Suomen Kuvalehti 19.09.1997:

WHAT HAPPINESS WHEN 400 LARPERS SHUT THEMSELVES IN A HOTEL FOR A WEEKEND?

Text Maikki Kattilankoski
Pictures Nico Backström

At 4 a.m. an alarm is heard throughout the asteroid "The dome has cracked! Time to evacuate, fifteen minutes!"

The air is escaping fast. Those who reach the space terminal on time will survive, if help arrives on time.

Soon, the spacecraft Wanderer II arrives to the rescue. Frenzied people cram in. The real-life location for the evacuation scene is the hotel Haaga in Helsinki.

From Friday night until Sunday the hotel acts as the spacecraft Wanderer II in a live-action role-playing game of the same name. With nearly four hundred players Wanderer II is the largest Scandinavian LARP.

The arrangers have written a character for each of the four hundred players, created a universe with a history from this day to the year 2050 and also created a futuristic social framework. The genre of the game is cyberpunk, a genre in which the future looks sinister. "In the end of the 70s the world view of science fiction was that Earth was clean," Terhi Säilä explains, "it wasn't until the movie Blade Runner, that people started to think otherwise." The main inspiration for the game was derived from William Gibson's Neuromancer.

"The worst has already happened. Earth is not a nice place anymore," she continues. "In the year 2050 Earth is severely polluted. The few comfortable inhabitable locales are occupied by the rich, and people are always looking for a better place to live. Space has already been colonized."

"Nation states have lost their importance." Terhi Säilä explains about the society of the game. " Economic and religious alliances are more important than states."

The world of Wanderer is however anything but homogeneous . "There is also a degree of purism and organizations that oppose everything unnatural to man, such as cybernetics and drugs."

Appearances Help in Fleshing Out the Game

In the game, the most important factor in an enjoyable experience is to submerge in the game. Players prepare by studying their character and by propping. Those who have built cybernetic combat hands or camera eyes, help in fleshing out the atmosphere in the game.

"Appearances also help others to submerge in the game." Miss Säilä continues explaining the importance of dressing for the occasion. "If someone shows up dressed in jeans and a hockey shirt, it is damaging for the atmosphere for other as well." Each character belongs to a group who's goals they try to forward. In addition, also the character's personal driving forces, such as the character's past, interpersonal relations and the drive to succeed, influence the player. The task of the game masters is to create the framework and invent the goals and motives for the character. The flow of the game itself is up to the actions of the players.

Soda High

In Wanderer Il the players start scheming immediately. Despite a short night's sleep, not many decide to rest once they reach the rescue ship. The casino bustled with life, business is made and gangs mark their turfs. Soon the news of Captain Robert Parkins' death reach everyone. According to rumor, the spaceship has been hijacked, but the identity and the motives of the hijacker remain unknown. The only thing certain is that the ship has changed its course. The owner of the ship, the Zorgon Pettersson Group, does not comment, but the ship security level has been raised, giving cause for suspicion. The machine room and the bridge are off-limits for people without a pass. The gangs are clearly uniting, preparing for mutiny.

Not everyone is interested in the power struggle . A group of young men lay on the casino floor, next to a radio is playing music from nearly a century ago. "We're the Beach Boys gang", Mihail Graskin explains. "We surf space." The blue nostrils of the young man next to him tell a tale of downer, Smurf, abuse.

Terhi Säilä has written the entire set of drug rules for Wanderer. "Drugs are synthetic. Some are legal, derivatives of today's common substances, such as coffee. They have a short-time effect, they are non-addictive, and without side-effects." For illegal drugs she has defined side-effects and a dosage that causes addiction. "If you play by the rules, the side effects are terrifying."

In real life, the in-game addicts pop candy. A young man using Smurf has drunk a bottle of blue Spider-Man soda, the effects are purely simulated. Miss Säilä finds the concern of the general public towards drug use in the game amusing. In real life the players barely touch alcohol, even if the in game casino is located in a real bar.

Really Downbeat

In the afternoon, tiredness and hunger start to undermine the morale. When the food finally arrives around two o'clock, the line lingers for tens of meters, making everyone forget their squabbles. "We aim at realism," the main organizer behind the game Timo Multamäki gives as a reason for the belated lunch. "People lost their families and their possessions, they should feel desperate. "Is there an easier way to break someone's will than by leaving him alone, without his loved ones, and depriving him of sleep or food." Timo Multamäki asks.

"Nobody ever died from fasting for six hours." Multamäki himself is at this phase happy with the flow of the game and the atmosphere. The question that remains is, how many of the players are able think of their hunger as a game element. It is a different thing to be upset at the game's arrangers and keep playing your character than to be upset at the officers of Wanderer II as the character and forget real-life.

Simulated Sex

In the afternoon mutiny breaks out. The Zorgon Petterson Group has according to public knowledge notified Earth that there were no survivors. Since the evacuees are officially dead, ZPG is going to use them as slave labor in building a new base. The law enforcement officials of the ship ally with the rebels.

The battle is quickly over, when ZPG Security respond to the attack with stun gas. The rebels flee deeper into the apartment module. Those exposed to the stun gas are unconscious for six hours. The gas dissipates in five minutes, and the rebels can return and negotiate with the ZPG management. After one and a half hours a truce is announced. The truce does not last long.

The sales secretary of Hotel Haaga, Nina Heinonen tells that she was surprised how violent the game was. Things are wilder than she expected. She was informed that there were going to be guns, but she was not prepared for tunnel war. Even though she praises the way things have been handled, there is a trace of concern in her voice. "When there are a lot of people in one place, things can break on sheer mass alone."

The organizatorial capabilities of the arrangers have convinced Nina Heinonen that the cleaning up after the game will also proceed painlessly. The fighting almost slows down to a halt around midnight. Rumors of peace circle the ship, but no-one buys the rumors. ZPG has lost the confidence of the people, but at the same time people are tired of fighting. Too many have died and begun to play another character.

Down in the casino techno music pounds ceaselessly throughout the fighting. There is no reaction to announcements of mutiny or truces. These people are ready to die, as long as it doesn't stop the party. The entertainers of the casino offer sexual favors for a price. The appearances of the entertainers hint that even rough play is possible. "The truth is that entertainers in Wanderer I had a boring time, because people just ran away", Miss Säilä says and laughs at shyness of the Finns. "In fact a neck massage is a good simulation of sex, because it makes you feel good for real as well. If the players know each other well enough they can simulate the thing by talking. In Wanderer I, I saw a couple making passionate love verbally, while sitting two meters apart.

Before the game, each player has chosen themselves a physical and psychological simulation rating. On the lowest rating, melee combat is replaced by a simple game scissors-paper-rock and spoken language towards that player cannot be harsher than average street talk. There are four ratings all in all, and on the highest rating you can be hurt as long as there is no actual damage. The highest psychological rating allows everything that the player doesn't specifically forbid. The highest ratings can not be chosen by the player alone, but also require the permission of the GM. Newbies are never allowed the highest rating. In practice the ratings are obeyed with great respect. When the master Vissnu is recruiting new female disciples to worship Kama Sutra by preaching his teachings, he does it verbally, because of my low psychological b-rating. I'm happy with my rating as kissing a honeyed cow horn does not tempt me. The player of Vissnu isn't sure whether I understand his character. "There must be some things scary in a game, doesn't there?", he states.

The Atmosphere - The Most Important Factor

During the wee hours of the morning the ship quiets down. The few instances of settling personal scores in the hallways do not disturb those already asleep. Even the casino quiets down when the last of the dancers tire. In the morning security herds the people in to the auditorium. The ship lands on Mars, despite long negotiations, and leaves the evacuees to build the new base of the Zorgon Petterson Group. The sitting ZPG chairman Åsa Laxen did not believe that the rebels managed to get off a message to Earth through the radio interference. The company is now facing serious judicial consequences. After the game is over, there is a debrief where the individual groups report their activities. It seems that the east Mafia has throughout the game been arranging a successor for their old leader. Information on power struggles within the ZPG are first heard of now. Åsa Laxen has managed a coup by sending the CEO Marie Petterson away from the potential danger by a private craft. "The Debrief is an essential part of the game ", says Timo Multamäki. "This is where you find out what plots were going on and who achieved what." The GMs get their rewards at this phase. Mr. Multamäki says that the best part of a game is when you hear that the game was a success. "The atmosphere is essential. If the atmosphere is good, the mission of the individual character becomes secondary."

Live-Action Role-Players Run in the Woods Dressed Funny

Role-playing games came to Finland in the late 70s. Their popularity increased rapidly, when the first translated games hit the shelves in the mid-eighties. Role-playing games are played around a table, just as board games. The rule book contains the rules of the game, as well as directions to determining the abilities and experience of the character.

The head of the role-playing society of Turku, Tyrmä, Tino Warinowski defines role-playing games as a play with a script. "The players each have a leading role. The Gamemaster is the script writer, propper, director and plays all the supporting roles."

The game world can be situated in the dark ages as well as in the future. The relative scarceness of games situated in today's world is according to Warinowski understandable. "Who would like to play in today's world, when you already play it 24 hours a day?"

Mika Laaksonen from the Finnish game retailer Tudeer Ky estimates the average player to be between 17-23 years old. Most of them seem to be boys, but according to Laaksonen the amount of girls is increasing. In live games girls are even more dominant than boys.

Larping, live role-playing, is a play where each player has a role developed by the Game Master, but whose lines and future is not written. The Game Master only takes a direct part in the game through his own character. Clothing and propping support immersing in the game. Most role-players play both table-top games as well as live role-playing games.

The strategy game was the predecessor of the role-playing game. It was developed on the basis of 19th century military strategy games. In strategy games players lead armies on a board. Strategy games are often based on real-life campaigns.

The original article was published in Finnish in Suomen Kuvalehti no:38 19.9.1997 on pages 38-44

Copyright 1997 Eteläsuomen Rooli- ja Strategiapeliyhdistys ry.
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Written by eero.heurlin@wanderer.org on 08.08.1998.
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