Category: Talks

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2018 Malmö Talks

Routes of Inheritance – Will Osmond

Can process philosophy help us find new ways to design and play larps? In this talk, Will Osmond explores how Alfred North Whitehead’s notions of ‘routes of inheritance’ and ‘givenness’ might be applied in larping.

Will Osmond is a larper, playwright and researcher. He is co-designer of Life of a House, and has helped to organize and run On Location. He is currently working on larp scenario about invasions which mashes up concepts from Twin Peaks, The X Files and The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. He is researching for a PhD in performance philosophy.

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2018 Malmö Talks

Emergence in Larp – Evan Torner

The structured chaos of larp is difficult to parse, especially when such unpredictability is precisely the point. In this talk, Evan Torner discusses how emergence works as an aesthetic principle in larp, and suggests a rubric for how to understand our incredibly complicated larp experiences in retrospect.

Evan Torner is Assistant Professor of German Studies at the University of Cincinnati, where he also directs the UC Game Lab. Though his primary research focus is East German cinema and science fiction, he has maintained an active presence in the role-playing game scene as a player, designer, and researcher. He co-edited Immersive Gameplay: Essays on Participatory Media and Role-Playing with William J. White, and is currently an editor for Analog Game Studies, which he co-founded. He also co-founded the Golden Cobra contest, and has written numerous freeform larp scenarios.

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2018 Malmö Talks

Under 25: We’re Here to Take Your Place – Agata Świstak

During her talk, Agata Swistak would like to encourage established larp organisers and community leaders to change their style of management and open themselves to something new. Equipped with a number of tips and advice, she would like to inspire people to discussion on how to be more inclusive and supportive towards young folks in our communities – and why it will make the larp better.

Agata Swistak is a community leader and a professional project manager working with larp and event design. In her work, she puts an effort to create safe and empowering spaces. In 2013 she was part of the group creating one of the loudest larps in the world – College of Wizardry, and later became a main coordinator of the entire event. She believes that empathy and inclusion create not only strong communities, but also unforgettable and transformative experiences.

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2018 Malmö Talks

Same Role, Different Life – Karijn van der Heij

Karijn wants us to start thinking about the way we relate to the people who have played the same character as us in another larp-run. Much attention has been given to the things our co-players can add to our experience but are these ‘other selves’ also co-players in a way, that can add something to the way we look at the character?

Karijn van der Heij has been a very active participant in the Dutch larp scene for fifteen years, where she has co-writing credits on over 30 larps in different genres. In the past five years, she has shifted much of her attention to the international games and strives to pilfer as many ideas as she can to bring into her local scene.

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2018 Malmö Talks

The Wayfinder Experience – Ben Books Schwartz

Despite being entirely isolated from the Nordic world, the Wayfinder Experience of New York has evolved a style of larping far more similar to many Nordic larps than the majority of its geographic compatriots. This talk traces the influences and impacts of that parallel evolution, from Wayfinder’s birth as the Adventure Game Theater in the 1980s up through present day, and explores the idea that the community around the game is just as important as anything about the game itself.

Ben “Books” Schwartz is a professional larp organizer specializing in larps for kids and teens, and has been designing and running their own larps since 2006. They have worked as an organizer and event director for the Wayfinder Experience, Trackers Earth, New World Magischola, and now Dziobak Larp Studios. Their focus is on exploration, empowerment, and empathy development through play.

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2018 Malmö Talks

White Knighting and Why It’s Problematic But Not Necessarily In the Sense You Might Think – Aina Skjønsfjell

White Knighting is a phenomenon Aina only recently has heard about. Fear of White Knighting is currently potentially holding back allies, and in her talk, Aina Sivsdatter addresses the unseen issues with the white Knight phenomenon.

Aina D Skjønsfjell has been larping since she was 15, and has organised a shy dozen of larps in her life. However, it was only in 2014 that she learned that there are several strikes of larps and that her style is called Nordic. In her spare time, when she isn’t larping , writing larps, prepping for larps or playing D&D, Aina works as a translator and is unnecessarily overfond of how languages work.

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2018 Malmö Talks

Emotional Safety, Sorority and #metoo: One Year in Larp Women Unite France – Muriel Algayres

Inspired by the Nordic group by the same name, Larp Women Unite France just celebrated its first year of existence. In this talk, Muriel Algayres will explain how the French group took inspiration from its Nordic counterpart while facing challenges specific to the French-speaking area, to the greater benefit of the larp community at large.

Muriel Algayres is a historian, teacher and game designer from France. She has been creating larp for 15 years, including Dreams of Absinth, Harem Son Saat, and the Belle Epoque trilogy. She is currently working with Rolling international to bring Harem to the Czech Republic, and with the Suffragette! larp international team in Sweden. She also operates as a moderator to the LWU France group, and, as a co-producer of the the “matters of safety” guide, has been active in raising awareness to emotional safety and prevention of harassment in her home country.

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2018 Malmö Talks

Designing Sigridsdotter: A Guide Through a Matriarchy – Eva Wei

How do we design a game that makes complex and subconcious patriarchal structures visible without making it loud, aggressive and in everyone’s face? In this talk, Eva Wei will guide you through the design choices that were made to create the larp Sigridsdotter, a game about everyday life in a modern matriarchy.

Eva Wei (LL. M) is a Swedish larpwright, IP-lawyer and lecturer. She is mostly known for her close-knitted larps about current subjects and her work for intersectional equality. She has designed and organised several larps, and chaired many non-profit organisations and has a great interest in project management. Currently, Eva is one of the mane organisers of Knutpunkt 2018 and works as a lawyer for the Swedish School’s Inspectorate. She is also a dedicated historical fencer and instructor and is in the board of the Swedish HEMA federation.

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2018 Malmö Talks

Female Narratives and Why We Should Play Them – Siri Sandqvist

What is a female narrative and how do you make it playable and interesting? Can historical gender roles ever be anything else than blocking the flow? And most importantly why should I as a larp designer design larps centred around female narratives?

Siri Sandquist is a larper and a larp designer that has been active as an organizer since 2014. Her larps are often centred around gender issues such as It’s a Man’s World (2015) or Winson Green Prison (2016) and she takes a special interest in larps about female experience through her upcoming larp projects, Suffragette, about the movement for female vote in 1912, and “The One Without Sin” a larp she is organizing with the co writers of this talk, Alma Elofsson and Rosalind Göthberg, about the witch trials of Sweden in 1669.

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2018 Malmö Talks

1942: Representing History – Tor Kjetil Edland

1942 was a larp made in the tradition of 360 degrees illusion. In his talk Tor Kjetil Edland will give some examples of what this meant for the experience of the participants and how the larp related to factual history and our connection to this history.

Tor Kjetil Edland is a larp- and scenario-writer who has been the organiser of larps such as Mad about the Boy, Just a Little Lovin’, KoiKoi and 1942 and freeform and blackbox scenarios such as Limbo, New Voices in Art, Say a Little Prayer and House of Cravings.