What are Chamber Games?

A chamber game is a short larp (live roleplaying game) which last for no longer than a few hours and which takes place in a compact area, maybe just one room. Compared to larger larps a chamber game is a type of larp which easily can be produced in different cities by other groups than the original organisers. The idea with this site is to make some chamber games readily available for larp organisers who would like to run such a game. Chamber games as a format is very well situated as a place where we can try new methods and experiment with form and content of what a larp can look like. The experiences we get from doing this can be relevant also to how larger larps can be organized and for developing larp as a form of expression, art and entertainment.

Chamber Games is an initiative by Tor Kjetil Edland, Arvid Falch, Erling Rognli and Even Tømte. The idea for publishing larp scenarios in a blog for others to use came after we made ‘New Voices in Art’, which is one of the games published here. To get in contact with us send an email to torkjetil {at} gmail {dot} com

The games posted in this blog are considered protected by the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 3.0 license. This means that you can freely use this material as long as it is for non-commercial purposes. Please check the link below for more detailed information. Even if the material is freely available we would like to be contacted if you decide to produce your version of any of these larps, as it is nice to know that the material is being used.

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 License.

 

When Our Destinies Meet

A party. A predestined meeting. A web of interlacing stories. We gather our inspiration from the director, playwright, and theater theorist Bertolt Brecht: his acting theory of Verfremdung and Haltung; his aesthetics, which were made widely known through the films Dogville and Manderlay by Lars von Trier; and his concern with social problems, morality and relationships.

Created by:  Morgan Jarl and Petter Karlsson

Download the PDF for When Our Destinies Meet here

When Our Destinies Meet on Facebook

The homepage for When Our Destinies Meet

 

Screwing the Crew

A is together with B and is making out with C who is in love with D who has an affair with E who rejected F who’s hitting on everybody. A lot of people live like that. Sometimes everybody’s happy, and other times it doesn’t really work out that well.  Screwing the Crew is a larp where you can explore questions about monogamy, open relationships and sexual relations in a tight-knit group of friends. You can explore their history and how it has affected the relations they have today.  The larp’s setting is a dinner party held by the most established couple in the group, in a city close to you.

Created by: Elin Nilsen and Trine Lise Lindahl

Download PDF of the game here

 

The Kick Inside

The Kick Inside is a scenario about different stages in life and how we cope with changes. Mayor themes are identity, choices and acceptance. We get to meet four people – Agnes, Marcus, Olivia and Thomas – and follow them through three different stages in life. Three parallell, separate stories, each running through four acts. All stories take place in cabins that are curiously alike.

Created by Martin Brodén and Kristoffer Lindh

The Kick Inside Player’s Booklet

The Kick Inside Game Master’s Booklet

The Kick Inside Floorsheets

 

The Family Andersson

A contemporary drama with time pressure. The Family Andersson is a short game for 8-10 participants.  The game is about a group of siblings who have gathered in the home of their recently deceased parents to discuss the inheritance. The focus is on exploring relationships between family members and testing how a game functions when more than one players act the same part.

Created by Åke Nolemo and Johan Röklander

Familjen Andersson original manuscript in Swedish

English translation by Tor Kjetil Edland and Håken Lied

Print version of the manuscript in English

 

Tango for Two

“We enter this world alone. We leave it pretty much the same way. And in-between, a dance we call life. Problem is it takes two to Tango. So we look for signs; something to help us to find our perfect partners. A smile, a wave. But we have to be careful; because while some signs can be misinterpreted, others can be missed completely….Some dances you sit out. Others you change partners. The important thing is… you never stop dancing.” – Chuck Fishman, Early Edition

Tango for Two is a one-evening larp experiment by Even Tømte and Tor Kjetil Edland. Two players will act different parts of one character’s personality. Either you play the conscious self, or the underlying desires of the person. The two of them work in tandem, each one of them being the dominant part in different phases of the game.

Tango for Two is about cooperation and musicality, about compromise and conflict, and about taking and giving away – or losing – control. The larp has been played in Oslo, at the Nordic larp conference Solmukohta 2008 in Finnland and at the Theatre Without Borders Festival.

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Tango for Two PDF

Tango para dois – portugese translation of the game

The third performance of Tango for Two took place at the Theatre without borders festival in Stord on the western coast of Norway, the 24th to 26th of November. This time, we used a different scenario than the one found in the PDF booklet: a cutthroat audition for the TV series “Murder on the Catwalk”. Some short impressions from the play can be read (in Norwegian) at Laivforum.net

 

A Game in the Park

A Game in the Park is a brief game highlighting how difficult it sometimes can be to connect with other people whom are already part of a group. For this game you need 4-6 adult players, sunglasses, a nice park to play in, and sunshine. The game plays in 10-20 minutes. One player is the stranger. The others are a group of friends.

Created by Tomas H.V. Mørkrid

Read the entire game on Mørkrid’s webpage

 

New Voices in Art

New Voices in Art is a chamber game about about a group of aspiring artist the night before the opening of the exhibition ‘New Voices in Art’. The participants play a version of themselves as aspiring artists. The main themes of this game are ambition, ambivalence and aloneness. The world of modern art is used as a setting to symbolize our yearning for success and fulfillment as creative individuals. To produce this game you need a space that will function as the gallery in the game and as many pieces of art as there are participants playing artists. All information necessary for running this game can be found in the downloadable PDF file.

Created by Tor Kjetil Edland, Arvid Falch and Erling Rognli

New Voices in Art PDF

An ingame article has been written about New Voices in Art in the fanzine Imagonem

Chamber Games was selected to participate in the art festival Nisjelandet with New Voices in Art. This was a part of the music festival By:Larm, which took place in Oslo 21-23 February 2008.

 

Instant Larp

Here are two recipes for getting a short game rolling in no time:

1-2-3 Larp
Created by Ingebjørg Berg Holm and Torstein Utne

1. Choose a setting which is easy for everyone to relate to (examples: class reunion, saloon in the wild west, 70s celebrity party).
2. Decide on a time and place and invite people.
3. Ask everyone to prepare a basic character concept that fits the setting.
4. Ask everyone to write down a secret for the character. Also write the name of the character and the player on this piece of paper. The secret should be something that will be fun to play when being revealed. It shouldn’t be revealed to anyone else before the game. Before the game starts everyone puts the secrets into a bowl. Everyone then draws a piece of paper with someone else’s secret (redraw if you draw your own). During the game everyone is responsible for revealing this secret. How they know the secret is improvised.
5. The game ends at a predetermined time and by then all secrets should have be revealed.

The Crisis Meeting
Created by Sonja Erlenkamp 

The participants decide jointly on an institution which is experiencing a crisis of some sort (examples: a university department, a small business or a youth organisation). Each participant chooses a character which has a function in this setting (examples: manager, board member, volunteer etc.). The player gives the character a name and writes three sentences that describes the character. Everyone then receives a letter or email with an urgent invitation to a meeting that will discuss “the present crisis in the institution.” It is however not clear who has sent the letter and what the crisis really consists of. The players are told that their characters will assume that they know the nature of the crisis. What the crisis really is as well as everything else is improvised by the players as the game is played. The game continues until the characters themselves conclude the meeting.

 

Limbo

Limbo is a chamber game about a group of people from our own day and age who are hovering between life and death and who find themselves in a strange place. The realm of Limbo is beyond time. It is a waiting place where the characters can reflect on life as it has been so far before either returning to life once again or facing the unknown on the other side of death. To produce this game you need a room that can be closed off from outside lights and some scenography of your choosing. All information necessary for running this game can be found in the downloadable PDF file.

Created by Tor Kjetil Edland

Limbo PDF