What You’ll Find Here
Adventure
LARP
discusions
Fantasy
Outdoor
meetings
panels
What is portal larp?
You might wonder why there are three letters capitalized. P stands both for Play and for PoRtaL (as a recursive acronym). R stands for Role-play, while L stands for LARP. The word portal itself symbolizes a gateway to all the different stories and worlds that we experience in LARPs.
The PoRtaL aims to explore ways to enhance and expand possibilities and opportunities of LARP games, as well as to include the public in them, with particular emphasis on teachers and educators, human resources management professionals, tourism professionals, representatives of government bodies, agencies, and institutions.
The first convention (organized in Zagreb, Croatia) was inspired by both the Nordic larp conference Knutepunkt / Knutpunkt / Knudepunkt / Solmukohta, as well as organizers’ experience with running local gaming conventions.
Since then, it has been held in Budapest (Hungary), Plovdiv (Bulgaria), Kiev (Ukraine) and Athens (Greece).
There are several principles which have been the base guidelines for PoRtaL:
Free entrance. Cost will not be a barrier to participation, and no profit will be made for PoRtaL.
Larpers and larps of all styles are welcome. All larp content – theoretical, practical, promotional etc. – is welcome, as well as interdisciplinary content.
Expect presentations, panels, discussions, workshops, larps and hanging out with other larpers.
This convention is by larpers, for larpers. We want to hear what you’re doing. Should you wish to run anything on convention, let us know.
We’re expecting mainly visitors from the region (due to proximity), but participants from anywhere in the world are welcome.
Due to the international character, English is the working language of the convention.
Since October 2020, the Portal Community is supported by the Erasmus+ Program and co-financed by the European Union.
Our first project is called “Portal Project – transition of LARP to the field of adult education” (2020-1-PL01-KA204-082140), it’s coordinated by Nausika Educational Foundation (Poland), with Terrible Creations (Croatia), Larpifiers (Greece), LARP Bulgaria and Parallel Worlds (Hungary) as formal partners.
The main goal of the Project is to focus on the educational aspect of larp – what do adults learn and gain while playing larp games, also those without an “edu” prefix to their titles.
Thanks to the EU, international mobility of our members and development of our organizations is supported, as well as creation of the Portal Webpage, but the Portal Community remains an independent, although not-formalized, entity to pursue its own goals.
Portal Larp Convention is a growing community, originated in South-Eastern Europe, gathering larp players, designers and producers from expanding range of countries, in 2021 the Convention has travelled to Greece, in 2022 it’s going to Poland, the horizons are getting wider.
We’re open for new partners from around Europe, on various dimensions: friendly networking, educational projects, business cooperation.
The impact of LARP, besides producing high-quality fun and photos, is applicable to many other fields and goals, for example: – fostering business and teamwork by creating transformative group experience – empowering social competences of the players, such as empathy, communication, perspective shifting, strategic thinking – raising awareness of local and global challenges, such as migration, politics, climate change, social justice
We gladly invite non-larpers and various kinds of social and learning institutions to give it a try!
Contact us and we’ll be happy to assist you in the first larping steps as well as to establish a new collaboration with gaming professionals.
Meet the team
Miroslav Wranka Siro
Miroslav Wranka Siro is a larpwright, larp producer/runner, and game designer from Croatia. Went to the first PoRtaL and haven't stopped coming back to it. Ran both PoRtaL 5 and 8 in Zagreb, Croatia. One of the co-founders of the Terrible Creations Ltd. Prefers chamber/parlor games but will play anything. In his other life works as a freelance journalist.
George 'Zeratul' Vlaykov
Ilina 'Hellen' Konakchieva
Nandor Laklia
Co-Founder & Experience Designer Nandor Laklia is a game and experience designer with a zig-zagging career path. He is passionate about creating connections in different worlds through stories and games. Sometimes this means leading a historical tour or designing a walking tour, other times it is running a workshop, creating an adventure, a story game, or a larp. He is the co-founder of Parallel Worlds Foundation through which he creates in cultural, historical, and educational fields. He is also an aspiring runner, especially if the zombies close in.
Ágnes Alma Upor
Trainer, facilitator, and avid fan of experiential learning. Believes that games are a ton of fun and you are never too old to play, also probably has some quick team-building stuff up her sleeves, so ask with caution, she’ll talk your ear off – you’ve been warned. Loves long talks into the night, especially when tea is included. At least 1/16 part mythical creature, unless scientifically proven otherwise.
Bálint Márk Túri
Co-Founder, Experience and Game Designer Bálint has a background in filmmaking, he studied directing in Paris and Amsterdam. He made several short films, music videos and an award-winning feature film. During his master studies he researched improvisation based collaborative story development methods, he applied table-top rpg and larp techniques in the development process of his feature film. Moving forward with his research theme he is writing and designing participatory experiences and games as well.
