Alison Drinks Alone

A Small LARP for Five Players

Running the LARP

This is a short LARP (5-15 minutes) for five players. There is a single scene, which ends after players have made a group decision of some sort or fifteen minutes, whichever is shorter.

Printing and packing the LARP

  1. Go to the The Scene page.
  2. Click on the Waiting at the Bar link in the Scene table
  3. Print 5 copies — the page will print just the text
  4. Hit the Back button
  5. For each character in the Character table:
    1. Click on the character link
    2. Print the character — the page will print just the text
    3. Hit the Back Button
    4. Create a name tag for the character
  6. Put one copy of the Waiting at the Bar scene with each character

Add an extra copy for each printed document if you want to assemble a GM notebook.

Casting

This is short enough that you should be able to hand them out randomly. There aren't any heroes or villains here — just five LARPers waiting at a bar.

Game Briefing

This LARP isn't long enough to deserve a briefing. Tell them to have fun with the characters and let them go. This is a game about people talking to each other while waiting for food and drink.

Combat

There shouldn't be any combat in this LARP.

Statistics

Players like to have statistics, so I made some up. Some players will use them as an aid to their roleplaying. Others will ignore them completely. Some might even try to use them in some form of combat. If it makes the players happy, then let them.

What do they mean? GEEK? LARP? SEXY? THIRST? Thirst is how much I needed to drink (water) when I was writing the character. I am a LARP geek. As Jennifer, I am now much sexier than I used to be. The players will be far better than I am at using the statistics (or not) to play this LARP.

Note: The four statistics add up to 25. I mixed the distribution for each character. It's the math geek in me, I suppose.

Staging

Put a chair in a corner of the room, under a warm, glowy lamp. Sit someone or something representing Alison in the chair. If it is someone who wants to sit, sip a drink, and watch the LARP play out, then let them. Supply them with their choice of drink. This would be a good place for you, as GM, to sit.

Set up five stools in a circle at the other end of the room, where the Alison-representative can see and hear the discussion. The players should also be able to see the Alison-representative.

Put the five players in the stools, with alcohol, if desired. They do not have to drink the alcohol their characters have ordered. Besides, they are waiting for those drinks to arrive, so the drinks they have are meta-drinks.

Set a timer for 14 minutes. That's how long it will take for the kitchen to prepare the food, the bartender to mix the drinks, and for the characters to pay for them. It doesn't seem valuable enough to add the players interactions with the bartender or waitperson, but you certainly can decide to add them.

The Alison-Representative

They are not a direct part of the LARP. They do not have any character background or details about what the characters did or know. The LARP ends before the players interact with this representation of Alison. That's why the representative doesn't have to be a player.