Queerness, chosen family, life stages |
| Designer: Rei England (UK) |
| Number of participants: 4 – 6 |
| Duration: 3 hours |
| The presenter feels that this larp IS suitable for young people aged 16+ |
About the larp
A group of young people meet at university and become friends. Each of them knows they are not like most people; each is struggling to accept themselves and be accepted for who they are. As their lives unfold and they grow into themselves, they will be there for each other, through good times and bad.
Born This Way is a LARP for 4-6 players about queer friendships and the importance of chosen family. The game is intended to explore themes of acceptance, identity, relationships, and expression, and how those things evolve throughout our lives.
Content Warnings:This game is intended to explore the experiences of LGBTQIA+ people, and as such may include life events related to homophobia/transphobia/acephobia. However these events occur ‘off-screen’ and are entirely within the players’ control throughout, and players may choose not to include these events. We will also use safety words and lines/veils so that themes will be removed if a player wishes to exclude these.
Rei England: Rei is a nonbinary British person who co-ran the Nine Worlds LARP track and mostly runs games for UK Freeforms. In the last two years, they have written several games designed for online play, including the award-winning game ‘The Bathhouse’, which can be found on their Itch page https://huggyrei.itch.io/. They have also created Discord bots to help in running online games. Rei has written articles on LARP design and LGBTQIA+ inclusion, including two articles for the 2021 Knutepunkt ‘Where the Magic Happens!’ book. Rei is a researcher investigating interactions and systemic behaviour in insurance.
Parameters
| Physical contact | Contact not necessary and level up to players, can use symbolic gestures if desired. |
| Romance and intimacy | This is a game about LGBTQIA+ friendships, which do often drift in and out of romantic/sexual/alterous, but not necessarily and up to the players if they wish to pursue. No sex ‘onscreen’ though characters are likely to want to discuss their sexual desires/experiences to the extent that it’s part of their identity and life events. |
| Conflict and violence | Not relevant for this larp |
| Communication style | Lots of speech |
| Movement style | Sitting or lying |
| Characters | Players build their characters around a predesigned skeleton or archetype |
| Narrative control | Players have some influence over story, but there is basically a script or structure that they’re within |
| Transparency | Fully transparent – players will, or at least can, know absolutely everything in advance |
| Representation level | The fictional space is pretty similar to the play space |
| Play culture | The concept of rivalry or cooperation between players doesn’t really apply |
| Tone | Dramatic |
The Smoke 