LARPs I've written or co-written

These are the LARPs that I've written or co-written. These are ordered from most recent to earliest. Follow the links under the LARP column to see much more detail about each game.

The LARP Size Run #1 V D C Really Short Description
30 Force Multiplier 6 2024 Six of the very few remaining Force users have converged at a strange, ancient Temple, far out on the Rim, that calls out with a powerful concentration of the Force. It is 41 ABY, and the Galaxy is in turmoil. Six determined beings, with six different agendas, and very different views of the Force, have entered, only to discover there’s no way out…
29 Tales of the Future Volume 3: Across the Sea of Stars 6 2015 ✓ A collection of Tales about the Future, light and dark, from the quantum foam to the Deepest Dark. These are Tales about challenging moments and difficult personal, scientific, and political decisions, never easy, from across the cultures of the Coterie. (These Tales were written between 2004 and 2024, and many have run as a standalone group before. Now we've officially packaged them up, with a home in the Tales of the Future collection.)
28 The Chalice 2 2022 ✓ A Queen and her most-trusted Knight have one hour to make a decision, involving love, loyalty, loss, lies, and leverage, in a realm where magic exists.
27 Quest for Knowledge 7 2021 ✓ Eighty years ago, the astronomers of Halcyon noticed a new, odd bluish star in the night sky. Fifty years ago, the New Star vanished. Ten years ago, a primitive space probe revealed that the New Star was an asteroid starship. The competitive major powers of Halcyon, and their allies, pushed every technological boundary in order to send a small ship, the Quest for Knowledge, on a dangerous trip to reach the damaged and (mostly) quiet starship. This is the story of what those brave astronauts find when they get there. A Peaky Midwest 2021 collaboration.
26 Culture Crash 12 2021 ✓ Two non-humanoid, non-gendered alien races, each with a distinctive society that strongly influences their choices and motivations, are about to meet in an unexpected First Contact. How will each group respond to the discovery of other intelligent beings, with their own very different cultural attitudes? How will you respond to the potential dangers of two unique cultures crashing into each other? A Peaky UK 2021 collaboration, originally called Contact One.
25 The Journey of a Single Step Made Quadrillions of Times 5 2021 ✓ ✓ Something is happening at the Great Attractor, a large volume of the Deep Dark, a quarter of a billion light years from the Milky Way. In order to travel there, it will take an entire Fleet of ships, carrying experts in science, diplomacy, engineering, medicine, and much, much more, on an unthinkable journey lasting 100,000 years. It will be the mission of many lifetimes, with a diverse collection of hardware, software, and wetware beings, on an improbable trek. These are some of their Tales.
24 Tales of the Future Volume 2: Contact 5 2021 ✓ ✓ These are Tales about Contact. They are Tales of the moment and implications of First Contact, the challenges of Second Contact, and the painful truths of Last Contacts. These Tales look at the differences between us, and the unexpected similarities we may share. A collection of Tales spanning the galaxy.
23 Tales of the Future Volume 1: Life, the Universe, and Everything 5 2020 ✓ ✓ These are Tales about the times of the lives of people and civilizations in the Deep Dark. These are Tales about birth, the vigor of a growing and expanding culture, the grand times, the waning times, and their eventual transformation or disappearance. These Tales also touch on the legacies we leave behind. A collection of Tales spanning the entire history of the Universe.
22 Alison Drinks Alone 5 2019 At a LARP convention, where Alison was running several LARPs, her Saturday night LARP choices narrowed down to nothing. She knew that all of her friends were excited about their Saturday night LARP choices. That meant that Alison, without a LARP to play, would be drinking in the hotel bar — but will she be drinking alone?
21 Level Up! 5-12 2019 There was a crash of thunder, a flicker of power, the smell of ozone, and the room went dark. When power flickered back on, the four separate split-screen views of the Hey, Look, Giants!!! video game blanked, then settled back into a single view of the world. The almost or barely teenage video game players are in the game. The totally customized and munchkin video game characters are in the real world. This is a mess! Our Intercon S Iron GM entry.
20 Adrift on the Starry Sky 7 2016 A military coup has taken control of The United Earth Concord, the government for the Earth and the few thousands on outposts and stations elsewhere in the Solar System. Those of you onboard the tiny starship Alexandria are declared enemies of the planet, some more by accident and circumstance than design. Less than fully prepared, with a limited company and tight resources, you must flee on a barely faster-than-light life raft across space, to find a suitable planet to create a new Earth. Adrift is a serious scene based LARP that tells the story of humanity's first interstellar colonization mission. The NELCO 2016 BYOG.
19 A Second Chance for Wings 5 2015 ✓ ✓ It is 4392 on the Modern Calendar, in the country of Emera, and the Blue Phoenix corporation has turned its vision to space. It’s been almost sixty years since the Tursans put six people on the largest of the three moons in the sky, and no one’s been back, not even to orbit, since then. The charismatic CEO of Blue Phoenix has vowed to put the first Emerans into space, and to bring back fame, glory, and profits that will raise poor Emera into the ranks of leading nations. Will Blue Phoenix and Emera reach space and the moons, or will space be empty for the foreseeable future? Available for download! The NELCO 2015 BYOG.
18 This Time For Sure: Boris Badenov's Gulag for Unrepentant Children 10 2014 <Thwack> The ball bounces off the wall, and back to Calvin's hand. It's been a long time in Comrade Badenov's Gulag, and it hasn't lessened his attitude one bit. The same is true for the others. There are a handful of you here, along with a few newcomers, who are going to have to learn the ropes. Comrade Badenov's insistence on strict gulag rules, his utter rigidity in bathtime, and his great lessons in Communist theory on the ancient old television that takes five minutes of precious TV time just to warm up — well, it's not fun. There's no chance to be a kid, let alone an unrepentant cartoon kid. The only relief is the the time in the yard, when the prisoners get a chance to relax a little, talk quietly, and think of escape — if only from the searches for contraband and tepid soapy water at bath time. The NELCO 2014 BYOG.
17 The Tales of Irnh 5 2013 ✓ A random mutation in a common contagion spread, striking the biological Irnh down across the planet. No cure was found. No Irnh was spared; in just two years, a billion biologicals died. The sentient androids remained, hundreds of millions of them, on a world where there was no one left to serve. The laws were also quite clear: changes to the Law, to the environment, to the cities and towns of the world, to the hardware, software and wetware that makes up the biocybernetic Irnh, to anything beyond the trivial, must be approved by a biological Irnh. This stricture is built into every android's programming. There is no one left who can approve a change. These are the biocybernetic androids' Tales.
16 The Night Queen Princess Fluffykins Passed 12 2013 Damn those Humans, they don't know how to name a cat! And now the Queen is gone, the Robinsons' back door has been left open, and all of the neighborhood cats have gathered. There are indoor cats, outdoor cats, and those with paws in both worlds. They have gathered to honor the Queen — with glorious hunts, yowling, revelry, and, of course, mourning. They have gathered to see the other cats of the neighborhood, because a time between Queens is a time of change and possibility. But most importantly, they have gathered to choose a new Queen — that decision must be made before sunup, and that will be as difficult as herding cats... This is a LARP for twelve cats. The NELCO 2013 BYOG.
15 The Barbecue 10 2012 ✓ ✓ It's a quiet, sunny summer day in the suburbs. The monthly neighborhood barbecue (and pie contest) will be hosted by the Kessenich family this Sunday. The Rossi and Lee family will be in attendance as usual, along with the Kessenich's new tenant Brittany. The NELCO 2012 BYOG. Available for download!
14 Across the Sea of Stars 25 2006 ✓ This is the history of the future. In the Age of Expansion, starships set out in a thousand different directions, some chosen, some accidental, growing ripples of influence across the sea of stars. When the ripples began to collide and interfere, the galaxy entered the Age of Contact. There were conflicts and conquests, projects and progress. The galaxy grew both larger and smaller, all in the span of a few centuries. As more and more races sailed their ships across the sea of stars, the Coterie emerged, an agreement that spanned the galaxy. The Age of Federation was born. There were still disagreements. Some of them were small, and could be resolved with diplomacy, economics and technology. Some of them were large, waves that threatened to wash across the entire galactic sea, waves that could wipe clean millennia of efforts and quadrillions of lives...
13 Dustpan: the LARP 18 2005 All life is a journey, and for these denizens of the Great Wooden Expanse, it is a trip from the Light, from the Dark, and from all the places in between. Where will it end? Come learn about the world of the very small, the world of the Great Wooden Expanse, and all those swept up in this tale of passion, theology and inevitability, an epic of Light and Dark, of Biblical proportion, under the Couch.
12 The Stigmata of Thomas Enfield 6-10 2003 As Thomas Enfield dies under mysterious circumstances, odd stigmata appear over his suddenly-dessicated corpse. What did Thomas do during the Great War, how is it manifesting here, in his home in the States, and does it portend a greater darkness coming? 1920s period horror in the Dark Summonings universe.
11 The Squared Circle 5 2003 It is May of 1936. While there are great possibilities opening up in the world, it is mostly a time of introspection. Each country is doing what they must to deal with the world-wide economic Depression. It is these dark times that most people have focussed their energies upon. Yet, underneath it all, there are even darker tidings and darker forces at work. These ebon signs, seen only by a few special people, could bring forth the unimaginable. They could portend death and destruction on a scale unknown to most. These portents are part of an unending war against malign forces, fought by the elite. The next battlefield is the Pine Crest Sanitarium... Lovecraftian horror in the Cthulhu Live universe.
10 You'll Be Safe Here 12 2002 The danger was imminent, a threat you could not possibly handle. A voice, commanding; a hand on your shoulder, comforting. Then, well, you're not entirely sure. There was a lot of shouting and confusion. There was an entrance, a doorway, a crevice leading away from the trouble. You went through that hole, into this place. You're not sure where or what this place is. You did not expect to be in a white void, enclosed in a tiny volume. And there are ten or eleven others who look just as confused as you... An experimental LARP for twelve unrelated characters.
9 The Temple of the Crimson Moon 9 2002 Deep in the jungles of the Amazon, where dates and years aren't counted in the same ways as in the Western world, there are people who have lived according to traditions formed in the mists of time. However, change is inevitable, even in the remotest of places. This is a period adventure and mystery deep in the jungle, at the site of a mysterious temple.
8 Smart versus the Termite Queen 3 2001 Super spy action against the bad guys.
7 Collision Imminent! 25-40 2000 ✓ Come join the unexpected end of the maiden voyage on the newest and most luxurious starliner of the Imagineerium™ fleet. You'll play one of the crew or several of the passengers (and every science fiction trope we could cram in) in this fast-paced, loud, and silly horde style LARP.
6 Whose LARP Is It, Anyways? 8-25 1998 Live-action improvisation games, in many styles and shapes.
5 A Night at Club Ivory 24 1998 It is the summer of 1934. Club Ivory sits in the Hollywood Hills, a place just far enough out of the city to keep its clientele exclusive and its reputation racy. You could always get a drink here, during the darkest days of Prohibition, if you knew the password. Even the night after that fateful raid in 1922, it was open, despite the fact that two bootleggers lay bleeding to death in the cellar. It is said that their ghosts roam the darkness, the only ones who remember the recipe for the Ivory Fade... A noir LARP about the bad, the beautiful, the brilliant, and the brazen souls out for a fancy night at the fashionable place to be seen.
4 The Idol Hands of Death 25 1991 Cairo, Egypt, the summer of 1921... Colonel Gillette Thompson is holding a social get-together to meet some of the new Europeans in the region. The get-together is at Colonel Thompson's home, within walking distance of the dig site of the Enfield Expedition. Despite the deaths on site in the week since the burial chamber was unearthed, Doctor Enfield insists there is no such thing as a curse. Has Professor Enfield found the tomb of a long-forgotten Pharoah? Is this expedition about to rewrite history? Or, is this expedition about to suffer the consequences of disturbing the sacred grounds of those who walked the lands long ago? A murder mystery LARP for the ages.
3 Where There's A Will... 30 1991 1998: Millard Wilberforce Carruthers III has passed away. The estate, conservatively valued at $112 million, is to be settled at the reading of the will. Also to be settled is the disposition of The Carruthers Group, Millard's corporation. Who will get what? Why are some of these people present, and what are they going to get? Millard was definitely eccentric, so there's no telling what might be in that will... a weekend-long murder mystery LARP involving family, friends, and death!
2 The Treaty of Berlin 20 1987 It's May of 1989, in a 1989 slightly different from the 1989 we experienced. Relations between the United States and the Soviet Union have improved since the end of the Reagan Presidency. After intense negotiation, officials of the United States, the Soviet Union, East and West Germany will meet to sign a treaty. This is an important first step toward a safer and saner situation in Europe. The Cold War is still very much the status quo; perhaps this will ease the tensions. Unless there's a murder...
1 Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll 18 1986 Danny 'Madman' Maxwell and the rest of the band Toxic Waste cordially invite you to PARTY, December 13th, 1986, at the estate of Amanda Harrington-Smythe. This one's gonna blow you away, folks because I've got a major announcement to make! You'll never forgive yourself if you don't show up! A contemporary murder mystery LARP that's now a wonderful 80s period piece!