4 ms·

The Collective Ambition Behind Odysseus, a Game-Changing Sci-Fi Larp

115 points by adrianhon 2y ago

RugnirViking 2y ago
I would desperately love to do something like this. Either as a participant or as an organizer. Honestly, if anyone wants help in my local area (denmark) or remote help organizing web stuff or part design/3d sculpting for 3d printers id be happy to donate some time. I had heard of similar things in the UK, fantasy stuff. and also Evermore park in the US which was like an even more ambitious theme-park sized one that had a continuous ongoing story.
- aleph_minus_one 2y ago
  Then start organizing something like this. :-)
  - RugnirViking 2y ago
    My remote hope was that something like spontaneous organization could form here in the comments :P but honestly i'm aware this kind of thing requires years of putting yourself out there making smaller events, building up etc. But I've not really ever been in this world, it might be nice to know someone with a bit more experience to guide me, or hear about something already going before diving into organizing something myself
  - saulpw 2y ago
    Looks like they are. Why don't you start responding to comments exhorting the person to do what they're already doing in the very comment you're responding to?
    - RugnirViking 2y ago
      to be fair to them, my comment was a lot shorter when they responded, they were very fast aha
- adrianhon 2y ago
  OP here! Denmark has a very strong larp scene with a lot of young people involved due to the popularity of larp for children and at schools. I’m not sure if there’s anything on the scale of Odysseus planned but the skills certainly exist.
- panzagl 2y ago
  You should look into the Artemis Spaceship Simulator: https://www.artemisspaceshipbridge.com/#/ https://www.artemisspaceshipbridge.com/#/ (also on Steam) While not nearly as extensive as what's in the article, it's a first step achievable with a small group of friends.
  - WorldMaker 2y ago
    Also the article mentions that the Larp mentioned here directly used an Open Source relative (competitor?) to Artemis named EmptyEpsilon: https://daid.github.io/EmptyEpsilon/ https://daid.github.io/EmptyEpsilon/ Artemis Tom is cool and deserves the revenue and has a lot of cool scenarios and stuff out of the box. EmptyEpsilon is when you start to need more customization, down to source level, and GM tools. (The article mentions a lot of what this Larp did was not heavily automated and somewhat directly in EmptyEpsilon's GM tools.)
    - smcameron 2y ago
      Don't forget (my own) Space Nerds in Space: https://spacenerdsinspace.com https://spacenerdsinspace.com (discussed here previously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28343941 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28343941)
- creade 2y ago
  you might check out Copenhagen Megagames[1] which is the other name I've seen for this type of stuff [1] https://www.cphmegagames.dk/ https://www.cphmegagames.dk/
- klik99 2y ago
  "Nordic Larp" and the Knutepunkt (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knutepunkt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knutepunkt) conference is close to you. I worked with a guy who organized an earlier battlestar galactica larp: https://petterkarlsson.se/2013/03/19/the-monitor-celestra-battlestar-galactica-larp/ https://petterkarlsson.se/2013/03/19/the-monitor-celestra-ba... and they do things like - rent a medieval castle and larp courtly drama, etc. I'm in the US and they don't do this kind of thing often, but if you're interested by Odyssesus then nordic larp scene will totally be your jam, and honestly I'm jealous. If there's anyone in Seattle doing this kind of thing, say something!
- zabzonk 2y ago
  > Evermore park in the US Another great Jenny Nicholson review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9OhTB5eBqQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9OhTB5eBqQ
Animats 2y ago
The web site of this LARP has good video.[1] They did a very good job on this. Here's the prep material for players.[2] It's intense. 48 hours with no breaks. It's hard to scale location-based entertainment. Disney tried the Galactic Starcruiser themed hotel, but it was a dud. Too expensive - $5000 or so for 2.5 days. It was a LARP dumbed down to Disney park customer level. Lots of mini-games, not much coordinated activity. That's about how this sort of thing usually goes. Keeping everybody on script in coordinated activity is tough. I was involved with steampunk conventions, pre-COVID. Those took elaborate prep, but there was no all-player coordinated event. The US has some events like this. Wasteland Weekend. The Society for Creative Anachronism. Military reenactment groups. [1] https://www.odysseuslarp.com/ https://www.odysseuslarp.com/ [2] https://www.odysseuslarp.com/blog https://www.odysseuslarp.com/blog
- jimbob45 2y ago
  Obligatory link to the Jenny Nicholson Galactic Starcruiser review[0] since there's really no better overview of the experience. [0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0CpOYZZZW4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0CpOYZZZW4
  - moomin 2y ago
    That video lives rent-free in my head.
  - adrianhon 2y ago
    I’m the OP; I went to the Starcruiser later in its run and had a very different experience. Here’s my writeup: https://mssv.net/2023/08/07/star-wars-galactic-starcruiser/ https://mssv.net/2023/08/07/star-wars-galactic-starcruiser/
    - ZeWaka 2y ago
      Thanks for linking this, that was a fantastic read.
    - acheron 2y ago
      Thanks for that. Does sound interesting, I wonder if Disney will try something else similar or if they're going to run far away after they had to close Starcruiser.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
ifthenelseor 2y ago
Because I see people asking, some groups that do things like this in the US: https://reverie.studio/ https://reverie.studio/ https://grimmoire.productions/ https://grimmoire.productions/ https://www.journeysandtales.net/ https://www.journeysandtales.net/ https://www.drachenfest.us/ https://www.drachenfest.us/ https://www.jackalope-larp.com/ https://www.jackalope-larp.com/ https://www.sinkingshipcreations.com/ https://www.sinkingshipcreations.com/ https://larpcoop.regfox.com/shirefolk https://larpcoop.regfox.com/shirefolk Or at lower production values: https://makeascenemn.org/en/ https://makeascenemn.org/en/ http://www.interactiveliterature.org/NEIL http://www.interactiveliterature.org/NEIL https://2025.beconlarp.com/ https://2025.beconlarp.com/
protocolture 2y ago
Damn, building the tooling for this myself was a bad idea. They advertise 20 pieces of custom software, is source available for these anywhere?
- protocolture 2y ago
  I see now they used Empty Epsilon so thats accounted for.
- anente 2y ago
  There is a blog post from the Software lead of the project written after the 2019 runs, which eg. includes a list of all the software's. Some of them were expanded for 2024 runs as well as few new ones added. https://www.spatineo.com/odysseus-a-story-about-survival-using-gis/?fbclid=IwAR1R-b-U8p_5obBCQh9vtUYrtjbrXf822KFslFMDpbKcMD85McaSTTd1yAI https://www.spatineo.com/odysseus-a-story-about-survival-usi...
- Tharna 2y ago
  All our source code is available at Github: https://github.com/OdysseusLarp/ https://github.com/OdysseusLarp/

115 points by adrianhon 2y ago

I would desperately love to do something like this. Either as a participant or as an organizer. Honestly, if anyone wants help in my local area (denmark) or remote help organizing web stuff or part design/3d sculpting for 3d printers id be happy to donate some time. I had heard of similar things in the UK, fantasy stuff. and also Evermore park in the US which was like an even more ambitious theme-park sized one that had a continuous ongoing story.

aleph_minus_one 2y ago
Then start organizing something like this. :-)
- RugnirViking 2y ago
  My remote hope was that something like spontaneous organization could form here in the comments :P but honestly i'm aware this kind of thing requires years of putting yourself out there making smaller events, building up etc. But I've not really ever been in this world, it might be nice to know someone with a bit more experience to guide me, or hear about something already going before diving into organizing something myself
- saulpw 2y ago
  Looks like they are. Why don't you start responding to comments exhorting the person to do what they're already doing in the very comment you're responding to?
  - RugnirViking 2y ago
    to be fair to them, my comment was a lot shorter when they responded, they were very fast aha
adrianhon 2y ago
OP here! Denmark has a very strong larp scene with a lot of young people involved due to the popularity of larp for children and at schools. I’m not sure if there’s anything on the scale of Odysseus planned but the skills certainly exist.
panzagl 2y ago
You should look into the Artemis Spaceship Simulator: https://www.artemisspaceshipbridge.com/#/ https://www.artemisspaceshipbridge.com/#/ (also on Steam) While not nearly as extensive as what's in the article, it's a first step achievable with a small group of friends.
- WorldMaker 2y ago
  Also the article mentions that the Larp mentioned here directly used an Open Source relative (competitor?) to Artemis named EmptyEpsilon: https://daid.github.io/EmptyEpsilon/ https://daid.github.io/EmptyEpsilon/ Artemis Tom is cool and deserves the revenue and has a lot of cool scenarios and stuff out of the box. EmptyEpsilon is when you start to need more customization, down to source level, and GM tools. (The article mentions a lot of what this Larp did was not heavily automated and somewhat directly in EmptyEpsilon's GM tools.)
  - smcameron 2y ago
    Don't forget (my own) Space Nerds in Space: https://spacenerdsinspace.com https://spacenerdsinspace.com (discussed here previously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28343941 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28343941)
creade 2y ago
you might check out Copenhagen Megagames[1] which is the other name I've seen for this type of stuff [1] https://www.cphmegagames.dk/ https://www.cphmegagames.dk/
klik99 2y ago
"Nordic Larp" and the Knutepunkt (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knutepunkt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knutepunkt) conference is close to you. I worked with a guy who organized an earlier battlestar galactica larp: https://petterkarlsson.se/2013/03/19/the-monitor-celestra-battlestar-galactica-larp/ https://petterkarlsson.se/2013/03/19/the-monitor-celestra-ba... and they do things like - rent a medieval castle and larp courtly drama, etc. I'm in the US and they don't do this kind of thing often, but if you're interested by Odyssesus then nordic larp scene will totally be your jam, and honestly I'm jealous. If there's anyone in Seattle doing this kind of thing, say something!
zabzonk 2y ago
> Evermore park in the US Another great Jenny Nicholson review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9OhTB5eBqQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9OhTB5eBqQ

Animats 2y ago

The web site of this LARP has good video.[1] They did a very good job on this. Here's the prep material for players.[2] It's intense. 48 hours with no breaks. It's hard to scale location-based entertainment. Disney tried the Galactic Starcruiser themed hotel, but it was a dud. Too expensive - $5000 or so for 2.5 days. It was a LARP dumbed down to Disney park customer level. Lots of mini-games, not much coordinated activity. That's about how this sort of thing usually goes. Keeping everybody on script in coordinated activity is tough. I was involved with steampunk conventions, pre-COVID. Those took elaborate prep, but there was no all-player coordinated event. The US has some events like this. Wasteland Weekend. The Society for Creative Anachronism. Military reenactment groups. [1] https://www.odysseuslarp.com/ https://www.odysseuslarp.com/ [2] https://www.odysseuslarp.com/blog https://www.odysseuslarp.com/blog

jimbob45 2y ago
Obligatory link to the Jenny Nicholson Galactic Starcruiser review[0] since there's really no better overview of the experience. [0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0CpOYZZZW4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0CpOYZZZW4
- moomin 2y ago
  That video lives rent-free in my head.
- adrianhon 2y ago
  I’m the OP; I went to the Starcruiser later in its run and had a very different experience. Here’s my writeup: https://mssv.net/2023/08/07/star-wars-galactic-starcruiser/ https://mssv.net/2023/08/07/star-wars-galactic-starcruiser/
  - ZeWaka 2y ago
    Thanks for linking this, that was a fantastic read.
  - acheron 2y ago
    Thanks for that. Does sound interesting, I wonder if Disney will try something else similar or if they're going to run far away after they had to close Starcruiser.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

ifthenelseor 2y ago

Because I see people asking, some groups that do things like this in the US: https://reverie.studio/ https://reverie.studio/ https://grimmoire.productions/ https://grimmoire.productions/ https://www.journeysandtales.net/ https://www.journeysandtales.net/ https://www.drachenfest.us/ https://www.drachenfest.us/ https://www.jackalope-larp.com/ https://www.jackalope-larp.com/ https://www.sinkingshipcreations.com/ https://www.sinkingshipcreations.com/ https://larpcoop.regfox.com/shirefolk https://larpcoop.regfox.com/shirefolk Or at lower production values: https://makeascenemn.org/en/ https://makeascenemn.org/en/ http://www.interactiveliterature.org/NEIL http://www.interactiveliterature.org/NEIL https://2025.beconlarp.com/ https://2025.beconlarp.com/

protocolture 2y ago

Damn, building the tooling for this myself was a bad idea. They advertise 20 pieces of custom software, is source available for these anywhere?

protocolture 2y ago
I see now they used Empty Epsilon so thats accounted for.
anente 2y ago
There is a blog post from the Software lead of the project written after the 2019 runs, which eg. includes a list of all the software's. Some of them were expanded for 2024 runs as well as few new ones added. https://www.spatineo.com/odysseus-a-story-about-survival-using-gis/?fbclid=IwAR1R-b-U8p_5obBCQh9vtUYrtjbrXf822KFslFMDpbKcMD85McaSTTd1yAI https://www.spatineo.com/odysseus-a-story-about-survival-usi...
Tharna 2y ago
All our source code is available at Github: https://github.com/OdysseusLarp/ https://github.com/OdysseusLarp/