Larp House Presents: Boundary Waters

Sunset over a wooded lake with a canoe in the foreground

Why do we do we travel? Why do we go to the world’s wild places? Why do we paddle or hike for days, when we could reach the same destination in a few hours by car? In a world of elevators, why do we climb mountains? Sometimes we go into the wilderness to figure out what matters. We take on burdens to learn how much we can carry, and who will help us bear the load. We go to liminal spaces to find a path forward, or the way home. Sometimes we all need to go to the Boundary Waters.

In Boundary Waters, a group of six strong women facing difficult choices travel through the lakes and portages of the Boundary Water Canoe Area, heading for the Canadian border. As they paddle, they contend with the inner voices of hope and fear, guilt and love. At portages, they carry heavy burdens over difficult terrain, just as they must carry the burdens of their past and future choices over many paths. Sometimes they share each other’s burdens. At night they gather in the dark and liminal space of a campfire under the stars. As they travel, the beauty of wild places will hone who they are and what they value most. When they reach the border, each must make a choice.

What

Boundary Waters, a live-action game for two to six players

As featured at Make a Scene!

Designed by Katherine Shane
Organized by Tom Fendt

When

24 August 2019 from 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm

Where

Hidden Falls Regional Park, St Paul (Google Maps)

Metro Transit routes 46 and 134 stop about half a mile away. We’ll solicit carpool needs and offers.

Registration

There is no cost to participate in this larp.

If you are interested in playing, fill out our Boundary Waters Sign-Up Form by Sunday, 18 August 11:59 pm. This larp will run as long as we have a minimum player count by this deadline, so please register by or before August 18th if possible!

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Salon du Larp House: Glamourous Night playtest

enchanted forest

Wizards, humans, magical creatures, and faeries attend a mundane community’s summer solstice festival. Magic is in the air, voices are stilled, and dreams can come true at a cost. Tonight shifting auras will grant attendees terrifying mystical power to pursue their desires. How far will you go to get what you want? When you are all-powerful, what is actually important to you?

What

Glamourous Night is a larp about faerie magic and wizards’ hubris for 15-25 players. It is an abstract and musical experience exploring the themes of temptation and choice. This event is a playtest for an unfinished larp designed by Jon Cole.

In Glamourous Night, players use two movement techniques to perform ensorcelling magic as their characters. Characters will experience joyful exploration and tempting darkness as they share, subjugate, and are subjugated.

When

Sunday September 1st, 2019, from 1:30 to 6 pm

Background

This is an alpha playtest of a larp. Glamourous Night isn’t finished, and this will be one of the first times it is played. There might be big holes missing or rough patches in play. If this larp sounds interesting to you even though it may not be a coherent start to finish narrative experience, we will be very glad to have you join us!
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Documentation for Sarabande

two people embrace as third person in foreground burns a paper document

Documentation for Sarabande, a live-action game about truth, love, freedom and beauty, set in 1890s Paris

Designed by Jeppe Bergmann Hamming and Maria Bergmann Hamming
Organized by TLS

14-Juillet 🇫🇷 2019
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Seven players + a facilitator

Local designers featured in The Guardian

Larp House members and local larp designers Kelley Vanda and Jon Cole have been prominently mentioned in this article in The Guardian about women designing games about reproductive rights.

Through video games, live-action role-playing games and interactive documentaries, developers are challenging the conversation around reproductive rights

 

You can get a PDF of The Abortionists here.

Larp House Presents: Sarabande

At the Moulin Rouge: The Dance, a painting by Toulouse-Lautrec

In a small café in Montmartre, a group of people meet day after day at the turn of the 19th century—all entangled in issues of love, beauty, freedom and truth. With their individual rules, conflicts, fears, assumptions and commitments, they play through the same routines again and again. It is as if their lives are frozen in one atonal unstable harmony seeking redemption, but unable to find peace. Day after day they live out these issues through their art, trying desperately to break free or to find that one true love. Day after day goes past, and for each day another passed chance.

But tomorrow… tomorrow will be different…

The participants will play the twelve persons who attend this café day after day and meet again and again. Throughout the scenario, they will be given the possibility to either play out their conflicts in a series of scenes or to play out their internal tensions in small musical and bodily intermezzos. Together we will create these twelve fates and live them out through the use of body, emotion, music and art rather than talking about it. We play with our bodies rather than our heads.

What

Sarabande, a musical roleplaying scenario for eight to twelve players. (Plus on est de fous, plus on rit!)

Designed by Jeppe Bergmann Hamming and Maria Bergmann Hamming
Organized by TLS

When

Sunday, 14 July 2019 from 1:00 pm to 6:00 pm.

Where

EMERGE Community Development in North Minneapolis

Directions

Free parking on site. Metro Transit lines 5, 14, 30, and 32 stop nearby.

Registration

If you are interested in playing, fill out our Sarabande sign-up form. by Sunday, 5 July 11:59 pm. This larp will run as long as we have a minimum player count by this deadline, so please register by or before July 5th if possible!

We are requesting a pay-what-you want goodwill donation ($5 to $10 suggested) to support the work of EMERGE in appreciation for the use of their space. No one will be turned away if they are unable to make a donation.

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Larp House Presents: Gone

Image of family photo album circa 1941

Lise suffers from dementia and is slowly disappearing from the world, while her family watches. Unable to do anything. Soon she will be gone.

Up until now the family has managed to push old conflicts aside and pull together in taking the best possible care of Lise. But the disease is wearing on them and everybody is nearing their breaking point.

Gone is about being a relative to a person suffering from dementia—not about having dementia yourself. The scenario follows her husband and three adult children the last year before she is admitted to a nursing home. It is also about loss as you watch the one you love disappear day by day, as well as finding yourself and rediscovering your family within the tragedy.

What

Gone, a serious roleplaying scenario about family, grief, and loss for four players

Designed by Klaus Meier Olsen
Organized by TLS

 

Three laurel wreaths

Best Scenario, Fastaval 2018
Best Presentation, Fastaval 2018
The Audience Award, Fastaval 2018

When

Sunday, 30 June 2019 from 12:30 pm to 4:30 pm

Where

Minneapolis Central Library at 300 Nicollet Mall

Directions

Paid parking is available; we encourage a car pool or transit!

Registration

There is no cost for admission to this event.

If you are interested in playing, fill out our Gone sign-up form. before Sunday, 23 June 11:59 pm. This larp will run as long as we have four players by June 23, so please register by or before then if possible!

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Documentation for The Homeowners Association

Four people with exaggerated body language

It was surprisingly sweet and emotional, despite being callously funny at the beginning. —Jon Cole

Documentation for The Homeowners Association

Designed by Marie Skouenborg
Organized by TLS

22 May 2019
Minneapolis
4 players + facilitator