Come What May - A Moulin Rouge LARP

RPG system: LARP
Participants: 1 GM, 20-32 players

By

✏️	Sereia Fiona
✏️	Micah Haddock
	Micah Haddock

Description

Moulin Rouge is a game of social intrigue and bawdy performances that is set after the time of the movie and stage show of the same name in which real life historical figures, politicians, wealthy businessmen, artists and writers, singers, dancers, actors and courtesans all rub shoulders with well known literary figures and gothic supernatural beings of the period as they wheel and deal to determine the fate of the iconic Moulin Rouge.

The Belle Époque was a period of peace and optimism in Paris; a time of rich cultural exuberance, prosperity, and industrial progress. Hopeful creatives and people from all walks of life flocked to Paris, the City of Lights, with its new icon, the Eiffel Tower. Yet the industrial age was a time of horror for many as the poor and working class languished in the slums and paid for the opulence of the upper class with their life’s blood. Encroaching industry was upsetting the natural order, and beneath the gilded surface of society lurked vengeful spirits and dark horrors out to exploit or punish the excesses and hubris of the age.

In Montmartre, a former farming village engulfed by the expanding metropolis of Paris, Joseph Oller and Charles Zidler opened the Moulin Rouge in 1889. It quickly became the most famous cabaret in the world, epitomizing the spirit of progress with its scandalous performances. Here wealthy elites could mingle with hungry artists and performers, all seeking to escape harsh reality into a world of pleasure and beauty where dreams could com true. Known for its festive champagne evenings and extravagant setting where people danced and were entertained by a variety of acts, the love and attention of artists and fashionable patrons, and of course the invention of the can-can, it was a massive success.

About a decade has passed and the cabaret has fallen on hard times: Satine the star performer has passed away, and the owners are desperately in need of a new star act and new investors. Harold Zidler and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec have therefore organized a lavish champagne evening where all the rising stars of the stage will compete to see who will be the Moulin Rouge’s next show-stopping act. The wealthy and aristocratic are expected to be out in force and this will also be the owners’ best opportunity to secure new patrons. But they had better be careful, because some potential patrons actually want to take over the Moulin Rouge themselves. Of course all the artists and writers who frequent the city’s nightlife will be there too, looking for inspiration and funding for their own projects.

Notes: This game combines real and fictional characters from late 1800s Europe This game will have heavy romantic entanglements, both in love, seduction, and transactional intercours, etc. This game will feature sex work prominently. This game will contain dark fictional elements such as danger, kidnapping, violence, and threats, as well as elements of gothic supernatural horror. It will not, however, contain any sexual violence. There will be a system of social currency players will use to keep track of who holds the most favor and how close they are to achieving their goals. There will be a system of cards to represent skills, items and powers that players may have. There will be periodic dances and performances during the game, and players who wish to perform will be able to compete in order to win over the crowd and the attentions of wealthy patrons. Inspirations are taken from the Moulin Rouge movie and stage show as well as the works of artists like Henri Toulouse-Loutrec and writers such as Oscar Wilde and Colette and various fictional works set in this time period.

Participant communications
A casting form will be sent when the game is full and players will receive character sheets once all participants have completed the form and the game is cast.
Content warnings
Kidnapping, murder, death, war, sickness, sexual content, sex work. The depiction of sexual contact is in backstory written romance.

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