THE PEAKY EXPERIENCE What happens when freeform writers gather from across the UK for one weekend of writing, brainstorming and enforced food breaks? Cat Tobin reveals ...
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riving up the long entrance road to the Upper Rectory Farm Cottages in rural Englandshire, the first thing that strikes you is just how far away from everywhere else you are. Acres of agricultural farmland stretch out to the left and right of you, and the nearest tiny village – consisting of little more than a church and a pub – is miles away. But that’s no bad thing, because going to Peaky involves leaving behind all other concerns for the achievement of one goal – writing a freeform in a weekend. It’s possible that you might not have heard the term “freeform” before. Referred to by American freeformers as “theatre-style LARP”, freeforms are a form of live-action roleplaying game (LARP), generally – but not always – characterised by complex, detailed plots; highly individual characters with definite goals and relationships with other
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… in 2001, a group of larpwrights got together in Edale in the Peak District to write freeform games together.”
characters; a one-off as opposed to campaign setting; attention to costuming; and a tendency away from simulated (boffer) weapons. Events in this style typically last a few hours and require relatively little preparation by players, and so lend themselves well towards playing at conventions. In fact, it was this latter point that was to inspire the start of Intercon, the convention run by The Society for Interactive Literature. And this was, in turn, to inspire a group of British roleplayers who attended this convention to form their own, similar convention. Called Consequences, it runs every November in the wilds of Dorset, and showcases LARPs in an eclectic variety of genres and settings. But this new convention needed games, and so in 2001, a group of larpwrights got together in Edale in the Peak District to write freeform games together. Due to the geographical location, this weekend became known as Peaky, and has been running under that name ever since, even after it moved out of the Peak District to its new home in the eight or so interconnected but fully selfcontained Upper Rectory holiday cottages near Appleby Magna. THE GAZEBO 12 days of Christmas
Cat Tobin Cat is the assistant publisher and production manager of Pelgrane Press, where she oversees all aspects of book production and customer service. When she’s not doing that, she likes to experiment with different ways of constructing LARPs with the aim of making games more fun, interesting and immersive for players.
So, what happens? The writers – generally around thirty or so – arrive at Peaky at various stages on Friday night. The Peaky society’s AGM is held, and dinner is served by the volunteer cook (who doesn’t take part in the writing) in the large refectory, which also serves as a kind of common room for the weekend for communal meals, evening drinks and game playtesting. Once everyone’s finished, people pitch ideas for freeforms they’d like to write. Everyone is then given the opportunity to choose which game appeals the most to them, and groups numbering between four and six writers are formed based on those choices. At that point, everyone retreats to their group’s pre-determined writing space (the cottages each have a large sittingroom/kitchen area which is ideal for a group to write), and start the process. On Friday night, everyone tries to break at around midnight, at which point people are free to have a drink, play board games or go to the very comfortable bedrooms if they’re not feeling sociable. The groups reassemble after breakfast at around nine on Saturday, and then the writing begins in earnest. Part of the Peaky experience involves running a playtest of the game you’ve written – and playing in the other games – on Sunday, so Saturday is spent in a frantic rush to write up plots and characters for anywhere between ten and twenty-five players (although the average Peaky game is written for twelve to fifteen players). Breaks for lunch and dinner are enforced strictly, and there are plenty of teas, coffees and snacks floating around to keep
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… people pitch ideas for freeforms they’d like to write. Everyone is then given the opportunity to choose which game appeals the most to them, and groups numbering between four and six writers are formed based on those choices.”
the energy levels up. Most groups aim to finish their game – including the printing of the character sheets and packing of character envelopes – by midnight on Saturday so that everyone has time for a drink and maybe even a game before bed, but it’s not unheard of for some groups to write longer into the night in a frenzy of creative juices. This year was a particularly experimental one, with two groups pointing out they would be focusing on writing techniques, and warning that they might not produce playable games by Sunday – a very real issue, as not every idea which shines brightly on Friday night becomes a runnable game at the end. However, by Sunday five games had been written – Venice, a game of families, politics and power set in 16th Century Venice;
What Happened in Blackpool, an experimental game for 12 players set the night before a wedding; Brothers in Arms, based on M*A*S*H, Dr. Nefarious And The Paradise Project, a “horde” game (where some people play the same characters for the whole game, and others play a variety of different characters – in this instance, based on the villains of James Bond) and Old Harry’s Game, based on a BBC Radio 4 comedy set in Hell, all of which were fun and interesting to play. The next stage, once a game has been successfully playtested at
is held by the society, who are responsible for publishing them, and any money raised from the sale of games goes back into the society. So far, a total of five Peaky games have been published (two by Freeform Games LLP, and three by the society itself), but the aim is to have many more.
Peaky, is to edit it based on the playtest feedback and then bid the game for Consequences. If accepted and run at the convention, the feedback from this second playtest is gathered, and another round of edits done. The game can then be run a number of times depending on the group’s preferences before its declared ready to be published. The copyright for all Peaky games
Peaky welcomes both established and new freeform writers, and the society is very welcoming to new members, with many an old hand to show you the ropes. If you’d like more information about the society, or are interested
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in attending Peaky 2014, you can find further details on the Peaky website at http://peakygames.wikidot.com/ or by emailing info@peakygames.org.uk.
CREDITS EDITORS-IN-CHIEF
Anita Murray & Noirin Curran DESIGN & LAYOUT
Stephanie Jackson PROOF-READERS
Anita Murray & Charles Dunne