Crossroads under a Silvermoon

By Steven Doyle

The Silver Lining Circus spread corruption and misery across the land under the guidance of the sinister ringmaster Mr Braden.

Now the circus lies broken in the clearing next to the crossroads just outside of the usually sleepy town of Hope Springs. Many of circus’s members lie injured or demoralised after being defeated by the good people of Hope Springs. The promise of revenge spreads through the dark hearts of the circus folk as they start to heal their wounds. As the moonlight streams down upon the circus folk the curses that bind them to darkness weakens. This night, traces of damnation or redemption will be made under the eye of the moon.

A game of villains rebuilding their humanity or embracing the darkness within. Throughout the game the players will be exploring their own and other characters’ pasts by building shared back stories between the characters.

Content Warning: Clowns.

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The Family Jewels

By Selphie Corke

Act with Honour. Love your Family. Get the goddamn Kerosangs.

The comfortably upper middle-class Ye Clan has enjoyed generations of good health and prosperity. Under the watchful eye of clan matriarch, Betsy, the Ye Clan’s most recent generations have developed a reputation for producing honourable, intelligent and adaptable doctors and civil servants.

Betsy has, unfortunately, passed away without leaving behind a will. While the flat, furniture and other large objects have been sold and divided equally, her jewelry and sentimental items have yet to be divided.

In the wake of Betsy’s death, the five families that make up the Ye Clan meet for their yearly reunion meal to discuss the division of the inheritance and to decide on a new leader. Unfortunately, everyone has their eyes on the same prizes – Betsy’s priceless Kerosangs and the Leadership of the Clan.

Which family will come out on top and what direction will the Clan take in the future? A 15-20 player freeform about Confucian values, familial love, honour, tradition and adaptability.

Warning: This game deals with sensitive issues relating to physical and mental illness, abuse, pregnancy, terminal illness and death.

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The Last Speakeasy (Cancelled)

By Summer Vimes

Down in the heart of a ruined city, bordered by broken bricks and coated in concrete dust, lies a place of refuge and safety. Marked by a burnt-out neon sign, recognisable even from a distance, the Silver Rabbit stands mostly whole and hale among the burned out husks of buildings. It is a monument to survival and a place that one could call home. The hearts of those within, however, might be a little rotten.

Come, join the residents for a night they'll never forget.

There will be mysteries.
There will be mayhem.
There may even be a murder,
Tonight at the Last Speakeasy.

The Last Speakeasy is a Post-Apocalyptic Film Noir Freeform for 14 people about community, chosen family, the perverse joy of self-destructive acts, and finally learning to fly

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Opera Buffa! (Cancelled)

By Tayler Stokes, with Katya Matavilava (from Nordic LARPs in Sydney)

Singing — Tragicomic — Absurdity

An improvised opera! Complete with accidental marriages, jealous ghosts, and a deceitful goat.

You will be improvising the lost opera “La promessa della capra,” realizing your potential as operatic vocalists who either further or ruin their careers in the process. The tragic tale of “La promessa della capra” tells a story of those caught between unwanted marriages, plagued by jealous ghosts, and lured by honeyed words of a deceitful goat.

Never fear, for this opera was composed in an avant-garde style and is poorly translated; you will sing big and passionately, but you need not sing well!

It’s a good thing for you that this “new age” opera is entirely unknown because this leaves you free to backstab and grandstand your way to fame and glory. The opera critics won’t know that you’re making it up!

Play involves techniques inspired by operatic singing that support players in the hilarious endeavor of improvising a ridiculous story while shamelessly emulating the dramatic bravado of the operatic singing style. No musical proficiency of any sort is required for play.

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Peace In Our Time

By Daniel Ryan, Willow Lucas-Smith, Amanda Norton

Five years before the invention of the time machine the UN is hosting its strangest ever peace conference. The war hasn’t happened and the states involved don’t exist yet but it has already done terrible damage to the future and a peaceful solution must be found. A small group of people receive messages from the future; instructing them to negotiate on behalf of the temporal superpowers and so now they find themselves speaking with presidents and generals trying to ensure that there will be a future.

A Freeform of diplomacy and intrigue for 15(?) generals, spies, leaders, and ambassadors. The future has broken, it’s up to you to see that it won’t again.

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PERFĬCĬO GLŌRĬA

By Sean Allsop and Georgia Johnston

The men and women serving as colonists in the fleet of the notorious Rogue Trader, Henri Victus, can be broadly divided into two groups. The first group are among the best the Imperium has to offer, and they are also the first to make planetfall on a new world. From their ranks the ruling class of a new world is typically chosen.

Whether you aimed for the stars and landed short, were laid low, or just weren’t that great to begin with, your group all have one thing in common. Your days are spent either glorifying those of the first group through art and story, or in doing the hard work that makes a colony profitable. And perhaps dreaming of how you may one day claim glory and a life of comfort for yourself.

On a jungle world so freshly claimed that Victus hasn’t named it after a beloved pet yet, opportunity has come knocking in the worst of ways. The first wave of colonists are missing: in their place is naught but empty buildings and a dozen screaming paintings. Overcoming whatever befell your peers and making the colony operational before Victus arrives could be your ticket to that life of comfort—for one of you, perhaps, even the chance to rule.

Just keep in mind the favourite aphorism of Victus: Victory requires no explanation. Defeat allows none.

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Pride and Extreme Prejudice: Party! At the Duke’s

By Nardia Kelly, with thanks to Grant Howitt—original TTRPG writer upon which this game is based. Gavan Keamy and Lance Mansutti—QA development for the Mech fighting system. Bismuth Hoban character writing. Further assistance provided by Summer Vimes and Svipul Kyriakopoulos

Regency Aristobrats and their Giant Robots Powered by Eldritch Curses

Are you interested in the universally acknowledged truth that a noble in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a spouse? Do you also wish to go full throttle on your social rivalries with duels of robots, swords, and hexes? Look no further, for the Duke is hosting the finest party in the county!

For the Dragoon pilots, there is the dressage competition, to delight onlookers with your prowess or claw your family’s way back from disgrace; for the priests in attendance, this is the perfect opportunity to commune with the Dark Between the Stars and ask for its blessings upon the British Empire!

But worry not of this talk of hexes and duels, my good captains! This is not a grim affair! Every young socialite knows that beauty is pain, and so is love, and death is all around us; but by the Spirits, are we going to have a fun time, consume canapes, dance and look dashing, come Hell or high waters!

Time is meaningless, worship the void, and watch out for the French. :)

P&EP: P!atD is a LARP for 20 people set in an absurdist, anime-style fever-dream of Regency England. Blood magic and whimsy welcome in equal measure.

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Sliver Chord

By Evan Paliatseas, with Kyla Ward, Michael Christie and Belinda Kelly

3023 CE – The Charon Device activates. There is a message to send; a present to divert and a past to course correct. Resonance is achieved and the Silver Cords of the time team are linked. Tachyon waves synchronise across history with moments on the brink of disaster...

1632 BCE – The Aegean island village of Thera on the eve of eruption

562 BCE – The Mesopotamian city of Babylon on the brink of revolution

526 CE – The Anatolian city of Antioch in the pre-shock of seismic upheaval

1556 CE – The Ch'ing-yang province along the Yellow River where the stars are soon to fall like rain

2019 CE – The Australasian city of Canberra where a role playing convention is being held.

A freeform for 10-20 people inspired by Quantum Leap and Time Stories, where you play as yourself with Medium type powers to look into the lives of other times, and perhaps change history and thus save the past, present and future.

Content Warnings: The game involves a lot of dead people, reliving their deaths, spiritualism and simulates contact with the dead. There is some mental trauma involved, but none of: Graphic depictions of violence, torture, sexual assault, sex or sexual themes involving a minor, Suicide, self harm

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Silverton

By Xole Karman

FADE IN:
Static. Stuttering images. Videos are over-processed, full of static and roll-over. Three distinct bits of film overlap and interweave behind the voiceovers.

FIRST VIDEO:
A fly-through of a 3D architect mockup of an idealised student housing building.

SECOND VIDEO:
News footage of a journalist speaking in front of a boarded-up building.

THIRD VIDEO:
Mobile phone footage of teenagers sneaking through chain link fencing, glimpses of warning signs (keep out, unsafe structure, etc.).

VOICEOVER: THE ARCHITECT
The Silverton Building is the latest in student accommodation, offering a secure environment to live and study. Choose from shared apartment living or single-person studios, all pre-furnished. Silverton boasts large common areas, a theatrette, laundry, rooftop function room, wireless internet, communal kitchen spaces, bike store, and much more.

VOICEOVER: THE PRINCIPAL
The newly completed Silverton Building has been declared unsafe due to concrete defects in the formwork and floor slabs. There is a serious risk of collapse. Demolition will begin as soon as legal proceedings have been completed.

VOICEOVER: THE JOURNALIST
The Silverton Building is the University’s most wretched resident. Completed more than seven years ago, the opening ceremony was cancelled when the concrete supplier’s shoddy work was revealed. As the warning signs went up, the legal battle over who would be responsible for the demolition cost began. Silverton has stood empty all this time, complete but for people. Tomorrow, with the legal battle finally over, demolition crews move in. But after seven years of abandonment, just how much of Silverton’s furniture and fitout can be re-used remains to be seen.

VOICEOVER: UNKNOWN (BADLY OVERPROCESSED)
Form follows function.

FADE OUT.

A light horror freeform for 15 students and staff who are exactly where they shouldn't be the night before the Silverton Building is demolished. Written by Xole Karman with assistance from David James, from an idea by Terry Dowling.

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Star Trek: Darkness & Light

By Jim Riley, Bronwen Taylor, and David Hollingworth

Disaster has struck the Beta Quadrant.

Romulus, capital world of the Romulan Star Empire, is gone, destroyed by an unforeseen supernova. The Empire reels from the catastrophe, its people in shock, its government annihilated, its critical infrastructure stretched to breaking point and beyond.

And so the Federation steps in to help. It has taken in refugees by the million, offering safehaven and a chance at rebuilding. But not all Romulans are grateful, and a stubborn resistance fights to die on its feet, still proudly independent, rather than eke out a life lived via charity.

There have been terrorist attacks. Federation lives lost. And some ask… Why help those who do not want to be helped?

Now, on the eve of a Federation-wide referendum on the Romulan Crisis, the science vessel USS Stalwart responds to a distress call that will change the course of history. Where will YOU stand?

Darkness & Light is a game for 15 Starfleet officers, intelligence agents, and concerned citizens. This is the third and final game that began with Star Trek: Profit & Opportunity, and continued with Star Trek: Justice & Loss. Knowledge of previous games is unnecessary.

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Sunset

By Joe McNamara

A city ruled by bright lights and black iron coins, by dreams and memories. Money and fame are just as strong motivators for the restless dead as they are for the living, and Los Angeles glows like a beacon in the darkness of the Shadowlands, dazzling travellers and locals alike. Unencumbered by the laws of the dead, the great Guilds of LA do as they please, but beneath pale white art deco walls and ornate masks and the glamour of ghostly Hollywood, decay and rot run rampant, and the flickering light of the projector on the silver screen casts deep Shadows.

A mansion in the Canyons on a rainy night. A dinner party in a mausoleum for a woman still living. A couple, dragged home against their will by ghostly hands and the tides of merciless fate. A starving writer, worming his way to the heart of the apple. The home they grew up in, grown wild and strange. A terrible secret that could save them all. A freeform game within a game for four players about fame, family and getting out of the house.

Tonight is the night of the Guild summit, in a house that’s still haunted by the living. Whether you’re there on Guild business, or driven there by your own chattering inner demons, or just seeking shelter from the storm, this is where you’ve washed up. The rain has already started. Feel the dark current beneath the skin of the world. Let it pull you under.

SUNSET: A Wraith freeform for 16 players about art, memory, money and haunting. Rated R, setting knowledge a plus but not necessary, using a very light custom system.

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When the Rivers Run Dry...

By Fi McConachie

It’s hot in our small town

The dog looks up from its water bowl,

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