Author Archive for Mike Pohjola

I Regret Nothing

Published by Mike Pohjola on June 18, 2008 in Events. 0 Comments

I Regret Nothing was a Finnish-Norwegian art larp played at a city art festival in Turku, Finland in 2006. The minds behind the production were Juhana Pettersson, Eirik Fatland and myself.

Mr. Pettersson has published some documentation of the game. Go check it out!

A pirate radio station, a sheet monster, God and the Super-Ego, an underground complex and abducting passersby into the game. Read all about it.

Sanningen om Marika nominated for Emmy!

Published by Mike Pohjola on March 5, 2008 in News. 4 Comments

More information and links can be found at The company P blogpost. (update by Andie)

Last year The Company P (of Prosopopeia 2 fame) created a crossmedia event called Sanningen om Marika pervasively combining larp, internet and television drama.

The tv series was jointly produced with the Swedish Public Broadcasting Company SVT. The idea was that the tv show would be a dramatization of actual game-related events, and work as a kind of world book for the roleplaying and provide clues for all the community-based riddle solving going on in blogs, forums and irl.

Anyways, Sanningen om Marika is now nominated for an International Emmy Award for best Interactive Tv Service. All the other candidates are English language shows: Doctor Who Interactive, Emmerdale, and Spooks Interactive.

I’ve always said Nordic larp know-how is something great and unique, but recognition like this was not what I was expecting!

Interactive Emmy press release

Credits and other stuff

Katvealue: Larp goes museum

Published by Mike Pohjola on February 23, 2008 in Events. 0 Comments

I’m designing a larp called Katvealue to be played in the Finnish Museum of Fine Art (Ateneum) and the Finnish Museum of Contemporary Art (Kiasma).

The larp is part of the project Art Museum of the Future. The research question of the larp is if larp can experiment with new ways of being in a museum and experiencing both the works and the space itself. The fiction of the larp is still top secret, but has to do with art, as well.

The game is designed by artist Oona Tikkaoja, art historian Henna Kontusalmi and myself. It is produced by us in collaboration with the national art museums.

Katvealue will be played in Ateneum on April 23rd, and then in Kiasma on May 22nd. The name of the game means either Dead Zone or Shade.

Tähti

Published by Mike Pohjola on January 23, 2008 in News. 8 Comments

Just a short blurp about something only available in Finnish, but which might be of interest anyway. It’s my third published roleplaying game Tähti (Riimuahjo Publishing, 2007). (Ask to see or buy a copy at Solmukohta!)

The cover of Tähti

This is a tabletop roleplaying game where you play the member of a Maoist mutant girl band in the Finland of 2017. The action of the game revolves around dating, school, parents, rehearsals, fans, gigs, managers, celebrity and so on.

The insides look quite a bit like a teen mag. The 90s RPGs that read like phone books are ancient history by now. The only conflict resolution mechanic here is based on interpreting fortune cookies.

I wanted to mention this, as I know at least many of my Norwegian and Danish friends consider larp much more experimental and artistic and interersting than tabletops, but the situation is much more balanced in Sweden and Finland. …or am I just being prejudiced here?