6 – 8 participants / 1 – 1.5 hours / age 16+ / comedy–drama
Introduction
Yesterday’s party was fantastic, so why don’t you remember it? Well, the police want you to give them an account of the night because there was some „incident.” From what you know, they were not invited, but now you are waiting to give your testimony, and it better checks out with what others have said. You can’t really talk to others because you are keeping an eye on them. They have taken away your GameBoys and phones but given you some coloring books and colored pencils for entertainment. Can you coordinate your testimony and get out of this scot-free?
Mechanics
Participants need to find ways to communicate using colored pencils and other means of communication; the only rule is that you cannot write letters while not being „disruptive.” For the purposes of the larp, making noise over 50 dB is considered disruptive. When the time for the interrogation comes, players will fill out questionnaires, and the detective will check their answers.
Setting
The story is set in a police station on Main Street in Lone Town, Nevada, USA, in 1978. It is a fictional location inspired by iconic 80’s imagery, being a town in the middle of nowhere but full of many crazy yet fascinating events and people. Characters are based on the trends and subcultures of the time: rebellious teens bored with school life, all wanting to have fun. All of the characters have unisex names and quirks, with room for personalization for the players.
Preparation for the Larp
Composing Environment
When it comes to the environment, there is not that much in terms of necessities. The larp should be held indoors; only one room is required, but it needs to have enough space for chairs and desks for all of the participants and the game master.
Props Necessary
Desks and chairs for everyone, as mentioned above; a lot of sheets of paper, some with coloring pages printed; and colored pencils in different colors and pens. The game master will also have to print out questionnaires and character cards. A sound level meter should also be prepared. There are free apps for mobile phones, so feel free to use one. You can run the game without it. Just judge noise levels by ear, but it’s recommended.
Adjustment of Printable Elements
The larp was created to accommodate 5 to 7 players. To keep it simple, parts that are only needed if you play with six players will be marked with “6”; if you have seven players, prepare parts with “7”. Remember to cut the unnecessary questions out of the questionnaire; they will be marked as explained above.
Game Master Tips
- Talk with your players about the level of challenge they would like to have; adjust the time before the interrogation and the level of accuracy in the questionnaire accordingly.
- Adjust what kind of noise level is “disruptive” based on your environment and room layout; test it out before the game.
- Have fun with your own character; you, for the most part, will keep an eye out on your players in and out of character. If you see that players are overly cautious and have trouble getting into role-playing, feel free to initiate dialogue as Detective Darcy. Just ensure that the players know when you are speaking in character and when you are out of character.
- Even though you, as a game master, know the full story and the truth, remember that the goal of the players is not to discover the truth but to have a consistent account of the night, so try to be lenient with that.
- Post-mortems are discussions of an event after it has happened and are for everyone who participated to talk about what they enjoyed and what they didn’t enjoy and freely discuss the event. It’s a way to gain knowledge to implement in the future and provides an outlet for the emotions that might arise during the game. Highly consider doing one after the larp.
Description of the Larp’s Plan
- Going over the safety mechanics you will be employing in the larp, e.g., traffic light system, other boundaries, and what level of touch everyone is comfortable with.
- The game master reads the introduction, explains the mechanics that will be employed, introduces the setting, and answers any questions that may arise.
- Players receive randomly assigned character cards and memory cards assigned to them and have a couple of minutes to get acquainted with them. After that, they need to hand back memory cards to the game master.
- Then all the players pretend to be sleeping in their chairs or on the floor when Detective Darcy enters the room and wakes them up, giving a stern talk about how they are in very big trouble and they have to wait for the interrogation room to be free. In the meantime, they have to sit on their asses and not disrupt them while handing them coloring book pages, sheets of paper, and colored pencils.
- Darcy sits at their desk and begins to solve a crossword. The GM turns on the decibel meter and oversees the game. The players will now try to achieve their goal of exchanging their information and piecing together a semi-cohesive story. This part will last a significant amount of game time, from 30 to 60 minutes. Adjust the time based on your group’s preferences; the base amount of time is 45 minutes. If players act „disruptive,” i.e., going over 50 dB, Darcy could give a warning and make someone move their chair and desk to the other side of the room, preventing them from speaking, or in extreme cases, take back the coloring book pages.
- After a certain amount of time passes, the detective announces that the interrogation room should be free now, and it’s time for the interrogation. Move available desks and chairs as far apart as possible to prevent cheating. Seat each player in one of the seats and hand them a questionnaire and a pen. Remind them, as Darcy, that their documentation will be seen by their parents and that they can just accept responsibility and have a lighter punishment. Give them time to fill out the questionnaires; there is no time limit, but this part shouldn’t be much longer than 15 minutes.
- Detective Darcy collects the questionnaires and exits the room, leaving the characters alone and free to do whatever. The GM now compares the answers and judges the answers.
- The detective goes back into the room. If the answers overlap enough, they will announce that the player characters are free to go and to not go partying again and stay in school. If the answers are too vastly different, the detective announces that the group will be charged with the murder of Vicki, and they will be transported to a grown-up jail with no coloring books.
- This is the end of the larp. If the players want, they can see each other’s questionnaires and get answers from the GM. It’s beneficial to include a post-mortem; see “Game Master Tips” for more information.
Full Story with Details
The party took place at a cabin next to Hot Lake, near Lone City. The cabin is the property of Vicki’s parents, and she is the one who hosted the party. The plan was to drink punch, smoke weed, and have sex. Those who were invited intended to arrive in Brook’s pickup truck. The truck didn’t make it to its destination because the front right tire popped, and the truck was abandoned half a mile from the estate. The party was getting started, and everyone was having fun. Alex’s punch and Gene’s weed ensured that everyone was in a wonderful mood. Vicki flirts with Hayley. Floyd plays some of their best songs and DJs, but one of the basses was so powerful that the power went out and windows shattered into tiny pieces. Brook went to get the accumulator so Cory could use it as a temporary power source. After they succeeded, everyone viewed an extremely frightening film that Ezra had made. It was something else. After that, to impress everyone, Cory prepared something explosive. Fireworks, to be precise, handmade from chemicals from the school laboratory. It was spectacular until Ezra accidentally scared Cory, and one of the fireworks hit the cabin. No one was hurt; some of the alcohol caught fire, which triggered the sprinklers, and everyone’s clothes became soaked. A lot of people continued to party without their clothes, but Vicki’s makeup and hair got ruined, so she went to her room to fix it and get a new, not-wet outfit. Alex goes to create a new bowl of punch but lacks alcohol after the fire incident and doesn’t know what to do. Gene says they will help them and add something to elevate it. Gene adds LSD to the new punch. Everyone drinks LSD-laced punch, and after Ezra’s movie, they have hallucinations of monsters and ghosts possessing them. Vicki comes back. Everyone is freaking out about ghosts, and Hayley asks Vicki for salt from the kitchen to fight the ghosts. Vicki says that ghosts are not real, and to relax, she goes to the kitchen with one of the candles and pours herself a glass of punch. She unfortunately poured herself the old punch with glass shards in it, which slit her throat, and she bled out to death. Hayley was worried that the ghost would attack Vicki, so they stumbled around looking for her, and they sadly found her dead. The lethal combo of LSD and alcohol made everybody pass out, and they were unable to tell anybody about it. Vicki’s parents were notified that, in the middle of the night, the alarm began to ring but was turned off manually after a couple of minutes. The firemen surmised that someone had inadvertently set off the alarm by smoking a cigarette or blowing out birthday candles. Vicki’s parents arrived at the cabin with the police in tow because they suspected a break-in. When Vicki’s body was found, there were no clear leads on who killed her. The police wanted to pin the blame on someone because Vicki’s father was a lawyer and said that he would sue them all, so they took the only people found passed out on the property for questioning. This is where the larp begins.
Materials for Printing
Except for materials included, include a coloring book page or two for fun.
Pictures Used
Jackson Street Design – https://ar.pinterest.com/pin/83668505572700471/
ellaminty – https://pl.pinterest.com/pin/299559812730447409/