| Knutpunkt is a nordic role-playing convention, with a strong emphasis on live-action role-playing. It encourages discussion, debates, parties, cross-pollution, seminars, workshops and actual gaming. It is aimed at organisers and theorists rather than regular participants. |
Knutpunkt 2006 will be held in Sweden, at a summer camp for children called Barnens Ö (Childrens' island). Following the tradition of delaying the Swedish Knutpunkt, Knutpunkt 2006 will start on April 28 and end on May 1st.
In the Nordic countries, the larp discussion is generally more developed than that on freeform or table-top. For years, the larpers have been setting an example in Knutpunkt that has bridged the gap between larp styles of different countries and made the larp community stronger and richer.
Knutpunkt is an excellent event to try out new experimental methods. The attendees of Knutpunkt are there to show off new techniques, share insights and inspire others as well as learn new techniques, get new insights and gain new perspectives on role playing and to generally be awed. Knutpunkt is about refining role-playing and taking it further. It's a grown-up gathering in the sense that you can get immediate feedback on your ideas from others with another view and other experiences. Be prepared to re-evaluate your values.
Knutpunkt has traditionally focused on larp, but with the convergence and cross-breeding of the role-playing styles, this distinction has become less useful. We believe that much of the stuff Knutpunkt participants bring are relevant for many forms of role-playing and thus encourage people that would not foremost describe themselves as larpers to attend to learn about and make use of generally applicable role-playing techniques and theories developed in a larp context. This said, we hope the spirit of Knutpunkt to remain unchanged. Knutpunkt is a gathering where role-playing is taken seriously and further than before.
The theme of Knutpunkt 2006 in Sweden is bridge-building. We want to reach the next generation of role-playing organisers and theorists that have not previously attended Knutpunkt, and may not even know of its existence. We believe that they have a lot to bring to the mix, and that we have a lot to give in return. We want to bridge the gap between theorists and practitioners, role-playing theorists and established academia and the gap between the role-playing scene and the rest of the society including established academia. All in all, our ambitious and pretentious goal is for Knutpunkt 2006 to aid in bridging these gaps as much as we possibly can. You can help us by designing your programme session in this spirit. And by pushing that friend of yours you've been trying for years to convince to come to finally attend.
The Knutpunkt programme is divided into three tracks: Love, Death and Taxes. Together, they aim to cover the three basic aspects of games: the social interplay, the conflict and the reality (and the relation to the real world).
Want to talk about the social interplay in the fishermens' village you just played? Show off new techniques for getting your players to trust each other? Discuss the role of immersion when creating a character? If so, this category is for you. In this track we want to gather the soft, social aspects of role-playing.
Got a new way of simulating the input from a surrounding world in your secluded, closed room game? Got a new way of steering the direction of the play to satisfy your scenario? Got a new battle system that once and for all does away with rock, paper and scissors? If so, this category is for you. In this track we want to gather the hard aspects of role-playing.
Ambitious games have been an auteur-oriented art form, and it's time to give the producers their share of the credit. All the writing in the world won't make a game unless the practical production is on par with it's ambition. Want to hold a workshop on game finance book keeping? Want to do a lecture on all the good gaming sites in the greater Helsinki area? On how to coordinate the visions of players from different nationalities and larping cultures? If so, then this category is for you. In this track we want to gather all the practical aspects of hosting a game.
Your session can take one of several forms:
A workshop is an interactive session that can range from a lecture where the audience takes an active participatory part to a gathering of peers discussing a certain topic.
A lecture is a presentation on a particular subject in order to educate people on that subject. Lectures are used to convey critical information, history, background, theories and equations. A lecture is the basic presentation session. A topic is presented by a lecturer in one or two hour with some time over at the end for questions or a discussion.
This is, of course, what is all about. The best way to present a topic, be it a theory, a technique or a style of play is to host a game showing it. A game session can be pretty much of arbitrary length, but two to six hour is suitable.
Have an idea that you want to discuss or realise with the help of your peers? Register for a Birds-of-a-Feather session and dwell as much as you want on your favourite subject. Maybe use participatory techniques to create a game, or use a game to create a game.
This is your chance to market your next event, sell your gear or anything else you would like to show at a stand on a bazaar. Knutpunkt will provide you with a table. There will be some wood for building stuff, if you want to and there will be tools. Everything else, you bring yourself.
During the Bazaar there will also be a speakers corner where any one can do a five minute talk on any subject at all. Every speaker is guaranteed five minutes without interruption. You don't have to register for the speakers corner beforehand, there will be a list posted on Knutpunkt where you can book a slot.
Persons wishing to submit a session proposal to Knutpunkt should submit an abstract or description of the session at around 500 words together with information on track (Love, Death or Taxes), session type (lecture, workshop, game, birds-of-a-feather, bazaar stand), session length, materials needed (projector, 4 meters of railway tracks—we will do our utmost to provide what you need, but may fail if your request is too exotic) and any other information you think is relevant.
The tracks and categories are there to aid the participants in choosing, so please take care to select a track and category for your session, even if you think that the tracks are stupid and no best match for you among the categories. If you are hosting a positive-power larp to illustrate a concept that falls under taxes, your session type should be taxes.
The deadline for the proposal is March 1st, and should be submitted in English, by email to programme@jeepen.org.
—Thorbiörn Fritzon, Programme Chair