Ropecon 2017 has awarded Johanna Koljonen with the Golden Dragon award for laudable contributions towards the live-action role-playing game culture. Niina Niskanen was awarded with Deed of the Year award for compiling the anti-harassment guide Safer larping – A package of materials to combat and prevent harassment.

The Golden Dragon awarded for Johanna Koljonen

Ropecon 2017 has awarded Johanna Koljonen with the Golden Dragon award for her visible and significant contributions towards the live-action role-playing game culture. Johanna Koljonen has had a long and successful career as an experience designer, media analyst and author, all the while actively promoting live-action role-playing gaming to a wider audience and developing the culture around it further.

Koljonen is an internationally renowned speaker who holds presentations about developments in cinema and TV and about participation culture around the world. She has written scripts for comics, digital games and a play, as well as published both fact and fiction in numerous anthologies. Koljonen is especially known for the live-action role-playing game campaign Fenris, which brought the fenno-swedish larping into the larger Finnish role-playing game scene.

Ropecon would like to especially acknowledge the continuous and expansive work Koljonen has done to develop and promote the live-action role-playing game culture in Finland. Koljonen has actively introduced and promoted discussions about equality and safety within the role-playing game scene and acted as a role model for many people in it.

The Deed of the Year awarded for Niina Niskanen

Ropecon 2017 has awarded Niina Niskanen with the Deed of the Year award for compiling the anti-harassment guide Safer larping – A package of materials to combat and prevent harassment.

Niina Niskanen is a costume designer, larper and an author from Helsinki. She is known for her impressive live-action role-playing games and for her active contributions within the role-playing game culture.

The anti-harassment material package is one of the most influential initiatives within the Finnish role-playing game scene in recent years. The material package is a big, concrete and above all a significant step taken towards preventing and combating harassment within games, events and the role-playing game scene in general. The material is concisely written and offers great tools for both newer and more experienced game and event organizers to prevent and combat harassment.

The recipients of the awards were announced at the ending ceremony of Ropecon 2017 on Sunday. By Sunday morning, the three-day role-playing game convention had already gathered over 4000 attendees to the Messukeskus Helsinki Expo and Convention Centre.

The Golden Dragon and the Deed of the Year awards

The Golden Dragon award is an annual award given out at Ropecon once a year. The award was first given out in 2003. It is given out for long-term contributions in the fields of role-playing games, miniature wargames, card games or board games, or for distinguished, impactful advancements for supporting and further developing the role-playing game culture.

The Deed of the Year award is given out annually for a laudable project, action, publication or other significant contribution in the field of non-digital games. The Deed of the Year award was given out for the first time in 2014.

The Golden Dragon and the Deed of the Year are awarded annually by Ropecon.

More information about the awards:
https://2017.ropecon.fi/eng/program/awards/

Safer larping – A package of materials to combat and prevent harassment:
https://turvallisempaa.wordpress.com/
http://turvallisempaa.larp.fi/en/Safer_larping_package_v1.pdf