Aaron Vanek

Aaron Vanek has been larping for nearly 25 years. He wrote and published an essay on the art of larp entitled “Cooler Than You Think: Understanding Live Action Role Playing” that is available as a free PDF download here (http://mysite NULL.verizon NULL.net/res6l997/understandinglarp NULL.pdf).
He is a founding member of Live Game Labs.

Aaron designs and produces larps, both solo or in collaboration. He plays as often as he can. He is strongly interested in the fringes of larp such as ARGs, pervasive games, edu-larps, etc.. He has also worked in the video game industry and published a number of traditional table-top RPG scenarios for the Call of Cthulhu role-playing system. Aaron spends the rest of his time mixing, drinking and writing about cocktails (http://www NULL.examiner NULL.com/x-5200-LA-Cocktails-Examiner), and making movies (http://www NULL.imdb NULL.com/name/nm0889016/).

Selected LARP Credits (designer and co-designer):

  • Call of Cthulhu (1990)
  • Sandman: Season of Mists (1993)
  • Silver & Sage (1999)
  • Hogwarts (2001)
  • Spirited Away (2003)
  • ChronoAgents (road rally)  (2004)
  • Limbo! (2005, and part II, 2007)
  • Space Cadets: Guardians of the High Frontier (2006)
  • Gatsby & the Great Race (hybrid sit down RPG/larp) (2007)
  • Rock Band Murder Mystery (2010)
  • Trail of the Necronomicon (for West Hollywood Book Fair) (2010)
  • Harry Potter Family Fun Day (for Paul Biane Library in Rancho Cucamonga) (2010 and 2011)
  • ChronoAgents Reloaded – Road Rally with light larp elements (2011)
  • Live Effects Messina fantasy campaign (2009-on) – advisory GM/designer

Educational larp activities and publications:

  • Seminar on LARP for the Girl Scouts of America – January, 2011
  • “Predictions for LARP” (http://www NULL.mortalisrpg NULL.com/?download=4) in Journeys to Another World, the Wyrd Con 2010 LARP Summit Companion Book
  • Blueprint for Rock Band Murder Mystery (http://rollespilsakademiet NULL.dk/kpbooks/) (with Morgan Joeck) in Do Knutepunkt 2011 book
  • “The Non-United LARP States of America” (http://rollespilsakademiet NULL.dk/kpbooks/) in Talk Knutepunkt 2011 book
  • Interview subject for a six-minute Loyola-Marymount student documentary project about larp (http://vimeo NULL.com/17968691) directed by Jon Albaugh
  • Featured interview subject on documentary Screw It, I’ll Play Make-Believe, directed by Briana Young, distributed by Tribeca Film Institute
  • Interviewed about larp by Time Warner Cable’s Ben McCain and Richard McManus for SoCal’s Best (http://youtu NULL.be/3Zux81GeaEo).
  • Co-founder of Seekers Unlimited (http://seeker NULL.transitionsfv NULL.org/seeker/), which uses larp to teach students. Current run is teaching math and science to a sixth grade class

Aaron can be emailed here (aaronlarp null@null gmail NULL.com).