Witches of Segovia

RPG system: LARP
Participants: 4 players

By

Intercon U: Ultraviolet (2023), Crowne Plaza, Warwick, Rhode Island, United States

Megan Coppock

Description

The end is near, you can feel it. Proclaimed a witch by the Spanish Inquisition by virtue of being poor and female, you wait in a cave outside the fortress city of Segovia to be taken in. But you still have a choice: what will you live for, or what will you die for?

The Witches of Segovia is a 2-hour, 4 person game about four women (note: all characters are female, though players of any gender are welcome) about to be captured by the Spanish Inquisition and charged with witchcraft. As an alternative to the humiliation and torture that will likely result from their capture (not taking place during game), a potion has been brewed from an old family grimoire. Three doses will kill a full-grown woman, but the first and second will give visions of past lives and future ones. Characters will have the option to explore these lives and the themes that their soul carries from life to life, but must decide if they will take the third and final dose before the Inquisition arrives.

One page characters will be assigned via a casting survey, and the first hour of the game will be workshopping the relationships between the women. The second half will be the hour just before the Inquisition arrives and will focus on interpersonal stories and character arcs between multiple lives. Play will take place in a low-light space, but characters will not be required to move around. Players can expect to open and read 0 to 2 paragraphs in game based on actions, and small lights will be provided as a visual aid. Themes in game play will include feminism, religious authority and persecution, and social injustice. Content will include potential suicide by poison for everyone, as well as religious persecution and threat of torture. Individual characters may have backstories and additional content that include domestic violence and loss of autonomy.

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