The Story
Who are you?
Who could you be?
Who are you in the eyes of others?
And who are you,
If you could be exactly who you want to be?
In December 1986, a group of Sophomores departed from St. Theodora’s to go home for Christmas. A few days later, their class made their way to an old villa in the Nordic countryside to spend five days together.
After 1,5 years at St. Theodora’s, there were still more questions than answers for them. Maybe they would find them out when they were left with nothing but each other for distraction?
Fragment of a Novel is a larp that could be very different from what you are used to. This larp is a coming of age story, but without a narrative prison of storyline, arc or drama.
We are aiming for living our characters, not playing them. What this means in practice is that we will have very few meta techniques, and that the goal is to not go off game until the end of the larp. Instead of using calibration and off-game communication, all conflicts, boundaries and wishes (both the character’s and the player’s) will be handled in character, just as they would be in the real world. Of course, if something that needs to be handled off game occurs, we will break the larp.
About
Have you ever wanted to step into a novel
Spend a week in a secluded manor, free to create
Deepen connection, explore each others’ minds
Dedicate all of yourselves to the moment
Find your passion, in yourself or in others
Fragment of a Novel is a story about friendship, belonging, and the search for art, passion and inspiration. It is a slow larp played continuously over several days, with time for resting, decadent parties, and exploration. There will be no big planned events, and no interference from the outside world. What we create together is what will happen.
The larp is set in the Forbidden History universe, but it is a standalone project with its own characters. You do not need to previously have played a student or professor at St. Theodora’s to participate, but we expect you to read the short information text about St. Theodora’s that we send you.
Everything in this larp is diegetic. Characters will be cooking food so that they do not go hungry while they search for and explore their desire to express themselves, create art, figure out their emotions and how they relate to others.
Your real body will be your larp body with all the limitations you already have. What happens, happens. If you need to take a nap, your character also needs to take a nap. If you weren’t there for an important event, your character also missed it. Any art you create will be your real art, and your real allergies will also be your character’s. There will be minimal meta techniques.
Is this larp for me?
This larp is for you if:
- You enjoy long, slow larps and don’t usually feel a need to go off game.
- You enjoy spending time with parts of, or all, of Atropos and are confident in being able to larp with us without thinking of us as organizers, but as players just like you.
- You are open to pursuing creativity and art, be it in the form of painting, dancing, writing or whatever you might desire as a character and player.
- You want to fully immerse in a character, and feel confident that you will then be able to extract yourself from the character once the larp is over.
Practical
Practical
Dates: December 27th to 1st of January, 2025/2026
Language: English, as well as native languages for characters where it matches.
Age: 20 years and older
Number of participants: 16, including organizers.
Location: A villa outside Vänersborg, Sweden. We can organize pickups from a nearby train station for those who need it.
Price: 300 euros minimum. If you wish to pay a higher sum to help support Atropos in creating more art, then we deeply appreciate it.
Schedule:
Workshops start at 12 PM on the 27th of December and go on throughout the day
We will go in-game in the evening of 27th of December and continue into the late evening of the 31st of December, ending shortly after midnight.
There will be de-roling exercises and an after-party after this, and we clean together on the 1st of January. You are free leave whenever you wish after 14:00 on the 1st, if the cleaning is done.
Alcohol, intimacy, and violence
Alcohol: There will be real alcohol at this larp. We will not shame anyone who does not drink. However, people are allowed to be drunk at this larp and we will be playing on real levels of alcohol. Some characters might not drink, others might prefer non-alcoholic etc, but all things are what they are.
Intimacy: This is a larp where there will be real kissing and cuddling. However, this should always be clearly signalled, and/or verbally in-game consented to.
This is not a larp where in-game non consensual sex scenes should happen. Sex will be played out using theatrical sex while nude, with some adaptations to make it comfortable and safe. This was tested by both organizers before hand and in both previous runs and was met with excellent reviews. Sex is meant to be a big deal that is not easily jumped into, and this technique reflects that. It is perfectly all right to play a character who does not want to have sex.
Violence: This is also not a larp where in-game non-consensual violence should happen either. If characters wish to wrestle, we will use a grappling technique that we will also workshop.
Calibration: Please note that we are NOT using “off-game” or tap-out as meta techniques at this larp. Instead we will be practicing using verbal in-game communication, more similar to real life.
This is a larp where the Atropos team can remove you if you do not respect the rules and boundaries set by your co-players. Participants can tell us if this occurs during the larp. In the case where we decide to remove you, we will have a conversations with you and then drive you to the train station.
On Art
One of the goals of this experience is to co-create a space where you are allowed to delve into your own character and creativity as deeply as you yourself feel comfortable. We wish you to think about artforms that you might wish to explore in character, rather than what you think others might expect from you. Though our hope is that people will create things at the larp, this is not a demand from our side. We wish to create an air of inspiration and creativity, and a sense of friendship and belonging. We do not want gatekeeping or a demand of a particular skill level in order to indulge in art. Instead we want to create an alibi for you to explore your own creativity, and to help others to explore their artistic endeavours.
Sleeping
Will be completely in-game. Some rooms have double beds, some have single and they are all shared with at least one other person. There will also be four camp beds spread out in the house. The house has thin walls, so it will not be possible to get a completely quiet, isolated room.
Accessibility
The house is an old building with stairs leading up to it, and the larp will be played on two floors of the house. The bathrooms and the upper floor of the house are sadly not wheelchair accessible.
Organizers
This larp is organized by Atropos: Carl Nordblom, Petra Lindve, Simon Svensson, and Siri Sandquist.
The Characters
All of the characters are Modern Sophmores at St. Theodora’s. They are young people aged 19–22 who are coming of age and realizing who they are. They aren’t necessarily great geniuses, or worldly explorers. But they are passionate, and they wish to evolve, and to get to know themselves and others.
When signing up we will ask if there’s a particular type of art you are interested in exploring with your character. This does not mean that you cannot pursue other avenues of art, but simply that the character itself will contain motivations, dreams, and descriptions of your chosen artforms. You do not have to be skilled at the artform you select, but we expect people to have a curiosity when it comes to attempting to explore these artforms.
The characters also belong to smaller friend groups, and will have some joint memories from their time at St. Theodora’s.
The Friend Groups will be presented in the sign-up form.
Sign Up
After you have signed up we will send you a flagging form. There you can tell us if there are any people on there that you would consider dangerous to have at the larp (red flag), if there’s someone you would not be able to attend at the same time (orange, and in that case we will see who gets selected in the lottery/casting), and if there’s someone you would not be able to play a very close relation with but are fine with having at the larp (yellow flag). Note that it is very difficult to be separate from anyone at this larp. We might reach out to you for clarification if needed.
Sign up will be open from 17/8 20:00 CEST, to 30/8 23:59 CEST.
