Hartham Manor is a larp inspired by gothic romanticism and dark academia. Its primary themes are exploring relationships, exploration of one's own psyche through supernatural events, mystery and existential horror, timelessness and separation from reality.

​

Experience

 

It is a larp about

• A place where reality isn’t quite solid and the past and future peak through the curtain.

• People who desperately need something, put in impossible situations attempting to get it.

• The feeling of something greater slowly corrupting the characters minds as they fall deeper into what the archives offer.

• Complicated relationships of friendship, love and hate.

• Discovering the mysteries of the past, both the ancient and the personal.

 

It is not a larp about

• Solving the big mystery, the mystery will get to you before you get to it (smaller, personal mysteries may be solvable).

• Winning over the darkness, the darkness knows your home address.

• Physically fighting the problem. 

 

The goal of this larp is exploration of the personal psyche and complicated relationships in the context of a strange and terrifying situation. There are aspects of existential and psychological horror, but there are no monsters or ghosts, nothing to defeat. The aim is that over the course of the larp, characters change as the manor corrupts their minds. Players will receive guidance on how this corruption may affect their characters, but the interpretation of it into play will ultimately be player driven.

​

Play will generally be player driven. What we mean by this is that though there will be plot-threads, plenty of inter-character drama, and character goals supplied in the character send outs, you will be expected to be able to steer your own experience based on that information. Most of play will be focused on relationships, internal conflict, and mystery. For this reason we do not consider this a beginner-friendly larp.

​

Things to note

 

The supernatural

Hartham Manor has aspects of the supernatural, however it is not a larp in which the characters can perform magic (even though some may believe they can). The supernatural exists under the surface, and will never be entirely clear or obvious to the characters. The nature of the manor and archive will be a mystery the characters cannot solve during the larp.

 

Transparency

This is a low-transparency larp, meaning that we do not want you to share secrets about your character with others beforehand. This is to let certain plot elements be a surprise both IN and OFF.

It will also be low-transparency from the side of us organisers. As is explained below, we will be using technology and props in order to achieve a certain feeling. Some of what we do will be explained before the larp for safety reasons, however we will not disclose all of our plans beforehand.

 

Props and technology

We will be attempting to enhance the experience of the larp using props and technology to affect all five senses. This will be described more thoroughly in future sendouts, and some things will remain a secret until the larp.

 

 

Types of characters

 

Characters are pre-written and assigned according to preferences given during signup. All characters will wear a name-tag for the duration of the larp, the name tags exist IN-game.

There are two types of characters at this larp. The Newcomers, which are the individuals invited to the Manor, and The Household, who already live there. The experience of the two groups will differ slightly. The Household will also consist of helpers who have off-game responsibility. 

 

Playing a Newcomer (41 spots)

The Newcomers all arrive at the manor needing or wanting something they can only get there. They have lives outside the manor, with jobs, friends, for some a family. A lot of them are academics or artists hoping to discover something new, but also a few regular workers or wealthy individuals who have come for their own reasons. Their experience is focused on relationships to others, the mystery of the manor, giving parts of themselves and others to get what they want, and exploring the characters psyche as they are put in impossible situations. The Newcomers will have relationships with others invited to the manor, some will arrive together and some will discover the presence of friends (or enemies) once there.

 

Playing a member of the Household (10 spots including kitchen)

For the Household, this is not a larp about discovering but rather experiencing a known horror again and again. It will be about attempting to maintain your own humanity while watching things unfold for the Newcomers. The people of the Household have their own goals, but none of the urgency of the Newcomers. The players in this group will have off-game responsibilities that will be written into the role, but also relationships to both others in the Household as well as possibly to some of the Newcomers.

 

Off-game gender and age

Most characters at this larp are written gender neutral and can be played as any gender identity. 

The characters will have specific ages as some are meant to be younger/older, however your OFF age will not affect what character you can play. If you prefer to only play a character above or below a certain age, please let us know when signing up.