LarpCon 2024

Last weekend I drove down to the Whitwick & Coalville Leisure Centre for LarpCon 2024.

LarpCon is a live-action role-play (larp), cosplay, re-enactment and steampunk convention. (But frankly, mostly larp.) It’s a lovely occasion to meet like-minded people, and spend money on costume and props.

The sports hall (photo from LarpCon Facebook page)

I was there to help Ray, Simon and Nick on the UK Freeforms & UKLTA (laser tag larps) stall.

The venue

Larpcon took over the leisure centre’s sports hall, the squash courts and a dance studio. Alongside people in costume, armour and elf-ears were people in sportswear going to the gym or the pool. It made for an odd mix in the foyer.

The con started at 10 am, and I arrived just before because I wanted to make sure I could get a parking space. Parking appeared to be a challenge – although apparently there was an overflow car park, I’m not sure where it was. 

The sports hall was full of traders – and smelled not unpleasantly of leather. 60-odd stalls sold costumes, weapons, accessories and food. If I was into costuming, I am sure I would have come out much poorer.

The squash courts contained the bring-and-buy (and archery range, I think), an art exhibition, and talks. One of Sunday’s talks was about mega-games, which I wish I had known about because I’d have gone to that. (If there was a timetable pinned to the wall, I didn’t see it. I know it’s on the website, but I’m old-fashioned.)

Upstairs in the studio was the promoter area - a few trade stands and stands for those promoting larp groups. That’s where we were.

UK Freeforms and UK Laser-Tag LARP

Ray had booked two tables, one for the UK Laser-Tag LARP group and one for UK Freeforms. 

The laser tag stuff had loads of exciting equipment: guns and sensors and props. The guns and sensors worked (the guns even made exciting sounds), and the props included Orac, a beautiful demon hunting compass (that worked), a computer with clever access requirements, and the Enigma machine used in Café Casablanca. It was all very clever and drew lots of attention.

The UK Freeforms side was a little less glamorous – some game printouts and character sheets. I also brought a few books to help with the visual appeal.

While it was clear the exciting kit drew many, they were all very happy to hear about freeforming as well.

Talking to punters

This wasn’t Ray and Simon’s first time at a con like this, and they happily started talking to anyone who showed even the slightest interest in the stall. Me, I’m more reserved, so I took a while to get going.

I found it tricky to pitch freeforms – but I know it’s not something I’m good at. But after a while I got into the hang of it – asking people if they’d heard of chamber larps or parlour larps, or sometimes I used murder mystery games as an example.

(I wasn’t there to promote Freeform Games, although I mentioned them once or twice.)

Then I talked about the range of genres that freeforming covers: pirates, Jane Austen, wild west, modern, future, musicals and many, many more. (One benefit of not being too focussed on costuming and props, I think.) Oddly, the idea of a Father Ted larp seemed very appealing to many.

I then explained how the games worked: prewritten characters with detailed backgrounds and (conflicting) objectives. Up to the players how they do things. Combat light – some rules, but depends on the game.

Then I explained about Consequences and the Facebook group and gave them a business card that Ray had brought with the links.

Everyone was friendly, a couple of people had already heard of freeforms, and I would have sold a copy of Writing Freeform Larps had I accepted credit cards.

(And that all sounds much more coherent than it actually was.)

Next time

I think next time, more signage would help. Ray had put photos of freeforms on the wall, but we could have done with a vertical display stand for more pizzaz.

I would also have a few flyers available on the table. Some ideas:

• A one-page summary description of the games themselves.
• A list of typical games of different sizes and genres. Including a few that can be downloaded (either free or paid for) – and some good games for beginners to run with friends.
• A list of events where freeforms are played. (We mostly talked about Consequences and Retford, but we should have had a poster with Consequences, the weekend games, Continuum, Bristol Games Day, Sheffield’s The Box Northern Larp Festival, and London’s The Smoke larp festival and even Peaky on it.) It was noticeable that because laser tag uses an established larp site, it sometimes got the response, “oh yes, I know where that is.”
• A summary of where to go to learn more. The Facebook group, the mailing list, the uk freeforms Discord, maybe the wiki and Peaky Games. It would be nice if UK Freeforms had a proper website.

(And maybe turn that into a little 4 or 8-page booklet?)

Anyway, something to think about for next time.