The Once and Future Court

RPG system: LARP
Participants: 1 GM, 24 players

By

✏️	Dani Higgins
	Dani Higgins

Description

The Court of Camelot is reborn throughout the ages with all its fractured bonds. The year 2023 calls it together once more through dreams, mysterious invitations, and the whisper of hidden memories.

You’ve grown up in the modern era with the indescribable sense of something missing, a feeling of not quite fitting in the here-and-now. But then your past life as a figure of Arthurian legend began to creep into your present life: as mannerisms, intrusive memories, nightmares, and shifts of personality.

Recently, you received a curious invitation that resonated with your past self in a way which only made sense if they knew.

The reincarnated Court gathers to reinforce the bonds of loyalty, promises, and family… and to offer, for the first time in all these lifetimes, the possibility of forgetting.

Will you take up the mantle of the past or shed it for a quieter life? Is it possible to mend the old wounds between comrades-in-arms, star-crossed lovers, and sorcerers, or is King Arthur’s Court ever fated for destruction?

Themes include:
Memory (gained, lost, and its impact on identity)
Belonging, kinship, and competing loyalties
Relationship rupture and repair
Past trauma (from battle, betrayal, abuse)
Faith, belief, and skepticism
Destiny vs choice
Costuming
Highly flexible! Anything from medieval fantasy to modern street clothes. Some characters might try to dress the part of their past lives for this event, whereas others might choose to show up in their modern daily clothing. Players can indicate a costuming complexity preference in the casting form.

Logistics
There will be 30-60 minutes of pre-game workshops establishing interpersonal connections and light mechanics, 2-2.5 hours of play, and 30-60 minutes for epilogue, derole/debrief, and wiggle room.

Mask policy subject to change based on conditions as we get closer to the event.

Note: Arthurian literature is a giant pile of fanfiction building on itself, written over the course of centuries. Characterization of Arthurian past lives in game may differ from the legends you’re familiar with due to the many different versions of the character in the literature.

For those curious about source material, this larp draws heavily on the works of Geoffrey of Monmouth and Chrétien de Troyes, the Lancelot-Grail Cycle / Vulgate, Prose Tristan, Perlesvaus, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, among others.

Participant communications
Players will receive a casting form to indicate character and theme preferences. Modern character gender, sexuality, etc may not match past life character gender, sexuality, etc and preferences for that can be indicated in casting form. Character roles will be cast and distributed before the convention.

Players will receive 4-8 page documents that include a modern character, as well as the past life Arthurian character, pre-existing relationships, and questions for players to consider for character building.

You do not need to be overly familiar with Arthuriana to play, though it may enhance your experience. Optional suggested readings relevant to your character will be provided on your sheet.

Content warnings
This larp may contain:

Depictions of bigotry (in backstories, canon-typical gender dynamics and homophobia; in modern times, not as often but the historical backstory experience may come up in conversation)
Depictions of abuse (canonical, in backstory, may show up between characters in game if players have negotiated it)
Descriptions of violence (canonical and canon-typical in backstories)
Content involving rape (canonical, in backstory, opt-out available)
Character histories may include canon-typical Christian themes, which may or may not play into modern character portrayals. Modern character histories may contain themes of faith and belief (in religion, magic, folklore, legend, and mythology).

Played at