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Hi there,

the Call for Papers for the book accompanying the Knutpunkt 2006
convention on role-playing is now official. It can be found here:
http://jeepen.org/knutpunkt/ but is also included at the bottom of
this message for convenience.

As may be fitting for a book accompanying the tenth Knutpunkt
convention, the book's theme is "onward". We want to look ahead
and try to envision what role-playing will be like in ten years'
time. We want to raise the bar of role-playing. We want you in on
this.

-- Thorbiörn Fritzon and Tobias Wrigstad for the Book Committee

Call For Papers -- Knutpunkt 2006
=================================

As has become tradition, a book on the theory and practice of
role-playing will be published in conjunction with the Knutpunkt
2006 convention. The foremost goal of the book is to press ahead,
to raise the bar of role-playing. This is also the theme of the
book. The second goal is to disseminate to a larger audience of
organisers techniques for role-playing and best-practises for
organising role-playing events. The third goal is to support a
continuous documentation of the history of role-playing to prevent
great larps and scenarios from passing unnoticed and to prevent
mistakes from being repeated over and over.

We are asking for articles of the following kinds:

* Visions and Goals for the Future
* Techniques and Best-Practises
* Reports on the Use of Role-Playing in Different Settings
* Historical Documentation and Analysis

A good way of pushing a field forward is to agree upon a set of
distant goals and try to meet them. With "Visions and Goals for
the Future" we hope to start doing just that. We wish to see
visionary statements, such as where role-playing should be in ten
years, or descriptions of larps and role-playing events that we
don't yet know how to implement successfully. A speculative
submission here could be "The Next Ten Years of Immersion Will See
The End of Character Ownership". Without banning them completely,
we strongly discourage casually submitting yet another manifesto.

For "Techniques and Best-Practises", we are asking for
descriptions of techniques for role-playing. Speculative titles of
such submissions are "Three Techniques for Dealing With Non-Linear
Time in Games with Many Participants" or "Deciding Outcomes of
Actions in Free-form Role-Play Without Interrupting Play" etc. We
are also looking for analyses of, for example, the supposed
importance of scripted endings of larps, how to create tight
ensembles, how to coordinate and unify many players' visions of an
event, etc. Techniques and best-pracices should preferably have
been evaluated practically.

With "Reports on the Use of Role-Playing in Different Settings",
we are looking for uses of role-playing in other fields, e.g.,
education, in work-places, to convey political messages etc. What
possible uses are there for role-playing other than as art or
entertainment? Visions as well as reports are welcome.

Finally, with "Historical Documentation and Analysis", we are
asking for case studies (analyses and good descriptions) of events
that have been played or are in the pipeline. As already stated,
the goal is to make sure that we document the history of role-
playing: what has already been done, what was the context, what
were the goals, etc. Participants as well as organisers of an
event are welcome to submit.

The book is foremost aimed at creators of role-playing events but
also at players and theorists. This means that articles should be
readable, inspiring and practically useful. As Knutpunkt is not an
academic conference, the book will not be academic proceedings.
Academic and/or theoretic articles are very welcome, but are
strongly encouraged to fit into the above-mentioned categories and
preferably also to have a practical angle. Authors are encouraged,
but not required, to hold a presentation of their papers at the
convention.

Practical Matters
-----------------

Persons wishing to publish an article in the Knutpunkt book should
submit an abstract (around 500 words) of their article. All
abstracts will be reviewed by a board, which will provide
assistance with presentation techniques and try to make
suggestions or coordinate authors with similar subjects. Finished
articles should not be longer than 10.000 words and will be
reviewed by a larger review board and accepted or rejected.

The deadline for the abstracts is at the end of September, when
they should be sent to book@jeepen.org . You are most welcome to
send us emails before that date, to tell us what you are working
on, or with questions of any nature. The abstracts should be
submitted in English, though the editors may be able to provide
translation of the final articles in special cases. Detailed
submission guidelines will be distributed to submittors and be
made accessible on the Internet.

In addition to the printed book, the Knutpunkt book team hope to
publish a free digital version of the book on the Internet after
the convention.

About Knutpunkt
---------------

Knutpunkt (Eng. Junction/Nodal point) is a yearly Nordic
convention on role-playing primarily for organisers of role-
playing events, writers of role-playing scenarios and visionary
role-players. The goal of Knutpunkt is to provide a meeting place
for people interested in enhancing and analysing role-playing.
Knutpunkt in 2006 is the tenth annual conference. It continues to
be a big influence on as well as a big source of inspiration for
Nordic larp. Knutpunkt 2006 will be held in Sweden in February or
March.

-------------------------------------------------------------
URL:  http://jeepen.org/knutpunkt/
Mail: book@jeepen.org (or kp@jeepen.org for non-book matters)
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