The larp will run five times between July 16th to July 23rd, 2023.
Every day, a new family moves in and will lose control over their passions and actions. Each player group will overlap with the previous one, interacting with each other. The larp has previously run six times in 2019 and six times in 2022.
Day 1: Arrive at the location - workshop
You arrive at the location in the evening and get settled in. You workshop with your family.
(You should eat before arrival)
Day 2: Larp the family
After breakfast and a short workshop, you play the family who has just moved into the house. During the day, House will slowly corrupt the family and by late night engulf them and make them part of House.
Day 3: Larp the house
After breakfast and a short workshop with the new family, you play House. Here your characters, now ghosts, will enforce their will on the living family, and you will repeat the cycle of corruption and destruction.
Day 4: Breakfast and leave the house
After breakfast and a short debrief, you leave the location.
In the first and last runs of the larp, a group of participants will play only House or only Family for a shorter experience. See more here
Playing Style
House of Craving is played in a very physical style, where dancing is dancing and fighting looks real.
All genders, sexualities and bodies are invited to act wicked and be beautiful at this larp. During play, you are likely to become witness to nudity, public displays of affection and sexuality, simulated but realistic-looking sex, and violence.
A good minimum comfort level for participation is for you to be able to hug a stranger tightly and maybe kiss them on the mouth. But be it gentle intimacy, portrayed lust or pretend violence, you will always have full control of your own body and of the story you are telling. You always choose who to touch and how others touch you. You can always leave any situation for a different direction of play, or step outside the play area to take a break from the fiction as needed.
Real alcohol will be served, but players deemed too intoxicated to participate responsibly will be removed from play.
Rules of Interaction
House of Craving uses a number of mechanics to facilitate the two participant groups that are active at any time. The human characters can’t see the House characters, and there is a set of mechanics used for interaction between the two groups. Usually the two groups won’t speak directly to each other as if in a conversation, but might verbally interact in other ways. All of this will be practised in a workshop before going into play.
Humans Interacting with House
When humans interact with House participants, they are physically touching, looking at, or shouting at objects in the House. The House players can represent any object in the House, and it doesn’t have to be clear which object is being interacted with. Family characters interacting with House is an important part of play, and we will workshop this before the larp.
Focus on the Family
Whenever humans and House participants are present in the same scene, focus should always be on the human players. House players are allowed to whisper to each other, but any action happening in the scene should always happen though the human players, even if it means controlling them.
It is Normal
Every time a social norm is broken in the fiction – for instance the stepbrothers kissing, or aunt Monica undressing during dinner – this will be perceived either as normal, because House makes sure the family ignores such trivialities, or, if something feels wrong, then the problem is you. Your emotional reaction to all the increasingly strange things happening in the House clearly shows you that there is something fundamentally wrong and twisted with YOU.
Sex Scenes
Sex scenes in the larp will be simulated theatre style. This means that sex scenes will be played as-if, to look and sound real, but that the participants will keep at minimum their underwear on at all times during sex scenes. We go through the details during workshops.
Ingredient List
Like all horror stories, House of Craving touches on themes that many potential participants are not able to or interested in playing on. If you are unsure whether this is the larp for you, don't refrain from asking us questions. This content is strong, and will play out one way or another. Below is a list of themes and actions that will be part of the larp. Please read through it, and if you decide this is not for you, we respect and are grateful of your choice not to participate. You can individually opt out of engaging with them actively, but should expect others around you to play on this type of content.
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Being possessed by House, which means characters forced to non-consensual actions. (You the participant will always have control over your actions)
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Very physical play, including theatre style sex simulation ("dry humping"), with the possibility to use phallic props, with underwear on – Sensual and sexual play across genders
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Incestuous relationships, inappropriate relationships, abuse
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Violent outbursts, shouting, face slapping, being grabbed, held or restricted in movement
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Suicide, threats of suicide
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Partial or full nudity (no full nudity during sex scenes)
In addition, you are not able to opt out of the following:
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Sharing a bed: Some participants will sleep in a queen size bed with another participant. Not everyone, but we cannot guarantee in advance whether you will.
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Kitchen duty: Everyone will be helping out in the kitchen, collecting dishes and the like.
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Real alcohol will be served during the larp. Alcohol-free options are available, and anyone too intoxicated to play responsibly will be removed, but you cannot opt out of others drinking alcohol during the larp.
House of Cravings is a larp adaptation of the award-winning freeform role-playing scenario of the same name. If you are unsure about whether to participate you might want to read the original work here for an idea of the tone and themes. Bear in mind the full larp experience will be more taxing because of its duration, larger size and realistic visual representation
Visual Style
Dressing as family
The larp is set in modern times but, we would love an aesthetic that leans towards classical outfits fitting an upper class family. Think vintage elements meets modern cheek. Timeless, elegant and sophisticated. See below for examples.
Dressing as House
When you are House you need to dress in white and/or light grey. You can let your previous human character shine through and make your House outfit match your human outfit if you like. This means your human character cannot wear these colours. Only exception is white shirts.
Outfit Inspiration