Letter

LARPing
An Extracon 2021 Presentation
What do we mean by “Letter LARP”?
“a LARP played through the medium of written letters”

The terminology is still pretty fluid.

To some it means…

...any LARP where a significant portion of PC-PC (or PC-NPC) interaction is through some written medium

(includes emails, forum posts, other? But not texting or

Discord?)

...all interaction is through some written medium

...it must be through the postal service?

...it must take place over the course of weeks/months, not hours?

(Alternative term: “epistolary LARP”)

The Inevitable Question

Are
Letter LARPs
really LARPs?
The Inevitable Question
Yes.
No, really.

“LARP is a medium, an interactive and collaborative form

of storytelling in which participants take on personas other
than themselves and physically interact as those
personas in a shared, imagined diegesis, under the
guidance of a set of rules or mechanics governing those
interactions.”¹

¹Escape, Fair. “Intercon P Part V: What Is LARP?” Fair Escape, 13 Mar. 2016,
fairescape.wordpress.com/2016/03/13/intercon-p-part-v-what-is-larp/.
The “Common” Letter LARP Format
● Snail mail Examples:
HEX (Hollow Earth Expedition)
● “sandbox” Incendium
● Easily grokked setting The Innsmouth Papers
● players create their own characters
● low/no overarching plot
Advantages of Letter LARPing
★ It’s very accessible!
○ Cost, timing, location
○ Even for people who are incarcerated
★ Social distancing friendly!
★ Players across the world can play together
★ Flexibility on level of engagement
★ Outlet for creativity (including forms of
creativity not often found in other formats of
LARP)
★ Very flexible on player count
★ Support the post office!
★ Checking your mailbox becomes super fun and exciting!
★ Did I mention the art ‘n crafts?
Drawbacks to Letter LARPing
★ It’s inaccessible!
○ To LARPers with vision impairment, hand/wrist mobility issues, eg arthritis, handwriting issues
★ Very low GM insight/control
○ Either a lot of work to keep track of everything, or else you have NO idea what players are
doing
★ Requires players to be self-starting/self-sufficient
★ Low level of buy-in
★ Inactivity in one player promotes inactivity in another
★ Some people find it anxiety-inducing
○ This format can end up kind of hanging over players’ heads, like a regular homework
assignment
★ It’s a fragile form of LARPing -- it can disintegrate pretty quickly
○ Because of reasons listed above
Hawthorn & Ink - Design Goals
Design Goals:
● Escapism
○ Because 2020 sucked
● Avoid most common fail states
for Letter LARPs
● encourage physical mail as
much as possible (vs. online
interaction)
● Minimal work for GM once
game began
Hawthorn & Ink - Design Features
● Popular/modern setting concept
● Collaborative setting creation
● Two workshops
○ 1. Setting Creation
○ 2. Character Links
● Inter-character links
○ Known and secret
● Various forms of letter prompts
● Flexible transparency
● Letter number tracking
spreadsheet
● “Inactive” status marker
● OOC community Discord
● biweekly reminders
● Safety features
● Living documents for setting
and character bios
● Play style guidelines
● NPC letter option
● Conclude with in-person
event???
Hawthorn & Ink - Setting Concept
● Modern day
○ Easy to relate to and ad-lib
content
● Fairies
○ popular!
● Collaborative with structural
Guidelines
○ that players can
inject what they find most
inspiring and interesting
into the setting while still
maintaining some cohesion
Hawthorn & Ink - Pre-Workshops
● 1st - Setting collaboration,
players divided into groups to
work together on Fae Courts and
Orders
● One week between to
work on character bios
with forms to fill out
● 2nd - create inter-character links
○ Known links
○ Unknown links
○ More links if players want!
Hawthorn & Ink - Character Bio. Features

● Collected in living document

● Listed links (and remaining
open links)
● Types of letters players would
like to receive and write
● Public, discoverable
Undiscoverable info
● “Inactive Status”
● Topics to Avoid
● Opt-in to non-paper content
Hawthorn & Ink - The Discord
● Initially for ongoing setting creation collaboration
● Two week reminders
● announcements
● Opt-in to mass content
○ Zines!
○ Junk mail
○ Holiday cards
● Hype
● Let people know letters were
sent and received
● Continue forming links (initially)
● Helped the GM keep a finger on the pulse
of the game
Hawthorn & Ink - Writing Prompts
● Plotty Prompts vs. Writing/Meta Prompts
● Examples:
○ Write to someone you haven’t written to yet
○ Mention something you learned in a letter to
someone else
○ Mention another character in a letter to someone
○ Why haven’t you written in a while? Postcard
■ What’s been keeping you busy?
■ What is something you have to tell the person?
■ End with a question
○ What is your character’s birthday? Let’s send each
other cards!
Hawthorn & Ink - Safety Features

● Off-limit topics section in player bios

● Requests to avoid certain other
players in the intercharacter links
workshop
● Opt-in feature for mass/group content
● Contact info. in single Discord
channel that was only open to players
● (PO boxes)
Hawthorn & Ink - Playstyle Guidelines

● Emphasis on internal roleplay and sandbox creativity, not

overarching plot
● Consent based roleplay
● Emphasis on cooperation over PvP
○ While writing bios, players were encouraged to answer “why
are you writing letters, what help does your character need,
what help can your character offer?”
● Play to Lift
● Escapism
● Flexible Transparency
● Inconsistency May Happen, roll with it!
Hawthorn & Ink - Misc. Features

● Letter tracking spreadsheet

● Writing as NPCs
● No pre-designated end in sight
Hawthorn & Ink - In Person Event???
Hawthorn & Ink - My Key Takeaways
★ first letter prompts and
ongoing individual prompts
(“what letters would I like to
write/receive?”) in bios
★ Workshop for
inter-character links (“what
do typical letters between
us look like?”)
★ Inactive markers
★ Having a
Discord/dedicated online
space
Features of Other Letter LARPs
● Shared document where people track key points of their letter
● official newsletters/newspapers from staff
● Mechanics, stats for characters
● pre-written characters
● all letters go through staff
● Individualized prompts throughout
● A set number of letters (e.g. all players write
exactly six)
● A shared document (e.g. a map) that gets added
to as it passes from player to player
Tips for Playing Letter LARPs
● You should play if… ● Wax seals!
○ You’re a LARPer! ○ So much fun,
○ You like graphic/visual arts, prop it gets its own
making, fanfiction writing, text
based roleplay category
○ You wanna try something new ○ Not just for Letter
○ Want to be excited about
checking your mailbox LARPs!
● Acquire stationery you’re ● photos of your
excited to use handwritten letters
○ Etsy stores have lots of ● Respond as soon as
templates for printing your own
● Fun letter creating supplies! possible to letters
○ Calligraphy sets ● Have a designated container for letters
○ Colored pens ● Number envelopes as you receive them
○ Stickers
○ Pretty stamps from post office ● Reach out to players OOC online, even mid-game about
○ Custom return address labels opening a new correspondence
○ Acrylic stamps
● It’s OK to be brief and casual
● Include open ended questions in your letters
Tips for Playing Letter LARPs

Photo by Julia Krysostek

Getting Into Character

● a designated area for

reading/writing letters
● curated playlist
● a pinterest board of images
related to your character
● Choose a favorite drink or
snack for your character
● It’s ok to not feel
in-character!
Room for Creativity
● ‘Zines Pinterest!
● Fairy junk mail
Full of paper crafts, origami,
● Sent out custom blended teas
custom homemade envelopes and
● Wrote their letter content out of
greeting cards.
order to represent time
travel-related curses
● Wrote all their letters on pages
ripped from cook books
The Future of Letters in LARPing

● More Letter LARPs

○ Romancing Jan (Incantrix, Jane
Austen)
○ Please Reply (1950s UK dark
academia)
○ INKLarp (retro-future pulp exploration
intrigue)
● Adding letter writing to other forms Resources
of LARP
Letter LARP website:
○ Writing letters between events of a
https://letterlarp.home.blog/
campaign
○ As part of theater one shot post-game
Letter LARPers Facebook group
structures https://www.facebook.com/groups/478911
○ Create props pre-gaming 315981471
Homework
1. Create a letter LARP.
2. Send me the link for signing up.

Photo by Meredith Mayes

Questions?