325: Using LARP Techniques at the Table, with Ericka Skirpan

We’re back and we’re acting out.

Main Topic: Using LARP Techniques at the Table

Live action and tabletop roleplaying share common roots and many similarities, but they are also quite separate hobbies. Each has evolved in its own ways, developing a unique variety of forms and tools. So what can the world of tabletop roleplaying, particularly Call of Cthulhu, learn from LARP? What are some of the different types of LARP? Which LARP techniques lend themselves best to tabletop play, and how can they be adapted?

Our Guest Host

We are delighted to welcome Ericka Skirpan as our guest host for this episode! Ericka is a LARP creator, consultant, and facilitator. She writes extensively about LARPs at The Space Between Stories. Currently, Ericka is working with Mooney Bin Entertainment, consulting on their LARPs “Conscience” and “Dresden Files 1923”.

You can find Ericka’s article “LARPing Made me a Stronger Person” in Scientific American. She has also written for 7th Sea, Vampire: The Requiem, and Changeling: The Dreaming.

Links

Things we mention in this episode include:

• Leaving Mundania: Inside the Transformative World of Live Action Roleplaying Games by Lizzie Stark
• Sinking Ship Creations
• The Mortality Machine
• Ain’t Slayed Nobody
• Push the Roll With Ross Bryant
• Harold improv
• “Lord of Lies” by Atropos
• “The Forbidden History” by Atropos
• “Miskatonic University” by Chaos League
• Intercon LARP convention
• Consequences LARP convention
• Gen Con
• Paranoia
• Elder Entertainment
• The Smoke LARP festival
• Chamber LARP
• Boffer LARP
• Drachenfest
• NERO
• Mystic Realms
• Empire LARP
• Treasure Trap
• Chislehurst Caves

• Maelstrom
• Dystopia Rising
• Parlour LARP
• White Wolf LARPs
• Black Box LARP
• Blockbuster LARP
• Conscience LARP
• Tombstone (1994)
• Westworld
• Conscience LARP in Montana
• Project Ascension
• Scapegoat
• ARG
• Darker LARPer
• “Head of the Family” by Jacqueline Bryk
• Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica
• Succession
• “La Cena” from Taroticum and Other Tales
• “Jailbreak” from One Shots
• Nordic LARP
• Knudepunkt
• Nordic LARP book

• Secrets and Powers LARP
• Vampire: the Masquerade
• Isles of Darkness
• The Camarilla fan club
• The Dresden Files
• Helicon
• Ten Candles
• Tap out
• Amanda Rose Villarreal
• ConTingency Convention
• Inside Hamlet
• Method acting
• Marathon Man (1976)
• Bleed
• Vampire: the Requiem
• Top drop
• Heaven & Earth
• “Lamp Posts in Bloom”
• Sign by Thorny Games
• Nicaraguan sign language
• Dialect by Thorny Games
• ViewScream
• Pictures in an Exhibition
• Something is Wrong Here
• Twin Peaks
• Psychomanteum
• Holding My Breath by Witchstitches

News

October Horror Movie Challenge

Scott wrapped up his annual October Horror Movie Challenge for 2025. He spent the month posting daily reviews of horror films on this very site, and he has written a post mortem of the best, worst, and weirdest films. You can find the main discussion about this on the Good Friends Discord server or over on Bluesky.

Scott on Pretending to be People

Scott recently recorded another batch of episodes with our good friends at Pretending to be People. Once again, he is voicing Beck Wilder’s mother Kim in the main arc, as season 2 builds to a very weird conclusion.

Matt and Scott at the Miskatonic Repository Convention

Both Matt and Scott appeared on panels at the recent Miskatonic Repository convention. Since we recorded the news segment, we’ve found that the videos are now available on YouTube but have been removed from Twitch. You can watch them both below.

Scott on Symphony Entertainment

The recent livestream Scott did with Bridget Jeffries and Graham Walmsley on Symphony Entertainment’s Twitch channel was also recorded and can be found below. This was a completely improvised freeform game based on audience suggestions, and it was very strange indeed.