Introduction and explanations
The text is summary in nature – as much as it is possible to attempt to describe a large larp scene in a brief manner. It is the result of years of my research, but is by no means completely certain information. It is the current state of knowledge.
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In Poland, larps have been around for at least 34 years. The first certain and source-confirmed game took place in the spring of 1989 in Supraśl, as part of a local convention. It is one of the oldest larps in Europe, although a few years behind the Anglo-Saxon scene in age. However, the subject requires closer research, as numerous sources suggest that the history of larp in Poland and Europe should be dated much earlier.
Although the absolute majority of the creators and participants of these first games are no longer present, there are still the first larp festivals and conventions that were established. Among these, Orkon, which has existed and been held in the summer since 1991, is the most prominent. Although it has declined in number and strength, it is still going strong. There are more events or cycles, taking place continuously either since the mid-1990s or ending after decades with the onset of the pandemic.
Since then, larps in Poland have been constantly growing and evolving. After a bit of a slowdown, in 2024 we were back at a peak in numbers – around 1,500 larps of various types took place (let us point out at the same time that a particularly large segment of larps in Poland are chambers, jeepforms and freeforms from 5 to 11 participants). However, the number of players is still not quite back to pre-pandemic standards.
My guess is that there are about 6,000-8,000 active larpers in Poland at the moment (not counting participants in teenage summer camps, which I do not undertake to estimate). Active means having played at least once in the previous year. Yet there is a large group playing much more often and a very small group playing dozens of larps each year. Before the COVID pandemic, it was estimated that there were a total of around 20,000 active larpers in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, most of them in the first two countries. However, these numbers cannot be confirmed in 100%.
At the moment, the main centres of larping in Poland are Warsaw, Wrocław, Poznań and the Tricity. Summer and winter camps for young people organised by large and small tour operators are responsible for about 1/7 of all games. Another ⅙-1/7 are conventions and festivals. The environment is currently based on a dozen larger larp groups and dozens of smaller groups, and independent developers. There are several companies and commercial entities. There is a significant flow of both staff and ideas between most of the above.
However, it is worth noting that when analysing the environment in terms of the number of participants, the proportions look different. Large field and battle larps (treated as two categories with different specificities) although few in number, accounting for about 1% of games, attract disproportionate masses of players, with numbers reaching up to 400 participants.
As such, Poland is not strictly Nordic, nor Southern, nor Anglo-Saxon larp-wise, although it has features of each of the above (least Anglo-Saxon, I think). It is, like the country itself in which it takes shape, a bridge in the middle of different scenes, drawing inspiration from here and there. Both Nordic approaches and our own base of larp thought have left a strong imprint. Also present are the inspirations of the southerners and Balkan larps, ideas from colleagues in Ukraine and Belarus, which were developing and flourishing until the current conflict erupted.
In some simplification, the Polish environment can be divided into certain sub-groups. I will mention the details below, I will only point out that, with exceptions, most of these sub-scenes are percolating, while since at least 2015 there has been a strong tendency in the environment to move around and get to know other developers and other parts of the community. It is considered proper, in fact taken for granted, to wander between groups and scenes in different cities or game types. The most active core of the community, the transmitters and spreaders of ideas, concepts and methodologies between the others, are therefore the people who create and play in different cities, for different communities.
A Larp Conference has been organised every year since 2012, and our community devotes a noticeable effort to larp theory and writing it down. Among other things, we have managed to publish more than a dozen conference and popular science publications, and every year most of the lectures of our conference are streamed and then made available on youtube. There are currently several hundred recordings – to my knowledge the largest such collection in the world. A larp census has been running intermittently in Poland since 2012, but it is highly limited in terms of responsiveness and representative only of certain parts of the community.
In Poland, apart from the Vampire the Masquerade games, larp campaigns popular in Anglo-Saxon environments are unlikely to be played. Such larps, which used to exist as part of fantasy larp groups, fell out of circulation for the most part around 2010. One of the few non-vampire examples is Limes Mundi, an author’s fantasy world set in the magic-tinged Middle Ages in Samogitia. It is one of the few major larps in the author’s world in Poland.
There are 3 academic courses in Poland whose curriculum includes larps. These are:
- Gamedec specialisation in Second Generation Humanities – Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz
- specialisation in games production on the Media Production faculty at Maria Curie Skłodowska University in Lublin; and
- major in historical games design at the Faculty of History, University of Gdańsk
Currently, our environment, although recovering steadily from the pandemic, is struggling with several problems.
Firstly, the rebuilding of the number of players is progressing, but still raises some problems. Moreover, new players are only just being drawn into our social structures and culture. Those starting out after the pandemic are also, according to most of my interlocutors, much less aware of larp theory and how our games work. For the time being, they are often passive recipients.
Secondly, there has been a huge increase in the cost of making larps in the period since the start of the pandemic – depending on the segment, from two to four times, while wages have not risen to any meaningful level. An analysis of the figures and information from colleagues elsewhere in Europe suggests that in Poland larps are a pastime for people in the higher earning class than is the case on average in other countries. At the same time, rising costs with limited ability to fully offset the value of premiums and tickets have deprived many larp teams of meaningful reserves or investment funds.
These are not incapacitating problems, but they are quite a hindrance and burden for groups organising larps. They will probably slow down our development to some extent. Quite a few groups are trying to compensate for the situation with grants, but after the elimination of US programmes and with the weakness of national programmes, European/EU projects are suffering from significant overlap.
Below I will try to give an overview:
1. a brief history of our larp scene
2. specific elements
3. our communication channels and how to find us
A brief history of our larp scene 1.
As mentioned, the history of identifiable larps began in Poland in 1989, but its real development started in 1991, with the appearance of… source material. The convention guest who started identifiable larps was Bridget Wilkinson, a board member of the European Science Fiction Association in 1990, who ‘sent to the Bialystok fantasy club several manuals for RPG systems and a packet of booklets published by British fandom. Among them a short, amateurish paper on larps in the UK. This black-and-white, duplicate periodical of a few pages mentioned a ‘safe weapon’ constructed from sponge over a fibreglass core and reinforced with Duct Tape. ‘ [Seeds, Trees, Gardens – publication of the 2016 Larp Conference: The Prehistory of Larp in Poland – Daniel Wiktorowicz]
In the following years, Polish larp fandom was based on three main branches: summer, outdoor larp conventions, gathering as many games as possible in their timeframe (Orkon, Gladion – Flamberg, Fantazjada, etc.), games organised at conventions during the year (of which there could be dozens per year even in county towns), and Vampire the Masquerade larps appearing with the development of the RPG scene. With the end of the 1990s came the addition of historical larps, linked to re-enactment circles of 17th-century Polish history, and the first summer camps for young people.
At the time, the scene was not very nomadic and out-of-the-way in its local communities, predominantly male (over 80%) and relatively small in number, at least in its regular part. I estimate that at that time it could not have exceeded a thousand active users.
The beginning of the 2000s saw, firstly, the further numerical growth of the community, as well as its expansion. Post-apo larps appear, the Tolkien scene grows in strength (and dies out after a few years), the first interest in the Nordic scene appears, and the first distinct Polish larp schools flourish – of those still active, I would mention Lublin Larp School (focusing on storied, skeleton-like plot constructions and highly intricate, even controversial themes, encased in huge masses of storytelling material for players), but there are many more. The postapo larp Oldtown, which existed until Pandemic and is strongly recognised internationally, is flourishing, Polish creators are appearing at international conferences. Communities are forming that are not only focused on gaming, but also on education, exploring issues of larp theory and breaking the mold.
With the year 2012 and the emergence of the Larp Conference, a powerful focus on the development of larp theory and research, the search for universal solutions, and thus the commonality of methods, and the paths to them, begins in Poland. The Polish larp scene is opening up not only between previous social bubbles, but also internationally. The population of both creators and audiences is growing considerably, the numbers are increasing, and gender participation rates in the community are almost equalising.
The first run of College of Wizardy has taken place. The larp took place from 13-16 November 2014, with 138 players and around 50 npc participating. It started as a project and child of Liveform, was under the management of Rollespilsfabrikken and Dziobak Larp Studio. It is now created by the Wonderlarp Foundation and the Witchards Society – it is the start of European blockbusters. It has also started the long-suppressed issue of accepting that larp has costs that should not be borne by the organiser, and has led many international creative groups to establish contacts in Poland.
After 2015, a sub-genre of games that was new to us emerged from field and fantasy games. This was the battle larp, focused strictly on combat, primarily squad-based. In Poland, there are about 5-10 battle larps a year, gathering up to 500 people. The most popular settings are Warhammer and The Witcher. The environment is characterised by a strong emphasis on organised troops (active, including: recruiting and training people, all year round), a high level of material culture (simple, but fully atmospheric, including shoes, silhouettes are required of everyone; camping, including lodging, cooking, etc., is also atmospheric, all necessary non-climatic elements are concealed) and deep immersion – both the battle segments and the camp game are conducted all the time in the atmosphere, including at night, non-stop.
In the meantime, before the COVID pandemic arrived, Polish larp had undergone two generational changes, the first wave of #metoo and shaped its modern, contemporary form.
In February 2020, just before the outbreak of covid, an anniversary Larp Conference was held, which attracted masses of creators and allowed for summaries. In 2019 we had 1,500 larps in Poland, a figure we returned to in 2024, and it seems we were then exceeding 10,000-11,000 active audiences. Online coverage was good, and we also managed to publish an 800-page or so hardcover summary of our larp knowledge.
2020 was to be the best year in our history. We managed to survive it, then rebuilt to where we are now back on a growth path.
2. specific elements
a. The huge spread of game types.
While researching the international scene, I noticed that very few countries present more than a few of the forms of larping. Poland is one of those where all the formulas I’ve encountered in other countries are present: chambers, freeforms, jeepforms, larps in castles as well as block busters, vampire larps, off-road fantasy and strictly battle games, ASG games, stand-alone larps, convention larps as well as summer camp larps.
b. Lack of a culture of calibration.
We are not in the habit of doing this. This often surprises foreign readers or players. Most games have a policy of secrecy of character sheets, and base the game on secrets that the player has to explore. Scenes are highly intense, geared towards eventual de-escalation with safety mechanisms, rather than escalation and calibration at the level of its setting.
c. At the same time, games with heavy and difficult themes that require rubbing up against triggers or pushing one’s limits are popular. Recipients are often looking for games that allow them to experience powerful experiences. Feel-good larps or gamified, winnable or achievable character goals of some kind are rare. Mechanics tend to be narrativistic and geared towards the player’s own judgement. This also applies to battle games.
d. The rapid growth of larp festival forms as a response to rising production costs. It has always been a popular form, but nowadays it allows the production costs of chambers to be flattened, so many creators are staging them at festivals or bringing them together a few at a time on organised weekends dedicated to them.
3 Our communication channels and how to find us
At the moment, the communication of our environment is quite scattered, mainly due to the declining performance of popular social media.
The two main, somewhat competitive channels are two Facebook groups: Larp Poland (older and larger, 12.2k users) and Larp Poland (younger, 4.8k users), which differ mainly in their approach to moderation. The former brings together a higher proportion of players of chamber games, large castle games, etc., while the latter has a noticeably higher proportion of players of battle games, but at the moment quite a few people are present on both.
There are currently a dozen more groups and pages of various teams, more or less active, on Facebook. Current problems with the algorithm and reach mean that few are permanently active, but rather by leaps and bounds. The more frequently active groups are the Lublin Likes Larpy, the Lublarp groups and the Flamberg group, which belongs to the second oldest larp convention in Poland.
In addition, there are means of communication on discord: another dozen or so channels. Discord, however, has problems with adoption. There are active groups, mainly for specific projects, but these are the exceptions, not the rule.
There are also websites, like larp-polska.pl, which try to be positioned business cards to introduce new audiences to what larp is. Some groups have their own websites, but not many – as this requires some human resources, which are often lacking.
There are a few youtube channels related to larps, albeit relatively few. Apart from the Larp Conference profile, the largest such channel is the one belonging to Kroquet, one of the activists in our scene, with a little over 400 subscribers.
There are several newsletters, projects and personal creators. I think mine (ProjektyAndrzeja – 190 subscribers) is the largest at the moment. The email communication route is common within projects, but the emergence of newsletters as a substitute for social media communication is quite slow).