THANK YOU

for being part of Portal10!
See you next year in Budapest!

PORTAL FANPAGE

photo by: Kaja Skorzynska

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Call for program

 Who can participate?

We want Portal to be a space for exchanging experiences between people from different countries and different larp cultures. Those cultures would not exist without all of you, so no matter if you are an organizer, creator, or player – we encourage you to submit your applications for various forms of participation in our conference. 

Available formats:

  • speech (15 or 30 minutes),
  • discussion with audience (60 or 90 minutes),
  • workshop (60, 90 lub 120 minutes),
  • larp (up to 300 minutes including preparations),
  • performance (it will be a part of the evening program held in the conference venue and can be anything from costume presentation, burlesque or any other performative activity), 
  • other (we are open for your suggestions).

This year Portal will be focused on three themes: 

  • Impact describes how larping influences the world: both the larping community and broader society;
  • Design talks allow us to share experiences about larp content and formula; 
  • Production lets us develop more efficient ways to organize our games. 

During the submission, you will have to specify which of them fits your presentation. Below, you will find some examples of presentation topics for each theme. 

Impact

  • Education and learning e.g. “Educational larp about silesian history for high school students”, “Comparison between larp and psychodrama”, “How did I learn sign language through larping”.
  • Larp for change (social impact, serious games) e.g. “Larp as a form of social disobedience”, “Rescuing the Baltic Sea – the game”, “Charity actions in Polish larp community”.
  • Personal Empowerment e.g. “How I started a female-only team for a battle larp”, “What did I learn through going to international larps”, “How I dealt with my FOMO”.
  • Accessibility and inclusiveness e.g. “How to make your game available for players with physical disabilities”, “ How to change the game to fit the body, and not the body to fit the game”, “Designing satisfying relationships for aromantic characters”.
  • Business e.g. “Larp as team building activity”, “How to design city games in cooperation with big companies”, “Larp organizers’ speed dating – find a coworker of your dreams”.
  • Collaboration with other fields e.g. “Consultations with a firefighter regarding fire hazards on your games”, “How to use larping to create workshops for medical students”, “Larp versus improvised theatre – find 10 differences”.
  • Designing larp community e.g. “Why do people of a certain age leave their hobbies, and how to prevent it?”, “Mentoring for new larp creators”, “Preventing aggressive behaviours – larp groups on social media platforms case study”.

Design

  • Larp structure  e.g. “How to start and finish a game”, “How did the mandatory breaks for sleep help my players to focus on the plot”, “The freeform formula – not only acts”.
  • Story, plot, narrative e.g. “The merits of lack of transparency: riddles, mysteries, and emotions”, “Creating faithful adaptations vs being inspired by the original work – a case study of larps from the Witcher universe”, “Always give the choice: on the agency of the player”.
  • Creating characters and relationships e.g. “Interesting female characters in historical games”, “How to write homoromantic plots without prejudice”, “Nobody is bad from the beginning – about the antagonists”.
  • Mechanics and meta techniques e.g. “Magic mechanics overview”, “Workshop on various sex mechanics, “Should the hit in the head count?”.
  • Workshops e.g. “Know your timing! How not to talk too much”, “Exercises helping players to manage personal space”, “Remembering the names – quickly!”.
  • Debrief, deroling, and decompression e.g. “Debriefing tools used in Czechia”, “How we exchange letters with other players to slowly get out of the character”, “Afterparty as a tool to get out of the character”.
  • Digital tools e.g. “Creating character cards in InDesign”, “10 tips on using Discord to design games”, “I can’t draw. Where to find free license art?”.
  • Grassroot game design e.g. “Our journey as a party and what it taught us about building a camp”, “How to create an engaging ritual”, “Sophie Was Right – mechanics that we created, cause we were afraid of boredom”.

Production

  • Scenography and sound e.g. “Your first PA (voice and sound) system – how to do it”, “Minimalist scenography with maximum effect”, “Warehouse transportation step by step”.
  • Costumes and props e.g. “Leatherwork workshop”, “Wow effect – magical grimoire with hidden content”, “Warhammer universe fashion overview – with pictures and photos”.
  • SFX (special effects) e.g. “Larp makeup show – silicon casts”, “Home-made fireworks”, “How to create a magical forest”.
  • Funding, finances, sponsorship e.g. “Larp bookkeeping – how to not overspend?”, “How to get the funding from Erasmus+ programme?”, “Creating sponsorship agreement for a role-playing game”.
  • Cooperation with a venue e.g. “Agreement with a venue. How to do it right?”, “Negotiating prices for larp groups – what can we offer to get a lower price?”, “Food, accommodation, sanitary conditions – a blockbuster basics”.
  • Crisis management e.g. “A quick way to inform the organizers about a crisis”, “Mediations for beginners”, “When you have to cancel your game last minute…”.
  • Teambuilding and working with NPCs e.g. “Workshop on building a sense of community among the players”, “Creating  registration forms – what do you want to know about your NPCs?”, “Care for your NPCs, even if they don’t ask for it”.
  • Communication e.g. “Declining politely, or how to inform that someone did not get into your game”, “Facebook, Instagram, Twitter – communicate about your game coherently and efficiently”, “Design doc: step by step”.
  • Safety (psychological or physical) and consent e.g. “My 10 mistakes with securing the mine’s terrain and what I have learnt from that”, “Aftercare step by step”, “New non-verbal safety tools – a proposal”.
register as a SPEAKER
Register as a VOLUNTEER