The Experience
During this larp, your character will be taking part in a re-do of the True Love Initiative as done by the characters 12 years before. They will be back in the same vacation home, expecting to take part in both having fun as well as participating in the exercises during their stay.
Acts
The playing experience at this larp will be divided into three acts that all consist of different themes and ideas for play. These acts will be facilitated both through your individual play and how you push your characters, but also by our in-game facilitators and the program instructing the characters to engage in different exercises and so on.
First night
Act 1
The characters arrive and will mainly be playing in their couples and initial friend groups. Here the characters will be consolidated in who they are now, the couple dynamics will be established, and the concept that this whole endeavour ‘will just be about confirming that your chosen partner is the right one’ is the pervading idea.
Second day
Act 2
The exercises will start dividing the couples up more, and the characters will suddenly be reminded that they are here to test compatibility with other participants than their spouse. The characters will be exploring new relations and old nostalgia of who they used to be. They will get to know new people, maybe fall in love, get drunk, make mistakes, have long talks about their dreams and feelings, connecting, and much more. They will do what the program tells them to do, which will complicate things even more with their partners, as the conflicts and dysfunctionalities start being explored more and more.
Third day
Act 3
During the third day, the tensions will rise higher and higher. The characters will perhaps finally start to truly question whether they can end up with someone else than their partner in the end. The characters will all struggle with their belief in their spouse as their True Love, as the impending wait on the results of the program loom before them.
The couples will be pushed even more, as the characters are forced to confront harsh truths about themselves and their relationship with their partner, in a way that might change them forever.
Will they keep the belief in their partnership alive despite pain and hardship, or will their relationship implode as they start believing that perhaps someone else should have been their True Love all along?
Third night
Ending
The larp will end on the third night, where the final couples will be chosen by the program. The program will here decide that the initial pairings had been right all along.. The characters will face the choice of whether to sign their True Love Certification once again; confronted with their fear or hope for whether everything will go back to how it was before the weekend began, despite how everything has in some way or form inevitably changed.
What will happen at the larp?
Facilitated group and later partner exercises work as the primary structure for activity and play throughout the game.
The larp starts with our characters being welcomed back at the Program by signing participation contracts and then immediately being thrown into the first group exercises. The first evening will consist of games such a speeddating and social games that will let the characters be reacquainted with each other as the primary focus is on enjoying themselves in a space that they associate with their youth.
In the following days, the facilitated exercises will slowly escalate towards less group-based activities and more romantically coded partner-exercises, which will slowly force our characters to face certain aspects of themselves, their relationships and perhaps their feelings for other participants. Tensions will slowly build as more and more exercises force our characters to explore romance and connection with others than their spouse, as well as revealing truths that some perhaps would have wished remained hidden. The exercises will become harsher and harsher for our characters, as they face the darkest parts of themselves, their relationship and their need for love and partnership.
In between these facilitated exercises, our characters have free rein to enjoy themselves in the luxury vacation home, as they remember back to the joyous weekend they spent there 12 years ago. At first they will find themselves nostalgic and happy to be back, but as times passes and tensions rise, the characters will perhaps more and more pretend to have fun and relax, when truthfully their world is falling down around them.
Throughout it all, and especially between exercises, our characters will have time to talk and connect with each other. They will have deep conversations about their relationships, confront each other, discover new friendships and explore old ones. They will desperately try and help their friends, or judge them for their mistakes. Laugh, cry, drink, flirt, shout. They will meet old flames and be confronted with what life could have been if they had ended up with someone else, flirt or maybe even fall in love with someone new, or even spend the weekend denying that anything is wrong at all; desperately trying to hold up to the idea that their true love has to be their love love, because otherwise, what would it all have been for?
In many ways, the game will fluctuate between these facilitated exercises that are designed to slowly escalate the characters' conflicts, feelings and connections, and their free time in the luxury vacation home; where they can try--or fail--to relax, talk with each other, explore their relationships and friendships and so much more.
Likewise the game will fluctuate between play that resolves mainly around the main partnership; their conflicts, dysfunctionality and love for each other. As well as the characters relationships with themselves and others, their friends and foes, crushes and connections, as all of them try to navigate a weekend that none of them had seen coming.
The Facilitated Exercises
The basic structure of the game will be facilitated by our in-game facilitators. The exercises can be many different things, and below you will find some examples of possible tests we believe that the characters could be put through.
The exercises will ramp up during play-time, and the characters will struggle more and more with what they have to do. It will be part of the experience that the characters will feel exposed and compelled to do things that challenge both themselves and their relationship. However, all characters will all have good reason to continue to participate in the exercises.
Examples of exercises
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mindfulness exercises
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cooking together
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talking about your issues with your partner in front of everyone
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not being able to leave someone’s side for hours
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criticise someone else to their face
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dancing together
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being blindfolded
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doing interviews or therapy sessions
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telling someone your greatest secrets or dreams
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spending time in the pool/in a room/being private
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kissing someone
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building up sexual/sensual tension
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playing with power dynamics (like being submissive or dominant towards each other)
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going on a pseudo-date
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social games like ‘Truth or Dare’ or similar game
Remember, you will always be able to opt-out of something you do not want to do, but if several of these things seem like something you wouldn’t like, perhaps this larp is not for you.
Relaxing in the vacation home
When the characters are not doing facilitated exercises, they will be free to do as they please. Especially in the beginning of the larp, the characters feel compelled to have fun and relax; as the retreat in many ways is a nostalgic throwback to a very exciting time of their lives from when they were young. Therefore these activities can play into their nostalgia and more teenage-like behaviour of drinking and playing.
As the larp goes on, the characters can however find it harder and harder to relax, as free time instead starts being spend on deep conversations, discussions or even pretending everything is fine even when everyone knows that they are not.
In general we expect you to spend this time to explore the themes of nostalgia, connection and genuine fun with your friends, whilst also exploring the complexities of your character, their conflicts and their relations with others.
This could include:
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swimming in the pool
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hanging out by the bar
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chilling in the jacuzzi/wilderness bath
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playing a board or card game
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reading a book
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playing pool or darts
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playing drinking or social games, like beer pong or Truth or Dare
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having long talks
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making food together
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eating together
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and anything in-between…
Note: How you spend your time between exercises is up to you. It is possible to spend most of this larp with very little down-time, going from conversation to character conflicts all the way through. It is also possible to spend most of the time between exercises either actually relaxing and having fun, or at least pretending or forcing yourself to do it.
Tension
This game will feature tension and building up tension between our characters, sort of like a pressure-cooker larp. The idea is that the characters have a lot of feelings inside, and the program will be a way for some of them to let out some steam, which will lead to consequences and hence more tension.
One way tension is very present in this larp is around sexual themes. The play will be about the tension and the characters’ possible wish for connection through sex, but not any actual sexual play. Instead we will focus more on tension and sexual tension in this regard. This will partly be done through a meta-technigue and also the fact that the in-game program has banned sex during their stay. This means that there both in game and off game will not be sexual or simulated sexual play. You can read more about this under Safety.
Workshops
Before the game we will be doing briefings and workshops that will try and help you prepare for your experience. This will include setting and character presentations, safety workshops where we will try out the mechanics, establishing some shared memories from 12 years ago, and time to talk with your relations.
Here we will try to establish dynamics, memories, behaviour and a good feeling for the game we will play together. There will not be a lot of time to talk within your primary relationship during workshops, so we expect you to have at least talked some with that co-player before the game.