https://twitter.com/DMarshallB

Styles of Play: Freeform larp, Larp, Craft

A village of craftspeople are preparing for the annual Harvest Festival, a night of feasting and merrymaking (but also one of gratitude, apology, and forgiveness). Everyone is trying to make their best work to give away to their friends and loved ones on that day, while getting advice from their peers to make sure their gifts are accepted! Players alternate phases of origami-making and self-guided improvised scenes leading up to a cathartic climax.

Tags: pastoral, craft, origami, heartwarming

*Only three days remain before the Harvest Festival.*

*Will your hard work be good enough to earn your mentor's pride, your friend's forgiveness, or maybe your family's love?*

*Will it be good enough to express the full weight of the words you cannot bring yourself to say?*

***

**The Harvest Festival** is a high-transparency pastoral freeform game about interpersonal conflict and support networks, with elements of *Stardew Valley*, origami, sewing circles, and the glass box mechanic.

We will build a caring (if flawed) community around family, gift-giving, and craftsmanship.

Players collect in three-to-four groups of craftspeople working on the same origami model, symbolizing their craft. By deciding what craft is being symbolized, they define the setting. Be it fishing nets, crystal balls, or cybernetic implants, the community is always provincial, proud, and industrious. Once the community is defined, characters arise through connections built between players.

During the Day, craftspeople will gather with their peers to put in a day's work and chat with each other. Elders provide instructions on the craft, while all members provide support and advice (of varying quality) in response to their peers' struggles and complaints with life in the community.

At Night, the craftspeople act on their peers' advice, playing out quick, self-constructed scenes with their neighbors, loved ones, drinking buddies, nemeses, etc.. These "glass box scenes" can take place anywhere you need them to (as with a "black box" scene), but can also be spied upon by eavesdroppers in-character or watched out-of-character to heighten dramatic irony (hence the "glass" walls).

After three cycles, the annual Harvest Festival arrives, when each craftsperson will present their handiwork to other members of the community as symbols of gratitude, forgiveness, or apology. As long as they are accepted.

***

*Consider those to whom you wish to give gratitude, forgiveness, or an apology.*

*Consider those who you feel owe you gratitude, forgiveness, or an apology.*

*Consider those to whom you will* never *give gratitude, forgiveness, or an apology.*

*Only three days remain before the Harvest Festival.*

*Will your hard work be good enough to earn your mentor's pride, your friend's forgiveness, or maybe your family's love?*

*Will it be good enough to express the full weight of the words you cannot bring yourself to say?*

***

**The Harvest Festival** is a high-transparency pastoral freeform game with player-generated plot and a wide, open sandbox for storytelling, with elements of *Stardew Valley*, origami, sewing circles, and the glass box mechanic.

We will build a caring (if flawed) community around family, gift-giving, and craftsmanship.

Players collect in four groups of craftspeople working on the same origami model, symbolizing their craft. By deciding what craft is being symbolized, they define the setting. Be it fishing nets, crystal balls, or cybernetic implants, the community is always provincial, proud, and industrious. Once the community is defined, characters arise through connections built between players.

During the Day, craftspeople will gather with their peers to put in a day's work and chat with each other. Elders provide instructions on the craft, while all members provide support and advice (of varying quality) in response to their peers' struggles and complaints with life in the community.

At Night, the craftspeople act on their peers' advice, playing out quick, self-constructed scenes with their neighbors, loved ones, drinking buddies, nemeses, etc.. These "glass box scenes" can be set anywhere you need them to (as with a "black box" scene), but can also be spied upon by eavesdroppers in-character or watched out-of-character to heighten dramatic irony (hence the "glass" walls).

After three day/night cycles, the annual Harvest Festival arrives, when each craftsperson will present their handiwork to other members of the community as symbols of gratitude, forgiveness, or apology. As long as they are accepted.