An interesting larp was published today: The Drinklings, by Anna-Karin Linder and Mo Holkar. It’s basicly about Tolkien, C S Lewis, and their friends, and the joys of being a tweedy fantasy writer in the 1930’s UK:
A group of friends meet regularly in a pub. They all work as respectable and esteemed scholars at an ancient university, but they all also write fantastical fiction in their spare time. The larp is made up of scenes depicting a series of their monthly meetings, at which they talk about their writing and how it’s going, and bounce ideas around the table. The last scene, set much later, involves a group of critics discussing the work of these giants.
This is a light-hearted larp, with themes of friendship and the tension between support and envy/competitiveness. When your friend gets a book contract for the work you’ve been helping them with, while your own (far superior!) masterpiece languishes unrecognized, how do you feel? What will the judgement of history have to say about you?
Its workshoppy, with player-created characters, but with some strong guidance: the players get to choose cards with their job title, research field, and the title of their work, and they get cards during the intermissions with events or problems in their writing to push the conversation. Rather like Graham Walmsley’s Will That Be All. Unlike many workshoppy games, it looks like it could be quite fun.