Osada 12

A lot has changed since the autumn of 2012 when an unknown deadly virus spread around the globe and killed most of the human population. The few who have survived live in isolated groups. Any contact between these groups and their settlements is managed by few adventurers and mostly the Army of the former Czech Republic.

Our apocalyptic larp took place in Osada 12, one of these settlements. There are about fifty survivors in the settlement, few of them from the beginning others have joined during the years. All the relationships between the residents look fine at first glance, but when you look more closely, you’ll notice scratches on the surface. All in all twenty years in a closed small group is a good breeding ground for conflicts. There is always the possibility to leave the settlement but it isn’t as easy as it sounds; the virus is still out there and there is no guarantee you’d manage to get another settlement and that they would accept you.

Take this explosive mixture, add some visitors and then just look for the friction between the inhabitants. And this was exactly what organizers did; they very precisely poured oil into the fire for the whole course of the game. And they did it very well.

This postapocalyptic drama took place during the autumn of the last year (when the epidemic should have occurred, according to the story). A youth camp was used as the setting, the same camp that was used for all the Mythagos, and once again it served us well. Petrius, who was the main organizer of this larp, is well known for his affection to all things postapocalyptic, and also for his previous larps, like Svět po pádu (The World after the Fall).

I can say almost the same about the photographs and the process for Osada 12 as was previously said about the already mentioned Mythagos (the last one was at the same place just a week before). It was dark outside and once again I was photographing only with the sunlight (and there were moments of really great autumn weather) and with the small amount of light provided by the artificial lighting of the main building.

In any case, this game led me to the idea to play a chronicler on some similar larp, using only a film camera as in-game equipment and developing the negatives in the darkest night. It’s just few chemicals… The only problem is enlarging the photographs, because it usually uses electricity and that’s a very expensive commodity in any postapocalyptic setting. I must admit that the idea is coming from Day of the Triffids written by John Wyndham in 1951.

More details about the Osada 12, can be found on its official website.