Standing in line

The Polish Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) produces board games for historical education purposes. One of their games, The Queue (Kolejka), tells a story of everyday life in Poland at the tail-end of the communist era.



- At first glance, the task of the 2 to 5 players appears quite simple: they have to send out their family, which consists of 5 pawns, to various stores on the game board to buy all the items on their randomly drawn shopping list, says Katarzyna Hołopiak.



- The problem is, however, that the shelves in the five neighborhood shops are empty…



The IPN is the biggest archive in Poland. The basic tasks of the Institute include: gathering, assessing and disclosing of documentation created by state security agencies in the years 1939-1989.

Web: Institute of National Remembrance
Downloadable game: The Queue
Illustration: The Queue board game

The Belarusian Larpwriter Challenge


The competition invited Belarusian game authors to contribute short, re-playable larps discussing human rights and society. The best games will be played at the international larp festival Grenselandet 2011 in Oslo 28-29 October. Hosted by Laivfabrikken and Fantasiforbundet.

The winner will be announced after the jury has played the games at a larp festival in Minsk later this year.

Web: Grenselandet 2011 & Larpwriter Challenge

Article by Ole Peder Giæver

Norwegian Maoists. Yep, they exist

Rød oktober (Red October) is a larp about the Norwegian Maoist party AKP(m-l) in the 1970s. The players will assume the roles of activists on a party gathering at a secret location somewhere in Norway.



- We hope to use this larp both to explore the historical phenomenon of AKP(m-l) and the shaping of consciousness and ideology in tight-knit groups, and generally to have fun, says Even Tømte, one of the organizers.

The Maoists movement in Norway grew out of the broader youth rebellion of the 1960s, and probably was the best organized and most politically rigid of the lot. While they never got a significant political following, they exerted an influence far beyond their actual numbers, perhaps particularly in cultural life. This made them not just a fringe group, but a quite important phenomenon in post-war Norwegian history.

– Recent Norwegian history is obviously the most important source of inspiration for us. The organizers come from different political backgrounds, but all of us have worked for the revolution at some point in our lives, and some of us perhaps still do. Exploring conflicts and dynamics on the left, the idea of revolution and the seductive call of revolutionary ideology are to varying degrees also connected to our own personal experiences, says Tømte.

Played primarily in the Norwegian. 21-23 October, near Oslo.

Web: Rød Oktober (In Norwegian, English with Google Translate).
Illustration: Chinese Posters

Article by Ole Peder Giæver

Danish KZ – Kapo




– Kapo is a dystopian near future larp working with the potential consequences of the contemporary politics of fear which we experience both in our everyday life in Denmark and on a global level from the so called “War on Terror”, says organizer Peter Munthe-Kaas. 

Participants will play dissidents who are imprisoned as they are deemed a potential threat to society.

The game is “very much” open to English speakers. October 2011.

Web: Kapo.nu

Article by Ole Peder Giæver

Totalism for beginners

The Czech larp Project System aims to provide the players with a “weekend in a totalitarian state”:

During almost thirty hours of the game you will experience, along with other players, the story of people living in a state without freedom.

The game weekend in English is scheduled for 23 – 25. September 2011, and takes place by the village Zubří close to Nové Město na Moravě, Czech Republic.

Web: Projekt System
Photo: Court of Moravia

Article by Ole Peder Giæver