Live Game Labs

At long last, the Dreamlands larp documents are done, ready, uploaded. June 2 is deadline to start the character build process.

Knutepunkt, the annual gathering of Nordic larpers, will be taking place in Oslo next week. One of the many wonderful events is the 2013 Larpwriter Challenge (http://www NULL.knutepunkt NULL.org/page/larpwriterchallenge/), a competition “for short, re-runnable and manuscript-based larps”. LGL’s own Mike Tice is a finalist, one of three, in the competition. This means that Mike’s live game, “Exodus 22:18,” will be produced in Oslo along with the other finalists, with the final judging to take place after their runs. Please join us in wishing him the best of luck!

More information about this event will be forthcoming, but for now, save the date:

Over the weekend of June 21-23, people will be transported from the mundane world to the world of HP Lovecraft’s Dreamlands in an official Live Effects LARP designed by LGL’s Aaron Vanek.

You can learn more at the Live Effects Meetup (http://www NULL.meetup NULL.com/LiveEffects/events/106273522/?a=ea1_grp&rv=ea1).

The Wyrd Con Companion Book, a collection of articles and academic essays about role-playing games, larps, and interactive storyteling was co-edited by LGL member Aaron Vanek, with layout and design by LGL member Kirsten Hageleit.

It is is part of the Wyrd Con mission of game education.

You can download it for free starting here (http://wyrdcon NULL.com/2012/12/21/2012-companion-book/).

As the year draws towards its close, LGL takes a quick look back and a quick look forward.

In November, LGL was involved in running 4 LARP events at LosCon 39 (http://loscon NULL.org/391/) over Thanksgiving weekend:

Time Travel Review Board (http://www NULL.aegames NULL.org/larps/originals/ttrb/), by Alleged Entertainment
Two Women and the Scent of Marzipan, by Aaron Vanek
Starship Valkyrie (http://starshipvalkyrie NULL.com/), by Christian Brown
Time Travel: Unofficial Usage, by Kirsten Hageleit

Speaking of Starship Valkyrie, a successful Kickstarter campaign (http://www NULL.kickstarter NULL.com/projects/412260577/starship-valkyrie-rulebook-20) has paved the way for a new ruleset. The Starship Valkyrie Ruleset 2.0 should debut early in 2013.

Among the events at the upcoming (Jan 11-13) Steampunk Symposium at the Queen Mary are two murder mysteries (http://www NULL.hrmsteam NULL.com/index NULL.php/event). While not part of the design team, LGL is supporting these efforts.

LGL has also been a strong supporter of WyrdCon (http://wyrdcon NULL.com/), running events at all three of these LARP-centric conventions in Orange County. Before the end of the year, WyrdCon will release the Companion Book as a free PDF. The book, edited by Sarah Lynne Bowman and LGL co-founder Aaron Vanek, contains more than a dozen essays about interactive storytelling, larps, role-playing games, participatory narratives, and other activities of interest to LARPers. And did I mention it’s free?

Looking further to the future, the dates for WyrdCon 4 have been announced. The convention will take place Sept 19-22, 2013, in Orange, CA. WyrdCon also has a Kickstarter Campaign (http://www NULL.kickstarter NULL.com/projects/wyrdcon/wyrd-con-4-interactive-storytelling-convention) that runs until the end of the year. You can pick up some sweet premiums and deals on badges. We hope to see you there to take part in the various projects we’ve been tinkering with in the lab!

Keep your PC warm during a larp with these “Life is a Larp” hoodie sweatshirts from Hello, the Future (http://www NULL.hello-the-future NULL.net/)

Hello, the Future will donate $1 from every sale to Seekers Unlimited thru December 3.

It’s a great gift idea for the larper in your life! http://hello-the-future.bandcamp.com/merch/life-is-a-larp-hoodie-2 (http://hello-the-future NULL.bandcamp NULL.com/merch/life-is-a-larp-hoodie-2)

Seekers Unlimited is an LGL side project for educational LARP, bringing LARP into the classroom in order to augment instruction and increase student engagement.

Help support that mission by attending a fabulous “Steampunk Science Fair” demonstrating LARP-learning with hands-on interactive exhibits. Wondrous demonstrations and scintillating presentations repeated throughout the night. There will also be tea and hors d’oeuvres, drinks, and conversation.

Costumes encouraged!

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2012
7:00PM to 11:00PM
Clockwork Couture
707 S. Main St., Burbank, CA

Tickets and further information. (http://www NULL.brownpapertickets NULL.com/event/265261)

Live Game Labs has two events coming up in the next few days!

The Lash of St. Francis (designed by Roselle Hurley) is a mystery/scavenger hunt H.P. Lovecraft-themed LARP that will take place on foot in Downtown San Pedro on Sunday, September 30th starting at 11:30 AM. Players will form teams to look for clues and collect objects at various locations in and around downtown San Pedro. Cost is $5 per team (2-5 players).

The event takes place on Sunday, 30 September, and is associated with the Los Angeles HP Lovecraft Film Festival in San Pedro this weekend. You can learn more about both events here (http://www NULL.brownpapertickets NULL.com/event/252928).

Live Game Labs celebrated our third year participating at Wyrd Con (http://wyrdcon NULL.com/). We’d like to thank the organizers for building a great platform for people to enjoy our games, and for us to enjoy other people’s games. Special thanks to all the staff and minions that helped make our lives easier. And most importantly, thank you to all the players who came to our games. It’s reassuring to us that the mad creations that emerge from the lab are met with excitement and an open mind, rather than torches and pitchforks.

Kirsten Hageleit participated in the panel “Never Surrender!” with Bret Shefter and Jeff Gomez, and ran the meta-larp Sunken Places. Results from the second round of the game created in Sunken Places—the Tarot Card Challenge—can be seen here.

Mike Tice, Designer of Death in Valhalla, writes: “I want to thank all my players (and all the Wyrd Con staff!) for not only making my game possible, but also for bringing my creation to life. You jumped into the roles with gusto, and it was great fun for me to see you all slowly stumbling toward a solution to the mystery, all while drinking mead, running races, dancing like chickens, or catching an episode of The Dating Game. Big congratulations to Loge for making a fool of Donner and solving the murder! You can read more about the game at my blog (http://essentialsaltes NULL.livejournal NULL.com/764588 NULL.html), and some photos are available at my flickr site (http://www NULL.flickr NULL.com/photos/essentialsaltes/sets/72157630265733766/with/7432850732/), and on LGL’s Facebook page (https://www NULL.facebook NULL.com/LiveGameLabs). I hope to see you back for WyrdCon 4, when I plan to present “Witchhunt,” a game that’s not yet been written, but has a pretty boss title.”

Christian Brown, Designer of Starship Valkyrie (http://starshipvalkyrie NULL.com/) said, “Wyrdcon 3 was a blur. I met some great new people, many of whom played in one of the two games I ran. Shakedown, on Friday night, was meant to be an intro to Valkyrie as a group of cadets try to get control of a runaway Star Destroyer and bring it back to port. That one might have been a little too free-form. Harm’s Way, the Starship Valkyrie game on Saturday night, was a more traditional klaxon-sounding, hull-breaching, phase-missile-y good time. Kudos to the crew of the Valkyrie for coming the closest to destroying the ship, but not. I had a lot of fun running two games but I regret missing the panels and workshops that I hear were going on. Next year I’ll relax more. Or maybe I’ll finally do that massive fleet battle I’ve been wanting to do for ages instead.”

Aaron Vanek participated on several of the panels, including “Using Larp for Education.” In a related note, Aaron would like to remind people that the Seekers Unlimited Kickstarter for Hit Seekers (http://www NULL.kickstarter NULL.com/projects/906612014/hit-seekers-a-math-game-in-the-music-industry) still has a few days to go. If you want to help support LARP as a method of education, please donate to this project, which bolsters math and finance skills through role-playing as record executives.

And of course, there was the LGL Brunch on Sunday morning. Mimosas and donuts… juice and bagels… We hope we saw you there for a little morning pick-me-up and some relaxed conversation. And we honor those who weren’t there, because you were still ready to LARP on the morning of day 4.

The larp Sunken Places is a game about making a game. The characters in this larp—Designers and Builders—are tasked with creating a Game for others to play. It is a continuing experiment—a discussion via larp of all the different ways we participate in larping. As experiments go, it has been fascinating and informative to watch.

This round of the Game of Sunken Places ended up being all about cards with pictures—as clues, as reminders, and as objects to replicate. The most popular round was the Live Tarot Card contest, where the Contestants had to select Tarot cards, then find other con-goers, persuade them to adopt poses and costumes that match the tarot card, and photograph the results. Below are the original cards and the photographs that were created.

First, a couple shots of how the photos were judged:

The card and its conveniently tarot-card-size re-creation. (Score sheet and, erm, “bribery resource” visible in frame.)

Builders and Contestants gather around as the Designers judge the photos. (Points were awarded for Accuracy and Creativity, on a scale of 0 to 10.)

Now, the final products. Team Barbarian (Contestants for the Thusser Horde, including Melissa Newland and Paul Newland)

The Chariot: (I really like how the shirt was used to fill in for the gryphon)

The Devil: (Creative use of devil tail prop as devil horns)

The Hanged Man: (Using a reflective table to re-create the shine—very nice!)

The Knight of Swords: (Excellent use of shouting)

And, the entries from Team Elf (Contestants for the People of the Mound of Norumbega, including ‎Lizzie Stark and Matthew Reshonsky (https://www NULL.facebook NULL.com/kirsten NULL.hageleit/posts/448111791885988?comment_id=5146546&offset=0&total_comments=3))

Strength: (Fur- and foliage-inclusive!)

The Lovers: (Nice posing)

The Magician: (Nice use of draperies and carpet motif)

Justice: (PVC pipe and cups! Nice work!)

After perusal of the score sheet, I have to say both Team Elf and Team Barbarian did extraordinarily well on these challenges, and the final scores differed by only one point— out of a possible 80 points, they came in at 66.5 to 65.5 respectively, giving the wafer-thin lead to Team Elf. Excellent work by all of the Contestants!