A few days ago, I did an interview with Vanya, Kitezh’s history teacher. Apart from being a history teacher, a foster parent, and many other things, Vanya has a passion for role-play. Ever since he was young, he enjoyed inventing new worlds with his friends, and escaping reality.
They were so committed to their new worlds, that sometimes in “battles”, “blood would be real blood”. Vanya was the weird kid in the 90s who loved star wars, when people were barely trying to scrape by in their lives. Now, star wars is a huge thing in Russia, and everyone knows about it, especially in Kitezh. Vanya and a huge group of other people have taken role play games to another level, and organise one in the winter and one big one in the summer. The one for small chidlren must have a clear moral, good and bad characters. Whereas the roleplay game for teenagers can have blurrier lines concerning the moral. Vanya takes inspiration from Russian sci-fi, star wars, game of thrones, and the list continues. Here is a small taster of the most recent summer role play game. The leader of a fictional empire is fighting against the leader of the separatists. What will the outcome be? War, or a compromise?
Babayaga's Adventures 