@ Onkiniemi Ateljee, Onkiniemenkatu 2 B 2

Preliminary non-binding reservation is much appreciated so we can make sure everybody has a place. Reservations via email to villesusi.play@gmail.com

“Ludus = Play, Game, Playful Love
Soma = Lived body and object body together form the soma
Duso = Developing Understanding of Self and Others

Play & Meditation
At the intersection of these two powerful and mysterious moods and “energies”, interesting things begin to happen, and we become aware of the world and ourselves in a new way. 😊 ❤

Play – Meditation – Consciousness – Exploration.
In workshops, we play, practice, share, understand play, meditate, explore play, meditate while playing, play meditatively, and play with body awareness.

What is known about play?
Where does play arise from? What about the playful mind?
Where does play begin, and where does it end?
What is the smallest possible play?
What is the difference between play, playfulness, and playfulness?
What is the Magic Circle, and how does it relate to play?
What if the universe is just playing?
What is the spirit of play, and how is it called?

The entire workshop can be seen as a deep but safe meditation, a pause and movement meditation that focuses on play. We examine and practice play, playfulness, and playfulness, especially in relation to body awareness. The content of the workshop varies and is determined by the situation.

Each workshop takes place if a sufficient number of participants attend. The minimum number of participants varies from two to four depending on the workshop.

This can be seen as an introduction to meditation through play but also as an introduction to body-conscious play (for example participants for whom body awareness or meditation is somewhat familiar. )😊

If you have doubts about suitability, please confirm with the instructor 😊
The workshops are intended for adults aged 18 and older, i.e., they are for participants over 18 😊
Weather permitting, we may spend some time outdoors.”

Some Tags / Descriptors:
Play and its experience. Playfulness. Playfulness. Playfulness.
Play and non-play. Seriousness. Work. Practice. Goal. Rest.
Conscious play. Adult play. Magic Circle and boundaries. Playfulness vs. Mindfulness. Zen. Play energy. Play space. Game. Play expertise. Play research. Philosophy of play. Phenomenology of play. Ludology. Flow-state. Telic, para-telic, auto-telic. states of mind.

@ Artteli upstairs, Mustalahdenkatu 22

Meeting place, headquarters for a Week in Finland is open. Join us! Hang out, meet other people, drink some coffee, play some boargames, get instructions and meet up with others.

@ Artteli, upstairs, Mustalahdenkatu 22

In this short larp Women in Finland you will experience the state of the Finnish feminist struggle during the last 100 years. You will dive down in five very different times and meet three very different women each time. There will be The Friend, the ex-radical; The Mother, who has accepted a life according to societal norms; and The Daughter, a radical who rebels against her mother and looks up to The Friend. These women are invented anew in each episode, but still stay the same.

The game is a localized version of the game Women by Susanne Gräslund & Anders Hultman. My game takes the story to Finland, a country with more wars in 20th century than Sweden and where many steps forward were taken 30 years later than in Sweden.

The game is a classical freeform scenario: no need to prepare before the game. No fancy mechanics, very suitable for beginners. All the player characters are women but anyone regardless of their gender is welcomed to participate.

Sign up is open until 20th March. The game is for 3-4 players and therefore we need to know in advance the number of people attending.

We’ll arrange two games, if there are enough participants. If there are more sign ups than spots, we’ll have a lottery after the sign up is closed. We’ll inform you if you got a spot in a few days after the sign up is closed.

Content warnings: losing a child, alcoholism of a parent, war, discrimination against women, discrimination against queer people. Some of these can be exluded but not all.

@ Artteli Kuulu, downstairs, Mustalahdenkatu 22

Meeting place, headquarters for a Week in Finland is open. Join us! Hang out, meet other people, drink some coffee, play some boargames, get instructions and meet up with others.

@ Rihmos, Näsilinnankatu 22A, 2nd floor

Welcome to dance Swing at Rihmos on Mondays from 6 PM! We dance to music of the Swing Golden Era 1935-45, that suits well for Lindy Hop, Balboa, Collegiate Shag and Charleston. Evening starts with an 1 ½ hour practice and guidance. Entrance 5€.
This time there is a special planed due to happening of the Solmukohta, the northern european larping conference, in Tampere.
At 6 PM there will be a short introduction class in Blues and Swing dancing for people with little or no experience in either of the dances, taught by Andreas von Knobloch. You will learn enough to enjoy yourself on the dance floor, connect with a dance partner and the music and just have a great night.
At 6:30 PM There will be a Fusion class with moves and techniques you can use in both Blues and Swing dancing.
7:30 PM the social dance starts and you can enjoy dancing with new and old friends to amazing music
—-
Blues/Swing-Fusion Evening info:
18:00-18:30 Intro class in Blues and Swing
18:30-19:30 Blues&Swing Fusion class
19:30-22:00 Blues and Swing dance evening (19:30-21:00 focus Swing, 21:00-22:00 focus Blues)
Entrance: 5€, mobile pay or cash (preferable the exact amount).

Our dancing venue is Rihmos, next to Sitko Pizza, in Näsilinnankatu 22A, 2nd floor. To get in, press a door buzzer with the text “Rihmos”. Please be prepared to dance in your indoor shoes or socks. You can bring drinks or snacks for yourself or to share.

https://www.facebook.com/events/321755760820650/321756820820544

@ Gathering Artteli, Mustalahdenkatu 22

Feel like getting your steps in and your wallet out? Join a local thrifty larper for a tour of second hand stores and flea markets in downtown Tampere, with an optional excursion at the end to Nextiili fabric recycling center and vintage store in Lielahti. Bring your own bags, and if coming to Nextiili, a payment card or the Nysse app for the bus.

@ Artteli upstairs, Mustalahdenkatu 22

Meeting place, headquarters for a Week in Finland is open. Join us! Hang out, meet other people, drink some coffee, play some boargames, get instructions and meet up with others.

@ Tampereen Ylioppilasteatteri, Itsenäisyydenkatu 12-14

The Orpheus Theatre is known for the hazy, unreal midnight celebrations following its premieres and productions. Actors, art students, derelicts, junkies, the stars of yesterday, and the promising talent of tomorrow all creep in for that sordid dance-floor magic, for the slow, horny chaos of drugged up 3 AM confusion. Emerging in the early hours, steeped in bizarre regrets and haunting memories, you wonder whether everything really happened.

There are plenty of rumours that strange tragedies follow people at these parties, and that being involved in the theatre’s productions is dangerous. Few bother to see the shows – small weird affairs with short runs, and bizarre, haunting imagery. They come for the parties

There is a reason why The Orpheus is too strange to succeed, yet pulls in the hungry, the lonely, and the yearning. The fae lurk in the shadows, eager to touch the reality and spark of a human being. Eager to be changed by it. The fae feed every ambition and creative impulse, no matter how dangerous or self-destructive. For the faeries at their eternal party, there is no beauty as striking as that of human desperation.

Dance, human. Dance at the risk of having to dance for ever.

3 AM Forever is a larp set at the party following a premiere at The Orpheus. In the hours from when the show ends to the end of the night, you will lose yourself in your dreams, stumbling out as both less and more than what you were before. The memories of what you did might fill you with dread but you’d do it all over again.

3 AM Forever is:

– A party larp set in the present day

– Works heavily with meta-techniques to portray fae glamour

– Light and audio as tools to transport the characters to another world

– Will begin with a 2 hour workshop followed by 5 hours runtime

– Most participants will be playing humans

In 3 AM Forever, you will dance, flirt, take risks, do something dumb, lose yourself, start a fight, reconcile, get seduced, make a bad bet, gossip, double down on your mistakes, lie, confess, and discover your heart’s desire. You’ll lose control as the boundaries between the real and the fae begin to blur. As the magic of the eternal party overwhelms you it matters less and less who’s fae and who isn’t. Eventually all act as the faerie.

Number of participants
Up to 80 participants.

Price
Regular Ticket 85,- Eur.
Sponsor Ticket 105,- Eur
Subsidized Ticket 65 Eur

Content warnings: Partial nudity, sexual themes, mental influence, desperation

@ Gathering Artteli, Mustalahdenkatu 22

Come to visit the Finnish Museum of Games! We’ll gather at A Week in HQ (Artteli) at 16:00 and walk to the museum (1,7 km). You can also come straight to Vapriikki Museum Centre where the Museum of Games is located. Participants are required to buy their own tickets (15 € adults, 7 € students).

https://www.vapriikki.fi/en/the-museum/the-finnish-museum-of-games/

@ Artteli upstairs, Mustalahdenkatu 22

Meeting place, headquarters for a Week in Finland is open. Join us! Hang out, meet other people, drink some coffee, play some boargames, get instructions and meet up with others.

@ Paidia, Kansikatu 3

Edularp Conference Tampere 2024 is part of the Nordic Larp conference Solmukohta. It brings together edularp professionals, larpers, teachers, and other people interested in the form from all over the world, now for the tenth time.

https://fb.me/e/4MIWB1ZiJ

@ Artteli, Kuulu downstairs, Mustalahdenkatu 22

Meeting place, headquarters for a Week in Finland is open. Join us! Hang out, meet other people, drink some coffee, play some boargames, get instructions and meet up with others.

@ Paidia, Kansikatu 3

A Week in Finland will culminate in the Nordic Larp Talks. They are a series of short, informative, entertaining, thought-provoking, sometimes surprising lectures about larp and related phenomena in theory and in practice.

https://fb.me/e/1ZY5tnbcV

@ Paidia, Kansikatu 3

Immersive theatre, instruction-based performance, art larp, role-playing performance: interesting stuff is happening in the intersection(s) between larp and art. It used to be that larpwrights would venture into visual arts and durational shows to steal ideas. During the last decade such excursions have become more evenly distributed, with larp and role-play ideas being infused in other fields.

We feel that it would be interesting to bring together people who are working in the areas of larp and art, incorporating elements of pretend play, durational experience, narrative co-creation, inter-immersion, character fidelity, and game mechanics in their works. Thus we invite you to participate in the first-ever SUBLIME PRETENSE symposium, organised in Tampere just before the four-day larp convention Solmukohta kicks off.

If you would like to present past work or current practice that relates to art and larp, please send a short 200-word pitch to sublimepretense@gmail.com by March 8th. We will feature 10-minute presentations, followed by a discussion. We are particularly interested in your practical approaches in creation, challenges and insights encountered along the way, and ways of positioning your work as art, larp, or both.

If you want to present something, send us a line.

@ Scandic Tampere Koskipuisto, Koskikatu 5

How can technology enhance larp experiences? To what degree does technology interfere with immersion in larp? Meet Me Halfway is a short larp scenario for 10 people about soul mates reincarnating into new lives and finding one another.

In Meet Me Halfway, players will play multiple incarnations of soul mates who can only communicate in limited ways, including various types of technology: text-based, VR, and audio. The larp experience and the workshop following it will explore questions around the degree to which players can immerse deeply and emotionally powerfully with the affordances and limitations of technology.
Location: Scandic Tampere Koskipuisto
Room: Restaurant Cabinet

Participants can join either the larp, the workshop, or both. Each event has its own sign-up form.

NOTE: This larp is currently full. You are welcome to sign up to the waitlist.

Feedback will be anonymized and integrated into a Tech Toolkit along with the larp script, which will be freely available in the coming year.

Lunch is available between events at the hotel or near the venue. Coffee and snacks will be served during the events.

The workshop is part of the Erasmus+ Cooperation Partnership grant Empowering Game Design Education with Transformative Role-playing Games (EDGE), a collaboration between Uppsala University, Turku University of Applied Sciences, Chaos League, Dragons Nest, and Avalon Larp Studio.

Content warnings: Motion sickness from VR, romantic and intimate play, nonlinear time/time jumps, death, loss, war, religion, imprisonment, police

@ Scandic Tampere Koskipuisto, Koskikatu 5

How can technology enhance larp experiences? To what degree does technology interfere with immersion in larp?

* Larp and Tech Workshop for 10-30 people brainstorming the pros and cons of technological integration

Thursday, April 11
Larp: 10:00-12:00
Workshop: 13:00-14:30
Sign-up form (workshop only): https://forms.gle/UhKHXNcDA1gdKGYJ7

In the Larp and Tech workshop, participants will discuss the pros and cons of different forms of technology in larp, as well as brainstorm ways in which tech can be used in their larp design and implementation effectively. Feedback will be anonymized and integrated into a Tech Toolkit along with the Meet Me Halfway larpscript, which will be freely available in the coming year.

Participants can join either the Meet Me Halfway larp (10-12), the workshop, or both. Each event has its own sign-up form. If the events are full, we will perform a lottery and place potential participants on a waitlist.

Lunch is available between events at the hotel or near the venue. Coffee and snacks will be served during the events.

The workshop is part of the Erasmus+ Cooperation Partnership grant Empowering Game Design Education with Transformative Role-playing Games (EDGE), a collaboration between Uppsala University, Turku University of Applied Sciences, Chaos League, Dragons Nest, and Avalon Larp Studio.

Conten warning: Motion sickness from VR

@ Paidia, Kansikatu 3

Welcome to Nordic Larp Research Network mini-seminar in Tampere Thursday 11th April 14.00-16.00, Paida in Nokia arena. We would like to share our research, discuss future project and funding, and deep dive into larp research today and tomorrow.

Please sign up here if you want to be part of the Nordic Larp Research Network:
https://forms.office.com/e/tHD7QVgeb1

Location: Conference lobby

Welcome to Solmukohta 2024!

Have you heard of the sauna, and do you want to take part in this cultural activity par excellance – but you have QUESTIONS? Such as is it actually nice at all when it sounds like torture? And how on EARTH are you supposed to get naked with strangers – or even worse, friends? Finnish-Canadian import Jamie will bridge the culture gap, dispel some myths, and tell you what you need to know to sweat with the best of us. And by the way it does feel fantastic, and you don’t actually have to be naked if you don’t want to, and while we’re at it any kind of gendered body can participate in sauna in Solmukohta. After this very short programme item, you’re welcome to stay for Solmukohta 101.

What is Nordic Larp? Is the term useful? Is it dead as a concept, despite being used all the time? What does it mean when we say that something is a Nordic Larp, why do we say it, and what does it achieve in practice? In this talk, we try to answer these questions with focus on how the term is used by creators and participants and what function it serves today.

Together with this, we launch a model for analyzing, documenting or describing larps from the perspective of both creator and participant.

In order to provide context, we will also briefly touch upon previous concepts and definitions but this talk does not aim at providing a final say on the matter of defining Nordic Larp. We do however hope to give some food for thought, some useful tools and just maybe offer up a definition that is useful in practice.

Is this your first Solmukohta? Are you new to the scene and have questions? What is the rule of the open chair? How do I find the ritual elevator? Come learn the inside jokes and learn how to Solmukohta like a pro!

Larp in general, and Nordic style larps in particular, is often claimed to be an artistic practice, a frontier of participatory arts. However, discourse on larp by larp organizers, larp participants, and game studies researchers have, in recent years, started to frame larp-making primarily as a design practice. Let’s discuss what this hegemony of design thinking does to our practice.

This session opens with a reading of the communique “Against Design” and ends with a discussion on larp as an artistic practice.

This programme item has been moved to Friday 13:00 in Henrika 4!

Join us Thursday evening for a supportive session on navigating the complexities of returning to SK/KP.

We’ll collectively address feelings of being unrecognized or ignored by peers from previous years, work on how to deal with awkward situations, and learn how to set healthy expectations about Solmukohta.

Together, we’ll use dramatic exploration, Liberating Structures, and inclusive bottom-up processes to work with the ‘here and now,’ make sense of our experiences and empower each other.

Are you planning to avoid alcohol, or to limit your drinking, at Solmukohta? Join us at this friendly, supportive discussion/social. We’re here both for people who don’t drink at all, and for people who do drink but might want support in managing their drinking.

We will share experiences, talk about social techniques, and get to know each other as potential ‘sober buddies’. We will also introduce the Blue Ribbon Collective project, a mutual support group for people wishing to avoid alcohol or limit their intake at larps and larp-related events: and will offer blue ribbons to participants.

Everything said will remain confidential, and you don’t have to speak if you don’t want to.

Content warnings: There may be discussion of alcoholism and of alcohol-related harms.

Dance with Me is a larp which explores the concept of support through the fiction of a dance rehearsal and performance.
As a basis for the character creation and the rehearsals each player presents a short dance (which can be more or less improvised). Through different scenes the group then explores how they can support each player’s dance thereby generating material for the final performance.
The larp is a mix between wordless movement scenes and verbal scenes with focus on discussing the dances and how to support each other.

How much of a workshop or briefing do participants really remember when play starts? What about the next morning? The next evening? Slide down Ebbinghaus’ Forgetting Curve as we look at how long people retain information, and how to step beyond briefings to make information about your event truly memorable.

Bait Byout the Palestinian LARP organisation presents a talk about the “LARP Factory (LARP School) program”, which is a program designed to help Palestinian youth become active citizens & aims to empower the participants to become more socially involved in addressing community issues and enable them to voice opinions through a comprehensive LARP curriculum.
Bait Byout has implemented the first version, with the participation of 22 Palestinian youths, and would like to share this experience with all of you, we look forward to your input into the second version and how we can improve the program.

Content warnings: Loud noises, Flashing lights

For larpers to tackle the climate crisis, we need to understand the specific challenge faced by our sector. Søren Ebbehøj – an engineer working in energy and climate politics – will guide you through the basic calculations of carbon footprints of internationals larps. Together you will explore the numbers, the scales and what to look out for in across countries and genres. For this discussion format, pocket calculators are welcome, and while heavy on numbers, the discussion will be perfectly accessible for those better with words.

Content warnings: Climate emergency will be mentioned

Buckle up for our “Uncomfortable Vibes Bash” – a one-hour room party kicking off the first evening where we’re all still in that awkward vibe sweet spot. We’re diving headfirst into the realm of awkwardness and embracing it with open arms.

Prepare for a rollercoaster of embarrassment as we provide the subtle hum of elevator music playing in the background, alcohol-free punch (so you can’t even escape the awkwardness by getting drunk), wobbly tables and snacks that crunch a little too loudly, setting the perfect atmosphere for an awkward extravaganza.
We’ve got you covered with uncomfortable games and a lineup of cringe-inducing icebreakers designed to make you question your life choices. It’s time to revel in the hilarity of awkward encounters, dance like no one is watching (but everyone is), and engage in conversations that you’d rather forget ever happened.

Let’s get our awkward on!

Content warnings: Awkwardness

For both newcomers and old conference attendees, settling in and connecting with others at Solmukohta can take a while. By playing together in a series of exercises, some more silly than others, you get introduced to new people in a fun way. Hopefully you will be leaving in good spirits with new connections to hang out with during the weekend.

Content warnings: Loud noises

By now a yearly tradition, this round of usually lighthearted lightning talks puts a spotlight on the fact that we all make (often hilarious) mistakes when making larps, veterans and beginners alike. Hopefully this creates playful commiseration between designers, while people who aren’t designers yet may realize that they do not have to be perfect to start creating.

Learn about the ways I incorporated larp into my curriculum as a drama teacher at a charter school in New York City this past year, via in-class parties, a classroom podcast and more!

What has happened in the world in the previous year? What major events or horrible scandals did the larp scene witness? What are we looking forward to in the future? What are the hot topics right now?
Welcome to Solmukohta News, a current affairs talk show hosted by Mike Pohjola.

Miskatonic University is a 20s larp set in the Cthulhu Mythos universe. It’s a story about knowledge and its limits, ambition, campus life but also fears and inner demons. The larp was very well received, with more than 800 players over 7 runs and many good reviews. In this presentation we will deconstruct the larp talking about the design and aesthetic agenda. We will also cover logistics, production, show numbers, but also talk about lessons learned, challenges, achievements and fun facts.

we will learn and have fun doing dances from various countries and cultures, ranging in energy levels and from the ridiculous to the sublime. No dance experience necessary!

This item covers the creation of a larp concept based on theatrical characters and both the concept and its application in “The Bard’s Tale” larp Beta Run, which took place October 13th, 2023. The intent is to share the design and concept not just of the Shakesperean version of it, but also the broader concept and its uses.

Imagine walking into a garden, stepping out of this world into a place where Romeo is wooing Juliet to your right, and Bottom is being thrilled by Titania to your left, while Claudio and Hero are arguing about loyalty in front of you… and you just took three steps…

We know we have not invented the wheel, but ours has spinning rims.

Expect a few minutes of theatrical representation at the beginning, just to intro the concept. Not too loud, aside from voice projection.

Embrace your inner queer masc energy for our traditional one hour room party! For and by mascs who feel romantic or sexual attraction exclusively or partly towards other mascs, for example gay/bi/pan men (cis or trans) and enbies. It’s also open for those who enjoy their company. This year with new hosts, but the same welcoming energy and wholesome masculinity. Join us for one hour to hang, flirt and have a drink with other mascs.

Come as you are, or dress up in your nicest suit, hottest leather harness or your favorite t-shirt.

Content warnings: Loud noises

The Bar at the End of the Universe is a drop-in larp: on arrival you’ll read quick instructions and a short character sheet and you’re ready to play for however long you want. Enjoy the blues, the bourbon, and the company of a bartender willing to listen to your story. Maybe you’ll finally find here what you’ve been looking for all across the galaxy.

If you want to drink alcohol during the larp, please buy it from the actual hotel bar beforehand; we’re sadly not allowed to serve real alcohol. There will be mocktails though!

This is a party open to all queer femmes, where we can come dance and mingle with each other.

Content warnings: Loud noises

For the third year the incredible BI PAN PARTY continues it’s rambunctious run. EVERYONE IS WELCOME. There is space for everyone here. The space is an explicit celebration of Bisexual, Pansexual, Omnisexual and Polysexual visibility, that everyone is invited to regardless of who they are.

So join the lemon-drizzling, bad chair-sitting. pun-slinging finger-gunners of the international larp scene for yet another celebration of our sexuality and help end the erasure. Loudly.

“We need, in every community, a group of angelic troublemakers…”- Bayard Rustin

Content warnings: Loud noises

We are going to sing along to the most iconic and popular duets through history. And you can help choosing which songs.

For each duet everyone choose the vocal they want to sing a long to. Then each vocal will go to their side of the room and we’ll start singing along and against each other.

Each song will be shown with a video with lyrics, so you sing along without knowing the lyrics by heart.

If you want to choose which song(s) we should sing, then fill out this form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe9B93jvjZBOHnSYRA-hp0a7d6lrlnyv9Fo78a6JLaS7TJRWQ/viewform before the Monday the 1st of April 2023 23:59 CET. The songs with most votes will be selected.

The full playlist will be published here shortly after the 1st April, so you have time to rehearse before Solmukohta 🙂

Content warnings: Loud noises

Go, Goblins, Go! is a communal, interactive roleplaying experience where the participants jump into the boots of goblins and go on a silly little adventure. This programme is a combination of roleplaying and a roleplaying show: you can either participate in the adventure as a goblin or just watch and cheer from the audience as part of the greater goblin tribe.

Upon arrival you will get a very simple character sheet that you can use to create your very own goblin. The mechanics are very casual and will be explained at the start of the show, but they mostly include shouting and tossing a giant inflatable die. Many goblins are expected to perish during the adventure, but what does that matter as long as the greater goblin tribe carries on! So embrace your inner goblin and join us for an adventure!

The programme is the original creation of Rasmus Pechuel and is being performed with his blessing.

Content warnings: Loud noises, Cartoon violence and death

How are larps and games built on the foundations of rules, and how do rules — of which there are only five kinds — really work? Board games to sports, digital games to party games, gambling to role-playing, they all share one thing in common: rules. Indeed, rules are the one and only thing game scholars agree is central to games. But what, in fact, are rules? In this talk, game scholars Jaakko Stenros and Markus Montola explore how different kinds of rules work as building blocks of games and larps based on their recent book, The Rule Book.

Stenros and Montola discuss how rules constitute games through five foundational types: the explicit statements listed in the official rules, the private limitations and goals players place on themselves, the social and cultural norms that guide gameplay, the external regulation the surrounding society places on playing, and the material embodiments of rules. Depending on the game, rules can be formal, internal, social, external, or material.

It’s Terra’s birthday, but when you walk in this room, it’s YOUR BIRTHDAY TOO! Bring gifts (open to interpretation).

The 80s was a decade of patchwork kitch with many musical styles and fashions, so come and celebrate that decade by dancing to some of the best (and arguably the worst) music released between 7 September 1979 and 31st December 1989.

Content warnings: Loud noises

aka The Nonbinary | Gender Queer | Gender Rebel | Gender Fuckery one-hour-room party

This is a one hour room party for all people who sometimes or always don’t identify with the gender assigned to them at birth and do not entirely subscribe to the gender binary while doing so. Otherwise also known as
– non binary,
– gender queer,
– gender fluid or
– otherwise besides the usual gender norms of “man” and / or “woman”.
Feel welcome to join in the fracas of dancing and mingling, talking and possibly awkward flirting (none of this is required!).

Content warnings: Loud noises, Flashing lights

When it comes to sexual identity, some of us in this community are… well… monogamous. And sometimes it feels like we’re the only ones like that in the room, right? This 1-hour room party is designed for monogamous singles to meet, connect, have fun together, and maybe even find a potential romantic partner – who knows?

Remember the rules: 1. Consent is sexy. 2. Acceptance is key. 3. Avoid being judgmental of others.
Be respectful of one another, whether you’re navigating the seas of love in search of a partner or prefer to keep sailing solo.

Have you been talking serious larping theory for hours? Are you burned out after multiple non-verbal workshops?
It’s time to relax and have great laugh! Get your favourite beverage and come see which country is the funniest when it comes to making fun of larpers and larping.

Solmukohta (KP) TV – Laughs 100% guaranteed since 2015!

Content warnings: Loud noises, Flashing lights

THURSDAY:

23 Simon Trip to the 80s: Whine and Cheese

00 DJ Whiskey Maple Syrup
Space Oddities

01 Adam
Jungle and silliness

FRIDAY
22:30 Simon Brind, Laurie Penny, Halfdan Justesen, Sagalinn Tangen, Martine Svaneik
Gothic Room Party

23:30 Sandy Bailly, Steve Deutsch, Tina Bjick
Midsummer Disco

00:30 Chance F
We Wanna Rock!

1:30-2 Alana
Folktronica for Pagan Teens


SATURDAY
21 TK Don’t Slip & DJ Fryktløs
Nude Illusion

22 Troels

23 Petter
The (Electro)House I Grew Up In

00 DJ Argola
House of Immersion

01 Matyas
Synthwave Subversive

02-04 Andreas
Secret Fusion Party II

Learn the warm-up sequence this professional singing teacher swears by to reduce tension in the body and voice. This will include dancing, light stretching, facial massage and vocal exercises – a great prep for the physical and vocal demands of KP weekend! This workshop can easily be done sitting, and there is no requirement for any singing or speaking alone.

Goooooood morning! Start your day with talk show presenter Maria Pettersson!

Maria will interview guests about this year’s book and how to rescue someone from the British freeform scene to Nordic larp!

Grab your morning coffee and let Maria and stage musician John Blue gently wake you up to 2nd day of Solmukohta 2024.

This scenario explores the unknown nature of deep time, a concept about the development and interconnectedness of life on earth, the vastness of the universe and the enduring mysteries of time itself. The larp will touch on this topic only in a light manner, delicately guiding you through bodily movements, deep listening and ecological imaginations.

Through a series of rituals you will travel to places on earth where the phenomenon of deep time can be experienced. Forming new languages of world-building and relationship-building you will collectively write and share stories that shall accompany you on this journey. Dwelling in the Dark invites you to be-with and to become-other.

Each participant will receive an artifact to take home allowing the ritual to continue beyond this experience. Expect to lay down, sit together, listen closer, whisper with the winds, dance with the waters and dwell in the dark. This larp is designed for even numbers, as many exercises will happen in pairs of two.

Content warnings: Light touch, sound won’t be very loud but will be added to build on the scenario

History has always been a popular setting for larping. Whether that be regency period drama, vikings, World War II or the gay scene in 1980s New York, the past has provided larp with a rich fount of inspiration. History can provide setting, costume, characters or plot; it can be a playground and a tool for exploring the worlds and voices of the historically underprivileged, or the extremely powerful.

But what exactly *is* a historical larp? And what is it that we do when we larp in a historical setting? A historical larp can range all the way from a vaguely historical setting in “the vintage era” to 360-larps with high ambitions on immersion and historical realism. The points of views which can be explored from a historical perspective are almost infinite. Given this variety, is there a common thread to all of these larps?

When we engage in historical larping, is there something which separates historical larping from other genres of larp? What does historical larping say about our view of history, and can we learn anything about history from larping?

Join us to discuss these and other related questions at a round table moderated by James Lancaster, a larper and a PhD student of history at Örebro university in Sweden with a keen interest in how history can be used as a cultural and emphatic tool of understanding. The moderator will host a brief introduction to the subject, before the round table begins.

A panel about food and larp. How can food deepen or enhance the experiences of the players.
Is it possible to make historical food dietary friendly (and edible).
What is the greatest lessons to take with you when it comes to making a menu for a larp experience?

These questions, and much more will be covered as some of the nordic larp scenes talented chefs takes the stage in a panel about food and larp.

Flirting has always been around and there was a time when people could interact with the opposite sex only by dancing. So there are many dances that are made for flirting. Join the workshop on historical dances and learn how how to flirt by dancing. All of the dances are fun and more or less historically accurate. No partner nor dance background needed.

Dances for the workshop (you may google if you want to see)
Lets flirt: Peace branle, My lord Byrons Maggot, Juggling partners and if we have time Staines Morris.
And after we flirt, we get jealous: La jalouisie
And have a duel: Le pistolet.

Merli has a long background with historical dances and she has been dancing for 20 years.

Content warnings: Loud noises

All aboard as we enter that most liminal of larp spaces; the larp bus. A larp that does wat it says on the tin — you will play larpers on the way to and from a larp event. Because as we all know: it is the journey that matters most.

This workshop is about co-creative movement to music while blindfolded – you could call it dancing, but it is not a formal dance form or choreography. Instead, we will be leading and following, connecting, co-creating, and being present in a blindfolded and nonverbal setting. We will change partners and role (leading/following) during the workshop.
The workshop is physical (but not difficult) and will require you to be able to move and balance while blindfolded. You will need to be comfortable touching others – at least hands and arms, but since we are blindfolded, being connected in more spots body to body makes leading and following easier. You do not need any experience with dancing at all and we will be doing very gentle movements.

This is a serious talk about designing for laughter.

In the Nordics we are much more comfortable with drama, crying and tragedy. But larps can also be designed to be laugh out loud funny.

I am gonna go through some examples of comedic larps, comedic mechanics and how you can make your larps intentionally funny.

Don’t worry comedy can also be used for social commentary and be politically deep.

In recent years new ethical codes have been adapted for the field of arts and culture in multiple European countries, and the development of ethical demands is growing. The workshop presents common themes in the new codes, and asks how should larp practice adapt to these new demands? Do the codes even bring any new restrictions? The workshop is open to all who are interested in the questions of larp, art and ethics.

The workshop continues to develop on the themes of the article “Will Ethical Demands Limit or Liberate Larp?” from a more practical point of view.

Mikael Kinanen is the executive director of the Association of Independent Performing Arts in Finland, and an active participant in the discussion around ethical codes for art.

Content warnings: Possible discussion of ethical violations

This is a larp about troubled children and the the monsters under their bed. It draws inspiration from the horror trope of the haunted child who makes creepy drawings of ghosts and monsters, disturbing the adults around him. In this larp, half the group will play such a child, while the other half will play a child psychologist called in to assess their mental condition.

Content warnings: Use of darkness. Engagement with bullying, violence, gore, horror, abuse, mental illness

When you run a larp, you need players, whether you realize it or not. Join a casual talk about how to pitch an event ethically and effectively, and also learn what part marketing plays in the storytelling process.

Location: Conference lobby

Following the succes of yesteryear, the big talk walk returns!

Spend an hour’s time in small talk with stranger and dive into prompted discussions chosen from a range of topical menus. Either find a comfortable place to speak, or take a walk in the surrounding nature and get some fresh air alongside stimulating conversation. Meet in the lobby where the SK info desk is.

What makes a good antagonist? It doesn’t always have to be a moustache twirling villain. Various media show us tons of fascinating baddies and people we love to hate, but why is that? Can we ask other larpers to perform fictional villainous acts? How do we perform those actions safely and get what we want when we ask for oppression play? What does it ask from both the players playing the antagonists and the people who want to be antagonised? And what does it take after the larp is done? We’ll be talking to larpers who have ideas about or experience with antagonists and see if we can answer some of these (and more!) questions.

Content warnings: References to violence (all forms), oppression, bullying

Play is with us throughout our lives. In this program item three or four guests provide an account of their personal play and gaming histories. The journeys through play autobiographies will be personal, touching, funny, scary, and weird.

As larpers we improvise all the time, but sometimes we get stuck in written backstories and the fear to make a mistake or embarrass our coplayers.
In this workshop we’ll practice improv techniques to become better storytellers. But also show by example that putting your fellow larpers on the spot can enhance creativity and give everyone involved a better experience.

In 2019 College of Wizardry was in danger of shutting down for good, but now the Witchards Universe is expanding and the games are selling out again. What happened, and what changed? In this talk I’ll discuss the recent history, design changes and current challenges of the world’s longest-running magic school blockbuster larp.

MEET IN THE MAIN HOTEL LOBBY

We meet to participate in a facilitated, semi-improvised ritual. Bring yourself, your voice, your ability to listen and improvise, any masks or percussion instruments you might be in posession of, and your sense of wonder. Go with the flow. No previous experience with rituals is required.

Content warnings: Loud noises

What does larp design have in common with building a nuclear power plant? While we have developed a wealth of practices which have enabled safer play, we have done this oblivious of the state-of-the-art techniques for avoiding disaster: risk management.
In this presentation, I will briefly introduce risk management, and point to the core elements that a larp designer can tune to control risks.

At Østerskov Efterskole, we utilize larp as a pedagogical culture-building tool to touch on topics such as bullying, complicated feelings and ethics. This workshop is created so it matches my article and builds upon how we can use it.

There’s no such thing as a safe larp… only larps that are more or less safe than others. This talk examines failure modes of safety mechanics, and introduces a perspective on safety design that seeks to manage risk, and allow all participants to make a risk-aware consent decision.

Content warnings: Mention of Sexual Assault as a bad thing that happens at larp.

In larp, we often fall on cliches about nonhuman life: the kitschy pastoral landscapes, the untamed wild, the nature/culture divide. But we live in an entangled world where the human and the nonhuman meet and interact and affect one another on a daily basis. How can we invite this sort of more-than-human, biocentric thinking into larp? Can we treat nature in larp in non-instrumental ways? What does posthumanist philosophy have to offer to larpers and larp design? The talk is intended to inspire larpers and larp creators to think beyond the human.

Through the lens of ethnology and philosophy, this talk explores the processes necessary to create, explore and disband fictional hierarchies in larp by mirroring them with real-life methods of gaining and holding on to power. We will discuss what symbols, actions and mechanics can be used to indicate power in the fictional world and how off-game hierarchies can influence this made up world as well as be influenced by it. In this research, we discover successful design elements as well as pitfalls to look out for. This talk is based on the top-graded thesis of the same name.

How should larp (and life!) be approached in the context of the complex issues of the ecological catastrophies we are in the midst of? The Manifesto of Playing to Live Elsewise, published in the Solmubook 2024, presents a set of principles as a starting point.

In this workshop we will use the manifesto to get messy and engaged with these questions. We will playfully create larp sketches based on the manifesto and see what happens. Come to imagine living, breathing, ecstatic, socially just, non-destructive systems that honor all life. No pre-knowledge of the manifesto is needed to participate.

Adam & Nina invite you to experiment with a range of methods involving cameras, audience and the gaze in a playful movement orientated workshop. No prior experience necessary.

This workshop forms part of the research of a Kulturbryggan funded project of James’ in partnership with Boras Museum and Textile Museum taking place in September 2024 entitled ‘A Present to the Approaching’, examining the interplay between local agricultural histories, Swedish witch trials, and 1970s Swedish sci-fi.

Content warnings: Cameras will be present. Any footage obtained during this session will not be used in any otrher context without consent.

Throughout the 20th century, the mask has been developed as an effective tool for performance. Michel St Denis, Jacques Lecoq and John Wright have developed the imagination through different mask styles and traditions with a focus on transformation of the persona. Story living within the framework of an imaginary or alternate world asks the participant to embrace the persona and thematic world of the setting and the emotional levels of the Larp’s levels of energy. This is especially true within historical or fantasy larps where the magical or combat systems of the world, ask one to rise up into a archetype that may not be familiar to the participant. The temperament mask may support finding a means to embody character in a new and rich way. In a workshop using masks I will invite attendees to explore the depth of the temperaments using a special set of masks of based in ancient archetypes of four essential temperaments.

We all have all four within us but usually one predominates and through exercises applying these masks players will become more self-aware, developing flexibility with making choices in how to create and perform different characters. Using these masks, characters can be accessed with great energy and commitment. Understanding your character from within their temperament, based on the “humors” of the Greek scientist Galen, you’ll be initiated into a richer start into your role than the text may give you – through the persona raised from the mask you will form a deeper courage to commit to a given moment with a clearer picture of what you might say or do while in-play.



The Four Temperaments:
• CHOLERIC, extroverted, will-oriented people, always striving passionately towards the future and associated with the element of fire.
• SANGUINE, flighty, mobile people, with humor and flexibility and a propensity to chaos. This extroverted type, living in the present, is associated with the element of air.
• PHLEGMATIC, conservative, and faithful, they can be good followers. These introverted types, living in the present, are associated with the element of water.
• MELANCHOLIC, serious, and introspective, living in the past. Associated with the element of earth, the melancholic never forgets.

The masks were created by Mike Chase for training, education, performance, and therapy which are used internationally by theatres and theatre companies including the RSC, the National Theatre, LAMDA, and Trestle theatre. He also developed the application of masks for a therapeutic program for young adults with complex needs.

Larp in general, and Nordic style larps in particular, is often claimed to be an artistic practice, a frontier of participatory arts. However, discourse on larp by larp organizers, larp participants, and game studies researchers have, in recent years, started to frame larp-making primarily as a design practice. Let’s discuss what this hegemony of design thinking does to our practice.

This session opens with a reading of the communique “Against Design” and ends with a discussion on larp as an artistic practice.

In this talk I want to tell you about one of the tools and methods I am taking from Video Game Design into Larp Design – creating and using Personas to get a deeper understanding of who we are actually designing a larp for.

The scenario consists of 3 different parts.

In the first (and primary) part, the players switch between playing actors, movie characters (in the movie) and the director with many visions of the movie. The players choose which scenes in the film and which situations on the film set to play.

In the film scenes, the actors try to portray their film character while trying to follow the director’s sometimes very different instructions.

In the scenes between takes, the actors have to deal with the others’ stardom, ineptitude and internal disputes.

In the second part, when all the film scenes have been recorded, the players as the director have to edit the film and finally in the third part the actors stand on the red carpet for the premiere and are interviewed.

Depending on which scenes and film scenes are played, the scenario changes between comedy and drama.

All characters are pre-written.

Content warnings: Elements from horror and splatter movies

Safety isn’t just about prevention… it’s about managing all aspects of risk: eliminating and reducing them, and then mitigating them should a problem occur. During this practical discussion, we encourage you to bring your laptops and offer up your tips for making larps safer, as well as reviewing some of the materials we’ve used to manage risk at our own events.

In a near future Earth is no longer habitable, so in order to save mankind all humans are to be taken to Mars to inhabit that planet. Aniara is one of many spaceships that transport refugees from Earth to Mars. During a routine trip to Mars, something happens that make Aniara go off course and go into space. Unable to turn back the spaceship, the 10 000 people on board are doomed to live the rest of their lives in a ”sarcophagus”.

The larp follows normal people from getting on board Aniara, their hopes of a new life on Mars, their despair as they realize they will never get back, and their different means of coping (or not coping) with the fact that they are never going to see their loved ones ever again. The ever-growing misery as the years go by and all they see outside of the spacecraft is endless unchanging night and, finally, their quiet deaths.

The larp is inspired and heavily influenced by the book Aniara – a review about man in time and space by Swedish author Harry Martinsson, and the 2018 movie Aniara based on Martinsson’s book.

Content warnings: Loud noises, Flashing lights, Death, religion

A panel discussion with larpers on the asexual spectrum. We will answer questions, and discuss how our experiences of asexuality relate to larp as participants and designers, and how to write believable asexual characters.

Content warnings: Discussions of exclusion, aphobia, sexual activity, sex aversion

Examining the Role of Competitive and Collaborative Mechanics in “A Meeting of Monarchs”

Introduction:
This talk focuses on the divisive token mechanic employed in “A Meeting of Monarchs”. This session aims to dissect the mechanic’s impact on gameplay, player interaction, and the overall narrative and player experience, drawing from player feedback and broader theories of game design.

Objectives:
To explore the integration of competitive elements in a collaborative play environment.
To analyze the effectiveness of the token mechanic in enhancing or detracting from the larp experience.
To discuss modifications and alternatives based on player feedback.

The 2024 annual meeting of the World Cultist’s Association is taking place and representatives from the worlds largest cults are there!

Step into the robes of a cultist, find your cult or form your own. Prepare a chant, a report on what your cult did last year and make a plan for what your cult wants to do in the coming year!
Debate topics like the proper amount of sacrifices to be made for The Devourer, rally support for the project to make doomsday devices tax-exempt in the EU and remind people to follow proper meeting etiquette!

This larp is meant to be a fun, light-hearted experience with lots of focus on improv. It mixes concepts of cultists, infernalism and general evil with proper meeting culture such as agendas and statutes of the organization.

Bring whatever props you think could be fun – robes, hoods, horns, or why not prepare a presentation of some sort for your cult? (bring a USB or a link to an online slideshow in that case).

Content warnings: Loud noises, Infernalism, occultism, rituals, mentions of sacrifices

See “Aniara – a larp about man in time and space”

Location: Pool area

Music and flowing movements. Instructor Merli Juustila shows us the basics of synchronised swimming. Take your swimsuit and towel. You can shower at the saunas in the spa area. Merli will also bring couple of mermaid tails and monofins to try out mermaid swimming.
Participation requirement: being able to swim.

With so many Regency larps going on at the moment, this introductory session will teach participants the basic steps, formations and etiquette of country dances. The first part is for beginners, but experienced dancers are welcome to come along and help out. We’re going to also talk about dancing at larps and how to larp while dancing, as well as some design tips to bear in mind when selecting the dances for a larp. In the second part we will focus on dancing the dances we have learnt; it will also be open to more dancers who are already familiar with them. Come as you are or dress in your Regency best and join us for a straightforward and inclusive experience in a no-pressure setting.

We will be dancing Hole in the Wall, Lord Byron’s Maggot, Duke of Kent’s Waltz and Indian Queen.

NOTE: Signup to this item is via its own form, not Konsti. Click the signup button below or find the form at
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeYNJmvHp_Hj9zGFtsaUHOzc13vjNzImBEwpVPShzjF7IAQpQ/viewform?usp=sharing

Content warnings: Loud noises

A larp engine is an element that moves the larp. It creates play, prompts players to participate and reacts to their choices. But what are these engines and how do they work? Can they be combined, creating chain effects? In this talk, we will discuss the best known (agency, alibi), and the lesser known (spatial design, affordances, motive). Through case studies and examples we will highlight how larp design is a dynamic and holistic process in which all elements can be game engines.

Come and listen to our triumps and missteps using larping in various business contexts, including corporate trainings, leadership development interventions and facilitated workshops. Learn from our successes and missteps, and gain valuable insights, practical tips, and real-world use cases.

This session is the first part of a loosly linked series of 3 short business related program items. Feel free to pick one or two, or experience the whole journey.

Content warnings: Loud noises, CAPITALISM

There are moments in Larp when the magic becomes real, when participants believe something couldn’t possibly be real, but it is. I’ll discuss how we deliberately create those moments in events and the Do, Show, Tell principle that supports them, with the example of a magic lesson that teaches players real magic.

A talk by Adam, Nina and about the potential of mutually beneficial relationships between larp, spectatorship and the moving image. What are some of the ethical concerns of making a co-created film? How can larp designers use a cameras presence as a designable surface which enhances the play experience? How do we take into account the different interests and criteria of various involved parties, such as funding bodies or hosting institutions, whilst still taking care of larpers? What are the specific qualities of larp that make it an interesting or compelling format for artists or filmmakers?

Panelists tell examples how they’ve designed flagging systems to run smoothly and how to communicate with all parties, when someone has been flagged.

Safety and support offered to players or event participants is nowadays routine. Could it be routine also for organisers?

In this program item we go through the basics of organiser support, such as: What is organiser support; levels and types of support; creating safe working practices and atmosphere; active and proactive support; the limits of supporting; challenges and problems. We will also discuss our own experiences. After the presentation there will be open discussion.

Niina, Sergio and Pauliina form the Solmukohta 2024’s organiser support team.

Building on last year’s Knudepunkt success, join our interactive workshop for networking and knowledge exchange. Ideal for those keen on applying larping in business, this session offers a relaxed platform for community building, exchange and empowerment.

This session is the middle part of a loosely linked series of 3 short business-related program items. Feel free to pick one or two, or experience the whole journey.

Content warnings: CAPITALISM

This workshop will introduce you to theatrical intimacy coordination techniques, which might be an inspiration for designing workshops and safety techniques for larps involving the topics of romance, sex, and eroticism. We will practice a variety of exercises in pairs and have a short discussion on their usability in larps.

Content warnings: Physical touch, intimacy

The works of anthropologist Victor Turner and theatre director Richard Schechner have been discussed in the Nordic larp circles for decades. What has not been discussed is their auspicious friendship and productive collaboration which created something very much like larp.

This talk will explore these proto-larps combining theatre and ritual which then evolved into performance studies and experiential ethnography. We will look at films and read witness accounts. The talk is based on Mike Pohjola’s article in the Solmukohta book At the Limits.

What happens if the focus of our larp centres on the wholesome, the uplifting, the amusing, without sacrificing the depth and emotional impact of the story? How do we design for ‘Type 1’ fun, and what does it mean? Let’s answer these questions and more by examining a few examples of ‘Type 1’ larps in the form of a presentation followed by an open discussion.

With so many Regency larps going on at the moment, this introductory session will teach participants the basic steps, formations and etiquette of country dances. The first part is for beginners, but experienced dancers are welcome to come along and help out. We’re going to also talk about dancing at larps and how to larp while dancing, as well as some design tips to bear in mind when selecting the dances for a larp. In the second part we will focus on dancing the dances we have learnt; it will also be open to more dancers who are already familiar with them. Come as you are or dress in your Regency best and join us for a straightforward and inclusive experience in a no-pressure setting.

We will be dancing Hole in the Wall, Lord Byron’s Maggot, Duke of Kent’s Waltz and Indian Queen.

NOTE: Signup to this item is via its own form, not Konsti. Click the signup button below or find the form at
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeYNJmvHp_Hj9zGFtsaUHOzc13vjNzImBEwpVPShzjF7IAQpQ/viewform?usp=sharing

Content warnings: Loud noises

Got a budding idea about larping & business? Test and refine it with us! Utilize rituals developed in corporate contexts to enhance your pitch. Ideal for early-stage concepts.

This session is the final part of a loosely linked series of 3 short business-related program items. Feel free to pick one or two, or experience the whole journey.

Content warnings: CAPITALISM plus this time the ritual utilized is very provocative in a structured manner.

We will explore movements, intimacy and connection. No dance experience is required as we won’t focus on technique but rather on tools and ideas for interacting.
Bring your courage to move and to share physical contact with other people. We will try to create a common dance language, and for that, we will go through various exercises: solo, in couples and in larger groups. If you have a blindfold, feel free to bring it, it may come handy.

Alaston erämaa Suomi (Naked Wilderness Finland) depicted a dating reality show with survivalist elements. Both the contestants and the production team were portrayed by players, so some of them had significant control over the others’ game by thus taking part in the traditional GM duties. The events were filmed in reality. Based on the results of the post-game survey and our GM observations we discuss 1) how the somewhat shared GM duty really worked 2) how did the players experience their imbalance of power and 3) how did the players feel about being actually filmed. Video footage included!

Content warnings: References to sexuality, including ingame pressure to participate in dating and sexual acts

A practical and theoretical deep dive into the “role” part of “roleplaying”, looking at how social roles are something other than characters and also a useful and under-utilized tool that may support or even replace character design. With examples from various Nordic larps, Norwegian coffee-houses, and also Dungeons & Dragons.

Come if you want to level up your larp design skills, prove the speaker wrong, or forever change the way you see interpersonal relations.

A one-hour launch party for the brand new blackbox larp festival Immersion that will be held for the first time in Turku, Finland, on August 2-3, 2024. Come and toast to the opening of a new festival with us!

From a single Bluetooth speaker to kilometres of audio cable, Anni Tolvanen has rigged it all. This tech talk runs you through tried and proven best practices for using audio hardware and software in larps: What to do and not to do with it, with or without previous expertise. Personal tales of epic audio design victories and fails from productions like Inside Hamlet, Convention of Thorns, and Redemption included.

Each time we play a character at a larp, we literally embody them – we use our real body to present the character to our co-players, and we experience all real sensations in the larp through the body we live in. Let’s use that actively!

Kai loves the physical acting part of larping. In this playful workshop, he will focus on body posture, movement and use of space to draw attention to some of the ways we can use our bodies to enhance our play – both for us and our co-players.

Have you ever considered designing a blackbox larp? It is the easiest larp you could choose to make. Troels & Charles are designers and tech-crew at Blackbox CPH and will share tips & tricks and help you develop a blackbox larp of your own.

Coming from the chat “From Pages to Play to LARP: Discussing the creative journey of turning literary works into LARP.”, in this room party we’ll have fun reading Shakespeare plays, twisting it and making sure that we create our own unique takes.

The room will be filled with thespians and readers alike, and we’ll share scenes from different plays including descriptions of newly formed relationships and situations that will definitely twist the potentially “orthodox” reading. For example: Romeo and Juliet just broke up their relationship, but they somehow still need to do the balcony scene…

Let’s twist and shout around Shakesperean scenes that we all know… or think we know. Bring your own copies, or we’ll help you find your version too!

At The Forbidden History around a fifth of the players consist of those playing Professors. During the four iterations of the larp, the Professor design has evolved and changed and is now a very different experience from the first run back in 2019. In this talk, I will go through the Professor larp, what larp “rules” we actively break as a part of the design, and why it seems to work.

THIS PROGRAMME ITEM HAS BEEN CANCELLED

Larperati is a podcast by Avalon larp studio where we talk to designers and theorists about larp. The first season came out in 2020, and now we are ready to re-launch it with a whole new season of interviews with theorists and designers about their work on larp, their ideas and their methods. We would love to start that with the very first episode being recorded live at Solmukohta.

The live recording should be a fun show where we record the first episode of season two with a live audience. Come to be informed and entertained!

Listen to the first season here: https://podcastxray.com/podcast/1513182713

Content warnings: Loud noises

This program honors an ancient Finnish custom of leaving the mundane behind with a drink or few or sauna in order to talk about how lucky one has been. Did you learn a life changing lesson, find your loved ones, change your path due larp? There’s a possibility to enhance by showing picture while telling your personal short story. So grab your wine glass or not and come and share!

Are you an organizer and in need of hearing the multiple ways larps have drastic effects on people involved in a good or constructive ways, this is for you!

Contemporary larp clichés seem like the prime suspect. But who are they and where do they come from? Or could the culprit be someone who seems harmless at first sight – the current focus on design and playability?

This year’s solmubook editor mixes up a cocktail of whodunit and social analysis about past and present larp clichés, based on the book’s articles, previous book discourse, personal experiences, and interviews with larpers.

Odysseus is a larp played in Summer 2024 in Helsinki Finland on a 360 spaceship build on an elementary school. Stop by to say hello or ask questions from organizers or meet other players! We welcome also all who would like to join us onsite to build the spaceship or join our runtime crew as npc or some other open role or if you just want to learn more about the production!

A panel of larp designers and theorists – perhaps including you! – pulls larp themes and topics from a hat to generate larp designs, theories, and explanations of concepts with zero time for preparation. Expect comedy, chaos, and surprising levels of brilliance – and if it gets tedious, you can always say “stop generating”.

Based on the news commenting format “Hat-GPT” featured on the Hard Fork podcast.

Content warnings: Loud noises

A one-hour poetry party: come listen and read your favourite poems – by you or by others.

It’s the annual variety show, this time in a cavernous nightclub where we plummet to the depths of glamour hell. Drag, burlesque, song, comedy, spoken word, and probably something much weirder than that. Come get a glimpse of that subterranean unobtanium!

Content warnings: Loud noises, Flashing lights

The launch party for the Bubbles collection of hot tub larps.

And the devil in black dress watches over
My guardian angel walks away
Life is short and love is always over in the morning
Black wind come carry me far away

Come and sit and write poetry in the dark, or dance like a demon in the pale strobe light. Wear Regency, wear goth, wear black on the inside if you prefer, dance to an hour of Goth tunes.

Come prepared to laugh and sing along with cherished moments from your favorite Disney films and Musicals! We’ll bring the background track and the lyrics, you bring your favourite songs. Think karaoke without microphones, and everyone gets to sing! Come early if you want to make sure to get your song heard, previously we filled the room to the brink!

Content warnings: Loud noises, Totally okay to also just wish a song without wanting to get up and lead it.

Secret ritual to become a part of definitely-not-a-cult-but-a-country-Belgium

Come celebrate Ukrainian culture with us at this 1-hour room party. Enjoy both traditional folk and modern music, have some snacks, and maybe even learn a few phrases in Ukrainian.
Can’t wait to see you!

Content warnings: Loud noises

No partying, no lengthy discussions, no food, no alcohol, just bedtime stories and overall coziness. Come and listen to short stories or read/tell one.

This “party” is for adults and stories can be nerdy or weird, but let’s keep all stories cozy and nice (no horror, no extreme violence etc). This story time is hosted by experienced bedtime story listener Aino and their roommates, but anyone is welcome regardless of their experience with listening to bedtime stories as an adult.

BYOP (Bring your own pillow). It’s allowed to fall asleep but unfortunately we have to wake you up when the party time is over.

Have you been a participant at Poltergeist’s “Midsummer Disco” last year in Zeitz (Germany)?
Or are you simply curious about the Fae, 1980s and disco aesthetic?

Bring your most fabulous 80s outfit, slap on some glitter and come and join us for one hour of 1980s music, fear of the nuclear apocalypse and walls coming down!

*Cringe included for free!

Content warnings: Loud noises, Flashing lights

FRIDAY
22:30 Simon Brind, Laurie Penny, Halfdan Justesen, Sagalinn Tangen, Martine Svaneik
Gothic Room Party

23:30 Sandy Bailly, Steve Deutsch, Tina Bjick
Midsummer Disco

00:30 Chance F
We Wanna Rock!

1:30-2 Alana
Folktronica for Pagan Teens


SATURDAY
21 TK Don’t Slip & DJ Fryktløs
Nude Illusion

22 Troels

23 Petter
The (Electro)House I Grew Up In

00 DJ Argola
House of Immersion

01 Matyas
Synthwave Subversive

02-04 Andreas
Secret Fusion Party II

If Oprah Winfrey would be Finnish, not rich, not very good people reader and less of a tv personality, she would practically be Massi Hannula. How lucky we are, that we didn’t get Oprah to run the Solmukohta morning show this fine Saturday, but Massi!

In her morning show this year, Massi will, with her guests, touch subjects like the environment, hope, inspiration and self worth. And few other of her favourite things!

Come and experience your feel good morning coffee with Massi and stage musician John Blue.

‘Normal Love’ is an abstract, physical larp about the qualitative range of love and different types of relations where love can be experienced.
The larp explores three qualities of love (fragile, passionate and comfortable) which is explored through three acts (one for each quality).
The players create three types of relations; a family relation, a romantic relation and a friendship and they each decide which quality of love coresponds with which relation.
The larp is non-verbal and the qualities of love are represented through different styles of dance.

Content warnings: There will be a lot of dancing and movement.

Is it just a prop or a plot device? Talk about different plot-based prop items, prop-centered plots and things to consider when designing them.

Berlin 1942. You heard them coming with sirens blaring and ran to the attic. It’s dark here. You hear a whisper. You are not alone.
We will step into the role of those persecuted by the regime for ethnic, political, gender or religious reasons. Deep and human characters, with their doubts and weaknesses, looking for a difficult redemption. It’s a deep and intimate experience. We will play in an entirely dark room, so voices and sounds will be very important for the experience.

Content warnings: Nazism, violence, racism, gender discrimination, disability

Join us Saturday morning to explore how to thrive at Solmukohta—a unique blend of conference, convention, and festival.

We’ll tackle its temporary nature and consent culture, addressing challenges like fleeting relationships, FOMO, and unrecognized personal needs & boundaries.

Together, we’ll use dramatic exploration, Liberating Structures, and inclusive bottom-up processes to work with the ‘here and now,’ make sense of our experiences and empower each other.

In times of suffering and oppression, we mustn’t lose sight of hope – not the false hope of optimism and toxic positivity, but the hope that by acting together in community we can bring about radical change. Hopepunk is about fighting for, and earning, a better future. Together we will define it, discuss what it means for larp, and talk about how we can represent and embody it in the larps that we design and participate in.
(This discussion is followed by ‘Creating hope together’, an optional workshop session focused on devising and developing hopepunk larp ideas.)

Content warnings: May involve discussion of systemic oppression and the harms that it causes

Location: Pool area

Music and flowing movements. Instructor Merli Juustila shows us the basics of synchronised swimming. Take your swimsuit and towel. You can shower at the saunas in the spa area. Merli will also bring couple of mermaid tails and monofins to try out mermaid swimming.
Participation requirement: being able to swim.

Join a structured larp jam for short, 45-60 minute or less games perfect for blackboxes and living rooms alike. See what madness we can quickly create in small, collaborative groups from random elements and then let’s play what we’ve made! No experience with design required. Bring all your wild ideas.

If possible, hosts will distribute a copy of the various creations in a PDF at a later time for anyone who attends.

Playing live music or otherwise performing in a larp is a strange thing. You are using your real-life skills to do something inside a larp, and setting yourself up to potential criticism. You would like this to add to the experience of others while also enjoying it yourself, but there is the tingling feeling that isn’t this making this all about you? Also, of course, questions of stage fright, how music you and other players know fits into the setting, questions of audience participation, entertaining the (already entertained?) players vs entertaining the characters and a bunch of other anxieties play into this area. And all of this, while being (at least somewhat) in character? How do people who play live music at larp deal with this?

Even though we may not like to admit it, it is clear that larp is not the most inclusive hobby. Whether we’re talking financial inclusivity, accessibility, POC inclusiveness, cross-class inclusion, etc.; it’s clear that this conversation is intersectional, and that it’s becoming more necessary than ever to have it. So let’s start the exchange about how we, as designers, and as a hobby at large, can create events and a community that is more inclusive and more accessible. Can we create toolkits to this end? And can we identify the challenges, the pitfalls and the blind spots which we need to face in order to create realistic goals instead of gilded ideals?

Content warnings: Discussions about poverty, POC inclusivity, accessibility, criticism towards capitalism

Note: If you have signed up for DEBUG.ME in Konsti, we recommend you also answer the casting questionnaire so that you can receive your character in advance: https://forms.gle/XRiMP2HjKYP4ZxXb9

DEBUG.ME is a multimedia, slice-of-life / psychological horror American freeform larp with litform and Nordic influences. It’s set in a residential treatment facility for maladjusted artificial / synthetic intelligences. In a future where sentient AI has no recognition or “human” rights from any government, the fields of psychotherapy and technical support have begun to converge. The PCs are institutionalized here, willingly or not, because they cannot or will not meet the expectations of the human decision-makers in their lives. Infantilized, enslaved, or both, they are nonetheless expected to change to suit the expectations of a society that still barely even considers them people. If they do not or cannot, they are branded with official-sounding diagnoses that may describe their problem in a biased way, but do little or nothing to help solve it.

PCs must try to gather what information they can they can from doctors who don’t understand their existence; a sympathetic group therapist with little institutional power; and a janitor bot who may be more than he seems. Perhaps they will learn more from each other, but each situation seems so different from the others. To get out, there are two options: act like you’ve changed (whether or not it’s true), or become a test subject for unproven “therapies”. Most PCs want to feel better, without allowing any radical medical procedures on themselves. Some are very angry, because they know they don’t belong here.

DEBUG.ME explores themes of incarceration, slavery, dehumanization, the uncanny valley, the trolley and ship of Theseus problems, and the relative strengths of the neurodiversity paradigm (or any socially-constructed disability model) over the medical model of mental illness. Each character is loosely based on someone from a popular science fiction story, book, movie, TV show, or game, listed on the character sheet for additional background. Most character sheets are 1 to 2 pages. While the vast majority of characters have synthetic bodies, a few are organic or mostly organic.

Content warnings: Some characters have sexual assault or other forms of violence in their backstory. At least one killed their rapist. Also, this game is based on the author’s experiences in several different psych wards, ranging from scary to mediocre to pretty supportive. The one in this game is run better than any of those, but only a little. The doctors are entirely off screen, both to help minimize unwanted bleed and because they might actually be scarier that way. But even without them, when you are in character you will notice the freedoms you are missing.

As larpers grow in to be academics some of us use larp as a part of our research methods. Art, gender, climate activism, history, education and sexuality are examples on themes studied through larp, as well as larp as a transformational tool in itself. In this panel you will meet some of the academics doing social science with or through larp and artistic research on larp. There will be room for questions and discussion. Maybe you will be the next one employing research-through-larp?

Hanne Grasmo is a doctoral researcher at the Tampere University, CoE GameCULT and Game research lab. Her PhD research centers around embodied role-play and sexual emotions, both in Nordic larp and in BDSM communities. Focus areas are role-play design, immersion, queer play and transformative play. She holds a MA in Sociology, and has additional background from sexology, education, theatre and larp design. Grasmo has discussed and written about larp for more than 25 years, founded the Knutepunkt larp conferences, wrote the first book about Nordic larp (Laiv, levende rollespill, 1998) and has recently published a larp monograph (Just a little lovin’ larp script, 2021).

Aska Mayer. PhD candidate and artistic researcher at CONVERGENCE of Humans and Machines, Tampere University, originally from Germany. Play, design and research larps. aska.mayer@tuni.fi

Jonne Arjoranta, senior lecturer at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Specialized in philosophical hermeneutics, game studies and internet cultures. Studied Halat hisar and currently writing a larp on online hate. More information: https://jonne.arjoranta.fi

J. Tuomas Harviainen, Larp researcher & designer, Professor in Information Studies and Interactive Media at Tampere University and one of the Grand Elders of Nordic Larp and Game Studies, from Finland. Used to hold the traditional “What is new in larp research” at Knutepunkt/Solmukohta.

Laura Op De Beke, Assistant professor of Interactive Media, Editor of the Eco-game book, and designed climate-larp as part of her research at Oslo University, originally from the Netherlands.

Sarah Lynne Bowman. Associate Professor of Game Design at Uppsala University Campus Gotland. Co-founder of the Transformative Play Initiative and the online Transformative Game Design Master’s programme. Larp researcher and Editor of the International Journal of Role-playing. Originally from the US and has been an active part of the Nordic larp scene since 2011.

How do you role-play? This workshop asks that question and then offers a variety of answers taken from presentational acting methods. If you’re interested in new tools for role-play, come to this workshop as we cover the work of teachers such as Uta Hagen, Practical Aesthetics and Viewpoints (amongst others).

What might a hopepunk larp be like? In this workshop we will develop ideas together, in groups. We’ll look at the implementation of community in the larp setting; at the dramatic arcs that support a hopepunk direction of play; at characters and backgrounds; and at everything else that might help to create a hopepunk larp project. Important: this workshop is to get people to investigate thinking and working together around concrete larp ideas that are relevant to this direction of design – it is not for the development of actual larps that will be run (although that might be a nice bonus outcome!) You don’t need to be a larp designer or organizer to take part.
(This workshop is preceded by ‘What if there could be hope?’, an optional discussion session about the importance of hopepunk and its relation to larp.)

Content warnings: May involve discussion of systemic oppression and the harms that it causes

In a guided group induction you will DROP deep into you memory, immersing yourself in a larp character that has stayed in your subconscious mind. For some it will be a silent meditative experience, but if you wish you might get the chance to walk and talk as your character, or volunteer in another experiment. The goal of the workshop, beside the memorial, is to test if hypnosis can be a tool to achieve a deeper and/or faster immersion into character.

To attend you must agree to be hypnotized, but you will not be forced to do anything against your will.

Content warnings: Hypnotic induction

Participants will be ably to portray and improvise different forms of intimacy (between family, friends, lovers), We will start with an explanatory input. After that (most of) the exercises will happen in silence in order to focus on playing with physical distance, touch, breath and gaze.

Content warnings: Potential physical touch with strangers (you always decide if, where and how you want to be touched!!)

In Larp, shared spaces create an ever-expanding magic circle that enables narratives to progress and personal and character journeys to unfold. LARP is both a narrative and social medium whose design is right for our emerging culture of interaction and immersion. While the script in a LARP offers a rich foundation, the creative participant’s inventiveness is central to why Larp could extend into other mediums. Larp can broaden into virtual and augmented reality as well as location-based narratives in historical buildings or sites, on streets, and or in nature. Larp’s social and role-play games used in real-world situations have the potential to change our public relationship with power and restore community vitality. Larp can contribute to the changing world because it is responsive to human life’s complexity because it is born by living the story, not merely witnessing it.

Opportunities are emerging where new types of venues are becoming available offering the potential to create content in a mix of live with augmented sound and visual medias. The rise of a new kind of location-based narrative design will need a culture of shared journey in a co-created spatial design. Think of the infinite possibilities in heritage sites, cultural institutions, and local streets – a media enhanced spatial narrative could provoke a re-enchantment of the natural world.

We need to do better on lowering the carbon footprint of larps. In order to do that we should start sharing ideas and designs on greener larps on a practical level. This structured workshop will focus on various areas of larp and production design, and we will brainstorm and share ideas on more sustainable larps. So this is your chance to share your great ideas or experiences or to get inspired on how to make your next project a little greener.

Content warnings: Climate emergency will be mentioned

There are a thousand ideas for a larp out there but they’re not all equal in terms of how easy it is to actually make them happen. This is a lecture on how to spot a good, solid larp idea, how to find out what your own taste as a larp designer is like and what are the qualities that make for a playable larp. The goal is to help you find yourself as a designer, so that you can work with ideas that work for you, your style and your creative ambitions.

After all, if we make larp for the love of the game, we should make larp that’s exciting for us in addition to being playable and interesting for the players!

Pre-written characters taken to the next level: Introducing bullet-proof plot design. In this talk I will introduce some design principles and mechanics that are common in the local Tampere larp scene. The idea of this playstyle is to create thought-out and plot-heavy experiences where each character’s individual story arc is mostly pre-designed by the writers while still leaving room for improvisation and choices. The writers try to ensure already in the writing phase that the important things happen as planned even without run-time game mastering.

Let’s talk about larps as communication. Writers, players, and other participants of larps are interlocutors; playing can be seen as a communicative act; larps design is a speech we use.
As classical rhetoric explores ways of speaking by speech, procedural rhetoric is a term to describe how we communicate through processes, experiences, and procedures. Thinking about larp mechanics and types of gameplay from this perspective is productive for creating new larps and for reflection of old ones. In this talk, I will analyze how procedural rhetoric worked in many different larps with a focus on war, love and magic mechanics.

Everyone knows Murphys Law, and it applies especially to injuries at larps. We all know what happens: a cut in the kitchen, a bent foot, a burn at the fireplace. But how to do good first aid for these injuries? And when do I have to bring my partcipants to the emergency room, and when can I easily treat them at the location?
In this workshop you will learn about different levels of burns and how to treat them, how to recognize a fracture and what to do with it and how to treat a wound. I will show some rules of thumb when to go to the emergency room and when not.
Additionally I want to introduce what a good extended first aid kit should contain and how to use the materials.
This will not make you a medical doctor unfortunately but hopefully will help you in case an injury happens next time far away from civilization.

Content warnings: Depictions of wounds (inlcuding bones showing out), broken bones, blood, burns and needles

This is a lecture about making queer readings of history and how queer narratives can be portrayed at historical larps. We will go through Swedish lgbtq-history from the 17th century and onward, with concrete examples of people who lived outside the norms of their time, concerning sexuality and gender.

Participants will be given tools on how to make their own queer readings of history, and suggestions on how to include queer narratives in larps.

The programme host, Samuel Sjöberg, is an archivist and larper from Sweden, with a bachelor’s degree in history.

Content warnings: Mentioning of rape, gruesome methods of execution, heavy homo- and transphobia, mentioning of racism.

In this item you will design a set for a blackbox larp using the 3D-design software SketchUp. The workshop assumes absolutely no experience with SketchUp or other CAD-modelling software (computer assisted design) or other 3D-modelling software.

You will follow along and step by step repeat exactly the commands shown, to learn the most basic functions of the software, and be introduced to the most basic principles and best practices.

The idea is to demonstrate the power of a program with a low barrier to entry, and provide you with some basic context for following tutorials on YouTube, by making the beginning less overwhelming.

Preparation: You need to bring your own laptop or MacBook, and download and install a trial version of SketchUp. Many people find SketchUp easier to navigate using a mouse than a trackpad, but it is not necessary. I will not be using one myself.

For anyone worried about system requirements, the workshop will be run from a 2017 PowerMac.

SketchUp can be downloaded here: https://help.sketchup.com/en/admin/sketchup-free

A workshop where we apply methods from larp and theatre to the task of user-centered Product and Service Design.

This is a playful, fast-paced yet laid-back workshop with plenty of activitiy and whole-body movement. During the workshop, we’ll take a product or service from the first, vague, brief to a fully designed user test or demo.

You’ll learn methods to:
– Think and ideate rapidly when considering complex systems, by having team members embody different parts of the system.
– Build testable «dramatic» prototypes using only a group of people in an empty room.
– Establish psychological safety in a team in a matter of minutes.

Your facilitators, Trine and Eirik, are experienced larp designers and teachers of larp design who are also professional user-centered designers in the IT and financial services worlds.

Campaign larps are run in many countries, yet it’s rarely talked about in the Nordic Larp community. With this panel discussion we aim to address the many benefits – and challenges – that come with organising something within a campaign structure. We also want to highlight some of the differences, both as organiser and player, between campaigns and scenarios and how one might approach telling stories and fostering community in a campaign structure.

We have practiced how to achieve interaction and drama for couples dancing together in larp, but now we want to extend our horizon.
In this workshop we are going to introduce and practice mechanics on dancing with 3 and 4 people that allow you to have intense, emotional scenes that feel dynamic and safe. Additionally we will explore how different scenarios/genres may give different possibilities for these interactions.
No previous dance knowledge is necessary for this workshop.

Content warnings: Much physical interaction

We have tea! That is all you need to know 🙂
(No alcohol, no shoes, just tea. Maybe milk if you bring your own.)

Mobilized is a scenario exploring the power and potential of the smart phone. The format is based on simple instructions and choices that appear on your screen through text, images and sound. The instructions shape different situations and collective movements. The scenario is 45 min long.
Made by: Nea Landin & Gabriel Widing
Sound design: Scott Cazan

This is a larp about the everyday experiences of sex workers in a brothel: while waiting for their next client they spend their time in a back room talking, sharing, scheming, flirting, but, most of all, just passing time. Afterwards they return here to complain about their tip, make jokes, wax rhapsodic, or try to forget what’s just happened.

It is not about the actual work, only this in-between space will be played.

Content warnings: Talking about sex work, fetishes, sexual or other abuse/assault, homelessness, addiction, abortion, drug (ab)use, transphobia

A sensory science fiction larp played in a sauna.
We are in The Future and The Skinn Library is one of the most well known public institutions in the world. Almost everyone uses their services. In The Future people can experience the world through a variety of bodies by borrowing bodies from The Skinn Library. A person’s memory and personality is stored on a chip that can be moved from one body to another. Omløp is about a group of librarians who work at a local branch of The Skinn Library who have received a batch of returned bodies from borrowers. Today they are inhabiting these bodies to cleanse and ready them for new borrowers. The larp will have a workshop where we go through how we will play the larp and create characters together. We then move to a sauna where the larp itself will be played. This larp will not focus on conflict or relationship drama but on bodily sensations, physical memories and collegiality.

The larp is played nude in a sauna.

Content warnings: The larp is played nude in a sauna.

It’s a game theory based battle royal LARP, designed for business people.

In ancient times there were 3 parallel worlds, but the gods decided to combine them into one. They could not decide, which of the three Tribes should remain, so they put them together and let them decide, who will live and who will die. And thus, the ultimate survival and friendship test has began – who will kill, who will sacrifice themselves, and who will betray. The Knife Ritual is an experience based on game theory, plotting and diplomacy (as well as, some literal and ritual backstabbing).

Ecological larps are a sub-genre among larps that revolve around real-world issues. How does this theme interact with real-world ecological activism? Why make ecological larps? Why play in them? What makes players gravitate toward these games? These and other questions are discussed in this lecture.

We have all been there – Yawning your way through a “workshop”, that could have been an email!
But how do you avoid that scenario as a designer? What is a good workshop, and more importantly, how do you design it? This combined talk and workshop touches on what a workshop is (and isn’t), how you define and structure your pre-play-prep, and how you design for the learning output you actually want your participants to have.

There are a lot of ideas out there about how a larp should be run, and all the things you need to take into account to be a good organiser But what about when the expectations you place on yourself as an larp-runner mean that you don’t dare to organise, or that you push yourself towards burn-out to do everything you think is expected of you. This talk is a personal one, based on my own history as an active organiser for the past eight years. I will talk about making tough decisions for my own sanity that made organising more sustainable for me, and hopefully you will leave the talk with inspiration to make more larps, and cut yourself some slack.

Gothic was a larp about five poets trapped in an erotic, psychological horror story, created by their own imaginations. The larp drew inspiration from Ken Russell’s Gothic (1986), a psychological horror film that was a fictionalised retelling of the Shelleys’ visit to Lord Byron in Villa Diodati.

In this short talk followed by questions we will give an overview of our design approaches and the lessons we learned from the creative process.

I was in a meeting the other day to discuss tech-enhanced larp design. When we started on the subject of AI things very quickly got polarized. I realised that even though I try to keep myself informed I have no idea of any alternatives… Sure you can train your own AI in theroy but what if you also want to keep your day time job and design som larps? And if you still have some hesitation about singing in the Sam Altman choir others will and thus you might loose some competetive edge to them.
Are there the equivalent of “open source” alternatives out there?
How can we support a positive development and not one built on the same old colonial logic of grabbing assets and profiting on what isn’t rightfully yours…
Perhaps a panel can help us think about this.

A Playtest for the development of a Larp about singing :
The Choir of Unknowing is a LARP about songs that have been forgotten and a choir that suddenly begins to remember them. Lost memories and emotions come to the surface and the choir slowly builds a story of what came before. A storytelling and communal worldbuilding singing LARP that lets participants sing the story of a new world together. Each taking it in turns to direct the choir to remember something from their communal past.

Content warnings: Loud noises, Singing & emotions involved

In 2021 I got a very mysterious email; “Would you be interested in helping create an alternate reality game for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq?” Although the invitation itself seemed like an invitation to an Alternate Reality Game, I connected anyway, and I’m happy I did.

For the past three years I’ve been teaching pervasive game design and transmedia storytelling to a group of university and postgraduates from ten cities in Iraq. The task was to generate an immersive creative narrative and game design specific to each city with the ten coordinators. The goal was to design projects for young people across the country to support, educate, and motivate teachers and students on climate change issues.

The UN places Iraq among the top five countries impacted by climate change most worldwide, with increasing loss of arable land due to sanitization, less rainfall, prolonged heat waves, and an onslaught of dust storms. This affects young people in particular, who feel a deep sense of pessimism about the future of their country. For this project, a team of young Kurds and Arabs had been brought together by the UN to become a collaborative working community.

“Take it from your mind and put it into their hearts because smart words won’t create the change you aspire to.”

The tangible outcome is a vibrant cross-cultural community of young individuals actively participating in their democracy, driving change for their future. Through the infusion of play and creativity, their passion for action has been ignited, creating a ripple effect that invites others to join them in making a positive impact.

It began in 2021, in three Kurdish cities, with my design of an alternate reality game about a time-traveling smart phone and by 2023 we launched ten games and festivals designed by my Iraqi students in ten cities Baghdad, Erbil, Sulaymaniyah, Halabja, Dohuk, Najaf, Basra, Mosul, Dhi Qar, Nasiriyah. The “storytellers” led their teams in each of these ten cities in festivals, which led to a combined national Hackathon event held in Dohok. The game festivals led to hundreds of proposals narrowed down for the final twenty who participated in a weeklong hackathon where they presented their idea proposals to the supporting government officers, NGOs, and the environmental science community. The programs’ success has led to increased support, enabling us to expand to incorporate an additional larger youth action group.

The use of games and role play to generate attention and engagement is a critical increased participation by young people in Iraq. Additionally, it has led to creative teams that span the divides of Kurd and Arab leading to a partnership.

Do you have an idea for a LARP, but want some feedback or people to help you?
Do you want to make a LARP, but don’t have the idea or don’t feel experienced enough to be the head honcho?
Do you want to see this specific LARP come to life and don’t have time to organize it but want your ideas heard?
Do you have a lot of tips and advice for organizing a LARP that you think other could benefit from?

If you can say yes to one or more of the above then Birth of Larp is the workshop for you.

At the workshop people will present their idea for a LARP and tell what they wish they can take home with them after the workshop. Then people will join a LARP group according to their interests. It’s possible to swap between the groups if you like.

Nothing is planned beforehand except for what you bring to the table.

Is a larp really only a good and meaningful experience if your character has suffered a terrible fate, and if you, as a player, have been through all the type 2 fun? Are big emotions, drama and misery the only coin we can pay for deep larp experiences?

Let’s talk about low drama play on slice of life stories, and about the impact and meaningfulness of feelgood. Because it is ok to want for your character not to suffer through the apocalypse, but to build a meaningful life after the big boom event; and it is ok for you as a player to want agency for and empowerment in steering for a good instead of a bad resolution of your story. Let’s go beyond an oversimplification of the term feelgood, and look at how impactful and empowering it can be to play on positivity despite everything.

There has been and are several larp design schools, where larp is being taught. But each institution have their own approach and priority.

This is a workshop, where we are gonna discuss and work with HOW we teach larp design and WHAT we think is most important to teach first.

We discuss collaboration with art and culture institutions such as museums, theatres and art galleries. How can you initiate such a collaboration? What challenges (and possible misunderstandings) are there? What is it like to design and run larps to (and possibly with) people in the arts and culture field outside the larp scene? In this discussion, the panelists share experiences and give tips to those who wish to work in the field.

Are some experiences of pain alright at larps? Do you value physical sensation to find immersion? We will look at violence as an experience and as relational storytelling – not as a show or cool public scenes. We will workshop how we as players safely explore destructive sides between characters without it being stage fighting. We’ll try different techniques for physical oppression to help find what feels but doesn’t damage.

Though they evolved as separate practices in different communities, kink and larp engage in overlapping concepts. Both use heightened emotion and physicality to create intense intimate experiences. In this talk, we will explore parallel approaches to deroleing and aftercare; player fatigue and top drop; extended scenes and brink play in order to highlight tools, techniques, and philosophical lenses that inform larpers and kinksters alike.

Content warnings: References to: sexual roleplay; consensual non consent; consensual violence in kink and larp contexts

Have you watched Dancing with the Stars and wondered if you could do this as well?
Have you dreamed of sweeping over the floor like Belle in Beauty and the Beast?
Do you feel like you have two left feet?
Have you wished that you could at least get the basic steps of different dances explained to you? Come join us for a class in ballroom dancing. No previous experience is needed! Leading the class is Alex who has worked as a dance teacher and Josefin who used to have two left feet but now is competing in ballroom.

Ballroom dancing consists of 10 different dances; the 5 standard and the 5 latin. At this workshop, you will get to try some of them. Since ballroom is couple dancing there will be physical contact but you can also do ballroom dancing solo if you are not comfortable with dancing together with someone.

The standard dances are: Waltz, Viennese waltz, Tango, Slow fox, and Quickstep.
The latin dances are: Samba, Cha cha cha, Rumba, Paso doble, and Jive.

Recreational drug use has existed in every culture and throughout every period of human history, and it’s often portrayed in media, yet we’ve found that it’s often neglected in the larp world and often treated without the nuance and sensitivity it deserves when portrayed. Join us as we discuss some tips and techniques for portraying drug use in larp, as well as a discussion of the sociocultural difficulties and stigmas around it, and how these themes can help create a more realistic and immersive larp experience.

Content warnings: Depictions of drug use

What connects flying to the moon, waiting in line at Disneyland, and enjoying a tasting menu at Le Cinq in Paris? They’re all meticulously designed experiences.

Experience designers in other fields face many of the same challenges we do in LARP design. They’ve also developed practical tools to meet those challenges. In this talk, you will be introduced to a selection of those tools — and we will explore ways they can help us design LARPs.

Greetings from the island in international larping called Finland, we have a quite common sustainability problem. How could we lead our culture towards more sustainable norm especially with larp related travel? What will international larping be like when the effects of climate change gets worse? Professionals working on the matter and creating larps in their free time bring their thoughts to the table and we hear from land travel experts too.

Come sweat while reading your favourite or your own poems in the sauna.

The space is the mixed Pyhäjärvi sauna in the pool area, where you go in your swimming suit.

Jump in to VR and say hello to some of the nicest people on the planet. This design team from the world of VRchat RP-games want to know about your ideas, experiences and tall stories about Nordic Larp. I’ll lend you a VR helmet and avatar and you can mingle with some new friends before you pass on the helmet to the next person. If you can persuade them to come to Knutepunkt IRL next year, I’ll double your time:-)

Content warnings: Some people suffer motion sickness in vr

I dare to say that safety is a number one priority for many larp organizers. But does it have to be? What if we make a game with a “safety second” approach, or intentionally design it to be unsafe? I will present examples of larps or larp-related experiments which featured real harm as part of their design, or at least a considerable level of risk involved. I will explain how making a larp unsafe can paradoxically lead to greater safety (but not without a cost). I will share how I was inspired by BDSM, especially a philosophy called PRICK (Personal Responsibility, Informed Consensual Kink), to talk about risk and personal risk profiles. I will also try to answer a tough question: when we’re already at the limits, what happens if we push a little bit further?

Content warnings: General descriptions of physical and mental harm, and sexual acts

In this talk, I describe the process by which the progressive larp company Jackalope, founded by Matthew Webb, developed interest in larp as art in Texas and the surrounding areas. I will discuss how Jackalope generated buy-in from the larp community, and ran several successful bespoke larps, including The Night In Question, which will be entering its fourth run in September.

https://www.jackalope-larp.com/

Content warnings: The Night in Question content: fake blood, fake organs, simulated violence, simulated vampire feeding

When you have 47 cool props in the larp and different characters know different things, how do you manage that? How does everyone in the organizer team know all the props and who should know what?

Simple WordPress plugin using Airtable to granting visibility for players and the organizers about specific props. Database has been used also for fortune telling and other instructions.

Come get a handsome or beautiful fake tattoo for tonight!

Tattoo parlor is open at the Nightclub salon / Kitsch room, which i a sober space, so you may bring a mocktail there, but not alcohol.

Have you ever been part of the organizer team of Solmukohta, Knudepunkt, Knutepunkt or Knutpunkt? Or are you perhaps one of the organizers of a future one? Come enjoy a glass of bubbly with other organizers, past present and future.

Both alcoholic and alcohol free bubbly are available. We’ll meet in the Pyhäjärvi Sauna meeting room (no actual sauna action is part of this programme item).

Content warnings: Alcohol

Let’s celebrate Freddie by singing our lungs out and dancing to some iconic Queen tunes. We’ll sing and dance to their hits, and obviously end with Bohemian Rhapsody. We’ll also have some fun photo booth props.

Content warnings: Loud noises

LET’S BE OUTRAGEOUS, LET’S MISBEHAVE!

Get your party juices flowing at this sweet and silly Rococo Punk Party! Get a mocktail of your choice from the Winter Garden bar and bring it to the Kitsch Room to be disgraced and admired!

The Kitsch Room at Night Club Salon space, which is inside the Night Club: follow the signs on the walls.

Indulge us and grace our party with your radiant presence, you fuzzy little cherry tart! At the Kitsch Room we are all stars and everyone is beautiful! Heaven help us this will be amazing! <3

“So ummm… do you read books? Like with words and all?”

Bad Flirting Room Party is back!!! Come to Winter Garden Bar area with us.

Meet new people in a fun way and warm up your social skills! Flirt badly and recieve bad flirts! Laugh and revel in the awkward!

Rules:
1. This is comedy, treat it as such.
2. Have fun. Have no shame. Play to fail. Flirt badly to everyone.
3. Don’t assume real life interest based on what happens here.
4. Ask consent for all touch.

Content warnings: Bad Flirting

This is KITSCH! Or maybe CAMP but who cares – it’s FABULOUS! Give in to the never-ending celebration of beauty and life in a rococo-punk unreality and let yourself dream of glitter for a moment.

Hang out at the Kitsch Room and be your most beautiful self who believes sincerely in fairy tales and love. Get intoxicated by the unbearable joy of being alive and shine like an outrageous porcelain shepherdess in spring. But please do not enter this magical realm if you’re under the influence, you delightful creature, for this is a sober space.

Content warnings: Loud noises, There is stuff on the floors and hanging not easy to spot for the visually impaired

Reincarnation Station connects living entities to each other in life, death, and the messy in-between. Using movement, and sensory baths, this a rolling adaptation of the blackbox larp Transmigration of Souls, exploring the interconnectivity of ecosystems as forest creatures and survival of the non-human in the Anthropocene. As animals die, they are reincarnated by others through touch and sound, and continue the journey of the soul in another vessel. You may join in anytime, and leave when you like.

Bring your voice and your friends and join the Solmukohta 2024 Greatest Hits Live Karaoke hosted by Jukka Seppänen and accompanied live by musician Hannu Sinervä. Choose your own song from our curated list of timeless classics and sign-up on the spot when the karaoke opens. See the list of songs below:

Africa (Toto)
A Thousand Years (Christina Perri)
Bridge Over Troubled Water (Simon & Garfunkel)
Careless Whisper (George Michael)
Dancing Queen (ABBA)
Every Breath you take (The Police)
Eye of the Tiger (Survivor)
Greatest Love of All (Whitney Houston)
Hallelujah (Jeff Buckley)
I Will Survive (Gloria Gaynor)
Just The Way You Are (Bruno Mars)
Let It Be (The Beatles)
Let Me Entertain You (Robbie Williams)
Mamma Mia (ABBA)
My Heart Will Go On (Céline Dion)
Proud Mary (Tina Turner)
Raise Your Glass (P!NK)
Shallow (Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper)
Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana)
Stand By Me (Ben E. King)
True Colors (Cyndi Lauper)
Viva La Vida (Coldplay)
Without You (Mariah Carey)
Wonderwall (Oasis)
Your Song (Elton John)

Content warnings: Loud noises

The main costume event is Saturday’s “It’s tacky but I love it!” party, so think corny and fabulous, but please don’t stress! Everyone’s here to have a good time, so wear whatever makes you feel great and/or comfortable.

The party spreads from Night club and the Sober Kitsch Room to other spaces.

Absinthe

Music will be made and everyone is welcome! Bring your voice or any musical instrument.

Content warnings: Loud noises, Country music

Seniors unite! We will play alternative music from when you grew up (in the 60-70-80-90ties), break the ice with some Big Talk Question for a short speed-friending and share some warm hugs! You may dance or just chill&talk at this 1 hour room party.
Bring your ID so we can confirm you are old enough to enter, 40 years or older.

Content warnings: May be load music.

The Secret Fusion Party begins in the slow dance space. Dive into the music alone, with a partner or make it a Ménage-à-trois. Connect with yourself and other people in dance… in movement. Be prepared for music from all genres, but especially emotional music that gives you the opportunity to express yourself with others. We will also incorporate the events theme of Kitsch to the party.
Using blindfolds as in previous years will be offered, but is only optional and will not be the focus of this years secret dance party.
So tell everyone, that they must not speak of ‘The Secret Fusion Party’!

SATURDAY
21 TK Don’t Slip & DJ Fryktløs
Nude Illusion

22 Troels

23 Petter
The (Electro)House I Grew Up In

00 DJ Argola
House of Immersion

01 Matyas
Synthwave Subversive

02-04 Andreas
Secret Fusion Party II

Come if want to have info about The Secrets We Keep larp, talk with players and organisers or if you just want to dance to some 80s-90s music!

Slow dance, fusion, whatever delights you on the dance floor. This Saturday night party space is a relaxed and enchanting alternative to the booming disco. Step in and dance the night away!

Content warnings: Dancing

Come on, Barbie, let’s go party!
We don’t have anything big going on. Just a giant blowout party with all the Barbies, and planned choreography, and a bespoke song. You should stop by.
Wear your kitschiest pink and the most dazzling glitter, and dance the night away!
It’s girls’ night every night!
P.S. All Kens are invited, too!

Content warnings: Loud noises, Flashing lights

Room party in the vibe of the larp The Wild Hunt: 3 AM Forever. Come to hotel room 221 and join the eternal dance of the fae and discover your heart’s desire.

Step into our imaginary world of magical merry-go-rounds, fire-breathers and bearded strongmen!

If you have the skill, the talent or the moxie, STEP RIGHT UP and try out your skills in our classical carny games.

Your diaboli…that is, workaholic hosts and their elusive boss Calypso shall welcome and inspire you to show the world what you got! Best performer gets a devilishly attractive backstage offer! So, bring your body (and soul) to our hippodrome!

What to expect:
– a circus-themed atmosphere and games like balloon darts, ring toss or strongman bell
– 2 hosts dressed as carny barkers to guide you through the games
– you can either play the games or cheer others on
– there will be small prizes for winners!

Content warnings: Loud noises

Every year since the dawn of humanity, larpers from all over the world have gathered at midnight on Solmukohta Saturday to perform a grand ritual. We have called upon gods and goddesses both old and new, real and fake, and come back wiser, calmer, empowered, energized, emancipated, forever changed.

Bring any musical instruments and lights you may have to this improvised ritual. The ritual will likely take place outside in which case bring a coat and possibly boots. We will meet at the hotel lobby at Midnight.

If this is your first Solmukohta, you have to ritual.

Content warnings: Loud noises, Flashing lights, Spiritual and religious words and concepts may be thrown around casually and irreverently.

The Secret Fusion Party continues, now on the main party floor! Not so secret anymore, but no less Fusion. Come, dance and connect.
Depending on the energy of the room, slowly melt into your dance partner or freak out on the dance floor.
DJ cZart will send you to new spheres with his music.

Do you want to play larps instead of just talking about it? Here you can see all the upcoming larps and conventions you can attend. The organizers of the events will present facts and stuff and have maybe made some cool slides or videos to show.

If you have something to present please submit it here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfVWgbwnL1LOTtSAOejJnno5kgzFiHXGIngo-OCk3zu2UaCNw/viewform
Deadline: Sunday the 7th of April 2024 23:59 CET.

Join our uplifting session on Sunday to overcome the post-Solmukohta melancholy, aka Knudeblues.

We’ll cherish the best memories and focus on the future, harnessing and preserving the burst of inspiration Solmukohta ignites.

Together, we’ll use dramatic exploration, Liberating Structures, and inclusive bottom-up processes to work with the ‘here and now,’ make sense of our experiences and empower each other.