Play the Cards

Description from Larps from the Factory:

- Julie, 15 (today!)

Play the Cards is a larp about being a teenager, about fitting in and about knowing your place in the hierarchy. You’re in high school; you know who you are, what your social position is and most importantly, who you want to be. This is your first real house party. No parents. It's the important party where everyone shows up and anything might happen.

We use a deck of cards to indicate high school's unspoken, but oh-so-public popularity rating. The Hearts are the popular girls led by their queen. The cool guys are The Spades. The Clubs are the alternative people that are engaged in politics or culture. And lastly you have The Diamonds, the outsiders and nerds whom no one likes and who stick together because they have no one else.

The gist of this larp is to give the players the opportunity to re-live both the good and bad feelings of their teen years, to see the situation from different perspectives and most of all: to remember when emotions and the small events of everyday teen life were the most important things in the whole wide world.

The idea for this game came from a fifteen-year-old in the midst of the awkwardness and social dealings that dominate the high school experience. Because the game designers grew up in three different decades, we feel we've found some of the essence of teenage life. We want participants to play the teens of today, but they are welcome to bring the emotions of their own youth - whenever that was - along with them.

• Number of players: 20-32 (including organizers)
• Number of organizers: 2-3
• Time: 5-6 hours, where about 2,5 hours are spent in play
• Genre: Awkward realism
• Workload: Medium
• Venue: Can be played in a seminar room or a private home. The venue should have room for everyone to gather in a single space and should also have the possibility of conversation in more private corners.

Designed by Tyra Larsdatter Grasmo, Frida Sofie Jansen and Trine Lise Lindahl.