Category: Talks

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2023 Copenhagen Talks

The Wisdom of the Community – Juhana Pettersson

In 22 years, the Knudepunkt community has published 29 books that together form the greatest collection of larp writing in the world. This talk explores that legacy, the current situation of the KP book and its future.

Juhana Pettersson is a Finnish writer, novelist and roleplaying game and larp designer, who has edited two Knudepunkt books – Knudepunkt books are also his topic today. His larps include Luminescence, Halat hisar, End of the Line, Enlightenment in Blood, Parliament of Shadows, Redemption and Saturnalia. He’s currently working at Renegade Games Studios as the Lead Developer for the World of Darkness series of roleplaying game releases.

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2023 Copenhagen Talks

The Great Larp Swindle – Steve Deutsch & Larson Kasper

You also hate having to decide if you’d rather talk to wonderful people or listen to amazing talks instead of playing a 5 hour larp during KP? What if we just spent the whole weekend playing larps instead? This is the idea we had 12 years ago when organising our first IFOL.

Steve Deutsch is a German larp wright, facilitator and event manager. He was part of the team creating the German larp conference, Mittelpunkt, and is guilty of coauthoring one of Germany’s most complex and loathed Boffer Larp Rules Systems. Nowadays, he mostly runs larps on sailing ships and for companies who want to understand their power dynamics, communication and unwritten rules.

Larson Kasper is a professional Educator and Coach. He uses Edu-Larp as a method in his work with troubled kids as well as in the field of political education. Over the last 25 years he wrote, orgnised and facilitated multiple Larps and related events. Nowerdays he sudies “Counseling in the Workplace” and hopes to use the skills and overall experiance he gained as a larpwright, organiser and facilitator in his new area of work.

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2023 Copenhagen Talks

Learning to love the larp – Burnout culture in larp organisation – Sandy Bailly

Organizer burnout is an issue in our larp community, but have we stopped to think about how it might not be an individual, but a cultural problem we’re facing here? In this talk, Sandy Bailly will touch on the issue of burnout culture in larp organization, and she will equally argue how we already have the tools to do better, as we are already using them in how we educate our players.

Sandy Bailly is a Belgian larper who occasionally also crews, writes, designs and organises larps. She is interested in small, collaborative and altruistic play in larp, and she believes in re-imagining reality through play and building communities of care.

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2023 Copenhagen Talks

Age and why it should be praised – Inge Mette Petersen

We tend to forget that age is not just decay and ruin – it is also experience, knowledge and courage. In this short talk I will give some examples on how and why my own age and experience has been important in how I have evolved as a player and why this is important to remember as we grow older.

Inge-Mette Petersen regards herself as a noob, but she has been playing internationally since November 2016. In her daily life she works at the Danish Open Air Museum as an interpreter and education officer. The job has given her an extensive knowledge of history, reenactment and event organizing. This, combined with her private interest in subjects like religion of any kind (preferably slightly esoteric), philosophy and English literature has made her life very interesting for the past 7 years.

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2023 Copenhagen Talks

We’re Here, We’re Queer and We’re Ready to Feel Good – Eva Wei

Not all queer narratives have to be about death, despair or being hidden away from the public eye. In her talk, Eva Wei will delve into the things she learned while organising Perfect Match, a feel good-larp about a reality dating show for disaster queers.

Eva Wei is a Swedish lawyer, sword fighter and larpwright. She has been one of the main organisers of Knutpunkt and delights in making close-knit larps about current subjects. She is currently the chairman of the larp collective Bread and Games and has a thing for interacting with new larp cultures and genres.

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2023 Copenhagen Talks

Aesthetics of Randomness – Kaisa Kangas

The international larp scene has gone more and more to the direction where players are in control of their character’s fate and story arc. In her talk, Kaisa Kangas argues that this does not always lead to the best larp experience. She talks about the aesthetics that random outcomes can bring to larp, drawing on the experience of running Seaside Prison several times a row.

Kaisa Kangas is a Finnish larp designer who has been making larps for more than 20 years; her best-known larps are probably Halat hisar and Seaside Prison. Kaisa is also a regular contributor in KP books and has edited the book Larp Politics. She will also be the editor in chief for the 2024 Solmubook. She is currently writing a non-fiction book about larp for a general audience.

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2023 Copenhagen Talks

Designing the Apocalypse – Avoiding that Big Plot crushes the character’s journey – Janusz Maxe

Most large starts with an interesting setting. A vampire court, spaceship at the edge of the galaxy, a village in a time and place that is very different from ours. But then we go “What should happen during this larp?” and thus add the plot. That in itself is all fine, but when the plot becomes THE BIG PLOT there’s a danger it will crush the setting like a sledgehammer to an eggshell. This talk focuses on this. The warning signs that this might happen, the problems with that, and how to mitigate those problems, both as a designer and a player.

Janusz Maxe is from Gothenburg, Sweden. He has been role-playing since the mid 80ies, but did only get into larping 30 years later. What made him take the step was the larp The Monitor Celestra, since that was run in his hometown AND provided costumes. It turned out well since he promptly attended two of the runs, and a decade later he is still here as part of our community. He’s of the designers behind the larp The Devil You Know; and one of the creators of the character-memorising tool Ensemble.

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2022 Linköping Talks

A Full House Trumps a Dance Card – Anni Tolvanen

Have you ever found yourself running from one in-game meeting, pre-negotiated scene, and secret ritual to another, feeling like there’s no time to larp in this larp? You may be suffering from a Full Dance Card Syndrome! In this talk, Anni Tolvanen addresses the impact of dance card larping on participant experience and demonstrates why steering for openness and serendipity creates powerful larp magic and more inclusive play for all.

Anni Tolvanen is a Finnish sound designer, composer, and creative producer. She works internationally on participatory art and games projects and has co-created various larps over the past 25 years. Her article “Ensemble Play” in What Do We Do When We Play? (Solmukohta 2020), co-authored with James Lórien MacDonald, talks about artistic co-creation methodology and its relevance to creating better participatory experiences, and a more inclusive larp community.

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2022 Linköping Talks

Larp Chemistry – Laura Wood

Larp Chemistry is difficult to define and means different things to different people. This talk attempts to look at what it could be, and whether we can create it.

Laura Wood (she/they) has designed several larps which have run in several countries throughout Europe, including Here Comes a Candle, and Inside. She is an organizer for the Larps on Location collective. She is a strong proponent of creating a safety culture within larps and larp festivals, and has written articles on body positivity within larp.

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2022 Linköping Talks

Napping with Purpose – Frida Lindegren

The world and the larp community have been through a lot lately. In her talk, Frida Lindegren talks about how we can slow down and explore how we can play and design for rest.

Frida Lindegren is a Swedish psychologist, experience designer, and larper.