2013 is likely to have two full-on larp convetions (Chimera and Hydra), plus plenty of opportunities for standalone games. So, to aid people in working out games for these events, I’ve made a little list, culled from Wikipedia, of posisble sources of inspiration, focused on significant anniversaries:
1973
- death of J R R Tolkien
- publication of “The Princess Bride”.
- Film: Soylent Green; the Wicker Man
- Worthy but difficult topics: Overthrow of Salvador Allende in Chile
1963
- First broadcast of Dr Who. Suggestions are either “The twenty doctors” (in which everyone is the Doctor), “The Dalek Master Plan” (in which everyone is a Dalek), “Birth of the Daleks” (about Kaleds and Thals), or “The Twenty Doctors (Slash version)”.
- Assassination of John F Kennedy. Could be done either as farce (“struggle for the grassy knoll!”) or as a political thriller about the aftermath.
- Film: Dr No (first Bond film); The Sword in the Stone (bad Disney Arthur)
- TV: General Hospital
- Books: Planet of Apes; The Spy who Came in from the Cold
- Cthulhu: sinking of the Thresher; creation of Surtsey
- Worthy but difficult topics: US desegregation, the March on Washington
- Deaths: C S Lewis, Aldous Huxley (both died the same day as Kennedy. Hmmm)
1913
- SS Volturno catches fire and sinks
- publication of “Tarzan of the Apes”
- end of the First Balkan War; beginning of the Second Balkan War
- Cthulhu: Meteor procession of February 9, 1913; riot of performance of Stavinsky’s “Rite of Spring”; Great Lakes Storm of 1913; publication of Whitehead & Russells’ “Principia Mathematica”
- Worthy but difficult topics: Women’s suffrage in the UK: Death of Emily Davison beneath the hooves of the King’s horse at Epsom Derby
- Births: Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford (oh dear)
1863
- NZ: Sinking of the Orpheus at Whatipu beach
- ground broken on construction of 1st US transcontinental railrod (title: “Working on the Railroad”?)
- publication of “Five Weeks in a Balloon”, Jules Verne’s first novel
- the Salon des Refusés
- Worthy but difficult topics: the Emanicpation Proclamation
- Deaths: Jacob Grimm (one of those Grimms)
1813
- publication of Pride and Prejudice. Jane Austen mashup larp!
- 150 years since the birth of Richard Wagner. Wagner mashup larp!
1613
- end of the Time Of Troubles in Russia with the establishment of the Romanov dynasty
- the Globe Theatre burns down during a production of Shakespere’s Henry VIII
1513
- publication of Machiavelli’s “The Prince”
1313
- birth of Giovanni Boccaccio, author of the Decameron