Patrik´s Blog, Part 4
Patrik is probably only one of the active larpers of the Czech community who makes his larp summary in English. It is an interesting insight into this hobby because Patrik makes larps – and plays them – a lot. And his interests in themes are wide. We prepared a summary serial of his texts that provide an unique insight into his larp experience. So enjoy and we hope that it inspires you to make your own summaries. :-)
Here are the first, second, and third part of Patrick’s blog.
Larp Summary for July 2020
I played one larp that took the last week of July and first of August, so I’m gonna talk about the first part this time.
I had my first real vacation after a few years – I went to a summer camp full of activities such as larp, rpg, creative writing, theatre, painting, crafting, music, tabletop games, sports, relaxation and a lot of other stuff one couldn’t make all.
The larp setting was the Stargate! There were plenty of the setting changes for better playability. For example – the Stargate program is run under the United Nations (so, all nations could be present) and the main base is set on the Alpha Station (so on another planet).
I played Flight Lieutenant Theodor “Theo” David, member of the Royal Airforce, former pilot, then an Intelligence Officer and finally a member of the SG-27 team tasked with an investigation of the events happened during one mission, where a whole SG team has been killed and another team (sent to help) been severely wounded and one member killed as well.
Our team also went investigating other planets (about that next time – expect high-tech vikings, love spreading cult, lizardmen… and ofc goa’uld!).
During the first week we found out, the team actually hadn’t been killed, only faked it and went AWOL. What we did about it? You’re gonna learn next month!
The larp wasn’t usually 24/7, but several hours per day. Usually about 4 hours in the afternoon and then some freeplay in the evening. Twice a week there’s been some missions during the night.
(BTW my larp – War of Princes won’t take place this year, in case you’re wondering.)
Larp Summary for August 2020
Previously on the Stargate…
Flight Lieutenant Theodor „Theo„ David and his team SG-27 investigated a case of a seemingly failed mission on a planet, but we found out, the allegedly dead unit just faked their death and went AWOL.
So, this time, we went to the planet and brought them back. The end!
Or is it?
There was so much more to the story – like they were influenced by some crystals that made people more prone to suggestion and to shiny thingies (like… crystals! So the more you were influenced by the crystals… the more you got influenced by them on top of that).
But that is not all! We also had to defeat a goa’uld named Amon Ra, who invaded the Earth and so we had to gather allies, who helped us to defeat him. Spoiler alert – we succeeded! (After several missions on various planets and making a nuke to blow up on his mothership… because… everything is better with nukes, right?
BUT it was not all!
There was one mission that changed my gameplay entirely. On one planet, we kinda randomly encountered two tok’ra (guys, if you do not know, who tok’ra are, I do not know, what are you doing here) and one dying symbiont jumped into me Jolinar of Malkshur style. The mission was designed to pull „the snake„ out at the end of it, but we decided with an organizer, it would be cooler, if I just keep it. Actually her, as she used to take preferably women hosts for some centuries already. And she had a loved one, who was also a tok’ra, so with this, I have been given in a few minutes a loved one, which I already loved for several centuries. Neet .
I really enjoyed playing two minds in one body and the issue of gender identity! Who would guess, what a camp, which is aimed for children and teenagers could bring to me .
See ya in the next summary, which will be wild!
Larp Summary for September 2020
Oh boy, this will be a long one…
During last month I’ve been part of two larps. Both as a storyteller.
So… one I’ve played and also storytold is a recurring type of game. We call it „Stories„ and each year, there is one (or two) of them and each time there is a different setting. The game has no connection between „the runs„. The only shared is how it is done. Players are gathered by groups with a storyteller. The groups are more or less independent. Storytellers can mix their storylines with each other and players can make connections between them. How exactly are stories made inside the group is up to each group. In some groups a storyteller is merely a connection between other storytellers and everyone is participating in writing characters, storylines etc. In some groups the storyteller prepares all the characters, all the stories and everything else. Most of the groups are somewhere in between. For example I like to help my players to come up with cool characters and stories that they are interested in (and prepare some surprises for them), but if a player is inactive… well, they will have nothing to do (except interacting with the world on the spot).
This time the setting was the Forgotten Realms (so basically D&D). I have been storytelling elves from Evereska, who came outside their isolated realm to investigate some magical plague (which hit the realm as well).
The idea for this group came from playing a D&D campaign during spring lockdown. We basically took the same characters we played then and played them as their live action versions. Which was really cool when interacting with each other, because we could remember things our character made in the past and it was much better than some „dull character history written on a piece of paper„. Next time I am storytelling such a thing, I am playing some rpg first!
The other game was an urban Vampire the Masquerade larp. It was the last chapter of our chronicles that has started somewhere in 2004 by other organisers (with some gap of like 5 years and restarted in 2012, when I started playing). In 2018 the original team made their final chapter and another team took over and made another two runs and then I took over to make the final chapter happen.
The way we play an urban larp is – we just use the city. Inside and outside. There is the Elysium, where players can gather and where the most of the political and social game is made. The investigation, fights etc. is usually happening outside. So, when there is a frenzied vampire that needs to be put down, we just go out and hunt them down, if we need to go to the sewers to investigate some leads, we go to the sewers. So, we have the players and NPCs all over the city doing their stuff.
I cannot describe how monstrous this game became over the years and how difficult it has been for me and my team to navigate through all the stories, plots, schemes, world building etc. that has been made during the years. I decided, the main focus will be on closing the personal storylines of the characters, not some huge event happening to change the world or something (and we want to continue to play our characters at the international events and I want to continue with my vampire balls). I also believe the personal stories are much more interesting for players than some external stuff.
This run of the game has been played by 25 players and more than 40 NPCs. We had the werewolves trying to stick their noses into vampire business, we had the Pentex – a corporation doing actual business, we had fairies living in their fairytale dreamlands, we had mortal gang wars puppeteered by our vampires, we had the Sabbat Inquisition (I bet nobody expected that!), we had zombies, we had living legends (or at least seemingly), we had Kindred seeking an enlightenment, we had love, we had hate, we had schemes, we had kidnaping and rescues… and many, many more…
Oh man, the nostalgia just hit me now . But every story has its beginning and every story should have its end.
Larp Summary for October 2020
This was quite a close one to make in between restrictions. But at the time, the situation allowed to make an outdoor urban larp and I played it.
The larp’s name is „The Shards„ (Střípky). It was the first of several runs of an urban new weird (fantasy-like) larp. It does not follow any known setting (as far as I can tell). The players are just ordinary people, but they are starting to notice some weird stuff. Like they are starting to meet weird people, are hearing about weird events… and slowly are uncovering a supernatural world hidden in our world. Kinda classic stuff.
What was different from other larps with similar designs, is the low-level of „weirdness„. No world saving or whatever. The focus is on ordinary people meeting extraordinary events. And I loved it! For a long time I wanted to play something like this.
I played a priest who kinda struggles with his callings, but is still trying to help people as much as he can. This time even for some people beyond death . Each player’s character is extraordinary in some way. Some characters found out, they may not be entirely humans (I encountered some changelings for example) (and talked to one in-game police officer who was like: „We cough one guy and we think, he may be a werewolf or something. And it seems, he may have killed a man while shifted in animal form. And now… try to prove the murder weapon…„) and all characters have some powers in a way. But not all do know them yet (well… I mean, most of them do not, I have a guess, what it may be, but I am not sure either).
I am looking forward to another run. You know, in the future, the mystical time of larps in person…
Larp Summary for the Year 2020
I can honestly say, this year I fulfilled my goal to play less larps.
#bewarewhatyouwishfor
less 10 larp events (+ 2 conferences).
I played 5 larps as a player. One was an urban new weird fantasy-like larp, another one was set in my beloved StarGate setting, two were online larps and last (but not least) was a chamber larp betatest.
After the betatest, I participated as a NPC for two regular runs of the larp.
I organised 3 larps. The largest one was Vampire the Masquerade larp, which was a last chapter for our local chronicles. Earlier this year, I organised a vampire ball (event from the same larp world), which was designed more like a regular ball than a larp, but there were some stories to play out mainly to foreshadow events for the „main larp„.
As for the third event – I was a storyteller for a small group of elves in an outdoor high fantasy larp set in the Forgotten Realms setting.
One „conference„ was an annual meeting of larp friends. It is more like an informal meeting with people preparing some larp-related topics and having a talk about them. This year, I have been responsible for scheduling the topics, but in the end, I have been sick, so I could not attend (although, I managed to prepare the schedule. As I heard, it went smoothly in the end).
The second conference is a first Czech larp online conference (with international guests) which is running right now and I am writing this post during the breaks .
I won’t talk about my larps, I had to cancel, you know the story, everybody does.
Funny thing – I wanted to make an online larp years back. I wanted to make a sci-fi larp, where the players would play minds on the net, because most of the humans no longer use physical bodies. And of course, some AI is involved. And I wanted some cool interfaces and cool software for the game, which I was too lazy to make or find someone who would make. And I also never fully developed any consistent story. With the e-larps boom, I may think about it someday again. If I somehow manage to fulfill my technical wishes (or if I accept, it can be ran without them) .
I have a lot of ideas for „normal„ larps. But I do not see myself running any of them in 2021. For example my next one should be about a rock band touring through the country, but for that, the rock clubs need to be open for start.
So, I may have time for my other projects (I’ll talk about them in my personal 2020 summary in a few weeks, if you are interested).
Thanks for bearing with me during my larp summaries. See ya next year!
