My LARPs

This is a catalog of the LARPs that I have written, but first I’m going to talk at you about LARP because this is my website and I get to do that.

We live in a world full of countless modes of creative expression. Somehow, the medium that truly suits me best is one that is incredibly hard to explain to people outside of the LARP community. I’m deeply grateful to have stumbled on this little niche inside a niche inside a niche that is small literary one-shot LARPs, even if I’ll never be able to describe it to coworkers in less than three sentences.

For me, LARP is a way to make people understand something that may be impossible to explain in any other medium. Nearly all of my games have a feeling at the center of them that’s making itself heard by means of writing and mechanics. I love the puzzle of deciding what I want people to feel and then finding ways to make them feel it while still crafting an enjoyable experience. The games that I write tend to be 3-4 hours, with 6-12 characters, fully written character sheets, and with one mechanic designed to make people feel what I want them to feel.

I say “I,” but I almost always write with other people. I love the emergent creativity of sitting down with others to create a world and a story that is more than the sum of its parts, each person bringing in ideas and experiences that wouldn’t be part of the story if only one of us were writing it. Players, too, are co-authors in a sense. Each run of a LARP will have different characters telling a different story – a transient story that could only be told by those people in that moment and will never be recaptured.

Because it’s a funny artform, isn’t it? You spend a bunch of time writing eight pages of prose that maybe 10 people will ever read, but another 90 will experience through someone else’s interpretation. There isn’t anything else like it.

Anyway, these are the games I’ve written:

The Parting Line (1-2 GMs, 5-12 players) is a magical realism horde game about a mystical train that only appears to people who are struggling with an ending, whether it be a life transition or a romantic partnership. The Parting Line was written by Mehitabel Glenhaber, Rox Sayde, Azalea Weisblat, and myself for Iron GM 2025. It has run four times and can be run again without major changes.

Cormorant Key (2 GMs, 7 players) is a magical realism game about seven teenagers in the Florida Keys who are faced with an impossible choice in the middle of a Category 5 storm. Cormorant Key was the first LARP that I wrote by myself. It has run three times and has three planned future runs before it gets shelved indefinitely. It will never be published.

FLIRT: Fairy-Land Incident Report Tribunal (3 GMs, 13-20 players) is a fantasy-comedy cast/horde game about the (definitely impartial, we swear) tribunal that settles all disputes in Fairyland. FLIRT was written by Nat Budin, Susan Weiner, and myself. It has run twice and can be run again without major changes.

Whispering Pages (1-2 GMs, 10 players) is a magical realism LARP about a queer bookstore in a small town in Maine and the ghosts that haunt it. Whispering Pages was written by Deryn Eugene, Iris Felshman, Coco Kasperowicz, Azalea Weisblat, and myself for the 2024 Peaky Midwest writing workshop. It has run six times and is available as a free download.

Dungeons, Dishes, and Dragons (2-3 GMs, 10 players) is a high-fantasy Secrets and Powers LARP set in a fine-dining kitchen in a Dungeons & Dragons-inspired world. Dungeons, Dishes, and Dragons was written by Brendan Adkins, Matthew Francois, Susan Weiner, and myself for the 2023 Peaky Midwest writing workshop. It has run five times and can be run again without major changes.

Sleeping In and Eating Breakfast (1 GM, 12 players) is an urban fantasy slice-of-life LARP about a queer, polyamorous, and magical group of friends hanging out the morning after a big party. Sleeping In and Eating Breakfast was written by Faye Levin-O’Leary, Susan Weiner, and myself. It has been run four times and can be run again without major changes.

The Death of Rivka (1 GM, 6 players) is a magical realism LARP about six versions of the same woman meeting one another in the afterlife. The Death of Rivka was written by Quinn D, Susan Weiner, and myself. It has had four runs and can be run again without major changes.