Six of Hounds is my new collaboration with Jason Morningstar. We’ve been busy during the pandemic creating games for Zoom.
To keep up with what we’re doing, head over to our web store on itch.io.
To whet your appetite, here are a couple scenarios we wrote for play over video chat during the pandemic.
Conifer, a story of spies and screwups set during the 1971 coup in Bolivia.
Four Lovers, about finding love in quarantine during the plague.
Wizards’ Querulous Dram, a drinking game for magicians.
In The Lesser Players’ Tale (2020),The play’s the thing! In The Lesser Players’ Tale, a grubby troupe of Renaissance actors take their new play, a racy tragedy, on the road. Along the way, they’ll furiously adapt that play to the absurd whims of each new audience. Participants will perform The Lusty Queen (a sloppy, ten-minute adaptation of Racine’s Phèdre) many times as they scramble to master the material while holding their little family together across danger and opportunity.
This collaboration between Jason Morningstar and Lizzie won the coveted Best Scenario Otto at Fastaval 2020!
To the Bitter End (2019), grab a partner and play out your own romantic art film, from meet cute to wrenching breakup, in about an hour. In this card-based roleplaying game set to a mournful soundtrack, participants spark, nurture, and ultimately destroy a relationship between two people. This game, created with my frequent collaborator Bjarke Pedersen, premiered at Fastaval 2018, where it was nominated best presentation and special judges’ prize Ottos. It traveled to the Stockholm Fringe Festival, the Future of Storytelling Festival, and most recently, to the Swedish sculpture museum Wanås Konst. See the trailer here.
Save the Munbax (2018), was a puzzle play and piece of interactive theater created with collaborator Kellian Pletcher Adams of Green Door Labs.Munbax was a puzzle play set in an 1898 historic mansion and magical convention. We had antiques, monsters magical puzzles, and about 250 participants over five two-hour shows. Our costumed audience discussed the day’s issues with fellow magicians, solved puzzles, investigated magical creatures, mixed potions, explored the mansion, and more!
Romeo & Juliet: A Larp (2017), written for the Kennedy Center’s ArtsEdge, designed by Bjarke Pedersen, Allen Brooks, and me for use in high school classrooms. In this two-hour experience, 9 to 60 participants learn about Shakespeare’s care-fully constructed plot by replaying the masquerade scene, over and over again, changing something new each time. A selection for the Future of Storytelling Festival, 2017.
This Miracle(2015) is a four-hour experience for 9-15 players. My co-designer, Nick Fortugno, and I got interested in the beginnings of religions, and how they spread across time. This game has two halves. In the first, participants construct a religion by creating myths, artifacts and rituals. In the second half, they play pilgrims enacting those rituals. Download the script for free here.
My first game, The Curse (2013) explores uncertainty and decision making around hereditary breast cancer. You can and download the script for free here. It premiered at Fastaval 2013, and was nominated for a best presentation Otto award. Since then, it’s been played by medical students and others around the world.
Books on Games
Leaving Mundania(Chicago Review Press, 2012), a narrative nonfiction exploration of larp. Read more in the books section of this site.
#Feminism: A Nano-Game Collection (Fëa Livia, 2016) is an anthology of 34 nano games written by participants from 11 countries. Along with Anna Westerling and Misha Bushyager, Lizzie co-edited the book. She also contributed the game “Manic Pixie Dream Girl Commandos.” An IndieCade nominee, a selection at E3, and an Indie RPG Award winner for “Most Innovative Game 2016).
Pocket Guide to American Freeform(Stark Scenarios, 2014)) is Lizzie’s short, self-published monograph about the history of this emerging form, and includes advice on how to write, play, and facilitate these short games.
Larps from the Factory(Fantasiforbundet, 2013) is a collection of ready-to-run larps written by the Norwegian Larp Factories. Along with Elin Nilsen and Trine Lise Lindahl, Lizzie co-edited the book, which included more than 20 short larps written by several dozen wonderful Norwegian larpwrights.
“Mad About the Techniques” in The Wyrd Con Companion Book(download), 2012, a description of techniques from the US run of the Nordic larp Mad About the Boy.
Six of Hounds is my new collaboration with Jason Morningstar. We’ve been busy during the pandemic creating games for Zoom.
To keep up with what we’re doing, head over to our web store on itch.io.
To whet your appetite, here are a couple scenarios we wrote for play over video chat during the pandemic.
Conifer, a story of spies and screwups set during the 1971 coup in Bolivia.
Four Lovers, about finding love in quarantine during the plague.
Wizards’ Querulous Dram, a drinking game for magicians.
Leaving Mundania (Chicago Review Press, 2012), a narrative nonfiction exploration of larp. Read more in the books section of this site.
#Feminism: A Nano-Game Collection (Fëa Livia, 2016) is an anthology of 34 nano games written by participants from 11 countries. Along with Anna Westerling and Misha Bushyager, Lizzie co-edited the book. She also contributed the game “Manic Pixie Dream Girl Commandos.” An IndieCade nominee, a selection at E3, and an Indie RPG Award winner for “Most Innovative Game 2016).
Pocket Guide to American Freeform (Stark Scenarios, 2014)) is Lizzie’s short, self-published monograph about the history of this emerging form, and includes advice on how to write, play, and facilitate these short games.
Larps from the Factory (Fantasiforbundet, 2013) is a collection of ready-to-run larps written by the Norwegian Larp Factories. Along with Elin Nilsen and Trine Lise Lindahl, Lizzie co-edited the book, which included more than 20 short larps written by several dozen wonderful Norwegian larpwrights.