Our next project is called “Titanenkinder” and will take place from November 14 to 17, 2024 in the Kuckucksheim in Schlüchtern, about an hour’s drive east of Frankfurt am Main. As with the Rote Ros, it will be a musical larp. The cost contribution will be between 150€ and 275€. Details below.
Theme
Titanenkinder takes you into the world of an ensemble of international professional dancers in the year 2024, who are taken to a remote location for a week by their boss so they can rehearse for their latest play “Titanenkinder” and get to know each other better. The roles have long since been assigned, but not everyone is happy with the production management’s decisions and some old wounds are opened up.
Titanenkinder will be a musical larp with dance, which means that we will incorporate another art form into our LARP. All participants will be part of the ensemble. We are deliberately avoiding roles such as “the director” or “the financier” in order to prevent the play from focusing too strongly on individuals. Instead, there will be several production assistants who can direct or make production-related decisions on an equal footing. Also, our play “Titanenkinder” by definition has no leading roles, whether Zeus or Aphrodite, all roles are equally important and have equal time on stage. This doesn’t mean that there can’t be any bad blood over the casting, some people would have preferred to play a different role than the one they were given in the end.
The ensemble is an international troupe with different cultural backgrounds. This refers on the one hand to their dancing background, but also to their understanding of certain things. So we can offer ballerinas as well as standard dancers and followers of historical dances a common stage. The result will be a wild, creative play that is developed together.
Do I have to be a good dancer to participate?
No. On the contrary, you don’t even need any dance experience to participate. You just need to be unafraid to dance in front of and with others. And of course to sing.
How much singing is required? What do we strive for with our LARPs?
Information about our philosophy, the meta technique singing and other points that are relevant for all our games are stated at About Us.
Dancing
We have a dance group with different cultural and dancing backgrounds. We made a conscious decision to do this because we want to give everyone the opportunity to contribute their own experiences with dancing. A mixture of different dance styles in the individual scenes is not only possible, but encouraged by us.
But it is very important to us in this context: When we talk about dancing, we actually mean moving. Nobody expects participants to be trained professional dancers. On the contrary, participation is also possible for people with no practical dance experience. It doesn’t have to be the fanciest dance choreographies, just moving to the music is enough.
During rehearsals, each character is assigned a role in the fictional dance theater play “Titanenkinder”. This role has three appearances, each in a duet, a small group and a large group. These groups are rehearsed once in each act so that they can dance with as many other characters as possible.
Characters
All characters are written by us, but there is room for your own ideas. It is not possible to write the character yourself. The roles will have pre-written links to other roles, either from a relationship (e.g. romantic, familial) or a memory.
Your finished character will be made available to you in good time before the game and will contain these memories as well as a biography. Memories are scenes that are shared by several characters and are provided to you in text form in advance. They are deliberately formulated to be open to interpretation. Please use these memories as incentives to play. If you are unclear about how you want to play a memory with other participants, use the calibration phases to clarify this.
Workshops
In addition to providing an overview of our safety mechanics, our workshops are primarily intended to break down the barriers that everyone faces so that singing and dancing during the game is easier. We plan about 4 hours for the workshops.
Participation in the workshops is compulsory for all participants. Participation in the rest of the game is not possible without taking part in the workshops.
Act structure
Our game is structured in several acts in which you can control the speed of your game yourself. There is a pause between each act, which we call the calibration phase, in which the participants can re-coordinate and steer their play in the desired direction in order to achieve a happy ending.
The play begins with a prologue, the evening of the arrival of all the ensemble members. In this prologue, we want to work together to break down the barriers that may still be inherent in us after the workshops, so that we can sing and dance carefree in the following 48 hours.
The game ends with the finale in Act 4 on Saturday evening. There will be a final rehearsal in which all dance units will present their results and the piece will be danced once throughout. During this act, all participants should also reach their happy ending.
Dealing with nations and clichés
We want to portray an international dance troupe with different cultural and dance backgrounds.
The portrayal of stereotypes has a long tradition in LARP and is indispensable for presenting certain character backgrounds in an easily understandable way.
Nevertheless, we don’t want to present flat stereotypes about nations. We add the variety of nations to make the game more interesting, to allow for more culture that would otherwise not find a place in the roles. But: first and foremost, all roles are dancers, in some subordinate role they come from a country. We don’t want to thematize an irreconcilable inheritance dispute between countries or deepen national clichés. Treat your character’s national background with taste and see it as a cultural pool from which you can draw.
Schedule
Thursday: Arrival, workshops, prologue (opening ceremony)
Friday: Act 1 + 2 (laying the foundations for the drama, opening up happy ending paths)
Saturday: Act 3 + 4 (dramatic climax, final rehearsal, happy ending)
Sunday: Breakfast and departure
Catering
All participants will be catered for by the Kuckucksnest cooking team. The kitchen is completely vegetarian with a vegan option. There is no possibility of a meat upgrade or similar.
Water and coffee are available free of charge. Other drinks can be purchased directly from the house.
Participation options
This time we do not need any support for the team in any positions or NPCs. Therefore, only participation as a participant is possible. However, we offer various options for this.
Option 1: Full paying participants – 275€, 24 spots
All full-paying participants receive a role in advance, a bed in the house (usually a single bed in a shared room, there are no single rooms) and, of course, full catering. Participants must take care of their own costumes, songs and dances.
Option 2: Sleeping away from home – 215€, ? places
It is possible to take part in the game without sleeping in the Kuckucksnest. This option is aimed at participants who either live nearby, want a single room or want to sleep more peacefully. Full catering is included here, and these participants will also receive their role in advance of the event. Again, costumes, songs and dances must be organized by the participants themselves.
Option 3: Replacement – 150€, 2 places
These participants pay significantly less, but receive a bed in the house and full catering. The reduced price is due to the fact that these participants do not receive their role far in advance, but are available to take over the roles of others in the event of last-minute cancellations. Experience has shown that there are enough cancellations in the last 14 days before the event to ensure that all replacement players receive a full role. If this does not happen, these players are given a rudimentary character, which they can and may design and link themselves.
Registration
We have a registration period in which all registrations are treated equally. It doesn’t matter if you register today or on the last day of the registration period, everyone has the same chance to take part in the game. The registration period ends on 17.12.2023 at 20:00 CET.
The minimum age for participation is 18 years.
Allocation of spots
We will then check the registrations and allocate the spots. This phase should be completed by the end of the year so that you will know by 01.01.2024 at the latest whether you have been assigned a spot.
The allocation of spots is based on various aspects and is not a classic lottery. For example, we would like to enable beginners in LARP or those who are unknown to us to participate, but at the same time we would also like to have experienced players whose game philosophy we know and who we assume will steer the game in a direction that is in line with our vision. Therefore we endeavor to achieve what we consider to be a healthy mix in the initial allocation of spots. We draw lots when we do not see a clear advantage of individuals over others.
Under no circumstances will gender, age, previous illnesses, allergies or dietary habits have an influence on the allocation of spots. However, we will ask about some of these factors when you register, as they are necessary for the organization.
All those who do not have to be excluded from participation for urgent reasons and who were not selected in the first selection phase have the opportunity to be placed on the waiting list. Registration for this waiting list is also possible after 17.12.2023.
Waiting list
If you did not get a spot in the first allocation round and wish to do so, you can put your name on the waiting list. Experience says that around 30-50% of the original participants cancel, so there is still a good chance that you will be able to take part in our LARP if you were not lucky in the original allocation.
Unfortunately, we have had major problems with our waiting list in the past because many people have put their names on the waiting list without having the time or interest to actually take a place when the opportunity arises. We have therefore decided to take a deposit of €10 for the waiting list.
You will get your deposit back in full if
a.) you inform us of your own accord that you are no longer interested or no longer have time to take part in our LARP and we should remove you from the waiting list or
b.) we are unable to offer you a spot up to 14 days before the event.
We will keep your deposit if
a.) we offer you a spot and you do not accept it, for whatever reason, or
b.) we are unable to contact you by e-mail for 7 days if we want to offer you a spot.
The deposit will be charged if
we offer you a spot and you decide to accept it. In this case the participation fee will be reduced by 10€.
Cancellations
Something can always come up, we understand that. But cancellations are a lot of work for us and, especially the closer you get to the convention, they have increased astonishingly and take up an incredible amount of time that we would rather spend on other things. So if you have to cancel, please do so as early as possible.
Our game is designed to fill all roles, both dramaturgically and financially. Therefore, we need to find a replacement for you. As soon as we have found a replacement and this person has paid the contribution towards expenses, we can transfer your contribution back to you minus a cancellation fee of €30.
Exception: If you cancel within the last 14 days before the start of the LARP, after 31.10.2024, no contribution can be refunded. In this case, a substitute will step in. The same applies if we cannot find a replacement for you by 31.10.2024
Accessibility
We endeavor to make the game as accessable as possible, but we are limited by external circumstances, primarily by the location.
The Kuckucksnest has steep, narrow stairs and is therefore not wheelchair accessible. With limited visibility, it can be dangerous in some places in the house.
We strive to make the game as inclusive as possible. If you have any questions or needs regarding the location or convention, please feel free to contact us.
Sign Up
Sign up is closed, you can join our waitinglist here.