The Grenselandet 2019 Design Challenge

Since the beginning, Grenselandet has been a festival celebrating excellent larps from all over world. It has been a requirement that the larp has been tested, and the programme has been curated based on tetamonies given by players, designers and festival organizers.

This year, we are rerunning a few of the most celebrated larps from the past decade, but we are also introducing something new: The Grenselandet Challenge. This is both an homage to the very beginning of Grenselandet, when the festival started out as the testing ground for "The Larpwriter Challenge" in 2010, as well as a way to inspire renewal.

We have teamed up with Deichmanske Library to make a challenge to larp makers from all over the world. The challenge is to create a larp that is playable in a semi-public space.

The playing area is as follows:


- A small ~20 sqm black box within the library space
- Light rig is available and sound can be used with low volume
- The library will be open to the public as the larps run, and library visitors will be present outside the scene
- The scene can be completely covered by the black box curtains but they can also be partly og completly open to create interaction with the outside
- Maximum duration 4 hours including workshop
- No preparations required for the players before they meet up To sign up for the challenge, go here

Ticket sales open!

The ticket sales for Grenselandet 2019 is now live. This is the 10th Grenselandet, and to celebrate the anniversary we are rerunning some of the most important chamber larps from the past decade. Don't miss out on this opportunity!

BUY YOUR TICKET HERE

We have four different kinds of tickets.

Ordinary ticket is available at NOK 400

Sponsor ticket is available at NOK 600. If you buy one of these, we will make one more ticket available at subsidized price, allowing more people who are less well off to attend.

Subsidized ticket is available at NOK 200. The price is reduced thanks to those who pay extra for a sponsor ticket. The subsidized tickets are intended for people with low income. There are no formal criteria, we trust that the people who buy these tickets are those who need them. If you think that NOK 200 makes a difference for you, ou can buy a subsidized ticket.

Activist ticket is available at NOK 50. This means that you would like to help us running Grenselandet. Free meals are included in the ticket. You will have to work two shifts of approximately 5 hours. This means you will only be able to play one or two larps. But you will get a lot of cred and love!

Programme schedule

The programme is now ready, and if you hold a ticket you should have received an email with information on how to sign up for individual larps. Please note that check-in for all larps is at Slurpen 30 minutes prior to the starting time. If you are not there in time, you might lose your spot.


Opening hours for the hangout at Slurpen:

Friday 15:00-00:30
Saturday 10:00-02:00

Meals:

Bread&Jam 10:00-11:00
Lunch 15:00-17:00
Dinner 21:00-22:00

Lunch and dinner costs NOK 50. Bread and jam is free of charge.

The Monica Lewinsky Effect

"The Monica Lewinsky Effect" (BY), by Tatsiana Smaliak and Ivan Pranovitch, is a non-verbal larp about group aggression and reprobation on social media. 

It explores such topics as nature of social media and the use of it. It also makes the players experience feelings of being mobbed on social media and of being a part of a crowd that bullies others.

Are you new to Larp?

Don’t despair! We have all been there, and here follows a few tips that might be helpful for the larp beginner.

Grenselandet mostly features "chamber larps". This is a genre of larps that typically lasts around four hours.

Chamber larps are often split in three parts:

1. The workshops, where the group gets to know each other, and where you get to develop your character
   
2. The actual play time
   
3. The debrief, where you can get out of your role, and discuss the experience together

A few tips for a better experience:

*It's a good idea to wear comfortable, neutral, clothes. You should feel like you can move around freely.

*You don't need to bring anything. A bottle of water can be handy, but usually water is also available at the venue.

*Finally, and very importantly, remember that you can opt out of the larp at any moment if you need to!

What makes a good larp is different from one person to another. However, it can be useful to think about what kind of experience you are looking for, and what’s important to you:

Are you looking for a smaller or a bigger group of players? 

Something with a lot of talking or something nonverbal? 

A feel good game, a more dramatic one, a political one?

Last note: there will always be people at the venue that can answer questions about the larp or practicalities, don't hesitate to reach out to them!

We are thrilled that you are curious about larp, welcome to this wonderous world!

Katabasis

Katabasis (UK), by Susan Ploetz, Una Hamilton Helle and Francis Brady, is larp about cave descents, origin myths and group archetypes. It utilises non-verbal (with limited verbal) communication, physicality and symbol-making to create culture, narrative and play. 

Generations ago, our people fled into a vast system of caves to create a new world. The Myth says that we started as one large group, but, after the Great Divide, we were separated. 

There are stories that the others are still out there, but we haven’t encountered them. As we descend further into the vast network of caverns, we feel the presence and traces of the mythical others as they appear to us as symbols, detritus and echoes in the dark. 

We envision Katabasis as a flexible structure for those who want to think about the formation of societies and culture, as well as communication and the negotiation of differences.

It is a larp that explores these themes through myth and symbol creation; and ritualised movement and sound.

Life Lessons

Drawing a live human model can sometimes reveal more about you than it does about the subject.

In Life Lessons (UK), by Mo Holkar, you will play a student at a weekly life-drawing class, across a series of six lessons.

The process of drawing will open up your characters – to themselves, and to each other – and they will share and bond.

[Important note: you don’t have to be able to draw, or even to be interested in drawing, to take part. Drawing is just a mechanism for approaching the exploration of your character: what you draw during the larp will not be seen by anyone other than yourself, unless you wish it to.]