Larp House Presents: Hell Is Other Vampires

a red-tinted full moon

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Join us on September 2, 2023

It’s 1993, when grunge music is all the rage, hacker kids are dialing up to this new thing called “the Internet,” and discontentment ripples through the secret world of the vampires.

In Chicago, Prince Lodin has dominated the vampires here for decades and kept various factions at bay. However, his days of dominance and absolute monopoly are numbered, and there are whispers of a revolutionary plot against his iron-fisted reign.

As a downpour pummels the streets outside the crumbling ruins of the City Methodist Church in Gary, Indiana, a small cabal of vampires gather inside to wait out the storm and plot to overthrow the Prince. That is, if they don’t all kill each other instead…

What

Hell Is Other Vampires is a larp about, well, vampires, but also an interpersonal drama about whether the group can put aside their personal problems to achieve their common goal, or if they succumb to petty squabbles instead.

Tone: A supernatural goth early ’90s gritty drama

You might enjoy this game if you are a fan of vampire media such as The Daybreakers or Interview with the Vampire, with a touch of No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre and Reservoir Dogs. The setting is within the World of Darkness franchise of games, but no prior knowledge of the system or franchise is necessary to play.

Run Time: 3 to 4 hours, including approximately 1.5 to 2 hours of active play time

Players: 3 to 9 players

Facilitators: one

Written by Evan Torner
Organized by Tom S. Tea
Admin support from Katherine Shane and Jon Cole

When

September 2, 2023, from 2–7 PM

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Larp House Presents: Club Felis

Club Felis / A Larp House event / May 12, 2023 6-10 PM / Caydence Records & Coffee / 900 Payne Avenue St. Paul MN / Reserve your place right meow!

CLUB FELIS:
Everybody Wants to be a Cat
~~~ REGISTER HERE ~~~

Cats of the Twin Cities, come gather and play at our very own nightclub: Club Felis. Here the stray cats and posh house cats mingle. They flirt, play, drink milk, and enjoy their cat mint. In particular they participate in or enjoy watching the Cat of the Year competition, which is held “every week.”  For one evening only, Caydence Records & Coffee in Saint Paul, MN will host the hottest night club in the Twin Cities for all things cool cats and hot jazz: Club Felis!

“Welcome all you cats and friends to Club Felis! Not everyone is welcome here, but you are! Are there any dogs among the audience maybe? Not so? Are there any mice among the audience? Not that either? But can everyone who belongs to the family of cats raise their paws and give me a resounding MEOW! Tonight we will announce who is the deserving winner of the Cat of the Year award! Those of you who want to brave the competition should talk with Agent Orange. Apart from that, enjoy the milk and other extravaganza. You have been here before, so you know what the deal is. Please welcome Scat Cats! (music!)”

– George – master of ceremonies at Club Felis

All Swinging Cats, show off your talents, sing/yowl your heart out, or jump into the Scat Cats improv jazz jam, playing awesome pick up standards. Scheme with your friends, disdain your enemies, and use impeccable cat logic to prove YOU deserve to help decide who wins Cat of the Year this week. Because everybody wants to be a swinging cat!

line art of a cat playing a trombone, and a cat playing a drum kit

The 4 W’s

Who

Presented by Larp House Role Play Collective and the Make a Scene Scenario Festival 

Organized by Micah Amundsen (they/them), Jamie Bordewick (they/them),  and Katherine Shane (she/her).

And hopefully attended by you!

What

Club Felis is a Nordic style larp by Martin Brodén, Ada Fredelius and Anna-Karin Linder about cats living in the city and meeting in their very own nightclub: Club Felis.

Players: 20-40 players

Run Time: 3 hours, including about an hour of prep time to don your cat ears, practice your cat moves, and get your Cat of the Year talents or karaoke hits to our very own Club Felis music & talent team!

Where

Caydence Records & Coffee, 900 Payne Avenue • St Paul MN

Metro Transit route 64 with 14, 30, and 32 stops nearby. Street parking available.

When

Friday May 12, 2023, from 6-10 PM

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Salon du Larp House: Charm School playtest

It’s 1925 and some experienced grifters—hustlers, sharps, and general crooks—gather to teach a group of younger, less-experienced con artists the tricks of the trade. Of course everyone brings their own bag full of secrets, and sometimes the best con is the one you don’t even know you are running…

Professors teach their signature cons, honed over years of practice, to promising new comers.

Students can gain experience, insight, and possibly a mentor as they learn various cons.

And as anywhere old and young gather, stories will be shared, grudges aired, and feelings bared.

What

Charm School is a game about being low-down dirty-rotten crooks who exchange tips, stories, and grudges. Sometimes the best con is the one you don’t even know you are running.

Run Time: 3 hours, including 90 minutes active play time
Players: 6–10
Facilitators: 2, who play as well
Tone: Self-serious characters played in a light-hearted way

You might enjoy this game if you are a fan of such films as: The Sting, The Usual Suspects, Reservoir Dogs, Now You See Me, Catch Me If You Can, The Brothers Bloom, or the Ocean’s Eleven franchise.

Written by Jason Morningstar
Organized by Kevin McIntrye and Kelley Vanda
With admin support from Katherine Shane and Jon Cole

This event is a playtest. Charm School isn’t totally finished, though it will be a complete play experience. There might be some missing pieces or rough patches in play. If this game sounds interesting to you even though it is not in its final form, we will be very glad to have you join us!

When

Saturday March 25th, 2023, from 1 to 5 pm Continue reading “Salon du Larp House: Charm School playtest”

Larp House Presents: The Harvest Festival

The hands of person with pale skin wearing blue uses blue clay on a rustic wooden table to create molds for silver charms.

A rural village craftspeople prepare for the annual Harvest Festival. At the festival each craftsperson will present their proudest works to other members of the community as a symbol of gratitude, forgiveness, or apology.

During the day, you sit with an elder perfecting your craft and seeking advice from your peers about your personal life. At night, wander the cozy streets of the hamlet to visit with other villagers to put that advice into practice (for better or for worse). After the third day, we will celebrate the Harvest Festival and give away the things we created.

What

The Harvest Festival is a pastoral game about interpersonal conflict and support networks. Inspired by Animal Crossing and Harvest Moon, join us to live out a hygge cottagecore fantasy for one afternoon.

Written by Marshall Bradshaw
Organized by Jon Cole

When

Saturday January 7th, 2023, from 1 to 4pm

The fingers of a person with pale skin delicately manipulate wet clay on a pottery wheel. The hands are wet, covered with shiny clay.

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Larp House Presents: Eye in the Sky

MQ-Q Reaper unmanned aircraft in flight over desert

A British-led intelligence operation close to the border of Pakistan is using an American drone for overwatch. Players are military, legal and political decision makers for either the British or American team. The optional 7th player is an unexpected observer from the Pakistan embassy. How will they all cope when the mission changes and their rules of engagement are no longer clear?

The premise

The larp is an exploration of the morality and effectiveness of using drones as a weapon of war. Different characters will have different ethical concerns about when and how to use drone weapons, and those will be tested as events unfold.

The leaders of a joint British-American intelligence operation are sitting in a room in a secure location in England, remotely directing the operation by issuing orders to British agents on the ground, local military units, or the American drone on overwatch.

Eye in the Sky will premiere at The Smoke 2020. This North American sneak preview is only at Larp House!

A larp for 6-7 players, 4 hours long (including debrief)
Designed by Malcolm Campbell
Organized by Malcolm Campbell, Josh Krehbiel, and Jon Cole

When & where

7 pm to 11 pm, Friday October 4th 2019
Hosted in private home near 78th and Dell Rd in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. (Exact address will be shared with ticket-holders.)

Plentiful free parking on site. We’ll be organizing a ride share to help get people out there.

Sign-up

Get a ticket by filling out the Eye in the Sky registration form. Unlike some of our other events, these free tickets are first-come first-served. Once you have a ticket you don’t need to do anything else besides show up to play! Continue reading “Larp House Presents: Eye in the Sky”

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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Larp House Presents: The Hirelings

"Five Soliders and a Turk on Horseback" by Albrecht Dürer

In a world of perilous adventure and dark dungeons filled with precious riches, one group of aspiring adventurers are having their first day in a new job, and it’s not quite working out as planned.

The Hirelings is a role-playing game in which you play out the preparations and the aftermath of a failed dungeon crawl.

It draws heavily upon clichés from fantasy role playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons, video games, comics, and fantasy literature. In addition there are also elements from modern life, like job interviews, group therapy, sports, and team building. The characters in the game are all novice adventurers, who are preparing to head out on their first real quest.

What

The Hirelings, a live-action fantasy comedy role-playing game for three to ten players (The more the merrier!)

Designed by Håken Lid and Ole Peder Giæver.
Organized by Shawn Stokes

When

Sunday, 9 June 2019 from 3 pm to 6 pm

Where

A North Minneapolis nonprofit located near Broadway and Emerson. Players will be given details after they are registered.

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

Registration

If you are interested in playing, fill out our The Hirelings Sign-Up Form by Sunday, 2 June 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 June 2nd if possible!

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Larp House Presents: So You Think You Can Dance?

So You Think You Can Dance?

During the 2002 Israeli military invasion of Ramallah, people were arrested at random and put placed in a transitional prison camp while they decide whether to release the prisoners or transfer them to a permanent prison.

By coincidence a group of former classmates from Birzeit University are arrested in the middle of the night. They are held at this prison camp with hands tied and eyes covered.

In So You Think You Can Dance? the players will take the roles of characters that each represent different political views on how to end the occupation, as well as different visions for the Palestinian State. During the scenario the characters will revisit their political arguments from 1993 (year of the first Oslo Accords), and explore how these arguments and political views have developed by 2002.

What

So You Think You Can Dance? is an educational live-action game for non-Palestinians about the internal Palestinian political situation, for 5 to 10 players.

Designed by Riad Mustafa, Ureib Samad, and Mohamad Rabah
Organized by TLS

When

Sunday, 20 January 2019, from 2 pm to 6 pm

Where

So You Think You Can Dance? will take place at SpringBOX, located at 262 University Ave W in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Parking on site. METRO Green Line and bus lines stop nearby.

Directions

Registration

If you are interested in participating, fill out our So You Think You Can Dance? registration form before 11:59 pm on Saturday, January 12th. We’ll let you know if you are in the larp by Monday January 14th.

SpringBOX is a space for community events and programming, operated by Springboard for the Arts. We are requesting a pay-what-you-want goodwill donation ($5 suggested) to support the work of SpringBOX 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: I Say a Little Prayer

image

Five gay men live together in a shared apartment in New York City. We follow this group of friends over a couple of years in the early 1980s when the AIDS epidemic hit gay communities hard. These men will be personally affected by the AIDS crisis over the course of play.

This larp is a condensed version of the internationally acclaimed Nordic larp Just a Little Lovin’, run in Minnesota last year. The themes of friendship, desire, and death are universal ones. We hope to offer participants new insight on an often overlooked part of US history through this event.

What

I Say a Little Prayer, a freeform Nordic larp scenario for five players.

Designed by Tor Kjetil Edland
Organized by Jon Cole and l.p.lade

When

Saturday, 22 September 2018 from 12:00 pm to 5:00 pm

Where

The larp will be held at a private residence in Minneapolis or St. Paul (TBD)

Registration

If you are interested in playing, fill out our I Say a Little Prayer sign-up form before 11:59 pm on Wednesday, September 12th. You should know if you are in or out of the larp by Tuesday, September 18th.

We encourage you to sign-up promptly! If we see there are sufficient sign-ups, we may consider adding additional runs. If way way too many people sign up, attendance in the multiple runs will be decided by weighted lottery.

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Larp House Presents: My Jam

You’re all high-school phonomancers at the biggest dance of the year. During the dance you’ll be able to hang with your friends, pick arguments with your frenemies, and moon over your crush—just like any other high school dance. But when your music is playing, you’re empowered by it and become the most powerful being on the dance floor and maybe the entire gymnasium! At the end of the night, one of you will be elected Dance Monarch and enact a powerful ritual that can permanently change the world.

Some of you are here to dance, some of you are here to hang out with friends, and some of you are here because you have nothing better to do. All of you are here because music is magic.

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