Piracy, betrayal, performance

Designer: Joanna Piancastelli

Number of participants: 6–14

Duration: 4 hours

The presenter feels that this larp IS suitable for young people aged 16+

About the larp

The wind is high, the sailors’ blood is up, and the captain has set a course – away from the biggest prize the Asp will ever have the chance to plunder! The captain is certain that the Spanish treasure galleon will be too well guarded for the Asp to survive and many agree with the experienced sailor’s judgement, but no one signs onto a pirate vessel to shy away from bloody risk in the face of tremendous riches, and what was once a united crew now finds itself on the brink of mutiny.

Mutiny on the Asp follows the crew of a pirate ship as it builds itself up from nothing and then tears itself apart. We’ll shape character outlines into a daring crew by charting their relationships through their early triumphs and failures in a series of theatre-style scenes with the rest of the players as spectators. Then cracks will appear and rumblings of mutiny will begin to take hold as the whole crew must fight for their desire to risk their lives on the biggest prize they’ve ever seen, or live to plunder another day.

Content Warnings: Conflict, likelihood of raised voices.

Costume (optional): No requirements, but absolutely no objection to people turning up in costume – tricorns are fun to wear!

Presented by

Joanna Piancastelli: Joanna has larped all over the world, on ships and in castles, in hotel rooms and pub basements. She wrote Unheroes, which has been played dozens of times across three continents, and ran Dawnstone and Marked: A School for Heroes in the UK. Her larps mix open, collaborative play styles with big-label genres to bring accessible fun to first timers and old hands alike.

Parameters

Physical contact	Not relevant for this larp; e.g. just standing in a room and talking
Romance and intimacy	Romantic themes but no player contact; e.g. discussion of romance, illicit glances
Conflict and violence	Physical contact is included, but is non-contact and super slow motion. Swords will be mimed, and guns represented by finger guns.
Communication style	Mostly speech, with a chance of sea shanties
Movement style	Walking
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	Most information is transparent, but players will be given an allegiance that they may choose to keep secret from other players
Representation level	The fictional space looks very unlike the play space, but players will use their imaginations
Play culture	Players are in rival factions, teams, etc, which are in some sort of competition for success
Tone	Moderate

Sunday afternoon, Studio 5