I do larps for a living, it's my day-job
-
So, I'm posting this because Applefritos, I, and a couple of other people were talking on voicechat earlier today and someone (in jest) mentioned that he's at least not as nerdy as the people who larp. Being a chatty kind of person, I had to respond with the fact that I actually make larps for a living. After assuring people that it was in fact totally legit and that I was not just bullshitting them, Applefritos told me that some of you people here on the forum might actually be interested in that kind of stuff and encouraged me to post it here. So I am, since I'd like to share some of this stuff with you fine people.
I was a bit unsure whether this might be considered advertising, but he told me it'd be fine. If any moderator feels like it, feel free to remove this thread.
I work for a company called Dziobak Larp Studios. It's based in Copenhagen, Denmark and does most of its work in the Silesia region of Poland - but we're branching out and doing stuff in other places as well. And quite a few of our games have inspired other teams to do something in the same style in other countries. The reason we're doing so much stuff in Poland is because it turns out that castles in Poland are surprisingly cheap if you're renting the whole thing for a weekend - and a lot of them are set up like hotels already which makes the practical stuff really easy. My official work title is World Writer & Character Coordinator and I organize the teams that write most of the lore and the characters, and I do the casting by hand.
We've three games that are more well-known than the others. And they also have the best videos, that I'm going to post here to give you an insight. All three videos are shot on-location at the actual castles used for the particular game. We generally use one castle per game. Our games are not boffer-games and have no real "combat" in the sense of classic American larp games - they're based on the "nordic larp" design and focus more on character development and high drama with few if any systems (it's very WYSIWYG). We focus on high production values.
Convention of Thorns
This is the newest of these three games. It's set in the Vampire: The Masquerade universe which some of you might know of. We've done it in collaboration with White Wolf, so it's an official product in the World of Darkness (but played like a what-if scenario). If you want to see the Design Document of this game (which I wrote), you can check it out HERE.Fairweather Manor
This game is based on Downton Abbey. It's set in 1917 during the height of the Great War. It's very focused on class differences and the twilight of nobility - the old way is dying off and the new world is fast approaching. There are some other themes, such as the brutality of the war set against the 'civilized' everyday of the home, which might soon be gone forever. The video is an interview with a player of ours. The Design Document for this game (also written by me) can be found HERE.College of Wizardry
This was the first of our games that hit it relatively big in the community we wanted to target. It's a game about being a college student in a hidden world of magic co-existing with the modern world. It's obviously based heavily on Harry Potter, but is set in its own universe (which I've the job of fleshing out, among other things). This video is somewhat older than the others and our production values are actually a lot higher now, but it's short and sweet so it's a pretty good one to post. As with CoT, you can see the Design Document of this game (again, written by me) HERE.So yeah, that's what I do for a living. I thought (based on Applefritos advice) that some of you might be interested in this kind of stuff.
-
I did a lot of larps in the past. I own a full suit of armor IRL, few swords, cloaks, and all these thingies. (I'm better equiped in RL than my character is IG! :P )
Here though, the only 'big' larp with budget is called Bi-collines (Two-hills), and it's a 6 hour drive. And the only closest one is 3h30 away drive from my town, so when I was about 25 years old, I stopped going there entirely.
You're really lucky though to be able to have a 'living' with working in that industry. It's really fun and I'm sure it doesn't feel like 'work' when you like what you do especially.
-
This topic has Puffy's stamp of approval, I have always wanted to try out larping but none of my nerdy RL friends have been willing to come along cause they're too lazy.
-
Closest we have here to actual LARPing is a few Renaissance Faires and Pirate Fests.
-
Awesome.
I took a glance on Fairweather Manor.
What's the player/actor ratio on this? :O
How much does it approximately cost to participate? -
@Fearsome:
Here though, the only 'big' larp with budget is called Bi-collines (Two-hills), and it's a 6 hour drive. And the only closest one is 3h30 away drive from my town, so when I was about 25 years old, I stopped going there entirely.
You're really lucky though to be able to have a 'living' with working in that industry. It's really fun and I'm sure it doesn't feel like 'work' when you like what you do especially.
Yeah, distance is an issue for quite a few people. We have some spin-offs in the U.S., but weirdly enough we do actually get a few Americans joining our polish games. We've had people from as far away as China, Indonesia, and South Africa. It's always interesting to see the spread of nationalities at each event. We rarely have less than forty different nationalities present at a College of Wizardry game, for example.
I mean, a lot of my actual work is dealing with tickets and responding to player questions via email as well as setting up and moderating Facebook groups and such. So there's plenty of work hours that feel like "work", but I like doing it. There is the sad reality that once you start working with it, it becomes sort of mundane. We already have quite a few games that take place on actual sailing ships (school ships) sailed by the players themselves during the game (with guidance from some skilled people who are also in-character and playing a role), and that sort of thing just seems like "another day at work" when you get used to it. But when I take a step back I'm easily a bit amazed by it. Demeter (which is about the voyage that Dracula took between Transylvania and England in Bram Stoker's novel) which is a horror larp is set on one such ship. Skulls & Crossbones, which is a pirate larp, is set on three of them, each with a different crew (all players).
Closest we have here to actual LARPing is a few Renaissance Faires and Pirate Fests.
I'm guessing that to most people who are more used to combat-heavy larping, nordic larp would probably seem more like a renaissance faire or pirate fest where everyone is ingame. We focus very little on combat or mechanics. As noted, it's very WYSIWYG. Battle scenes, if they do happen (such as gentlemen getting into fisticuffs at Fairweather Manor) are usually talked out by the players prior to the scene, but rarely scripted - nothing is scripted, really.
Awesome.
I took a glance on Fairweather Manor.
What's the player/actor ratio on this? :O
How much does it approximately cost to participate?For Fairweather Manor we have maybe 5-6 organizers on-location. Most of them are there to help out with clothes (if you spilled something, need a button sewn in, etc) and to help with practical stuff. There are 136 players. Players play both nobles, guests, and servants. The servant tickets used to cost just about the same as the other tickets, but we're trying out a new thing where we give out servant tickets for free as long as the servants can organize their own transportation. This is because selling "be a noble at an english manor for a weekend" is rather easy, while "be a servant at an english manor for a weekend" is somewhat less enticing to people who are new to larp. Having tried both, though, I'd easily say that playing a servant is much more interesting if you're going for roleplaying opportunities and heartwrenching stories, the noble thing is more overtly touristy.
It's different for each game. College of Wizardry, for example, is more organiser-heavy. It has about 30-40 organisers (to play NPCs and such, which Fairweather Manor does not really have) and 135 players.
Fairweather Manor 4 is 630 Euro for a non-servant ticket (which are still available, there are about 30 left). The other larps have other prices, of course. When we announce a new larp, the "early bird" tickets are usually 100 Euro cheaper than the latter tickets, so Fairweather Manor 4 used to cost 530 Euro, for example. You can read more about Fairweather Manor specifically at http://www.fmlarp.com.
-
I'm doing something very wrong with my life if there is demand for this on such a price in middle-europe.
It's approximately one month's salary for me. -
These pictures are some 10-years old ones, but still, was a hell of a fun. (I don't miss that hair I had, though! :P )