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The Gift of a Beginning
(Featured photo by Spencer Plouzek on Unsplash.) Well, I guess we’re starting now? Yeah? I’m writing. Yes, this is a blog. Yeah, we’re here. Okay. So… you’re reading and I’m writing. And we both like larp. Okay. Oh, you weren’t ready yet? Sorry, sorry, just save it in your inbox. It’s fine! I’ll, like… go out and I’ll post again for when you’re ready. Let me know. Can I start again? Take all the…
Admit It: You’ve Used Larp as Therapy
A Guest Post by Anna Velilla (Featured Photo by Meridian Photos.) Whether or not you intended to, you’ve used larp as therapy at one point or another. Not because you neglected your mental health, exploited your coplayers for emotional labor, or had any intentions of doing so. Simply because larp is, by its very nature, therapeutic. Larp allows its players to live the experiences of other…
Listening to the Music of Larp
“You wanna dance this next one?” “Sure, mind if I follow?” “Not at all, I’ll lead.”And then we walk to the closest open spot on the floor and wait. My arm slides up my partner’s bicep, hand coming to rest lightly on their shoulder. Their arm comes around my back, their hand nestling somewhere between shoulder blades and ribs. We shift, finding comfort and closeness with each other’s bodies in…
Sex and Death : To be Human and Larping
(Featured photo by Photo by Cyrus Crossan on Unsplash) Sex and death – the two things in life that are impossible to escape. Even if you are ace and you decide to never touch a human being sexually, I bet that informs a whole bunch of your human interactions – I know figuring it out certainly informed a lot of mine. Going back further, even if you somehow never touch the concept of sex, two…
“I'm Down for Anything”: how NOT to fill out a LARP Application
(A huge thanks to Aj Mooney for this brilliant guest post! Please read more about our author at the end of this blog! Featured photo also by Aj Mooney) Let me tell you about my mistakes…. As a rather new initiate to the world of Freeform LARPing, filling out an application for a game can be really intimidating! There is a certain internal motivation to say “Oh I wanna play this LARP so bad, and…
Our Bodies Know What's Real
(Featured Photo by Ardian Lumi on Unsplash) “Your body doesn’t know that was pretend.” If you have ever been in one of my debriefs or spoken to me after a game, it’s likely you have heard some version of this. While our minds know we were just playing characters and nothing happened in the game was real, our bodies genuinely reacted. They produced all the hormones of someone in love. They dumped…
Safety is Personal: Wearing Your Larp Seatbelt
(Featured photo by Stephen Andrews on Unsplash.) Every time you get in a car, you put on a seatbelt (at least, I really hope you do.) Not because you plan to get in an accident that day, or because you think you are with a bad driver, but because things happen. Even with all the safe guards put in place: You have to get a license; Cars are built safer than ever with crumple zones; There are speed…
The Confidence Concoction
(Featured image by Olena Bohovyk on Unsplash.) Put on your best, most sexy, amazing looking underwear. If you do the bra thing, put the matching one on too. Now, parade around your dwelling a bit, knowing you look great. Cover that all up with some clothing that entirely hides it, but go out in public. Do you still feel a little more confident? Do you still walk with a bit more strut in your…
Flying High with a Larp Safety Net
For every game you’ve played with safety mechanics as a part of the system, I want you to think back to how many times you’ve used them. Chances are, it’s been rare, but not never. I’ve gone through the gamut of safety mechanics from having almost none to having WAY too many. After years of doing this, it’s generally agreed that a sleek few safety mechanics are better than having a dozen trying…
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What's Your LARPing Type of Fun?
Figure out what the types of fun are and how it can help you larp at this month's blog!
(Featured Photo by Nemesia Production on Unsplash. This person, despite looks, is probably having fun.) It’s been a long time. I’ve got a lot of things to write: we have talks around Covid to have, how to shake off the larp rust, and how do we do this safely. But that’ll come in time. For now, as we’ve gently stuck our toes back into all-vaccinated larping, I’ve had a topic come up several times…
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We Have a Responsibility to Do Better
(Featured photo by The New York Public Library on Unsplash.) As someone who is considered a community leader within larping circles, there’s been pressure to make a statement or take clear action against the current COVID-19 crisis that our country is facing. Communities all around the world are cancelling public gatherings because social distancing is vital to preventing this spread and flatteni…
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Making Mistakes...
This week we talk about how important it is to make mistakes...
This was originally written as a private chat between game designers on my Patreon. However, after several requests, it felt important to put it public. This post is more personal than many on this blog, but no less true. Most of you who read this blog are game designers or creators of some sort. You all are in touch with this community we love so much. A community which can be incredibly…
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A Template for Role-Play Negotiations...
A Template for Role-Play Negotiations…
(Photo by Bret Lehne. Models: Nerissa Hart and Lex Pulice-Farrow.)I speak a lot in this blog about consent negotiations and how to handle narrative free form safely. However, negotiations in larp aren’t just a part of the more free form/emergent styles. Even in your hardest boffer game, relationships and situations come up where it’s important to lay down boundaries so everyone is handling the…
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The Meaning of Allyship, Velvet Noir
Our Lives Were the Crimes They Couldn't Ignore: An Open Letter on the Intent of Velvet Noir, and the Meaning of Allyship...
Our Lives Were the Crimes They Couldn’t Ignore: An Open Letter on the Intent of Velvet Noir, and the Meaning of Allyship
(While this letter went up on our business page, it felt important to put it in the permanent archive and, as the lead designer of Velvet Noir, to keep it here as a mark of lessons learned over this last year. The photo is by Bret Lehne and the translations were done by so many…
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We Can Dangerous Stories Safely
For years we've hesitated to tell high risk, highly triggering stories in larp. We can do it, we just have to design as many safeties as we put risk into the stories. Here's some tips on how to do it...
(Trigger Warning: This blog discusses topics of racism, hate crimes, and sexual violence under a separate cut warning at the end. Do not read if any of that content is triggering for your mental state.) Safe spaces don’t exist in larping. It’s a lesson I’ve learned repeatedly over the last few months. One person’s safety is another person’s trigger. Saferspaces, however, are a constant goal and…
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Villainy: Tips and Tricks for Black Hatting in Larp
This week we talk about playing villains in a larp, a guest post by Emily Randall.
(Feature photo by Mor Shani on Unsplash A guest post by Emily Randall, wonderful fellow larper, IT nerd, and creative writer.) Playing a villain is far from easy. You have to plan out all sorts of horrible things to do to your victims and proper motivation for doing them, which is harder than it sounds — random violence or cruelty isn’t very effective, from a game perspective. You’re often…
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On the Boundaries of Game Runners
On the Boundaries of Game Runners
(Photo by Bret Lehne from Velvet Noir Run 2. This week’s blog is by fellow game runner, designer, and player Halden Ingwersen. Check out her various flash fiction, musings, and tiny games at her blog, and occasional rambles on her twitter. She previous wrote for us about letting go of unnecessary baggage in gaming. Today, she brings another important topic…) Hot Take: LARP Staff Need Consent…
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