created, roughly, by Larping.org and individual questions); we wanted more. decisions and some generalizations had Barring death, dismemberment, or Larpcore.com. Also, there were several things we wanted to be made for each inquiry. Plus, each debilitating drunkenness, the total results to do it that it couldn’t have achieved. If it question was weighed for informational from each question will be revealed in a In mid-February, 2013, New Zealander was up to the job I would have been happy necessity against the time it would take to presentation at Knudepunkt 2015. This Ryan Paddy and I started communicating to use Google Forms.” Thus Ryan did the answer it, as we wanted to avoid a too-long article goes under the covers to expose the via email after he asked the Larp Academia programming for the Larp Census site. questionnaire. motivations, methods, and madness of the (or International Larp Academia) mailing squishy humans behind the hard numbers. list for demographic statistics on larpers. Next we looked for a website host. We One thing was asked of us a few times, He wanted to know if live action role- hoped to deliver this baby in an academic “What is your hypothesis?” But we had no The Beginning playing was “popular” and in which institution, but they either didn’t reply or thesis going in, nothing we hoped to prove. countries. replied in the negative, e.g., University of We merely strived to gather as much data At Wyrd Con II2 (a Southern California Tampere. We then sought other entities, as possible and turn it over to others to see interactive storytelling convention) in No one on the list had figures beyond their leading to one of the Big Mistakes (possibly if it confirmed or refuted their hypotheses. 2011, I was out at a late dinner with some own larp group’s roster or a few isolated the biggest). My analogy is that we are farmers friends. Mark Mensch, a longtime boffer surveys from years past, e.g., Joe Valenti of harvesting data. It is up to chefs—larp larper, asked me what I thought was NERO offered a range from “fifty-thousand One of the sites I asked to host was scholars, business folk, and independent needed to unify live action role players. to two million.” I again floated my census Larping.org. They immediately agreed, researchers—to use what we gather and idea and Ryan took the bait. According to as they were already considering doing a turn it into dissertations and Power Point Without missing a beat, I laid out my Elizabeth Kolbert3 it is not unusual to find similar project, but during the negotiation presentations. Kiwis with “a cheerful, let’s-get-on-with-it process I withdrew. I worried about Three Big Ideas manner” that she claims she “eventually protecting the privacy of the respondents We sent out two iterations of the came to see as very New Zealand.” This is and the data. motivation questions to a few hundred 1 A user-customizable larp map-calendar good, because without Ryan, I would still larpers for comments. The first batch had where people can search for any kind of be whining about kooky concepts that A massive email list like what the census over 50 questions that we edited to below larp anywhere in the world up to a year nobody builds for me. would generate is gold to larp businesses; 30. We also asked as many larp scholars as in advance. but neither Ryan nor I wanted anyone, we could manage (herd like cats) to look We get along well and communication including us, to make any money off of it. over the census and provide feedback. One 2 A digital archival repository of larp between us, while spotty, has been While discussing things with Larping.org, of the comments we received was that it events—what was run, by whom, when, robust. Ryan edits the English language I sent over a first draft of the questions. appeared “too American,” something we where, using what system, and any notes entry on “LARP” for Wikipedia and This boomeranged back, and badly. We aggressively trying to avoid. We remained or links to further documentation. has a background in psychology and cut off talks in mid-April and eventually cognizant of the American spelling of programming, skills I lacked to get the bought the domain larpcensus.org with words as well as terminology and larp style 3 A larp census to track all larpers around Census done. money out of our own pockets. emphasis. Our goal was to be as broad the world. as possible, to capture something about Both of us wanted to know the answers to Most of Ryan’s and my time was spent every kind of larper, straight boffer action I actually mentioned #3 first, but it’s more basic questions about larping worldwide: designing the questions, which proved to Nordic arthouse and all in between. dramatic to bury the lead. how big is the community, what are its surprisingly difficult. First we had to decide But this goal, plus the fact that we were demographics, how long have people what we wanted to know. I felt that a self- talking to larp scholars who stereotypically I don’t know why I said those three things, played, what are they playing, and why? identifying larper’s location, age, gender, have a pedantic viewpoint (not anyone and I probably had the ideas before I said and how long they have been larping gave at Knudepunkt, of course!), led to some them, but that was the first time I voiced We set out to make the Larp Census a enough information. complaints, which I will discuss later. them aloud. reality.

_____ 18 [1] Creative Commons: http://creativecommons.org 19 [2] Wyrd Con: www.wyrdcon.com [3] Kolbert, Elizabeth, “The Big Kill: New Zealand’s crusade to rid itself of mammals,” The New Yorker, Dec. 22, 2014 The Knudepunkt 2015 Companion Book Vanek: Behind the larp census

Remarkably, Ryan was also setting up the Besides the very generous and dedicated The Run We did give a few interviews on larp sites, website at the same time. Suddenly in the handful of reviewers and translators and our push was always to larpers and larp middle of August 2013, we were blindsided: who worked on the Larp Census, Once we publicly announced the census, it groups. I sent press releases to mainstream Larping.org released their own Larp everything else was the work of Ryan and almost went viral. Here are the numbers of geek sites like io9, Boing Boing, and Census4. sometimes myself. If you’re going to credit responses that came in per day for the first Kotaku, but they didn’t reply. If only we anyone, credit Ryan or the other names week, which made up more than half the had associated with College of Wizardry. The Larping.org census, in my extremely acknowledged on our FAQ page5. If you are total6: biased opinion, seemed to be heavily going to blame anyone, blame me. All things considered the run went well based on the first draft of questions we 10/2/2014 5520 even though we didn’t get the amount of sent earlier. They used a Google poll form, Securing translations was also partially responses we hoped for. required respondents’ emails, and skewed prompted from the Larping.org census. In 10/3/2014 6564 it to American larpers, e.g., using the U.S. order to avoid making ours “too American,” The Lessons and Casualties dollar as the only type of currency, and we introduced alternate currencies and 10/4/2014 1492 asking a lot of questions that only made continued that thought into offering the Irrespective of the data, I learned a few sense to campaign players. census in different languages. We really 10/5/2014 1044 things just from the census existing. wanted to emphasize the global nature of I was livid, and immediately began chewing larping. This was irksome because some 10/6/2014 1637 First, there is no way to ever make everyone out the new census, until Jordan Gwyther words have different meanings in different happy, ever. This should be obvious, but the of Larping.org proved to me in a private countries. Ryan and I spent at least fifteen 10/7/2014 1176 point was nailed home after we received mail conversation that I had given them Skype minutes debating the definition of specific complaints from four people. Two permission to create their own and even “park,” which isn’t quite the same in New 10/8/2014 828 said the census skewed towards boffer promised support: Zealand as it is in America. combat, and two said it favored theater-style.

Jordan: On the census/survey, I think we should After weeks and weeks of iterations— I was smugly pleased to know that in two It even prompted one newcomer to write, go our own directions. We’ll be launching our although really it was days of nothing days we got triple the responses the other “I’m a little turned off to larping as a own here shortly and will have no problem followed by bursts of work and census garnered after running more than a consequence of filling out this survey.” briefly promoting yours when it is ready. We conversation—Ryan finally decided to pull year. Great numbers for us, but we never By making sure every larp style was hope that you will do the same for ours. :) the trigger after most of the translations came close to these initial daily figures represented, we shrunk the spotlight on had arrived. again. The server even crashed for a brief one person’s particular larp preference, Aaron: Yes, of course! time in those first hours: but it was up and which, to them, seemed like a slight. The Larp Census went live on October 1, running again soon, thanks to Ryan and, D’oh! 2014, but the big launch occurred October probably, because we never returned to Second, race and racism are not the same 2, nearly 20 months after we began. What that level of activity. in America as other countries. On the first They received just under 4,000 replies, we had wasn’t flawless, but it was as good as page of the census we asked respondents to and, according to their own admission, we were going to get and still have it out in We didn’t have much of a marketing plan, if self-describe their race or ethnicity. I don’t over 17,000 complaints5—I do believe 2014. By the time translations started, the any. Social media such as Facebook worked know how it translated out of English, that is an exaggeration, though. Two weeks original questions in English were locked— best, while the ability to email your friends but the question upset a few people. Even after their launch, Ryan and I bought our we couldn’t change a word without asking (once) was hardly used. Ryan and I are both asking about race offended them. own domain. all translators to change their versions, an old, so the new-fangled youth methods of odious task. communication are lost on us. Plus, we had On the other hand, for many Americans, Ultimately, seeing the mistakes they made no budget to do any ad buys—remember, to not ask the question would be seen as inspired us to tweak and revise our project Here’s a secret: from the beginning I knew this was just the two of us. racially insensitive. Although it appears to and make it as good as we possibly could. we were doomed to fail. There was no way be a Catch-22 situation, I hope to repair We dove back into reiterating questions, we were going to get every larper on Earth Some translations required minor the issue in subsequent censuses with the testing, revising, etc. We were totally on to answer the census or even close to it. corrections in the first two weeks, which phrasing “Please describe your racial and/ our own, without any group or organization But we wanted to get as many as possible. Ryan repaired with aplomb. We accepted or ethnic heritage. We understand this helping, sponsoring, or overseeing us. I hoped for 100,000 replies; Ryan, one offers to translate the census into Danish, question may be offensive to some, and it is million. Swedish, Japanese, and Hebrew, though we not our intention to do so. You can refuse only completed the first three. to answer.” Or something equivalent.

______20 [4] Larping.org census: http://www.larping.org/census-2013 [6] Initial week’s totals provided by private email correspondence from Ryan Paddy 21 [5] Larp Census FAQ (English version): http://larpcensus.org/faq/en [7] LARP Haven (closed Facebook group): https://www.facebook.com/groups/336974479739553 The Knudepunkt 2015 Companion Book Vanek: Behind the larp census

Third, and more positively, the census is provoking exactly the kind of discussions and issues we hoped it would. A long thread on LARP Haven7 spun out of Christopher Amherst’s analysis of the preliminary American statistics8. The original poster noticed the male-female ratio in the U.S. is roughly 60% - 36% (with about 3% genderfluid or not answering) and wanted to know why more women weren’t participating in larps. A boisterous conversation ensued.

Although I am aware of the dangers of relying too much on statistics, especially ones pseudo-scientifically generated, having nearly 30,000 larpers respond to the Larp Census will at least plant a few guideposts toward a deeper understanding about this art, hobby, or sport we enjoy. I am proud to know that our Census will finally provide some factual basis to confirm or refute a few Internet arguments while spawning hundreds more. This, I feel, is a Good Thing. No one on the list had figures beyond their own

By the way, we’re going to ask if you larp group’s roster or a few isolated surveys from consider larp to be a sport, hobby, or art in years past, e.g., Joe Valenti of NERO offered a the next version, coming up in about five years. range from “fifty-thousand to two million.”

For more information and to receive the data from the Larp Census, go to LarpCensus.org or find us on Facebook. Ludography

College of Wizardry: http://www.cowlarp.com

_____ 22 [8] Amherst, Christopher Preliminary Analysis of American Larp Census data: https://plus.google. 23 com/u/0/communities/110512238482629192270 Four Backstory Building Games You Can Play Anywhere! Simple and effective

Peter Woodworth The Knudepunkt 2015 Companion Book Woodworth: Four Backstory Building Games You Can Play Anywhere!

One of the most difficult – but also most 1 – The Hell of a Hat Game Variation - Solo Play: If you want to Variation - Topic: Have the person rewarding – parts of larp is coming up with play the game solitary, take a picture whose turn it is to be described provide a good character backstory. A sense of a What You Need: Costumes and props. of the costume piece and write a short a topic or moment she wants the others character’s past gives great insights into paragraph or two about it. Post the results to imagine. “Tell me about my character’s how to play them in the present, for one How You Play: Going around in a circle, to game forums or social media if you want first kill,” for instance, or “What did it thing; not to mention, it shines some light have each player pick one of their costume feedback! look like when my heart got broken for on where you may take them in the future. or prop pieces. It doesn’t have to be a the first time?” This is good for helping For some people developing a history flashy one they might already have stories 2 – The Polaroid Game players who have difficulty coming up with comes easily, but for many others it’s a bit for, like signature weapons or prominent appropriate moments for other people’s more of a chore, especially if you’re new jewelry – in fact, it’s usually better if it’s not. What You Need: Nothing except 2+ characters, or for soliciting help with a to a particular game. Or maybe it’s a one- Ordinary objects like coats and boots tend players. particular background element with which shot game and you want to develop your to work best, because they’re the pieces the player is having trouble. characters just a bit more before playing, you might not think about otherwise, but How to Play: Going around in a circle, but don’t have time to write out long can say very interesting things about a each player asks the others to describe a 3 – The Card Game (Larper’s Poker) backstories. character’s day-to-day life. snapshot image of his character, something they imagine might have happened at some What You Need: A regular deck of Fortunately, coming up with a fun, Once they pick an item, that player must point before the character entered play or playing cards. interesting backstory (and accompanying talk about it. The player can say anything that happened during downtime. It can be character depth) doesn’t have to mean she likes, but here are some questions to a funny image, a serious image, a mysterious How to Play: Deal one card at random nights of staring at a blank sheet of paper, provoke thought if they get stuck: Where image; any kind of moment at all. to each player, before moving around to waiting for inspiration to strike. Which is did it come from? How did they get it – each player in turn. When it is their turn, exactly where these games come in. Most buy it, make it, steal it, receive it as a gift? It doesn’t have to start off being terribly players must tell a vignette from their of them require little or no preparation, What does it mean to them? What do they specific – “I picture your character, bloody, character’s past. and can be played equally well with friends like about it? If they don’t like it, why do standing over a body while a woman cries or strangers. they still keep it? If it was lost or stolen, out, ‘What have you done?’” is in many ways The kind of story being told depends what would they do to get it back? just as useful for this game as something on the suit of the card selected. Hearts In fact, they also make excellent “ice like “I see your character, bloody, standing centers on mental health or an emotional breaker” exercises to help players warm up, If you don’t have any particular costume over Mary’s body behind the Northpoint relationship of some kind (not necessarily get in character, and become comfortable or props – say, because you just came into Tavern.” a loving one); Diamonds refers to stories with each other before play begins. a game as a walk-on at a convention and focused on wealth, equipment and other These games generally presuppose the didn’t prepare anything – you can still Once the basic image is established, go material goods (or lack thereof); Clubs presence of other players; while most can play! Simply describe what your character around to all other player in the group, with requires a story about a physical challenge, be reconfigured to be played solitary, I would be wearing, or is wearing in your each player adding another detail to the battle, illness or ordeal of some kind; believe all of them are enhanced by group imagination, as opposed to what you have picture – “You’re bloody, but not wearing and Spades refers to encounters focused participation. on in reality. It might be a little tougher your armor or holding a weapon” – until it around interaction with setting-specific to remember all of it, but the point of the comes back around to the original player. supernatural or science-fiction elements As far as game runners are concerned, these game remains the same. Hence the name The Polaroid Game, such as zombies, magic, cyberware, backstory games also make good pre-game because the details slowly come into focus superpowers, monsters, etc. workshop tools. They do not normally Variations - Eye for Style: If you want to as the picture develops. The details added require any form of staff supervision; have a different but equally interesting kind don’t have to be strictly visual, though, If your game does not have elements of though if you want to cultivate particular of fun, on each player’s turn have that player despite the name of the game. this kind, Spades becomes a “wild card” elements, or avoid certain topics, you pick a piece from someone else’s costuming category where the player can tell any can offer guidelines, or even sit in and and props. Tell a story about where the item When everyone has had a turn adding to kind of story they like. You may want to at moderate play. This can be useful if you’re came from, what that character did to get the picture, the player being described least roughly define what Spades involves using these as quick exercises before a it, etc. Naturally this doesn’t mean the story makes a final comment and play passes before playing, if it could be unclear in single-shot game, as you can guide players is automatically “true” – that’s for the player to the next person. Naturally what is your setting. to creating fairly detailed and well-realized in question to decide – but it can certainly described isn’t necessarily “true” unless the personas very quickly with these games. reveal a lot about how the other players feel original player approves it, but it can serve about your character! as a good inspiration.

26 27 The Knudepunkt 2015 Companion Book Woodworth: Four Backstory Building Games You Can Play Anywhere!

Stories should be no longer than five 4 – The Mixtape Game If two players pick Theme, maybe it’s 5 - Post Game minutes or so, and can be much shorter because they shared that moment in their – a snapshot or moment is fine, as long What You Need: A mix CD or music past? You don’t need to have to be a long, As players, you are encouraged to take as it says something interesting about the playlist and some way to play it. detailed anecdote, just a quick image or some time after a game is complete to think character. Players are encouraged to stick moment or impression that it brings up as about the material that was generated close to the subject matter of their card’s How to Play: This game requires a little you think of your character. during play, perhaps even talk about it suit, but the categories are pretty broad, so more preparation than most of the others, with the other players. It’s important to it’s OK if there’s a little bit of crossover. but the end result is worth it. Each player Play continues until all tracks have been remember that while these games are It’s about telling an interesting story, after contributes several musical tracks to the played. It is perfectly acceptable to ask intended to stimulate backstory creation all. collective mix or playlist, which is then that a track be repeated, or to return to and help flesh out characters, that doesn’t placed on shuffle (if possible, disable a track after all tracks have been heard, if mean you must use it, or that you can’t Variation - Five Card Draw: Each repeated playing of the same track). This players are responding to it strongly and alter, edit, or otherwise use what’s created player draws a hand of five cards, and picks game is a good one for long trips to a game have more stories to tell. as you see fit. a card each round, returning it to the deck or breaks during play, so simply adjust the when it’s played. This gives players more number of tracks that fits the time. Variations - No Preparations: If you Do not feel bound to keep something as control over the kind of story they feel don’t have time to put together a playlist “canon” for your character just because it like telling each round (and time to think Play itself is simple – start playing the or make a CD, or you want to put together came up in game, even if the other players about what they’ll be telling next), making music, and as each song plays, everyone a spontaneous session, you can still play! really liked it and thought it fit. Even if you it easier for new or nervous players. listens to it and declares either “Play,” All you need is access to the internet on wind up using none of it, and take your “Theme,” or “Pass.” “Play” means that you a device capable of playing music. Simply inspiration in a totally different direction Variation - Face Value: As normal, enjoy the song, but don’t necessarily feel have each player look up a song online, and from what came up during play, then great! except that the stories reflect the values it would be a song for your character in when it comes to their turn, they simply As long as you have fun making stories, on the cards – lower numbers mean it was particular. “Theme” means that you could play it for the group on their phone or that’s what it’s all about. more of a minor incident, while higher see that song as a theme for your character, other device. Giving players a few minutes numbers mean it was more important, and something you’d put on a personal playlist to find the song they want, making sure a face card means a player must talk about dedicated to your character. (You can have their device can play it and otherwise a particular person who came into their life more than one Theme, and more than prepare is recommended before starting a (or left it) as a result of the story. one character can call Theme on the same round; otherwise, players may be distracted song. It’s non-competitive that way.) looking up songs instead of really listening Variation - Pass Left: Players draw on other players’ turns. five cards, but on each player’s turn, the “Pass” means that you’re just not person to their left passes them a card connecting to the song in relation to the Variation - The Score: Another variation to determine what kind of story should game; it doesn’t necessarily mean you think is to treat the music like the score of a film be told. After one full round, pass right the song is bad, but you’re just not feeling or a television program, the music that instead, shuffle seats, or otherwise change it in this context. is playing in the background to provide the order so that people have new partners atmosphere and emotion. When each song for their cards. If you say “Play” or “Theme,” try to add comes on, have each player describe what what about it that got your attention their character would be doing “onscreen” Variation - Take Me to the River: Deal – connect it to your backstory, to your while that song played, as if they were each player five cards and go around in impression of your character. Does the watching a movie and that was the music a circle, with each player taking a turn. beat remind you of the thrill of a battle in for the scene. Each round, players play cards from their your past? Does a line in the lyrics jump own hand, but the player must somehow out as totally true to your character? Is the continue the story they’ve been telling in tone of the song putting you in the mood the previous rounds, even if it is a different for game? Did the music capture a moment suit. So by the end of the game, they will in your character’s history so perfectly it have told one story in five installments, makes you jump up and down in your seat? with elements dictated by the cards in hand.

28 29 Infinite Firing Squads The evolution of The Tribunal

J.Tuomas Harviainen The Knudepunkt 2015 Companion Book Harviainen: Infinite Firing Squads

I accidentally created a hit, and have ever In the United States, thanks to the This produces emergent plot, in which References since been wondering why. I have had simultaneous contributions of many famous there is no need for steering, just the success with several mini-larps over the role-playing activists, runs appeared, freedom to talk and to act (see Harviainen, Andresen, M. E. (2012). Bringing fiction years, such as A Serpent of Ash (2006) and during which the characters were taken 2012). The same way, game masters do not alive: An introduction for education Prayers on a Porcelain Altar (2007), both of to testify and then returned to the room, have to intervene in any way, unless they and recreation. In M. E. Andresen (ed.) which keep getting the occasional rerun with filmed, emotional interrogations, want to run interrogations during the Playing the learning game (pp. 10-17). Oslo: here and there. The Tribunal, however, is and so forth. Jason Morningstar even game. Fantasiforbundet. something else. It has become a viral work made a better-looking version of the game that seems to evolve by itself, far beyond material, which I had kept as a simple text No scene breaks, no inner monologues Harviainen, J. T. (2009). Notes on designing my grasp. document, for localization. - it could be run on a stage as an repeatable larps. In M. Holter, E. Fatland improvisational theatre piece, with very & E. Tømte (Eds.) Larp, the universe, and Yet, nevertheless, each iteration adds So what made The Tribunal so popular little instructions needed (and actually everything (pp. 97-110). Oslo: Knutepunkt. something new. The little game has that I have lost both count and track has). It has its flaws, I know, which are achieved a Pinocchio effect of its own, of its runs after #30 or so? Personally, I especially visible if certain roles are played Harviainen, J. T. (2012). Experiences with and lives a life about which I only hear believe it to be a combination of factors. in a passive manner. Strangely, when they emergent plot. In Truhlář, S. M. (ed.). fragments, in the form of G+ discussions, Part of the success obviously comes from occasionally manifest, those flaws seem Odraž se dokud můžeš (pp. 133-145). Praha: blog posts, emails and the occasional blog the success itself: the reputation it has to inspire people to improve on the work, Odraz. post. as a good larp brings in more players, as rather than abandon it, do recommendations from well-known The Tribunal and other free games by the So what exactly happened? It was originally larpers. The design structure, too, has a Finally, I think The Tribunal evolves because author can be downloaded from http:// a contest game, part of the first LarpWriter significant impact. I did not follow my own advice on writing leavingmundania.com/2014/08/17/j- challenge, back in 2010. A game meant for repeatable larps (Harviainen, 2009): I left tuomas-harviainen-larp-collection/ educational purposes: A group of soldiers, First and foremost, it is a short one- the running instructions vague - and thus waiting for an unjust trial, intended to trick pony, easy to organize and play in a flexible. So people inspired by the libretto possibly spark a few key reflections about convention setting, or a small apartment. are inspired to experiment with it, rather the mechanics of oppression. The topic is strong enough to (most of the than to run it by the book. Lucky for me, time) carry the interaction and interest of they are also willing to share the results Then, through a couple of convention runs, the participants, and the injustice palpable of those experiments. Tribunal, like any it started to spread, while still also being enough. I nevertheless think that the key healthy child, may have been influenced run in Belarus, for which it was originally factor was my sudden idea to create a fable, by its parent, but it is obvious that it has designed. I had received feedback with to name each character after an animal and matured into something with a unique life certain changes to how the game was give them personalities accordingly. of its own. run being suggested, but due to the educational intent, I was loath to make the That is a particularly effective way recommended changes. I experimented for players to not only create a strong with a few (e.g., an extra character; post- personality from of the short amount of game confessions), but did not add them text, but also to remember those of others. to the script. For Finnish players, I could have said “This character is Lehto”, but for everyone else - In the mean time, however, others did. and the Finn - saying he is Wolf carries the As the game script spread, Tribunal was point much better. suddenly run by other people much more often than by myself. In some places, it The topic and the character templates became a tool for symbolic resistance, together create something that is neither with characters reaching a uniform goal to transparent nor secret in design (see e.g., do the right thing (and probably die as a Andresen, 2012). Everyone knows that Cat result), because the players thought they will be selfish, as Rat probably will too, but could not do the same in real life. no one knows how they will testify.

32 33 Ingame or offgame? Towards a typology of frame switching between in-character and out-of-character

Olga Vorobyeva The Knudepunkt 2015 Companion Book Vorobyeva: Ingame or Offgame?

For the Moscow and St. Petersburg larp The database collected with the help of When considered as phenomena of In the Russian community, in order to communities, continuous immersion into 15 players has data from 13 larp in which I individual consciousness, all frame pause the game, either local equivalents of the game and into the character seems to took part and from some other larp events. switchings are first of all “internal” in a “break” and “cut” are used (literally “out of be the central point of the larp process. I proposed a classification of triggers sense, like diegesis is a fact of the players’ the game”, “in the real world”) or real life Larp rules proclaim continuity of game, that cause dropping out of character that consciousness (Montola 2012). names of participants or their nicknames and players generally disapprove one’s reveals some features of this phenomenon. are employed for address instead of their going out of the character while playing. In this paper, I won’t dwell on the triggers Meanwhile, the game world is a result characters’ names. This attitude is, however, more declarative themselves, but will concentrate on the of mutually agreed behaviors of the than a reflection of the practice as it ways in which larpers switch from in-game participants. Its creation and maintenance The verbal markers appear in case of meta- can be observed: larpers, even the most to out-of-game frame. involves coordinated activities, some of game disputes, in occasional conversation experienced, of course, do drop out of which belonging not to the game itself about events in participants’ real life or character. In what follows, a classification of but to its meta-level, and so require frame bodily states, or when asking for pause or switching types is presented. switching. help. I got interested in how people perceive themselves and their co-players dropping The first division is based on the social Here is an example1 of internal switching It is often uncertainty about partner’s out of characters, and have studied this expression of frame switching: we that is essentially an inner experience physical condition that makes a player turn topic for my MA thesis. I have collected distinguish between those which are that disturbs immersion and indirectly to out-of-game question, cf.: a database of 600 cases of frame switching externally expressed and thus become part influences the participant’s behavior. at larp using systematic self-observation of social interaction, and those which take “There is a craft”: Somebody noticed blood and analyzed them from the point of view place in a participant’s mind and get no “The First Age”: Sure, there are a lot of (real) on my eye: What happened to your eye? of Goffman’s frame analysis. expression. reasons why immersion is difficult to reach: for Oh, it’s a memento about my fail in a combat example, playing with close friends makes me with a strong monster! It won’t heal until I think, like, “Oh, it’s just my friend Peter wearing find him again and kill him. Are you serious? a garb!” So I try to avoid playing with them, but (Whispering) And out of play? it is not always possible. (Smiling) Everything’s OK.

External switchings fall into two broad Non-verbal markers include frame switching categories: those which comprise a signal signals of various kinds, such as: to mark frame change and those which are unmarked. Tactile contact: to approach closely, to hug, to take a partner’s hand, to take aside. This Both types occur systematically, but the kind of switching markers are used when latter are usually perceived negatively, the rules of the game world ban these whereas the former are regarded more proximating behaviors. acceptable. It should be kept in mind that, as far as I Two kinds of markers are employed to can judge from my participant observation index a frame change, verbal and non- at Knutepunkt 2014, Russian larps verbal. The Russian verbal marker resembles generally involve less physical contact than the Western practice of safewords: the Nordic ones. the utterance of a conventional word immediately turns ongoing interaction Since most Russian larp game worlds into out-of-game mode (Brenne 2005). represent a variation of hierarchic society with interpersonal etiquette differing from A safeword is a control device that is used to the way people communicate in everyday maintain participants’ psychophysiological life, demonstrations of egalitarian and conditions to inform partners about the friendly relationship can signal frame sender’s current troubles having to do with switchings. the everyday world.

_____ 36 [1] Examples from my database contain references to game titles marked with bold italic. 37 The Knudepunkt 2015 Companion Book Vorobyeva: Ingame or Offgame?

Conventional gestures: hands crossed over Along with cases where frame switch is “The last submarine”: As usual, something Implicit switching can and often does the head represent the character’s absence explicitly announced, there are some in exploded, something is out of order, a service imply a joke. Obviously, there is a lot of in- from the game world; a gesture like a time- which the player’s speech is recognized by technician is needed. One player looks at a game humor in larp, but some of it is based out signal used in sports like basketball co-players as such, but it is merged with passing NPC and mistakes him for a technician: on a second meaning of in-game phrases and American football is performed to the character’s speech without specially “We need help in the armory!” I don’t want to that thus turn out to refer both to in- and accompany an out-of-character utterance. marked borders. bother: “No, this technician is not trained enough out-of-game things. Such switchings are for that, trust me!” NPC nods and passes by. performed for fun and also contribute to Facial expression: winking, “hinting” face, Conscious unmarked switchings constructing a group identity. expressive gaze. In the following example we can see three Explicit out-of-game utterance is a modes of referring to out of the game The humor can be built on a common Non-verbal characteristics of utterances: prototypical case of unmarked and information, one after another: background of young Russians and thus lowering the pitch, whispering, prosodic unmasked frame swithing. It usually contain allusions to popular movies, songs, emphasis to index an implicit meaning. interrupts diegesis in a rather rude way “To kill a dragon”: We are working in a or references to historical, current political Utterances like these often pretend to making participants have to cope with an hospital. We use beakers with special liquids and social events, or to internet-memes. It camouflage the reference to out-of-game inappropriate element. provided by game masters. We should return the can also be a common memory of a group things, so as not to break explicitly the beakers to the organizers for refilling. I collect of real life friends, participants of a long magic circle of the game, cf: In the following example speaker A empty beakers and tell to my colleagues: larp campaign who have played together unexpectedly shifts from the character’s many times, or even just a group of those Deathly hallows: Towards the end of the speech to the player’s one, mentioning (1) I: I’ll bring them to the medical depot. who had taken part in certain episode of a game, during an in-game conversation S. (male) meta-game problems and the game master’s (2) Partner: Where?.. But if they must be previous larp. Coming to the joke’s point is approaches closely to me and asks me while nickname that confuses the partner: brought to orga… a manifestation of a common identity, cf: lowering his voice if he can interrupt my playing. (3) I (Winking, interrupting on purpose): Listen I agree. S. asks me to speak to M. (female) who “France: the Cold Summer of 1939”: An to me: I’ll bring them to the medical depot. “There is a craft”: Walls in the Main Hall is playing his sister, because she needs a relaxing in-game conversation in a pub: are covered with inscriptions. One of them says: talk, and his own talk to her has obviously not In (1), the speaker employs implicit “Even a rat casts charms better than you!” been enough. A: I am looking for my wife. And I’d like to find switching: she talks about the medical Bird. depot, but actually announces that she is Rat is the nickname of the participant I call M.’s character, take her hand (my character B: What bird?... about to go to meet the organizers. This who plays the Charms teacher. This is used to avoid any bodily contact), take her nearer A: Well, Bird, our game master. New players information is to be deduced by her co- insider knowledge of this particular larp to me, bow to her ear and address to her with have arrived and are waiting for the check-in. player. This is a case of implicit conscious community. her real life name. I ask her whether she wants unmarked switch. to speak out-of-game. She agrees eagerly, we Implicit switching is an action (utterance, Unconscious unmarked switchings enter an empty room together, she expresses her gesture) with a hidden agenda; it looks In (2), her co-player makes a meta-game negative emotions connected with playing and adequate from the diegetic point of view statement with no signaling of its out- These are cases when someone makes participants’ behavior. We leave the room and but contains out-of-game information that of-game mode. This is a case of explicit her co-players drop out of the game continue playing when we hear noise outside. is expected to be deduced by recipients. conscious unmarked switch. frame unwittingly and notices the fact of This kind of frame switch is appreciated the switching only from the co-players’ In this example, the frame switches within the community because it doesn’t In (3), the initial speaker makes an attempt reaction. are expressed with a range of signals: break the game world and at the same time to repair game-world communication, approaching closer than regular social also adds to playing some extra pleasure to recurring to interruption and to signaling Ambivalent utterance is not intended by the distance, that is, entering intimate guess the riddle. the utterance pragmatics by means of non- speaker to have double meaning, but while distance, lowering the voice (opposed to verbal sign (wink) and intonation. This is the speaker has told something in-game, what is required for characters’ interaction Implicit switchings are mostly used for the a case of marked switch with non-verbal her co-player perceives it as out-of-the- in the game-world), touching, and verbal maintenance of game illusion in case of signaling. game discourse. The speaker keeps in the means (out-of-game name and expression some slight metagame problems. Here is game world until she catches the fact that “out of game”). an example of such case where the problem co-player has switched into out-of-game consists in mistaking an NPC for a player: mode.

38 39 The Knudepunkt 2015 Companion Book Vorobyeva: Ingame or Offgame?

At first sight an ambivalent phrase looks like “There is a craft”: At night we discuss Bibliography an implicit frame switching, but the crucial fighting drills. B. complains how difficult itis difference is that here implicit meaning is to remember the exercises and suddenly says: Brenne G.-T. Making and Mantaining in the eye of the beholder, it has not been “When I drive my car, I am sometimes so tired Frames: A Study of Metacommunication in implied intentionally by the speaker. that I stop understanding what is going on…” Laiv Play. Oslo, 2005. We gaze at him in horror, but he does not notice The frame switch that the speaker has our facial expression and goes on. I have to Montola M. On the Edge of the Magic noticed in her co-player’s behavior intervene: “What are you saying?” He slaps his Circle. Understanding Role-Playing and becomes a surprise. forehead and complains in-game that he has lost Pervasive Games. Academic dissertation, his line because he is exhausted. University of Tampere, 2012. Cues that typically bring about such ambivalence include any statement that can Conclusion Ludography be perceived in both in-game and out-of- game frames, terms that occasionally coincide Our classification of data from the database “France: the cold summer of 1939” (St. with concepts from other game worlds and allowed us to single out relevant features Petersburg, October 2012), settings, or with participants’ names and of cases of dropping out of game-world nicknames that belong to other characters. in social interaction. These are: external “The last submarine” (Moscow, February expression or its absence, presence or 2013), In the example below, the first utterance absence of signalling, intentional or non- is a case of an ambivalent saying that is intentional character of switching, explicit “Deathly hallows” (Moscow, February perceived as potentially ambiguous, while or implicit type of reference to out-of- 2013), the joking answer is a case of explicit game world, initial perception of switching conscious unmarked frame switch. by the speaker and/or by her co-player, use “Western: Deadlands” (St. Petersburg, June of speech cliches. 2013), “Western: Deadlands”: - I have a headache! - Do you need opium or painkiller? In case of an intentional switch from the “There is a craft” (Moscow, August 2013), game to out-of-the-game frame, a player Slip of the tongue is an inadvertent use drops out of character because of some “To kill a Dragon” (Moscow, September of a word that is inappropriate to this inner or outer reason (need, willing to 2013). particular game-world, best exemplified distract, inappropriate conditions etc.) by speech patterns like fillers or swearings and makes the switching perceivable to that that are ill-suited to the game world, the partners (e.g., in order to receive help, or out-of-game names of co-players or to express displeasure, to maintain group other customary patterns of daily speech. identity, etc.).

This kind differs from the previous one in that In case of unintentional frame switching ambivalent utterance is used by the speaker is (ambivalent phrase and slip of the tongue), an appropriate fact of game world from the the author is a “victim” of the effect that speaker’s side, and slip of the tongue is ill-suited her own words produce in her co-players. from any point of view, but is hard to prevent.

An altered state of consciousness may also contribute to slip of the tongue that switch frames: players not fully awaken, under influence, or physically exhausted can easily loose control over their discourse (see below an example: the sender does not even notice his slip until his co-players attract his attention to the case).

40 41 Learning by playing Larp as a teaching metod

Myriel Balzer & Julia Kurz The Knudepunkt 2015 Companion Book Balzer: Learning by playing

“Tell me, and I will forget. Show me and I may remember. Involve me, and I will understand.”

Confucius

The next generation of teachers will be Edularp as Game This is especially true of role-playing games Edularp: Learning by Doing expected to possess a broad spectrum of in which we act “as if” we were knights, competencies and skills. They are faced “The chief art is to make everything that elves or orcs. But even in games in which “For the things we have to learn before we can do with a seemingly impossible task: today, children have to do, sport and play too.” we do not slip into obvious game roles, as is them, we learn by doing them.” classroom instruction should teach not the case in alternate reality games (ARGs), only content but also competence. It John Locke we nevertheless do adopt a role in the Aristotle should be as interdisciplinary as possible sense that we act “as if” something were and it should take the heterogeneity of Firstly, Edularp is always a game. And games “real” even though we know that it is not. Furthermore, Edularp is what we refer to as students into account. In addition to hard are usually fun3. Those who have fun learn an action-oriented method12. That means skills, classroom instruction should also more easily4, are more motivated5, and It could be a bomb from which we recoil that participants learn not through flat teach soft skills. It should encourage and are more likely to tackle larger challenges in panic and then attempt to defuse with theories or lecturing from the blackboard include the use of the learning material in without reticence6. Additionally, players all the seriousness of someone facing a real but rather that they truly become active a variety of situations that students will participating in an Edularp — like players explosive device. Or it could be a person in the lesson or subject matter by trying it face in the real world. At the same time of games in general — often forget that who we treat with respect because they out themselves, through their own actions. it should also be problem-oriented, varied they are actually doing something sensible. present themselves as a police officer, even Edularp is, in the truest sense of the word, and interesting, and sustainable. And of For them, fun — often fun as part of a though we know that they are really just an learning by doing13. course, it should motivate students to group — is in the foreground7. NPC (a non-player character — the game learn! equivalent of an extra in a film). That means that the participants learn Secondly, in games in general and in with all their senses. When they viscerally While it seems as though new teachers are Edularps in particular, a kind of secondary Participants in games are often less likely experience the content, when they being asked to square the circle, the Danish reality8 takes hold. It is a special reality to be discouraged by setbacks; indeed, after physically exert themselves, when they boarding school Østerskov Efterskole and that not only lifts the players out of their “failing” they often return to the challenge smell the appropriate smells and see the others like it have demonstrated that this complex and often trivial or boring everyday with even more motivation than before11. appropriate visuals, their entire bodies act challenge can be met and mastered1. existences for a brief time, but that also as sounding boards both for the experience delivers them into a new world that is often itself and for their reflections on what they How? With Edularp. exciting, epic and comprehensible in ways have experienced and learned14. that the real word is not. While “normal” _____ But just what is Edularp? classroom instruction is often dry, Edularp [1] Cf. Hyltoft, Malik, 2008. is usually the highlight of the day. This [2] The term Edularp stands for “educational live action role-playing game”. Edularp provides enormous motivation to players9. [3] Henriksen (2008) argues for the contrary opinion, according to which learning games neither It is simply far more exciting to investigate must nor should be fun. Edularp2 is live-action roleplaying used a murder mystery than to listen to a lecture [4] Cf. Corbeil, 1999, pp. 173. to impart pre-determined pedagogical or about chemistry, English or mathematics. [5] Cf. Hyltoft, M., 2010, pp. 48. didactic content. [6] Suits (2005) has even made the overcoming of unnecessary obstacles the core of his definition of Furthermore, when we play, we are only games: “Playing a game is the voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles.” Why is Edularp ffective? Why do children, acting “as if” something were the case. We, [7] Baer, U., 1982. high school students, college students, and and the other players, are only pretending. [8] Authors from different fields have described this alternative reality in a number of different ways, seminar participants learn better, faster, This results in a kind of sanction-free but often mean the same thing or at least a similar thing: the “situation of the second degree” in more sustainably and more easily with experimental zone, a safe framework in Brougère, G., 1999, the “frame” in Goffman, E., 1977, pp. 52, the “surplus reality” in Moreno, 1965 or the Edularp? which we can try out new ways of thinking “magic circle of gameplay” in Huizinga, 1938/1939. or behaving, reasoning or feeling — [9] Cf. McGonigal, J., 2012, pp. 119ff. without fear of negative consequences10. [10] Cf. van Ameln, F. and Kramer, Josef, 2007, pp. 397; Hyltoft, M., 2010, pp. 45ff; Vester, 1978, pp. 184. After all, it is “only” a game. [11] McGonigal, J., 2012, pp. 64ff. [12] Cf. Balzer, 2009, pp.13. [13] The expression “learning by doing” comes to us not, as is often claimed, from John Dewey, but 44 rather from the English translation of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, 1985, p. 27f. 45 [14] Cf. van Ameln, F., Kramer, J., 2007, pp. 393. The Knudepunkt 2015 Companion Book Balzer: Learning by playing

With Edularp it is possible to present topics Until now most “knights of education” Gamification vs. Edularp that are typically dry or theoretical in ways have been pedagogues, teachers, trainers, that make them accessible to sensible social workers, caretakers, therapists and In addition to presenting the subject in The user of a gamified process does not experience or allow them to be expressed psychologists who typically stumbled upon as practical a manner as possible, our goal enter into another reality or game world in symbolic ways15. If, for example, one the larp hobby in their private lives and was to prepare our students to implement but rather remains fully and completely is on a spaceship and the navigation who independently recognized the huge playful learning in real classroom situations in the real world. This means that a computer suddenly malfunctions, so that didactic and pedagogical potential of live- in their later careers. Thus our goal was gamified process is not a game! The goal of the only way to plot a new course is to action role-playing19 — even in its hobby that our students would leave the seminar gamification is to make everyday processes solve a differential equation; or if one variant. equipped not only with the theoretical and more interesting, motivating and seemingly has to infiltrate and analyze a new cult in practical skills to take their children on a more rewarding. A prominent example of order to prevent them from carrying out a They were often pioneers in their fields two-week “class trip” to Middle Earth, but gamification is the appFoursquare , in which terrorist attack; or if one is maltreated by and had to expend enormous effort to that they would also be able to employ users can share their current locations (a inhumane prison guards16; what might have be able to offer their students, patients individual elements of gameplay in their restaurant, an event, etc.) with friends been abstract content is instead placed in or participants active learning — live, teaching in whatever measure they might and in so doing be rewarded with badges. a concrete, practical context and takes on dynamic and in color. find effective and appropriate. That is, Another non-digital example from a time tangible relevance. that they would be able to use the whole before the term gamification was coined Nearly 35 years after the first known Edularp method as well as smaller elements is collecting frequent flyer miles, which Thus, participants in an Edularp learn not larp20 we found the time ripe for making of games and gameplay. American Airlines introduced in the early only with their heads but with their guts, it easier for young, interested teaching 1980s25. with their emotions, senses, and intellects. students to utilize the method. To that For this reason we began with an overview It is by simultaneously addressing the end we developed a teaching seminar for of the full breadth of the topic of playful There are also several very successful role cognitive and the emotional faculties the University of Siegen Department of learning, which ranges from learning models for the use of gamification in the that the learning content becomes truly Education. games (including Edularp) on one end to classroom, like the Canadian project World relevant and emotionally meaningful to gamification on the other. of Classcraft26, which gamifies individual the learner. This means that they can learn The goal was not just to inform teaching school subjects; or the Quest to Learn more easily and, above all, with greater students about the theoretical advantages school in New York City27, which is run retention17. of live action role-playing in general and according to a fully gamified teaching Edularp in particular — in the practical plan. The didactic method that we taught Edularp in Practice seminar we explicitly concerned ourselves While participants in learning games to our students in the teaching seminar with putting the students in a position to are normally aware of the fact that they was explicitly intended to prepare them For several years Edularp has been used develop and run their own Edularps21 are playing a game22 and thus entering to utilize the entire spectrum between professionally around the world to into a kind of alternative reality, this is gamification and comprehensive learning successfully achieve diverse goals in a not the case with gamification. Rather, games. Thus, the didactic methods we variety of contexts18. But how do those gamification simply attaches individual teach enable our students to not only individuals who teach with games in elements of games — like badges or a conduct fully-realized Edularps, but to also general and with larps in particular obtain ranking list — to normal reality23, or uses include individual quests28 in their normal their competency? game design techniques to modify everyday teaching, as well as to “gamify” their processes and procedures24. normal lessons. ______[15] Cf. van Ameln, F., Kramer, J., 2007, pp. 392. [22] The so-called alternate reality games (ARGs) represent prominent exceptions: players do not [16] The first example (spaceship) is taken from a game from Østerskov Efterskole, the second necessarily always know if they are really playing a game. Cf. Gosney, J., 2005 example (cult) is taken from a game designed by the authors, while the third example comes from [23] Deterding, 2011. “Prisoner for One Day”, cf. Aarebrot, E. et al., 2012, pp. 24–29. [24] Cf. Werbach, Kevin, https://class.coursera.org/gamification-002/lecture/22. [17] Cf. van Ameln, F., Kramer, J., 2007, pp. 395. [25] The customer collects so-called frequent flyer miles with each flight and, if and when they [18] Cf. e.g.: http://seekersunlimited.com, http://rollespilsfabrikken.dk, http://osterskov.dk, http:// have collected enough, they can then exchange them for prizes, discounts or access to airport www.waldritter.de or Aarebrot, E., et al., 2012. lounges. Microsoft’s Rob Smith, who gamified the software testing process for Windows 7, provides [19] Cf. Balzer, 2009. another example. He managed to transform the normally very difficult and trying process of finding [20] As the history of larp is often contentious I would like to refer the reader to the English-language and notifying translation errors in the dialogue boxes into a fun experience for a total of 4,500 Wikipedia article on the topic, which is actively and internationally edited: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/larp voluntary participants among his coworkers. Cf. http://gamification-research.org/wp-content/ [21] With our draft seminar we were able to obtain a teaching commission from the University of uploads/2013/03/Smith.pdf. Siegen. After submitting the written application and presenting the concept to the Department of [26] For more information see: http://www.classcraft.com/en/#intro. 46 Education a commission selected our proposed seminar for the didactic module in its 2013/2014 [27] For more information see: http://q2l.org. 47 winter semester course offerings. [28] The term “quest” originates in the classical hero’s journey (cf. Campbell, 1999), but in contemporary usage in fantasy literature and computer games it means a task or a puzzle. The Knudepunkt 2015 Companion Book Balzer: Learning by playing

Our thinking is that by integrating Phase 1: Theoretical and Practical In the second half of the session we Category 1: Constraints individual game elements in their lessons Introduction presented the core of the seminar, the so- they can gain experience teaching with called game organization document (GOD), The category Constraints includes all the games in school and then, bit by bit, take The first phase of the seminar consisted with which the students would have to requirements that the game absolutely on larger projects. of three sessions. In the first session we develop and conduct their own Edularp in must fulfill and that have already been introduced the theoretical concept of the subsequent practical phase. (A current specified or must be specified before the Playful Learning: Learning in games, larps, Edularps and alternate reality version of the GOD can be downloaded start of development. They may include Games | A Practical Seminar games (ARGs), as well as the didactic from www.phoenixgamedesign.de free of conditions specified by third parties as potential of Edularps. Our seminar charge.) well as requirements set by the developers In order to teach the students in our participants were mostly new to larps, and themselves. They include things like the seminar not only the necessary practical so we introduced them to the topic by Phase 2 and 3: Development and number as well as type(s) of participants competencies for developing and presenting successful examples of Edularps Implementation of the Edularp (age, degree of fitness, etc.) and also factors conducting Edularps but also the necessary and gamification29. like the resources that are available (e.g. theoretical knowledge, the seminar was Since most of our students had no budget or team strength) and the planned divided into four phases: In order to impart to our students on experience with larps or Edularps, it was development time. a practical level what Edularps are and important for us to give them a guide for 1 Theoretical and practical introduction how it feels to take part in one, in the their independent work. It was intended to Category 2: Project Planning 2 Development of the students’ own second session we enacted the four-hour guide them through the various phases of Edularp interdisciplinary Edularp “Der Kreuz des development, provide them with a concrete The category Project Planning covers the 3 Playing the Edularp Wotans” (Cross of Odin)30 so that they timeframe and schedule, and help them composition of the team and the division 4 Reflection phase would participate in one themselves. as much as possible to avoid overlooking of labor as well as the schedule, the any relevant steps or decisions. The game communication pipelines32, and plans for The individual phases were divided into For the third session the participants organization document (GOD) arose from documentation and data management. a total of ten sessions lasting an average prepared an elevator pitch31 as a homework these concerns. of four hours each. The theoretical and assignment. Their task in preparation for Category 3: Learning Content especially the practical presentation of the session was to think of a gripping story The GOD is a form that asks the game the content was important, but it was also idea for an Edularp and to sketch out a developers to specify and explain all the In the category Learning Content the important to impart to the students the learning quest and the intended learning key criteria for the game. In the course developers are asked to define concretely knowledge and competencies necessary content. They then had five minutes each of defining and explaining the parameters the learning content that is to be conveyed for successfully developing and realizing to present their ideas at the start of the specified in the generalized GOD, a by the game. This is also where the type projects, like project planning and project session as concisely and compellingly as specific game design document (GDD) for of learning content (soft skills, hard skills, management, efficient and sustainable possible, with the intent of persuading the the Edularp under development begins to competences, experience, etc.) is specified. communication within a project, etc. others of the value of their own story ideas. take shape bit by bit. Our teaching students were also required to refer to the school curricula they were Another consideration was that the The goal of this introduction was that The game organization document is using in specific parts of the game. students should work independently after the students would be able to begin divided into seven categories: the introductory phase, but that they the development phase with a pool of Category 4: Storytelling should not be left to face the structuring of ideas, rather than have to be creative “on 1 Constraints the process on their own. demand” at the start of the practical phase. 2 Project planning The category Storytelling includes all the Building on the pitches, we then discussed 3 Learning content elements that deal with the game’s story. what makes a good story, what elements 4 Storytelling This is where the developers formulate a good game requires, and how a good 5 External setup the plot. Its development and progress are learning quest should look. 6 Game design delineated on a timeline. This is also where 7 Documents, materials, props, resources they define the setting, genre and topic _____ [29] We selected Østerskov Efterskole’s Harry Potter game (cf.: Hyltoft, M. and Holm, J.T., 2009) as an of the game and specify the staging and example of a successful Edularp. As an exceptional example of gamification we chose theQuest to dramaturgical elements. Learn school (cf. http://q2l.org). As an example of experience-based learning in a larp we selected “Prisoner for a Day” (cf. Aarebrot, E. and Nielsen, M., 2012). [30] In the Edularp Der Kreuz des Wotans players must foil a cult’s plans for a terrorist bombing. The Edularp was written by Myriel Balzer, Julia Kurz and Tinke Albach. [31] An elevator pitch is a very brief and pointed presentation of a project intended to persuade the _____ 48 [32] Communication pipelines are the ways in which the various members of a team should communicate with49 listener to support it. The name comes from the fact that in an elevator one only has the duration of each other. the ride to win the other party over. The Knudepunkt 2015 Companion Book Balzer: Learning by playing

Category 5: External Setup Category 7: Documents, Materials, Props, Resources An Edularp of Their Own The Reflection Phase

In the category External Setup the The final category Documents, Materials, The students’ Edularp was played on the In the last session we all sat together and developers are charged with determining Props, Resources determines what items are penultimate session and lasted almost discussed the seminar in general as well all the elements of the game that are not required for the game. All the texts that exactly four hours. Our students took on as the students’ Edularp In the course immediate components of the actual game. the players will have access to before, all the relevant duties themselves, with of the seminar we had our students fill That means all the elements that take place during or after the game, as well as those the exception of one NPC role. Two out numerous reflection questionnaires before the beginning or after the end of the required for dealing with players, NPCs of our students served as gamemasters regarding the seminar, the GOD and the actual game, like pre-workshops, warm- and gamemasters (such as in-game contacts and four others played NPC roles. They initial Edularp that we conducted for them: ups, debriefings, the transfer of learning or NPC briefings) are also attached here. also arranged for a student from the our students also had their own players fill content, the evaluation of the game, and/ university to play an additional NPC and out reflection questionnaires regarding or pervasive elements33. Not every Edularp This explicit querying of all the important for six others to take part as players; our their own larp. requires all the elements listed under this points of the Edularp successfully prevents students organized their participation category. But it makes sense to consider all inexperienced students from overlooking independently. Edularp and Back Again the elements and whether or not one’s own one or more points or failing to give game requires them. them enough attention. In this seminar In general the process of conducting their In principle it can be said that the seminar we also used the GOD to provide the first independently designed Edularp was was a complete success. However, with Category 6: Game Design students with a structured time frame. surprisingly smooth and went impressively the benefit of hindsight and feedback Thus each of the seven categories had its according to plan. Their tightly-planned there are also some things that we would The category Game Design contains the own deadline, specifying when each unit schedule functioned very well, and the surely do differently in a future session. template for the core of the future game had to be presented to the instructors in players managed to work through the We have thus drastically shortened the design document. This is where the its most-finished version. We thus made it entire plot by approx. 5:30 pm (the plan theoretical portion of the first session for developers describe and visualize the impossible for the students to procrastinate called for them to finish between 5:20 and future seminars based on the students’ construction of the game and its degree and then attempt to get everything done at 5:45 pm). We only intervened once, at the feedback. Naturally, those students who of linearity. This is where they define the the last moment36. request of both gamemasters, and guided have no experience with larps must first be victory conditions and determine whether their players back to the right path with a properly introduced to the topic. the game can be won cooperatively or While relying on the GOD and the spontaneous NPC improvisation. competitively. deadlines, the students developed their But the ability to absorb information, own Edularp as independently as possible Otherwise we simply observed the entire especially in the course of a four-hour They define possible game rules — both over the course of the following five run-through — while making ourselves session, is limited and the primary emphasis regulative rules and constitutive rules, sessions. We were present during the available for consultation in case of of the seminar is on practice rather than as well as possible rules of irrelevance34. work sessions and instructed the students uncertainty on the part of the gamemasters theory. According to the students it was They formulate the call to action as well that they should create a goal-oriented and NPCs — and we tried to avoid getting the Edularp that they played in the second as the intended player motivation, and agenda for each session and ensure that involved as much as possible. session that really awakened their interest define points of interest35.They determine they followed it. Upon completion of and their desire to try it out themselves. whether the players take on roles during each point on the agenda, the students The game design document for their The examples of successful Edularps in the the game, and who writes them; and they briefly presented their results and we Edularp — which describes the story first session were less important. define the game world. In this category gave them feedback. We also intervened and design of the game, etc. — can be the developers explicitly define all the in discussions or development processes downloaded from the author’s website quests that occur in the game, describing here and there when they were in danger (www.phoenixgamedesign.de) free of their construction, learning goal(s), style, of heading in the wrong direction, and charge. necessary additional knowledge, etc. we were always available for questions. At the end of the practical phase we played through the Edularp with the students _____ step by step a couple of times (on a [33] Cf. Montola, Stenros, Waern, 2009. theoretical level, without the full staging, [34] Regulative rules are those that we typically refer to as the rules of the game. Constitutive rules, etc.), checked it together for logic and as the name suggests, constitute the game and, for example, define roles and specify key rules or consistency, and developed answers for victory conditions. The rules of irrelevance state that certain objects or facts should be ignored and worst-case scenarios. thus allow the actual gamespace to exist (cf. Denker and Ballstaedt, 1976, pp. 58). [35] In this context, a point of interest is the next “point” on which the player should focus. For instance, finding the key to a locked door. [36] Experienced planners need not adhere to the order in the GOD, though it will often make sense 50 51 to do so. And of course, it is not possible to work out all the points separately from each other. The Knudepunkt 2015 Companion Book

Many of them wrote in their reflection The majority of the students wrote questionnaires that it was only through in the questionnaire that the Project their own participation that they really Planning category was especially helpful. understood what an Edularp is. Many found At the same time, they noted that they the theoretical portion “unimportant” for only gradually came to understand the the independent game development that importance of well-structured and explicit followed. In the reflection questionnaires project management. the game development process using the GOD was generally described positively, In our opinion the most central element of even though the responses did draw the success of the seminar was the game attention to a few stumbling blocks. organization document and the clear scheduling requirements it prescribed for The students had particular trouble with the individual tasks. the Learning Content category, which they felt appeared too early in the GOD. They Additionally, it was important that the would have preferred to specify the learning students were required to work in an content in the course of developing the organized and structured manner, and that quest. However, since teachers must work they received guidance in doing so. The according to prescribed curricula, we regular reflection and feedback rounds consciously chose this particular sequence helped identify and confirm good ideas to better reflect the realities of the job. while rooting out as early as possible ideas that fell outside the scope of the Edularp. The students also had trouble with the new Thus, participants in an Edularp terminology. Although at the beginning of the practical phase we went over the learn not only with their heads GOD with them in detail and explained but with their guts, with their all the terminology in detail, the meaning of individual terms was nonetheless emotions, senses, and intellects. quickly forgotten because they were not documented. Today we would thus distribute a sort of glossary along with the game organization document.

52 The Knudepunkt 2015 Companion Book Balzer: Learning by playing

Works Cited Hyltoft, M., “Four Reasons why Edu- Larp works”, in Dombrowski, K. (Ed.), Aarebrot, E. and Nielsen, M. “Prisoner Denker, R., Ballstaedt, S., Aggression im LARP: Einblicke, Aufsatzsammlung zum for a Day. Creating a game without Spiel – mit Anleitungen zu Gruppen und Mittelpunkt 2010, Zauberfeder Verlag, winners”, in Aarebrot, E., et. al. (Eds.), Gesellschaftsspielen, Stuttgart: Verlag W. Braunschweig, pp. 43–58., 2010. Playing the learning game: A practical Kohlhammer GmbH, 1976. introduction to educational roleplaying, McGonigal, J., Reality is Broken: Why based on experiences from The Larpwriter Goffman, E., Rahmen-Analyse. Games Make Us Better and How They Challenge, Fantasi Forbundet, Oslo, pp. Frankfurt/M.: Suhrkamp. Oder der magic Can Change the World; [includes practical 24–29, 2012. circle of gameplay, 1977. advice for gamers], Vintage Books, London. pp. 119ff, 2012. Aristotle, Die Nikomachische Ethik. Auf Gosney, J., Beyond reality: A guide to der Grundlage der Übersetzung von Eugen alternate reality gaming, Thomson Course Montola, M.; Stenros, J.; Waren, A., Rohfes herausgegeben von Günther Bien. Technology PTR, Boston, MA, 2005. Pervasive Games – Experiences on the 4. Auflage. Hamburg: Meiner, 1985. Boundary Between Life and Play, Morgan Henriksen, T.D., “Extending Experiences Kaufmann Publishers, 2008. Baer, U., Spielpädagogik: Arbeitsblätter of Learning Games. Or Why Learning zur Spielepädagogik, Robin Hood Versand, Games Should Be neither Fun, Educational Moreno, J.L., “Therapeutic vehicles and Remscheid, 1982. nor Realistic”, in Leino, O., Wirman, the concept of surplus reality”, Group H. and Fernandez, A. (Eds.), Extending Psychotherapy, Vol. 18, pp. 211-216, 1965. Balzer, M., Live Action Role Playing: Experiences: Structure, analysis and design Die Entwicklung realer Kompetenzen of computer game player experience, Suits, B., The grasshopper: Games, life and utopia, in virtuellen Welten, Tectum-Verlag, Lapland University Press, Rovaniemi, pp. Broadview Press, Peterborough, Ont., 2005. Marburg, 2009. 140–162, 2008. van Ameln, F. und Kramer Josef, Brougère, G., Some Elements Relating Huizinga, J., Homo ludens: Vom Ursprung “Wirkprinzipien handlungsorientierter to Children’s Play and Adult Simulation/ der Kultur im Spiel, rororo Rowohlts Beratungs- und Trainingsmethoden”, Gaming. Simulation & Gaming, 30(2), Enzyklopädie, Vol. 55435, 21. Aufl., Rowohl Zeitschrift für Gruppendynamik und 134-146., “Surplus Reality” in Moreno, Taschenbuch-Verl., Reinbek bei Hamburg. Organisationsberatung, Vol. 38 No. 4, pp. J. L. (1965). Therapeutic Vehicles and 1938/1939. 389–406, 2007. the Concept of Surplus Reality. Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama, 18, 211- Hyltoft, M., “The Role-Players’ School. Vester, F., Denken, Lernen, Vergessen. 216, 1999. Østerskov Efterskole”, in Montola, M. Stuttgart: dtv, 1978. and Stenros, J. (Eds.), Playground Worlds: Campbell, J., Der Heros in tausend Creating and Evaluating Experiences Internet Resources Gestalten, Insel-Verlag, Frankfurt am of Role-Playing Games, Published in Main, 1999. conjunction with Solmukohta 2008, https://class.coursera.org/gamification-002/ Ropecon ry, pp. 12–25, 2008. lecture/22 Corbeil, P., Learning from the Children: http://gamification-research.org/wp- Practical and Theoretical Reflections Hyltoft, M. and Holm, J.T., “Elements of content/uploads/2013/03/Smith.pdf on Playing and Learning. Simulation & Harry Potter. Deconstructing an edu-larp”, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larp Gaming, 30(2), 163-180. 1999. in Holter, M., Fatland, E. and Tømte, E. http://seekersunlimited.com (Eds.), Larp, the Universe and Everything: http://rollespilsfabrikken.dk Deterding, Sebastian et. al., Gamification: An anthology on the theory and practice http://osterskov.dk Toward a Definition (PDF; 136 kB). In: of live role-playing (larp), published in http://www.waldritter.de Mindtrek 2011 Proceedings, ACM Press, conjunction with Knutepunkt 2009, pp. http://www.classcraft.com/en/#intro Tampere, 2011. 27–42, 2009. http://q2l.org http://gamification-research.org/wp- content/uploads/2013/03/Smith.pdf

54 55 Looking at you Larp, documentation and being watched

Juhana Pettersson The Knudepunkt 2015 Companion Book Pettersson: Looking at you

So far, Nordic larp has produced two games I was in North Korea for a week, and Despite the ban on documentation, The characters were politicians, lobbyists that have become international news left my phone and other electronics in a apparently even radical anti-surveillance and activists talking about ecological issues stories that all kinds of sites cannibalize strongbox at a hotel in Beijing. games are subject to the demands of the related to the Baltic Sea, unaware of a and copy from each other: the Danish 2013 outside world. The game was held as part zombie threat that would soon emerge. rerun of Panopticorp, and the Polish-Danish I never forget my phone. I get jittery if of the arts festival Mad House Helsinki. A Harry Potter game College of Wizardry. In I have to be without something to do photographer unconnected to the larp set The public could just walk into the both cases, the attention was fueled by for longer than three minutes. When I up shop directly outside the main game game area. The game was documented solid documentation and good video from have my phone with me, I’m completely area, separated from the action only by a in the photos of random passerby, by the game. trackable to any surveillance entities or curtain. We ran past him all the time, and journalists we had invited, and by our own curious phone company employees who many chose to participate in his portrait documentation team. In short, it was total In both cases, your private larp experience might be interested. The phone can be project, including myself. Considering the documentation anarchy. A picture from of co-creating and having fun with your used to listen to me remotely. Its list of theme and the rules of Identlos, his presence our game could be anywhere, and we had friends suddenly had an audience literally contacts is a straightforward run through seemed supremely ironic. little control over it. in the millions. Even if only as a glimpse in of everyone I associate with. a video on the website of the Daily Mail. Technically, his presence wasn’t against In Baltic Warriors, this maximalist attitude Because of all this, going to Identlos was the rules, since he wasn’t in the game area. towards documentation was mandated If you don’t document games, they become a no-brainer for me. It was a game about To the best of my knowledge, the ban on by the political nature of the project and forgotten ephemera that will live on only in some of the most pressing issues of our photo documentation of in-game action the demands of making a game in this the memories of the participants. If you do time. It was also an interesting contribution held. particular location with these particular document and publish, private experiences to the discussion going on in the Nordic partners. In future games, we will probably can become public in increasingly larp scene concerning documentation. As a player, I couldn’t but help noticing experiment with different kinds of photo impressive ways. Identlos wasn’t a secret game in the sense that this also changes the power dynamics and privacy policies, depending on the that it was hard to find out about it. It was of how we talk about the game afterwards. individual demands of each game. The documentary filmmakers Cosmic advertised for potential players. Rather, Centrally-controlled photo policy and Joke were present at College of Wizardry. all documentation during the event was documentation is a useful tool for Our lax attitude towards being in public Participants reported after the game that forbidden. No photos, no video. Because organizers who wish to influence the life was criticized by some players after the the game was changed and people played of this, it’s secret in the sense that it’s hard their game has after it’s over. In the case game, especially regarding the political differently because of the cameras. Video for a person who wasn’t there to find out of Identlos, no such tool exists. The only speeches that characters made on stage. footage and good photos are essential for how it was. This is part of the design of the records are the words of the players and Since the setting was contemporary and the fueling mass media coverage, but they also game. the impressions of the organizers. issues real, larp could easily be mistaken for influence the game as it is being played. reality. At least until the zombies attacked. Meta On Display Baltic Warriors: Helsinki demonstrated that Secret Larp privacy and control over documentation In Identlos, most of the characters had Baltic Warriors: Helsinki was probably are dealbreakers for many players. I Identlos was a Finnish larp held in Helsinki escaped the surveillance networks of the opposite of Identlos when it comes have heard from many people who were on the 26th of October, 2014. It was modern society, or wanted to do so. To do to documentation and how exposed the fascinated by the project, but decided not organized by Jamie MacDonald and Petri this, they had to leave behind most of the players were to outside view. It was the to participate in what was essentially a Leinonen. The larp was about identity in electronic niceties of the world we live in: first in a projected series of larps under the public performance. the modern surveillance society. One of social media, cell phones, massive media wider Baltic Warriors transmedia project. my most interesting experiences as a player access. The principal design of the game was by was leaving my cell phone home. Mike Pohjola. I did additional design and During the larp, the characters in the practical production. The last time I was without my cell phone organization called Identlos did not have was in the spring of 2013. It fell on the their phones with them, or credit cards The game was played in the center of sidewalk and the screen cracked. The or similar items connected to a network. Helsinki in an outdoor cafe area on the superfast, express repair took an hour. An Because of this, the players had to do 30th of August, 2014 in the middle of a hour I had to spend phoneless. The time without as well. We had to pay cash if we Saturday afternoon. before that was in 2009. wanted to go to the bar.

58 59 The Knudepunkt 2015 Companion Book Pettersson: Looking at you

You Have to Write Documentation always has an angle and Getting into character, I thought about That’s a facile statement, of course, since a perspective: What to shoot during the how it would feel like to go from an Identlos’s choices were informed by a Nowadays it’s not enough to play in a larp. game? Whom to ask to get something audience of millions to an audience of larger political and theoretical apparatus You also have to write a 30.000 character written material about it? What to include hundreds. In some ways, the change would about issues of privacy. Still, the result can essay about it, with original thoughts and in edited versions of the material, such as be small: You would still get your best be the same: Identlos can join the legions of profound reflection. books and films? feedback and comments from your friends. games that will not be remembered. Does At the same time, it was hard to see how it it matter if it’s by design or not, if the end Halat hisar was a political game. As The Danish larp KAPO is an example of wouldn’t be disappointing. Having a mass result is the same? organizers, we wanted to use it to get media a game where the documentation was a audience means you get to be part of the attention for issues in Palestine, in addition player-led process. The documentation conversation on a wider level. You matter. In terms of penetration into larp culture, to creating a meaningful game experience. book published for the game was curated Of course, making games for a limited my most influential game was probably The political side of the project made by a player, and though the organizers audience means you still matter to those Luminescence, which I organized with documentation a no-brainer. While the supplied photos and some words for it, people. But scale is seductive. Mike Pohjola. I still see jokes about flour game itself would be played in a secluded they had no control over it. games in the most surprising places. It location away from the public, it would be Scale is a classic problem of larp design. seems to me that the idea of the game, photographed. There would be video. After This is a great thing to happen to a game, Given the extremely personal nature of the “flour larp”, has become a meme of the game, we published a documentation but personal experience suggests that larp, how to scale it up? How to reach a sorts, divorced from the original context. book and a short documentary film. normally, a documentation effort has to mass audience? These questions are further I suspect something similar happens be led pretty aggressively for it to happen. complicated by issues of safety and privacy. when games like Panopticorp and College of Our photographers Tuomas Puikkonen The motivation to do this tends to default In Identlos, my character had chosen safety Wizardry go through the distorting lens of and Katri Lassila did excellent work to the organizers. over reaching a mass audience. He had global mass media. documenting the game, but individual limited his horizons because he didn’t player experiences are essential for any So here’s the question: Is writing about your want to live in a world with no privacy. With political games like Baltic Warriors true effort to understand what happened. experience, appearing in photos and on It was an interesting dichotomy, because and Halat hisar, the goal is to change the That requires some effort on part of the video, part of the responsibility of playing usually in modern political discourse safety world. Documentation and publicity are players. in a game? Do you as the player have to is presented as the result of obliterating necessary parts of the project. But Identlos accept the task of framing and expressing privacy. The larp argued the opposite, or at is a political game too. It’s just that it I spent a lot of time after Halat hisar your inner processes for the consumption least complicated the issue. prioritizes its art over its politics, and hounding our players into writing about of a wider, non-playing audience? makes us ask the question: the game and appearing on camera talking Memory about it. Because of its political content, Reach Who are we larping for? Halat hisar might be an extreme case, but Due to the lack of photos, Identlos only ordinary ambitious Nordic games have In Identlos, I played a successful indie exists in the memory of its participants. these demands too. As a participant, you game designer apparently modeled after Since there has not been any text-based have the artwork lodged inside your brain someone like Minecraft’s Markus Persson. documentation either, the story of what after the game is over. For history to know I had escaped normal society because of the game was is left to the underground of what happened, that experience has to be the amount of hate among videogame fans. folklore in the player community. drilled out. I lived in the secluded and small Identlos settlement, still making games but with a When I started larping in the mid- Of course, when the documentation much smaller audience and less resources Nineties, this was normal for all larps. effort is led by an organizer, like with than before. I was happy with this. There was very little documentation, even Halat hisar, its content is also controlled photos. Nowadays, it seems to me there’s by the organizers. As the person mainly In some ways, the difference between what photos from most larps, at least to some responsible for the documentation, I tried my character had left behind and what he extent. What would have been normal in to be honest, but all documentation entails had now was similar to experiences from 1995 is experimental now that it was done choices of what to include and what to my own life. I have personally felt the by Identlos in 2014. leave out. difference by making television for mass audiences and making larp for a small scene.

60 61 Now That We’ve Walked The Walk… Some additions to the larp vocabulary

Bjørn Flindt Temte The Knudepunkt 2015 Companion Book Temte: Now That We’ve Walked The Walk…

Introduction Can’t you see I’m role-playing?

Larp is traditionally participatory in Based on my experience with the different Cantoring(Lit: acting, playing, poet): Basing media interaction on reader- nature. Fortunately, there’s been a great forms of role-playing, the definitions of Portraying/acting out the character response theory, the definition also takes introspective and analytical tradition Hitchens & Drachen1, Arjoranta2 and physically, including body movements, this into account through mentioning accompanying the continuing push against Montola3, as well as the results from my tone of voice, facial gestures etc. Only ‘participants interacting with’. the evermoving boundaries of what’s thesis projects4,5,6, I would argue that there at runtime. While one could argue that possible and what’s been attempted. Yet it are a number of different processes to what cantoring may be contemplated prior to However, ductoring doesn’t say anything seems that our vocabulary has not grown at we are currently calling role-playing: runtime, in order to best get a sense of the about whether you actually act upon these the same rate as the artform itself. character’s physical mannerisms, I would evaluations. You may be ductoring with/by Textoring(Lit: weaver): Exploring the label such contemplations as auctoring. yourself in a cupboard for 12 hours, without This article will attempt to cover some of potential story evolution possibilities, I.e. the However, it is quite common for role- ever moving or saying anything. When the recent strides towards enriching that story-space7, and consequently manufacturing players to explore the mental exercise larping, a more important concept is thus vocabulary. It presents the findings of a personal, curated story-subspace instance, of imagining their character in various to which degree you’re acting on behalf of several projects each exploring the nature focused on the nodes deemed favourable to situations, and so a degree of overlap is your character or yourself. I define this as of larp by investigating how the play and an engaging story evolution. theoretically possible. the degree of herosproxy. narrative experience change when mediated through computer/larp hybrids. These Auctoring(Lit: authoring, acting, Quod-core When exhibiting a low degree of projects have investigated the interactive originator): (Re)defining the character herosproxy, you’re essentially playing and digital narrative academic literature, and itself, including personality traits and With these processes as a foundation, it’s acting as yourself in the given situations, have come away with a range of terms and background. This is both done as part now possible to formulate a new definition with little regard for your player character’s concepts directly applicable to larp. of the initial character creation process, of Role-Playing: motivations and personality. Reversely, a performed by either the player or an high degree of herosproxy signifies both It is my hope that this article will both author, and at runtime by the player and A type of Pretence-Play where a large amount of ductoring, and that said provide the community with an enriched possibly also the GM. Participants interact, often through ductoring is being reflected and acted upon. vocabulary for conversing about our rules, with a diegetic world through Therefore, herosproxy is the most relevant artform, and an expanded analytical toolbox Ductoring(Lit: guiding, leading, the continuous ductoring and possibly real-world measure of role-playing. for designing and researching larps. commanding): Determining the appropriate cantoring, rectoring and auctoring, of actions/utterances for the character in the distinct characters, thus collaboratively What IDS brought along... Before jumping into the murky waters of given situation. Performed at runtime, with co-textoring an emergent, ephemeral terminology, let’s first ensure that we’re some ductoring taking place during character narrative. I’d now like to present some of the terminology on the same riverbank. There’s been many creation regarding background events. that the interactive digital storytelling endeavours to define role-playing, and I’d The core of role-playing is thus, in the academic community has developed for like to add my voice to the cacophony. But Rectoring(Lit: ruling, directing, presented definition, not the playing of a better understanding and researching their, it’s my hope that by refining and combining mastering): Directing the story through role per se. Rather, it’s the ductoring of the and to a large extent our, field. the current definition attempts, we can the actions/utterances of the character. character(s) you control, the continuous turn the cacophony into a choir instead. Only at runtime, arguably some planning process of evaluating the appropriate and Aarseth8 divides narrative elements into during initial character creation. relevant actions for the character and Kernels and Satellites, kernels being _____ situation, that is the heart of our artform. story elements/events which define the [1] Hitchens, M., & Drachen, A. (2008). The many faces of role-playing games. International journal of role-playing, 1(1), 3-21. Whether you then describe or act out the story, and satellites being elements/events [2] Arjoranta, J. (2011). Defining Role-Playing Games as Language-Games. International journal of role-playing, chosen action(s) is of lesser importance, without which the story would still be 1(2), 3-17. and covered by the definition as well. One recognisable. Clearly, this distinction does [3] Montola, M., 2008. The invisible rules of role- playing. The social framework of role-playing process. International would argue that ductoring could also not take into account the ephemerality journal of role-playing, 1(1), pp.22–36 happen e.g. when you read a book or watch of role-playing stories, but it still gives us [4] Temte, B. F. (2014). I, Herosmaton? Unpublished Master Thesis, Department of Architecture, Design and Media a movie. I completely agree, and posit that terms to distinguish between primary and Technology, Section of Medialogy, Aalborg University Copenhagen. Supervisors: Bruni, L.E. & Eladhari, M. these examples are also to a large extent secondary events/elements. Likewise, one [5] Temte, B. F., & Schoenau-Fog, H. (2012). Coffee tables and cryo chambers: a comparison of user experience role-playing, the only major difference could argue that a larpwright should focus and diegetic time between traditional and virtual environment-based roleplaying game scenarios. In Interactive being the degree of interactivity offered by on kernels, letting the satellites happen on Storytelling (pp. 102-113). Springer Berlin Heidelberg. the medium. their own. [6] Temte, B. F. (2011). Project Restless Sleep - An Experimental Framework for Investigating the Change in User Experience of Roleplaying Games in Virtual Environments. Unpublished Bachelor Thesis, Department of _____ 64 Architecture, Design and Media Technology, Section of Medialogy, Aalborg University Copenhagen. Supervisor: [8] Aarseth, E. (2012, May). A narrative theory of games. In Proceedings of the international conference on 65the Schoenau-Fog, H. foundations of digital Games (pp. 129-133). ACM. [7] The complete set of potential story evolutions for the story in its current state The Knudepunkt 2015 Companion Book Temte: Now That We’ve Walked The Walk…

9 Ryan presents nine different interactive - Epic: Focuses on the struggle of the narrative structures, along with their individual to survive in a hostile world - individual characteristics, with a tenth Spatial Immersion added by myself4, this being ‘Instigating Event with Conflict-laden Characters’. - Dramatic: The evolution of a network The nine original can be seen on figure 1. of human relations - Emotional Immersion I have yet to come up with a suitable illustration for Instigating Event with - Epistemic: The desire to solve a mystery Conflict-laden Characters. The ten - Temporal Immersion (components structures can work as tools for designing of which are curiosity, surprise and and framing conversations about larp suspense). structures as well. We’re also given a tool for categorising Ryan11 also proposes two different types of player actions/utterances, where Theune, immersion in interactive narratives, these Linnsen and Alofs12 construct a scheme: being ludic and narrative immersion. She also distinguishes between spatial, temporal This works very well for categorising e.g. and emotional narrative immersion. player utterances when analysing larp play (see4). Additionally, Ryan suggests three distinct types of plot in interactive stories, with each plot type primarily suitable for a specific narrative immersion:

Figure 1: Ryan’s 9 interactive narrative structures9. Illustrations from 10 _____ [9] Ryan, M. L. (2001). Narrative as virtual reality. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. [10] Temte, B. F., Aabom, H. T., Bevensee, S. H., Boisen, K. A. D., & Olsen, M. P. (2013). Aporia: Codename Still Lake Valley - Exploring the Merge of Game-play and Narrative through Multiplayer Cooperation and Storytelling. Unpublished project report, Department of Architecture, Design and Media Technology, Section of Medialogy, Aalborg University Copenhagen. Supervisor: Bruni, L.E. [11] Ryan, M. L. (2008). Interactive narrative, plot types, and interpersonal relations. In Interactive Storytelling (pp. 6-13). Springer Berlin Heidelberg. [12] Theune, M., Linssen, J., & Alofs, T. (2013). Acting, Playing, or Talking about the Story: An Annotation Scheme for Communication during Interactive Digital Storytelling. In Interactive Storytelling (pp. 132-143). Springer 66 International Publishing.

Figure 2: Theune, Linnsen and Alofs PxR annotation scheme12. Illustration from4 The Knudepunkt 2015 Companion Book Temte: Now That We’ve Walked The Walk…

Mine, my own, my propositions

In5, I define Diegetic Adherence to be the Avatar: Physical manifestation of person But given the pre-existing uses and degree to which diegetic time equals real in another reality. Navigational and ludic meanings associated with bleed as a term time, i.e. whether the larp is running on focus in games. In larps, the avatar is outside the role-playing community, and a 1:1 time, or e.g. features flashbacks/slow ourselves. the fact that I’m a nerd when it comes to motion. This term can both be used for terms/classifications, I would propose to describing/discussing/designing larps, and Locus: The visual appearance of a rename the concept Flusentio (in/ex) [Lit: for analytic purposes. particular avatar. How we look, with Flow/bleed of feelings]. Influsentio would costume, makeup, expression and props. thus be emotions, characteristics and/ Hulk, meet Spock or opinions flowing/bleeding from player Herosmaton: The specific contents of to character, with Exflusentio denoting I also here propose two non-opposed play the person schema of a player character, flowing/ bleeding from character to player. styles/attributes; Cerebral and Embodied. including personality traits, goals, The distinction here is whether the player background etc. Concerning Genres seeks out the intellectual challenge(s) or instead strives to be physically/emotionally Facies: The countenance/appearance Usually, when discussing larps, we refer to affected by the larp/situation. Cerebral of a particular herosmaton. How the the genre as based on those of Hollywood gamists thus enjoy the intellectual herosmaton looks inside the imagined movies. The Danish larp theorist Jacob challenge of a mystery or tactical battle, diegesis. Nielsen proposes that we instead/ whereas embodied gamists thrive on e.g. additionally adopt the vocabulary of the the adrenaline response of the battle Player Character: The combined avatar, art world as a way of discussing our works itself. Embodied immersionists aim locus, herosmaton and facies, along with and the intentions of the authors. for becoming their character, whereas its more ludic characteristics, e.g. strength cerebral immersionists are more akin score, hit points etc., and the actions For instance, playing a social realism to simulationists, aiming instead for available to it, defined below as Ago and drama expressionistically will yield a very experiencing being in the diegetic world. Vis. different playthrough than the exact same larp played abstractly, impressionistically Dramaticists with a cerebral focus, Ago: The verbs available to the particular or post-modern. Therefore, I strongly enjoy shaping the story and influencing/ PC, such as run, jump, shoot etc. encourage you read Jacob Nielsen’s experiencing its flow and aesthetics, thought-provoking article on styles in larp whereas embodied dramaticists instead Vis: The ludic stats associated with the in this book. seek the emotional response from entering PC, such as hit points, strength score etc. the story. I do not see these terms as I hope that the usefulness and relevance necessarily being directly in opposition It’s my hope that our community may adopt of these terms are clear, and encourage however. Larps/situations where you’re some or all of the terms, hereby easing the further debates about and expansions of both intellectually and emotionally joint communication and understanding of our shared vocabulary. I also hope that the engrossed are easily imagined. the player character elements. term-nado I’ve just unleashed has either blown you away, or at least ruffled your Exploding the Player Character Picking nits feathers enough that a productive debate will ensue, at whichever decibel level you In 4, I define the ALHFa-PAV categorisation There is little doubt that bleed as a larp prefer. (pronounced Alpha-Paw ) as a way term and concept is both relevant and real of dividing and discussing the components (for a given definition of real). of a player character:

68 69 On Publicity and Privacy Or “How do you do your documentation?”

Jamie MacDonald The Knudepunkt 2015 Companion Book MacDonald: On Publicity and Privacy

In 2014, I conducted a survey about attitudes towards photography and video in larp. I got nearly 500 responses from many different countries, and while I would love to publish the full results here, they’re a bit long for the scope of this KP book. The numbers are available at www.ars-amandi.se instead, and they’re really quite interesting, so I suggest you take a look if you’re organising or photographing anytime soon. What I will do here is outline some of the different arguments and thought processes concerning the way we play and the way we document.

Images and the nature of larp

For good, bad, or ugly, we’ve all been What one player considers transgressive Just a fun fact for anyone who thinks that They have the potential to expand it very photographed in larps. Someone has may be less remarkable to another player, not tagging people by name on Facebook is far geographically as well as temporally, managed to catch that moment where and this may simply be a matter of life sufficient to protect anonymity.) and they very quickly collapse the context. your costume looked brilliant and you’re experience or taste, but can also relate to They take a private-ish event and bring it screaming at someone, and damned if you one’s situation in real life. A schoolteacher Larp, as we have been doing it, is not a into public consumption. don’t look like a movie star. As organisers, may want to play a murderer; a politician public performance; everyone present is we’ve also probably felt the crushing might want to play a coked-up rockstar; a complicit in the course of action and has One recent example of this is the Czech stupidity of not having recorded anything person in a committed relationship may both interest and agency in where the story larp Hell on Wheels, the first few runs of at a larp, and about three months later want to play a fantasy romance; a judge goes. When you sign up, you might have a which included players who darkened their finding out that nobody cares about our might want to play a slave owner. Larp can ballpark idea of what you’d like to do and skin to play characters of African descent. larp if there aren’t pics. offer some freedom of expression and play what kind of activities you’ll indulge in, This was largely unremarkable until not only for transgressive or illegal acts, but I think most players would agree that photographs reached the larp community We take images, share images, store but it offers this to people whose real- if you knew beforehand exactly what was in the United States, where putting dark images, publish images, broadcast images, world lives impose restrictions on what going to happen, there would be no point makeup on white skin to play a black and print images, in both still and moving they’re publicly allowed to consider “fun”. to larping at all. person is inescapably racist and very form. So we should talk about images in offensive indeed. larp. We like to ask “what if” our world had Combine this with larp’s famous alibi for different norms - for violence, sexuality, indulging in things we can’t do in real life, The ensuing conversation saw accusations Particularly in larp, because as it happens, social structure, or pretty much anything and this makes most players likely to do or of racism towards the Czechs, imperialism larps are semi-private (and sometimes else we can imagine. I, for one, am an artist say things that they can’t vet beforehand, toward the Americans, and rather a lot transgressive) events. One feature of larp and frankly can be photographed doing and which might not be palatable if taken of publicity for the larp in a way that that allows us to play some very interesting pretty much anything and it will only help out of context - in part because the whole the Czech organisers likely never even things is that the larp is a contained and me. point of the larp was to create a context considered. (ideally) safe space, both physically and that would not be possible or morally temporally. But I have seen people do things in larps defensible to live out in our real lives. This Was the dialogue useful? Hard to say. On that, if taken out of context, would ruin makes organisers responsible for at least one hand, it often takes an outsider to an Our collective understanding seems to be their career. I have seen people standing some degree of privacy. in-group to point out where your blind that transgressive play is at times fun and next to other players who were doing spots are. On the other, can the piece be desired, so we make it possible through a things that, if photographed, could ruin It’s not exactly a completely private event, condemned on the strength of its images space that is contingent - it only exists here that person’s career. A third of the survey either: we trust others - some of them near- alone, without hearing how the topic was and now, and in the context of a game. You respondents reported that some in-game strangers - with our play. We work towards handled in-game? Expect this issue to show might even wonder whether larp is safe photos could cause trouble for them. building this trust in person. And yet, we up again: so it can include transgression, or if larp trust people who are potentially hostile became transgressive because it was “safe”. (Speaking of standing next to someone, one with our images. Images do a great deal 72% of respondents said they’re okay with of the reasons why Facebook’s own facial of violence to the safeness of a larp. They photos of themselves playing a different The contingency of a larp is an important recognition software is more accurate than bring something from within the frame social group, class, or culture. feature for many kinds of play, but also for the CIA’s is because Facebook knows who of the larp, outside that frame. They are many kinds of people. you know, and recognises who you’re likely objects that expand the agreed safe space to be standing next to. in a way that is not predictable.

72 73 The Knudepunkt 2015 Companion Book MacDonald: On Publicity and Privacy

The public image of larp What to record, when, why, and how

It’s curious that photographs from a larp Larpers seem to fall somewhat more on There will always be a misrepresented It’s quite clear that players love get taken out of context so quickly - it the Prince Harry side at the moment. If “popular view” for those who are outsiders photographs of themselves and their almost seems as though people are waiting you are photographed playing a person of any activity, just as there is one for friends; particularly in the 48-or-so hours to find something. But perhaps that’s dying of AIDS, or wearing blackface, the contemporary art (“My six year old could’ve directly after a larp, players cry out for human nature. A photograph of the larp photograph does not in itself convey any painted that”) or sport (“Team sports are the visual proof that tells them yes, they only recalls the event for someone who was information as to whether this photograph just a sublimation of the war impulse”). All were really there and they looked beautiful actually there; for anyone else, the context was cultural production (i.e. art) or “fun”, of these are created by a combination of with all that snot running all over their stands only on the weight of what is visible and the overwhelming impression seems images and ignorance. Larp could benefit faces after all their friends died and they in the picture. to be that you will give off an air of from having more images in the public - had a desolate epiphany about their own endorsement. And then there’s the Daily good images, attached to positive advocacy. existence. Most of us are guilty as charged The public does not (yet) understand Mail (see below): here. larpers to be like actors. If Brad Pitt plays Interestingly, Cosmic Joke’s teaser and 18 a Nazi, we all understand that Brad Pitt is Ironically, headlines like this one are min. documentary about College of Wizardry No organiser I spoke to would dream of a very cool guy for playing such a hardcore exactly why photographs and videos from (2014) seemed to attract the “right” kind of letting a larp go unphotographed. For grant character; in interviews he can even discuss larps are also needed. The popular view of press: admiration for a job well done, cool money, for pitches, for clout, for academic the humanity and interestingness of that larps (sorry, ‘LARPS’), which to this day costumes and setting, and respect for the research, for being able to contribute to role, and we will still understand Brad Pitt retains the hint of Satanism it’s enjoyed sheer crazy guts to put 120-200 people the ongoing creation of the Nordic larp to be a pretty cool guy. However, Prince since the 1980s, is one in which a bunch of (depending on which article you read) in canon, evidence is simply essential. It’s Harry dressing up as a Nazi to go to a well-meaning but sadly broken people get a castle for 2-5 days (depending on which participation. costume party is apparently a problem, together in the woods and push each other article you read) to play as Harry Potter/ because for some reason the public feels psychologically until they can’t tell what’s in Hogwarts/in the Potterverse/in the Video is a bit more fraught. Most that it sends an ambiguous message as real anymore. Polandverse (depending on which article respondents are okay with or enthusiastic to how he feels about Nazis; after all, he you read). about video so long as they know dressed up as one for fun. Then someone dies, and it’s the plot of a beforehand that it’s going to be there. My blockbuster movie. It appears to be the first single larp to get biggest beef here is that video crews and global media attention - and what’s more, larpers aren’t used to each other - the boom positive media attention. The trailer and operator will put a mic in the middle of a teaser combined had over one million hits scene, and half of the larpers will shut up on YouTube, among them Warner Brothers because it suddenly feels like filming a TV execs who had a few words to say about show and they don’t want to mess it up, or intellectual property - but that’s another they’ll move out of the shot because they essay entirely. don’t want to be on camera. Video crews can literally alter the plot this way. It should be noted that even the “wtf-type” attention garnered by the documentation But either way, larp documentation is here of Panopticorp (2013) also caught the to stay. So I’ll finish up with a little bit of eye of people internationally who were advocacy and again invite you to check out interested in running the game; so clearly the survey. larpers know how to read between the lines of the Daily Mail. It seems that video documentation in particular is useful for getting media attention, and media attention is, we assume, good for the larp scene. It is certainly helpful for getting venues, financing, and interest for one’s next big project.

74 75 The Knudepunkt 2015 Companion Book MacDonald: On Publicity and Privacy

Should I have in-game photographs? Is it the player’s responsibility to tell a References Yes, in general. People love them. If photographer to go away? Tricky. Some you want to be a bit sensitive and avoid players will not want to go off-game to do Sharp, Aaron. (2013, October 19). It’s affecting play, only photograph public this. Some will be playing characters of low not exactly Trivial Pursuit. The Daily scenes - or have your photographers playing agency, and this can affect the agency they Mail. Retrieved from http://www.dailymail. characters, so we can interact with them, take as a player. co.uk/news/article-2467492/PanoptiCorp- pose for them, or tell them to go away. role-playing-craze-Denmark-players-50- Can I use hidden video cameras or hours-straight-pretending-coke-snorting- Should I have off-game photographs? GoPros to be less intrusive? Merlin’s advertising-executives.html Even better. A surprising number of people Beard, no. Unless you’ve communicated it (67%) reported they were willing to re- to your players and they either know where Ludography create scenes afterwards for the purposes the cameras are, or they are totally okay of photography. I would love to see an with playing with hidden cameras, don’t do College of Wizardry (2014). Charles Bo organiser design for this - it’s opt-in, and to this. Always allow players to review hidden Nielsen, Claus Raasted, Dracan Dembinski anyone who wasn’t there, it’s not likely to camera footage. et al. Played in Czocha, Poland. make a lick of difference. Also, players are often quite happy with one or two decent Can I post to Instagram during run- Hell on Wheels (2013). Filip Appl et al. character portraits. time? No. Unless it’s part of your design, Played in Czech Republic. no no no. When should my photo and video Panopticorp (2003). Irene Tanke, plans be communicated to the players? Do players really need to vet pictures Norway. Documentation from the 2013 Before sign-up. A quarter of respondents before they’re published? It’s a pain in re-run, produced by Claus Raasted/ reported they’d been photographed in- the ass, but it’s their face you’re using, and Rollespilsfabrikken in Denmark. game without knowing there would be you might not know what’s okay for them. cameras present. The same amount agreed It’s polite to do so. that we need photography policies as part of the sign-up process. But I want to do a larp where photography is part of the meta/ How many photographs do I need for rules/world! Of course! Most players documentation? I think there’s such (78%) would love to play something where a thing as too many photographs. If you photography works as a game mechanic. want to make a film, go make a film. If you want to make a larp, for goodness’ sake Photos and videos have the power to leave players alone and let them play. delight us, make our larps better, improve the scene and help us convince outsiders Should my photographers and video to take us seriously. Because of the nature crew be in- or off-game? Respondents of what we sometimes do together, photos slightly favour in-game, by a factor of and videos - and even just the act of taking about 20%. them - have the power to violate the trust we place in each other. Larp is not a public Can I photograph sensitive scenes? performance - 69% of you agreed with this Ask your players. Maybe agree that statement. It’s up to us to find ways to keep interrogations or sex scenes won’t be our hobby dangerous while we show it to photographed. Don’t assume everyone has the world. the same common sense. Players (60%) reported their immersion gets really interrupted by the presence of a camera in a tough scene.

76 77 Painting larp Using art terms for clarity

Jacob Nielsen The Knudepunkt 2015 Companion Book Nielsen: Painting larp

When I design scenarios, I try to use Style An example is the danish larp Uden Guds There are many styles of art out there, and the terminology from the Nordic larp Nåde from 2009. The important elements it’s not like I have definite answers. Some discourse. But many of thes styles The style of art depending on the artform. were lighted with stage lighting and the art styles can be compared with roleplaying “available” confuse me and my players As mentioned before, I will refer to visual rest of the game area was darkened when and can be useful to us - others can’t. instead of clarifying what the larps are art, but to make it even more concrete, I’m not in focus. actually about. referring to styles of paintings in this and Hopefully some of these art styles will the subsequent section. In cubism the artist describes an object or inspire us to make new kinds of larps, just One of the problems is that many styles scene from multiple perspective at once. like Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque are defined by what they are not, instead of The style is a way to frame the art. For invented Cubism. what they are. Because of this, I would like an artform as roleplaying the style makes Cubism roleplaying uses different to introduce a new way of thinking about the expression more understandable. To perspectives simultaneously that are later Genre larp terminology. The hope is to make my exemplify I’ll go through some painting combined so that each player gets an design choices clearer and open my mind styles. experience of several viewpoints. To round off, a few words on genre. In to new ways of designing larp. paintings the genre defines the theme of Naturalism and realism seem similar to An example is be the Danish freeform game the picture. It can be landscapes, portraits I chose terminology from visual art, many, but have their differences. Where Circus Without Boundaries from 2013. Here, etc. since that’s (also) about taking something realism tries to capture the reality as it is, the main mechanic is that each scene has intangible and turning it into something naturalism beautifies reality. It’s legal to one or more main characer(s) and several These are unaffiliated of the style or form. concrete. remove or add something from a naturalist supporting players. The main character(s) In roleplaying we normally use literary picture. This would be prohibited in can only talk, and must be moved around genres to describe the game. These are First we need to unmuddle the picture as realism. Also, realism usually focuses on by the supporting players as lifesize dolls. normally fine to use, but can give problems we know it today. This means that I will try the harsher aspects of life. regarding sandbox-games. The genre is to use only only the necessary terminology The physical position shows the thoughts often confused with style because its rarely that we know from roleplaying today. Realism in roleplaying consists of of the main characters where the dialog these are split in literature. In art we have simulations of reality. An example on a is what the characters actually are doing. seen both naturalist and cubist landscape In art we talk about form, media, style and scenario which tried to achieve this is the A scene could be that the main characters in a painting, but what about a cubist genre to define the work of art. These are danish larp U-359 from 2004. The larp are doing the dishes, and the supporting fantasy larp in roleplaying? the definitions I will go through and try took place in an actual (decommisioned) players change their positions so that one to convert into terminologies that can be submarine. Not only were historical of the main characters tries to strangle the What can you imagine? used for larp (and roleplaying in general). reproduction uniforms included in the other one. participants package, the organizers also Do it! Form and media clearly stated that the larp would be more Expressionism is about recognizable simulation than drama. feelings, and not reality. An artform is defined by its shape or artistic expression, which often is defined Naturalism in roleplaying focuses on the The larp White Dead from 2012 was by its media. good experience instead of the authenticity. designed for Black Box play. In the game the players are pioneers climbing Examples of different kinds of shapes A naturalist larp might be a historical a mountain, but the climb is too harsh, in visual art: painting, sculptures, crafts, depiction of a rural medieval village (like and they die one after each another until photography, film and architecture. the larp Brakowitz from 1998 did); but one nobody is left. The players can only make where everyone cared a bit more and where special mechanic movements that make Roleplaying doesn’t have shapes, but everything was a bit more rosy (unlike in it hard to move. They can only speak is defined by its artistic expressions of Brakowitz, where things were horrible). incomprehensible sounds, but when a interaction. At one end of the spectrum, character dies, the player shifts to playing we find tabletop RPGs, and at the other Impressionism in roleplaying is where the soul of the pioneer, and can now move we find larp. In the middle we find a lot of the simulation is comprised to make the freely and help the pioneers left to die. more or less recognized bastard children; important part of the game stand clear. Since there is no dialogue, the experience freeform, semi-larp, etc. and context is constructed in the heads of the players; in a very personal way.

80 81 Processing political larps Framing larp experiences with strong agendas

Kaisa Kangas The Knudepunkt 2015 Companion Book Kangas: Processing political larps

“Thanks to it I turned my communist According to Munthe-Kaas (2010), one One player brought up the feeling of not The game would still have been political, friend into a patriot. And I realized who player described the film as follows: being in control of her/his experience just in a different, rather frightening way. I really am.” This is how a respondent, anymore. Now imagine that the songs were not according to Mochocki (2012), described I was ready to cry watching it. I wanted to help direct translations from the Hitler Jugend the Polish tabletop role-playing game all those people. Because my character was that One aspect that made the game feel real songbook, but had similar themes. Imagine Dzikie Pola (“Wild Planes”) in an online way, only now the filter was gone, and it was me and intense was that we had Palestinian they were really written by the organizers. survey. The game was set in a period of wanting to help. players. Their presence served as a Imagine that the organizers had never Polish history dating to 1569 - 1795, and it reminder that the occupation really read the Hitler Jugend songbook and were apparently spawned a vibrant larp scene Munthe-Kaas writes: existed. After the game, many players unaware of any connections. dedicated to re-enactment. wanted to know which parts of the fiction Generally the ending was received very were based on reality and which were made Doesn’t the case of De tusen rosornas The era is referred to as the Sarmatian well and many participants afterwards up. Upon their request, I wrote a text that väg demonstrate that the Hitler Jugend period, and Mochocki appears to see it as a mentioned the film as a central part of clarified the connections and provided songs embodied something that is rather golden past central to all Polish culture. He their experience. On the other hand, references. We put it up on the website. commonplace in “harmless” fantasy? If gives the quote in a positive tone, to portray some participants found the ending to be According to some players, this greatly there had been elements that felt out of the “liminal quality” of the experience of manipulative and politically colored. helped the processing. place or disturbing, would the players have “sarmatization” that the players had when been so surprised after the game? living a nationalist construction in the A different example is provided byDe tusen Games without agenda? games and related activities. rosornas väg (2000) (“Road of the Thousand Thinking through the post-game discussion Roses”). It was a medieval fantasy larp It is sometimes argued that larps should When designing games, the organizers In larp, the asymmetric power relation about a war between two nations. On one not have a political agenda or that political should take into account that they can between the “authors” and the “audience” side, the players sang battle songs provided topics should be treated in a “neutral” affect player experience even after the seems to manifest more concretely than, by the organizers, which created a strong manner. However, every text is written and game, in particular if there is a strong say, in cinema. One (but by no means the patriotic feeling. At the end of the game, every larp is designed from some kind of connection to reality. Debrief is often only) difference is that film spectators the organizers revealed that the songs were a political perspective. Selecting a topic is viewed as part of the design. Maybe post- rarely discuss their experience with the in fact translated from the Hitler Jugend already a political choice. When something game discussions should be seen in similar directors. songbook and that many other aspects of is referred to as “neutral”, it is usually light, especially as online groups provide the game fiction were also adopted from because it reflects the default assumptions a means to continue collective processing However, the contact between organizers Nazi Germany. in the society. for an extended period of time. and players does not usually end when a larp does. Much of the “sarmatization” Apparently, some of the participants were There have been some larps about the Organizing larps is stressful. When described by Mochocki happened outside quite upset by the announcement. But Finnish civil war of 1918. To my knowledge, making Halat hisar, we did not give much the actual game events. Often larp many also said they had come to a whole the most recent one was Viena 1918 (2014) thought to what would happen beyond organizers have an active role in post-game new understanding of Nazi Germany. (“Viena Karelia 1918”). The head organizer, the afterparty. The game turned out more discussions, which can change the player (Englund, 2013, p. 44; see also Fatland, Mikko Heimola (2014) wrote that he intense than we had dared to hope, so we experience after the game. 2011) wanted to equally portray both parties of created a Facebook group for the players the conflict as farcical, oppressive, and to process their experience. The game was In System Danmarc (2005), a game set in a In both cases, revealing the connection stupid. However, this is a political choice an emotional experience for us organizers cyberpunk future, the players experienced to reality reframed the larp experience. as much as presenting one side as better as well, and in the beginning, I thought I living in a slum. At the end of the game, Perhaps the players felt that the fiction than the other would have been. could freely express myself in the group they were shown a documentary where they had collectively created was taken the same way the players did. real-life Danish prostitutes, drug addicts, away from them. We met a similar Games can be political even when they homeless people, researchers and social phenomenon with our game Halat hisar don’t seem to be. What if the organizers I quickly realized this was a mistake. As an workers talked about social exclusion and (2013). It was set in a fictional occupied of De tusen rosornas väg had never told the organizer, I was in a position of power and inequality. It turned out that there were Finland that mirrored real-world Palestine. players that the songs came from Hitler I could not discuss with the players on an people in Copenhagen already living the The players knew this beforehand, but Jugend, so that they would have been left equal footing. My posts were interpreted future dystopia. some of them were troubled by the way to believe the game was a harmless fantasy differently, and things I said could be seen the correspondence to reality was treated adventure? as attempts to reframe player experiences. in post-game discussions.

84 85 The Knudepunkt 2015 Companion Book Kangas: Processing political larps

Bibliography Ludography

Some players felt that participating in We made the choice to take the viewpoint Englund, T., 2013. Lajv, ett möjligt vertyg för De tusen rosornas väg, 2000, Boss, the game had forced a political agenda of the occupied because the oppressors konflikttransformation? Malmö University. E., Hjorter, J., & Jonsson, S. Sweden. on them in the eyes of the organizers and and the oppressed are not two equal sides. http://dspace.mah.se/bitstream/ Performance: Larp. other players. They felt that everyone in To present them so is to take the side of handle/2043/15868/lajv,%20ett%20 the group was assumed to be, in the words the stronger party, the oppressors. Some of m%F6jligt%20verktyg%20f%F6r%20 Halat hisar, 2013, AbdulKarim, F., Kangas, of one player, “a pro-Palestinian activist”. the members of the processing group were konflikttransformation.pdf?sequence=2 K., Mustafa, R., Pettersson, J., Pettersson, Palestinians who live their daily lives under [accessed Jan 10, 2015] M. & Rabah, M., Parkano: Pohjoismaisen Now that I read the posts again after a year occupation. Taking this into consideration, roolipelaamisen seura. Performance: Larp. of distance, I am almost surprised at how I feel that it would have been my Heimola, M., 2014. Viena 1918: Punaisia, http://nordicrpg.fi/piiritystila/ [accessed: little controversy there was. Nevertheless, responsibility to point out the real-world valkoisia ja purkmanneja Karjalan Jan 10, 2015] the discussions made me emotional at the power imbalance that we wished to tackle laulumailla. Loki. time. To correct my mistake, I decided by concentrating on the experience of the System Danmarc, 2005, Copenhagen: to refrain from commenting as best as I oppressed. http://loki.pelilauta.fi/?p=2139 [accessed Opus. Performance: Larp. could. Sometimes I did not even dare to Jan 10, 2015] “like” comments of others because I didn’t In summary, as a part of the design Viena 1918, 2014, Heimola, M. & al. Sipoo: want to steer the discussion. process, larp organizers should think Mochocki, M., 2012. Reliving Sarmatia. Harmaasudet. Performance: Larp. about how they will take part in post-game National Heritage Relived in the Polish However, trying to stay away from all discussions. A player debrief group is not Larp Scene. In States of Play. Nordic Larp http://www.helsinki.fi/~mheimola/ political discussion was a mistake, too. a debrief group for the organizers, who around the World. Helsinki: Pohjoismaisen viena1918/index.shtml [accessed: Jan 10, It’s a good idea to give the players space should be conscious about their positions roolipelaamisen seura. 2015] to think for themselves and not to flood of power. them with explanations and information. Munthe-Kaas, P., 2010. System Danmarc. Video sources But nothing happens in a void. There is a It is important to leave the players the Political Action Larp. In Nordic Larp. political context outside the online group, freedom to discuss the game content. Stockholm: Fëa Livia Fatland, E. 2011. Can Playing Games Teach and it, too, affects the discussion. However, real-world political context and Us About War. Nordic Larp Talks. the diversity of players should also be taken Pettersson, J. (editor), 2012. States of Play. Sometimes it is the organizers’ into account, and the organizers have the Nordic Larp around the World. Helsinki: http://nordiclarptalks.org/ responsibility to take a stand. For instance, responsibility to moderate when needed. Pohjoismaisen roolipelaamisen seura. post/16371904478/can-playing-games- some players criticized Halat hisar for teach-us-about-war [accessed Jan 10, 2015] being “one-sided”. Stenros, J. & Montola, M. (editors), 2010. Nordic Larp. Stockholm: Fëa Livia.

86 87 Safe words And how to use them

Nathan Hook The Knudepunkt 2015 Companion Book Hook: Safe Words

Introduction Awareness and surprise Normalised interaction and absolute limits

Many larps have adopted safe words, as a form Consider the following example diegetic For situations which need surprise, the To return to the previous example, an of meta-communication between players situation: As part of an interrogation scene, concept of normalised interaction comes in. absolute limit that ice would not be used in (rather than between characters). While in one character intends to throw a bucket of These are forms of interaction rendered torture scenes would give the victim player normal interaction it is sometimes possible cold water over another character. normal for the play space, agreed upon by an assurance this would not be case, which to read non-verbal clues of fear or distress, entering it. For example, a boxing ring has might therefore mean they decide not to the embodied nature of larp means there is In order to safe-word appropriately, the different normal interaction to everyday use a safe word. Alternatively an absolute no way to distinguish whether signs of fear receiving person needs to be aware of what life, and entering a match in that space limit might have been set that real water or discomfort comes from the character or is about to happen. If the interrogator indicates acceptance of those interactions. would not be used at all (the bucket being from the player, hence the need for a meta- threatens them with the act verbally or empty, off-game), with a meta-technique level of communication. makes a show of slowly moving the bucket By playing a larp with airsoft or foam that they should react as if the bucket is full. towards them where they can see it, this weapons, players consent to be hit with Exact words vary, but a two-level system is informs the character and player of what approved weapons in the approved way, It is possible to have more subtle absolute in widespread use in the Nordic countries: is about to happen. If the interrogator including by surprise; while safe words limits that can vary within the play space. surprises them from behind with the still apply, telegraphing is not required. To use a real example from Dragonbane, Brake is an indication that play is on or bucket of water, then they have not had Such actions are within the normalised fighting with wooden practice swords is near someone’s limits. Play can continue the opportunity to safe-word. interaction of the larp. beyond the absolute limits of a boffer larp. without openly stepping out of character, However, if a character freely enters into but should not get more intense, should This telegraphing process is an important As part of defining normal interaction, a duel where it’s clear such weapons are progress slowly or move in a different part of the meta-communication, yet can there should also be defined absolute limits. being used, their player accepts the new direction. For example, if used in an usually be carried out via in-game acts. These are distinct from individual player’s normalised interaction. interrogation scene, the interrogator might Like all communication, it is not perfect personal limits, being something forbidden switch to a different approach, or decide – a receiving player may be distracted and even if consented to within the play space. Actual use of safe words to let the prisoner dwell on their situation. not notice what the interrogator felt was a clear indication, or may have assumed the This may be because of being regarded Safe words are generally not used as often Cut is an indication to immediately break water would be at least room temperature as beyond the limits of bystanders and as they should be. Reasons for this might character and resolve the situation. Play and not cooled with ice. However, as long potential witnesses, even if all directly include: might be restarted once the situation has as play escalates gradually, the player of involved consent. For example, many been resolved. the victim can at least prevent further British larps do not allow nudity. Absolute - Using a safe word is breaking character, escalation even if the cold water was limits can also cover mention of certain and in the case of a Cut, stops play British larps have traditionally had a single- slightly more ‘hardcore’ than the player topics. For example, the British festival completely. This goes against the core level safe word of Man Down. While not was expecting. larp The Gathering bans mention of arson premise of many larp traditions (but not explicitly limited, this is usually explained and god(s). scene-based play). as being a way to stop physical action to In a scene where the in-game balance of handle possible injuries. power is more equal, one clear and viable Defining and communicating the normal - A desire to be seen as ‘hardcore,’ and a form of telegraphing is to reverse the active interaction and absolute limits should wider player culture that glorifies being There has been increasing recognition in party: one character invites or tells the be part of the larp design. While it is ‘hardcore;’ a fear of being thought of recent years that there are issues with the other person to perform the action, which impossible to cover all interactions, as weak, ‘boring,’ or being stigmatised use of safe words. This article will discuss ensures their awareness. To use a simple covering the expected ones that are likely for safe-wording. Related to this, the these issues and possible approaches to example, offering a hand for a handshake in the setting/ premise (e.g. a court intrigue perception of blame being attached to address them. invites the other person to shake hands, larp will have different likely interactions someone for creating play that resulted making physical contact. Again this not a to a prison larp) is normally sufficient, in the use of a safe word can deter a certain means of communication; a player and gives general guidance for other person from using it. from a non-contact larp tradition may do eventualities. so expecting a non-contact representation - Being caught up in the experience. of a handshake. For example, if someone has a phobia triggered, the condition may prevent the clarity of thought to use a safe word.

90 91 The Knudepunkt 2015 Companion Book Hook: Safe Words

One practical problem with safe words is - A meta-communication word that - Explicitly practice using safe words in The longer-term issue of when to resume a failure of others to hear them in some invites (but does not require) others to pre-game workshops. Like other meta- play needs to be considered, but is situations, such as with loud music or when escalate a scene. This helps normalise techniques, this can feel false using it situation dependent and beyond the scope wearing masks. the use of meta-communication words; out of context, but it may still be worth of this article. After using a meta-word to escalate a doing. It has been argued that harm has already scene, it may be easier to use another Summary been done when a safe word is used. This is meta-word to brake a scene. Post safe word a flawed position because: The crucial point to take away is that - An ‘are you ok?’ meta-communication Some thought should be given to what stating what safe words are in a pre-game - A player may successfully use a safe word pair of words (or repeated word) that happens when a cut word is actually used; briefing is not itself sufficient. Some points before the harm is caused (e.g. before checks if another player is ok. This comparable to having an accident plan in to reflect on: the water bucket is thrown). might be used if a character displays a case of an injury. fit, seizure or panic attack, to establish if - Consider how best to present safe word - Even if this is the case, the safe word it is in-game or off-game. This empowers Firstly, make sure to stop play. Have techniques. prevents further harm. another player to initiate the meta- everyone who hears the safe word repeat communication. it to make sure it is heard. Anyone - Consider what variants can be used to - When dealing with potential trauma, it is sufficiently far away to still not hear it better support their use. important how the situation is handled in - Avoid glorifying being ‘hardcore’ in the can be considered sufficiently removed the short-term afterwards, to shape how wider discourse around larp. Be clear from the situation to continue play. This - Define the normalised interactions and the experience is processed into a life that placing one’s own limits at a certain increases the chances everyone hears it absolute limits. narrative. A safe word which allows the position is simply different, not better and makes the act of safe-wording feel like situation to be well handled can make the or worse. Stress this narrative when a group act rather than individual act. - Avoid in general discourse both difference between a ‘briefly unpleasant’ discussing such topics. glorifying ‘hardcore’ play and assigning experience and a ‘traumatic’ experience. Secondly, make the situation safe. The blame or guilt to scenes that involve safe - Avoid any notion of blame or guilt person who safe-worded has the option to words. Some possible approaches to being attached to the use of safe words: explain what prompted it. Even if play has address these issues: neither to those that use safe words, stopped, the cause (e.g. a phobia trigger or - Have a post-safe-word plan. nor to the other players whose play led allergen) may still need to be dealt with. - One rule of thumb to convey in briefing to them being used. Feeling that blame There is no obligation to do so if they don’t is the principle: ‘if you are thinking that or guilt will be assigned to either party want to explain their reason. Depending on maybe you will need to safe word, the discourages players from using safe the context, a brief general check for health answer is already yes.’ words and from having the confidence & safety issues (e.g. trip hazards, fire risks) to test their limits. in the area can also be sensible at this point. - If the larp includes scene cuts or ‘fade to black,’ make it clear anyone can call - Avoid imprisonment/restraint situations, Thirdly, congratulations. This makes it this when they feel appropriate. Cutting unless an essential part of play. This clear the player was right to safe-word; a scene in this way is effectively a more gives players the option to simply leave doing so shows all involved are playing discreet version of using a cut safe word, as their characters, as an alternative with material personally strong for them, but can be positioned as being done for to using a safe word. For example, two and doing so responsibly. Immediate drama. characters discussing a certain topic praise is a good way to encourage use of might be distressing for a third player safe words in the future. In a large group - The use of a ‘double tap’ or ‘double even if not directed at them. The player scene this might take the form of applause, squeeze’ as an alternative way to convey of the third character might be reluctant in a smaller scene this might be a simple a brake. This overcomes the loud noise to safe-word, but can simply move away. handshake and verbal praise. The organiser problem. It also allows one person to very should lead on this and invite others to discretely convey a brake to one other; - Planting a pre-arranged situation where follow. some people may be more confident to a respected player uses a safe word, safe word this way rather than speaking to demonstrate it and establish it as ‘Safe word scenes’ should thus be framed in out loud, especially in front of a crowd. normalised interaction for players. a positive light.

92 93 Steering For Immersion in Five Nordic larps A new understanding of eläytyminen

Mike Pohjola The Knudepunkt 2015 Companion Book Pohjola: Steering For Immersion in Five Nordic larps

The concept of character immersion I’ve heard this feeling is called “Saturnine After a few hours the students were This was just the sort of emotional hook has been a cornerstone of Nordic larp melancholy”, as in melancholy related to released. Neither Saraste nor the I was hoping to find by re-reading the discussion for fifteen years. I was surprised time; from the Roman time god Saturn conspirator students had said anything. character description. It provided the by how much the concept of steering who eats his own son. The immersion was mostly to the lengthy alone time with the perfect inner introduced last year brought to my situation of being in a damp cellar, being monologue. Severi stared out the window, understanding of character immersion Scenes like the one in The Thirteenth interrogated, trying not to be found out. thinking about what to do. On the one (“eläytyminen”). In this essay I look at five Warrior, where the vikings going to battle Exciting, but not exactly cathartic. hand, this, on the other hand, that... specific experiences with steering towards recite: “Lo there do I see the line of my immersion, some successful, some not. people, back to the beginning. Lo, they do Saraste was moved to the attic and left And then the in-game radio started playing call me, they bid me take my place among alone to ponder upon his actions. a sad wizarding jazz song downstairs. Severi More specifically, I have usually tried them.” could just hear the melodramatic tone, and to steer towards immersing in cathartic After a while of sitting alone in the attic, I then the tears came. After I had enough of emotional experiences experiences Or the wedding scene in Fiddle on the Roof, noticed my thoughts started to drift away crying, Severi demanded to see the Aurors through my character. Most often this where they sing Sunrise, Sunset: “Is this from the larp, into matters of real-life work, again. has come through experiencing Saturnine the little girl I carried? / Is this the little family, art, food, and so on. I was running melancholy. boy at play? / I don’t remember growing out of inner monologue for my character! I “I wish to change my statement.” older. / When did they?” had to steer my larp ship out of these low “In what way?” The chacter immersion definition I work shoals into the high seas of immersion! But “I want to confess.” with here is this one: Why I am particularly prone to Saturnine I had no chart. melancholy is perhaps a topic for another After that the game took a whole new “Immersion is the player assuming the identity essay. But I have experienced it enough I pulled out my Finnish-style lengthy direction for myself and for many other of the character by pretending to believe their times to know to steer for it. character description detailing Severi’s players, including the Aurors and the other identity only consists of the diegetic roles.” childhood, contacts, plots, background, conspirators. (Pohjola, 2004) Käpälämäki X – Kesäyö dilemmas, tasks, everything. I figured I would have hours to sit alone, so I read it I had not planned for this in any way, and In The Art of Steering (2015, Montola, Saitta, The Käpälämäki series is a Harry Potter with care. neither had the character writer Lissu Stenros), which is in this volume, steering larp series set at the uncanonical Finnish Ervasti. But by chance, steering, and is defined like like this: magic school Käpälämäki. I attended the “Severi only has two choices, neither of which character immersion, I received the full tenth episode. are appealing: he can leave the pureblood Aristotelian experience. First, an insoluble Steering is the process in which a player extremists and gain freedom but lose everything dilemma (act one), getting into trouble influences the behavior of her character for non- My character was Severi Saraste, a else, or continue as before, and remain a prisoner because of it (act two), then a recognition diegetic reasons. bureaucrat from a well known family of of his community.” of some inner truth (anagnorisis), and a dark magic users. He wanted nothing to complete turn of direction (peripeteia), That is, out-of-character motivations do with his family, but knew his job and But wait... Was he actually offered a third resulting in an outcome that at first would guide the character in some direction. In connections depended on them. choice now? Come clean to the Aurors, have seemed impossible (act three). (See my case, the out-of-character motivation is and rat out his whole family? They would also Pohjola, 2003) that of delving deeper in the character, and Severi’s job in the larp was to be part of a go to prison and have no power over Severi guiding the character towards experiencing Ministry envoy overseeing the Käpälämäki Saraste or his career anymore. But did The immersive experience would have strong emotions. school and to make sure the Pureblood Severi have it in him? been just as strong without the turning kids in the school had everything they point, but in this case it happened to serve Saturnine melancholy needed. as fuel for more game content.

When watching movies, I’m most typically During the course of the larp, Severi and moved to tears when the scene deals with some students were imprisoned by Aurors generations passing, time moving on, sons (magic police) because of their ties to a becoming fathers, mothers becoming secret cabal of pureblood extremists. grandmothers, hints of new babies eventually becoming unrecognized names on graves.

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Monitor Celestra

Monitor Celestra was a big Swedish larp set In this case we were given a forum, and The plot model Brute Force Larp Design What was left was more like an amusement in the world of the reimagined TV series told to develop inter-character relations is discussed in the article The Blockbuster park, and I started steering in that direction Battlestar Galactica. The larp was set in the there. Fine. Formula (2015, Fatland & Montola). to get some enjoyment out of it. time of the pilot episode, where almost all mankind has just been destroyed by I fleshed out my character by giving him a The game was divided into four acts, with It worked like this: Dr. Pavel Albert went the Cylon machines. Only a handful of wife and family on one of the planets that a break between each. Sometimes the to a location, event or person (such as spaceships survived and formed a fleet, was destroyed. I made Dr. Pavel Albert a break was short, at other times we would the AI lab, the bridge, the mutiny, the which included both the military museum long-haired hippie with a California drawl leave the location for the hostel. There was murder, the Presidential Aide, or the Cylon ship Galactica, political ship Colonial One, in his speech to very clearly mark him a always a time leap for the characters. Fine. prisoner), and interacted with everyone as and the research vessel Celestra. civilian and thus contrast him further with But the dramatic structure that works for much as possible. the military personnel I knew would be television, does not always work for larps: I played the surgeon on board the Celestra, manning the Celestra at some point. the big information with the potential When the situation had exhausted its Dr. P. Albert. (The larp was played three emotional impact (“Earth exists!”) was dramatic potential, he went to a new times, and all characters were non- I decided P. Albert had worked on the always delivered at the very end of the location. This was most apparent when gendered. I named myself Pavel.) Celestra to pay his med school loans, but act. Meaning that we never got to play interacting with GM-played supporting was now almost done with it, and would characters reacting to them. characters, such as the Cylon prisoner. The written character mostly consisted get to return to Tauron next week. And I Eventually dialogue with the prisoner of group briefs, like “Cultural Affiliation: developed some low-key relationships with Similar problems prevented focus on the started to repeat itself, like talking to non- Tauron,” “Group: Celestra Crew,” other players, but unfortunately nothing “everyone you knew is dead” aspect of the player characters in a video game. “Subgroup: Medical Staff,” and “Other that would become truly essential in the setting. Affiliations: Cylon larp. And, assuming this was a sandbox These emergency steering maneuvers Sympathizers.” type larp, I decided the character would There were plots elements in the larp, eventually lead to meaningful, emotional try to take over the ship from the eventual too. Is the ship controlled by the original content, too, as Dr. Albert, the Presidential Before the group briefs I had a small military occupation, if push came to shove. civilian crew or the military visitors? What Aide (played in a wonderfully enabling chapter summarizing my character as a side is the Presidential representative on? manner by Christopher Sandberg), and a Cylon loving doctor. Then at the bottom of Like the “Cylon loving doctor” description, Does Celestra contact the Cylon ship few others started hatching a plan to steal the description this “Cylon loving doctor” all of these, too, became void in the course or the refugee ship? Do we have Cylons a shuttle and flee from Celestra together. idea was extrapolated and imbued with of the larp. I ended up having to do a lot onboard? playing directions, and out-of-character of impromptu steering in order to get duties (such as determining the severity of something out of the larp. I do not know how well these “main plots” wounds and illnesses). worked in other runs of the larp, but in The aftermath of humanity being destroyed the second one that I attended, the whole The “Cylon loving doctor” might seem like would have been perfect material for system was unfortunately broken (see a fun character to play, but in the actual character immersion, and even Saturnine also The Blockbuster Formula). A bunch of larp, the understandable lack of cylons and melancholy: I am the last member of my players who had contributed to the larp via limited space for medical practice made this family. My wife has just died. My parents crowdfunding and made the whole thing almost irrelevant. So I was left with very had died. 99.99+ % of humanity has died. possible were promised a “special plot,” little of the pre-made material being useful. But during the course of the game (as of which turned out to be that they were all the TV pilot), we would be given new hope members of a secret spy organization. We were told to flesh out the characters of a secret thirteenth colony of mankind: ourselves, as is quite often the case in Earth. Their characters were then divided into Swedish and Danish larps. In Finnish larps various groups in high positions, meaning the larp design is communicated mostly Unfortunately most of this emotional they essentially controlled most of the through the characters, so the “make your potential was made void by the heavy main plots. During the course of the larp own character” style seems strange even emphasis on action plots, and the breaks I realized it was not built like the sandbox for me after a decade and a half of larping in the game. I expected, and the main plots seemed abroad. strangely impenetrable.

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Halat hisar

Halat hisar was set in an alternate reality The big turning point, and cause of Had I chosen the right path? Would we Some time after the Black Box scene we where the Palestinian situation had emotional turmoil for Tuomas Kallo was avenge Marie? Would we hold a vigil for held a small memorial event for Marie. happened in Finland. The fictional Ugric a student demonstration against the UDF her? Should I be more radical? What would We raised the Finnish flag, sung some sad people had been given parts of Finland, soldiers. I took the megaphone and lead my father have done, had he not been songs about how we join our ancestors and had conquered even more. All Finns the group in singing nationalist songs. killed by UDF soldiers? Perfect Saturnine in Heaven and one day, we, too, will fade lived under occupation in “East Bank” Some people yelled slogans, others threw melancholic material for emotional from memory. That was what finally made (corresponding to West Bank) or the Åland stones. immersion. Tuomas Kallo (and me) cry. Islands (corresponding to Gaza Strip). It was played in Parkano in November The other megaphone was held by a fellow But then I, the player, remembered 15–17, 2013, and organized by a Palestinian- candidate, the Socialist Marie Isola (played something! This larp used the Black Box Finnish team. by Jamie MacDonald). She was the de facto technique, and I had decided to try that. I leader of the demonstration, and got into imagined the emotional potential triggered The larp was set at the Finnish University a shouting match with one of the soldiers. by Marie’s death would be prime material of Helsinki, in divided Helsinki. My for Black Boxing, so I took the wheel, character Tuomas Kallo, described as Things got aggressive, and the UDF soldier made a quick U turn, and walked the stairs “The Conflicted Realist,” was running shot Marie. down to the Black Box room. for the head of the student council as one of the Social Democratic Liberation Somebody called the ambulance, which Unfortunately the Black Box was taken. Party (“Fatah”) candidates. Other parties drove towards the demonstration, but was Many players had scenes to play with were the Party of Christ (“Hamas”), Pan- held by the soldiers at the road block, and Marie: flashback, dreams, “what could Nordic Liberation Front, and the Socialist then forbidden to get close to the bleeding have beens”, and so on. Marie’s player Resistance Front. student. When the medical professionals would soon play something else, so all this eventually got to Marie, she was already had to be done now. Mohamad Rabah, the My dramatic function was explained in the dead. After the larp we found out this was Game Master in charge of the Black Box, character description: “You represent the all pre-written by the organizers. asked me to wait. establishment, and through you, maybe the radical roots of today’s ruling party can Marie’s death was such a blow that it This called for complex steering: I had to be seen.” In this reading I was essentially effectively ended the demonstration. hold on to the emotional potential but not a younger, Finnish version of Mahmoud We went back to the university building, tap into it. To do this, I walked around the Abbas, the President of the Palestinian everyone full of emotions: sadness, shock, building trying to avoid any contact with Authority. bitterness, anger, fear... others who might inflict me with dialogue or plots that would dilute the emotional Early on in the larp soldiers from the Ugric I was ready to let the emotions wash over potential. Defense Forces occupied the university me. It was time to steer towards Saturnine and placed it under curfew. Students and melancholy! Eventually I made it to the Black Box and faculty were arrested, interrogated and played a dream sequence where Mohamad tortured. During the larp rumors started For that, I found the perfect Turku-style played Tuomas Kallo’s father. After plenty spreading that my character was somehow location for solitary immersion: a lookout of “What would you do, dad?” and “My son, in league with the UDF, perhaps giving tower with a very small room on the top, and you already know what you have to do” we them information. It was impossible in every direction windows to the blackness concluded the scene. I found it difficult to to refute such accusations, but they that is Finnish November. There was even fully utilize the emotional potential I had essentially cost Tuomas Kallo the election one chair there. Just one, as if it was designed come in with, perhaps because I lacked and some friendships. for being alone. Perhaps it was. mechanisms for steering Mohamad, or because Mohamad had some other aim I stared out the window into the dramatic with the Black Box scene. darkness, seeing soldiers marching on the campus. How horrible...

100 101 The Knudepunkt 2015 Companion Book Pohjola: Steering For Immersion in Five Nordic larps

KoiKoi

KoiKoi was a larp about stone-age hunter- I listened to stories, performed in At times during the larp I felt not as my gatherers played in Norway on July 1 – 5, stories, and told stories of my own. As a character but only as myself as a hunter- 2014. The larp was played in numerous professional writer coming up with stories gatherer. Then I tried to figure out a more Scandinavian languages, and us Finns is something I enjoy doing, and I am complex personality or back-story for my played strangers from a neighboring tribe quite experienced at it. Unfortunately I character. Maybe I was a spy from the who had become humans, that is, members ended up steering too much into coming strange tribe who was examining this tribe of this tribe. My character Duskregn was a up with stories for others to hear, instead for weaknesses to exploit. loincloth-wearing warrior married into the of steering for getting everything out of Bear Family. whatever situation I was in. One of the designers of KoiKoi, Eirik Fatland, has spoken about how Aragorn The larp was only a little about any Most of the time I didn’t realize this was a in the Prancing Pony would be a horrible single character’s individual dilemmas problem, until after the larp. But after the character, since he would have no and dramas, and quite a lot about the MinnsRit where we remembered the dead, connection to any of the other characters, society going about its business. Children and everybody told stories about their or the plots amongst the other visitors. But becoming men, women and nuk, young loved ones, I was disappointed to not have he would have an inner monologue Fatland men and women traded to other families really felt it. parodizes as to bear new children, and the old dying and being remembered. It should have been a All the elements were there: generations “I am Aragorn, I am so cool. I am Aragorn, I am perfect opportunity for some Saturnine passing, everyone having lost their loved so cool...” (Fatland, 2014). melancholy, but somehow I never got ones, us becoming aware of our mortality there. and of the fact that others will eventually An inner monologue of that kind would take our place and tell stories of us. We have been preferable to having no inner All the instances of transformation were even had a few ancestors (nuks with masks) monologue at all. ritualized, which made perfect sense for watching us. It should have been a cry-fest the larp and could easily have added to for me, but it was not. For me KoiKoi was a very powerful the atmosphere. So we had a ManRit for experience and an excellent larp, but in this children becoming men, a KvinnRit for During the MinnsRit I spent too much sense a failure in steering for emotional children becoming women, a NukRit for brain-power on trying to come up with a immersion. children becoming nuk, a DödsRit for old story to tell. I was a recent addition to the people dying, a MinnsRit for remembering AnKoi, but maybe I’d killed one of them those who had died after the previous earlier when I was still a Stranger. That KoiKoi meeting, and several family rites might be a powerful, emotional twist. But for leaving one family and joining another. who, and how? And why did they only Some families even had washing rites and die now? Or are there actually too many such. stories, and it’s getting kind of boring, and it takes too long to get through the Between all those rituals and the getting mandatory memories without me adding ready for them, the content of my larp new ones? was mostly about hanging with my family, sleeping with people from other families, What I should have done is steer for and dancing and telling stories in the big experiencing this full on, seeing us in the tent-like house. millennial line of people coming there to hear memories, share memories, and In a modern-day larp I would have brought become memories. It is possible that a book for my character to read during due to my character’s outsider and barely downtime. In this case, the storytelling developed past, I lacked points in which to took that part. attach such emotions.

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College of Wizardry Bibliography

College of Wizardry was a Danish-Polish When the immediate conflict was resolved And maybe his mother Miranda would Fatland, Eirik Fatland & Montola, larp played November 13 – 16, 2014, at the Auror took Bane to a private location, have been there on the balcony with Bane Markus (2015): The Blockbuster Formula. Czocha Castle in Poland. The larp was set and explained what had happened. watching him. Which would never happen. Published elsewhere in this book. at a magic university in Harry Potter world, almost twenty years after the books. “Professor Bane, your wife didn’t die naturally. I cried in and off for an hour about this, Montola, Markus, Saitta, Eleanor & She was killed.” first looking down at the ceremony, then Stenros, Jaakko (2015): The Att of Steering. I played Bombastus Bane, Professor of afterwards when a student witch took Published elsewhere in this book. Dark Arts. Defence Against the Dark Arts, ”By whom?” Bane aside and he poured his heart out to I mean. Essentially the Snape of Czocha. ”By your son Vladimir.” her. Pohjola, Mike (2003): Give me Jesus or give The professor characters were more or less me Death! Published in panclou #7, 2003. created by the players themselves, but the Horrible news for Bane, but great material Even though the larp College of Wizardry http://mikepohjola.com/turku/jesus.html organizers were quick to react to our ideas for emotional immersion! He was very itself was far from tragic or sad, it provided about contacts and plots. distraught, but didn’t cry his heart out, yet. the backdrop for a great experience of Pohjola, Mike (2004): Autonomous cathartic Saturnine melancholy. Identities – Immersion as a Tool For Bane’s whole family (mother, father, wife) What finally broke Bane’s heart (and Exploring, Empowering and Emancipating had been in the wizard prison Azkaban mine) was the Sorting Ceremony on the Conclusion Identities. Published in Beyond Role and since the war portrayed in the books. evening of that day. Looking at all the new Play, 2004, ed. Jaakko Stenros and Markus Bane’s wife had been pregnant at the time juniors walking to their houses, and being Steering is a very useful way for a player Montola. of imprisonment, and had given birth to cheered, Bane suddenly realised Vladimir to analyze their behavior after the larp. By their son Vladimir in prison. Vladimir was nineteen, and this year he would have understanding the idea behind steering, Ludography had grown up in Azkaban surrounded by been a junior. the player can also realize when they are Dementors and criminals. doing it during the larp, and it can make it Käpälämäki X – Kesäyö (2012): Nurmonen, My thoughts briefly touched on this idea steering easier, and more fruitful. Helinä, et al. Finland. Friday at lunch Bane received a letter while observing the Sorting. It immediately informing him that his wife had passed triggered a strong, sad emotion. The kind Steering does not need to happen in The Monitor Celestra (2013): Alternaliv AB, away at Azkaban. I realized this is prime of emotion one normally steers away from speech or actions, it can also happen inside with Bardo AB and Berättelsefrämjandet, material for heavy emotions washing over in real life. But a larp is a safe space for the player, guiding for more interesting with a team of 85 people. Gothenburg, me, and immediately steered towards this. experiencing them, so I steered right into thoughts. Sweden. www.celestra-larp.com I left the dining room for the Dark Forest it. One never knows what one finds when in order to wallow in these emotions alone. exploring these subconscious emotional I have given five examples of trying to steer Halat hisar (2013): AbdulKarim, Fatima, Very Turku School. While I was in the triggers, but in this case, my larp ship towards emotional experiences within Kangas, Kaisa, Mustafa, Riad, Pettersson, Dark Forest, I realized the playing style crashed into an island of gold! character immersion. Some of them were Juhana, Pettersson, Maria & Rabah, of this larp would actually benefit from successful, some not: and in the case of Mohamad. Palestine, Finland. me making this as public as possible, and I started thinking that if Vladimir hadn’t Celestra, I had to abandon that goal mid- decided to make a steering turnabout. grown up in Azkaban he would have been game, and steer for something else. Koi Koi (2014): Fatland, Eirik; Edland, Tor sorted into House Faust, and Bane would Kjetil; Raaum, Margrete; et al. Norway. I returned to the dining hall to attack the have been so proud. Or sorted into some Only the two last larps mentioned Auror Bane assumed to be responsible other house, and Bane would have had (KoiKoi and College of Wizardry) happened College of Wizardry (2014): Bo Nielsen, for killing his wife. The private emotion petty arguments with his son. after the introduction of the concept Charles, Dembinski, Dracan, Raasted, became a public spectacle. Essentially this of steering. The concept allowed me to Claus, et al. Poland. meant that I suppressed the emotional And Vladimir would be so excited about all better understand even the larps I had potential in the death of Bane’s wife, and those student crushes and initiation rituals played before it: but in the case of College Videography created a dramatic scene instead. A scene, and all the ordinary life of the nineteen- of Wizardry, I remember actively thinking which would later on bring more emotional year-old wizard. Which would never about steering as I was doing it. Fatland, Eirik (2014): What is a Playable potential to be explored. happen. Character? Video, 07:30-09:40. https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQe9Oxf6Iss

104 105 The Art of Steering Bringing the Player and the Character Back Together

Markus Montola, Jaakko Stenros & Eleanor Saitta The Knudepunkt 2015 Companion Book Montola, Stenros & Saitta: The Art of Steering

The rhetorics of Nordic larp often imply We define steering as follows: By definition, steering is always intentional. It is also important to note that steering is that roleplayers play in an intuitive fashion Thus, you can never steer by accident, and something one does to one’s own character. guided by the character, rarely or never Steering is the process in which a player it requires conscious choice and effort. The There is by definition no such thing contemplating their actions during the influences the behavior of her character for non- behavior in the above example would not as ‘steering others’. However, through game. In reality, however, we are often diegetic reasons. have counted as steering if the player was steering her own character, the player can keenly aware of what we are doing as our just deeply focused in the romantic affair also change the way others are playing and characters and why. This paper explores the In other words, while the player’s character and would have never considered the effect influence the direction of the larp asa practice of making in-character decisions is an entity within a game world, the on the larger game before deserting her whole. Indeed, that is often the goal. based on off-game reasons – also known as behavior of a steering player is motivated post. Instead, she consciously evaluated steering. by reasons outside the game world. To the impact of her actions, and then acted Dual Consciousness manage this contradiction, steering players towards deepening the romance. This can In discussions about roleplaying, there is a almost always attempt to maintain the happen quickly and semi-consciously so We believe that knowing how to steer tendency to treat the character as an entity semblance of coherence in their character’s that the player can stay in the emotional properly is one of the most important separate from the player. While we need behavior. flow that inspired the choice – but it is still player skills. some kind of separation to understand a marked moment the player can identify the contextual difference of killing an orc Specifically, players attempt to ensure that afterwards. Of course, we do steering Since steering breaks down the division and adjusting a name-tag, this separation characters maintain the outward appearance decisions so often and so quickly that we between the player and the character and also obscures some important processes of coherence for the character’s actions, often forget about them before the larp is exposes the moment-to-moment reality of of roleplaying. As the participants in a from the perspective of other characters over. play, it is a useful tool in taking a brutally larp enact their characters, the choices first and other players second. In other honest look at what happens in the they make as characters are not always words, a player who is steering strives to Steering can be used to create good or bad practice of larp. driven by diegetic (in-game) motivation. maintain the illusion that the actions of play. Usually such definitions depend on The rhetorics of immersion, character her character make sense as a whole. the play culture and the overall dynamics Most of the time during larp runtime, and coherence would have us believe that of the game: In a gamist aesthetic, playing players have the dual consciousness of looking characters in roleplaying games, at least Whenever possible, players also attempt to win can be seen as acceptable, while in at the event both as diegetic, and as non- when played by “good” roleplayers, do not to maintain the internal coherence of their games focusing on a play to lose aesthetic, diegetic, as play and as non-play. This dual let extra-diegetic motivation invade the understanding of the character. In the above the players are expected to steer towards consciousness, or bisociation, informs most game world. example of the vampire player looking for failure. Steering can even be immoral or of their actions. It is an important part a restroom, the player undoubtedly fails to unethical, for example if a player uses her of playing and games; standing with one In the actual practice of roleplaying preserve internal coherence, but she still character as a pretense for stalking another foot within the border of play and another however, player motivations seep into the seeks to maintain the outward appearance player. outside it can not only be powerful, but game constantly. The player of a tyrant of coherence for other players. also instructive. might choose to play in a more benevolent Not all character actions result from style when interacting with beginners, Steering is often subtle and nuanced. As an steering – only those actions intended to Viewing something both as play and as or a vampire character might leave an example, the player of a prison guard might guide the character to a specific effect for non-play not only teaches the viewer interesting scene because the player needs be considering whether her character reasons that exist outside of the character’s about the thing she is looking at, but to find the restroom. These are basic should pursue a love interest or fulfil her conception of the world. At a minimum, about the overall structure. This helps in examples of steering, of doing things in a character’s guard duties. In deciding that we consider the reflexes and unconscious understanding the socially constructed game due to the player’s reasons – rather pursuing the love interest will make for a reactions of the player as external to nature of reality as a whole, but specifically than the character’s. better game, she subtly decides to heed the steering. An example of the difficulty of it helps in understanding how a game pull of the romantic interest more strongly, establishing a line between steering and functions. This competence at reading While the idea of steering complicates maintaining her internal coherence while not-steering is player attraction toward situations on multiple levels is a skill that some ideals of what players ‘should’ do, actually influencing her play based on a other players: If a character’s choice to can be developed in play and applied when we consider it a critical player skill in most non-diegetic decision on how to generate pursue a romance is influenced by the steering. larps. We hope that by naming it, we can better play. desire of the player it could be seen as provide players with a useful tool to discuss steering – but only if the player is aware of their craft. this.

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There is nothing mysterious about this It has been compared to ideas such as flow Steering Examples process. It simply means that a player (Hopeametsä 2008) and wilful suspension of is able to see at the same time both the disbelief (Pohjola 2004). cheerful friend who gave her a lift to the Practical larp wearing old army surplus clothes, In the Manifesto of the Turku School, Mike and the frightful commander of the Pohjola (2000) argued that character Physical needs. Food, sleep, warmth, etc. space station her character could never immersion should be seen as the ideal Looking for someone. Searching for another player to play a scene or to get the car keys. approach. Both of these things are true at aesthetic of the larp. But with an ideology Documentation. Posing for or avoiding a camera. Filming in characer. the same time. Recognizing the difference that forbids dual consciousness comes Logistics. Entering hostile territory because that is where the toilet is. between the diegetic and the non-diegetic some baggage – it prohibits steering: Physical safety. Not running in the pitch-black forest even when your pursuers do. is the difference roleplaying is built upon. However, that separation is not actual, but Smooth Play Sometimes it might be fun to do something that rather one made in interpretation. is not in strict accordance with the character, but Coherence. Preserving the external coherence, even at the expense of your internal coherence. – unless the GM has specifically asked you to do The idea that one realm, the non-diegetic, Legibility. Overplaying emotions to make sure they are conveyed to other players. so – THAT IS FORBIDDEN. is allowed to influence the other realm, the Gamemastering and fateplay. Pushing the game towards some direction as required by larp design. diegetic, may seem wrong, even immoral. Retrospective rationalization. Smoothing over the plot holes of earlier bad steering. (Pohjola 2000.) Indeed, the idea of steering may seem like Post-hoc player vetting. Mitigating the perceived damage to the game caused by a ‘bad’ player. anathema to roleplaying. Is not the key The psychological idealism focused on Theme. Accepting that vampires are real in two minutes. tenet of roleplaying the idea of portraying immersion has faded since the turn of a fictional being in a fictional setting – the millennium. It is now commonly Aesthetic Ideals without the petty motivations a player acknowledged in the Nordic larp discourse may have outside roleplaying? Yet steering that even when player’s focus is on her Narrativism and dramatism. Making a better story for yourself or others. is not a bad or an undesirable thing to do. character she still does not become the Gamism. Winning conflicts, gathering power. In fact, many players steer almost all the character. The idea that someone could Immersionism. Avoiding heavy game mechanics that might detract from character immersion. time when they are playing. The diegetic use character immersion as a moral Bleed. Seeking maximally intense emotional impact. world of fantasy never maps completely on justification for punching another player 360° illusion. Avoiding the sight of the parking lot in fantasy games. the physical world, nor does the body of in the face would universally be found Play to lose. Sharing secrets loudly for eavesdroppers to hear them. the player completely become that of the ridiculous. character. The draw of larp is that it is not- Personal Experience real and that it feels real. But even as full character immersion has been found impossible, this rhetoric of Boredom. Looking for stuff to do. Picking up fights. Steering and Immersionism has persisted. Staying in game. Not leaving the haunted mansion even when two people are dead. playing true to the character The dogma of character fidelity can be Relevance. Getting closer to the perceived core of the game, or seeking more agency. The concept of steering – and the criticism seen whenever players discuss whether it Overcoming disabling design. Deciding that your character wants to become a revolutionary only after you realize that most characters only talk to revolutionaries. of motivations originating with the player – is realistic that the king fell in love with emerge from a tradition that values the peasant girl, or whether it was credible Avoiding the same-old. Not rebelling against the tyrant in two games in a row. character as an ideal. Immersion is perhaps that mortal enemies joined forces in order Attraction. Getting to play with skilled or cool players. immersion most frequently defined as moments when to win the war against orcs. Player status. Doing things likely to increase one’s status as a player. player forgets herself – when the dual Shame. Not wanting to do or to be seen doing certain things, even as a character. consciousness of simultaneously being However, as the player cannot psychologically transform into her Ethical and Unethical a player and a character fades away and player only focuses on being her character. character, the problem of Pohjola’s This experience has been characterized, statement is that it is impossible to Consent. Observing a slow-down safeword such as “yellow” or “brems”. for example, as the determine which actions are in “strict Trust. Creating a safe situation in which to play demanding scenes. player pretending to that she is her character (Pohjola accordance with the character”. Even as a Inclusiveness. Including characters that have nothing to do at that moment. believe 2004) and as the everyday self player, one can determine several credible Harassment. Using the larp to stalk another player. bracketing (Fine 1983). courses of action for almost any situation Revenge. Killing your character because you killed mine in an earlier game. the character can be in.

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This uncertainty and ambiguity about Or, as Pohjola (2011, see also his paper in Explicit steering instructions have been a Although the top brass was expected what would be fitting for a character is this book) wrote himself years later: part of the tradition of Nordic larps at least to steer the most, Celestra explicitly what makes steering possible. If there was since the emergence of fateplay (see Fatland encouraged following the philosophy always one right choice for a character to Whenever we see interesting developments that 2005), a style of making larps where players of play to lose, which basically expects make, steering would be meaningless. It will enhance our story, our experience and our are given some instructions on how to everyone to steer in the larp. The following is this very uncertainty that is the site for character immersion, we have to jump at the behave in certain situations – the character play instruction was given under the steering – the minute choices a character chance to engage with them. Otherwise we’re not Claudius, for example, was fated to die in heading “Rules” in the briefing materials: makes. Steering is rarely about making doing anyone any favors. In a larp you should the larp Hamlet (2002). major life choices and often about pushing be your own game master and help your own You are expected to play to lose, prettily. In a a discussion gently in a new direction. character immersion by building a better game More recently, larps such as The Monitor game where experiencing the journey is the for yourself. Celestra (2013) have introduced the idea of whole point, winning is moronic. Losing, on the Indeed, the skill in question is not entirely having large amounts of characters with other hand, is dramatic and cool since it puts a dissimilar to the skills one needs when The reason why the idea of steering is pervasive and persistent steering duties. spin on the story and contributes to emotional steering conversation away from difficult sometimes seen to be at odds with The In the Celestra, which featured strict naval impact. topics in an everyday social situation like Manifesto of the Turku School is probably and military hierarchies, higher-ranking a polite chat with colleagues over coffee. historical. It was written at a time when officers were expected to generate play (The Monitor Celestra Briefing.) When you understand that you have a player motivations were seen to be for their subordinates. For example, the potentially inappropriate joke that is influencing Finnish roleplaying too much. commanding officer of the Colonial Navy These games have established a new perfect for the situation, you still decide was instructed as follows: steering norm along the ones such as whether or not to tell it. Sometimes that Although it was a response to Dogma 99 gamism, dramatism, immersionism and decision may be done very quickly, subtly, (Fatland & Winård 1999), it was actually As the Major in charge, your foremost duty bleed: In these games, players are expected or half-unconsciously. directed against gamism (steering to win), is to act as a gamemaster for bridge and CIC to steer in order to play to lose. This anti- dramatism (steering to create interesting personnel, generating interesting play and gamist stance can arguably contribute The strict reading of immersionism scenes and stories), and bad roleplaying putting flavor into the tasks of running the ship to many other play aesthetics, as it “puts presented above appears to be (for example, steering on the expense of [...] Always keep in mind that your job isn’t to be a spin on the story” for dramatists and incompatible with the idea of steering. coherence). an effective Major, but to be a good player/game “contributes to emotional impact” for However, contemporary immersionists do master, and enable interesting action for others. immersionists and bleedhunters. not argue that character immersion is an The idea of steering shows how rare overwhelming and persistent state. Rather, moments of real immersion and flow are. (Character material, The Monitor Celestra.) Obligatory and Heavy Steering it is seen as an aesthetic ideal and a goal to By lifting the dogmatic ways of talking strive for when playing. about the play experience tinted with the While all players had similar duties, the Sometimes it is every larper’s obligation to idea of immersion, it helps account for higher the character was in a hierarchy, the steer. Barring some unusual arrangement, From this perspective, we actually argue many of the actions a player takes during stronger the expectation of steering was. roleplayers share an almost universal that some amount of steering is even a runtime. By shifting emphasis from the This was of course a practical solution: By implicit obligation to steer for coherence. requirement for immersionist play. The ideals of playing to the actual practice having the Major to steer hard the game Different game styles have different immersionist player seeks to ignore and it illuminates what we really do while masters could alter the course of the entire conceptions of what coherence is, yet forget the fact she is larping while doing so. roleplaying. larp, as she could use her diegetic authority internal logic of some kind is valued in all This wilful suspension of disbelief requires to impact the game for all her subordinates, larp cultures. the player to maintain internal coherence Designing for Steering shielding them from the need to steer. of her character: It might be hard to forget In some roleplaying games, especially yourself and become a medieval queen The idea that larps contain characters This mechanic worked rather well for larger larps with less-tightly organized if you are standing on the balcony with that are there to direct the play is as old members of those hierarchies, especially plots, what would be seen as a significant the clear view to the parking lot. Getting as larping itself. This is what the non- compared to older and more selfish coherence conflict in another game may a powerful immersionist experience of player characters and other gamemaster playstyles (see Fatland & Montola in this be glossed over by all players concerned committing a tragic suicide is more likely controlled actors have been doing since book for a detailed discussion). as they acknowledge tacitly that a conflict if you consciously choose to commit one. the beginning of larping (cf. Stenros 2013). has occurred by choosing not to fix it, as it However, player characters have done this would require too much work on the part since the beginning as well – even if it was of disparate groups of players. not always directly discussed.

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In other games, often smaller or more In the end the issue was solved twice In order to repair the disruption created Conclusion tightly plotted, it would be seen as a serious in the game – once very rapidly due to by heavy steering, players sometimes problem for such a breach of coherence to game master pressure and again by some engage in retroactive rationalization, Sensitivity to other players – knowing occur to start with, requiring either heavy characters not being aware of the first time wherein they decide on the thus far when and how to steer – is a key player steering by all parties to fix immediately – and only then were all the characters able unvoiced rationale for choices they have skill. A considerate player can create play or possibly (in some play cultures) a break to move on. No equifinal understanding on already made to maintain the appearance for others, pace drama, include others of play so the ‘truth’ of the situation can what actually happened can be produced. of coherence. For instance, a player who players, support beginners, and avoid be decided directly by the players off- forgot their character’s sidearm may later hogging plots and secrets. A good larper game. Usually, when coherence cannot be When characters are forced to steer hard, it steer, deciding that their character was steers in a nuanced way that is invisible achieved by steering, the next solution is causes wider ripples in the play. Specifically, feeling especially secure that morning, and to other players and does not damage the to ignore the problem; to steer play away one player steering hard may leave another thought they would not need it. coherence of play. Steering is not a bad from the mess. player confused about the steerer’s thing to do in a game, and most of us steer character’s identity, her relationship with If the player discovers that this will much of the time while we are playing. Two examples can help clarify this. In long- the second player’s character, or the events cause a coherence problem with other running campaigns the character arcs can of the larp. This is sometimes unavoidable, players expectations, they may engage in Just like good steering contributes to become increasingly improbable. Like in especially when a player is forced to steer in retroactive rationalization retconning – if they the game, refusal to steer can detract soap operas and superhero comics, certain a character-breaking way. This is a specific have not already told the other players, from it. If one player does not steer, her ancient acts may be de-emphasized by kind of game incoherence associated with they can changing their prior retroactive fellow players may be forced to steer even those character’s players. steering that many players, especially rationalization. In this example, the harder to sustain the game. It is not rare heavily immersionist players, may consider player might decide that instead of being to encounter a selfish player in a larp In larps this works particularly well, as unacceptable. supremely confident, their sidearm was with a preference to avoid steering who no one can go back in time three years actually stolen, allowing them to integrate expects other players to accommodate her to check and nitpick what actually and Steering can be characterized as character- with a game mood of suspicion and playstyle. The other players may end up specifically happened. In larps that use breaking steering when the player cannot paranoia. steering hard to maintain play and allow them, mechanics like experience points maintain her internal sense of coherence. her to preserve the immersive flow instead can also shift balances between masters For example, if the player is executing a The roleplay agreement (Sihvonen 1997), the of caring about the overall game. and apprentices or parents and children, game master directive that is important social contract that participants treat the if players put in different amounts of play for the larger plot of a game but finds player and the character as separate entities Steering is a skill and not all players time. their character has moved away from the and refrain from making judgement about are good at it. Steering coherently and gamemasters’ expectations of who they one based on the other, is a cornerstone reliably requires thinking and performing Another example comes from the second would be when the instructions were of roleplaying. Without it establishing simultaneously on two, three, or more run of The Monitor Celestra, where at one originally specified, they will need to steer trust amongst players to also engage in levels while maintaining an accurate model point the key to the hyperdrive was stolen, their character to ensure they fulfill their anti-social behaviors, like playing a villain, of both the perceptions of both other and a dozen characters got involved in obligations to the game, but will do so can be hard. The concept of steering does characters and their players. recovering it from the characters who used knowing that this action does not make not obliterate the roleplay agreement. it as leverage in a negotiation. Problems sense for the character. However, it needs to be modified; the Players holding on to an ideal of playing arose because the game organizers held separation need not be between player entirely without dual consciousness may that no such key existed, as some player Likewise, a player may realize part-way and character, but diegesis and non-play. even argue that the expectation of steering had improvised it up. As the characters through a game that they have played Indeed, it is the character that acts as an ruins their game. Steering is perceived by raced to solve the issue the gamemasters themselves into a corner, and if they wish alibi for steering. The player can choose some players as distancing them from their ignored it; as far as they were concerned, to continue playing or return to the main what she wants to do or what best fits the character. In part, the degree of distance this plot did not exist. plot of the game, they will have to simply larp, and as long as it somehow makes sense perceived may relate to how quickly reinvent part of their character. While to in relation to the facts of the character players are able to slip between different The game masters could still not solve be character-breaking, this shift need only thus far established, it is acceptable. levels of play. the problem simply by issuing a decree, be incoherent to the player, when done because too many characters were involved poorly (or under extreme circumstances) with the key. it will often result in the character also appearing incoherent to other players.

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It is not necessarily the case that more Fatland, E. & Wingård, L. (1999): The intense emotional experiences require Dogma 99 Manifesto, referred from Gade, less movement between levels of player M., Thorup, L. & Sander, M. (eds.): As Larp consideration, but this appears to be true Grows Up - Theory and Methods for Larp. for some players. Some players and some game contracts may consider steering to be Fine, G. A. (1983): Shared Fantasy. Role- cheating, as in those contexts, only diegetic Playing Games as Social Worlds. University concerns are considered to be acceptable of Chicago Press, Chicago. as motivations for player choices. We believe that such contracts are often self- Hopeametsä, H. (2008): 24 Hours in deceptive, and that acknowledgement of a Bomb Shelter: Player, Character and the role of steering in play is critical to Immersion in Ground Zero, in Montola, designing for character immersion in the M. & Stenros, J. (eds.): Playground Worlds. context of a coherent, functional game. Creating and Evaluating Experiences of Role-Playing. Acknowledgements Koestler, A. (1964): The Act of Creation. We would especially want to thank Juhana Hutchinson & co, London. Pettersson as well as other organizers and participants of Larpwriters’ Winter Retreat 2014. Montola, M. (2012): On the Edge of the Magic Circle. Understanding Role- Ludography Playing and Pervasive Games. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Tampere. Hamlet (2002): Martin Ericsson, Christopher Sandberg, Anna Eriksson, Pohjola, M. (2000): The Manifesto of the Steering is the process in which a player influences the Martin Brodén, with a large team. Turku School, in Gade, M., Thorup, L. & behavior of her character for non-diegetic reasons. Interaktiva Uppsättningar and riksteatern Sander, M. (eds.) (2003): As Larp Grows Up JAM. Stockholm, Sweden. - Theory and Methods for Larp.

The Monitor Celestra (2013): Alternaliv AB, Pohjola, M. (2004): Autonomous Identities. with Bardo AB and Berättelsefrämjandet, Immersion as a Tool for Exploring, with a team of 85 people. Gothenburg, Empowering and Emancipating Identities, Sweden. www.celestra-larp.com in Montola, M. & Stenros, J. (eds.): Beyond Role and Play. Tools, Toys and Theory for References Harnessing the Imagination.

Dansey, N., Stevens, B. & Eglin, R. (2009): Pohjola, M. (2011): You’re in Charge of You, Contextually-Ambiguous Pervasive in Raasted, C. (ed): Talk Larp. Games: An Exploratory Study, Breaking New Ground: Innovation in Games, Stenros, J. (2013): Between Game Play, Practice and Theory. Proceedings Facilitation and Performance: Interactive of DiGRA 2009. Sept 1-4, 2009, West Actors and Non-Player Characters in London, United Kingdom. Larps. International Journal of Role- Playing, No 4, 78-95. Fatland, E. (2005): Incentives as Tools of Larp Dramaturgy, in Bøckman, P. & Sihvonen, T. (1997): Pieni johdatus live- Hutchison, R. (eds.): Dissecting Larp: roolipelaamisen psykologiaan, in Vainio, Collected Papers for Knutepunkt 2005. N. (ed.): Larppaajan käsikirja. Suomen live- Knutepunkt, Oslo. roolipelaajat, Tampere.

116 The Blockbuster Formula Brute Force Design in The Monitor Celestra and College of Wizardry

Eirik Fatland & Markus Montola The Knudepunkt 2015 Companion Book Fatland & Montola: The Blockbuster Formula

2013 and 2014 may be remembered as the Brute Force Design Rather than the less is more approach To make things more interesting, though, conception of the Nordic blockbuster larp. common in the last decade of Nordic larp the brute designer will rarely settle for just Two ambitious larps – The Monitor Celestra Before the progressive Nordic tradition of design, the brute designer will embrace one power hierarchy. Instead, games are in Sweden and College of Wizardry in Poland larp, there was brute force design. Nobody, quantity over quality and insist that, in built around the contested relationships – succeeded in attracting an unprecedented of course, called it that – they called fact, more is more. The results of that are of multiple groups. The simplest possible level of international attention from it “organizing larp”. We are proposing unpredictable and chaotic, but seldom collision is between two hierarchies media and players. They did so, in part, this name retroactively to describe an boring. Some of the conflicts and puzzles pursuing mutually exclusive goals: both the by advertising their inspiration from approach to designing larps that we often might be completely forgotten, while orcs and the elves are looking for the ring established fictional worlds with large fan encountered in our own scenes the 90s, others command centre-stage. The larp of power, but only one side can have it. followings (Battlestar Galactica and Harry and still recognize in many of the larps exemplified above might end in a battle Potter respectively), and by the choice of produced in other traditions. of four armies, the discovery of an ancient More complex collisions happen when spectacular and eye-grabbing locations: treasure, an elvish civil war, or all of these characters are given allegiance to more a naval destroyer turned spaceship, and a At a typical brute force larp, designers at the same time. than one hierarchy (i.e. both family and castle made into a wizarding college. will use a plethora of techniques to drive close friends), or when some allegiances conflict and mystery, such as: In addition to the philosophy of more are secret and aim to subvert the visible Both productions were created by large is more, a typical brute force design hierarchy. teams: Celestra boasted a team of 85 people, - Characters are split into groups with combines the diegetic social structure of while College of Wizardry had a team of conflicting agendas (orcs want to kill elves) colliding power hierarchies, and the dramatic These collisions serve to furnish the 20 organizers and helpers, plus 33 NPC structure built around discovery of hidden larp with conflict, but they also provide players. Although they were partially run by - There are subgroups inside groups (the narrative, with the assumption that players characters with dramatic choices: to serve professional larpmakers, they were both non- elvish general wants to attack head-first will play to win. country or ideology, friend or family. profit games1. A ticket to College of Wizardry to show bravery, while the king favors a cost €180 and a ticket to Celestra twice as stealthy approach) Colliding Power Hierarchies Discovery of Hidden Narrative much, but they both provided players with room and board, as well as some costuming, - There are power hierarchies (the general In a power hierarchy, the higher ranks have Brute force designs will usually distribute yielding good value for money. The 32-hour commands the officers who command the right to command the lower ranks, and clues and puzzle pieces throughout the Celestra was run three times for a total of 389 the soldiers) expect their orders – within limits – to game, but they aim to be more than simple players, with plans for remakes. College of be followed. Power hierarchies are overt: treasure hunts. The clues spread through Wizardry, capitalizing on the success of the - There are secrets, which players can everyone knows who the boss is. Both these character backgrounds and introduced initial 138-player run, sold out tickets to the discover, hoard, and trade (the general is features distinguish power hierarchies by NPCs will often combine to reveal 2015 re-run in minutes. a traitor plotting to kill the king) from more subtle status hierarchies typically backstory, the diegetic myths of the past ignored by brute force designers, which that preceded the larp, and that often However, this is not a story about - There are puzzles that can be solved describe who is socially dominant, who is impart important further clues on how to production. Neither massive production (assemble a torn-up treasure map) allocated more attention, and whose voice win it; for example, by revealing the true teams, enthusiastic players, nor spectacular is more respected. motivations of other characters. Buried locations are by themselves enough to - Runtime game mastering is conducted items combine to form game-changing create a successful larp. This is a story by triggering events, introducing surprises, Power hierarchies make for easy weapons, or devices that reveal even more about the design model the Celestra team and inserting messenger characters (an roleplaying. Neither the givers nor of the backstory. happened upon in their effort to produce NPC scout enters the tent of the king, receivers of orders should be in any doubt a large larp on a rushed schedule – a informing that a horde of undead is as to how to perform their character’s In this way, the larp designer tries to model that mixed recent innovations from approaching the camp) social role. They also come with clear fit the players’ experiences into a larger experimental and progressive Nordic larps affordances for dramatic tension: the diegetic narrative, one that began long back into the tried-and-true approach we The key characteristic of brute force isn’t potential for rebellion is implicit in every before the larp, and which is meant to give will call brute force design. This is a story that it uses any one of the techniques tyranny, and every weak leader invites the unfolding of the larp meaning in the of how that model was further refined at in this list, but that it uses a lot of them intrigue for succession. context of that larger narrative. College of Wizardry, and about how these simultaneously. larps may even set the new norm in how to create action-packed fast-paced larp entertainment for mature audiences.

_____ 120 [1] While none of the CoW organizers got paid for their efforts, some Celestra organizers got a small payment. 121 [2] As many participants of the spectacular art festival / forgettable larp Futuredrome (2002) are probably aware. The Knudepunkt 2015 Companion Book Fatland & Montola: The Blockbuster Formula

Playing to Win

The structures of colliding hierarchies It is also resilient against mistakes; a As mentioned, playing to win often leads These newer arthaus larps have emphasized and puzzle - solving implicitly invite malfunctioning plot will be overtaken by players to sacrifice character coherence relationships over conflict, implicit status participants to play to win. After all, outside a functional one. Finally, the sheer amount when encountering strategic choices. over explicit power, life in the trenches of roleplaying, puzzles are usually meant of content – more is more – usually leaves Increasing the number of plots further over the adrenaline of the battlefield. to be solved and games about conflict are each player with plenty of options for what fragments the experience: the fisherman’s They have evolved techniques such as usually played for the thrill and challenge to do next. wife no longer has a function when the larp workshopping, blackbox scenes and inner of seeking victory. turns to battle against the orcs. monologues to broaden the expression and The key word, though, is “usually”: the to help players develop characters deeper. When the brute designer can assume chaos of brute force design provides no When overrun by a competing plot train, that players will try to reach their goals guarantees – of anything. And implicit in the player will need to reinterpret their Some have surrounded their players with within a limited set of strategic choices, the model are also a number of dangers. character as someone different, someone a fully immersive 360° illusion (Koljonen their behaviour becomes comparatively who actually has a role to play in the plot. 2007) made of impeccable physical easy to give direction: the designer only First of all, players in a brute force larp Brute force larps, while they often yield representations and simulated access to needs to dictate goals and rewards for easily get overrun by a plot train. Secretly memorable scenes, also generate moments outside world, while others have done away each individual or group, thereby defining digging for treasure in the forest? Too bad. of frustration as players need to internally with physical illusion entirely and used what constitutes “winning” for them, The elves just attacked, and the forest is renegotiate their characters while steering3 empty rooms with stage lights, symbolic and manage their resources and strategic the battleground. Adrenaline-pumped and around plots and colliding allegiances. props and non-diegetic music. alternatives. ready to fight the final battle? Players do not always accept such Surveying the state of the Nordic larp Playing to win, which is the core of gamism A pity; the generals just declared a truce compromises. At any given brute force larp discourse at 2012, it appears that brute (see Kim 1998), usually requires the players in order to to pursue the hunt for hidden of the 1990s, you would find individuals who force had fallen entirely out of fashion in to compromise between roleplay and treasure. The emergent narrative of one approached the larp with other ideals than this progressive scene. gameplay. A player may try to achieve a group can easily disable the play of another playing to win, culminating in manifestoes coherent and true-to-genre portrayal of group; crisis and conflict in particular such as Dogma 99 (Fatland & Wingård Brute Force in The Monitor their character, complete with personal trump subtler themes. 1999) and the Manifesto of the Turku School Celestra flaws that would hinder the character in (Pohjola 2000) that confronted gamist play conflicts of the larp. But the moment With power hierarchies comes the risk of from different perspectives. The Monitor Celestra was a larp set in the the player faces a strategically important plot monopolization: the characters at the world of Battlestar Galactica. It was played decision, those flaws and attitudes are top, if they play their cards strategically and Dogma 99 prohibited backstory, secrecy, on the Halland-class destroyer HMS often discarded in order to achieve victory. sensibly, tend to sniff out and take control main plots, main characters and Småland, built in 1951. The game was of the business of their underlings. Plot “superficial” action – in other words: created around the vision of playing space Ups and Downs of Brute Force for the underlings is tricky to begin with: hidden narrative and colliding hierarchies. drama within a beautiful self-enclosed two kings are easier to write than twenty The Turku Manifesto insisted that players environment of 360° illusion in the spirit of Playing to win is the default expectation soldiers, and the designer’s attention – should approach roleplaying with no the classic Swedish larps Carolus Rex (1999) of most people approaching a game, while biased by a lifetime of exposure to film and other goal than to immerse in character, and Hamlet (2002). power hierarchies make for the clearest literature – is often attracted to the former. dispensing with goals such as playing to possible social roles and relationships, and win, and implied that a coherent and self- The organizers went to great lengths the existence of secret hierarchies and With the atmosphere of secrecy that consistent simulation, free of narrative turning the museum ship into a solvable puzzles match Hollywood genres hidden narrative and potential traitors direction, should be the goal of larp decommissioned Monitor-class vessel such as the murder mystery, the spy story, tend to produce, the monopolized plots designers. commandeered for military use in the and the supernatural thriller. For this tend to become opaque, known only to aftermath of the fall of the Twelve Colonies reason, brute force larps tend to be easy to leaders and their trusted advisors. At their Subsequent innovations in the Nordic of Kobol. Most notably, the larp featured a play and require little explanation. worst, brute force designs provide great larp discourse have served to emphasize, system of control terminals for navigating entertainment for the handful of players facilitate, and focus on those other ideals, through the galaxy, communicating with The brute force approach easily brings with high-ranking characters, at the from perfectly coherent simulation to other vessels, and fighting space battles. about a string of great scenes and powerful expense of all the other players. faithfulness to the genre and narrative arcs. moments for the players.

_____ 122 [3] See The Art of Steering by Montola, Stenros & Saitta in this book. 123 The Knudepunkt 2015 Companion Book Fatland & Montola: The Blockbuster Formula

During the first act, the Celestra found Playing to Lose Breaking Up Plot Monopoly herself stranded in deep space, separated – perhaps irrevocably – from the remainder Most importantly, the Celestra team In addition to asking that participants Being in charge of the comms terminal of humanity, pursued by the vast firepower subverted the brute force tradition by play to lose, Celestra featured widespread meant that the messenger could withhold of the enemy Cylons, with onboard society insisting that all participants play to lose. player duties4. The scientist characters were or sell crucial information, and the deeply fractured. The players were instructed in detail on instructed to share secrets late in the game engineers in the reactor could shut off how to avoid winning the larp, and were for dramatic impact, or to introduce other power to other parts of the ship at a whim. At the first glance, theCelestra design bears obliged to follow that instruction: in fact characters to HoloBand equipment used Even when they chose to obey orders to resemblance to a typical brute force larp. The Monitor Celestra Briefing document to create diegetic black box scenes in the the letter, these characters were exercising Celestra featured at least a dozen colliding distributed to players proclaimed that style of the Caprica TV series. agency. power hierarchies ranging from Colonial “playing to win is for asshats anyway”. Navy to the civilian crew of the vessel, Civilian journalists were instructed to In terms of play experience, though, not from the Vergis corporation to organized Although Celestra may have been the first gather information, to keep everyone all errands are equal. Especially in the first crime factions. The larp was set in the Nordic larp to explicitly tell players to play posted, and to activate civilians by run, some players noticed that tasks such immediate aftermath of the destruction to lose, the idea goes back at least to Keith providing them with news to play on. as standing guard alone made for poor play of human civilization, so which of these Johnstone’s (1979) work on improvisational Corporate middle management had experience. hierarchies would command the allegiance theatre. At previous Nordic larps focused player duties to keep the game dynamic of any one character was anyone’s guess. on oppression or tragedy, such as Hamlet, by repeatedly gaining the trust of one of Playing a leader in this kind of an the necessity of playing to lose did not the factions and then switching sides or environment and guiding the experience The game masters had prepared surprises, need to be articulated: these larps did staging coups. of subordinates is akin to game mastering such as Cylon infiltrators, and occasionally not make any sense if approached with a without the overview that the actual game brought in non-player characters to stir the gamist mentality. Most of the player duties served to break masters enjoy: highly dependent not just on pot. There were hidden narratives to be up plot monopolies and emphasized player skillset but also on the information discovered by piecing together clues and Celestra also subverted gamism at its holy playing to lose: to have characters reveal provided by the organizers. In the second asking NPCs the right questions. of holies, with gun rules emphasizing secrets they strategically should have kept run leaders were instructed to make people responsibility and drama over fairness and to themselves, to involve and inform others always work in pairs. For example, the players could figure out challenge: of their agendas and back story. the origin story of the three Cylon models, Especially after this change, the players determining whether they were friend A gun controls a room until another gun is pulled. While in a typical brute force larp, power at the bottom of the hierarchy had better or enemy, and learn to understand the [...] The rule is simple: they get what they want, hierarchies end up serving the players on experiences of Celestra than the players left holographic ghosts that haunted the ship. whereupon the gun is holstered or otherwise the top, Celestra sought to make them entirely outside one: It was much better to Clearly, the philosophy of more is more removed from play. It’s the responsibility of the serve the players at the bottom. The tops play a crewman in the engine room than a was at work. whole room involved to play up the lethality of the hierarchies received extensive player refugee without a place. of the situation [...] When the gun wielder has duties, encouraging them to funnel plot However, The Monitor Celestra added gotten what she wanted, it is her responsibility downwards in the hierarchy and make several elements to the concoction. While to get the gun out of play – by running away choices leading to better roleplay, rather not all design choices worked out equally (good luck with that), holstering the gun, than making strategically smart decisions. well, we can discern a new model of larp dropping it and surrendering, or stand down in design in the combination of the ones that some other way [...] You can never stop someone Being a cog in the machine provides the did. brandishing a gun from getting what she wants, player with a social role and game content, except by pulling another gun. The second gun even when it means running errands or While these additions were mostly tried- now trumps the first. monitoring a comms terminal. By building and-true design solutions, the way they fit an elaborate 360° illusion, with technology together and complemented each other (The Monitor Celestra Briefing.) simulating a fully functional spaceship, was new and unique, with the potential to such tasks could be set up to give improve significantly on the brute force nominally bottom-tier characters agency design model. and relevance.

_____ 124 [4] In Celestra they were called “out of character duties”, but we chose to simplify the expression. 125 The Knudepunkt 2015 Companion Book Fatland & Montola: The Blockbuster Formula

The Power of Established World The Celestra Model and The While these extremes are both unusual While recognizing this, we think it is Material Monitor Celestra outcomes of a larp, they are not equally important to recognize that Celestra contradictory: a larp design may work is celebrated as a major achievement In brute force games, players sometimes Celestra went a long way in reworking brute differently for different players, depending and life-changing event by many players. have an incoherent understanding of how force design. By using established world on many factors such as the character they That many of its production and design to behave in the game. This pertains to material and slicing the larp into acts play, their personal preferences in larp choices, such as the unsurpassed quality things such as acting style (should every with clear purpose, player confusion was design, their personal preparation and so of organizer-provided costuming or the sentence uttered by elf queens sound like reduced and the risk of plot trains going on. interaction with mysterious phantoms, a fateful prophecy) and to diegetic culture stray was lowered. By asking participants to were executed perfectly. And that by (how should an elf scout salute his queen). play to lose and distributing player duties, The players celebrating the larp, who are daring to innovate on such a large scale, the tendency towards plot monopolization in the majority, will remember it as an The Monitor Celestra set the stage for future Being based on two television shows, could be counteracted. important milestone in Nordic larp history larps that could iron out the kinks in its Celestra got both the acting style and the – in terms of costuming, scenography, groundbreaking approach. diegetic culture almost for free – very few A thorough and technology-assisted 360° gameplay, technology and design – and changes were made to the established illusion made the world more coherent, as an action-packed, adventurous and Robust Adventure in College world material, so everyone could have gave agency to the lower rungs of the emotional journey in an interactive 360° of Wizardry an equal understanding on how the world hierarchies, and made the Celestra a environment. worked. Both players and designers drew spectacular aesthetic journey. College of Wizardry was a larp inspired by on the characteristic narrative patterns of However, the critical voices are also clear. the Harry Potter fiction, played in the 13th Galactica, such as the ever-present conflict In short, this was the secret sauce of The Some of the worst experiences were had century Czocha castle in southwestern between civilian and military leadership. Monitor Celestra: by players who attended the first run, Poland. The game ran uninterrupted for and were caused by errors that were fixed 52 hours, portraying the first days of the Another way of controlling players’ Brute force + play to lose + player duties + – in part due to constructive feedback school year at the Czocha College of stylistic choices is through employing an act structure + 360° illusion + established from those players – for the second run. Witchcraft and Wizardry. The game was a act structure. An act structure, inspired by world material. But there were also negative experiences combination of school routines (teaching theatrical storytelling, divides a larp into reported at the second and third runs. classes, pranking other Houses to lose temporal chunks with explicitly different We’ll call this The Celestra model, although points, snitching about pranksters) and play style instructions and even conflict it should be noted that this is the model The impressive complexity of the design, adventure (sneaking around the basement, rules. Act structures and player duties have we, as critics and participants, discern in with dependencies between collapsing fighting Death Eaters, handing out been used in some form in Nordic larps the functional and mutually dependent hierarchies, individuals, and computer detention for such activities), culminating since the late 90s, but Celestra may have parts of the design. For example, some systems, made the game very fragile. For in a grand opening ball. been the first to combine these with brute techniques employed in Celestra have been example, in the first run the seemingly force design elements. intentionally omitted: the larp featured minor problem of a lack of an instruction In the spirit of the 360° illusion, the Czocha phantom players, diegetic blackbox scenes manual for the systems – one document castle served as a perfect environment for The four acts took the game from and verbally roleplayed Viper battles, amongst hundreds – had game-ruining this game: not only is Zamek Czocha a fully collaboration against the common Cylon which were not essential to the overall consequences for many players. furnished castle, but it is also a remarkably enemy to space exploration, internal structure discussed in here. Thus it is not Potteresque one: it features a cellar for conflict, and finally the critical moments necessarily the model conceived of by the In the second run of the game, it was Potions classes, a tower for Divination, that would decide the fates of the Celestra design team. very hard for players to distinguish fact a dungeon for Defence Against the Dark and everyone inside. In the fashion of the from fiction in the rumour mill going on Arts, and large dining halls for common 2002 larp Hamlet, player characters could How did it work? Amongst the Celestra inside the game, and solidly determine dinners. It even comes with secret passages only die in the last act – and indeed, the participants we find those who, two years whether Cylons had actually infected the hidden behind bookshelves and panels. To conflicts inside the ship escalated steadily after the event, cherish the time spent onboard computers or not. Replicating the perfect the illusion, the organizers handed so that characters dropped like flies in the on the Småland as the greatest cultural clockwork operation of a full battleship out robes and ties that were the required final hours. experience of their life. But we also find with complicated social roles, social parts of the school uniform, while the players who left in rage and frustration groupings and spatial designs was an players brought in loads of small props, long before the game had ended, and are amazing experience when it worked, but such as notebooks, trinkets, and wands still certain that was the right decision6. it was highly vulnerable to the disruptive with LEDs to light the tunnels. chaos of a brute force design. _____ [6] Eirik Fatland played a Vergis corporation scientist, Markus Montola played the faction leader of the Colonial 126 Navy. Due to the complexity of the larp, these vantage points only covered a fraction of the game: As Montola 127 headed one hierarchy and Fatland was subject to another, the experience of not being a part of one remains underrepresented in this text. Both authors played in the second run of the game. The Knudepunkt 2015 Companion Book Fatland & Montola: The Blockbuster Formula

Even with no physical combat, CoW was a The academic schedule was a perfect This allowed the organizers to max out While in Celestra most characters belonged larp for all senses, where you actually drank example of a design element that was hard player agency: players were explicitly to power hierarchies, in College of Wizardry, wine with frat boys in the common room, to break. No matter what kind of a student instructed that changes pertaining to every player character was a part of them. actually wrote an essay with a faux quill, or professor your character was, for most diegetic facts were allowed even while the In that sense, the equation was very simple and actually sneaked quietly in order to of the time the school schedule answered game was running. The message was clear: as the game only featured three kinds of avoid janitors after curfew7. the question of what to do in the game. you traveled all the way to Czocha for a 52- player characters: students, professors, and hour larp; if it doesn’t work for you, change a very few members of the janitorial staff10. According to Claus Raasted, the figurehead Lectures, meals, and club meetings would it. And if you can’t change it yourself, the Even the characters who did not belong of College of Wizardry, some of the design largely proceed no matter what else happened. game masters will help you. to secret societies or student Houses were was directly inspired by The Monitor Good work catching that Azkaban escapee, a part of the broader school hierarchy. Celestra: ten points for your House, now attend your The hard to break principle also showed up This structure largely eliminated the Divination class before you lose them. The in other areas of the game. As staff players outsider caste, giving everyone a part in The school setting made it especially easy to academic schedule interwoven with an were given player duties, if perhaps not as the community. Indeed, according to the utilize this [kind of design]. Teacher/student act structure provided both game content explicitly as in Celestra, the students were evaluation survey it appears that College interaction, house rivalries, bloodline conflicts, and an arc of escalation and de-escalation, liberated to do whatever they liked, as the of Wizardry worked best for the students, former school cliques, junior/sophomore/senior which worked well as a broader framework carefully cast professors would eventually then for the professors, and worst for the conflicts, etc. The list goes on and on, and all of for emergent stories. Due to the laissez- contain any player-created crisis. less integrated janitorial staff. these structures were good at producing emergent faire attitude towards characters, the solid narrative and interesting stories. If you weren’t backbone of established world material, The magic system was made hard to The power hierarchy was also very wide interested in doing one specific area of play, there and everyone playing to lose, College of break by basing it on the principle of and interchangeable: While the ship were always five more you could dive into. Wizardry could adopt a strict policy of playing to lose: whenever a spell was cast hierarchies of Celestra could only have one your character not ours, a policy which would on a character, the target player would captain and one first mate at the top tiers, (Claus Raasted, personal communication.) break most games, but made this one more ultimately decide the effects of the spell, the professors were largely interchangeable robust: meaning that student duels would always in the school hierarchy. This took some Since the organizers knew they would have end in one of the players choosing to lose. pressure off their players, lessened the an international and varied audience, College The first rule of characters for College of Wizardry need to find a particular player during the of Wizardry was intentionally designed to is that you can change the character if you don’t The only exceptions were that no-one game, and mitigated the risk of a central be hard to break: according to Raasted, a like it. [...] If the character is a troublemaker with could die before the final act, and that the player being unable to play. key component was to disconnect game a heart of gold, but you’d rather play a cowardly staff would always win magical conflicts design from character design, which gave snitch who’s obsessed with the rules, then we’ll with students. While Celestra had a main The College of Wizardry design was made the organizers a lot of flexibility. Once you change it. The only thing it needs is ideas from you plotline to resolve that players were able to possible very much due to the genre and have a fully functional school larp with all on what you’d rather play instead, and together impact and to a certain extent break, CoW the fiction of the game: the topsy-turvy the appropriate structures in place, the larp we’ll make it work. eschewed one altogether. Harry Potter fiction is forgiving and easy- is going to work regardless of individual going, practically the very opposite of the students and teachers8. (College of Wizardry player instructions.) The staff players adopted even more military and naval hierarchies of Celestra. practices to open up student play. For It does not matter if a professor appears instance, the organizers suggested that the a little silly when leaving alchemical _____ professors should accept every excuse to skip ingredients to be easily stolen, or when [7] Players’ contribution to the larp was considerable: for example, Liselle Angelique Krog Awwal class, which provided the student players the accepting a spurious excuse for not made more than a thousand props for the game, Christopher Sandberg organized the professor freedom to swap classes, to go adventuring, showing up for class. players to produce a 200-page schoolbook, and Staffan Rosenberg created the Potions laboratory or even to take a much-needed nap. with hundreds of ingredients, tools and recipes. As player-created content was integrated to organizer materials, it is not easy to retrospectively say which parts were in the game “by design”, and which ones should be considered “player contributions” external to the design itself. _____ [8] In Celestra, a similar approach was used in the sense that many character descriptions spent vast [10] While the Celestra had very few non-player characters, College of Wizardry had a cadre of them, majority of text to describe the social structures and out of character function of the character, and ranging from ever-present ghosts and visiting Aurors to monsters residing in the nearby forest. The non- very few paragraphs on descriptions of personality, or personal goals. As a major difference, CoW player experiences are excluded from this analysis, since there was no uniform NPC experience due explicitly permitted players to radically work on their characters. to the difference of those roles. [9] Unlike most games with act structures, CoW was played continuously. Diegetic events signified act changes.

128 129 The Knudepunkt 2015 Companion Book Fatland & Montola: The Blockbuster Formula

Indeed, several professors played to lose Both of these games would have greatly While the formula can be improved with Futuredrome (2002): The Story Lab, by drinking a potion that made everything benefited from just a few hours spent techniques such as character relationship Riksteatern, Fabel, Oroboros. Kinnekulle, appear wonderful to them – even the fact efficiently building relationships and workshops, some problems are likely to Sweden. that their wonderfully talented students dynamics, and indeed the CoW team will prove unsolvable: most importantly, the conjured up spirits of the dead and dabbled utilize them in the second run of the game. chaotic arrival of competing plot trains is Hamlet (2002): Martin Ericsson, in unforgivable curses. By removing likely to plague these games in the long Christopher Sandberg, Anna Eriksson, themselves from the conflict equation, The Terrific, Terrible Blockbuster run. Martin Brodén, with a large team. they provided play for people below them Formula Interaktiva Uppsättningar and riksteatern in the power hierarchy – such as the group These risks are inseparable from the JAM. Stockholm, Sweden. of Auror students left to deal with the From the late 90s onwards, larp in the sense of action and agency produced by issue11. Nordic countries (and, increasingly, such designs, and must be accepted as Moirais Vev (1997): Eirik Fatland, Lars internationally) has undergone a such by players and organizers. After all, Wingård, Erlend Eidsem Hansen, Karen This design, combined with the brilliant revolutionary pace of development. By the blockbuster formula is a formula for Winther, Martin Bull-Gundersen, Andreas 360° illusion of the Czocha castle and the rejecting brute force designs in favour an action movie or an HBO drama, not a Kolle. very significant contributions of several of structural and stylistic innovation, formula for an accurate documentary or a players, made the players give the larp larpwrights have shown that larp can subtly nuanced performance. The Monitor Celestra (2013): Alternaliv AB, rave reviews. Out of the 112 respondents deal with complex and mature themes – with Bardo AB and Berättelsefrämjandet, to the evaluation survey, 91% totally or from the fraught psychology of intimate Acknowledgements with a team of 85 people. Gothenburg, somewhat agreed with the statement “I relationships to the politics of the Cold Sweden. www.celestra-larp.com had a great game”, and an astounding 74% War and the social dynamics of the AIDS A number of players and organizers of The of the respondents agreed with “College of crisis. The Celestra model combines Monitor Celestra and College of Wizardry Mad About the Boy (2010): Tor Kjetil Wizardry was my best larp ever”. the traditional brute force larp with gave their opinion on this paper prior to Edland, Trine Lindahl and Margrete Raaum. inventions from arthaus larp to great publication. Although we did not follow The implication of these overwhelmingly effect – perhaps a bit like the Hollywood all their suggestions, those discussions References positive numbers is not that this was a blockbuster appropriated techniques significantly improved this text. Above all, perfect larp, but that by building on the from popular vaudeville theatre and from however, we are grateful to the teams that Fatland, E. (2005): Incentives as tools of larp Celestra, CoW discovered a formula for experimentalists such as Sergei Eisenstein organized these two larps. dramaturgy. In Bøckman, P. & Hutchison, blockbuster larp: a brute force larp of or Fritz Lang. In other words: this is a R. (eds.): Dissecting Larp. adventure and escapism, guaranteed to win blockbuster formula for Nordic larp. Ludography popular appreciation. The jury is out on Johnstone, K. (1987): Impro: Improvisation whether the new formula can be applied The attempts of Celestra and CoW to deal with Carolus Rex (1999): Karim Muammar and and the Theatre. outside the world of Harry Potter, as the contemporary politics, such as nationalism Martin Ericsson (game design), Tomas disorganized fictional setting of young and discrimination, were peripheral Walch and Henrik Summanen (production Kim, J. H. The Threefold Model FAQ, adult Bildungsroman was an essential part compared to the action-packed, sometimes and dramaturgy), Emma Wieslander 1998. www.darkshire.net/~jhkim/rpg/theory/ of making it hard to break. thrilling and sometimes comedic events (writing), Mathias Larsson, Erik Stormark threefold/faq_v1.html generated by the brute structure. In this and Daniel Krauklis (runtime logistics The next, clear step towards improving the regard, these larps were faithful to Battlestar help). Norrköping, Sweden. Koljonen, J. (2007): Eye-Witness to the formula will be the addition of workshops Galactica and Harry Potter that inspired Illusion. An Essay on the Impossibility of for character relationships and group them. While even action movies can find College of Wizardry (2014): Szymon 360° Role-Playing. In Donnis, J., Gade, M. dynamics. Indeed, even though the Celestra the time to portray compressed emotional “Boruta” Boruta, Dracan Dembinski, Freja & Thorup, L. (2007): Lifelike. was already criticized for leaving social and romantic content, in blockbuster larps Gyldenstrøm, Agnieszka “Linka” Hawryluk- relationship development to players’ own intimate and serene moments are always in Boruta, Agata “Świstak” Lubańska, Fatland, E. & Wingård, L. (1999): Dogma internet discussions, College of Wizardry danger of being hit by a stray plot. There Charles Bo Nielsen, Aleksandra Hedere 99. A Programme for the Liberation of still used the same approach. As a result, might be an unsolvable problem in how to Ososińska, Ida Pawłowicz, Claus Raasted, LARP. In Gade, M., Thorup, L. & Sander, the majority of players responding to the serve the bottom ranks of power hierarchies Dorota Kalina Trojanowska and Mikołaj M. (eds.) (2003): As Larp Grows Up. evaluation survey expressed their desire for with enough brute game content without Wicher, with a team of around 15 helpers. on-site character relationship workshops pushing the leaders to steer constantly with Rollespilsfabrikken and Liveform. Lesna, Pohjola, M. (2000): The Manifesto of the before the game. both hands full of plot. Poland. www.cowlarp.com Turku School. In Gade, M., Thorup, L. & _____ Sander, M. (eds.) (2003): As Larp Grows Up. [11] The Design Document instructed the staff to stay on the sidelines during the grand opening ball when conflicts started to escalate. However, they were not offered a ready solution on how to do this, 130 and it is debatable whether this instruction was intended as a binding dictate or merely a helpful 131 suggestion. [12] Players attending their first larp were excluded from this figure. The D-M creative agenda model An axis instead of a pyramid

Nathan Hook The Knudepunkt 2015 Companion Book Hook: The D-M creative agenda model

Introduction

In an RPG or larp context, the term It may also be of use to debug an existing In this context: Macrocosm - Meta-Diegetic. The player’s creative agenda refers to the reason for design, to improve its focus; and as a means agenda is focused on guiding the fiction as a engaging in the playful activity. That to communicate to potential players which Diegetic refers to motives which are whole to their desired outcomes. Typically different players (and the same players creative agendas are supported. Clear and themselves within the fictional setting. this involves creating a strong narrative or at different times) have a wide variety of explicit communication can avoid issues drama, which may include conscious or creative agendas is well established, as is caused by a mismatch between the creative Meta-Diegetic refers to motives that are unconscious use of dramatic elements or that those agendas influence play. There agenda the larp is intended to support and themselves outside the fiction, but focused narrative arc principles. have been previous attempts to develop that favoured by the players, and issues on influencing the fiction. models of different creative agendas such from a mismatch between creative agendas Microcosm – Non-Diegetic. The player’s as the Threefold model (Bøckman, 2003). of different players (e.g. immersionists not Non-diegetic refers to motives both outside agenda is focused on personal development While intended to be design tools, these taking the dramatically appropriate action, the fiction and not particularly focused outside the fiction. Examples include models are often used to refer to different narrativists breaking the internal logic of on it. Non-diegetic agendas still affect the playing for physical exercise, to practice types of players. the setting). diegesis – the player still plays a character skills, or for escapism for real world within the fiction, so influences it by being concerns. Conceptual models are wrong, in that they The D-M model there (whether by action or inaction) – but imperfectly model a complex world. That influencing it is not their focus. Macrocosm – Non-Diegetic. The player’s is true for models of the physical world (e.g. The D-M model understands different agenda is focused on social interaction modelling weather patterns) and even more creative agendas as different areas within a There are then six different regions in this and relationships unrelated to the fiction. true for models that include people. The conceptual space defined by two axes: conceptual space which represent different Examples include playing to spend time question to ask is not whether the model approaches: (from bottom to top, left to right) with existing friends, to acquire new is right or not, but whether the model is - Microcosm to Macrocosm (shown as the friends, or because the play is a part of a useful tool for some purpose: typically, X axis). A position on this axis indicates Microcosm - Diegetic. The player’s agenda study, employment or research activity. whether it has predictive power. Many a focus tending towards either the is focused on their own experience within previous models have failed to incorporate individual or the world, both the wider their fiction. They seek to become the A player’s creative agenda is not fixed, even the presence of creative agendas which social world and the physical world. character, to think and act as their character within the same event. It gradually shifts as are not focused on the play itself, such as would within it. An example of this style is play develops. playing for wider social purposes. - Diegetic to non-Diegetic. (shown as the the Turku Manifesto. (Pohjola, 2000) Y axis). A position on this axis indicates Existing concepts positioned This article proposes a new model based a focus tending towards, or away from, Macrocosm - Diegetic. The player’s agenda is within the D-M model on an axial system, intended to be used as a the fictional setting. to explore the fictional setting. They might design tool to enable a designer to identify reflect on how different systems (economic, This article will now show how some and focus on supporting particular creative Named after the two axes, I term this the political, social, metaphysical, etc.) operate existing larp concepts fit into and can be agendas, and to explicitly state them in the D-M creative agenda model. within the fiction, how cultural upbringing better understood by use of this model. presentation to the players. has shaped their character’s worldview, and so on; and attempt to accurately represent Montola et al.’s (2015) term steering can them. Outwardly this can appear similar to be understood in terms of this model as the previous position, but it differs in that referring to all agendas above the X-axis on Non-Diegetic it includes third-person rather than first- this diegetic model; all agendas that lead person thinking. For a further discussion the player to manipulate the diegesis for Meta-Diegetic of this distinction, see Hook (2012). reasons outside of diegesis. This model can be seen then as a more nuanced approach Microcosm - Meta-Diegetic. The player’s to understanding steering. Diegetic agenda is focused on guiding the fiction to the desired outcome for themselves. Microcosm Macrocosm Typically this involves their character ‘winning’ by achieving their predefined Figure 1: The D-M model shown graphically: goal states.

134 135 The Knudepunkt 2015 Companion Book Hook: The D-M creative agenda model

Playing to lose is a weakly-defined term, Thus, it’s easier for a gamist (someone References but can be understood as located as a playing to win) to use immersionist Microcosm - Meta-Diegetic agenda. The discourse (as per the gamist fallacy) than Bøckman (2003) ‘The Three Way Model player is still attempting to influence the a narrativist. Narrativism is conceptually : Revision of the Threefold Model’ in diegesis to bring about their predefined closer to gamism (both are trying to Morten Gade, Line Thorup, Mikkel Sander goal state; it’s essentially the opposite manipulate the diegesis to achieve an (eds) When Larp Grows Up – Theory side of the same coin as a Gamist creative off-game desired resolution) and to and Methods in Larp, Frederiksberg, agenda. simulationism (both are thinking in the Projektgruppen KP03 www.nordiclarp.org third person about the wider diegetic Edularps can be seen as a form of larps setting) than it is to immersionism. Hook (2012) ‘Identities at play: An designed to support particular microcosm ethnographic study of the psychological - non-diegetic creative agendas, such as The model itself does not make any value experience of recreational role-players players gaining knowledge and/or skills. judgements between different agendas, creating and being recreated by fictional simply recognising they exist. It can be identities.’ http://www.lulu.com/shop/ The deliberate use of ‘transparency’ and used to compare and contrast different nathan-hook/identities-at-play/ebook/ ‘meta-techniques’ can be seen as design design styles. For example, the ‘Vi åker product-20328256.html choices that particularly support meta- Jeep’ design rhetoric focuses on supporting diegetic creative agendas. the Meta-Diegetic - Macrocosm level Montola, Stenros & Saitta (2015) The Art among players. of Steering, elsewhere in this volume Hook (2012) introduced a distinction between character immersion (immersion Conclusion Pohjola (2000) ‘The Manifesto of the Turku into the character as a complex unique School’ http://www2.uiah.fi/~mpohjola/ individual) and situation immersion The D-M model offers a new way to turku/manifesto.html (immersion into the situation and role of be conscious of and to discuss different the character, such as that of a guard or creative agendas by explicitly defining two prisoner). Both of these can be understood distinct axes upon which different agendas as located in the Microcosm – Diegetic are positioned. It more clearly articulates space, with ‘situation immersion’ located the relationship between diegetic, meta- closer to the Macrocosm than ‘character diegetic and non-diegetic techniques. It immersion.’ is a tool to enable focused design, clear communication to participants, and a The gamist fallacy is a term for gamist shared agenda between participants. players justifying their in-game behaviour by an immersionist position. E.g. ‘Trying to win is what my character would do.’ It is a fallacy, as real people do not usually play the ‘game of life’ effectively. In this model, this fallacy can be understood more clearly as a failure (either in perception, or in external discourse) to properly distinguish different positions on the diegetic (Y) axis; that is, confusing meta-diegetic aims as diegetic ones.

This model helps understand why narrativism (playing for a strong story) and Turkuist immersionism (playing to become the character) are inherently opposed – they contrast on both axes.

136 137 The Golden Cobra Challenge: Amateur-Friendly Pervasive Freeform Design

Evan Torner, Whitney “Strix” Beltrán, Emily Care Boss & Jason Morningstar The Knudepunkt 2015 Companion Book Torner, Beltrán, Care Boss & Morningstar: The Golden Cobra Challenge

I. The Birth of the Golden Snake

Once upon a time – actually, at GenCon - Be playable from start to finish in two New designers were most welcome. As Group Date by Sara Williamson embraces 2014 in Indianapolis, USA – several of hours or less, facilitated by people who Wendy Gorman, co-designer (with David chaos, with the same date between two us discovered a design problem for live were not the designer him/herself. Hertz and Heather Silsbee) of Still Life, people being played out simultaneously freeform games. For the last five years, the - Be playable by a variable but small commented: by multiple groups. Glitch Iteration independent role-playing game scene here number of participants, ideally a wide by Jackson Tegu explores fragmented in North America has run an expanding range like 2–8. “I was shocked and delighted [by winning a computer memory and has players series of crowdsourced events under the - Be playable in a public space, like an Golden Cobra], and could not have been more directly experience their surroundings banner of Games on Demand. Players show open lounge in a busy hallway. pleased to see something of mine played by people as unstable simulations. Finally, Unheroes up shortly before the convention slot, - Optional: Use the ingredients Chord, who are well respected in the field of game by Joanna Piancastelli deals with a group choose an available game from a menu, and Light, Solution, Bear and Minute. design, especially since I am not a game designer, of superheroes who have altered reality then sit down with the event facilitator and have never considered that I could become to cover up a terrible mistake and must to play. This year, we introduced Larps on We advertised it as a “friendly contest one.” now make a critical decision. Many of the Demand, a branch of Games on Demand with open to anyone interested in writing games would perform well in busy GenCon its own room at Origins and GenCon, and and playing freeform games,” and even Two hours, a public space, and a flexible hallways in Indianapolis, as they did in the that is where we encountered our problem. provided a much-utilized mentor program player number meant that a short set Metatopia hall. for freeform designers who wanted to of easy-to-communicate rules proved The problem is as follows: GenCon and bounce their ideas off a partner. We would the best design strategy. Because few III. The Golden Cobra Hand Origins are both massive conventions full award prizes in categories corresponding veteran designers had much experience Signal of interesting things and people to see. with our design needs: Most Convention- in addressing the constraints, the playing As such, few attendees want to make Ready, Most Appealing to Newcomers, field proved more level than in other RPG Live freeform in the United States has a intensive four-hour time commitments in Cleverest Design, and Game We’re Most design contests. After all, we preferred history of being behind closed doors and this context, and thus we watched as the Eager to Play. That being said, the prize for to cultivate a broad community that opaque for newcomers. The Golden Cobra two-hour Larps on Demand events filled each category was that the game would be would produce more games, rather than Challenge sought to amend that culture up, while the four-hour events did not and run at least once at Metatopia in November promoting exclusivity and competition and, at the very least, create a stable of were cancelled. In response, facilitators 2014. among creators. Mentoring during the new games to try out at Games on Demand began to split their four-hour events in contest and rewarding the winning designs in GenCon 2015 and other conventions. But two, and running larps in public spaces to II. The Baddest-Ass Snakes in with actual play appeared the best ways to what it also produced – besides innovative attract visibility. the Jungle nurture such a community of play. new sets of rules and role-playing scenarios – was a quasi-new social phenomenon: In our post-GenCon debrief, we decided What came of it? Over 50 freeform The hard-selected winners of the contest role-players out in public playing games that established live freeform games submissions poured in from around the came from a pool of the weird, wacky and designed for public interference. Emerging that lasted two hours such as J. Tuomas world, addressing the design constraints dramatic. Some entries in this pool included from Metatopia, the Golden Cobra Hand Harviainen’s The Tribunal required too with verve and creativity. Designers and Active Shooter by Tim Hutchings, a serious Signal – putting one’s elbow in one’s hand many players, whereas a flexible game theorists once again debated definitions freeform dealing with the school shooter and forming a snake face with the other like Håken Lid and Ole Peder Giæver’s of “freeform,” while others saw fit to troll phenomenon; Snow by Agata Lubańska, hand – lets others know that, while you The Hirelings required too much time, and the contest with unmarked submissions about an explosive family situation in a may be out in a park or hallway, you are Lizzie Stark’s The Curse required intimate (e.g. Vampire Death Party by A. Nohn snowed-in car; Keymaster by J Li, a ritual actually also in the middle of playing a space that was at a premium in a large Knee-Mus). As the judges volunteering of creating fictional identities; and If I game and a role. convention setting. What were we to do? our time, we could only scramble to keep Were President by James Stuart, which up with the breadth of entries submitted enacts a surreal presidential debate in the Games like Still Life encourage outsiders to Thus the Golden Cobra Challenge1 for by experienced and novice designers alike. far future. Contest winners often adhered affect and interact with these players, but October 2014 was born. We would solve In fact, the contest itself served as a sort closest to the given constraints. Still Life, the outside world may still not necessarily this live freeform problem by considering of “permission and validation engine” for a game about relationships between rocks, understand what they are doing. As these it as a set of design constraints in itself. people who did not consider themselves positions players as inanimate objects drop-in-friendly live freeforms spread and Scrappy pervasive freeforms were what we designers – even for those beset with being moved around by elemental forces in mutate, we hope to see more of these arcane needed. Therefore, the game submissions imposter syndrome – to create live a public space. gestures coming to a convention near you. had to: freeforms.

_____ 140 [1] http://www.goldencobra.org 141 There is no Nordic larp And yet we all know what it means

Stefan Deutsch The Knudepunkt 2015 Companion Book Deutsch: There is no Nordic larp

“Nordic larp is like porn. I know it when I see it.“1

10 years ago, when first attending the In 2012, Juhana Pettersson writes in “States Not only a cop out, but also recursive. “The Nordic larp community differs from Knutpunkt conference in Norway, I was of Play“ (already subtitled as “Nordic Larp Thus it is not very helpful if we want to get larp culture in other places. […] And yes, that’s humbled by stories about Hamlet, 1942 around the world“): closer to the actual meaning of the term. right, there are other kinds of larps played in and other great games. Here, there were Furthermore he continues: Scandinavia; the Nordic larp community is a people actually stretching the definition “Nordic Larp is not the same as the larps played specific and by now reasonably well-defined of what “larp“ means. It was an awesome, in the Nordic countries. Indeed, most Nordic “Nordic larp is not a set of instructions. It is subset.“ mind blowing experience for sure. There larps are not part of the Nordic Larp design not even a coherent design philosophy. It is a were a lot of talks about the larps that were movement. This leads to the bizarre situation movement.“ So, first sentence: kind of geographic. influenced by the KP tradition and vice where the Nordic Larp movement can enter into Let’s imagine the movement is what the versa. There was no good term for these dialogue with Finnish larp the same way it can Well, well - it’s also not a coherent design author implies as a “place“, because the last games, so usually the rather cumbersome be in dialogue with Russian larp.“ philosophy. At least that definition sentence of the paragraph is clear about “games in the KP/SK tradition“ was used. empowers anybody to define their own the term being non-geographic. Let’s try to “Nowadays, the truly new stuff comes from all style as Nordic. And where is the nodal define the term in other ways. Also from When in 2010, Jaakko Stenros and Markus those Italians, Germans and Americans who point of this movement? It is, in fact, the the above paragraph: Montola published the book Nordic Larp have taken some of the ideas of Nordic Larp and Nodal Point conference - Knudepunkt/ documenting 30 larps belonging to this made them part of their own artistic practice. Knutepunkt/Knutpunkt/Solmukohta. “It spends more time telling stories that tradition, they effectively coined the term. Thankfully, instead of just assimilating stuff emphasize naturalistic emotion, it emphasizes It had been used before, but never with from us, they’re sending ideas back, becoming the Next, there is Jaakko Stenros’ version of collective, rather than competitive storytelling, such a brand recognition. Still, there was new creative frontier of Nordic Larp.“ a brand definition for the “Nordic larp and it takes its stories fairly seriously much of no clear definition what “Nordic larp” tradition“: the time […]“ actually means. So the definition from the Wiki is not very useful since there are “A tradition that views larp as a valid form Jaakko Stenros’ Nordic Larp Talk also In discussions, one of the main points is if of expression, worthy of debate, analysis and mentions some of these characteristics: the term is meant geographically or not. a) Larps in this tradition which are not continuous experimentation, which emerged The Nordic Larp Wiki greets its visitors from Nordic countries around the Knutepunkt convention.“ “It typically values thematic coherence, with the following words: b) Larps in Nordic countries not belonging continuous illusion, action and immersion, while to this tradition We are back to the KP/SK tradition. Not keeping the larp co-creative and its production “Nordic-style larp, or Nordic Larp, is a term much Nordic left here though, because this noncommercial. Workshops and debriefs are used to describe a tradition of larp game design So why is it still called Nordic? What’s so tradition (r)evolves around the conferences common.“ that emerged in the Nordic countries.“ Nordic about Nordic larp? Maybe it is the and for at least ten years they have certainly origin of the movement. In his Nordic Larp not been entirely Nordic (in geographical These are characteristics which So far, so good. Is it a geographical Talk 2013, Jaakko Stenros tries to define “a“ terms) anymore and not the creative undoubtedly are part of the tradition we description then? “Nordic“ seems to imply Nordic larp this way: frontier (according to Juhana Pettersson are talking about. The Nordic Larp Wiki this and the Nordic Larp Wiki certainly above). Somehow we are getting nowhere. supports this approach as well: defines it this way: “A larp that is influenced by the Nordic larp Let’s try a different approach. tradition or contributes to the ongoing Nordic “[…]Here are a few examples of aims and ideals “Nordic-style larp is traditionally different from larp discourse. This definition may seem The book The Foundation Stone of Nordic that are typical for this unique gaming scene:“ larp in other parts of the world[…]“2 disappointing, or even like a cop out.“3 Larp4 was written to give a sort of “kickstart“ into the Nordic larp tradition, If we accept the Nordic Larp wiki as a PR collecting important articles from the instrument, this is certainly cool, but as a now 20+ books published around the reference about what Nordic larp actually Knudepunkt conference. It describes means, this is maybe slightly too much self- Nordic larp this way: adulation. Let’s have a closer look at these characteristics and ideals:

______[1] Adaption of a quote by United States Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart (1964) [4] The Foundation Stone of Nordic Larp, 2014, Edited by Eleanor Saitta, Marie Holm-Andersen & Jon Back 144 [2] http://nordiclarp.org/wiki/Nordic_Larp 145 [3]”What does Nordic Larp mean?“, Jaakko Stenros, Nordic Larp Talks 2013, https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=mL_qvBaxV5k The Knudepunkt 2015 Companion Book Deutsch: There is no Nordic larp

“Immersion. Nordic larpers want to feel like Artistic vision is hard to define, as is a This needs to change. I don’t think it they are “really there”. This includes creating a political statement, but there’s certainly a actually matters where ideas were first truly convincing illusion of physically being in a divide between pure “entertainment“ and tried out and who made it popular, but we medieval village/on a spaceship/WWII bunker, “serious“ games. But then, aren’t the ones need to tell people what we do and show it playing a character that is very close to your without a political statement artistic in to them in a meaningful way if we want to own physical appearance, as well as focusing on their own unique way? And what about the be part of the movement. getting under the character’s skin to ‘feel their Nordic games which are not intended as feelings’. Dreaming in character at night is seen more than entertainment? “In the end, while we may rage and debate by some nordic larpers as a sign of an appropriate whether Nordic larp actually isn’t all that level of immersion.“ There’s certainly a lot of elements which special, reality is that it is. And let’s use that for are considered part of this tradition, but our advantage instead of trying to nitpick.“5 Not only is this definition of immersion are they unique? Is “bleed“, “immersion“, mixing in 360° for good measure, the “alibi“ really Nordic? Are pre-game - Claus Raasted sentence about the “truly convincing workshops, 360°, black box and debriefings? illusion of physically being [there]“ is also Conclusion not very Nordic (at least from my personal Furthermore, what is often described as experience) even though some games are “Nordic larp“, evolves with every game I truly believe there is something special now trying to do exactly that. The second and every discussion about this tradition. about the kind of games we create. I also part talking more about actual immersion Fifteen years ago, no game would use bleed do think that creating a term like “Nordic could be considered very Nordic, if you or alibi or 360° in their descriptions (since Larp“ was a masterstroke of Knudepunkt/ like. the terms didn’t really exist) and even Knutepunkt/Knutpunkt/Solmukohta mechanisms, but still they were and are propaganda. ‘Collaboration. Nordic-style larp is about considered part of this tradition. creating an exciting and emotionally affecting And this is what I’m going to do6: Nordic story together, not measuring your strength. There One could argue the way Merleau-Ponty larp. No matter where I am or where I is no winning, and many players intentionally let does and say that while many of these are come from. It’s where I’ve been heading all their characters fail in their objectives to create often present, none needs to be to make my larping life and I don’t really care how more interesting stories.“ it a Nordic larp. The question cannot be we call it as long as we know what it means. solved this way. I believe we do. This might actually be one of the better indicators for a “Nordic larp“, but then, Furthermore, when we used black box style Because if we can’t agree upon what there’s plenty of examples from other game mechanisms in 2000-2003 in the Insomnia Nordic larp means, others will form their traditions where this is used as well - but series of games in Germany, were they own slightly worrying conclusions: maybe not the other way around. Maybe it “Nordic“? Did the workshops, debriefings, is required, but not sufficient? game acts and use of “cut“, “brems“ and „Meanwhile, in Europe, some people were “escalate“ mechanisms for The Living already making a living from LARPing and “Artistic vision. Many Nordic games are Dead (2010) make it “Nordic“? stretching its art in interesting directions. Claus intended as more than entertainment – they Raasted [sic], for example, fused parlor role- make artistic or even political statements. There’s a simple answer: no. But the reason play with very serious topics, such as acting out The goal in these games is to affect the players for that is not that they were not played couples’ therapy to pretend to grieve for a dead long term, to perhaps change the way they see in the Nordic countries or organized by child. The genre spread through the region and themselves or how they act in society.“ people from there. The simple reason is became known as Nordic LARP.“7 that they did not add to the discourse, in one case because we hadn’t heard about Nobody really can tell you what Nordic KP yet, in the other case because we didn’t larp actually is, but who cares as long as bother to do so. Claus Raasted is the godfather of Nordic LARP?

______146 [5] Claus Raasted, January 14 2015 in a private conversation on Facebook [6] And maybe edit that page in the Nordic Larp Wiki and remove that ridiculous geographic reference. 147 [7] Olivia Simone, tabletmag.com, Sep 2 2014 getting more facts wrong than right in this “definition“ of the term. Workshop practice A functional workshop structure method

Mo Holkar The Knudepunkt 2015 Companion Book

Acknowledgements

Thanks to everyone who’s provided helpful suggestions and comments: particularly Steve Dempsey, Martin Nielsen and Cat Tobin.

The pre-game workshop tradition in In practice you may use workshop activities Nordic larp is mostly oral, with little that have more than one purpose: this may written material. People take part in be desirable both for conciseness and for workshops as players, then borrow and helping to reinforce the activity impact develop ideas from those experiences to upon players. For example, flashback construct workshops for their own larps. scenes can be used to calibrate players’ So I thought it might be useful to put understanding of relationships with each together a method which looks at some other. Teaching a particular technique of the different intentions and purposes could also serve as a trust exercise. that workshop activities can have, to help designers think about and plan their I’ve given an example activity for each workshops more systematically. aim, but of course there are many different ways of achieving all of them: some will be The table below lists and categorizes more appropriate for some larps than for workshop activities that I use in my own others; and you’ll have your own favourites. practice, or that I will use if I run a larp The useful Workshop Handbook site1 has that requires them. The sequence of the a categorized collection of activities which table is the sequence in which I use these give plenty more examples. activities: ie. first working on the players The pre-game workshop tradition in Nordic larp is themselves, then working with them on A few of the items talk about ‘calibration’. mostly oral, with little written material. their characters; start with warmup, move This is a very important larp-preparation on to impro basics if required, and so concept, introduced by Martin Nielsen on. There may be requirements to move (2014)2. The short definition is: “all back and forth (eg. perhaps a re-warmup participants adjust their interpretation will be needed partway through, or meta- of a phenomenon, so that all participants techniques may be practised again in- have more or less the same interpretation.” character), but this is the general direction. (Where I take “phenomenon” to mean something like: an aspect of the culture being portrayed/experienced in the larp.)

_____ 150 [1] http://workshophandbook.wordpress.com/ [2] Nielsen, M (2014). ‘Culture Calibration in Pre-larp Workshops’. http://nordiclarp.org/2014/04/23/culture- calibration-in-pre-larp-workshops/ Focus on Category Detail Purpose Should you include this? Example Players Introduction Welcome players and inform them about the Yes Intro to what is to come game Workshop Practicalities Make players feel happy and relaxed about the Yes Site issues, break times workshop ahead of them Structure and Explain what will happen during the workshop, Yes, unless you want players to be innocent of Timings and descriptions of workshop elements purpose and why what’s about to happen Warmup Energize, disinhibit Yes: judge how much of it is needed, depending Jump in, jump out3 on how unwarm/inhibited they are Impro basics Familiarize players with improvisa-tion Yes: useful to get minds moving, even if players are Yes, and…4 already familiar with impro Group Physicality Get players accustomed to physical contact Not needed in a no-contact game Fingertips5

Trust Get players to trust each other Yes, if it involves contact and/or is emotionally intense Fall and catch6 Pratical Out-of-game Explain out-of-game requirements Yes, if these are unusual Schedule, sleeping arrangements, food, travel, etc

Expectations of play Explain what sort of play designers are expecting Yes, if this isn’t obvious, and isn’t intended to be If cinematic grand gestures are desired, whether to from players discovered during play play to lose, whether secrets are closed or open… Skills Teach/practise a skill Only if the game requires unusual skills that not all Dancing the tango, stage fighting players will have Game mechanics Safety Familiarize players with safewords and safety Always needed* Cut and Brake7 policy Rules/system Explain rules and system (if any) If these are simple (or familiar), can just be a brief outline Counting blows in combat Techniques Teach/practice a technique If any non-intuitive techniques are present Alien greeting ritual

Meta-techniques Teach/practise a meta-technique If meta-techniques are being used Ping the glass8

Characters Calibration Mutual Ensure players share each other’s, and GMs’, Maybe not needed if game setting is very familiar Discussion and scenes understanding of understanding of what the game world is like game world Mutual Ensure players share understanding of what their Most needed when characters have been Discussion and scenes understanding of characters’ relationships with other characters predesigned (by GMs or by players). Otherwise relationships are like this will happen in the steps below Character creation From players’ own Players create characters under GMs’ direction Not needed if GMs or players have already Explanation and facilitation ideas of what will fit designed the characters, wholly or partly into the game world Around a GM- Players flesh out characters based on what Needed if GMs or players have only designed Prelude designed skeleton GMs have given them, or what they’ve already sketch/skeleton characters designed themselves Practical Application of character-creation system/rules If there are such rules Explanation and examples Role exploration / Developing player understanding of what their Unless this is obvious, or players are to find it out Discursive or with scenes definition character will be doing in the game for themselves during the game Character Building Evolving relationships by agreement between Unless the characters are unknown to each other Ball of yarn9 relationships players Rehearsing Acting out those relationships, to practise the Scenes feelings involved Background filling-in Playing out important past scenes to fill in details Hot seat of the relationship Take-off Transition players into the larp If you want to help players ‘get into the game’ Group meditation or ritual, see Slow take-off10 ______[3] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6bHltjIYzE * Safety exercises aren’t always included in workshops; indeed they’re quite rare in some larping cultures. [4] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qe2a3ppacUk But I personally feel that there should always be at least a minimum safety brief. [5] http://improvencyclopedia.org/games/Fingertips.html [6] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAgGY5uCWtU [7] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JE4P5AvfL48 152 [8] http://nordiclarp.org/wiki/Monologue 153 [9] http://nordiclarp.org/wiki/Ball_of_Yarn [10] http://nordiclarp.org/wiki/Slow_take-off The Knudepunkt 2015 Companion Book Molkar: Workshop practice

Details

Spelling each of these out in more detail: Out-of-game – this won’t always be So, for example, suppose your game Around a GM-designed skeleton – in required, particularly if you’re going features a fantasy culture who traditionally other games, players may have been given Meta – the frame through which players straight from the workshop into the game. greet each other by clasping each others’ a skeleton character that they fill out enter the workshop and the game. Welcome But if you need to explain practicalities of forearms between their backs. You want themselves. If you have time, one nice way them, check off names if appropriate, tell travel, food, sleeping etc relating to the the players to learn this manoeuvre and to of doing this is with a ‘prelude’ – a one-on- everyone what the game is that they’re game, now is the time to do it. practice it until it comes as easily to them one GMed scene in which the player is led about to play, tell them that now they are Expectations of play – you may prefer as it does to the characters that they’re through decisions and statements about in the pre-game workshop. to let these emerge naturally, of course, or playing. their character that combine to flesh it out Practicalities – those useful things players to let players infer them from the material. Meta-techniques – techniques that are fully and satisfyingly. need to know so they can be comfortable in But if you’re expecting a particular style or ‘meta’, ie. that operate outside the game Practical – if there’s any system or rules the space. Where are the bathrooms, where mode of play – for example, if the game’s reality and allow players to communicate (or numbers of any kind) applicable to are the exits, can they eat and drink, how intended as a farcical satire in which directly (rather than as their characters) character creation, GMs need to explain long will the workshop and the game last, nothing makes sense; or if players are in some way. Maybe you want players to them and help players apply them. will there be breaks… etc. to act with grand, exaggerated gestures be able to deliver an internal monologue Role exploration and definition – if the Structure and purpose – explain why to communicate their emotions; or you of their character’s current thoughts: they character is to play a particular narrative this game is preceded by a workshop, and expect them to act like hardened criminals will need to learn the meta-technique that role in the game (eg. captain of the ship, what will be achieved during it. You may who behave as if their every move is under triggers it, such as standing in a designated mysterious stranger, disruptive toddler, want to go into detail about the workshop watch – tell them so, and explain that you part of the room, or having their glass Prussian spy) then GMs may need to brief activities – more likely, you’ll just give a will be showing them how to do it later in pinged by another player. the player on how to fulfil those duties. general picture. (Or you may want to keep the workshop. Mutual understanding of game world Building character relationships – the activities secret for now, so the players Skills – some games may require the -- very important if the setting is not allow the players to mutually establish aren’t expecting them.) players to use out-of-game skills that they a familiar one. If players have differing their characters’ attitudes towards, and Warmup – important to get players do not (yet) themselves have. If dancing internal assumptions about how the world history with, each other – where this is relaxed, disinhibited, and moving freely. is an important part of the game, you works or of facts about it, that can cause appropriate for the game. GMs might There are lots of great warmup exercises, may need to teach them how to dance problems in the game. This element of shape this strongly or leave it to the players: such as Penguins and flamingos, Human appropriately, and so on. calibration is best carried out by discussion, different activities will be appropriate. knot, Jump in jump out, Shake hands… Safety – go through the safety policy and followed by improvised scenes using the Rehearsing those relationships – for Choose exercises that are appropriate for practice of the game, and act out examples established knowledge. The GMs should newly-established material and also where your number of players and for the space where that’ll be helpful. Cut, Brake, ‘The provide guidance and suggestions. characters have been designed in advance that you’re using. door is open’, Traffic lights, Lines and Mutual understanding of (by GMs or players) and players haven’t Impro basics – simple exercises to veils – whatever you’re using. You need to relationships – if characters are already previously had the chance to explore them. reinforce (or to introduce, if your players are make sure that the players are familiar and designed, the players need to make sure A combination of discussion and playing out new to this) the basic improvisation tools of comfortable with the safety techniques, that they and the people with whom interpersonal scenes is generally effective. Yes, and…, Not blocking, and so on. and (ideally) that they won’t hesitate to use they have relationships (of any kind) have Background filling-in – it may be Physicality – this may be important if the them – or to interpret other players’ using a shared understanding of what those desirable to add richness to players’ game requires physical contact, but your them – during the course of the game. relationships are and how they work. This understanding of each other’s characters players are unaccustomed to it in their larp Rules and system – where present. is best done by discussion, and again can be by the public provision of detail. Hot seat tradition, or are strangers to each other. For example, in a combat larp, there followed by improvised scenes acting out is a straightforward activity that allows The exercises should familiarize them may be rules about how many blows will the relationship (for the more important players to question one another. with each other’s touch, proximity and cause injury or death. Or if there’s non- ones). Take-off – you may wish to help the players presence. This doesn’t need to be any more WYSIWYG magic, players may need to Creating characters from players’ get ‘into character’ so they don’t have intense than it will be in the larp itself. be told how to interpret its commands. own ideas – in some games, the players to leap straight into the game (although Trust – particularly useful in emotionally Explain and practise until they are familiar. will invent their characters wholly, within that can work too: see Flying start11). intense games. If you can help players Techniques – this covers unnatural things the workshop. The GMs will have to This might perhaps be a formal exercise become comfortable entrusting themselves that players may have to do during the explain how to do this, and facilitate the where they assume their characters, or a to each other’s care, it’ll make opening up game for some (non-meta) purpose. process. quiet meditative space for them to do so emotionally that much easier. privately or as a group.

_____ 154 [11] http://nordiclarp.org/wiki/Flying_Start 155 The larper’s burden

Take up the larper’s burden, Send forth the best ye roll Take up the larper’s burden, And remember why you do Go bind your mind to exile, And gladly pay the toll; The faithful to inspire, The rest to slowly woo; To guide the Muggles forward, To show the way ahead So even as you stand there, Bloody but unbowed Your worlds to bring to others, All growing from your head You try to give them passion, And free them from the crowd Take up the larper’s burden, Never again to hide, Take up the larper’s burden, And forget all petty fear To fight the threat of boredom, To combat hate and pride; For we shall change the planet, Conquer it year by year; By free and frank creation, A hundred times the joy Now choose the path of wisdom, Of fantasy and dream Of passive junk consumption, Imagination as your toy. And go create some futures, That are not what they seem Take up the larper’s burden, The savage wars of thought Take up the larper’s burden, Devour the bluest pill Call out the filth and badness, Forgive the foes you fought; They say evil can’t be broken, We say it slowly will; And when you find them different, Strike down the will to fight Show off your love and kindness, Keep apathy at bay For fiction has no limits, No wrong and no more right Remind the world that people, Are people when they play Take up the larpers’s burden, No tear to leave unshed, Claus Raasted, September 2014 But cry and laugh together, And prove play is not dead; The craft ye shall be sharing, The knowledge free for all Your critics never-ending, In culture’s angsty brawl Thank you for reading. Thank you for caring. “The companion of an evening, and the companion for life, require very different qualifications.”

- Samuel Richardson