Starting in 2023, The Treehouse board game cafe will be expanding its offerings to include something quite special — our first ever live-action roleplaying game (or LARP, for short)! LARP at the Treehouse: Changeling will be a three-part event...
Starting in 2023, The Treehouse board game cafe will be expanding its offerings to include something quite special — our first ever live-action roleplaying game (or LARP, for short)! LARP at the Treehouse: Changeling will be a three-part event taking place on the third Sundays of January, February and March, kicking off with a free character creation session on January 8th.
This exciting game, of the variety known as “chamber LARP", comes to us from Jon Fry and Erin Marsh, local LARPers with a particular focus on making the game as accessible for newcomers as possible. Because we know there will be plenty of you who might not have taken part in a LARP before, we sat down with Jon and Erin and asked them a few questions about what to expect.
Photography: Oliver Facey
Please tell us about yourselves - what first got you into LARPing, and what are some of the games you've been involved with since then?
Erin: I first got into LARP as a drama student when a friend invited me to Empire LRP. I turned up in a t-shirt I’d mangled in a sewing machine and no real idea of what to expect having never roleplayed at all, but the atmosphere drew me in and there was no question of whether I’d be going back!
I now write plot for Empire, and am a frequent face playing NPCs at LARPs around the country. I’ve run both in person events and online larps both as half of Bobbit Worm Games and solo projects.
Jon: My introduction to LARP was actually a Changeling game! I’d done a fair bit of tabletop already, and something about the extra level of immersion - the potential for so many things to unfold at once - got me hooked. I organised a few games through my local group, and eventually made my way on to the Plot Team at Empire LRP.
Over the pandemic, when basically every game was on pause, I ran a short Changeling campaign for Erin and some friends, which eventually brought us full circle to thinking about running this game!
Photography: Kay Tee Chard
If you had to give an elevator pitch to attract new players into LARPing, what would you say?
Erin: At its core, LARP is about coming together with other people and exploring a story that none of you could tell alone. People come for lots of different reasons: wanting to act out a role; looking for something more immersive than tabletop or videogames; making music or other performances; crafting flashy costumes. But strip all of that away and there’s no feeling quite like your heartbeat racing as you wait to see the consequences of your actions, or just sitting back and bathing in the atmosphere of a group of people creating a world together.
For those who picture LARPing as wearing costumes in a field, please could you explain a bit about chamber LARPs - what do these involve, and what do players spend their time doing during a game?
Jon: The focus is generally on social interactions, which might be very political and strategic or just hanging out as your characters. There’s also space for very personal storytelling, one of the central themes of Changeling is having your life turned completely upside down by a magical, incomprehensible experience, and trying to make sense of what to do next.
That said, all those things are often possible in “field” LARPs too, so I suppose the biggest difference is that there are fewer rules, and no dramatic combat or spell-slinging. Problems are more likely to be solved with discussion, negotiation, and problem-solving.
Photography: Beth Dooner
Tell us a bit about the world of Changeling - what's the backstory here for those who don't know, and what made you choose this universe as the setting for this game?
Jon: Changeling is an “urban fantasy” game, with some horror elements. It’s a modern-day setting, with the addition of magical Fae creatures hidden from most of the world. The player characters are people who have been held captive in Arcadia (the Fae realm) and recently escaped. Their time away changes them - maybe they were turned into a bird and now have a beautiful singing voice, or were made to fight for sport and find themselves more aggressive than they were before. The game focuses on their attempts to get back to their lives, and facing the possibility of their former captors tracking them down…
Part of the appeal of this setting is that it’s very easy to prepare for as a player - it takes place in Sheffield, and all the characters have only recently escaped, so there’s not much world lore to learn.
What I like most about it is the potential to be quite bittersweet, profound, or plain silly - sometimes all at once.
Photography: Passed Wonder
Please could you say a little about what preparation would be involved for those who would like to take part in your game at The Treehouse.
Erin: Not much! This isn’t a game which needs much advance thinking at all. We’re going to hold an informal meet-and-greet where we can help with any questions about the game or how to prepare for it, but it all really boils down to:
Work out who your character was before they were taken by the Fae
Decide how their time in Arcadia changed them
You can use those two points to fill out a short character creation form and begin to think about any extra things that would help you feel more like your character, like deciding what to wear (that could be costume you craft, or it could literally be a t-shirt and jeans), how they might approach people or what their goals for the future could be.
Here’s a quick example: Beth worked on grocery shop checkouts, occasionally nicking more exotic fruits to impress the still-life artist she had a crush on. She was taken to Arcadia when she got lost hiking in the Peak District. Whilst trapped, she whiled away an impossible amount of time picking gold and silver berries for the plate of the fae lord. Since returning, all food is dull and tasteless to her. She wants to find out more about the fae lord she served, and make him pick his own damn fruit.
Thanks to Jon and Erin for bringing this idea to the Treehouse, and contributing their wisdom to this blog! To book your Season Pass for LARP at the Treehouse: Changeling, check out the January event listing here.