Play Style

Playstyle • Cinematic larp • Characters • Our mission

“The old world is dying. We are in the last hour, the darkest one. This world is being destroyed before our eyes. What we do now decides the fate of this world and the next.”

— a22network

Introduction

The East is a larp we consider the moral sequel to Black Friday (see trailer and photos from that larp). We will cover a different story and topics, however, some elements will stay the same:

The Authors of The East invite you to explore uncomfortable questions, moral doubts, and burning issues of our modern world. We will not reveal more than what you read on the site and every need-to-know information will be conveyed privately after you have signed up and chosen your character. We are thrilled with this project, trust us and be swept away by the winds of the East!

“WE ARE HEADING TOWARDS EXTINCTION, LET'S REBEL!”

— Extinction Rebellion

Secrets and Transparency
no spoilers, please!

Suspense, secrets, and surprises are essential elements in The East. All characters have different starting agendas, points of view, morals, and secrets. All secrets will be revealed in due time. We believe that you will be able to get the most out of the game if you allow yourself to uncover secrets and be surprised both as a character and as a player at the same time.
All information provided on this website is truthful and tries to present as best as possible the kind of experience and themes the authors want to convey, but they intentionally lack details.
We suggest you refrain from discussing game secrets with other players before the event and keep the full description of your character and the group you are part of, for your eyes only. In a nutshell, avoid any "spoilers".
While some players are more accustomed to larps based on full disclosure and transparency, keep in mind other players are not. Moreover, The East is based on the assumption that in a thriller with spy story elements, secrets are a fundamental driving force.

Bold, controversial, engaging

Playstyle

The East is an immersive Live Action Role-play (“larp”), based on free roleplay and improvisation. You can imagine being a character in a movie, with all the ensuing feelings, drives, goals, and fears. Whatever action you would like your character to carry out during the game, just do it for real! The only boundaries will be common sense and a set of simple safety rules on how to simulate what little would be too dangerous or burdensome otherwise.

In the East, conflicts aren’t there for us to pursue some sort of personal “victory” but to help us build a collective story and develop relationships between characters. Every scene should be as “cinematic” as possible, to be interesting and engaging, as much for the characters who are directly involved as for those assisting.

The key guideline will be "What You See Is What You Get": the event aims towards being as immersive as possible and whatever “exists” in the game will have a physical representation.

“And you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'”

— Bob Dylan

The East is a work of fiction in which the characters will grapple with secrets and surprises, tension and suspicion, controversial and potentially unpleasant moral choices, action and violence. There will be moments when one must think, act or react quickly and the protagonists will be under pressure.

It is a non-stop larp with no breaks in the game, and we anticipate that characters, and consequently participants, may want to sacrifice rest and self-care to follow the flow of the story or their own goals.

You will have safe words and signals at your disposal to regulate the intensity of the game or step back from situations and scenes that might make you uncomfortable: use them!

Be present, be responsible and if you feel that this event may be too demanding for you, physically or psychologically, contact the staff for clarification and consider whether or not to sign up.

CINEMATIC LARP

The story of The East takes place in Italy, in the present day, but frames and represents a now fully globalized world in which not only companies but also non-governmental organizations and informal networks of citizens join forces in common projects.
Planet Earth is home to the protagonists of our story, who in fact come from different countries and continents.
The cinema too, thanks mainly to streaming platforms, has undermined the US monopoly on the sector, bringing works, sensibilities, and cultures from all over the world to our screens.

The setting is deliberately cinematic and framed through the lens of the action thriller genre. Becoming part of the character will not be complicated, as you can draw on the enormous collective imagination of films and TV series in which the characters' feelings are human, but their actions, ideological and personal positions, and with them the context in which they move are instead deliberately over the top, following the typical stereotypes of the media, or “TV tropes”.

Naturally, we are referring to these stereotypes only as a starting point, a way to quickly recall that “movie feeling”. They should just be a base on which you can build a credible and fun character and any cliché should be played out with a critical and creative attitude.

Try calling to mind what you have seen on movie screens when choosing the way your character acts and speaks: striking punchlines and dramatic actions will add a lot of flavor to scenes and relationships.

Each character must imagine him/herself as the protagonist of a story that has no co-stars, and to which everyone contributes with their own performance, which should be as active and at the service of the other players as possible, in terms of cues and interrelationships.

This is a dramatic larp, the approach is not naturalistic; although the characters are humanly understandable, realistic, and multifaceted, they are more like those from a film or TV series than real people.

CHARACTERS

In The East, there will be many situations where the doubts that haunt the human soul and the boundaries of idealism, duty, and justice will be central. The story will focus on the fine line that separates the individual conscience and the collective one.

These dilemmas represent the character’s emotional development and drive to action. The characters in a story go through states of mind and change their ideals, just as real people do.

A larp is all about making these moments intense and fun to play, constantly giving other characters a chance to interact and enrich them.

Dilemmas and choices will clash with the agendas and convictions of your character, initiating scenes, intrigues, and plots which will form the core of your role-playing experience

The characters are pre-generated so that everyone is fully involved in the story of The East, and are grouped into three groups that largely determine their relationships and background information.

Each character is presented through a short teaser framing their name, ideological position and skills, and some salient features of their personality.

Once you have chosen your character, you will be able to personalize and deepen his or her history and relationship with others, through private communications and specially created Whatsapp groups.

More information on this can be found in the "Characters" page.

Our Mission

PRE-PACKAGED MORALITY? NOT FOR THIS LARP!

The East is a "political" larp, focused on contemporary and important issues. However, our goal is not to create a manifesto in which authors tell participants what to think.

This larp doesn't provide a message, it asks a question, or rather a series of questions. The characters will be called to answer them, most likely in ways that differ from the sensibilities of the players. Our goal is to inform and to spark reflection, to highlight contrasts, doubts, and controversies. In the end, the only message is: get emotionally invested, be bold in fiction, but think about the reality we are representing.