Spoils of War
Spoils of War is an epic style, feminist Nordic Larp in low fantasy disguise. The themes are family, the horrors of war, romance, broken expectations and abuse of power. It is a fantasy allegory and the main theme is what happens to people after a brutal world war. Everybody important in the world is present.
Vision
The core of this larp is to expereince epic drama on a personal level within the framework of a global catastrophe. Complex character relations are in the forefront of the messy aftermath of the war.
Setting
The larp takes place in the aftermath of a war and you play either on the losing or winning side and most play nobles, while there are also a few commoners and religious characters. We play in a world of low fertility, so every loss of life is devastating. Almost everybody follows "The Faith of Life", which is a dualistic non-diety religion based on Life and Death. There are religious figures for both. There are also two other very minor religious paths for a few houses.
There is a culture clash as well as tension between the majority of the population "The City Folk" and the "Woodlanders". "The Great Sin" happened 150 years ago. During this time, Woodlanders and City Folk lived mostly in peace. But some Woodlanders had grown more extreme and full of righteous hatred over the developments for City Folk, who had taken more and more of the forests for themselves. Leaders of different groves gathered and agreed to strike at the different principalities of the City Folk. A huge number of cities and villages were wrecked, and only the largest cities and stone castles and houses survived. Survivors were taken as working slaves for the groves. But for some houses, the two cultures are almost the same and intertwined.
There is no magic in the setting, and the level of technology is that there are no guns, and horses are the preferred means of transportation if you can afford it. There are no doctors but "healers". The know the use of herbs, amputations, leeches and mercury but nothing more advanced than that.
Mechanics
The human body has the potential to reach 200 years of age if you are nobility, whereas commoners who have worked hard are considered old at 60. Furthermore, you can become pregnant up until 80 years of age as a noble, so you just add more good years to your life. This means that there is a almost mythological respect for nobility among the commoners. You are considered young until you are either married or very accomplished, so e.g. a 45 year old unmarried person could still be considered young while a married 25 year old could be considered adult. In practice, this means that your offgame age matters less in this world and you have further alibi to experience all kinds of stories no matter your offgame appearance and preferences.
The winning and losing side start out by being separated and have taken prisoners of war from each others. We play the very end of the war including a prisoner inspection right after a frustration workshop to get everyones' blood boiling.
Structured trials and negotiations where the content of the cases and subjects are just alibi for what happens regarding drama, relations and communication.
Dinner Warfare is a core design element of one of the acts in Spoils of War. The religious celebration "Feast of Life" gives alibi for the two sides to play together before the war is over and see the prisoners of war on the other side, as everybody is supposed to not do anything violent or do politics on this day. This results in a pressure cooker scene during the lunch celebration.
Playstyle
Spoils of War is an epic style Nordic Larp where collaborative storytelling is in focus. So this is not a "slice of life" sort of larp. The larp is designed for longevity and the most possible intensity in the beginning of the larp both regarding mechanic and schedule and from the principles of Katrine Wind's design concept: River Rafting Design found in the Knutepunkt 2025 book.
The characters are in the most exceptional circumstances of their lives and their decisions and actions have potentially world changing consequences – but mostly they will try to build the best possible future for themselves and those they love. Think of the noble familie more as gangsters than posh Brits.
The concept of Playing an engaging victim is stressed throughout the larp.
The feminist aspects are underlined by the fact that you can play all kinds of stories and tropes from the classically rigid fantasy themes regardless of gender. There are only binary genders ingame, while all genders can play all characters. But the specific feminist part comes to show by the fact that some houses are designed as matriarchal, some patriarchal and some egalitarian. This provides an alibi for all kinds of characters to have all kinds of views and life experiences that aren't gendered after our real world tropes. E.g. the strongest and most legendary general in the world is a woman, and one of the young male characters play out a "princess story". Spoils of War doesn't just reverse gender roles, however. You can still play a female damsel-in-distress or a misogynic male general, but you are just not bound to these kinds of stories if you have a preference to play a certain gender.
Practical facts
Number of players: 58 (+3 facilitator characters)
Language: English
Runs: The first runs happned in 2019 and there have been 5 runs in different locations in Denmark.
Website: Spoils of War
Inspiration: The larp is inspired by the two Danish Victorius larps that Katrine Wind and Alexander Bakkensen designed in 2016 and 2017. Furthermore, Spoils of War is inspired by Game of Thrones, The Tudors, Shakespeare and other epic tales about nobility in war and conflict with massive consequences for the individuals.
Screenshots from the website:
