Fracture

Embrace a harrowing journey within Fracture—a Nordic larp where a trip to summer camp becomes a crucible for death and rebirth at the hands of mysterious cultists: how long until you break? In Fracture, you'll experience a weekend-long Nordic larp experience that merges splatterpunk and psychological horror, to be run at Ye Olde Commons, in Charlton, Massachusetts, Labor Day Weekend, August 30th–September 1st 2024. It is set in the extended universe of Reverie Studio's premier blockbuster event Eskhaton and features cultists lurking in the foreboding woods waiting to convert unsuspecting campers, in a cosmic horror setting. Participants will be campers and cultists, with campers dying and becoming cultists. THEMES On Its Face: Fracture is a nod to many things: campy slasher movies, pastiche of growing up in the 80’s and 90’s, and overcoming mounting adversity in an evolving, ever-changing, modern world. Surface themes include, but are not limited to: fear of the unknown, isolation and fear of being lost, psychological horror, interpersonal conflict, and sacrifice. At Its Heart:Fracture is about reaching and identifying one’s breaking point - the juncture when you simply cannot endure any further. From a meta perspective, there are diegetic allegories of identity politics, political schisms, and socio-economic divides. Fracture is a story about picking yourself—and others—up after traumatic events, and making a conscious decision in not letting them define you, in an effort to break those cycles of behavior. CHARACTERS Characters will consist of camp counselors and staff, local townies, various flavors of campers with diverse backgrounds, and of course, clandestine cultists of the Extant—a mysterious order dwelling in the darkness of the woods. Over the course of the weekend, all will endure harrowing encounters from the cultists. Most will meet their gruesome fate, and enact the same bitter end on others. Though, for the Extant, death is never the end: when a character 'dies' they will be reborn as a cultist and continue the experience. Very few will survive, but all will be changed, and absorbed into the eternal cosmic cycle of Birth, Death, and Rebirth. EXPERIENCE Participants will have a plethora of experiences to enjoy. Counselors and staff will conduct their work around the camp, leading the campers in typical summer activities, while navigating their own landscape of plots and problems behind closed doors. Campers will break off in ‘Camper Groups’ and experience the typical offerings of a summer camp, navigate a tense interpersonal landscape, and become converted/convert others to the cult of the Extant. Cultists will be operating under the guise of campers, counselors, or local residents, but will primarily be working to ‘convert’ their victims, while upkeeping the ruse of their personas. The primary goals of the event are to uncover the mysteries of Camp Whispering Pines, be pushed and push others to their breaking points, die, and ultimately, be reborn. DEATH & REBIRTH Death and Rebirth is the featured theme of this larp, so for most non-cultist characters death is not optional. But participants will ultimately decide how and when their character dies and then play out their rebirth among the cultists. Participants will have negotiated methods and techniques to navigate in-character conflict and consent based play. Conflict is between characters, not participants, and conflicts include consent. Participants will receive workshop training on how to conduct this safely and cooperatively, lifting for good roleplay and experience while respecting others autonomy and desire for a scene to proceed in a collaborative manner.