dark, surreal, mysterious

Designer: Steve Deutsch (with a little help from my friends J. Tuomas Harviainen, Larson Kasper, Amaru Flores)

Number of participants: 5–10

Duration: 3 hours

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

About the larp

Of your own free will is a larp set in the fictional world of the sailing larp Demeter, which in itself was inspired by Bram Stoker’s horror novel Dracula. The story is set in the year 1894, a few years before the events depicted in both of these works. The setting is the morning after a great ball in Castle Güssing, in the South-Eastern tip of Austria, close to the border of Hungary. The characters reminisce the night before, trying to reconcile what they experienced. There was a séance and much talk. The larp is played in flashbacks, told while sitting in the inn the characters are staying. During the course of the game, the characters come to realize they all might have shared the same dream.

Content Warnings: Seance and speaking with the dead

Presented by

Steve Deutsch: I’m a larp organizer for 25 years and played in Germany, UK fest (Gathering, Renewal and Maelstrom) before discovering the KP scene and so-called “Nordic larp”. 5 years ago, together with some friends, we started the “It’s full of larps” mini larp festivals in Germany which have become a regular event (3-4 per year) by now. I also introduced the “miniFRED” chamber game award into the MittelPunkt conference. I’ve written and organized short larps for conferences, education and business environments inn Germany, other European countries and Tanzania. Besides that, I’m the CEO of “Sailing 4 Adventure” running sailing ship larps in Germany and Denmark.

Parameters

Physical contact	Light contact; touching hands or forearms
Romance and intimacy	Not relevant for the larp
Conflict and violence	Shouting and other intimidating actions not involving contact
Communication style	Lots of speech
Movement style	It highly depends on how the participants decide.
Characters	Players build their characters around a predesigned skeleton or archetype
Narrative control	The shape and direction of the story is entirely, or almost entirely, determined by player choice
Transparency	Transparent design, but players can create secrets during play and keep them from each other / reveal them when wished
Representation level	The fictional space looks very unlike the play space, but players will use their imaginations
Play culture	The whole concept of rivalry or cooperation between players doesn’t really apply
Tone	Mysterious and dark

Sunday morning, Studio 6