Search for meaning, end of the world, interpretations |
| Designers: Karolina Soltys (UK), David Owen (UK), Patrik Balint (SE) |
| Number of participants: 8 |
| Duration: 4 hours |
| Genre/style: Nordic |
| The presenter feels that this larp IS NOT suitable for people under the age of 18
PREMIER – this larp’s first appearance at a festival |
About the larp
They say the world is ending. Back in the city, the tabloid headlines screamed ASTEROID WILL KILL US ALL IN 2021, while eggheads on TV said it would probably fly by. But here, on this farm in the middle of nowhere, there’s just the radio, blending this multitude of stories into a more and more uniform hum.
There’s a group of us here, waiting for the end, forgotten by the rest of humanity. We are very different people, with different reasons to be here, but the end of days seems to be bringing us closer together. Stripped of our jobs, mortgages and everyday lives, we’re all just people here, trying to make sense of things and saying our goodbyes. Today, we’re celebrating a wedding – perhaps the last one any of us will ever see – and afterwards, someone will have to do the dishes. We have 400 more days to fill with meaning.
Inspired by Melancholia by Lars von Trier.
Content Warnings: Self-harm, child abuse, cancer, alcoholism, depression, drugs.
Presented by
Karolina Soltys (UK): Karolina Soltys has been writing, playing and organising Nordic-style larps for several years. She is a founder of The Immersivists Club, a community playing larps in London, and has co-organised three editions of The Smoke. Her larps have been presented at several larp festivals; one of them, Arsenic & Lies, has been published commercially. In her practice, Karolina takes inspiration from other forms of art (literature, film, music), adapting them into co-creative, character-driven immersive experiences.
Parameters
| Communication style | Lots of speech |
| Movement style | Walking |
| Tone | Intense |
| Characters | Characters are fully predesigned |
| Narrative control | The shape and direction of the story is entirely, or almost entirely, determined by player choice |
| Transparency | There are predesigned secrets that players will have from each other |
| Representation level | The fictional space looks very unlike the play space, but players will use their imaginations |
| Play culture | The concept of rivalry or cooperation between players doesn’t really apply |
The Smoke 