https://thunderbeard.itch.io/

Styles of Play: Freeform larp, Larp, Streaming/Online Face to Face

The world is ending—on this, sources agree. If there is a tomorrow, whether or not you live to see it, it will need new heroes and gods. And so each of you has decided to propose how the world may yet be reborn…if you can convince anyone else.

Let's You and Him Flyte is a game of formalized arguments in the broad style of historical Anglo-Saxon poetry (err, that is, "ritualized verbal combat"), as a group of survivors debates and competes to see who will save the world, and how.

Tags: medieval, post-apocalyptic, argument, improv

…Argument, Apocalypse, Anglo-Saxons, and Apotheosis…

The armies of the fyrd have fallen in battle, and the shire burns from weald to wold. The gods have all perished, the seers proclaim, through tears and gnashing teeth. Woden and his valcyres have ridden their last, and the sky fills with dark winds and strange thunders. The world is ending — on this, sources agree.

At the mead-hall of Gevering, Queen Linda has called a folkmoot, to gather and hold council on these trying times. But the time for action is past, and only a handful of survivors have made it out of the storm and through those fabled wooden doors. You are road-weary, battered and beaten down by the fates, but the stores hold more than enough for one last feast.

There are no weapons allowed in the mead-hall — if you have differences to settle, it will be with your words. If there is a tomorrow, whether or not you live to see it, it will need new heroes and gods. And so each of you has decided to propose how the world may yet be reborn…if you can successfully argue the case.

Let’s you and him flyte is a game about ritualized Anglo-Saxon verbal combat, where warriors compete to one-up each other with insults (“flyte”), boasts (“beot”), or flattery (“roose”). The core mechanic focuses on these traditional skaldic styles of dramatic argument, which will be taught at the beginning of the game, but you don’t have to be a poet to play.

(Although being comfortable with at least one of: insulting, boasting, or flattering your fellow characters might help).

It’s also a game about weathering an apocalypse, while collectively dreaming of a better world to come. Expect some emotions, improvisational storytelling, and quite a few off-the-cuff moments.

This game is based on a past Golden Cobra submission, but significantly more content and character development has been added.

Major inspirations: King of Dragon Pass, Beowulf, and Neil Gaimans’s Sandman

Participant communications
An extremely brief survey will be sent out around 4-6 weeks before game, with character sheets soon after. Players will also get to invent/flesh out a few specific heroes and gods over the course of the game.

Expect short character sheets (~2 pages) and longer but important rules documentation (~5 pages)

Content warnings
While not critical to all aspects of the game, improvisation — and the ability to come up with comments on the spot — plays a prominent enough role in this game that it might not be as fun for folks with extreme performance anxiety.

Themes in the game also include death, loss of loved ones, professional burnout, and the significant class disparities of medieval Anglo-Saxon society.