Play, Friends, Reality |
| Designers: Stephanie Marx, Drew Novick, Margaret Simkins, and Susan Weiner |
| Number of participants: 10 |
| Duration: 3 hours |
| The presenter feels that this larp IS suitable for young people aged 16+ |
About the larp
Why do children have imaginary friends? Sometimes imaginary friends are there to help kids work through issues they can’t handle alone. Sometimes a lonely child is looking for company.
Sometimes it’s because their real friends have imaginary friends. And sometimes, maybe, they’re just for fun.
In Playdate, a group of kids have been left with a teenage babysitter for an afternoon. There will be toys, craft time, pizza, and maybe some existential angst.
Playdate is a game about children dealing with difficult issues. It asks how we know what is real, and whether that even matters.
Content Warnings: Bullying, alcoholism, death or illness of family members, anaphylaxis, temper tantrums, existential angst, mid-game expectation shifts.
Sue Lee: Hello, I am responsible for cat herding UK Freeforms and am part of the Consequences organising team. I’ve been playing for 20+ years, writing for 15+ years, self confessed gamer, sewer, reader, writer.
Parameters
| Physical contact | Light contact; touching hands or forearms |
| Romance and intimacy | Not relevant for the larp |
| Conflict and violence | Not relevant for this larp |
| Communication style | Lots of speech |
| Movement style | Walking |
| Characters | Characters are fully predesigned |
| Narrative control | Players have some influence over story, but there is basically a script or structure that they’re within |
| Transparency | There are predesigned secrets the organizers have from the players, and also that the players will have from each other |
| Representation | What you see is what you get: the space and fixtures etc are exactly as they seem |
| Play culture | Players are in rival factions, teams, etc, which are in some sort of competition for success |
| Tone | Individual characters will experience the game in different ways, for some it’s just a playdate for others something much more intense |
The Smoke 