Approved for release by the Golden Cobra Committee
Here's a list of the games submitted in 2020. Links are available below for those shared by the designers.
Styles of Play: Freeform larp, Larp, Letter Writing, Streaming/Online Face to Face
Intro: Being the parent or caregiver of an adventurer is stressful. Be they prophesied for greatness, runaway royals, or even following in the family’s footsteps, you never know when they will get injured, cursed, or resurrected as a dire boar. In this game, each player will both play a former character of theirs from a tabletop game and the caregiver of another adventurer. Scenes take place during an support group that is happening via magical viewing devices and are interspersed with letter writing about your former character’s adventures to their caregiver. Will you be able to learn to cope with your fears? Will you find the support you need? And how will your relationship with your ward change?
Tags: fantasy, family dynamics, support groups
http://intothemire.com/portfolio/
Styles of Play: Freeform larp, Letter Writing, Streaming/Online Face to Face
All We Have Is Us is a game for 3-6 players and one facilitator inspired by classic heist and jailbreak stories. But rather than replaying the job itself, this experience is designed to inspire reflection on a simple question that doesn’t have a simple answer: if you knew the end was coming and you’d never see your friends again, what would you share? What would you confess?
Tags: Emotional, Streaming, Online, Secrets
Styles of Play: Freeform larp, Larp, Pervasive Game/Public Play, Journaling
You have angered the trees by disrespecting Arbor Day. As punishment, they have trapped you in a time loop. Now, Arbor Day is forever.
Tags: Freeform, journaling, self-reflection, timeloop
https://twitter.com/CommonHeresy
Styles of Play: Freeform larp, Larp
A haunted LARP experience for one player. The game takes place over several nights as you play a character experiencing a haunting.
Tags: Horror, Ghosts, Solo LARP
Styles of Play: Freeform larp, Streaming/Online Face to Face, Performance (ie song, lipsynch, dance etc.)
A 1.5h long lighthearted game for 2 to 5 players where you play a family of bats finding a new home. The game uses a Zoom feature that makes it super easy to turn your video upside-down - so you appear like hanging from the ceiling.
Tags: LAOG, bats, family, fun
Styles of Play: Freeform larp, Larp, Streaming/Online Face to Face, Video/Transmedia, Bathing; Audio chat
This is a game about gods, queerness, the power of shared myths, and the intimacy of bathing together. A group of old friends take a trip to a bathhouse together, to reminisce and share stories. In the intimate sanctuary of the bathhouse, as protective layers and long held feelings are stripped and encrusted dirt is washed away, who will they become? Will the gods awaken? This is a 3 hr LARP for 4 or 6 players designed to be played online in the comfort and safety of your own home. Players take a bath together in the middle; this section is played as an audio only experience, allowing you to lean back and relax in your bath.
Tags: Bathing, Myths, Friendships
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TJdJwLubzUE6Vq_ALwhYwM1Fzn4Y9pFrhCCsihNljfM/edit?usp=sharing
Styles of Play: Freeform larp, Larp, Chat/Message
This is a game about calling your mother... or more accurately trying not to call them. One person plays the adult survivor of child abuse, the other plays the parent (and partner of the abuse, not the abuser themself). The two go back and forth, perhaps towards confrontation, but likely not resolution.
Tags: phone, abuse, parent
Styles of Play: Freeform larp, Larp, Streaming/Online Face to Face
Lonely gods that have recently regained their memories of what they are meet at a confluence of worlds once every 100 years.
Tags: gods loneliness memory choices
Styles of Play: Letter Writing, Arts & Crafts
The Cœuriers is a postal game where the envelopes, letters, and packages become the characters with which the players interact. Participants give birth to The Cœuriers by imagining backstory characters who provide the inspirational seeds for missives and parcels. As the game proceeds, The Cœuriers both transform and are transformed by the messages sent by the players to each other.
Tags: letters, packages, empathy
Styles of Play: Freeform larp, Pervasive Game/Public Play, Zero-Player Games, Non-Interactive App Interpretation
Players use their regular gay dating app to imagine abstract, dreamlike characters based on the incomplete, anonymized and exaggerated user profiles on the platform, and then play with these characters in different scenarios by asking and answering questions about them, all without interacting in any way with the people behind the profiles.
Tags: Gay, single-player, zero-player, online, erotic
https://monster.diegeticgames.com
https://randylubin.itch.io/story-synth
Styles of Play: Freeform larp, Larp, Streaming/Online Face to Face
A monster movie spoof told in 6 speeches
Tags: monster, comedy, horror, speeches
Styles of Play: Letter Writing
Two stranded souls, alone and separated by a vast sea, send each other letters of comfort and confession with the help of a mysterious Helper. A science fiction letter-writing game.
Tags: Science Fiction, Letters, Confessions
http://www.miserytourism.com/author/rudy/
Styles of Play: Freeform larp, Chat/Message, Streaming/Online Face to Face, Video/Transmedia
An elderly dragon fades slowly, surrounded by her dwindling entourage of princesses, knights, and sentient magic items
Tags: dementia, memory, sad, magic
Styles of Play: Freeform larp, Larp, Chat/Message
A human and an AI bot, both isolated and losing their sense of identity, reach out to one another. A 30 minute LARP played completely via text.
Tags: one-shot, text-based, identity, isolation
https://itch.io/profile/feelings-wave
Styles of Play: Freeform larp, Letter Writing, Chat/Message, Streaming/Online Face to Face, Arts & Crafts
A play-by-post game for 2-5 people played over several months about the creative process and constructive criticism. You are artists of small renown living in 12th century France. All of you have been commissioned to complete a piece of art that heavily features a specific animal. Unfortunately, while you may have great artistic skill in other areas, you are terrible at drawing anything relating to this one specific animal. Later, you will play modern-day art historians at an academic symposium discussing the finer details of the works created through play.
Tags: play-by-post; art; creating; correspondence
http://caitrussell.com/
https://escape-character.com/
Styles of Play: Freeform larp, Larp, Chat/Message
In Dream Phone of Cthulhu, it’s the ‘20s, and there have been signs and portents that your group has drawn the attention, and admiration, of a deity from the Cthulhu Mythos. You are performing a seance to contact the alluring and terrifying gods beyond the veil, to find out which one is your Secret Admirer.
Tags: phone, seance, lovecraftian, period piece
Styles of Play: Freeform larp, Larp, Letter Writing, Streaming/Online Face to Face
Two elite boarding schools, two groups of rivals dueling for the opportunity to change the world, and two friends caught in the middle. What are you willing to sacrifice to win the Prize?
Tags: epistolary, duels, revolution
Styles of Play: Freeform larp, Streaming/Online Face to Face
You will participate in an official online board meeting of Newtown conglomeration about digital afterlife members' future. This game touches on the themes of profitability vs humanity, moral principles vs human weaknesses. Each player will be faced with difficult choices, hidden information, and manipulations and will need to express their opinion on some of the acute problems in the cyberpunk environment.
Tags: cyberpunk, digital afterlife, negotiations, personal secrets
Styles of Play: Freeform larp, Larp, Streaming/Online Face to Face, Edularp, Diplomacy Simulation
Alien diplomats representing each member civilization in the Interstellar Compact come together to debate Humanity’s application. Each diplomat has different priorities and a different way of communicating those priorities, using patterns of communication found in a variety of real world cultures.
Tags: Language, educational, diplomacy, sci-fi
https://cloven-pine-games.itch.io/
Styles of Play: Letter Writing
An epistolary game about comics and fandom for 3–6 players. Players take on the role of a writer and a group of fans jockeying to put forward their interpretation of a comic book on the comic's letters page. For one reason or another, the writer has no idea what is in the book, and must rely on readers' questions and comments for clues.
Tags: Comics, Letters, Fandom, Authorship
https://dakotaskybloom.itch.io/kilmers-war
https://xthreatgames.itch.io/goblin-maids-by-elm-and-dsb
Styles of Play: Freeform larp, Tabletop/Pencil & Paper, Journaling
A tool for dealing with the grief of losing someone you care about.
Tags: Journaling, Playing Cards, Loss, Love
Styles of Play: Freeform larp, Larp, Chat/Message, Streaming/Online Face to Face
In 2066, AI and human scientists cracked the ability for humans to fully integrate their consciousness to Dotwun (what the Internet evolved into). Humans and fortunae experience differences in how they experience Dotwun, especially in sensory inputs. One player is a human, plugging in to Dotwun for the first time. The other is a fortuna, aiding the human in preparation for “transcending” to digital life in Dotwun. This game will involve the player of the human to interact with, touch, and sense objects in their real life physical environment, and describe it in detail to the other player. Only the player of the human will have a camera turned on, that both players will look at. Players will communicate through audio. The player of the AI will give instructions to the human player how to interact with the environment, based on a checklist of items that only that AI player will know. Players are likely to succeed, but will face challenges as the two characters will have gaps in communication and differences in how they perceive and sense things.
Tags: Transhumanism, neurodiversity, sensory, communication, empathy
Styles of Play: Larp, Streaming/Online Face to Face, sports
It is the future. Sports have evolved. No longer do our greatest athletes need to prove their might on the field with a full retinue of elite comrades. Now games can be decided from the comfort of our athlete's homes, available for everyone to see.
Tags: sports, goofy, contest
Styles of Play: Freeform larp, Larp, Chat/Message, Streaming/Online Face to Face
The Glimpse is a two hour long online larp for 6 players and a GM, played over Discord. It is a modern-day family drama with some elements of magical realism. The players will be divided into two groups of three: copies of the same family in two parallel universes. The life paths of the mirrored characters diverged due to a tragic accident. The first act of the larp is realistic and the play is limited to the same universe. The second act introduces a surreal element: the computers of the characters undergo an upgrade to a new, quantum version of the operating system, which causes temporary glitches in video calls and gives the characters a brief opportunity to interact with their counterparts from the alternative universe.
Tags: family, identity, choices, connection
Styles of Play: Letter Writing, Arts & Crafts, Music
"Hello, Goodbye: A Larp Duet" is about hearts mending and coming together. Each game takes a different take on the practice of crafting letters; the first game, "I'm Home", has the theme of reaching out and connecting with loved ones; the second game, "⏯ MIXTAPE: Letters To A Memory" has the theme of looking within and finding closure. "Hello, Goodbye" is also an expression of the love between two old friends, connecting through the joy of making games, despite literally being a half-a-world apart.
Tags: Letters, Love, Crafts, Music
https://chaosleague.org/site/it/
Styles of Play: Freeform larp, Telphone/only sound
An emotional and intimate larp that explores the relationship between the elderly and the young and their defining traits (in regard to their belonging to different time periods: the past and the future, respectively). It will therefore talk about topics such as loss and hope, life experiences and choices to be made, as well as the comparison between different generations. In an alternation of words said and heard over the phone, at night.
Tags: intimate, telephone, different generation, life choices
Styles of Play: Freeform larp, Streaming/Online Face to Face, Arts & Crafts
A virtual support group for imaginary friends dealing with hard problems and finding imaginative solutions.
Tags: Imaginative, Playful, Emotional
Styles of Play: Larp, Letter Writing
In a time of war, two lovers - or friends who might become lovers - write letters to each other. What do they remember of each other? Can they be together? And what happens if one of the letters is intercepted?
Tags: War, letter-writing, queer, romance
Styles of Play: Freeform larp, Larp, Streaming/Online Face to Face
You and the rest of the Jewel Warriors have been fighting against the Dark Power of the Ultra Soldiers Army and their plans to destroy your home. This is the 11th hour; you thought you had a plan, but then something went wrong. Think of this game like the last episode in the season of a magical girl anime. One by one, the warriors were separated from each other and can now only communicate via com link. Your plans are in disarray, victory seems to be slipping from your grasp, and the pressure is widening cracks in the team. Can you reconnect and save the day?
Tags: Magical Girls, friendship.
Styles of Play: Freeform larp, Larp, Streaming/Online Face to Face
The world is ending—on this, sources agree. If there is a tomorrow, whether or not you live to see it, it will need new heroes and gods. And so each of you has decided to propose how the world may yet be reborn…if you can convince anyone else. Let's You and Him Flyte is a game of formalized arguments in the broad style of historical Anglo-Saxon poetry (err, that is, "ritualized verbal combat"), as a group of survivors debates and competes to see who will save the world, and how.
Tags: medieval, post-apocalyptic, argument, improv
Styles of Play: Letter Writing
A Letter Writing Game About Communication While Censored
Tags: Letter-writing, Redacted, USPS
Styles of Play: Freeform larp, Larp, Streaming/Online Face to Face
A D&D LARP about the night before a climatic encounter.
Tags: D&D, beginner-friendly, pre-generated chracters
Styles of Play: Larp, Pervasive Game/Public Play, Chat/Message, Covert
A meta larp about anonymously encouraging someone to participate in the golden cobra challenge for the first time
Tags: Anonymous Meta Secret Encouraging
Styles of Play: Freeform larp, Chat/Message
In this game, friends text each other to try and catch up at the crowded conference. Even though they miss connecting, they share their experiences and hopes for tomorrow.
Tags: Convention, Texting, Fandom
Styles of Play: Freeform larp, Larp, Streaming/Online Face to Face
Nimble Things is a freeform LARP ideal for 4-8 players and a facilitator designed to be played online. It combines finding items from around your surroundings and utilising them for gameplay. Players discover that they are changelings - creatures that were swapped with human children at a young age. They need to make the decision whether to leave for Arcadia - the realm of the fae - or remain in this world. It is a game about belonging, found family and what keeps us anchored.
Tags: larp, discussion, fae, online
https://www.jacquelinebryk.design/
Styles of Play: Freeform larp, Larp, Pervasive Game/Public Play, Chat/Message, Video/Transmedia
A LARP/ARG (LARG?) exploring the creation and dissemination of conspiracy theories, played through Discord.
Tags: conspiracy, collaborative worldbuilding, cryptic
Styles of Play: Freeform larp, Larp, Streaming/Online Face to Face, Video/Transmedia, Performance (ie song, lipsynch, dance etc.), Arts & Crafts
A troupe of performers do surreal, allegorical plays about the events unfolding around them: the plot of another larp.
Tags: Performance Meta Digital Surreal
Styles of Play: Freeform larp, Larp, Letter Writing, Streaming/Online Face to Face, Arts & Crafts
You are a dungeon boss, Oriole is coming to restore peace to Orothier and you must stop her. In order to do that, you will convene a meeting of the Dungeon Bosses in order to design The Perfect Dungeon
Tags: Mapmaking, fantasy, mail
Styles of Play: Freeform larp, Larp, Streaming/Online Face to Face, Video/Transmedia, Performance (ie song, lipsynch, dance etc.), Arts & Crafts, Set dressing / costuming
Using Zoom, players portray various works of art. For an hour each night, they come to life and confront the challenges of the world around them, from within the confines of their frames.
Tags: Video chat, art, silly or serious
Styles of Play: Freeform larp, Larp, Chat/Message, Streaming/Online Face to Face
In "Potatoes & Politics" you take on the role of Greek Gods living in today’s world, having an online hangout due to the situation humanity is currently in. During the hangout: + You will decide if you help humanity to change one of their problems for the better. + You will cook and eat together online with the other deities (recipe for an easily to prepare Greek vegan dish with only 5 ingredients, called “Skordalia”, in the included). + You will play on conflicts and emotional connections according to the relations & memories you co-create in the preparatory phase of the larp. This larp is structured into different acts by cooking and eating together. In the course of the larp players will reflect on the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in a light-hearted way. Each player chooses the ingame gender their role identifies with nowadays.
Tags: #cooking #eating #SDGs #mythology
Styles of Play: Pervasive Game/Public Play, Chat/Message
You're a ghost who listens to punk rock while surfing the internet for adorable animals and then posting your finds online
Tags: Relaxing, silly, short
Styles of Play: Freeform larp, Larp, Streaming/Online Face to Face
Queer and Together at the End of the World is a 3-5 player digital LARP about queer friendship, radical hope, and fighting fear with connection. It is intended to be played over voice or video chat, and should take about 3 hours.
Tags: queer, freeform, apocalypse, friendship
http://alchemicalgaming.com/games/
Styles of Play: Freeform larp, Larp, Letter Writing, Chat/Message, Streaming/Online Face to Face, Video/Transmedia, Performance (ie song, lipsynch, dance etc.), Arts & Crafts
Stranded and lost in vast, unfamiliar new worlds, how will you escape and become whole again? "Scattered" is a game about exploration, separation from those we care about, and achieving communal success despite that separation. It incorporates live video chat (with optional text chat “thought bubbles”) for group roleplay, travelogue-based world creation, and sending postal mail for mutual support. This game could be playable for many weeks or months, depending on the challenge level and cycle length chosen by your group. It will generate up to as many worlds as the number of players, worlds that will feel complex and “lived-in” by the game’s end. Perhaps you’ll later use the worlds you create together to run other games, write fiction, inspire new costume and makeup ideas, or for whatever other projects you might imagine.
Tags: emergent, cyclical, cooperative, multi-genre
Styles of Play: Larp, Pervasive Game/Public Play, Letter Writing, Chat/Message, Streaming/Online Face to Face, Video/Transmedia
A Single Step is a pervasive game with a theme of rebellion, dystopia and found family. The aim of the larp is to create a story which encourages players to challenge themselves to interact with the world and each other. The story is co-created and built around mutual support
Tags: Rebellion, Support, Challenge
Styles of Play: Streaming/Online Face to Face
A game where you are Cosmic Beings who recreate a long-dead humanity from the real-life memories & songs of the players. Hitchhiker's Guide meets Bill & Ted.
Tags: cosmic, cozy, connection
https://www.facebook.com/wiborawildfeuer
Styles of Play: Freeform larp, Larp, Chat/Message, Streaming/Online Face to Face
You are: The Mangatas, the most famous family in Spacefleet. Your Mission: to find a habitable planet. Because motherplanet Earth isn't gonna do it for much longer. After 100 years of cryo sleep you woke up in this remote part of the universe. Now you have to be strong as a family and stick together, if you don't want to lose your mind in the vast emptiness of space. Inspired by TV shows like Lost in Space and The Expanse and Nordic Style Larps like Odysseus.
Tags: scifi, space adventure, isolation, family
Styles of Play: Freeform larp, Larp
This is a game about the various relationships that people can have with each other - important, timeless, fleeting, casual - and the ways that these can defy traditional amatonormativity. Or, in other words, this is a game about a speed dating event where none of the attendees are actually looking for dates.
Tags: speed-dating; lightweight; comic
Styles of Play: Freeform larp, Streaming/Online Face to Face
Talk to Me is a two-player sandbox mini-larp during which the characters get through a crisis by talking without seeing each other. It allows to play out a variety of situations and character relationships, defined through workshops. During the game, the players talk through a door, or using voice-only digital communication.
Tags: collaborative, support, feel-better
Styles of Play: Freeform larp, Letter Writing, Chat/Message
An epistolary time travel spreadsheet game
Tags: time travel, epistolary, spreadsheet
Styles of Play: Larp, Streaming/Online Face to Face
Time to Leave is a storytelling LARP for 4+ players over 10-20 minutes. It focuses on the waning hours of a gathering by dividing players into 2 roles: those who wish to Leave and those who wish to Stay. As players Leave -- or abandon the idea and Stay -- their fates will be sealed by their decisions.
Tags: storytelling, LARP, face-to-face, group
Styles of Play: Freeform larp, Chat/Message, Streaming/Online Face to Face
To Boldly Hakuho is a live action online game where players take on the roles of a bridge crew needing to communicate with the AI of a starship who refuses to discuss anything other than Hakuho Sho, famous Mongolian-born sumo wrestler.
Tags: sumo, comedy, starships, online
Styles of Play: Freeform larp, Pervasive Game/Public Play, Letter Writing, Arts & Crafts
Epistolary freeform sci-fi larp about obligations, legacy and a concept of “home”.
Tags: Letters, Dreams, Aliens.
http://margo-gray.squarespace.com//
Styles of Play: Freeform larp, Larp, Chat/Message, Music-based
Voyagers is a long-distance larp for two that explores connection, the possibility of change, and the power of music. In 1977, NASA launched the Voyager satellites, each containing a golden record with audio greetings from the people of Earth, images of Earth life, and musical selections. These messages were sent in the hope that some traveller might find them. Said the recorded message from the Secretary General of the UN, “We step out of our solar system into the universe… to teach if we are called upon, to be taught if we are fortunate.” You are a scientist who has discovered a small, temporary hole between universes. You have a chance to make contact with a version of yourself from another universe, but the ways in which you can communicate are limited. Using questions and musical selections, you will communicate with your parallel self and try to derive some comfort or wisdom from another life lived.
Tags: parallel universes, music, connection
Styles of Play: Freeform larp, Larp, Streaming/Online Face to Face
A game for 6 players on video chat, where they play estranged superheroes who are regaining consciousness in the same cell in their archenemy's lair. Over the course of 90 minutes, they move from tense reintroductions to rebuilding their old friendships, to planning an escape together. The game largely consists of conversation, alongside silent, physical signals players give each other to re-establish their characters' intimacy.
Tags: friendship, superhero, distance, conversational
Styles of Play: Freeform larp, Pervasive Game/Public Play, Letter Writing, Arts & Crafts
You and your friends save the world by hiking, crafting, and completing a large ritual
Tags: Hiking, Crafting, Freeform
Styles of Play: Freeform larp, Streaming/Online Face to Face
You’re all kitchen utensils --single and looking for a partner. You will be speed dating to find someone to spoon with. So, let’s stop forking around and get to it already. Light in tone.
Tags: Culinary. Dating. Light.
Posted xx October 2020.
Approved for release by the Golden Cobra Committee