Sirius 11F84 - Colors of Light

Date & Time

October 25-27, 2024; all day

Location

Kreativ.Campus
Ewaldstraße 20, 45699 Herten

Type of Event

Larp for adults (at least 18 years of age), political education

Participation Cost

€150, reduced €100, youngster/student €50

Disclaimer

Environment: The larp will use (bright) light and sound effects. If you are sensitive to these, please contact the organisers. There will be no fragrance/aroma/perfume use (by the organisers). The main play area is on the ground-floor and is wheelchair-accessible. Some spaces (secret passages/”Jefferies tubes”) can only be reached by ladders.

Player Choice: The Orean play will involve close and extended interactions with fellow players, including shared decision-making.

The larp is aimed at newcomers as well as experienced larpers.

Directions/Arrival/Schedule

We will meet at the buildings of the Waldritter e.V. on Friday for the start at 4pm.
We will start with a workshop to introduce the rules and the setting. The larp will end on Saturday evening. After reflecting on the game on Sunday, the event ends at 1 pm.

The game will be held at the Kreativ.Campus Herten, (Ewaldstr. 16, 45699 Herten, Germany), in an old Woolworth department store (1600sqm), which the Waldritter e.V. bought a few years ago and converted into a spaceship larp location.

Play via Episodes and Conflicts

The larp will be played in several episodes and thus offers a time for rest in the night for the organisers and participants. We will start with a scene that allows participants to experience the ending (happy ending). How they got there will be played during the game (so-called fate play). Thus, the very first play interactions will follow a script on which the rest of the larp then freely builds.
This means that play with conflict and emotional outbursts is welcome, but an escalation should never go so far that no solution can be found. There will be no deaths.

More information is available in the design document and on Facebook.

Registration

Registration is open until July 30, 2024, via this form.

A. It’s about Earth’s first contact with extraterrestrials and the resulting misunderstandings.

◆ The Setting

In the not-too-distant future, Earth (Terra) has reached a phase of relative stability that could almost be considered world peace. After the last Fossil War, which consumed the great powers, countries of the Global South, particularly, led a transformation towards sustainability and regionalization. The United Nations was strengthened and took on the role of a global, democratically legitimized executive. Most of the larger nation-states disintegrated into smaller regions, which merged into continental organizations. Some territories, controlled by corporations, were recognized as individual states, resulting in a dynamic mix of sustainability-oriented democracies and growth-oriented, non-democratic corporatocracies. Corporatocracies drove Mars colonization, and the settlements were eventually integrated into the United Nations & Mars.

Recently, while working on Mars, a crystalline artifact was discovered, informing humanity that they were now considered civilized enough for the Interstellar Association to make contact. A date was set for reception talks on New Orea, a planet in the Sirius binary star system. These talks are seen as a test for Terra to show its best side.

The United Nations & Mars selected a delegation to travel to New Orea to participate in this unspecified test. The delegation travels with mixed feelings, unsure of the expectations and possible consequences of failure. On the other hand, an Orean delegation prepares to judge humanity, with differing opinions on Terra. While some Oreans are skeptical, others are eager to see this young species with all its faults and achievements.

A. Larp is a mixture of improv-theatre, gaming, and shared storytelling.

Imagine people dressed-up as their characters, interacting with each other based on their characters’ backgrounds and so co-creating a story together.

“Larp” has grown beyond its original acronym for “live-action role-play” to represent a broad array of practices, encompassing various activities. Larp experiences can range from highly detailed productions that resemble TV sets, requiring players to fully embody their characters around the clock, including where they sleep, to brief larps that last only a few minutes to an hour, set in a plain, dimly lit room with participants in their regular attire. The mainstream form, however, follows conventions of the sword-and-sorcery genre and resembles a Lord of the Rings movie, just with the players being the main cast.

Different larps introduce unique rulesets, from physical engagement to mental conditions. Fantasy larps have rules for combat and magic. Horror larps provide sanity rules. Meanwhile, artistic larps, like Limbo, explore themes of death and the afterlife without incorporating combat or magic, focusing instead on in-game rules for escaping limbo and safety measures for player well-being.

As has been noted in discussions about games in general, trying to pinpoint a one-size-fits-all definition for these diverse experiences is futile. In simpler terms, and by drawing comparisons, larps can be likened to a form of improvisational theatre without spectators, or to role-playing for educational or therapeutic purposes, where individuals act out characters removed from their own personality, driven by varied motivations. Despite the potential for conflict within the game, participants collaboratively craft a story, which might be completely spontaneous or loosely follow a predetermined script. Rules are typically in place to guide the gameplay and protect the participants. While each larp is unique, they all contribute to a shared dialogue.

A. “Sirius” can be played in the following two ways.

◆ Open Recruitment

The designers of the larp, namely Björn-Ole Kamm (Kyoto University), Carola Nebe (Waldritter), Katō Kōhei (Tokyo Gakugei University), and CLOSS Larp, prepare the venue and release a call for participation. Please see this website for dates (dates match the selected language, so you will see dates for en English run on the English page, for example).

◆ Self-Hosted

You are free to run “Sirius” yourself. Please contact the design team to receive the script and guidance. Contact: script@larpwright.online.

A. Accommodation and meals will be provided.

If the event is organized by the design team in Herten, the organizers will provide both accommodation and meals. Accommodation will be in shared rooms in bunk beds with pillows and blankets. Important: Please bring sheets and covers for pillows/blankets as well as towels.

Please provide food preferences and allergies on the registration form. For ecological and economic reasons, the catering will be vegan and supplemented with milk and cheese.
Coffee, tea and water are included in the participation fee. Soft drinks and beer will be offered at cost price.

A. Catering is available from Friday evening to Sunday morning.

Please provide food preferences and allergies on the registration form. For ecological and economic reasons, the food is kept on a vegan basis and supplemented with milk and cheese.
Coffee, tea and water are included in the participation fee. Soft drinks and beer are offered at cost price.

A. The organizers provide the costumes.

“Sirius” is ready to play, which means the costumes and props are all provided by the organizers.

Terrans: will be provided with overalls – please bring dark/black leggings and shirt(s) for underneath.
Oreans: Robes will be provided – please bring dark/black trousers and shirt(s) for underneath.

A. Bedding, towels, and dark clothing for under the costume.

In any case, please bring the following with you:

• Bed sheet 90×200, duvet cover 135×200, pillowcase 80×80
• alternatively bed sheets and sleeping bag
• Towel and personal washing kit
• Dark/black clothing (trousers and/or leggings, short and long-sleeved shirts, sweaters if necessary) if possible without any print for underneath the costume
• Shoes (preferably dark/black)

A. The organisers write and link all the characters; roles are distributed via casting.

The organisers create the character, prepare character relationships, and assign roles to participants. Adjustments can be made in consultation.
When registering, you can specify whether you prefer to play Terran or Orean or are open to both. Role assignments (Terran or Orean) will be sent one month in advance.
Note: It may be that some of the participants who are open to both roles upon registration will only receive roles later for organizational reasons (e.g. due to the illness of other players).
Detailed roles of the Terran characters will be distributed on-site. The Orean players receive character information 1-2 weeks before the game. This time is deliberately kept short because it is a ready-to-play larp, and we want to avoid imposing a long preparation time on anyone. Therefore, we will not conduct any pre-play; participants can come to the larp without prior arrangement or preparation.
There will be 4-8 Terrans and 24 Oreans. The roles of the Earthlings are primarily intended for newcomers to larp; accompanying introductory workshops are planned for them. There will be intensive character, relationship and metatechnics workshops for the Oreans.

A. The event takes place from Friday afternoon to Sunday lunchtime.

A. In the Design Document and the FB group/Discord server.

More details about the setting and the basic rules of the larp can be found in the design document.

We have created a fb group for the larp. Here, you can arrange to carpool and exchange ideas after the larp.

Character connections only happen in the detailed workshops before the larp. We have prepared different workshops for the two groups and planned enough time for them.

We ask the Oreans not to share any secrets with the Terrans before the game.