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Monday, August 27, 2012

Once Upon a Time in Tombstone @RPI

From FairEscape/Lime Shirt LARPing via e-mail:

Finally, the news you've all been waiting for. Lime Shirt LARPing is proud to present the UK Freeforms weekend-long "Once Upon a Time in Tombstone", a game set in the Wild West of legend. Gamble with Doc Holliday, serve law and order with Wyatt Earp, and shoot against Annie Oakley. The game is running October 26-28th at RPI's Sage Labs. The fee is, as always, $25. This time, you have the option of either paying the full $25 up front, or paying $15 now and $10 at the game. You can find the signup form at TinyUrl.com/TombstoneLARP . If you have any questions about the game, let me know at limeshirtlarping@gmail.com . Thanks, and I'll see y'all on the trail.

From discussion over e-mail, the game is definitely looking for outside players -- "those huge weekend long games tend not to fill, and the more players the better." It sounds like a fun time!

Saturday, August 25, 2012

SLAW Schedule is Up!

The game schedule for SLAW, the WPI SFS LARP weekend, is now live! Looks like they've got a lot of well-reviewed games running.

Reliable sources inform me that this is a great time to sign up for the event. Game sign-ups open for current WPI students in a week, on Friday, August 31 at 7PM, and for the general public in two weeks, on Friday, September 7 at 7PM. Game sign-ups are first-come, first-served, so you don't want to be still busy signing up for the con when that game you want fills.

They're also still looking for games! Information about how to bid is on the site.

(h/t FairEscape)

Friday, August 24, 2012

Babycastles Summit in NYC this weekend

This is a fascinating-sounding event combining talks, workshops, and concerts under the auspices of the NYU Game Center among others and headlined by the designer of Katamari Damacy. The event is covering all sorts of gaming, not just LARP, but, among the LARP-specific bits, on Saturday Lizzie Stark is running her Ars Amandi workshop which rocked Intercon last year.

From the Facebook event page:

The Babycastles summit is a three-day series of talks, panels, bands, hands-on workshops and custom video game installations designed by Keita Takahashi , game designer of Japan’s Katamari Damacy. The summit will be hosted by the Museum of Art and Design from August 24th through the 26th as part of the “Fun Fellowship”.

[...]

♥ SATURDAY, AUGUST 25TH ♥
Open 12PM - 1AM

Talks, Workshops, Panels from 1PM - 8PM
♡ Japanese Shmups and the Ascension of a Bodhisattva
♡ Participatory Games Workshop
♡ How To Babycastles
Physical Intimacy in Larps [emphasis mine -ed.]
♡ Performance Machines in Game Space
♡ Nick Fortugno
♡ The Bill Murray of Video Games
♡ Designing Games for Public Spaces

Party and Performances from 8PM - 1AM
♡ The Suzan
♡ Eula
♡ Habibi
♡ Sweet Tooth
♡ Peggy Wang DJ Set (The Pains of Being Pure at Heart)

If you're in the area, definitely check it out. It sounds crazy and awesome.

Thursday, August 23, 2012

"Mad About the Boy" Video

As an addendum to yesterday's post, here's a video made as part of (what I believe was) the first run of "Mad About the Boy", the all-female Nordic larp which Lizzie Stark is running in Connecticut.



(via Anna-Karin Linder on the new North American and Nordic Larp Exchange Facebook Group)

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Two Weeks to Sign Up for "Mad About the Boy"

There are about two weeks to go on sign-ups for "Mad About the Boy" (deadline is September 8), and they're still looking for players! This is the all-female Nordic larp based loosely on the popular graphic novel Y: The Last Man which we posted about previously. It's running Friday, October 5 through Sunday, October 7 at Camp Cedarcrest in Orange, Connecticut. It looks like ridesharing and so on is being coordinated through the Facebook group.

From http://lizziestark.com/2012/07/26/mad-about-the-boy-sign-up/:

The Plot

Mad About the Boy is a larp about survivors of a global disaster that killed more than half of humanity; an inexplicable disease killed all the men in mere minutes. The surviving women face not only the enormous task of rebuilding society, but also the possible extinction of humanity.

While the graphic novel Y the Last Man by Brian K. Vaughn and Pia Guerra inspired the world of the larp, the game does not use any characters or storylines from the graphic novel. Our story follows a group of women who have applied to an insemination program initiated three years after the disaster. As sperm has become a very precious resource, only a few women will be given this privilege.

Players will portray women applying to the insemination program in familial groups of three. For video about the game, check out this Nordic Larp Talk, by one of the creators, Tor Kjetil Edland.

The Style

This game is a particular sort of larp, a Nordic larp. Rather than winning epic battles, participants will portray flawed human characters living in a reality that is very similar to our own, save for the absence of men. The aim of this larp is for each participant to portray a satisfying story within the game framework. This may mean portraying characters open to tragedy and suffering as well as open to happiness.

Read a primer on Nordic larp here.

Think of it as an interactive theatrical production rather than as a game — you can “win” only by telling a satisfying complex story that supports the experience of your fellow-players.

This larp does not rely on secrecy; participants are encouraged to read the original game libretto if desired, keeping in mind that it will be updated to reflect the US setting.

In keeping with the Nordic larp tradition, the first part of the game, on Friday night, will consist of workshops designed to foster community among the players and help them develop and deepen their characters.

Gender

Earlier runs of Mad About the Boy in Norway featured both all-women casts and mixed-gender casts, all playing women. Our US run will be all-women, with trans women and genderqueer people welcome. We’ve chosen an all-women run of the game in consultation with the Norwegian authors of the larp, who noticed that the mixed-gender run ended up being about the experience of men playing female characters rather than living in a society in which only women are left.

The game is open to everyone who identifies as female in one form or another. And that the people who sign-up may self-select whether this applies to them.

The Sort of Players We Want

Women open to roleplay about serious themes, older than 18 only. This game is for larpers interested in emotional plotlines, as well as non-gamers interested in the game’s theme, or people who loved interactive theatrical productions like Sleep No More, but wanted to get more involved in the plot.

The game is written for 30-40 players.

Got questions about whether this game is for you? Email lizzie.stark@gmail.com. Or ask on the Facebook group.

Discussion with Lizzie Stark by e-mail clarifies for me that, although this is a Nordic game, it is not a Jeepform game, which I was unclear on. It will bear a much closer resemblance to the larps that we're used to in the US than some of the other highly-symbolic Nordic games I've heard about.

Lizzie says, "Mad About the Boy is a larp, not a jeep. It features high immersion, set, costuming, continuous play (as opposed to sharply cut scenes) and real props instead of symbolic props. It's also for about 30 players, whereas most jeepform games are for 2-8." (Although it does sound like they'll be using a jeepy technique or two for certain parts of game.)

Middle Earth Day at the Higgins Armory Museum in Worcester, MA

This seems to be the kind of thing that LARPers would be interested in. From the Museum via e-mail:

Middle Earth Day at the Higgins Armory Museum in Worcester, MA
Saturday, September 29, 2012
10:00-4:00

Hear the stories of elves, hobbits and men; sing their songs, learn about their armor, and help defeat the Necromancer! So dust off your travelling cloaks and study up on your runes, or just comb your feet and join us for a day of fun and fellowship!
Swordfights- See Arwen teach Aragorn the proper way to slay an orc??!!
Storytelling- hear stories of Bilbo from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit
Crafts- Make Gimli’s shield or design your own
Come dressed as your favorite character from Tolkien’s stories of fantasy and adventure

One Museum to Rule Them All…

Higgins Armory Museum
100 Barber Avenue
Worcester, MA 01606
508-853-6015 ext. 20
http://www.higgins.org/

The event is free and open to all ages.

Friday, August 10, 2012

Boston Indie Game Fest Needs LARPs!

Short version: The Boston Festival of Indie Games, Saturday, September, 22, 2012, wants short, small-space LARPs! The application deadline has been extended to August 20.

Long version from Philip Tan by e-mail to the MIT Assassins' Guild mailing list:


Thursday, August 9, 2012

Mike Young LARP in Maryland!

The Tad and Craig's Excellent Party gaming relaxicon is running Mike Young's Miskatonic Archaeological Expedition, a "thematic sequel" to his well-known Miskatonic Class Reunion over Labor Day Weekend in Laurel, Maryland.

From the LARP site:

Miskatonic University thanks you for your interest in this year’s summer project, an Archaeological dig on the Isle of Sumatra. This is sure to be an excellent experience for our staff and students, and it’s all for credit at Miskatonic University as well!

“Miskatonic Archaeological Expedition” is a 4-5 hour minigame written by Mike Young, set in a Lovecraftian world. It has been run multiple times since its first writing and is a thematic cousin to last year’s insanely successful “Miskatonic Class Reunion”.

The LARP site has contact info and a casting questionnaire. Precasting ends on 8/20, and, although it's possible the game has filled already, some bit parts may be available at the door, and the con overall sounds like fun.

Dystopia Rising opens near Worcester, MA



Via Gaylord Tang by e-mail:

A post-apocalyptic zombie boffer LARP, Dystopia Rising, has opened its second franchise near Worcester, MA at Camp Marshall (92 McCormick Road; Spencer, MA).

A tabletop version of the RPG is available in print via Amazon or in PDF via DriveThruRPG. LARP rulebook published in a few weeks.

The original LARP is in New Jersey, and it looks like there's another starting in Texas in October. Their first event is tomorrow (Friday, August 10), with others coming in September and October. The video is more about the tabletop RPG book than the LARP, but it sounds like an interesting setting.