[HN Gopher] The Collective Ambition Behind Odysseus, a Game-Chan...
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The Collective Ambition Behind Odysseus, a Game-Changing Sci-Fi
Larp
Author : adrianhon
Score : 62 points
Date : 2025-03-19 17:34 UTC (5 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (mssv.net)
(TXT) w3m dump (mssv.net)
| RugnirViking wrote:
| I would desperately love to do something like this. Either as a
| participant or as an organizer. Honestly, if anyone wants help in
| my local area (denmark) or remote help organizing web stuff or
| part design/3d sculpting for 3d printers id be happy to donate
| some time.
|
| I had heard of similar things in the UK, fantasy stuff. and also
| Evermore park in the US which was like an even more ambitious
| theme-park sized one that had a continuous ongoing story.
| aleph_minus_one wrote:
| Then start organizing something like this. :-)
| RugnirViking wrote:
| My remote hope was that something like spontaneous
| organization could form here in the comments :P but honestly
| i'm aware this kind of thing requires years of putting
| yourself out there making smaller events, building up etc.
| But I've not really ever been in this world, it might be nice
| to know someone with a bit more experience to guide me, or
| hear about something already going before diving into
| organizing something myself
| saulpw wrote:
| Looks like they are. Why don't you start responding to
| comments exhorting the person to do what they're already
| doing in the very comment you're responding to?
| RugnirViking wrote:
| to be fair to them, my comment was a lot shorter when they
| responded, they were very fast aha
| adrianhon wrote:
| OP here! Denmark has a very strong larp scene with a lot of
| young people involved due to the popularity of larp for
| children and at schools. I'm not sure if there's anything on
| the scale of Odysseus planned but the skills certainly exist.
| panzagl wrote:
| You should look into the Artemis Spaceship Simulator:
| https://www.artemisspaceshipbridge.com/#/ (also on Steam)
|
| While not nearly as extensive as what's in the article, it's a
| first step achievable with a small group of friends.
| WorldMaker wrote:
| Also the article mentions that the Larp mentioned here
| directly used an Open Source relative (competitor?) to
| Artemis named EmptyEpsilon:
| https://daid.github.io/EmptyEpsilon/
|
| Artemis Tom is cool and deserves the revenue and has a lot of
| cool scenarios and stuff out of the box. EmptyEpsilon is when
| you start to need more customization, down to source level,
| and GM tools. (The article mentions a lot of what this Larp
| did was not heavily automated and somewhat directly in
| EmptyEpsilon's GM tools.)
| smcameron wrote:
| Don't forget (my own) Space Nerds in Space:
| https://spacenerdsinspace.com (discussed here previously:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28343941)
| creade wrote:
| you might check out Copenhagen Megagames[1] which is the other
| name I've seen for this type of stuff
|
| [1] https://www.cphmegagames.dk/
| klik99 wrote:
| "Nordic Larp" and the Knutepunkt
| (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knutepunkt) conference is close
| to you. I worked with a guy who organized an earlier battlestar
| galactica larp: https://petterkarlsson.se/2013/03/19/the-
| monitor-celestra-ba... and they do things like - rent a
| medieval castle and larp courtly drama, etc.
|
| I'm in the US and they don't do this kind of thing often, but
| if you're interested by Odyssesus then nordic larp scene will
| totally be your jam, and honestly I'm jealous.
|
| If there's anyone in Seattle doing this kind of thing, say
| something!
| Animats wrote:
| The web site of this LARP has good video.[1] They did a very good
| job on this. Here's the prep material for players.[2] It's
| intense. 48 hours with no breaks.
|
| It's hard to scale location-based entertainment. Disney tried the
| Galactic Starcruiser themed hotel, but it was a dud. Too
| expensive - $5000 or so for 2.5 days. It was a LARP dumbed down
| to Disney park customer level. Lots of mini-games, not much
| coordinated activity.
|
| That's about how this sort of thing usually goes. Keeping
| everybody on script in coordinated activity is tough. I was
| involved with steampunk conventions, pre-COVID. Those took
| elaborate prep, but there was no all-player coordinated event.
|
| The US has some events like this. Wasteland Weekend. The Society
| for Creative Anachronism. Military reenactment groups.
|
| [1] https://www.odysseuslarp.com/
|
| [2] https://www.odysseuslarp.com/blog
| jimbob45 wrote:
| Obligatory link to the Jenny Nicholson Galactic Starcruiser
| review[0] since there's really no better overview of the
| experience.
|
| [0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0CpOYZZZW4
| adrianhon wrote:
| I'm the OP; I went to the Starcruiser later in its run and
| had a very different experience. Here's my writeup:
| https://mssv.net/2023/08/07/star-wars-galactic-starcruiser/
| ZeWaka wrote:
| Thanks for linking this, that was a fantastic read.
| moomin wrote:
| That video lives rent-free in my head.
| jowday wrote:
| There are immersive theater-type events that can scratch the
| same itch, although they tend to focus much less on
| participation than LARP events like this. The Starcruiser is
| probably much closer to poorly-executed immersive theater than
| live action roleplaying. Really well done immersive theater can
| be incredible - Sleep No More in NYC is one of the most
| mindblowing experiences I've ever had (although it closed
| earlier this year). Legitimately felt like I was stepping into
| a David Lynch movie every time I went. It only had limited,
| somewhat improvised audience participation with the actors.
|
| In my experience, the best immersive theater experiences find
| very clever ways to make the atmosphere work. In Sleep No More
| and other Punchdrunk shows, all of the guests are given
| masquerade masks to wear, the venue is fogged, and the lighting
| is dim. The dim and foggy atmosphere hides stuff that would
| otherwise take you out of the dreamlike 1920s noir setting of
| the show - that the other guest walking next to you is wearing
| a graphic tee, for example. The masks cast the audience as a
| shuffling horde of vengeful spirits haunting the characters for
| the sins they commit throughout the show - so when you see a
| big crowd following a character, it doesn't instantly feel at
| odds with the setting the way I imagine seeing a 5 year old in
| a Pokemon t shirt on the Starcruiser would.
| ifthenelseor wrote:
| Because I see people asking, some groups that do things like this
| in the US:
|
| https://reverie.studio/
|
| https://grimmoire.productions/
|
| https://www.journeysandtales.net/
|
| https://www.drachenfest.us/
|
| https://www.jackalope-larp.com/
|
| https://www.sinkingshipcreations.com/
|
| https://larpcoop.regfox.com/shirefolk
|
| Or at lower production values:
|
| https://makeascenemn.org/en/
|
| http://www.interactiveliterature.org/NEIL
|
| https://2025.beconlarp.com/
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