I was at Hogwarts! – a few words about LARP Harry Potter Live

Harry Potter Live – evolution

Another point on the map of Lower Silesia, after Czocha Castle, has recently changed into a place full of magic and wizards. We are talking about the Palace in Gorzanów, which for a few days played the role of Hogwarts – all thanks to Harry Potter Live (HP Live). This is a larp, ​​which – as its main coordinator Adrianna Adamska says – was created as a fan project for fansand was created by friends who knew each other from other LARPs. She also said that first it was a sandbox – no Game Masters, no scheduled in-game events, no NPCs (background characters) impersonating teachers and other characters. Although she has been associated with the HP Live organization since 2017, the LARP itself is already around 8 years old! And as is usually the case with good projects, this one has evolved – from a sandbox to a playground:

A sandbox is a sandbox. The world is the sandbox, players enter the world as their characters and play with it. There are no scheduled events and events in the sandbox, the characters’ stories continue and intertwine with each other. HP Live is now a playground larp, ​​i.e. the stories of characters are going on, but there are already events and events, there is a planned background of the story against which the stories of characters unfold – Adrianna Adamska

At the beginning, HP Live was held in schools, then in the Castle in Leśnica. The coordinator also admitted that the places were chosen by the organizers “due to the appearance and cooperative owners who did not mind reorganizing the entire space” (AA). Larp grew, the possible number of players and players also increased, so the concept itself evolved – in the meantime, a group of game masters appeared, overseeing its organization and course. In turn, the search for another place to implement the game was also associated with finding a typical Hogwarts atmosphere:

We wanted the location to resemble a castle at least a bit. And Leśnica gave us that, had great interiors and allowed us to arrange them properly. Now we are cooperating with the Gorzanów Palace, where we have a real palace with beautiful interiors and it feels like at Hogwarts – Adrianna Adamska

 A magical place in Lower Silesia

The second episode of the third season of Harry Potter Live took place in early October. The road to the aforementioned Palace in Gorzanów was extremely picturesque – the Kłodzko Valley in autumn enchanted with its colors and hills. It was as if you were entering a fabulous land, hidden behind mountains and forests, separated from the hustle and bustle of everyday life and duties. In other words, the immersion began before I even got to my destination.

It must be admitted that although the palace itself does not immediately bring to mind the image of the castle known from the films about the young wizard, its interior can make a magical impression, because it is built on a rectangular plan, with an open courtyard in the middle. Many rooms can be accessed in several ways, thanks to which the whole thing becomes a labyrinth. More than once I have been surprised to find out where the found stairs led me. It really made me feel like I was at Hogwarts, where the stairs were moving and it was hard to predict how. The game mechanics supported this feeling – every now and then the entrances to the stairs were marked with tapes stating that they had moved, which meant that they could not be used. This forced the search for alternative routes, resulted in being late for classes or showing up in places where in which you were not going to find yourself – and this quite naturally caused further plot consequences for the characters. The stairs were at the same time a physical obstacle, arousing real irritation, imitating a situation in everyday life that could not be foreseen. Something like when on the way to work it turns out that the pavement has been dug up and you have to wade through unfamiliar surroundings in the mud, and then face an annoyed boss, looking meaningfully at his watch.

I also felt an amazing feeling when I was moving around the palace at night. It is worth noting that some of its internal paths turned out to lead to an open space that had to be crossed to get to other rooms. In any case, I particularly like one corridor leading to the ballroom. On one side there was a wall, and on the other, there was a large window, through which one could admire the sky full of stars. Additionally, the floor was lit by candles [1]which together produced a very mysterious aura. During one of such walks, said wall… opened and several people came out of it! Even during the day, I didn’t notice that there was a hidden door in it! This is how I discovered the Room of Requirement in which the orgies had buried many items. Anyway, they prepared the Palace in Gorzanów in many respects – the classrooms not only made me feel that I was within raw walls, but also in the magical world of wizards. Plundering the potions room at night was one of the most interesting experiences because of what we could discover ourselves.

Hogwarts Secrets

The leitmotif of the third season of Harry Potter Live are Hogwarts Secrets – therefore people playing as students and schoolgirls could follow special threads prepared by the game masters, related to discovering various letters, notes, riddles or items related to the history of Hogwarts. It is worth noting that the action of HP Live takes place 20 years after the events of the Second Wizarding War, and knowledge about the details of the Battle of Hogwarts or the Deathly Hallows is initially something hidden in the game’s plot. So there is something to discover!

During this season, the castle also hosts exchange students – the Durmstrang Institute of Magic and the Beauxbatons Magic Academy. The idea of ​​a clash of different magical cultures made it possible to “play on the difference” in terms of origin and upbringing, which sometimes led to either comical or quite… dramatic situations. It also introduced quite natural curiosity to develop related to people from other countries and the willingness to exchange scientific and social.

HP Live gives a lot of freedom to people playing with their ideas for in-game implementation . Thus, “Bą-bą” could organize an unlawful – because after hours of curfew – a party, Hufflepuffs make a marshmallow pudding, and Ravenclaws bake waffles in their common room. The appearance and furnishings of such rooms depended on ideas and what was brought with you to decorate them, and on contact with the orgasms. A special group on Facebook or a Discord channel was also helpful in agreeing on such matters.

Back to school

The background characters, who impersonated teachers and teachers, made us feel that we are really at school. Each person approached their creations very individually. So, there were severe and demanding characters, or who only appeared to be like that (they were ready to turn a blind eye to much for their home!), There were also teachers who typed the phrase to the wound to, ready to attack with sweet cupcakes. You won’t believe it, but one of the professors who taught the care of magical creatures was himself… a werewolf (and an ex-Auror!). Not only that, as part of a research club, he took us to the forest to capture – as it turned out later – his old acquaintance, also suffering from lycanthropy. To this day, I do not know how she got through the magical security! Nevertheless, during the classes we were able to meet a cute little dragon, so I forgive his secrecy.

Due to the fictional events, journalists were also hanging out at Hogwarts and … I’ll cut my hand, the real Rita Skeeter! She was able to twist every sentence and cover one word with a story into two paragraphs. The son of Gilderoy Lockhart also visited the Castle – this one just stirred it up! And when we add to this the stories and events that the players and players have planned or that happened to them during the larping … The emotions make you dizzy. Imagine the Hogwarts Headmistress was arrested during the ball! No wonder that, according to the coordinator, Adrianna, one of the biggest challenges of the next episodes will be: “catching the plots of the players together and enabling them to make their Potter dreams come true” (AA).

Everything was fine!

Larp Harry Potter Live surprised me positively, especially since I went on it at the last minute, as a substitute for another person (thank you, Anka!). I couldn’t imagine how I could feel like at Hogwarts without crossing the Polish border. Meanwhile, the team responsible for the game and people playing together made crossing the border of the worlds possible. Everything was fine – space, game mechanics, ideas, decorations (this dragon was really realistic!), So I just can’t stop thinking about the future of my character. What will happen in the next episode ? Who of you will I meet then?

[1]  Electric candles – nobody wants a fire!

I would like to thank Adrianna Adamska for the correspondence interview and Kasia Cebula (Wehikuł Kasi) for permission to illustrate the article with her photos.

Research work financed from the budget for science in 2018-2022 as a research project under the “Diamond Grant” program.