This is a downtown festival held in Norrköping every year, mostly associated with food but which has accumulated all sorts of other activities through the years. Now it’s almost a local extra version of the Sweden-wide Kulturnatt in late September.
It’s also an important anniversary for me, in two ways. First, Spelens Hus began participating in 2019, which as it happens is when I found it. Second, after the pandemic interregnum, we resumed participating last year – which brought home to me that my real goals for Adept Play, somewhat stifled at that time, were in fact possible. Somehow, I suddenly able to find people who like or would like role-playing regardless of hobby identity.
I’ve devoted the past year to trevising and refining my course offerings, participating in educational programs, and presenting workshops, in all cases directing my attention outside of hobby culture. My plan was to develop new skills for outreach and inclusion throughout attendance at Gothcon, Lincon, and Närcon, specifically targeted for landing at this event and at the upcoming Kulturnatten.
You can see a bunch of games I’d brought to scatter around the table, picking them up and playing through a moment or two as conversations seemed to indicate. I might, for example, point out the large-ish scale of resolution in what we’d done with The Pool, and then carry out a little sequence of Legendary Lives to showcase its extremely fine-grained resolution by contrast. Or, if someone wanted to talk about D&D, then Holmes was sitting there as a fascinating topic, e.g., it’s trippy, it has no setting, the GM isn’t story-campaigning, et cetera.
Here’s the pamphlet I composed, intended for use with me in-person and a constant handout. It includes a little Pool-ish play, which I presented many times. To read it correctly, print it two-sided, flipped on the short edge, and fold the resulting pages in half.
My goal with Adept Play has always been to prioritize Swedish activity, as live-play oriented as possible, letting international participation take care of itself. I couldn’t begin that way back in 2018, as online international activity was all I had, but 2019 looked like a good start, both at Gothcon and joining Spelens Hus. But the next years’ shutdown halted this big picture’s development, so in many ways 2023 is the 2020 I had been looking forward to. It’s especially heartening as so many things I’ve been doing have been by invitation, as opposed to me hawking anything.
So what’s next? I’m scheduled beyond all anticipation with community events, and I’ve finally been included in my first komun events (municipal, not hobby or private). It might soon be possible to provide regular courses in person, and the website may become more obviously integrated with all of these live activities, especially more about play at Spelens Hus. I have to re-think what the Patreon is for and find a better road from local play into posting and commenting. I have to think about which of my games really need to be available, and in what format.
3 responses to “Augustifesten 2023”
There’s some synchronicity to this, as I’ve recently realised I need to actively organise more outreach activity in Helsinki, if I want to build up a pool of people that I like to play with.
Is there any advice you’d give to anyone trying to do similar things in other countries?
The most important thing is “no promises.” I don’t go to a school or club or whatever and say, “Hey, I am the candy man, I bring you gifts of joy.” Instead, I think one must begin in a way and place which requires no permission, i.e., it’s legitimate that you are there and playing (that’s what Spelens Hus is for me). The play and work have to be occurring and evident, and maybe people who aren’t you and owe you nothing will tell still other pepole about it. When that happens, when the activity speaks for itself, then maybe you have a chance for someone you don’t know, in some capacity, to say, “Do you want to come and do that thing over in our tree?”
I didn’t shove myself over into Gothcon 2019. Someone else dope-slapped me and said, “Why aren’t you here?” and established contact to the convention. Once there, I didn’t insist on guest status; it was deemed appropriate by people, again, whom I did not know, who saw my RuneQuest and Glorantha activities. It all came from the play-and-work that I was already doing, at that moment, i.e., that I would have been doing even if none of that had occurred.
I am the last person on this earth to tell anyone any sort of “steps to success.” I’m anti-inspirational. Most of what I do doesn’t yield anything of the sort, in direct or planned terms. I don’t even know what proportion of it actually matters or “takes hold” at any given time. The determination is real, but as far as specific outcomes like the topic of this post go, it’s usually where I find myself today (“how did I get here?”), rather than a prize I’ve set and kept my eyes on.
> Instead, I think one must begin in a way and place which requires no permission, i.e., it’s legitimate that you are there and playing (that’s what Spelens Hus is for me). The play and work have to be occurring and evident, and maybe people who aren’t you and owe you nothing will tell still other pepole about it.
Thanks Ron. I’ve had some of that experience when playing Cy_Borg in the local boardgame cafe. The fun we were having was so loud and evident to anywhere close to us that I got several people to contact me after the game that weren’t even involved in it.
https://adeptplay.com/2023/01/30/romance-drugs-loud-fun/
I know one shouldn’t go into these things with “guaranteed success” in mind. But I think you’d agree that there are certain things that just won’t work. I’m still figuring out what those are.