Psychology, Trauma, Emotion |
| Designers: Brandon Brylawski |
| Number of participants: 8 |
| Duration:3 hours |
| The presenter feels that this larp IS NOT suitable for young people aged 16+ |
About the larp
The neuropsychological technique Consilience has the potential to transform our understanding of the mind. It produces a state of transcendent empathy, and in some cases has provided astonishing cures for intractable mental illness. This is all the more remarkable given that we do not really understand how it works, only that it does.
Now an extraordinary find has been made: a collection of full sensory recordings that chronicle the Alpha Experiments, those during which Consilience was first “achieved”. You have volunteered to be part of a group to to re-experience these episodes and discover more about how this breakthrough came to be. This process is not without danger, but the project designers are doing all they can to prevent serious emotional harm.
By journeying into the minds of those who were there, the characters will learn more about themselves and unravel a fundamental mystery. Here was a scientific endeavor that culminated in a series of successful experiments and was published. It could and should have opened up an entirely new field of neurology. But nothing came of it. Why?
Consilience is an intense interpersonal LARP of experiencing other people’s memories and dealing with the consequences while trying to understand an extraordinary event that took place in the distant past. It includes adult themes, among them emotional trauma, infidelity, alienation, and failure.
Players will play a primary character of their preferred gender for most of the game. They will play a number of different male and female characters during short flashback scenes.
Content Warnings: Consilience is an exploration of emotional transformation and trauma that includes interpersonal problems such as infidelity, alienation, and failure. It also includes discussions of and potential experience with serious mental illness, such as delusions, false memories, and loss of identity.
Martin Jones: I write UK Freeform larps, often starting at a Peaky writing weekend, and have helped to write about a dozen different games. I usually favour character-heavy over plot-heavy larps. My most recent offerings have included Burning Orchid, A Dream Is Just a Dream, and BTL.
Parameters
| Physical contact | Light contact; touching hands or forearms |
| Romance and intimacy | Romantic themes but no player contact; e.g. discussion of romance, illicit glances |
| Conflict and violence | Themes of conflict, but not enacted by players; e.g. quiet threats and vengeful stares |
| Communication style | Lots of speech |
| Movement style | Walking |
| Characters | Characters are fully predesigned |
| Narrative control | Heavily scripted, perhaps with predefined scenes whose outcomes are known |
| Transparency | There are predesigned secrets the organizers have from the players, and also that the players will have from each other |
| Representation | The fictional space is pretty similar to the play space |
| Play culture | The core characters are essentially cooperating, but they re-live the experiences of people that may have conflicting aims. |
| Tone | Intense |
The Smoke 