The College of Wizardry LARP experience was an unofficial big-budget adventure organized by Nordic Larp teams RollespilsFabrikken and Liveform with assistance from local Polish larpers. The idea was to create a game set in modern times, years after the end of the events in the Harry Potter books. Armed with a large production team and a cast of nearly 60 non-player characters (NPCs), the organizers recreated the inside of the castle to furnish everything a college wizard could need. There were classrooms full of magical artifacts and items to explore, a fully-functioning potions lab with in-game concoctions to brew and drink, a terrifying dungeon in which to practice the darkest magic, and a divinations tower high above the ground. And of course, there were the castle’s built–in secret passageways to explore, and the gorgeous grounds, complete with its own Forbidden Forest full of fawns, inferni, and Death Eaters.

I got the chance to spend Thursday evening to Saturday night steeped in everything a wizarding experience had to offer playing the half-American muggle-born Katarina Iguanis. As a new student (a Junior),  I had to get to know the five houses so as to impress the Prefects. Unlike Hogwarts, at Czocha you were Sorted by which house you impressed, and I worked to get noticed without getting into too much trouble. After all, I had to get up early to go to classes like Magical Artifacts and Defense Against the Dark Arts with persnickety professors who could take away points towards winning the House Cup. I especially tried to stay on the staff’s good side once I was Sorted into House Durentius, but it was hard to stay out of trouble when angry ghosts, lost magical wildlife, the occasional golem and terrifying dark wizards lurked around every corner. By the time the game ended on Saturday night I had prophesied the resurrection of a dark wizard, fed a faun a lollipop, snuck down a secret passageway in my pajamas to join a secret society, and battled a fellow student to a standstill in a magic duel while trying not to trip on the dress I’d worn for the dance. And of course, I aced my Magical Artifacts class. After all, just because I went on fantastic adventures didn’t give me an excuse to shirk my studies.

Even to those familiar with role-playing games and larp in particular, College of Wizardry wasn’t your typical gaming experience. There were no difficult systems with complex health points, or lists of spells to memorize with limited and qualified outcomes. There was no experience points to garner and no achievements to unlock. The game instead was an improv exercise meets role-playing experience, based on some fundamental principals of games common in the Nordic Larp scene. The game stressed the ideas of players telling good stories together rather than focusing on constant success. This involved sometimes taking the dive, being the bad guy, or choosing to let your character be defeated, a concept called “playing to lose” in the Nordic scene.

And while the game offered a plot to follow about Death Eaters versus Aurors and the dangers of dark magic, players were expected to choose their own plot trajectory, directed by their interests and the choices of their characters. For that reason, no two experiences of Czocha were the same. While the organizers gave brief suggestions on ways you might play your character, their story arch was in your hands. Students ran every which way, causing mayhem or keeping on the straight and narrow, trying out for Quidditch or even getting caught up in an affair with a teacher. This was a game for adults, after all, set on the college level, so the themes could go a little more adult. Students explored issues of unprepared pregnancy, unexpected lycanthropy, bigotry-fueled family strife and even domestic abuse as parts of their character backgrounds. Others were interested in just a weekend of spell-casting light fun, and the game had room for both. The world of College of Wizardry and the grounds of Czocha castle were our playground, with mysteries and surprises around every corner.