The yearly Nordic roleplaying convention Knutepunkt focuses on discussion of live roleplay. After each convention a book of articles contributed by larp journalists and theorists is published.

In 2008 the convention was held in Finland, where it is known as Solmukulta, and the book produced was called Playground Worlds: Creating and Evaluating Experiences of Role-Playing Games. It's the best yet in a series of books that include some of the most studious and articulate discussions of roleplaying anywhere.

Format

Playground Worlds is a 8-1/2" x 5-1/2" perfect-bound trade paperback with a colour cover and 288 B&W interior pages. The cover features a photo of some players dressed as hobos pushing prams down a country road, from the larp The White Road. The choice of photo may seem a bit dreary, but the larp pictured is representative of the experimental spirit of the Nordic scene. The interior features a lot of photos that illustrate the text well.

I've read the other Knutepunkt books in PDF format, they're available for free online. Reading such long, detailed articles on a screen is hard. Now that I've had the experience of reading one in hardcopy, and a well-made book at that, I'll have to get hardcopies from now on. Playground Worlds is ransomware, the PDF version will not be made available until sufficient hardcopies have sold.

General impressions

The editors intentionally front-loaded the book with easier reading, and it seems to have been a wise decision. I found the first half of the book very exciting, bouncing from one off-the-wall or high-theory description of Nordic larp to the next. I slowed a bit in the second half, but the momentum from the earlier articles kept me going.

If the idea of scholarly discussion of larp comes as a surprise to you, this book may deliver quite a shock. There are some contributors that are full-time widely-published game theorists, who specialise in larp theory. They're writing about envelope-pushing larp, but the analysis is often generalisable to more garden-variety larp. If you're not familiar with the Nordic larp scene, expect to read some articles while thinking "what the hell?" Read with an open mind, and ideas that seem crazy or outlandish at first may grow on you.

If you're interested in variety in roleplay, bold new approaches, and serious theoretical discussions then this book is for you. The book consists of an introduction and 25 articles. For many people there may be a dozen articles that you'll love, and the rest you could leave, so it'd be perfectly reasonable to skip articles that don't grab you. They're mostly unconnected. A few articles left me unmoved, but the

majority I found excellent.

Articles

Here's a breakdown of the articles, with my impressions of them.

Introduction

The introduction is superb, both as a primer on the articles and an analysis of the Nordic scene. It describes the arty-theoretical community that has grown around the Knutepunkt convention, the growth of written larp analysis by that community, and three current trends in cutting-edge Nordic larp: powerful drama, 360-degree immersion, and pervasive play. Having these trends in mind helps a lot when reading the articles.

The Role-Players' School: Østerkov Efterskole

This fantastic article describes an unconventional boarding school in Denmark where most lessons are taught through roleplay, with no classrooms or blackboards. Roleplay as an educational method has often been discussed in theory, or experimented with for individual lessons, but to found an entire public school based on this approach is an act of great daring. Denmark has a high uptake of youth larp, making it the ideal country to attempt this grand experiment. The aim of roleplay-based teaching at Østerkov Efterskole is to motivate the students and to contextualise the subject matter. How this is achieved is described in detail, in an inspirational way that may make you wish your own education had been as enjoyable. Average student grades from the first year were around the national average, suggesting that the approach used in the school has been successful.

Leave the Cat in the Box: Some Remarks on the Possibilities of Role-Playing Game Criticism

A discussion of the difficulty of critiquing a larp, especially the problem of subjectivity in an interactive medium where the reviewer is inevitably also part of the creative process. It's not easy reading, but if you've ever tried to review a larp you'll find some of the suggestions constructive.

The Dragon was the Least of It: Dragonbane and Larp as Ephemera and Ruin

If you heard about the ambitious larp Dragonbane, a five-day fantasy event for which a village and animatronic dragon were constructed, then you'll know that information about how the event actually went is hard to come by. This article goes a long way in readdressing that. The author describes the logistical failures of the event, while emphasising its overall success and putting it all in the context of the mammoth task that the organisers gave themselves. It describes the vision, the approach that was used to achieve it, and what can be learned from the attempt. Highly insightful and a must-read for anyone curious about Dragonbane or contemplating an ambitious larp project.

Producing a Nice Evening

One of two articles about the larp A Nice Evening With the Family, this one discusses the creative process and organisation behind the larp. While it describes the process of creating a rather unusual larp, where the scripts from several stage plays form the basis of a narrative-driven play style, the methods described are generalisable to any larp with multiple organisers who need to come together to agree on and implement their vision. Full of common-sense advice on creative collaboration, which is all too often where larps fail.

Design for Work Minimisation

A clever article about how to design a larp in a way that will minimise the work involved. While this may sound like a recipe for laziness, a burnt-out organiser is no fun and an over-ambitious but under-achieved larp is disappointing. It's better to start out working to your limitations rather than to drop things you've already promised to players, and this article crisply describes a simple process for adhering to this pragmatic design philosophy.

The Children of Treasure Trap: History and Trends of British Live Action Role-Play

Describes the physical combat fantasy tradition of larp in the UK. This is indirectly relevant to the Nordic scene, as much of European larp was inspired somewhat by UK larp. The article describes the beginnings of UK larp in the early 1980s with Treasure Trap, and how it splintered into the many UK larps that exist today, most of which retain traces of that grandfather larp. Emphasis is put on the evolution of the "fest" style of larp where hundreds or thousands of players camp in factions around a large venue. There is also coverage of new trends in UK larp, towards diversification of genres and "player-driven" larp.

Frail Realities: Design Process

Covers the design of the UK larp Frail Realities, which makes a curious contrast to the Nordic larps described elsewhere in the book with its highly "gamist" design philosophy of balanced character power and gradual advancement. The game took inspiration from the UK larp Labyrinthe, which was in turn derived from Treasure Trap. The rule design is fairly complex even for UK action larp, requiring the use of "battleboarding" (pausing play to work things out on paper). The rationalisations given for this level of complexity aren't strong. There's some good advice on creating a pseudo-historical setting.

High Resolution Larping: Enabling Subtlety at Totem and Beyond

This article makes a subtle point about subtlety. The argument is that most larps attempt some sort of fidelity to large-scale concepts such as story, setting, or character. While this gives an overall believability, the personal interactions between characters may feel unreal to the players experiencing them. This is compared to the "diegetic rules" for affection and aggression used in the larp Totem, written into the setting as a safe means for players to interact in a emotionally charged manner that feels real. A strong argument is made for how such rules create "high resolution larping" in the sense of a real emotional experience of character relationships. I suspect that many mainstream larpers may find this intensity of experience too intimate or threatening. Regardless, it's a good description of one way to achieve subtle relationship experiences in larp.

Walking the White Road: A Trip into the Hobo Dream

The White Road was a Danish larp written and played by six friends who decided to throw themselves into the world of the hobo for three days, walking 40 kilometres to throw their friend's ashes into the sea. It may be the classic example of a "pervasive larp", where the game pervades into reality and bystanders unwittingly become part of the larp. All the bystanders seem to have believed the players were hobos, and one even gave a player money. The article is written in a smart and funny way that gets across the spirit of why people would choose such an uncomfortable thing to roleplay. It's a larp without physical conflict, without rules, and almost without story. It's all about the experience, about putting yourself into another's shoes, and the experience seems to have been profoundly affecting.

Adventurous Romanticism: Enabling a Strong Adventurous Element in Larp

Outlines a play style called "Adventurous Romanticism", where the goal for players is to create as much exciting action for their fellow players as possible. Describes the larps run by the author in this style, in which they encouraged their players to let go of their characters and play in a reckless genre-suitable manner. Light on method, heavy on recollections from events.

Exhuming Agabadan

Agabadan was a highly experimental pervasive larp. Many larpers would struggle to recognise it as a larp at all. Characters were versions of the players, who recognise strange patterns in their everyday lives and then come together to perform improvised "rituals" based on their strange new worldviews. The arrangers report on the successes and failures of the larp, with some players having interesting experiences and others disappointed at the lack of centralised direction inherent in the design.

The Nuts and Bolts of Jeepform

A how-to guide for running larps in the Jeepform style, which resembles a hybrid of larp and improvisational theatre. The article provides plenty of techniques and examples for running no-frills larps that de-emphasise the experience of embodying a character and emphasise the communal creation of a story. For more info see www.jeepen.org.

Behind the Facade of A Nice Evening with the Family

The second article about A Nice Evening with the Family, this time covering the design and implementation. Does a great job of describing the design principles and the techniques used to implement them. The larp described has perhaps the most original design of any in the book, using several stage plays as both the background material and character briefings, and expecting the stories from the plays to re-emerge in play. While this may sound like it would stifle original action, the authors do a good job of explaining the appeal of a guaranteed experience of a strong narrative.

Stupid Stories: Using Narrativism in Designing Agerbørn

It's nice to read an article by larp arrangers who thought they had a great idea, but are willing to admit that it didn't pan out as planned. The concept of the larp Agerbørn was to create an archetypal genre situation (in this case the genre was "countryside horror") and then sit back and watch as the story fell out of the stereotyped characters and minimalist setting. Their final analysis was that while the larp was enjoyable in many ways and some narrative aspects arose, freedom of player action meant that overall narratives did not fall out of play. This makes an interesting comparison to Jeepform and A Nice Evening with the Family, both of which manage to create strong overall narratives but do so by deemphasising player-character freedom of action.

Levelling the Playing Field and Designing Interaction

This article is about the various ways that larp arrangers and players can reach consensus on how a larp should be played, so that they can play in a harmonious way. Larp is a very complex social activity, and miscommunication is a common source of strife and dysfunction, so this is a useful topic. The analysis focuses on different types of rules termed "interaction codes" used to enable interaction, ranging from rulebook-defined rules for simulation, to "unspoken" rules of the player culture, to social rules in the fictional setting. It goes on to discuss how such rules can be communicated and what tools are available to the larp arranger for creating a framework for interaction. Covers a lot of ground, makes some insightful points, but has difficulty making a cohesive argument.

The Age of Indulgence

Juhana Pettersson is a funny guy, given to mock-serious writings. Here he discusses the potential of larp as a vehicle for physical indulgence. He gives some real larp examples ranging from wallowing in flour to hitting people with foam swords, then takes the idea to ludicrous hypothetical extremes, before returning to Earth to contemplate ways in which indulgence can distract from more genuinely fulfilling aspects of play if overemphasised. A fun romp around an under-considered topic.

Parlor Larps: A Study in Design

A discussion of design considerations for a series of pre-generated party larps published in the US. It gives a clever analysis of how a range of character types can be generated as a way to match character types to player preferences. The three descriptors used are "Goals / Emotions", "Simple / Complex", and "Light / Dark". In this way a character could be identified with a combination of these descriptors such as "emotional, complex, and dark" or "goal-oriented, simple, and light" to help players to decide if they want to play the character. Having a good cross-section of these character types also apparently makes for a good play dynamic. The article also describes a bidding-based system for physical, emotional, and social conflict.

24 Hours In A Bomb Shelter: Player, Character and Immersion in Ground Zero

Ground Zero is an often-cited Nordic larp in which the player characters spent 24 hours in a bomb shelter. This long detailed article uses reports from the arrangers and the players, and considers them in the light of game theory and larp theory to create an integrated analysis. Well worth reading for insight into an interesting larp and theories of immersion, and as an example of a casebook academic critique of a larp.

We Are the Great Pretenders: Larp is Adult Pretend Play

Explores the relationship between larp and childhood games of pretend. Compares play methods, motivations, and characterisation. Posits reasonably convincingly that larp is an adult return to pretend play. A little wordy, but well-argued.

Are You the Daddy? Comparing Fantasy Play in Children and Adults through Vivian Gussin Paley's A Child's Work

Another article on the topic of larp as pretend, this one focussed on observations of children's actual pretend play from the book A Child's Work. It's full of surprising examples of how children play pretend, including: negotiation of the scope of play, a lot of scripting, and blending of fictional aspects that might seem incompatible to an adult. Ends with a fairly convincing discussion of the relationship to larp.

Kaprow’s Scions

Considers resemblances of larp to “Happenings”, a form of large-scale public performance art in the 1960s. Much of the article describes Happenings, which are pretty fascinatingly weird especially in the context of such a straight-laced era, with brief considerations of similarities and differences to larp. A somewhat tenuous connection, but the analysis is well considered.

Key Concepts in Forge Theory

Concise summary of the roleplaying theory output of The Forge website, without particular reference to larp. Well written, and worth reading if only so you don’t have to trawl through The Forge itself trying to figure out what the latest output is.

Broadcast Culture Meets Role-Playing Culture

Describes the Swedish TV-show-with-alternate-reality Sanningen om Marika, which won a 2008 Emmy for Interactive Television. While the interactive part of the show was more like an Alternate Reality Game than a larp, it was arranged by a larp production company and the article makes a great read on the clash of cultures between that group and the TV production company. Good reading if you’re interested in the idea of taking larp to the masses with support from conventional media.

We Lost Our World and Made New Ones: Live Role-Playing in Modern Times

A deeply philosophical piece about modern life and the function of larp in it, drawing on the thought-provoking work of exiled Jewish-German philosopher Hannah Arendt. Discusses the value of larp as an antidote for the alienation of modern life in industrialised societies, and reminds me of a piece I read recently discussing the Harajuku Kids in Tokyo, who also dress up and create a social space away from "reality". An affecting article that may get you thinking about much more than larp.

Fantasy and Medievalism in Role-Playing Games

I was quite looking forward to this article, but after reading it I think the book should have ended on the previous one. A rundown of medieval history and a bit of a rant about which roleplaying games the authors think handle such settings the best.

Conclusion

A thought-provoking collection of works on roleplay, and innovative larp in particular. Well presented, dense with content, and definitely worth the purchase price to get it in hardcopy.

For purchase information go to the Solmukohta website.