For one to two days, players roam through the city in small groups. GPS makes it possible to know the position of the  team members (and of other players or objects). To prove they’re the most worthy order of pilgrims, a team will need to demonstrate their knowledge of medieval Amsterdam by doing location-based media-assignments on the city’s history.

As they wander through the streets of medieval Amsterdam, they get in virtual phone contact with characters that provide information on locations and on the strange disappearing of the holy relic.

In the meantime, they’re competing with the other teams. GPS technology and mobile phones turn the city into a medieval playingfield. Teams can boobytrap eachother by placing bombs on the medieval streets: With a click on their gamephone the players can drop a virtual bomb at their current location that will go off in the face of a passing opponent, temporarily killing communication facilities with HQ. Running into other teams starts a confrontation between the Pilgrims – their Order determines who wins, taking away hard-earned experience points, co called Days of Poorterschap (medieval Days of Citizenship).

Tags: learning technology, Location Based Services, maps, mobile learning, new technology, pedagogy, politics, psychogeography, urban exploration