Fandom High School

Everyone in the class would have gotten handwavey notices this morning instructing them to convene at the usual room in the Community Center to get into costume, and further instructions would come from there.

Once they got to the Community Center classroom, they'd see the large handwritten sign on mock parchment posted at the front table, reading:
Once properly garbed, proceed to the royal festival grounds*.


* - The park picnic area. Stay in character from this point on!

The 'royal festival grounds,' once they arrived, would prove to be a mess: tankards and plates scattered everywhere, (plastic, if anyone checked) food knocked every which way, and the fallen remnants of streaamers, torn into pieces and trampled into the grass. A few NPC people were sprawled around the area , whimpering and otherwise feigning injury. A figure came lurching toward them: Steph, in a very swashbuckler-like outfit, holding the hilt of a broken rapier in one hand and clutching her side with the other hand.

"Ah, adventurers -- and just in time, too! It seems brigands have made off with the royal treasure that was to be given out as prizes for the winners of the tournament. I tried my best to stop them, but I was sorely outnumbered." She gestured to the area around them -- and several sets of tracks that seemed to head in the direction of the duck pond. "Think some of you can chase them down for me, eh? And then some of these fine folk here will need some help getting back on their feet, if you're so inclined."

The background music today was better suited for a bustling urban setting -- well, a medieval fantasy-style urban setting, anyway, which ought to feel pretty contemporary for certain people on the roster. All the craft supplies were out again, now with a bunch of added decorative items: metallic foil, plastic gems, all the trappings one might need to start making their prop gear fancy and personalized.

"So," Steph began, "what do all of your characters plan to do when you get to the city? Wander around and see the sights? Find some kind of trouble to get into? Go on a shopping spree? The possibilities are endless. The only thing I'm going to tell you is that your paths are going to cross with other people besides your traveling companions on the way here. Maybe you'll join forces to complete someone's personal quest? Go on a bar crawl? That's totally up to you."

She mimed a little drum riff in the middle of saying all of this, spinning on her heel.

"Also, if you haven't already, think about your gear and your relationship to it. Is that a brand new sword, or does it have a story behind it because it's been passed down in your family for generations? Why did you pick the staff with all the knots and twists in it, instead of the perfectly smooth straight one?" Listen, there were jokes to be made there, and she wasn't making them. Admire her restraint, please. "This all seems like little stuff, but it could end up being a really interesting detail to build your character around. And don't forget, it's completely okay to build your character for the storytelling aspect of it. You don't have to make them the most badass fighter with all the best gear to make them even more badass if that's not your thing. They can have some completely impractical piece of equipment if it has personal significance. In games like these, having character flaws is, in fact, amazing."

She grinned. "Stuff to think about, and discuss with each other, while you work."

There was a soundtrack of retro, 8-bit video game music playing softly in the background today, because Steph would swear this stuff was great for motivation without being too distracting.

The pencils and markers and colored pens were back, too, along with stacks of graph paper and large-format blank sketch pads, but more notably there were some new things out on the tables: craft and EVA foam and carbon fiber rods in several pre-cut lengths, various scissors and cutting tools, glues, duct tape, paint, and other moddable within reason craft supplies.

"How's everybody doing with their character creation so far?" Steph asked as soon as it looked like everyone was present. "Coming along? Hope so, because we're going to start with some hands-on work this week. I'm talking costume props and weapons here, people. It's gonna be awesome."

She did a little spin turn and gestured toward the table of supplies with a flourish.

"Now, just to be clear, this isn't going to be a combat heavy LARP, but half the fun is in wandering around and getting to whack each other -- lightly -- with foam swords and things," she added, holding up her hands for emphasis, then tilted her head. "Maybe half. Give or take. Point is, I'm not taking that part of the fun away from you."

She gave a quick overview on the basics of building LARP weaponry, helpfully demonstrating the various components as she did.

"As for costumes... be creative. See what you can come up with out of your own closets -- hell, your friends' closets, as long as you have their permission. If you want to spend your own money on stuff, I'm not gonna stop you, but it's not necessary. I'm a big fan of people exercising their imaginations in these situations, and sometimes all you really need is a cool hat, or a little bit of facepaint, and the fun of bringing your characters to life. The rest is just a bonus." Her expression got a little more serious. "Anyone who tries to make anyone else feel like their costume isn't fancy enough or whatever is not going to like what I have to say to them. Got it?"

And just like that the serious moment was over, and she was back to being upbeat and enthusiastic. "Okay! Anyone who still wants or needs help working on their characters, come and talk to me. And start thinking about what you want your character to accomplish in the actual story, because we're going to start working on that next week. Otherwise, go nuts coming up with your costumes, get started on building your props, work together as much as you want to. Just... maybe don't glue yourselves to anything, okay? Trust me when I say that can get kinda bad."

The class had been notified to meet at the Community Center today, and for the next five weeks. When they got there, they'd find several long tables set out with chairs and moddable snacks, because if you asked Steph the snacks were a vital part of any gaming experience.

They'd also find Steph there in her usual ensemble of boots, skinny jeans, and beanie, wearing a shirt with the silhouettes of five fantasy adventurers under a d20 sun, and the words "Let's get this party rolling" beneath them. She was perched atop one of the tables, leaning back on her hands and kicking her feet, grinning eagerly at everyone as they showed up.

"What's up, everybody?" she asked once she was fairly satisfied that everyone on the roster appeared to be present. "And welcome to Choose Your Own Adventure: The Fandom LARP Project 1.0. I'm Steph Gingrich, and I'm going to be your totally awesome game master for this quest. What quest is this, you ask? An excellent question, to which I answer: we're going to be creating and running our own mini LARP -- that's short for live action role play, by the way. You all are going to help me decide on what kind of story we're going to be telling together."

She hopped down off the table and started pacing back and forth like her enthusiasm couldn't be contained (it couldn't), gesturing with her hands for emphasis as she continued.

"Once we've got that nailed down, you get to start creating your characters and coming up with costumes for them -- and weapons. Foam weapons, because this is going to have a combat element to it, but it's still a game. There are rules for that, and it's not going to be anything super intense, just to make sure it's fair for everyone since I know not all of you have actual fight training, but we'll get to that in a couple of weeks. But this week?" Steph shrugged and gave them a wry, apologetic smile. "We're going to stick to the basics, just to give me an idea of what we'll be working with. That's right, it's the dreaded first week introduction session. Name, where you're from, whether you have any kind of experience with roleplaying games -- and that's not a requirement, so don't worry if you're a total newbie to this stuff."

There was going to be no gatekeeping bullshit on her watch, thanks.

"And finally?" She gestured toward a small wooden treasure chest with a stack of slips of paper and a jar of pens beside it. "Come up and vote on what setting you want for the game: I've got high fantasy, space western, nautical, cyberpunk, survival, and Earth historical, but I'm open to other suggestions if you have 'em, or questions if you're not sure what any of these mean. But first, let's get to the introductions: I'm Steph, I'm from a version of this world but about two years in the past, and I've been playing tabletop RPGs and LARPing for most of my life."

She pointed to someone at random. "Your turn. Let's go."