Inspiration for 2013

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

1893:

  • Overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii
  • Sinking of SS Naronic
  • Kalgoorlie gold rush in Australia
  • Worthy but difficult topics: Women’s suffrage in New Zealand
  • Births: Clark Ashton Smith

And for 2014:

Historical inspirations, culled from Wikipedia:

1974

  • the Carnation Revolution in Portugal
  • Patty Hearst joins the Symbionese Liberation Army
  • Nixon resigns
  • Sending of the Arecibo message
  • Death of Norman Kirk
  • Books: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; The Dispossessed

1964

  • Beetlemania (the larp!)
  • The Gulf of Tonkin incident
  • Worthy but difficult topics: Freedom Summer / Mississippi Burning; Golpe de 64 in Brazil

1914

  • Start of World War I
  • Irish Home Rule
  • Ludlow Massacre

1864

  • Foundation of the First International
  • Tauranga Campaign

1814

  • Bourbon Restoration in France
  • The Congress of Vienna
  • Stephenson’s first locomotive
  • Shelley runs away to Europe with Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin
  • death of de Sade

1764

  • invention of the Spinning Jenny (industrial revolution: the larp!)

1614

  • last meeting of the Fren Estates General until the French Revolution

1314

  • elimination of the Knights Templar, burning of jacques de Molay

1264

  • The Second Baron’s War

1954: Publication of “The Fellowship of the Ring” and “The Two Towers”.

LOTR larp, anyone? I wonder if I can get hold of “Under Angmar’s Shadow”?