My last larp of the year was last weekend, and I’m mostly finished packing. I’ve been from Poland to Staffordshire via Norfolk and Silverstone, and I’ve been really, really lucky in what I’ve been able to do.
I’ve never done this before, but it’s been such an extraordinary year that here’s a review…
In May, I produced Katrine Wind’s Daemon in the UK for 28 players, so a small larp. 14 human player characters, each with another player as their daemonic soul. The premise was the Authority had just been overthrown – now what? The characters had to work out where they stood in the new world, what’d happen to old ties, and how would they use new freedoms. I’d played in 2022, and the experience of playing a character with their soul walking and walking next to them – a real delight, even if you don’t know the Pulllman books well. The UK run had a waterside house, and it had a wherry where a third of the playerbase slept. A larp first. 😉
More here:
Then last weekend, I was Henry VIII in the amazing Reginae Regis, a medium-sized larp by Amy Mason Flowers and David Proctor The premise – Henry had started the Church of England not to get a divorce, but to institute polygamy. A bit of messing with history had all six wives still alive, all with control of some sort of heir. Henry made it Very Clear on Friday night that he needed a clear succession, victory in France, and a solid future for His Church. Just as soon as his courts had worked out what his plan should be, it’d be his Royal Command. Then he had a heart attack in the middle of the night, spent Saturday mostly unconscious, and died just before time out. So Saturday was the players sorting out some extraordinarily complex situations while keeping their characters consistent and their goals front and central. Beautiful clockwork.
More here:
I’ve enjoyed helping run the Senate at Empire, a large larp and the largest in the UK by some distance these days. We had some real solid, substantive debate, and the election of a new Throne in the last session of the last event of the year. I shamelessly amped up the drama just as hard as I could, and it was a genuine pleasure to watch the political moves being made.
More at the Empire wiki
College of Wizardry 12, an international larp in a castle in Poland, was my first larp outside of the UK. I met some fabulous players, I found you could larp about relationships without it being ‘ewwww’, and learned that ‘Play to lift’ is better than “Play to lose”. I started a journey which has taken me to the Nordic larp conference twice. Back in March, I had the huge honour of being the Head at CoW 25, in a format they’d not done before – an ‘end of year’ event. I had to know every character as if I’d been teaching them for at least a year. I added a retirement plot, so I ran an election too, and I was backstop for anywhere that needed a bit of attention. I will be frothing about this for years.
More here:
I love the Academy at Empire, I really do. They absolutely nail prepping young larpers for what it’s about. I loved having kids at Regis Reginae – playing young princes and princesses who would be at court, and were. – But there’s an age – maybe 15-17 – when you’re too old for kids larp, and it’s the age Bill is now. So Moxie Creative’s “Any Other Business” was simply perfect. No spoilers – it’s running again – but drama, such as the line “I better kill them all then”. More under 18 events please – you have 15 months before Bill is too old for them.
More – I dunno, actually. Ask Nora.
There’s a new larp this year this is absolutely definitely not for me. It’s Gritlands, and it’s puzzle solving and time-limited adventures. But oh, the setting, and oh, the dark humour…
More here:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100091546564616
I don’t do club larp any more – family and work and so on. But I bet there’s great stuff going on I have no idea about.
It seems bizarre to talk about “grass roots” when it’s a historical larp at Ingestre with a regular ticket price of £220 – but Reginae Regis had 16 tickets for understudies and folk who don’t always get representation at larp. Two of Henry’s grown-up children were first time larpers – and they were amazing. That’s good support for new players, in a larp far from the usual style.
More here:
There’s a player-organised larp in the Empire world which does something amazing. On Saturday – a social, in a ex-church. Nicely on-brief for the Highborn. on Sunday – a session in a bathhouse. An actual bathhouse. I’ve not been, I don’t do Empire play events cos I’m crew with quite a specific role, but what a concept.
More here:
I’ve mentioned Reginae Regis a lot – but really, so much of it was so well-thought. I’ve honestly not seen a better set of documentation about accessibility in the widest sense.
I don’t really do larp media – except my blog, where I put things so I can remember them later. The sheer range of folk saying and writing such fabulous stuff is unbelievable.
Mine at… Well, you’re here.
Yeah, I haven’t bought something in foam for years. My last purchase was an English Bill from Saxon Violence. Top bit of work.
More at their Facebook page
I haven’t bought a bit of leatherwork this year, but the armour that Rich Smith aka Trollkonge made for Mark Holmes was breathtaking.
More here:
This year was my first costume purchase in forever. Knew I was going to play Henry, and went all out on a pair of trousers of a sort I’d wanted since forever. Paned slops. So thanks to Sarah Poulter of Angrave Designs for utterly knocking it out of the park.
More at https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=706017314657417&set=pb.100057474647115.-2207520000&type=3
“I really enjoy food. I love larp. I am prone to showing off. In combination, this means that every now and then I put a load of effort into catering at larp.”
That happened twice this year. 32 for a weekend at Daemon larp, with the most beautiful jigsaw of allergies and intolerances to work round. Seven course banquet for 70 at Goetia. Themed on the seven deadly sins ending with poached lychees in grenadine and pink peppercorns, with a tequila and lime sorbet, and rose petals, served in a specially commissioned china vagina – you can get them on Etsy now.
I didn’t do it on my own, can’t thank Rupert Redington and ollie Busby enough, and golly it was a blast.
More at https://larpx.com/2023/05/14/daemon-food/
More at https://larpx.com/2023/10/25/goetia_food/
Chow’s range, the thinking and design behind the, and then watching her searching through Chinese fabric warehouses. It’s just great work.
More at her website.
If you’ve clicked through that slideshow, and you can’t quite make out what the folk are doing in the last 6 or so slides, then…
They’re eating poached lychees out of these.
I’ve mentioned Goetia before, but the joy was asking around for someone who could make me 70 food safe vulvas for serving the dessert on, and getting an answer. An online shop which agreed to make them for me. When you really, really want some custom pottery made – ask them nicely, and they deliver. I’m told she’s also made china birds for the Empire god crew, but for me – she’ll always be the China Vagina lady.
More at https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/PerkipcBoutique
I doubt more than a dozen or so folk actually saw Chris Bergstrasser’s Dragon, created by Rikke Hardbo Larsen at CoW25, but golly it was a piece of work.
More at https://witchards.com/czocha/ maybe?
More from Getia. Ork De Rooij did music and sound so when I announced each course – it had its own custom theme music and the hall was bathed in a specific light. Unbelievable. He may not be a bard per se, but his music made that scene sing.
I played a couple of genuine bucket list roles this year. Head of the college of wizardry – there’s only been two dozen or so. It’s a really big pair of shoes. I bloody loved it. But Henry VIII. Amy and David gave me such trust, and such great direction. I had a death scene I will never forget. I’d thought about last words, bit in the end Henry simply died, quietly and without drama. Just like my dad had three years ago. And Henry’s entirely accidental last sentence was “You’re undressing me again Mary…” to one of his ex-mistresses. Serendipity is what larp is all about, and that was it in purest form.
More at https://reginae-regis.org/
There is noone working harder on a wider range of larp events that the Eyelarp folk. I played two this year – Legio and Second Breakfast. It’s hard to imagine a bigger gulf between genres than buccolic hobbitiness – I spent an hour or so making jam, for heaven’s sake – and nasty Roman politics viewed from the low end, with a group of glorious no-hopers from the bad side of the tracks.
I shout about Kitty a lot, but Johnny’s smiling face no matter how awful the weather, no matter what needs doing – he’s amazing.
More at https://eyelarp.com/
My unsung hero of this year is Jolanda de Waal. I had a blast doing the banquet at Goetia, but that only happened because I just did that. Jolanda ran the rest of the catering, and kept everyone fed while I was prepping up to show off. You won’t have heard of her. Partly, because she drove from the Netherlands to run the kitchen. I’ll say that again – from the Netherlands.
More nowhere. That’s how unsung she is.
Why yes – this is the order of the UK Larp Award categories. Your point?
LARP experience 
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