LARP Out of Character Videos are Up!

Cameron Betts interviewed a number of us, including myself, at NELCO (the New England Larp Conference) last year, which he's posting on LARP Out of Character, edited around the questions he asked -- "How do you define LARP?", "Is LARP a game or an art?", and "What makes a good character?" The first two are up:

How do you define LARP?



Is LARP a game or an art?



Cross-posted from The Magic Circle.

¡Fiestaval! Brandeis Festival of the LARPs 2014

If you're still reeling from Intercon con crash (and aren't we all), and you're in the greater Boston area, never fear, you will not have to wait long for your next fix.

Via in_water_writ in the brandeislarp LJ community:

¡Fiestaval! Brandeis Festival of the LARPs 2014

Larpers! You are cordially invited to a Fiestaval!
¡Fiestaval! is the ninth Festival of the LARPs, an annual LARP convention held at Brandeis University.

Bids are open! Bid your game now HERE.

Registration for the convention is open! Register now at 2014.festivalofthelarps.com!

Registration is free and open to the general public. Limited crash space is available upon request.

This year, Festival sign-ups will be tiered.

On Tuesday, March 18th you can sign up for one game at 7pm.
On Wednesday, March 19th you can sign up for up to two games at 7pm.
On Thursday, March 20th you can sign up for all the games you like, though still only one per time slot!

Bids received before March 7th will (if accepted) be posted to the schedule at the time the schedule is initially posted.

Bids submitted after March 7th but before the 14th will be added to the posted schedule before signups.

Any bids received after March 14th (if accepted) may be posted to the schedule after signups are already open.

Please also join and share our Facebook group HERE to help spread the word!

- Your loving Con-Chair,
Jenn

Festival is always a fun time. I'm excited to see what's going to run! I might actually have the time and energy to play something. :-)

Intercon Role Calls!

Intercon happened. Yay! Role calls are happening on the interconlarp LiveJournal community and the Intercon X Facebook group. (Role calls are where people post what games and characters they played.)

Go over and check them out!

Intercon N Sign-Ups Fully Open at 7p!

What the subject says. Intercon N sign-ups are going to fully open (you can sign up for as many games as you want) in forty-five minutes, at 7 PM EST! Games will go fast. Get your browser logged in, your decisions made, and your clicking fingers ready to go!

Shameless plugs:

If you are looking for games to play Saturday, A Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy, Hive for short, is running on Saturday evening, and is a Star Wars LARP set in the Mos Eisley cantina, which ran well at SLAW. I will likely be NPCing.

Genre is an experimental collaborative, improv-heavy game described as "TV Tropes: The LARP", also running Saturday evening.

Castillian Kings: Intrigue and Inquisition is running Saturday night late, a three-hour no-weirdshit history game inspired by the videogame Crusader Kings II.

Also my co-conspirators and I are running Heithur on Saturday afternoon. I was really happy with how it ran at SLAW. (I know we said that SLAW was the last run -- oops? It was hard to say no to running our Norse Noir LARP at Intercon Noir.)

Intercon N First Game Sign-Ups Open in 10 Minutes!

Intercon N sign-ups open today at 7p, at which point you will be able to sign up for one game. Let the frenzy begin!

Dreams of Ice and Ash running at Harvard next weekend!

From Tili Sokolov via e-mail:

If you're interested in LARPing and you're free 4pm-10pm on Saturday, November 23rd, you should sign up for the game I'm running then!

It's called The Dance and the Dawn: Dreams of Ice and Ash. It is a game of romance and tragedy, magic and cruelty. You will play a Lord of Ice or a Lady of Ash, one of those whose life is somehow ... incomplete, and you will spend the evening dancing with those of the other court, attempting to find your true love. Don't worry, you don't need to know how to dance, or how to break hearts; all you need in order to play is to FILL OUT THE CASTING SURVEY at this link! (That's the same as the "sign up" link. I put it in twice so you would see that it's important.)

First-time players very welcome!

They're definitely looking for more players.

"Dreams of Ice and Ash" is as the title implies the sequel to the well-known game "The Dance and the Dawn", although Tili says you do not need to have played The Dance and the Dawn in order to play this game. The Dance and the Dawn is a very elegant game -- I expect the same of the sequel.

Score Your Next Costume at the MIT Musical Theater Guild's Fall Costume Sale!

From Matt Peairs via e-mail:

Still looking for that last piece of your Halloween costume? [Or your LARP costume. -ed.] You should swing by the MTG Fall Costume Sale, where all your hopes, dreams, and fantasies can come true!

WHAT: MTG Fall Costume Sale (where we sell the results of our latest costume shop purge)
WHEN: Sunday, October 27th, from 12:30-5:30pm
WHERE: 3rd floor of the Student Center (mezzanine/balcony area) [84 Mass Ave, Cambridge]

Please bring cash!

Also, we're still looking for some volunteers to help us run the thing! You'll get to play dress-up, help people score some awesome costumes, and call dibs on the choice items. If you're interested, please reply [to erosser (at) mit (dot) edu] and let me know!

Hope to see you there, and Happy Halloween (it is the official holiday of Theater People).

Halloween is also the official holiday of LARPers, as Fair Escape here elaborates.

SLAW Sign-Ups Open Tomorrow!

For everyone! (If you're a WPI student or a GM reading this before 7p, get in now before the rush!)

Via graniaomalley on the interconlarp LJ community:

SLAW will be Nov 15-17 at WPI Salisbury labs.
Signups for your first choice game open tomorrow at 7PM.

slaw2013.concentral.net

Thanks!
Sarah

Many excellent games running, including (I hope) my own aforementioned Heithur.

Heithur running at MIT Oct 7-8

From the dawn of time the skalds told that the world would end in fire. But the thanes are old, the battle horns are silent, and the swords are gone to rust. Time has brought a new age of trade and luxury for those who are willing to put aside the old ways and traffic with foreigners.

Tonight the Honor sets sail not to raid but to allow those aboard to conduct their business far from prying eyes. Among those aboard, some have abandoned the old ways and some still hold to them in their hearts. Though, when the price is right, who can tell the difference? And who still cares?

There will be wheeling and dealing, strife and betrayal, magic and the end of prophesy. Game is inspired in part by Elizabeth Bear's Edda of Burdens setting, Theon Greyjoy, and Noir fiction.

Quick shameless plug: Heithur, written by Andrew Clough, Brian Sniffen, and myself, is running at MIT from 6-midnight Saturday and Sunday this upcoming weekend, October 7-8, and we're an app or two short of filling out both runs. (Game is four hours, but we allot an extra hour at each end for setup and cleanup.) Heithur ran previously at Intercon in March and at MIT in May. We're also running at SLAW at WPI in November, but we're unlikely to run again after that for the foreseeable future, so if you're interested in playing, this is likely to be one of your last chances.

MIT games cast based on casting questionnaires (a bit like a theater production) rather than first-come-first-served like Intercon and other con games, so if you do app, there's still a chance you may not be cast -- I just want to say that up front. However, as I say, we are pretty close to the wire, and we may have drops between now and game-time, so I'd say there's a pretty good chance. We haven't even fixed casting yet, so if you app before this evening, your preferences will be fully taken into account.

The casting questionnaire (as well as a longer description of game) is available at http://evenmere.org:8080/.

Hope to hear from you!

SLAW Sign-Ups Open October 9!

Unless you're a WPI student or GMing a game. (Edit 2013-09-30 KR: In which case you can sign up now!)

From Sarah Judd by e-mail:

Please sign up for SLAW at slaw2013.concentral.net

The schedule has been posted!

*Sign up Schedule:*

Sep 26 7PM - Oct 1 : WPI students get one game signup, GMs can sign up for as many as they want. If you are not a GM or WPI student and sign up during this period, Sarah will drop you from the game and inform you she's done so.

Oct 2: CLOSED

Oct 3 7PM: Everyone can sign up for 1 game

Oct 9 7PM: All games open.

NESFA Hosts a New England Gaming Convention in Somerville, MA

NESFA is hosting a New England Gaming Convention at the George Dilboy VFW Hall in Somerville, MA from noon-midnight on Sunday, September 22:

12 hours of board games, card games, tabletop games, RPGs, and dice games.

Great tournaments, awesome prizes, and epic freebies!

Plus open several tables for open gaming!

Only $20!!!! Space limited; register online in advance!

Online payments accepted by credit card and PayPal.
Full Gaming Membership: $20

You can register at the site.

A Convention For Game Designers!

Via the NYU Game Center's mailing list:

** PRACTICE IS COMING.
------------------------------------------------------------


** Bigger, better, and chock-full of game design goodness.
------------------------------------------------------------
November 15-17, the NYU Game Center will once again play host to the world's greatest gathering of game design intelligence. Our speakers include videogame veterans like Warren Spector (Thief, Deus Ex) and Soren Johnson (Spore, Civ IV), tabletop gaming greats like Rob Davieu (RISK: Legacy), and indie upstarts like Michael Brough (868-HACK, Glitch Tank). Plus, special surprises like Susanna Liu discussing the design of hip-hop dance battles - and running a dance battle live at the conference!

Where else are you going to get panels where interactive story guru Emily Short and the design leads behind The Walking Dead dissect the construction of narrative choice? Or where designers of League of Legends and Assassin's Creed compare strategies for player behavior analysis?

PRACTICE: Game Design in Detail is an intimate and highly social conference. Like a 3-day cocktail party with the smartest game designers around.

More information and registration available at http://gamecenter.nyu.edu/practice


** Speaking this year at PRACTICE
------------------------------------------------------------
Michael Brough
Keith Burgun
Cecilia Dolk & Martin Ericsson
Rob Daviau
Soren Johnson
Morgan Kennedy
Susanna Liu
Brad Muir
Davin Pavlas
Jake Rodkin
Emily Short
Quintin Smith
Warren Spector
Sean Vanaman
Robert Yang

Read more about the speakers here (http://gamecenter.nyu.edu/practice/speakers.html) .

Emily Short! Robert Yang! It's maybe not strictly about LARPs, but I suspect many of the ideas transfer. This sounds like a blast.

A Nordic Larp Day near NYC!

Via Lizzie Stark on Facebook:

WHERE AND WHEN

Come join us for Gamefest on October 5, 2013 at 184 College Ave, New Brunswick, a short walk from the New Brunswick commuter rail station. The festivities will last from 10 am to 9 pm.

WHAT

We’ve got all day fun planned — a couple short pickup jeepform games in the morning, from 10 am to 2 pm, and then a wonderful larp from the Norwegian Larpfactory in the afternoon, from 3 pm to 9 pm.

COST

We’ll be passing a donation hat ($5 suggested) to help cover the cost of props for this and future ventures, and we’ll also take up a collection for some mid-game pizza (vegan pizza is also an option!) in the evening. Because hungry larpers are bad at larp, and happy fed larpers always rock it.

WHO

You, maybe? We love introducing larp and roleplay to new gamers — players of any level of experience are welcome. Some of the games do deal with serious topics, so 18+ only please.

We are looking for anyone who is open to roleplay about serious themes, and who is 18 or older. These games are great for larpers wanting to try a Nordic style game, gamers who are new to larp, actors, reenactors, cosplayers, writers, and anyone interested in exploring character development.

The Highland Park Players' October Gamefest. More info, including the list of games, is available at the site.

Occam's Razor Adventure Day!

From Jacob Mandell via e-mail:

There is more to this world than you know.

Occam's Razor, a boffer LARP using the Accelerant system, is holding our second event on Saturday, September 28th.

In order to allow prospective players and NPCs a taste of what OR has to offer, this event is an Adventure Day. Come out and try
playing a game of modern fantasy, horror, conspiracies, and cyberpunk science-fiction for $35 (which includes dinner), or join us behind the
curtain and NPC (which also includes the same dinner, only it's free!). Visit occamsrazorlarp.com for more information, including a gorgeous downloadable rulebook, a topnotch online character generator, and some in-game teasers.

Bullets and brimstone, cyborgs and spellcasters--the dark corners of the world hold more secrets than you can imagine.

September 28th
$35 ($45 if you haven't paid the insurance fee)
10:00am
Camp Sargent
141 Camp Sargent Rd
Merrimack, NH 03054

To Be Continued Wants NPCs!

From Fair Escape via e-mail:

The GMs of To Be Continued, a campaign theater LARP with a cast of characters from popular geek culture (video games, comic books, movies, books, TV shows, etc.) are looking for people to play NPCs. Even though it's a campaign, no commitment to future events is required. The next event is Oct. 20th in Berlin, MA.

The website with more information on the cast of characters and setting can be found here: http://tobecontinuedcampaign.org/

Contact the staff for more information at storywarsaugms at bleemoo dot com

Yes, that really is how that e-mail address is spelled -- note the infix 'au'. (Hmm, this is tempting. I wonder what I'm doing that weekend...)

Ever Wanted to Get Paid to Run LARPs for Schoolkids?

Via Emily Care Boss on the Intercon X Facebook group:

[The Arlington Enrichment Collaborative (AEC) in Arlington, MA] is a nonprofit that provides innovative older youth program afterschool and on weekends. Visit us at www.arlingtonenrichment.org. We enroll 80 youth in our EEC licensed middle school afterschool program as well as workshops for high school students, 50-60 youth a day come to our afterschool program. We have 1 staff member for each 10 youth.

Job Description:
The Live Action Role Playing Coordinator/ or AEC LARP Coordinator is responsible for coordinating the LARP program. We have both middle school and high school enrichment classes that all follow the same gaming system and plot lines. You would coordinate an entire program of 20-40 youth, ages 10-18 and help them develop characters and a world with rules and strategy afterschool.

An ideal candidate is an individual with LARP experience, preferably with youth, who is excited and passionate about developing his/her own LARP curriculum around an already established program. It would also be helpful if the individual had an education or theatrical background. Our youth are very familiar with the NERO rule book currently.

This is considered a full-time 40 hour/week position with some weekends and evenings. We utilize flex hours and the ability to work from home during administrative hours--any time before 2p. We will need you for program from 2-6:30 T-Friday, Wednesdays till 7p

The job requirements and contact info are available on the Craigslist job ad posting.

Bring Your Mechanics to NELCO!

From Laura47 via interconlarp on LJ:

(NELCO is this weekend at the Chelmsford Radisson, we'll talk about LARP writing and running and playing, and people will write a LARP in 24 hours and run it sunday. Details here: http://guestlistapp.com/events/148377 )

***TL;DR: Bring your mechanics to NELCO and we'll work on them with you!***

Do you have a LARP mechanic that doesn't do what you want? Inelegant, too hard for players to understand, requires too much GM intervention? You've tried revising it, but it's never quite what you want? Do you have an idea for a mechanic, but don't know how to finish it? Are you an experiences GM, or still coming up with your first idea?

Bring your LARP mechanics (or mechanic ideas) in need of love to the mechanic workshop, Saturday from 4-6! Led by Peter Litwack, coauthor of the popular Darkwater Combat system, we'll critique and rebuild mechanics. If we run out of mechanics, we'll brainstorm new ones.

You may have seen Peter's mechanics at work in Sky No Longer Blue, A Single Silver Coin, Two Hours in London, Dreams of Peace, Dreams of War, The Road to Impunity, or Lost in the Jungles of Time. Peter believes in elegant mechanics that suit each game's individual needs, don't break immersion, and ideally allow the players to never need to halt game to call over a GM. Come to Peter's talk about mechanics Saturday at 2 to hear more and discuss mechanics and game writing.

***TL;DR: Bring your mechanics to NELCO and we'll work on them with you!***

Seriously, Peter is really good with this stuff. And it's not just combat mechanics either -- any kind of mechanic is fair game.

NELCO Schedule Announced!

From Dave Kapell on Facebook:

The New England Larp Conference 2013 has a Schedule!
I've mentioned NELCO a few times in this group before, and now we've put together a schedule. It's viewable at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AnziS_HFDWrgdFlaS0N2X3JFa0RFTTRXYjVQQnBGWHc#gid=0 and descriptions of some of the panels and workshops are available at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MrPeTe2X27w4AMjjccEpKY_nKQ9Ag1Cw2CfB_oIWgvg/edit.

There's also a all-weekend Build-your-own-game event which is a great opportunity to work with experienced larp authors to build a game from scratch in a day, then run it on Sunday.

We could use some more panelists for several panels, most notably:

* Designing interesting boffer modules
* Skulduggery and Larp
* Writing compelling stories for boffer larps
* Writing Political Plot

If you're interested in these, or any other panel, please let me know!

The event itself is August 9-11, in Chelmsford, MA

Here is the NELCO website. It's at the Radisson in Chelmsford, the same hotel Intercon happens at.

Occam's Razor Premieres August 31!

From Jacob Mandell via e-mail:

There is more to this world than you know.

Occam's Razor, a boffer LARP using the Accelerant system, is holding
our premier event on August 31st.

In order to allow prospective players and NPCs a taste of what OR has
to offer we are hosting a pair of Adventure Days. Come out and try
playing a game of modern fantasy, horror, conspiracies, and cyberpunk
science-fiction for $35 (which includes dinner), or join us behind the
curtain and NPC (which also includes the same dinner, only it's
free!). Visit occamsrazorlarp.com for more information, including a
gorgeous downloadable rulebook, a topnotch online character generator,
and some in-game teasers.

Bullets and brimstone, cyborgs and spellcasters--the dark corners of
the world hold more secrets than you can imagine.

August 31
$35
10:00am
Camp Sargent
141 Camp Sargent Rd
Merrimack, NH 03054

Sounds like a great way to get in on the ground floor of a new game.

Time Bubble 2013 (RPI) Announced, Wants Games!

With thanks to Stephen Kohler for forwarding this on to me:

Good evening, Time Bubblicans!

I do hope you are all enjoying your summers. It's been rather rainy here in Troy, but we haven't let that put a damper on our LARPing plans.

TIME BUBBLE 2013 will be held October 11-13 (that's Columbus Day Weekend again) in our favorite Carnegie Hall on RPI campus in the beautiful and flooding fast Troy, NY. This is our fourth Weekend of Minigames, and if the previous ones are any indication, we're just getting bigger and better!

We'd like to try something new this year. If you'd like to run a game at Time Bubble 2013, please fill out the attached LARP Submission Form and send it back to us. If you'd like to run a LARP-related *panel*, please email us back directly [at dicebubble@gmail.com -ed.] and we'll talk.

Game and panel submissions are due by noon on Thursday, August 15th. That way we can set everything up early and have about a month and a half for sign-ups.

Please feel free to share this email. Spread the news! Tell your friends! Tell your friends' friends! Tell strangers on the bus! Tell your dentist! Word of mouth is our best friend.

Timetastically yours,
Jenny, Peter, and Rob

Here is the LARP Submission Form.