Tyrannical hobbies

Earlier in the year, Mrs H complained to me about her “tyrannical” hobbies. She likes gardening and has an allotment, but at certain times of the year (notably spring), the garden and allotment become very demanding. If you don’t stay on top of them, then the weeds run wild, and the seedlings wither and die.

At the moment, for me, it feels like freeform larps have become tyrannical and are squeezing out ttrpgs.

This is all self-inflicted, of course. But here we are.

So these are my tyrannical freeforms.

The Highgate Club

As I recently wrote, I ran The Highgate Club at Continuum. It went well, but it’s not a case of just printing out a freeform and running it. There were a few other steps:

• Printing the game and stuffing 14 character packets.
• Creating a casting questionnaire and then sending it to the players and waiting for them to complete it. And nagging those who didn’t.
• Casting the game.
• Populating individual player folders on Google Drive with their character information and then sending it to them so they can read their characters in advance. (I use the YAMM mailmerge programme, which is pretty nifty and lets me track whether everyone has seen the emails.)
• Dealing with player queries. (Fortunately, there weren’t any this time.)

Then I ran the game.

I could have left it there, but during the game I realised there were a few improvements I could make, so I did. (And I also decided to try ChatGPT as an editor, and it picked up dozens of inconsistencies. So that was useful, but obviously more work for me.)

I’ve now re-pdfed The Highgate Club, so at least that is out of my head.

The Deadly Library

The Deadly Library is a game I’ve been preparing for Freeform Games. It’s pretty close to being ready for publication, and we’re in playtesting (by our customers). So that means getting the files ready for playtesting – and then updating them as comments come in.

Megan and her friends playtested The Deadly Library a few days ago, which was great but meant going through much of the pre-game rigmarole described above. (Although I didn’t cast in advance, so there was that.)

Following the game, I had plenty of edits to make – and that meant informing the other playtesters as well.

Playtesting is due to finish at the end of September, so that’s going to drag on for a while.

(By the way, if you are interested in playtesting one of our games, we advertise playtesting opportunities in our newsletter.)

The Enigma Machines

The Enigma Machines is episode seven of my series of SF first-contact freeforms. I spent the first half of 2026 writing it, and now I’m running it online next week and then again at Consequences in November.

So for the online game, I don’t need to print and stuff envelopes; I have all the casting and populating folders to do. Plus I also have to promote it and get players to sign up. (I really hate that bit; it’s the main reason I’ve never tried to form a Leeds larp club or a local board games/ttrpg club.)

With the game a few days away, there are a few things I need to sort out:

• Send an email to the players reminding them of the game (it wouldn’t be the first time that players have forgotten about an online game…)
• Deal with any last-minute dropouts
• Redecorate my Discord server for the game
• Prepare my notes and make sure I’m ready

Plus, as ever, there will be amendments. And in September, I need to think about getting it ready for Consequences (which means repeating the steps I did for The Highgate Club).

Read about the series here.

Assassination in Space

Assassination in Space is a 24-player murder mystery for Freeform Games. It’s the next game I’m working on, and I’m slowly working through the characters and providing feedback to the author.

Once The Deadly Library is published, Assassination in Space will be my focus for Freeform Games.

Café Casablanca

Café Casablanca is a 75-player weekend freeform larp that I’m helping to GM. It was written about 35-40 years ago, and it shows. It was last run in 2014, and it needs a bit of TLC to get it into shape.

There are seven of us working on this, so it’s not all on my shoulders. That’s fortunate. Anyway, right now I am in charge of sorting out relationship abilities for every character.

We are running Café Casablanca in February 2027. As we approach that date, I expect it will demand more and more attention.

(Register here – there’s a good chance you’ll get a place.)

So what?

So all this freeform activity leaves me with less headspace to do some of the other things I want to do.

Such as…

• Write a Traveller scenario. I have ideas, but I need time to figure out the details. (I had hoped to run this at Furnace – but not this year.)
• Finish a partly-written Other London investigation.
• Finish updating my Good Society one-shot based on my notes from Continuum.
• Revisit Hillfolk.
• Run other ttrpgs – I have Urban Shadows burning a hole on my shelf, and Cold City/Hot War are expected to land soon. Plus I have other games I’d love to run.

But not until I put those tyrannical freeforms to bed.