Photo: Tuomas Puikkonen
Please scroll down to find more detailed information about the larps.
FRIDAY, 17-21
| Larp | Runtime | Participants | Credits | Content info | Accessibility info |
| The Show Must Go On | 4 hours | 8-16 | Lorenzo Lin Angeli, mentored by Nór Hernø | imposter’s syndrome and feelings of inadequacy; agoraphobia | Tehdassali, accessible |
| Where Love Happens | 4 hours | 6-12 | Kaisa Kangas, Essi Santala, Tonja Goldblatt, Helena Markku, Elena Rekola & Riina Tikkanen | Heteronormativity, romantic comedies, LGBT tokenism, potentially awkward content such as dating and relationship crises. Hugging, touching each other’s arms and hands. Puppets. | Jokistudio, accessible |
| Soldier Pereira and His College Friends | 4 hours | 3-10 | Leandro Godoy (designer), Luiz Falcão (reviewer) | Torture (in character backgrounds and development; not played), death, coercion, fear, intimidation, repression, military dictatorship | Puppet Studio (threshold at door) |
| Remember Me, Wholesale | 4 hours | 6-10 | Tuukka Tenhunen | Isolation, identity problems, paranoia, horror elements, alone in space, possibly sudden changes to character identity, gaslighting, corporate dystopia, homesickness, health scares | LTA, accessible |
| 30 Under 30 | 4 hours | 3-8 | Matko Radić | War crimes, losses and death, torture and executions, physical, gender, and sexual violence, political and ideological conflicts, nationalism and ethnic conflicts, trauma and emotional stress. | Jojo Theatre, accessible |
| The Sound of Us | 3 hours | 10-15 | Sandy Bailly, Shawn Chua, Gluebi MAO, Irene Curreli & Sylvan McGowan | – | AB-sali (accessible); the larp requires you to dance for 90 minutes (+ some in the workshop) |
| Unicorn Season | 4 hours | 6-9 | Pihla Lehtinen | heteronormativity, bioessentialist views on gender | AB aula, accessible |
| Love and Covid | 4 hours | 2-12 | Leland Masek & Daniel Fernández Galeote | Romantic relationships, sex as a concept. Sex play is not a part of the larp, players will have flexibility to interpret how they present and enact each theme. | Tuuva, a small walk from main venue |
| The Assembly | 4 hours | 5-8 | Sarah Lynne Bowman, PerOla Öberg, Josephine Rydberg & Kjell Hedgard Hugaas | The following topics may show up in the character backgrounds and be discussed during play: drunk driving accidents, death of a parent, organized religion, anti-religious views, alternative spiritual communities, addiction to alcohol and drugs, overdose, depression, pain after surgery, sports injury, criminalization, violent behavior, robbery, fear of death, anxiety attacks, PTSD, hallucinations, visitations from spirits, governmental and religious restrictions, shame of bodies and sexuality | Manilla residence (threshold at door) |
| The Naked Truth | 4 hours | 4 | Arttu Hanska & Joonas Katko | Although the characters are naked, players will play the larp fully clothed. | TBA |
| 10 Birch Street | 30 minutes (several runs will be played during the slot) | 2 | Kaisa Mikkola & Aino Haavisto | Small, closed space. Loneliness. | Elevator, accessible |
| Moths | 2-3 hours | 2-6 | Irene Oppo | political violence, environmentalism, corporate complicity, state power, interrogation of suspects under pressure (potentially emotional manipulation or corercion) | Puppet Studio (threshold at door) |
Saturday, 11-15
| Larp | Runtime | Participants | Credits | Content info | Accessibility info |
| White Death | 4 hours | 5-15 | Nina Runa Essendrop | The larp is abstract and each player can interpret the abstract actions in different ways. | Tehdassali (accessible). Involves physically demanding movements but we can find solutions for people with less mobility. |
| Where Love Happens | 4 hours | 6-12 | Kaisa Kangas, Essi Santala, Tonja Goldblatt, Helena Markku, Elena Rekola & Riina Tikkanen | Heteronormativity, romantic comedies, LGBT tokenism, potentially awkward content such as dating and relationship crises. Hugging, touching each other’s arms and hands. Puppets. | Jokistudio, accessible |
| Bed of Reeds | 4 hours | 5-7 | Pihla Lehtinen | weight of cultural norms, allegorical transfobia, violence towards non-human animals, hooks | Puppet Studio (threshold at door) |
| Anthology of Uncertainty | 4,5 hours | 4-8 | Lauri Lukka | Mature themes such as suicide, eating disorders, violence and severe injuries. Includes dancing and deduction based challenges. | LTA (accessible). Requires a lot of improvisation, previous familiarity with larps or scenarios recommended. |
| Whispers of the Soil | 4 hours | 6-12 | Sandy Bailly | Climate change, abstraction of the state of the planet, death, loss, hopelessness, sudden change etc. may be part of the larp. Participants will work soil with their hands which means their hands and potentially their clothes will get dirty. | Jojo Theatre (accessible space). The larp will involve moving around and sitting on the floor. |
| Seili | 4 hours | 8-12 | Niina Niskanen & Hanna Erkinjuntti | Misogyny, tragic and heavy background stories (homicide, infanticide, sexual violence), loss of privacy, being under surveillance, loud sounds | AB-sali, accessible |
| Empty Closet | 4 hours | 1-15 | Mike Pohjola (larp design), Heikki Valja (graphic design) | Spending 2 hours alone in a confined space. Psychological trauma, sexuality, depression, burn-out. | TBA |
| Games of the Oppressed | 4 hours | 5-12 | Leland Masek & Daniel Fernández Galeote | Manilla residence (threshold at door) | |
| Bad Math | 1,5 hours | 3-4 | Jason Morningstar | Melancholy drama. Danger and certain death. Deep interpersonal tension. Working under pressure. Wearing uncomfortable space suits. | Puppet Studio (threshold at door) |
| Our Final 28 Minutes | 1,5 hours | 3 | Olli Lönberg | death in space, wearing uncomfortable space suits | Puppet Studio (threshold at door) |
| Byromania | 4 hours | 4 | Susanne Gräslund & Anders Hultman | Some historically accurate themes such as domestic violence, possible incest and loss of children are parts of the game but the players choose what parts to play on and what not. | TBA |
Saturday, 17-21
| Larp | Runtime | Participants | Credits | Content info | Accessibilty info |
| Strings | 4 hours | 9-15 | Nór Hernø | This larp focuses on identity, introspection, memories, and the reliving of defining moments in life. The larp emphasizes player agency in the content creation, and its emotional intensity and focus can vary accordingly. | Tehdassali, accessible |
| Sisters | 4 hours | 6-10 | Vili Myrsky Nissinen & Nina Mutik | Gay history, homosexuality, discrimination, oppression, femmephobia, femininity, feminine men, humiliation, talking about sex, talking about violence. | Jokistudio, accessible |
| Married at First Sight | 4 hours | 6-14 | Annika Waern (Scenario design and character design) & Alexis Sandrén (character design) | Low level of physical contact, fairly high level of intimacy. Players should be comfortable with e.g. talking about sex, fake kissing and close-hugging. | LTA, accessible |
| Normal Love | 4 hours | 5-14 | Nina Runa Essendrop | The larp contains abstract, intimate interactions and a lot of movement. | Jojo Theatre (accessible space). Larp contains lots of movement. |
| Quantum Friendship Algorithm | 3,5 hours | 15-20 | Thomas Steenfeldt Nielsen | AB-sali (accessible) | |
| The Broken Archive | 4 hours | 5-25 | Jana Romanova | yelling and loud talk can be present; background music including beeping of a camera | AB-aula, accessible |
| Leaving Apeiron | 3-4 hours | 6-9 | Niina Niskanen | Wearing uncomfortable space suits. Darkness. | Manilla residence, threshold at door. Moderately demanding physical play. |
| The Naked Truth | 4 hours | 4 | Arttu Hanska & Joonas Katko | Although the characters are naked, players will play the larp fully clothed. | TBA |
| Heart of Darkness | 4 hours | 4-6 | Tuukka Tenhunen | Racism, slavery, talk of atrocities and violence, heteronormative relationships, “traditional” gender norms, colonialism, “white man’s burden”, violence. | TBA |
Sunday
On Sunday, there will be a walking tour in Turku at 11:45-13:00, with a possibility of having lunch together afterwards.
TURKU TOUR
Welcome to a walking tour of larpers’ Turku hosted by Mike Pohjola. We will hear tales of both larps and historical events, and briefly visit the Main Library, the Cathedral, and the starting point of the greatest urban fire in Northern Europe. The tour will take roughly one hour and end at a restaurant where participants can have lunch. The tour is weelchair accessible but will include cobbled streets and plazas. We will meet outside Läntinen Rantakatu 11 at 11:45 on Sunday and leave at 12 o’clock sharp.
10 birch streeT
Designers: Kaisa Mikkola & Aino Haavisto
Number of participants: 2
Duration: 30 minutes (several runs will be played during the slot)
Content info: Small, closed space. Loneliness.
Experience ten years of life’s ups and downs in 20 elevator journeys. Two neighbours only meet each other in the elevator but develop a close and meaningful connection. This is a feel-good larp about the significance of everyday encounters.
30 under 30 – Interview with female holders of the National Hero of Yugoslavia Order
Designers: Matko Radić
Number of participants: 3-8
Duration: 4 hours
Content info: war crimes, losses and death, torture and executions, violence (including gender-specific and sexual violence), political and ideological conflicts, nationalism and ethnic conflicts, trauma and emotional stress
In the heart of the Balkans, when Europe was shaking under the weight of the Second World War, Yugoslavia was the scene of bitter struggle and heroism. In this whirlwind of history, stories were recorded about extraordinary women who opposed fascism, women who became symbols of courage, loyalty, and selflessness.
Of the 91 fearless women who earned the title of national heroes of Yugoslavia, 73 paid the highest price – they gave their lives in the name of the people and freedom during the National Liberation War. Their destinies are intertwined with countless stories of sacrifice and heroism. Only 17 of them had the opportunity to receive their award during their lifetime, while the rest were awarded posthumously.
Among these heroines, the fate of thirty innocent young lives under the age of 30 is particularly poignant. Caught in the maelstrom of war, they were captured and tortured. They refused to make compromises and did not betray their comrades. Their stories testify to the indomitable spirit, strength, and determination that characterized this era of the struggle for freedom.
During the larp, we will bring to life some of these 30 brave women. Players will have the opportunity to learn about their lives, fears, and heroic exploits, and thus pay tribute to their courage and willingness to face the most difficult trials.
30 under 30 explores the contrast between the banalization, glamorization and commercialization of modern society and the real lives of World War II heroines. Through an interview simulation, players will experience a transformation from superficial conversations about glamor to deep thoughts about the legacy of these heroines, and facing the sacrifice they decided to make.
This larp explores deep and emotional themes related to war, loss, and the historical events of World War II in Yugoslavia. To ensure that all participants are aware of sensitive content and that everyone feels safe during the game, we would like to highlight the presence of the following sensitive topics:
War crimes: The LARP will include consideration of war crimes and the difficult moral decisions the protagonists had to make during the war.
Losses and Death: Participants will be dealing with the loss of loved characters, friends, and family, which can cause an emotional reaction.
Torture and executions: Some scenes may contain themes of torture and execution, although actual physical contact will be avoided.
Physical, gender, and sexual violence: Players can find themselves in scenes that will include physical, gender-specific, and sexual violence.
Political and ideological conflicts: The larp will consider different political and ideological positions of the characters, which can lead to conflicts and debates.
Nationalism and ethnic conflicts: The theme of nationalism and ethnic conflicts can be present in the story.
Trauma and emotional stress: The characters in the game may face emotional trauma and stress due to the events of the war.
Anthology of uncertainty
Designers: Lauri Lukka
Number of participants: 4-8
Duration: 4,5 hours
Content info: Mature themes such as suicide, eating disorders, violence and severe injuries. The larps include dancing and deduction based challenges. Playing The Anthology requires a lot of improvisation. Familiarity with larps or scenarios is recommended.
This anthology consisting of four one-hour larps about risk-taking. You will first step into the world of the Finnish national epic, the mythical Kalevala, to see whether you can break a cycle of hatred. Then, you will share a candlelit meal to reconnect with a long-lost friend. Next, you will seek forgiveness through Hoʻoponopono in a complex, letter-writing production line. Finally, antiheros exchange mutual pats on the back in an exclusive social media club, Winner’s Hour, before the truth is revealed.
All episodes explore the shared theme of uncertainty and risk, but each features distinct, fast-to-learn mechanics unlike anything players are likely to have experienced before. The game offers substantial variety, encouraging improvisation and inviting participants to construct their own interpretations. Be prepared to step into the unknown.
The Assembly
Designers: Sarah Lynne Bowman, PerOla Öberg, Josephine Rydberg & Kjell Hedgard Hugaas
Number of participants: 5-8
Duration: 4 hours
Content info: The following topics may show up in the character backgrounds and be discussed during play: drunk driving accidents, death of a parent, organized religion, anti-religious views, alternative spiritual communities, addiction to alcohol and drugs, overdose, depression, pain after surgery, sports injury, criminalization, violent behavior, robbery, fear of death, anxiety attacks, PTSD, hallucinations, visitations from spirits, governmental and religious restrictions, shame of bodies and sexuality
The Assembly is a larp about community members engaging in democratic deliberation about issues related to tensions between bodily autonomy and public safety. People from diverse backgrounds and political perspectives have been invited to take part in an Assembly to share their thoughts and feelings about legalizing the psychoactive substance psilocybin. At the end of the scenario, the community members will collectively construct guidelines that will be considered at the next parliamentary session.
The larp takes place in a fictional version of Sweden. The Assembly focuses on articulating a position on an issue and listening deeply to the positions of others. The emphasis is on building common understanding rather than increasing dramatic intensity. While the characters will discuss the decriminalization and legalization of a drug, the goal is to practice necessary skills for a functioning democracy.
This scenario is part of the Horizon Europe research project Larpocracy, which studies the potential impacts of larp on democratic values and skills. Players will be asked to complete questionnaires and interviews, but may opt-out and still participate in the scenario.
bad math
Designers: Jason Morningstar
Number of participants: 3-4
Duration: 1,5 hours
Content info: Melancholy drama. Danger and certain death. Deep interpersonal tension. Working under pressure. Wearing uncomfortable space suits.
One Hour. That’s how long we have before our ship’s fusion torch burns itself out. The ship is dead in the water, and its AI navigator with it. Hulled, its back broken. Leaking radioactive volatiles from a cracked fusion torch amid a nimbus of frozen ammonia. The FTL drive cold and useless. We’ll die with it. Unless… The fusion torch can be repaired, the FTL drive can be spun up, and we can get out of here. The last jump coordinates were already laid in before the attack. We can get home. Two of us, anyway. The repair is a one-person job, but that person will not survive the effort. They’ll be bathed in hard radiation and last maybe 15 minutes. Just long enough to get the torch online. Just long enough to save the other two. So who will it be?
This one-hour larp combines negotiation with complex tasks under pressure. Hard choices need to be made, but the decisions won’t matter unless two people are in space suits in time to act on the group’s ultimate decision. Expect tense, dramatic, and melancholy play.
bed of reeds
Art: Väinä Räsänen
Designers: Pihla Lehtinen
Number of participants: 5-7
Duration: 4 hours
Content info: weight of cultural norms, allegorical transfobia, violence towards non-human animals, hooks
A woman has begun to wear the skin of a pike and is slipping away from the world of humans. Her loved ones gather for a ritual to force her into her old form so they can coerce her to stay. Yes, this is a trans-allegory.
This folk horror fable about the loved ones of a shapeshifter explores the friction between cultural norms and transitions that transgress them. The shapeshifter is played by the designer and is influenced by her own life as a trans woman.
Bed of Reeds will contain traces of ecofeminism: like all stories of beasts and men, this is a story about violent control. There might be a happy ending in the form of letting the shapeshifter go.
Supported by the Finnish Cultural Foundation and the Finnish Arts and Culture Agency.
the broken archive
Designers: Jana Romanova
Number of participants: 5-25
Duration: 4 hours
Content info: It is a family drama, all potential triggering topics and the level of physical contact will be negotiated by players before the start. There is almost no physical contact during the larp, but some yelling, loud talk and unresolved conflicts can be present. There is a background music that includes beeping of a camera.
In this larp, you are invited to collectively create a story of a family based on the pieces of real-life torn-apart family photographs, once destroyed by the artist’s grandmother. You’ll create characters as family members, explore the secrets and dramatic events behind the photographs by playing out memory scenes, to discover the reason why and by whom the archive was destroyed.
In 2018, I found a pile of torn family photographs in my grandmother’s trash bin. They were the images of one of our relatives who recently passed away, but also of multiple strangers I’ve never seen in my life. My grandmother never told me why she decided to destroy them, and I was left with my speculations and attempts to repair these images for years.
In this larp, I invite you to speculate with me. You’ll study pieces of photographs, create a fictional family, and live through its memories, revealing secrets and retaking the images on instant cameras. It is known from the very beginning that the play will end with one of the family members deciding to destroy those images, and the game is a build up to that moment.
This work is ongoing research on the societal pressure to define one’s identity and worth through fitting into family expectations, and how they are or aren’t manifested through a family archive.
byromania
Designers: Susanne Gräslund & Anders Hultman
Number of participants: 4
Duration: 4 hours
Content info: Some historically accurate themes such as domestic violence, possible incest and loss of children are parts of the game but the players choose what parts to play on and what not.
“Mad, bad, and dangerous to know”, a phrase famously used to describe the British poet Lord Byron, originally coined by one of his many lovers. In Byromania, we delve into the making of the world’s first literary superstar, crafted both by his own hand and by the society that devoured him.
Born in the shadow of the French Revolution, Byron was a child of contradictions: raised in modest circumstances with a physical disability, unexpectedly inheriting a noble title and great debts at the age of ten. In a Europe scarred by the Napoleonic wars, and in a country that criminalised his desires, he rose to dizzying heights of fame and notoriety. What does it mean to become a myth while still alive? And what does that myth do to the man behind it?
In this scenario, you will step into the shoes of Lord Byron, or rather, the many Byrons he became, as well as the extraordinary people who surrounded him. Through a continuous flow of player-chosen scenes, we explore Byron’s search for identity, meaning, belonging, and immortality. Since his real-life memoirs were consigned to the flames by his closest friends after his death, we will recreate them from the ashes.
the empty closet
Designers: Mike Pohjola (larp design), Heikki Valja (graphic design)
Number of participants: 1-15
Duration: 4 hours
Content info: You will spend about 2 hours alone in a confined space. The larp tackles topics such as psychological trauma, sexuality, depression, and burn-out.
The Empty Closet is an autobiographical larp detailing the life of its author Mike Pohjola, as well as the history of the Nordic larp scene. It has been described by one player as “an honest love letter to the Nordic larp scene”.
You will play the larp alone in a closet, listening to live instructions by Mike from headphones. There is also a sense of togetherness with other players who play the larp at the same time with you, and The Empty Closet includes a communal workshop and debrief which builds a sense of community. The closet will transform from a womb into a game master room, from a sauna into the historical wardrobe in the 1990s from which we get the origin story of the “Finnish immersion closet.”
games of the oppressed
Designers: Leland Masek & Daniel Fernández Galeote
Number of participants: 5-12
Duration: 4 hours
Content info:
Games of the Oppressed is an experimental set of micro-larps, built by students at Tampere University to present real forms of injustice, unfairness or exploitation in day to day life. These short form games seek to move the values of Theater of the Oppressed into the medium of games and larp design. Participants will play these 10-minute long larps and engage in structured forms of changing characters, rules, and discussion to unearth larps’ simulative and transformative potential for systems of engagement and feedback that we operate under in our lives.
heart of darkness
Designers: Tuukka Tenhunen
Number of participants: 4-6
Duration: 4 hours
Content info: Racism, slavery, talk of atrocities and violence, heteronormative relationships, “traditional” gender norms, colonialism, “white man’s burden”, violence.
Heart of Darkness is a larp about lies people want to believe when the truth is too uncomfortable. It explores how banal motivations – mostly money – make people take part in genocide. It is about one of the worst slave states in human history.
Heart of Darkness is the story of two young officers who have returned to Belgium in 1902 after serving in the security apparatus of Congo Free State. During a dinner party, they tell stories about their exploits in Congo. The stories are complete fabrications as the reality is much, much worse. Play alternates between dinner scenes and flashbacks to Congo Free State.
No historical knowledge of Congo Free State (nor Joseph Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness) is required. The larp will begin with a short briefing in the subject. We are aiming for historical plausibility and respectful take on the suffering of the victims, but every detail doesn’t need to be accurate.
leaving apeiron
Designers: Niina Niskanen
Number of participants: 6-9
Duration: 3-4 hours
Content info: Wearing sweaty and hot space suits and moving around in them. Moderately demanding physical play. Darkness.
Artists and rescue workers on a mission in a feelgood space adventure.
The orbit station of the planet Semahiri-4 is one of the most significant centres of space research in the solar system. Thanks to a big funding, a new project is launched: an art residency called Apeiron on the planet’s surface. The goal of this unique working environment is to create inspiration, and also to offer possibilities of symbiosis for art and hard sciences.
As the residency life support system fails, the artists call for help. A group of rescuers arrive from the orbit station. How dangerous is the situation? Will they find the residents? Can the civilians adapt to wearing a space suit? How will the rescuers escort them safely to the rescue ship?
Leaving Apeiron is a feelgood space adventure about art, bravery and relationships.
love and covid
Designers: Leland Masek & Daniel Fernández Galeote
Number of participants: 2-12
Duration: 4 hours
Content info: The larp involves romantic relationships and also sex as a concept. But sex play is not directly a part of the larp and players will have flexibility to interpret how they present and enact each theme.
Love and Covid is about falling in love, establishing a close relationship, betraying trust and the possibility of forgiveness. You will play a couple who meets at the beginning of the covid pandemic, and will covid together. At some point you will each feel horribly betrayed by the other and you will decide if you remain together as the pandemic quarantine is lifted.
The game is played in four rounds with a year of time between them. In year one the characters meet, and fall in love. In year two the characters are in a relationship during covid and bond in a way that they feel would make them a permanent relationship. In year three they are horribly hurt by each other. Finally in year four you decide if you could forgive the other person or not. The game will use cards, based on real stories of love and betrayal, to inspire and create the story of the characters.
married at first sight
Designers: Annika Waern (Scenario design and character design) & Alexis Sandrén (character design)
Number of participants: 6-14
Duration: 4 hours
Content info: The larp is played out at a fairly low level of physical contact but a fairly high level of intimacy. You will be paired with one other player and you will not know who this is in advance. You should be comfortable with e.g. talking about sex, fake kissing and close-hugging any of the players in the room.
Marry a stranger!
Married at First Sight is an enormously popular reality TV show around the world. Originating in Denmark in 2013, it has been run in a host of countries and continues to be run in e.g. Poland, the U.S., Australia, and Sweden. In the show, strangers are legally married to each other at the altar, without seeing each other beforehand. After a few weeks of married life, including sharing a honeymoon and briefly living together, the couples decide if they want to stay married after the show.
Just as many current reality shows, Married at First Sight seems to play out in the fifties. Some couples express a wish for ’traditional family values’. Almost all couples are heterosexual, and success is measured by the longevity of the relationships and the number of children produced. As a blogger wrote: ”If the goal is not to create a family and grow old together, then it’s little point in going along with the process”.
This larp explores those traditional family values through the lens of a mix of characters where some share them, and others do not.
moths – drawn to the end
Designers: Irene Oppo
Number of participants: 2-6
Duration: 2-3 hours
Content info: Moths deals with themes of political violence, environmentalism, corporate complicity, and state power. The larp involves the interrogation of suspects under pressure, which may include moments of emotional manipulation and coercion between characters. Players should be comfortable with morally ambiguous scenarios where there is no clear right answer.
Moths is a slow-burning larp set in a police interrogation room in the hours following a violent incident at an environmental protest. When news broke that local authorities had authorized Titan Oil Corporation to begin extraction in a protected nature reserve, what had been a peaceful demonstration collapsed into chaos. One dead, three injured, two suspects in custody — and two investigators determined to get a confession before the night is over.
The six characters are each designed to embody a different relationship with environmentalism and with the idea of legitimate action, from radical conviction to institutional activism, from youthful uncertainty to the cold logic of capital. As the interrogation unfolds, these perspectives are meant to collide.
Over three escalating phases, new evidence surfaces and certainties crack. Light mechanics help build emotional tension gradually, and each reveal forces the group to reassess what they thought they knew — about the incident, about each other, and about where the line between justified and criminal actually falls.
Moths is not a game about finding the right answer. It is about the cost of making an irreversible decision under pressure, with incomplete information, in a room where everyone believes they are acting in good faith.
the naked truth
Designers: Arttu Hanska & Joonas Katko
Number of participants: 4
Duration: 4 hours
Content info: The larp will be played fully clothed.
Four men have gathered for a long-awaited sauna evening. Summer cottage, couple of beers and old friends. They do not stay in touch as much as they would like, but this is a tradition from the days of old. Back then they shared dreams and desires, but the years have taken their toll. Sitting in the steaming sauna, each of them ponders: What can I tell the others? What will they think of me? And in the end, will they be there for me?
This is a feel-good larp about the difficulty of talking and opening up. Sauna removes social boundaries; it is a place where everybody is equal. Rank, wealth, and seniority carry no weight there. Everybody is naked, both physically and mentally. There is no hurry – only a rare chance to set aside the stoic shell society expects of you.
The Naked Truth is best suited for players who enjoy internal dialogue and weighting every word. If you like to take things slow and give space for silence and enjoy an understated slowly building feel-good atmosphere, this is a larp for you.
Although the characters are naked in the sauna, players will play the larp fully clothed.
normal love
Designers: Nina Runa Essendrop
Number of participants: 5-14
Duration: 4 hours
Content info: The larp contains abstract, intimate interactions and a lot of movement.
Normal Love is an abstract poetic non-verbal larp exploring different kinds of love relations – family relations, friendship and romantic love – in shifting groups or pairs. Over three acts, players will take part in different constellations and use different kinds of dance and movement to express connections to others. The larp also invites players to explore different qualities of love. Fragile love is represented by ballet, passionate love by tango and comfortable love by blues dance.
our final 28 minutes
Designers: Olli Lönnberg
Number of participants: 3
Duration: 1,5 hours
Content info: death in space, using cramped space suits
A deep space research vessel is returning home when the power core overheats and explodes. The crew of three find themselves floating in space suits. The ship computer informs them that the radio contact will hold for 28 more minutes.
The characters are guided through a range of emotions and absolute inability to act on them. What do you do, when you realize that the end is just around the corner, there’s nothing you can do about it and no cavalry is going to arrive? How to spend the final 28 minutes together?
quantum friendship algorithm
Designers: Thomas Steenfeldt Nielsen
Number of participants: 15-20
Duration: 3,5 hours
Content info: The larp involves standing up and moving between chairs.
Nathan sometimes feels a bit lonely.
Luckily, he has a quantum computer in his basement, and he has designed a brilliant quantum friendship algorithm to help him make friends. With some colleagues over for a dinner party, he has left the algorithm running downstairs. He just hopes it converges before his guests have to leave. And that it runs without disturbance from magnetic field fluctuations, thermal instability, or feelings of anxiety.
As pieces of quantum information, we will rotate through the possible friendships that could occur between Nathan and his guests. Maybe we find conversation and connection, or maybe only distrust and destructive interference. If the sensitive algorithm works as intended, we can help Nathan ask a question that seems so quantumly complicated, yet always collapses into one of two possible outcomes.
Will you be my friend?
remember me, wholesale
Designers: Tuukka Tenhunen
Number of participants: 6-10
Duration: 4 hours
Content info: Isolation, identity problems, paranoia, horror elements, alone in space, possibly sudden changes to character identity, gaslighting, corporate dystopia, homesickness, health scares
A corporate mining station, somewhere in the Oort Cloud. A routine maintenance takes a dark turn when three engineers return to the airlock. Only two left the station.
The corporate job was shit, but at least the pay is okay. Deep space mining is as isolating a job as there can be. Two years out here with nobody but your crew to talk to, before the supply ship returns and the trip home begins.
Then the weirdness started. Malfunctioning computers, strange dreams and the headaches. The corporation said there was nothing to worry about, all telemetry was fine. Finally, the communication dish went out.
Two engineers left to fix it. It was supposed to be a routine space walk. Only now there are three of them knocking at the airlock. And the strangest thing is, we have memories about each of them.
seili
Designers: Niina Niskanen & Hanna Erkinjuntti
Number of participants: 8-12
Duration: 4 hours
Content info: Misogyny, tragic and heavy background stories (homicide, infanticide, sexual violence), loss of privacy, being under surveillance, loud sounds
The island of Seili in the Turku archipelago has over the centuries served as a leper hospital and a women’s mental asylum. The lepers had to bring their own coffin boards with them, and the women came to stay, whether they wanted or not.
In the game, players take on the roles of female residents and nurses of the mental hospital. Life is strictly regulated and monitored. The main themes of the larp are friendship, community, power relations, adjustment and resistance. There are also light supernatural elements. All characters are addressed to and treated as women.
Players will not be playing mental illnesses, and the characters are not given diagnoses.
the show must go on
Designers: Lorenzo Lin Angeli, mentored by Nór Hernø
Number of participants: 8-16
Duration: 4 hours
Content info: imposter’s syndrome and feelings of inadequacy; agoraphobia
Two hours to the show. The audience is lining up outside the circus pavillion. Each one of you has rehearsed their piece, the set is prepared, and everything is in place. There is only one problem: though each of you dedicated your life to perfecting your art, you seem to have forgotten how to perform your specialty.
What to do, then? It’s too late to do something about it… yet something must be done. As always, when things get momentuous, old thoughts re-emerge, and certainties seem few and far between. With your fellow troupe members, you will try to navigate this impossible conundrum by rediscovering what you can truly rely on: your fellowship, creativity, and chemistry. For, as we all know, the show must go on.
The Show Must Go On is a larp about the subtleties of connection and learning together. Walk the tightrope of being true to yourself while upholding the duty you have towards your audience. When you can’t count on yourself, will you remember that you can count on the rest of your troupe?
sisters
Designers: Vili Myrsky Nissinen & Nina Mutik
Number of participants: 6-10
Duration: 4 hours
Content info: Sisters includes gay history, homosexuality, discrimination, oppression, femmephobia, femininity, feminine men, humiliation, talking about sex, talking about violence. Sisters does not include simulating sex, simulating violence, heterosexuality.
”Blokes fall when life hits, but a sister just keeps on swinging.”
— The columnist Bibinette, 96-magazine (the only queer media of the era in Finland), 1970
Sisters tells the untold stories of feminine gay men in 1960’s Helsinki; their dreams and fantasies, the rivalry between two sisterhoods, moments of oppression, support, and self-acceptance. The femme gays were a heavily discriminated group, even inside the oppressed minority. They were called by the slur “sisters” by other, masculine gay men. For the sisters, femininity wasn’t something they chose; they were born with it. For a man to be feminine was way worse than being gay, and it still is.
The larp consists of a workshop and short scenes. All participants will get a prewritten character as one of the sisters. Alongside telling a historical story, the larp invites participants to reflect and explore their own femininity.
The larp is a fiction based on interviews and historical facts.
soldier pereira and his college friends
Designers: Leandro Godoy (designer), Luiz Falcão (reviewer)
Number of participants: 3-10
Duration: 4 hours
Content info: Torture, death, coercion, fear, intimidation, repression, and military dictatorship. The torture scenes will not be played, but will be present in the text and character development.
“Soldier Pereira is an ordinary boy from an average Brazilian family. He went through the 1964 coup believing in the legitimacy of the process, and in 1968, with the AI-5 decree, he saw everything as something natural, something that would never affect his family and acquaintances. Until this day…”
Defenders of dictatorships and coups like the one in Brazil in 1964 generally believe that oppression will never reach them or their loved ones. This Brazilian larp questions such thinking.
the sound of us
Designers: Sandy Bailly, Shawn Chua, Gluebi MAO, Irene Curreli & Sylvan McGowan
Number of participants: 10-15
Duration: 3 hours
Content info: The game requires you to dance and hence do physical movement for the duration of 90 minutes (and a little bit more during the workshops).
The Sound of Us is a silent-disco larp about what happens when the music that defines you suddenly disappears. Each participant moves through the space guided by a unique soundtrack – their own rhythm, their own inner world – until, for some, the sound fades into silence. In that quiet moment, a choice emerges: remain alone in the absence, or reach out and share someone else’s song. Through music, silence, and shared listening, a fragile and unexpected harmony begins to form — not because everyone sounds the same, but because they dare to hear one another.
The Sound of Us explores how individuality and collectivity coexist — not as opposites, but as interdependent rhythms. The larp investigates what happens when our personal “music” — our identity, emotional landscape, and internal narrative — suddenly disappears. Designing acts with similar BPM becomes a metaphor for alignment without uniformity: we do not need to be identical to move together. Silence is not absence, but space. It enables multiplicity. It is the first moment in which we truly perceive one another — and begin to hear the sound of us as a collective.
Beyond the physical event, The Sound of Us functions as a living ecosystem. The experience generates a shared playlist that can be continuously expanded by a wider community, including people who are not physically present. Each submitted song becomes the foundation for a new playable character, with visible credit to the contributor. In this way, the larp becomes a growing archive of shared emotional frequencies — a community-built act of resonance.
strings
Designers: Nór Hernø
Number of participants: 9-15
Duration: 4 hours
Content info: This larp focuses on identity, introspection, memories, and the reliving of defining moments in life. Players co-create and calibrate characters, scenes and themes in groups, which may include interpersonal conflict, harmful dynamics, separation, and loss. Depending on the player groups and their choices, the larp may explore emotional states such as shame, guilt, grief, anger, sadness, insecurity, aggression, resentment, and fear, as well as themes of acceptance, love, reconciliation, and forgiveness. The larp emphasizes player agency in the content creation, and its emotional intensity and focus can vary accordingly.
What if you could change who you are?
Awakening in a liminal space between past and present, you find yourself holding your string of life.
Around you, echoes of your past flicker into being as flashbacks draw you back to the moments that shaped who you have become. Now, in this space between what was and what could be, you must decide: Will you accept what life has made you, or alter your string to begin anew?
Strings is a story of realizing who you are, what made you that way, and getting the chance to decide whether that is the person you want to continue being. It’s a story about identity and the potential for forgiveness or acceptance, both of yourself and others.
unicorn season
Designers: Pihla Lehtinen
Number of participants: 6-9
Duration: 4 hours
Content info: heteronormativity, bioessentialist views on gender
Unicorn Season is a tragicomedy about how heteronormativity ruins everything – including polyamorous dating. Telling a story of three times three people on a date, this larp uses magical (sur)realism and comedy to reflect on serious themes.
Unicorn Season makes fun of a phenomenom called unicorn hunting, which tends to fetishize bisexual women, have bioessentialist views on gender and generally be annoingly heteronormative. You might need to play a character with a different gender than your own.
Supported by the Finnish Cultural Foundation.
where love happens
Photo: Essi Santala
Designers: Kaisa Kangas (larp design lead), Essi Santala (lights & tech design, larp design), Tonja Goldblatt (scenography & props, larp design), Helena Markku (puppet maker, puppeteer), Elena Rekola (puppeteer) & Riina Tikkanen (puppeteer)
Number of participants: 6-12
Duration: 4 hours
Content info: Heteronormativity, romantic comedies, LGBT tokenism, puppets. You might not get to play a character that has the same gender or sexual orientation as yourself. There is potentially awkward content such as dating and relationship crises. Participants are expected to be comfortable with hugging and with touching each other’s hands and arms. Sex can be a topic in the larp, but players are not expected to play erotic scenes. Some scenes are played using puppets but the larp does not require any previous experience on puppetry.
“Do You believe epic love stories only happen on the silver screen? Think again! At Where Love Happens, we specialize in making Your romantic dreams come true. Powered by our advanced AI Aphrodite, our matchmaking process delivers a 99% success rate in finding Your One True Love.”
Where Love Happens is a comedy about romantic comedies and their clichés. It combines larp with puppetry. You will get to play together with human-sized Cupid puppets manipulated by professional puppeteers, and use a smaller puppet to represent your character in some scenes.
You will play a customer at the romantic consultation agency Where Love Happens that is run by two Cupids – magical creatures with special powers. The agency promises 99% chance of finding your True Love.
The characters are ordinary people who long for Hollywood-style romance. Humour is born out of the clash between reality and Hollywood-shaped dreams, expectations, and norms. The larp has a narrative arc where the characters move towards liberation from the romantic conventions Hollywood has fed them.
Where Love Happens has been financially supported by the Finnish Cultural Foundation and the Finnish Arts and Culture Agency.
whispers of the soil
Designers: Sandy Bailly
Number of participants: 6-12
Duration: 4 hours
Content info: Topics like climate change, abstraction of the state of the planet, death, loss, hopelessness, sudden change etc. may be part of the larp. Participants will work soil with their hands which means their hands and potentially their clothes will get dirty. There will be nature sounds and instrumental music. Participants with sensory issues, issues with cleanliness or any phobias surrounding these should be aware that for this larp, getting your hands dirty and working soil with your hands, and potentially getting your clothes dirty, is unavoidable. The larp will involve moving around and sitting on the floor.
“To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves.” – Mahatma Gandhi
You are survivors, in the most humble sense of the word. You are the ones taking care of the soil, for future generations. You work the earth following the ways of old, or at least, what you remember of them. While you tend, you also talk. You share stories, memories, legends. Because the echoes of stories, people and generations past are where we all stay alive. And hence, you work, you nurture, you give and you care. You tell tales to each other, and to the soil, knowing these whispers will nurture the seeds for future generations.
Whispers of the Soil is a hopeful larp about nurturing and grounding, surviving through stories, and planting seeds for the future.
white death
Designers: Nina Runa Essendrop
Number of participants: 5-15
Duration: 4 hours
Content info: The larp is non-verbal and each player can interpret the abstract actions in different ways. The larp is played through movement. Some of the movements are meant to be physically demanding, but we can find solutions for people with less mobility.
White Death is a seminal Nordic larp that has been seen as the starting point for the trend of making abstract larps. It is a poetic, non-verbal larp that emphasizes physical expression. The players are guided through feelings like anger, frustration, sorrow, and fear – and the feelings of peace and closeness which follow the characters’ gentle deaths. Music by Tom Waits, Nick Cave and Johnny Cash sets the tone.
A group of pioneers once set out for the mountains with the aim of creating a new society, bringing only the absolute necessities, as well as their faith and dreams. While having the best of intentions, the pioneers couldn’t succeed. Life in the mountains turned out to be hard and demanding. One by one, the snow embraced them, giving them silence, peace and rest. Tranquility and light.
Instead of being realistic, the larp uses an abstract poetic approach. White Death is a scenario without words. This means all communication is done physically. The game is completely transparent and the focus is on the atmosphere rather than the outcome.