Hybrid, Light-hearted, Sports |
| Designers: Hazel Dixon and Erin Marsh |
| Number of participants: 10-12 |
| Duration: 4 hours |
| The presenter feels that this larp IS suitable for young people aged 16+ |
About the larp
Chessboxing is a hybrid sport that involves participants competing in alternate rounds of Chess and Boxing. It’s the year 2025 and Chessboxing has grown to become one of the leading sports in the world with the top players regularly receiving multi-billion pound sponsorship deals. And it’s the final stages of the championships. Tensions are high, the media are everywhere and the fans are going wild. Who will win the coveted title of World Chessboxing Champion?
The World Chessboxing Championships is a hybrid larp where some of the players will be together in person, playing the competitors and coaches attending the event. Other players will tune in remotely via Discord servers and video linkups as media, sponsors and people with their own stake in the outcome of the championship. The larp will play out over different moments between the matches where you will play out internal drama between the players and the people and structures that surround them.
While the physical and digital games will take place in spaces isolated from each other, there will be crossover as actions in one space have consequences in the other.
Content Warnings: Parasocial relationships, celebrity status
Hazel Dixon: Hazel Dixon is a designer and research based in Newcastle Upon Tyne. They are part of the Bobbit Worm Games collective consisting of themselves and Erin Marsh who have made several online games over lockdown.
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 | Not relevant for this larp |
| Communication style | Lots of speech |
| 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 | There are predesigned secrets the organizers have from the players, and also that the players will have from each other |
| Representation | 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 | Light-hearted |
The Smoke 