Fortunee & Felicity - a Jane Austen larp -

• Historic larp

RPG system: LARP
Participants: 150 players

By

	Jennie Borgström (Crew)
	Alma Elofsson Edgar (Crew)
	Jeppe Bergmann Hamming (Crew)
	Maria Bergmann Hamming (Crew)
	Elsa Helin (Crew)
	Daniel Krauklis (Crew)
	Anna-Karin Linder (Crew)
	Frida Karlsson Lindgren (Crew)
	Mimmi Lundkvist (Crew)
	Gustav Nilsson (Crew)
	Martin Rother-Schirren (Crew)
	Sabina Sonning (Crew)
	Daniel Sundström (Crew)
	Joel Östlund (Crew)
	Mikaela Lindh (Crew and Costumes)
	Ylva Berry (Dance)
	Jacob Ordeberg (Dance)
	Janetta Nyberg (Design and illustration)
	Lotta Westholm (Design and illustration)
	Sarah Lynne Bowman (Editing)
	Jason Morningstar (Editing)
	Lizzie Stark (Editing)
	Susanne Gräslund (Music)
	Elsa Helin (Music)
	Niclas Hell (Music)
	Henrik Summanen (Music)
	Kalle Lantz (Photo)
	Frida Selvén (Photo)
	Mia Häggström (PR)
	Anna Westerling (Production)
	Anders Hultman (Production and Costumes)

Description

Setting
Where do we play?
The larp is set in the village of Primrose Park, at the height of the Romantic era as Jane Austen describes in her books. It could any time in between 1790 and 1820. You'll visit Primrose during spring, summer and autumn. You've come to Primrose Park for reasons of your own - to recover from some illness, to find a partner in life, or simply to amuse yourself.

Primrose Park is a popular destination for the English upper class. You've come to take the waters - the natural springs of the park being particularly healthful and rejuvenating. It has become something of a "must" on the social calendar, with a busy schedule of balls, concerts and other activities to occupy the gentry while you all take the waters. Unlike Bath, England's larger and more popular spa town, the fictional Primrose Park is smaller, nestled deep in the countryside, closer to nature, and therefore a more healthful - although not more exclusive - option. Some say the water is purer than Bath's, and of course it can't be denied that beign surrounded by verdant nature and a simpler life will improve one. Primrose Park is also slightly cheaper, which cannot be disregarded when discussing its popularity.

Of course, another factor in the evergreen popularity of Primrose park is its other reputation - that of a village of love, a place one goes to flirt, be flirted with, and find a marriageable partner - even though Primrose Park does not advertise this feature. The people of Primrose prefer to tout their excellent classes that develop mind and body. The classes are indeed first-rate. But nobody comes to Primrose Park to learn archery, if you take my meaning.

Class & Money
How did it work in Austen's time?
You will all play a character who belongs to of the lower part of the English upper class. You are not dukes or duchesses, and do not know the royals, but are rather more or less part of the class that is called the landed gentry. You are just above the line of needing to work - some of you comfortably so, and some uncomfortably so. Others can see the line and wish they were on the happy side of it.

This makes money a central part of your characters lives and of the larp, because working is hard and money does give you a considerably better life with time for education and pleasures. Money gives you the opportunity of having several servants, which spares you from a lot of heavy work. However at the larp we will require no servants, since we have both electricity and warm tap water in the 21st century.

To avoid work you require a large fortune. With interest at approximately 5%, £20000 pounds allows you to live pleasantly of the interest of £1000 pounds a year. Fortunes can belong to either sex, although men usually have more.

In Austen's novels they talk about the yearly incomes, for example the rich Mr Darcy in Pride and Prejudice has £10000 a year. We will continue talking about yearly incomes to compare how rich people are. The women in Austen’s novels are described by how large their dowry is - for example Emma's dowry is £30 000. This is her entire fortune, and with an interest of 5% it will give her £1500 a year. For the purpose of the larp we will only refer to income, regardless of the source, to simplify things.

As a man you can earn money in more ways. The most prestigious is to be a landowner, to own an estate and have tenants who work for you. That is usually the privilege of the eldest son, who inherits the family title (if any) and wealth. But younger brothers need something to live by as well, and there are a few acceptable professions such as the clergy, the military, or becoming successful within law or medicine in London. You can also earn your money by trade. This is considered somehow lesser, but of course if you earn a lot of money you are still part of the club.

Being a child of the Enlightenment, Austen wrote the characters who made their own money as positive role-models, for example the naval Crofts or the Gardeners, who made their money in trade. Simultaneously, she ridicules nobles who put too much importance into birth, like Sir Walter Elliot and Lady Catherine de Bought.

As a women of a good family your options are few. You can marry, be fortunate enough to have inherited your own fortune to live on, or become a governess. The second option is rare and the third often very hard and lonely.

Runs 🗺️

Links

• Website
• Nordic Larp Wiki article