Thursday 26 October 2017

Larping in London

The Larp scene in London is growing, and although it isn't as large as the scene in some other countries there are lots of events that run on a regular basis. Navigating the scene can be confusing as there are some unique terms which aren't used, or are used differently in other countries.


There tend to be 3 distinct types of larping that I've encountered in London, but there seems to be more and more of a cross-over between them, to the point where I think these may operate as a slider rather than as distinct categories.


Nordic, and Nordic influenced larp: These games tend to have a goal of immersion and work collaboratively. Play to lose and play to flow (reacting to what’s happening as your character would, whether this is going to lead to an overall positive or negative outcome).


UK Freeform: Rules and system light games which are often (although not always) goal oriented. Playing to lose used less here, but there is low transparency which means there is often a goal of obtaining information or keeping secrets, which the player needs to figure out how best to achieve.


Fest larp: An area I’m less knowledgeable about, this type of larp tends to involve on going campaigns, are more rules and system heavy and feature combat. Empire larp is a popular form of this in the UK.


I’m really excited about the current larp scene in London.


I’m a co-organiser of the Immersivists club  and we tend to run short larps on a weekly (or so) basis. The next two are Sarcophagus by Kaia Aardal, Jone Aareskjold and Martin Nielsen and then Bring Your Own Bottle by Nastassia Sinitsyna, Yauheniya Siadova and Alisa Matavilava. We’ve recently run Old and Wise by Jantine van den Bosch and We Almost Were Heroes by Jasmin Räbsamen.


There is also the Game Kitchen which is a group which facilitates the collaborative design of Nordic-style larp and facilitates discussions around this topic. There are monthly meet-ups and in addition to group design sessions and play-testing, we have also had sessions discussing topics like use of lighting, use of drawing and steering vs immersion. I designed my first game in this group, and some great games have come from it.


Incarnation games run a UK Freeform game on approximately a monthly basis. They normally fill up quickly and cast players in advance.


London Larp Studio is a new group for designers to discuss challenges and support each other in their work.


There is London Larp Frothmeet where players talk about games, normally Fest Larp games, from my understanding.


Finally, although this isn’t a larp group per se, London Indie RPG meet up group often run games which have a emphasis on narrative and story telling.


I will write soon about weekend larps and festivals that have run or are going to run which welcome international players and sources of information that will help players find them. I would welcome comments on larp groups in the UK outside London, Fest larp and anything that I haven’t covered here.   

No comments:

Post a Comment