Steampunk starships.
Animatronic dragons.
Cancer patients.

In the Nordic countries, live action role-playing has developed into a unique and powerful form of expression. Nordic larps range from entertaining flights of fancy to the exploration of the intimate, the collective and the political. This incredible tradition combines influences from theatre and performance art with gamer cultures, in order to push the boundaries of role-playing.

Nordic Larp presents a critical cross section of this vibrant culture through 30 outstanding larps, combining stories told by designers, players and researchers with over 250 photographs of play and preparations. In addition the book contains two essays that explain the history and rhetorics of Nordic larp, and contextualizes it in relation to theatre, art and games.

The editors Jaakko Stenros and Markus Montola are life-long role-players, as well as game researchers at the University of Tampere. They are authors of Pervasive Games: Theory and Design (2009) as well as the editors of Playground Worlds (2008) and Beyond Role and Play (2004). The book produced by Anna Westerling and Anders Hultman, and the graphic design is by Tommi Kovala.

Order Nordic Larp online.

The games featured are: Trenne byar, Helsingin Camarilla, Föreningen Visionära Vetenskapsmäns Årliga Kongress, Det sista kapitlet, Ground Zero, Knappnålshuvudet, Carolus Rex, 1942 – Noen å stole på, Europa, PehmoYdin, The Executive Game, inside:outside, Hamlet, Zombie: Rædslernes Nat, PanoptiCorp, Mellan himmel och hav, Luminescence, Rollespil i Rude Skov, Silmäpuoli merirosvo, Once Upon a Time, Enhetsfront, System Danmarc, Dragonbane, The White Road, Prosopopeia Bardo 2: Momentum, Totem, En stilla middag med familjen, Krigslive V: I Kejserriget Blev Jeg Født…, Antikristuksen yö and Delirium.

Said about Nordic Larp:

“Nordic Larp is a rare and vivid glimpse into a fascinating gaming tradition. If anyone knows how to imagine better worlds and build a more engaging reality, it’s larpers.”
– Jane McGonigal, author of Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World

“The rise of the ars ludorum is not confined to the bombastic power fantasies of the videogame but is manifest all over the globe in diverse ways, from the doujin games of Japan to the passionate intensity of the indie games movement to the rise of the Euro-style board game. Not least among these movements is larp, brought to its apotheosis in the Nordic countries, where vast, imaginative works of enormous artistic ambition receive attention not only from game geeks but from their national cultures as well. This vital phenomenon is now accessible to English speakers through this landmark work, an anthology of articles describing some of the most impressive and compelling works of the form. Anyone seriously interested in role-play, interactive narrative, and the collision between games and theater will find it of enormous interest.”
– Greg Costikyan, Game Designer

“Now evolved far from its roots in genre consumption and modification, the progressive Nordic live roleplaying scene is building the tools for participatory performance that artists internationally will be using for generations to come. Nordic Larp is the first book to put the community’s key pieces in one easily digestible and visually seductive format.”
– Brody Condon, Artist

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