What is this contest about?

The Golden Cobra Challenge is a friendly contest open to anyone interested in writing and playing freeform larp. See our FAQ and read more about the challenge.

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Golden Cobra Challenge 2025

Golden Cobra Challenge begins 8 September 2025 and runs through 13 October 2025. Awards will be announced 7 pm Eastern Standard Time on Friday November 7th at Metatopia 2025, with games also being run that weekend.

Browse past Golden Cobra games at the new Interactive Archivebeta.

Actually, you can peruse our Archive for all of our past submissions and winners. Wishing the best to all who may take part.

Welcome to the Golden Cobra Circle of power and good luck with your game!

What is a golden cobra?

Only the baddest-ass snake in the jungle, which is something you should always aspire to be.

A Golden Cobra game is a freeform larp that occupies that strange hybrid space between tabletop and live-action role-play. Hundreds of games have been written in this style over the years, so we encourage curiosity and perusal of previous years’ entries. We love brand-new authors trying out this form for the first time!

Given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we are encouraging games that work well for online play, as well as larps that work in-person with masks on, like the Make a Scene! festival does it.

Submissions this year can be in any language understood by this year’s Judges, which includes English, German, Italian, Korean and Polish.

This year, we will be handing out awards in the following categories:

Games may be submitted in any language by any participants around the world, but our judges are fluent in English, with some fluent in Spanish, French, German, and Japanese.

What is the Contest Theme This Year?

The 2025 contest theme is Connection and Community. A game that makes you feel a lasting sense of connection, makes you feel capable of working with others, rekindles your faith in other humans, leaves players feeling empowered, and/or leaves you feeling seen and connected, be that socially, intimately, or spiritually. Some games tend to start lasting friendships. Some games make player excited to fuck. Some games make players feel like they are *part of something*. All these types of games rule, and we want you to make one.

Some ingredients specifically tied to this theme include:

None of these are required for a contest submission, but one of these already sparked an idea, didn’t it? Write it down.

What are the Competition Constraints?

In order to be considered for a Golden Cobra 2025 award, entries must stick to the following constraints:
  1. The game makes its target audience clear.
  2. The game is playable online or (masked) in-person.
  3. The game is a PDF no more than four pages in length, not including the required cover page.
    1. Any longer and we will stop reading.
  4. The game should be playable with zero to minimal preparation.
    1. This means no pre-casting needed.
  5. The game offers new content (never before published or run).
      Playtests are allowed (and encouraged) during the course of the contest.
  6. The game may be submitted in any language.
  7. The game uses no AI generated content either in the game or during play.
    1. This also means AI translation is strongly discouraged compared with your lovely, accented English, or your own language.

What Are the Competition Ingredients?

These are totally optional, but may help jog your creativity.

Find more Ingredients in the 2025 Contest Theme.

Do you have Tips for Online Larping?

Your game doesn’t have to be online this year, but if it is, we’ve got a great guide for you.

What are the Rules for Entering?

  1. Be a new, unpublished freeform larp. It is neither a board game or a video game. See the FAQ for more discussion about freeform larp.
  2. Present your game in a readable, playable format in a single file (pdf preferred).
  3. Submit only one game. Your name could appear on one entry but teams were welcome. You retain all rights to your work and ancillary material related to submissions, like play aids or commentary. These will by default be published under the name it was submitted under in the yearly free Golden Cobra Anthology (if one is created) and linked from this Website for the world to enjoy.
  4. The deadline for submission is 13 October 2025 at 11:59PM EDT. To submit: fill out the Golden Cobra Entry Submission Form and email your game to submissions@goldencobra.org.
  5. It’s really, really important you email the game and fill out the Entry Submission form. Failure to do both is how games get lost in the shuffle or the Spam folder. Ensure that your entry is counted and follow these rules!

Can I spread the word?

Please do! Find us on Blue Sky at https://bsky.app/profile/goldencobra.bsky.social. Word of mouth is most effective at inspiring someone to submit a game. Let a friend or someone you admire know about the contest! Post it in THE Group Chat, your home Discord, whatever. Make someone feel seen; don’t let the algorithm do the work.

Who Are the Judges?

Judges for 2025 are Sharang Biswas, Jeff Dieterle, Margo Gray, Kate Hill, Kat Jones, Bex Roycroft and Liz Stong.

Who else did stuff?

The Golden Cobra working committee this year is Sharang Biswas, Emily Care Boss, Jeff Dieterle, Margo Gray, Kate Hill, Kat Jones, Carly Kocurek, Evan Torner, and Noah Williamson. This year’s contest is, in particular, dedicated to Jason Morningstar. The Interactive Archive was coded by Epidiah Ravachol with help from Joe Greathead.

I have more questions!

Check out the FAQ! or email cobracommander@goldencobra.org.