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Election results

We have tabulated the ballots of our July 2018 election. Please congratulate our new Larp House officers!

Creative director:
Larry Lade

Education committee:
Tayler Stokes
Wendy Gorman

Harassment committee:
Margo Gray
Pip Lorimer
Katherine Shane

We’re looking forward to an exciting year of larp in the Twin Cities!

A (Belated) 2016 Year in Review

As the new officers take on their roles and I shift out of being Creative Director I’d like to take a moment to recognize our accomplishments over the past year.

We ran a lot of larps in 2016. We ran 8 larps, more than 1 every other month, with more larps in a year than we’ve ever done since our founding. There were 21 different people (35 players in total) at these different events. Larp themes ran the gamut from resistance and betrayal to love and frivolity.

In 2016 a new larp organization was named in homage to us, North Carolina’s Larp Shack. We still aren’t making as much money as the other Larp House, since we are all-volunteer and our events are free and open to the public.

I’ve personally been very pleased with our ability to be a vehicle for playtests, new games, and under-appreciated gems by lesser known designers.

I also want to take a moment to shout out to Molly Forsythe. Fully 80% of my job was copy pasting emails that they wrote, so all that organizational work up front is paying off! The fact that I couldn’t just copy paste this email is probably why it took so long to send out!

In the year ahead I look forward to another year of locally-grown fun. I’m excited to take part in the diverse, enjoyable, and inspiring larps of 2017!

Sincerely,

Tom Fendt

Election Time

It’s Election Time.  If you want to get involved you should nominate yourself for a position.  Here’s how:

Larp House Elections
The Larp House will be holding elections for officer positions this July. This means that leadership for the Larp House will be composed of elected officials who have been chosen by the community.

Who can vote?
Anyone who has ever been to a Larp House event. If you are getting this email you can almost certainly vote.

Who can run for office?
Anyone who can vote can run for any office. If you have a passion for larp, or an idea for what you want to see the Larp House become, please consider nominating yourself!

How do nominations work?
You nominate yourself by sending an email to larphouse@gmail.com with the subject line “NOMINATION.” In the email include:
The name you would like to be listed under on the ballot.
The position(s) you want to nominate yourself for.
For each position, a description of your platform. This might include a description of how you will help the Larp House fulfill it’s Values Statement, what you hope to accomplish, or why you think you will do a good job in the role. This information will be shared next to your name on the ballot. Maximum of two paragraphs per position.
A person can be on a maximum of two committees. The Creative Director cannot be on any Committees. No one may nominate themselves for more positions than they can fulfill. Nominations will close on Sunday, July 12th, and voting will begin later that week. The people we elect will assume their positions in the middle of July.

Available Positions
Outreach Committee (up to 6 seats)
Members of the Outreach committee are on the front line of growing and sustaining the Larp House’s membership. They will be on the hunt for new people we can play with and new places to play. They will also monitor the community we already have and bring feedback to decision-makers. Finally, Outreach Committee will develop a media strategy for the Larp House and execute it–stuff like building a website, using social media, and whatever else their creative minds can imagine!

Term Limit: 6 months, with the ability to run for consecutive terms.

Education Committee (up to 6 seats)
The Education Committee turns excited larpers into experienced larp organizers. They oversee the Mentorship Program, which pairs folks new to larp with experienced organizers that they can work with and learn from. This committee also organizes workshops on larp techniques for the community and the public. Lastly, they will maintain a library of larps and larp theory that any community member can draw upon.

Term Limit: 6 months, with the ability to run for consecutive terms.

Harassment Committee (3 to 6 seats)
The Harassment Committee works to create and maintain a safe and welcoming environment at Larp House events and in our community. The members oversee the Harassment Policy and act as emotional support staff at events. If harassment does occur, this Committee will provide support for the people involved and decide what consequences to give harassers. Right now the Harassment Policy that this committee will use is still being written; those who become members of the Harassment Committee will have a significant voice in ensuring that the Larp House has a strong and well-implemented tools to make our community a welcoming place.

Term Limit: 6 months, with the ability to run for consecutive terms.

(Note: Anyone who is currently a member of a committee and would like to retain their position must run for re-election.)

 

Cooking up some Larps

Heya folks,

Do you like cooking up some tasty games?  Well Game Chef 2015 starts soon (June 13) and in honor of that event, our good friend +Jon Cole with the help of the United Geeks of Gaming (http://www.geekpartnership.org/clubs/united-geeks-of-gaming/) will be offering the always tasty Larp Jam.  You can read more about the event and sign up right here http://www.meetup.com/geekgaming/events/222661312/.  You need no experience to design a delicious game, so join us at 6:00 pm on June 13th.

 

Larp House Presents:  The attempt to find $30, a totally official Larp House Event.

Ok, event might be a stretch.  The general committee has voted that we want to preserve our web domain of www.larphouse.org as well as expanding the site to be a functional tool for our organization.  Features we would like to have on the site would include:

-A calendar of events and meetings
-A place to archive our events
-Easy access for anybody to view all of our current policies
-If possible, added features with social media including auto updating to our social media site (that would be extremely cool)

The always impressive Ben Francis has agreed to build our site, but we need to pay for a year’s worth of web hosting with a new company (since WordPress doesn’t support these features and our subscription is almost up anyhow).  This will cost the organization a whopping $30 for this first year.  If you can spare a few dollars to let our community have nice things, it would be a completely awesome thing to do.  If you do then you can unofficially be the director nice things.  At Larp House we like having nice things.  Help us have nice things.  If you can donate, please e-mail use at larphouse.outreach@gmail.com and we’ll work out a way to pick up your generous donation (please no credit cards, checks, pay pal, bit coins, or rupees at this time).

Thanks for being awesome,

-Dave

 

Golden Cobra award winners

Three organizers from the Larp House bring home a Golden Cobra award for their groundbreaking freeform. Congratulations!

THE GAME WE’RE MOST EAGER TO PLAY

Still Life

by Wendy Gorman, David Hertz and Heather Silsbee

A refreshing and thoughtful metaphorical freeform larp that keeps us moving forward in thinking about the potentials for role play. Throwing out assumptions left and right, like the need for plot, action by the players, people as characters, and focuses on stillness, interior play, subtle changes in position and being with the people and issues around us.

Still Life gives us the opportunity to larp as the inanimate, to live and breathe passivity for 2 hours without being bothered to make a power play or do something beyond simply communicating (and building from there). We as judges insist that this game be played.

Still Life grabbed each of the judges immediately and wouldn’t let go. We kept returning to Still Life and marveling at it. While many contest entries tread familiar ground, the designers of Still Life took the weird path into rocky country (sorry). This weirdness pays off immensely in a game that is at once bonkers and full of strange pathos.

Wendy Gorman, David Hertz, and Heather Silsbee’s game is instantly inspiring. It’s so cunning in its vision that each judge wanted to play it almost at once. Many of the structures of play that are usually taken for granted are effortlessly tossed out the window by this game, and players are left with a broody and subtle experience. Who knew it was possible to yearn so hard for the experience of pretending to be rock! We would have said it couldn’t be done, but with Still Life we have been proven wrong.

http://oftenfuzzyfaced.tumblr.com/post/101391762844/just-submitted-to-the-golden-cobra-challenge

Title: Blasphemy!

The second submission from a group of Larp House people, created during the Golden Cobra LarpJam. Good luck!