Please reach out and I'll convince you to make this your first

A large sandbox/festival larp held once a year at Coopers Lake, PA. It centers around a war between 5 dragons, but that just provides the framing. It's really about creating emergent play and shenanigans for each other.

I am Staff at DrachenFest US and have just made it home.

Ask me anything about it

Thats your first mistake

I love games like Shadowdark, but I'm interested in stuff that isn't so heavy.

What would you consider the hallmarks of a hopepunk game and good examples of them?

I haven't been posting a lot lately, so here's my hot take.

Steal adventure ideas from terrible old school short stories. They have better hooks than good stories.

And of course the end of the story is that I have no idea who he was and I have no way of reaching him

This morning I'm thinking about this guy I used to roleplay with on the White Wolf Exalted digichat servers. Actual STs there could be sporadic, so we started just doing these little scenes in tea houses and coffee shops. Our characters arguing was some of the best cozy RP I've ever had.

The bad part of my brain makes me want to play new characters constantly, just to prove i can.

There is yet another article going around lamenting the lack of danger and challenge in modern rpgs.

The OSR movement exists and even DnD has a bunch of optional rules to make it more dangerous.

Every article like this is the author admitting how little they know about ttrpgs as a whole.

DF 2024: Set 2 (Kevin) DF 2024: Set 2. DF 2024: Set 2 on Photos by Kevin Nystrom. photos by DrachenFest-US 2024

df-2024-set-2.drachenfest.us?fbclid=IwY2x...

A dramatic cut away just as someone falls into death saves or as a monster rolls a crit, but before damage is rolled, is BEAUTIFUL

Splitting the party is fine, actually. I love scenarios that require PCs to make tough choices with timers where splitting up is the only option.

Then, a combination of dramatic cuts back and forth, as well as just using initiative order to manage it, is a lot of fun.

Wall of Force

Yes, exactly!

They breed and their numbers expand. As they do their latent psychic abilities grow and they get more intelligent. Eventually, a hoard of them can rival an arch mage in power.

My #1 monster from any game ever is Cranium Rats

I cannot praise @drowningmoon.bsky.social enough. I really didn't know how I was going to feel about it, till I say down and read all the materials. Then I feel in love.

Also, if you would like to do a call or video chat sometime, I would love to talk about this more in depth

I did the math 30 years ago and my local boffer larp (60 to 100) regulars at $60 a head was probably clearing a slim profit. Now that would struggle to pay site fees.

It's a neo-noir Greek myth inspired larp that talks about complicate families, corruption, and can the ends justify the means.

We are trying to get together a run of Concord Olympus by @drowningmoon.bsky.social

I sent her your bluesky info.

@kolford.bsky.social
I'm in the very early stages of organizing a free form in the Atlanta area,I have a friend in ATL helping me with venues, if you would be interested in talking to her

As @sidequestdesigns.com mentions, the SE has always had a fairly strong larp culture with Atlanta being sorta a hub. We have access to a lot of state parks between Tennessee and Georgia.

But, I'm struggling to find an affordable, good venue for a free form pervasive in ATL right now.

Wage stagnation is ultimately the root of a lot of this. We pay the same for larp as we did 30 years ago. It's hard to raise prices to sustainable levels that would let you compete for venues when half your player base makes nearly what they did 30 years ago.

Weddings are pricing both smaller parlor larps and full-scale boffers out of every venue. Even cheap hotel meeting rooms are skyrocketing.

Here in the South,state parks are just about the only options for boffer.

books.uu.se/uup/catalog/...

Let's Make Us A Tunnels & Trolls Character (1975–1977) YouTube video by zigmenthotep

youtu.be/YbokCLK6vj8?...

A friend active in kink spaces when I described larp safety mechanics:

"Oh, it's just a series of CNC scenes?"

I mean, No, but also yes

A weakness I have when designing scenarios is creating compelling social plots.
I can generally improv that sort of thing if the players are giving me something to work with, but creating it out of nothing is tough.