An online larp. A chance to make things better.
Date: 22-23 January 2022
Platform: Discord, Gather.town Cost: £10 + donations. |
Setting & PlaystyleZoe's Christmas Task Force For Personal Betterment will give you an opportunity to experience your very own Christmas episode of an ensemble family drama. Bake some gingerbread cookies, tune in to a Christmas playlist and get a little bit sentimental. Together we can make things better. Zoe, a young woman known for always projecting a Pollyanna attitude despite struggling with a chronic illness, engages her troubled family, friends and acquaintances in a month-long project intended to help them resolve their personal and interpersonal issues. During this period she will be giving them weekly personalised self-improvement tasks: reconciling with a family member, revealing a secret to a loved one, discussing a difficult topic with a friend, reflecting on a problem and writing a diary entry, teaching a skill to someone, etc. The larp will explore the wholesome narrative tone of American TV series: the ensemble family dramas we all watched as teenagers or young adults and which to some extent made us internalise an idealised vision of family life (e.g. Gilmore Girls or Six Feet Under). In these shows, all issues can ultimately be resolved by having a heartfelt conversation with a family member or a friend, accepting their advice and apologising for your past behaviour. You say “I love you” and hug, soft music plays, the camera pans out and the credits roll. In the next episode, you’ll get a chance to pay it forward. The players are welcome to subvert this trope to some extent – the larp is a pastiche rather than a parody and is intended to stay truthful to the complexity and bittersweetness of real life – it should nevertheless be directed to a mostly positive, hopeful outcome. After all, it’s Christmas. |
PracticalitiesEach run of the larp will happen on Saturday and Sunday during daytime hours for players based in European and East Coast timezones. The larp begins at 13:00 GMT on Saturday with a workshop and a short group scene and ends at 20:00 GMT on Sunday with a short group scene and an optional debrief. Play between these hours is self-scheduled by the players: if you want, you can stay in character all throughout, but the larp will also accommodate players who prefer to take longer breaks (the minimum time the players are expected to devote to the larp is 4 hours over the 2 days). There will be some optional scheduled events organised in Gather.town.
There is also an option of playing extras, i.e. characters who aren't participating in Zoe's project, but still have an important relationship to one or two characters and would engage in some video chats with them; this might suit players with less time to dedicate to the larp. These characters come with a reduced ticket price of £5. The larp is designed and organised by Karolina Soltys, Patrik Balint, Will Osmond and David Owen. SafetyThe larp's safety approach is to provide a brave space where participants feel supported and confident in exploring their emotions. We emphasise player agency: there will be a single safeword, "offgame", which can be used for all purposes. Players will be encouraged to negotiate relationships as necessary before playing them, and it is always encouraged to go offgame for discussion when the need arises.
Sign-upThe sign-up is currently open and will close on 23:59 GMT on Monday, 13st December. It is not first-come-first-serve. To sign up, fill out this form. |