The Drinklings

A larp by Anna-Karin Linder and Mo Holkar

 Introduction
A group of friends meet regularly in a pub. They all work as respectable and
esteemed scholars at an ancient university, but they all also write fantastical
fiction in their spare time. The larp is made up of scenes depicting a series of
their monthly meetings, at which they talk about their writing and how it's
going, and bounce ideas around the table. The last scene, set much later,
involves a group of critics discussing the work of these giants.

This is a light-hearted larp, with themes of friendship and the tension

between support and envy/competitiveness. When your friend gets a book
contract for the work you've been helping them with, while your own (far
superior!) masterpiece languishes unrecognized, how do you feel? What will
the judgement of history have to say about you?

Practicalities
The Drinklings is designed for anywhere from 4 to 8 people: 5 or 6 is
probably the best number. Either with a separate facilitator; or one of the
players can facilitate, as preferred. It lasts about two and a half hours.

It is designed to be played in a pub, or similar environment. The venue

shouldn’t be too noisy – the players need to be able to hear each other clearly
as they talk across the table.

A note about alcohol

We have designed this game to be played with alcohol if players wish it – as
their characters drink, so can they. But, bear in mind that some players may
not drink – or some may not feel comfortable about being around other
players who they don’t know and who are drinking. Player safety and security
is the most important thing: so if you feel it should be a dry run, then that’s
perfectly OK, use soft drinks instead. The characters will still be drinking, of
course, even if the players are not.



~2~
 Script
This script is written for you as facilitator of the larp, so it talks about ‘you’
and about ‘they’ meaning the players. If you are going to play a character in
the game yourself as well as facilitating it (which is a lot of fun!), then make
the obvious changes. It is assumed that the facilitator’s character will be the
Chairman of the group, whether you’re playing it as a full character or just
for the purposes of facilitation.

Setting
This larp has a historic setting – the 1930s. It’s important not get too
obsessed with historical detail and authenticity, so the players don't feel too
awkward about improvising ideas -- but the 'feel' of the period is worth
having. We’ve included a briefing document about the 1930s, which you will
read out to set the scene.

Alternatively, it’s fine if the players (or the organizers) choose a different
setting beforehand, and maybe dress up a bit in the appropriate style.

Schedule
The larp runs like this:

Item Approximate time

Setup and character creation 50 minutes

Round 1 20 minutes

Intermission 1 5 minutes

Round 2 20 minutes

Intermission 2 5 minutes

Round 3 20 minutes

~3~
 Intermission 3 – the Career 5 minutes

Round 4 – the Epilogue 20 minutes

Close 5 minutes

Total 2 hours 30 minutes

Round 4 in particular will run longer with more players, so if you have 7 or 8
in your group, allow more time.

Setup
Introduce yourself by name, and ask all the players to introduce themselves.

Explain what the larp is (perhaps by reading the Introduction) and that it
consists of four rounds. Explain that each round is played out in real time,
but the intermissions inbetween do not represent fixed periods of time – how
much time passes during each intermission is up to the players to decide.
The next round could be the very next meeting, or half a year later, or ten
years later if that fits the game.

Read out the following briefing about Britain in the 1930s, and about the
historical Inklings group of writers.

(If the players agree beforehand that they’d like to a setting other than
Britain in the 1930s, or if you’ve decided as organizer to use a different
setting, that’s fine: adjust accordingly.)




~4~
Briefing – the 1930s
The United Kingdom in the early 1930s was an uncertain place. Millions of
its young men had been destroyed in the Great War, which cast a shadow
over every family. Those who survived the conflict, and are now middle-aged,
may still bear mental scars. And it seems as though the lessons have not been
learnt – the ‘war to end all wars’ did not succeed in bringing peace to
Europe. From the British Isles, the view across the water is deeply worrying,
as Fascism starts to rise, and as the Great Depression begins to bite.

But here in Oxford, at the ancient seat of learning, it’s possible to lay aside
such concerns – or even to be unaware of them. The fabled ‘ivory tower’
allows those who are academically gifted to pursue their studies, undisturbed
by news from outside – and often not even having to worry about teaching
students. The sunlit college lawns, the gentle chimes of the chapel bells, the
dusty, leathery smell of the great libraries – all this is conducive to reflection,
to abstraction, to unworldliness.

Bicycling, at a gentle pace, is the main form of transport around the

university; and academics still wear their black gowns – trailing behind them,
like the wings of crows. Their food is provided for them, and it is of the best
– and the college cellars hold many fine vintages. But when scholars wish to
relax, they come to one of the many pubs of the city – to gather around a
massive old oak table, near to a crackling fire, to sink pint after pint of
English ale. Here, conversation can turn away from the strict discipline of
their studies – towards outside interests and hobbies. And, among friends
who understand these things, the freedom is there to speak of the great
work, the noblest calling of all – even though it can never be mentioned to
their university superiors – the writing of fantastical fiction.

The Inklings were a group of scholars and writers based in Oxford in the
1930s and 40s. They included JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis, Charles Williams, and
a number of others who were notable at the time, but to whom history has
been less generous. The group met every Tuesday evening, in a pub called
The Eagle and Child: to discuss their works in progress, and to support and
critique each other’s writing.
The characters in this larp are not The Inklings: but they are inspired by
them. You can choose, as players, how close you want to play to the historical
group, and how serious or how light a tone you want to set for the larp.

~5~
Mood
Help the players agree the mood of the game. This should be set by group
decision. Maybe it’s super over the top satire, or it’s very small means drama
about escaping the dreads of WW1. It could also be ambivalent, if the stories
of the things they write is a symbol of their real-life relationships. Tell the
players to keep their discussions short and snappy. Emphasize the comedy
and lightness of the game.

Ask the players how they want to handle sexism and gender prejudice. There
are basically two options:

 No sexism: play in an alternate-1930s where there is no sexism, and

where professors and writers can unremarkably be of any gender.
 In a bubble: The world around you can be sexist, but YOU are very
progressive types and there is both women and men in the group. The
players play the gender that they feel comfortable in, and the group can
also agree not to play on sexist themes if they don't want to.

Discuss safety techniques [Cut, Lookdown, The Door is Open]. Say that while
this is not intended to be a deeply serious and affecting larp, people should
still be considerate of themselves as players.

~6~
Rounds
Read out these next three paragraphs, which tell the players about the round
structure, and what the theme of each of the four rounds will be:

The game is divided into four rounds of beer (or something else, for players
who don’t like drinking beer). After the fourth round, the game ends. When
a new round begins, time in the game has shifted. The players agree together
on how long. It can be next meeting, several years or just an hour (and
several pints) later. Each round is not necessarily the first round of the
meeting in question – if you need an explanation as to why people have
already had a few beers.

Each round should normally end fairly naturally, when the players are ready
for it. Tell them beforehand that it should take about 20 minutes. Tell them
that any of them can suggest to end the round by saying something like: “I
don’t know about you chaps, but my throat’s getting dry, after all this chit-chat. What
say we send for another round of beer?” If the others agree, then the round ends.
(Or someone can maybe get in one closing remark and then the round ends.)

If after 20 minutes this has not happened, then the Chair should suggest the
end in the same way.

Then the players go off game for a short intermission (until the new round of
beer arrives), during which they draw new cards and decide together how
long it has been since the last round. The game starts again when the Chair
takes the first sip of the new round.

Round 1 – Positioning against each other – “Friend or foe?”

Round 2 – Personal drama and weakness – “Into the breach, dear friends”

Round 3 – Friendship and safety – “The Fellowship”

Round 4 – the Epilogue – “The greatness of these giants”




~7~
Making characters
Spread out the three mini-decks of character-design cards on the table, and
help the players choose the elements that will make up their characters.

Each player will choose and take three character-design cards – one of each
type – from the selection available:

 Job title
 Field of research
 Title of work

There are some ‘choose your own’ cards, for players who prefer to design
their own elements.

Explain that the job title cards are intended as an indication of relative
academic seniority – by default, fellows should defer to professors, students
should defer to everyone, etc. Although as your characters are all friends
here, some of these differences can become less important with familiarity.

(In a less serious run of the larp, you can leave out the ‘choose your own’
cards and just assign each player one of the existing cards of each type at
random – they will have to make sense of the combination as best they can.)

Give out pens and name labels/badges on which the players can write their
characters’ names and titles (eg ‘Professor Harley Smith”), and stick them to
themselves so the name is visible to other players. Then give out the blank
character sheets: the players should now write the relevant data from their
chosen cards onto their character sheet.

Lore
Now spread out the nine different Lore inspiration cards on the table. Each
player choose a selection of elements from them (maybe one from each, but
it doesn’t have to be), and compose a few sentences to describe the basis of
their character’s writing. (This time, they shouldn’t take the cards away – they
have to share them with each other.)

~8~
Example: “An epic about a post-apocalyptic galactic nation, set on a distant
empire planet that has started to die. Inspired by space science and ancient
Atlantis. The piece is heavy with world lore and the story is a bit in the
background, but follows one of the ruling families that tries to find the
ancient blueprints to space travel, so they can escape the dying world. No
sexual content. A lot of strange creatures and heavy with symbolism.”

If the players would like to compose this lore summary in the form of a blurb
– like a publisher might put on the back cover of a book – then that’s great.
As long as it communicates the general intention and flavour of the work.

Interviews and introductions

As players finish this preparation, pair them up (or if there’s an odd number
of players, then the first group should be a group of three) to step aside from
the table and interview each other. This is a brief process in which each
learns the most important details about one of the others. When all players
have interviewed, they will return to the table and, in turn, introduce each
other to the group.

The introduction is done as their character would at a prestigious speech or

gala or something. So you stand up and say something like: "This is Professor
Mabuse Mumford. He is a scholar of Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, linguist,
and one of the most intelligent men I know. And apart from being a
Cambridge man (I am myself an Oxford alumnus, of course) he is one of the
most decent chaps I have ever met. Give a big hand to Professor Mumford!"

(If players would like their characters to develop further links with each other
– apart from writing and drinking – then that’s absolutely fine. Perhaps they
go to watch the moving pictures together, or they like rowing small boats on
the river. Or one might be the babysitter of the other’s children. But the
important message is: they should feel free to create these things during the
game, not spend time on them during this setup phase.)

If the players would like a transition into the game, you can manage this by
asking them to close their eyes, think about their character, think how they
talk and feel, and when they open their eyes, they are in-game – or
something like that. This shouldn’t really be necessary, though.

~9~
The Game
Round 1 – Positioning against each other – “Friend or foe?”
This round is about being the best, and the smartest, and getting the others
look bad while you look good. It’s about ’splanation of linguistic details when
inventing your own language, and that elves is a vulgarisation of the gaelic fae
and so on. But always polite and with “well that is all right you old chap”
attitude. No outright attacking or hostility – that should be saved for the
second round.

Intermission 1 – off game

Draw intermission cards (see below for details), and decide together how
much time has passed. Make the players switch seats randomly before the
start of the next round.

Round 2 – Personal drama and weakness – “Into the breach, dear friends”
Backstabbing, back-talking and being weak. Trying to hide pain or failure, by
boasting larger. Being overly intricate about the work, and try to get others
to say something nice. Quarrelling, and breakup of friendships.
(Note: you may have picked up intermission cards that seem to go against this mood:
but you as a player should choose how you want to enact the intermission cards.
Similarly in subsequent rounds.)

Intermission 2 – off game

Draw intermission cards (see below for details), and decide together how
much time has passed. Make the players switch seats randomly before the
start of the next round.

Round 3 – Friendship and safety – “The Fellowship”

The need for positioning is over, and now it is about genuine interest in each
other’s work, and also personal lives. It is giving each other love and
affection, and sharing truths like “I have always thought you were the most
intelligent of us all”. Some spikiness is still possible – but the general tone
should end positively.

~ 10 ~
Intermission 3 – the Career
Off game – preparing the epilogue (but not too much). The players will each
independently be deciding about the rest of their own character’s career up
until death – with no cards, just inventing the story as required. They can
make notes for it on the back of their character sheets. Make the players
switch seats randomly before the start of the next round.

Round 4 – the Epilogue – “The greatness of these giants”

Although this round is not in the same timestream as the earlier ones, it still
takes place in a pub and is accompanied by a fresh round of beer. (The critics
like their beer as much as the original Drinklings did.)

Basically, the message is: They were all great geniuses. Each player, in the
persona of a literary critic, says a short memorial over the Drinkling that they
played and that their critic is an expert on. It can be assumed that the event
is some sort of informal celebratory colloquium.

After this speech (which should only be a couple of minutes) the critic should
take and answer questions from the other critics. This will allow them to
develop their ideas, and to make callbacks to earlier material if they wish.

The Chair continues to help people keep it short(fish), fair and sort of
drunkenly snappy according to number of players. The time budget is about
five minutes total (speech plus Q&A) per critic.

Close
If the players would like to talk through their thoughts and feelings about the
larp, the usual kind of round – each person talking for a minute or so,
uninterrupted – is fine. But Most likely it won’t be necessary: the gathering
can just degenerate into chatting.




~ 11 ~
Intermissions 1 and 2
Each player draws an Intermission card randomly (or choose one, in a more
serious game) during Intermission 1, and again during Intermission 2. It
represents the major event that has happened to their character during the
period since the last round. (After a card has been chosen, it should be
discarded – so the same event doesn’t happen twice.) Of course, they can also
invent other things that have happened to their character in that time.

If a player really doesn’t like the card that they’ve drawn – or if it doesn’t fit
the established facts, for example talking about a spouse when they have
none -- they can put it back randomly into the deck, and draw a different
one. But in general there should be a spirit of going with whatever fate has
thrown at them, and making it somehow fit the story.

People might wonder, for example, about how a card about hating a fellow
group member can be made to work in the spirit of the third round, which is
about friendship. The answer is that they can start the round hating, but by
the end of it they find a way to be friends.

At the end of the Intermission, if there’s a major life event that the other
characters would all know about – for example, if a character got married –
the player should share this with them (out of character). But keep it to one
sentence maximum! – you don’t want people to go on about details of what
has been happening in their characters’ lives. They should instead aim to
bring that out during the following round. Similarly if they want to invent
major outside world events: do it during the round.

Acknowledgements
Thank you to our lovely playtesters! – and to the organizers of A Week in
Sweden 2018, where The Drinklings first ran.

~ 12 ~
 The Drinklings character sheet
Player name:

Character name:

Job title:

Field of research:

Title of work:

Lore:

~ 13 ~
 Job title cards

Head of Dean
Professor
Department Known as
Known as
Known as “Dean [Smith]”
“Professor
“Professor
[Smith]” Not so senior in
[Smith]”
their subject, but
One of the most
The leader of with a lot of
senior people in
their subject at responsibility
their subject
the university over students

Reader Fellow Lecturer

Known as Known as Known as
“Dr [Smith]” “Dr [Smith]” “Dr [Smith]”

A respected name A well-established A capable

in their field of academic with a academic who has
study, who people permanent job at some
will travel to listen one of the responsibility for
to colleges teaching students

Junior
Postgraduate
Researcher
Known as
Known as
“Mr/Miss
“Dr [Smith]”
[Smith]” Choose your
Just getting own job title
Still studying,
started in life as a
working on a
professional
doctorate
academic

~ 14 ~
 Field of research cards

Ancient Languages
Philosophy
History  Sumerian
 Ethics
 Mesopotamia  Ethiopian
 Logical
 Egypt  Celtic
Positivism
 Etruria  Gothic
 Stoicism
 Rome  Slavonic
 Neo-Platonism
 Athens  Indic
 [choose your
 [choose your  [choose your
own]
own] own]

Classical
Law Modern
literature
 Criminal literature
 Homer
 Jurisprudence  Shakespeare
 Virgil
 Contract  Milton
 Horace
 Tort  Dickens
 Dante
 Constitutional  Austen
 Chaucer
 [choose your  [choose your
 [choose your
own] own]
own]

Natural
Miscellaneous
Sciences
 Archaeology
 Physics
 Anthropology Choose your
 Zoology
 Folklorics own field of
 Botany
 Music research
 Chemistry
 Mathematics
 Geology
 [choose your
 [choose your
own]
own]

~ 15 ~
 Title of work cards

The Chambers Wolf and

Vagrant Star
of Eden Heart

Of Sword and Whistle’s Tournament

Smoke Journey of Trials

Choose your
The Dark
The Eclareon own title of
Argument
work

~ 16 ~
 Lore inspiration cards

Structure Genre
Style
 novel  high fantasy
 archaic
 trilogy  low fantasy
 ornate
 epic poem  historical-
 plain
 collection of magical
 imitative
episodic stories  space opera
 [choose your
 [choose your  [choose your
own]
own] own]

Setting Mode Tone

 empire  decadent  rollicking
 post-apoc  heroic  melancholy
 barbarian  light-hearted  philosophical
 pastoral  fantastical  symbolistic
 [choose your  [choose your  [choose your
own] own] own]

Content Theme
 journey  religious faith Inspiration
 war and  inevitable  myth
politics doom  dream
 personal  human  literature
drama exceptionalism  religious texts
 adventure  family duty  [choose your
 [choose your  [choose your own]
own] own]

~ 17 ~
 Intermission cards (3 pages)

You discovered
You are inventing a
You burned your tantric sex and your
whole new language
manuscript in a work has taken a
for your opus, but it’s
drunken rage. sexual turn. Try to
a lot harder than you
Choose a new title make it look like that
first thought. Ask for
and lore. is a sophisticated
help.
choice.

You have been

offered a prestigious You have gained a
A vanity publisher has
post in your college, contract to publish
contacted you,
but the Fellows might your novel, when you
offering to publish
not approve of your finish it. The
your novel in a
fantastical and publisher has asked if
beautiful leather-
sensational writing. you can recommend
bound edition: but
You need to make it any other new
you will have to pay
seem more authors for their
them fifty pounds.
respectable, or else fiction line.
decline the post.

You are being sued by

You have recently
An American fan of another (unknown)
started a family. This
your writing has come writer, who claims
has the potential to
to Oxford and is that the setting and
take precious time
stalking you. You are theme of your novel
away from your
not sure whether to are copied from
writing, if you allow it
boast about it to your theirs. You wonder
to. How have your
friends, or ask for darkly if one of your
friends managed this
help. ‘friends’ has put them
problem?
up to it.

~ 18 ~
You have received
You are suing one of
thirty-eight rejection Your spouse has
the other writers in
letters from threatened to leave
the group, because of
publishers. You are you unless you give
the atrocious theft of
beginning to doubt up ‘that silly writing’.
your core concept.
yourself.

You have been

Too many late nights
offered a senior
drinking port while
position at another You have a new pet
you write have given
university: but if you dog, to whom you are
you a serious alcohol
take it, you will only hopelessly devoted.
problem. You’re
be able to attend this You are rewriting
pretty sure that
gathering your book to include
you’re in control of it,
occasionally. You a faithful hound as a
though – surely your
don’t know what heroic character.
friends won’t notice
effect that might have
anything different.
on your writing.

You started a bit

You recently met a
earlier than the rest
beautiful and talented You really think the
of the group with a
poet, whose lyricism others are such
few beers before the
captured part of your talented and
meeting. You are
soul. You are now intelligent people,
filled with love for the
feverishly rewriting and that you might be
rest of the group.
your magnum opus in the lesser talent of the
They are all the
the form of rhyming group.
swellest mateys you
couplets.
can ever imagine.

~ 19 ~
 Something another
member of the group You are starting to
said in the last have doubts about
Your spouse is giving meeting has been your lore, and want to
you a hard time, really bugging you, try to subtly seek
preventing you from and you have an support from the
writing, and you need itching need to sort it others without
support about it. out. Did they really revealing that you
mean to call you a have any quandary
tragic old bugger [or about your work.
other very English
insult]?

Player: Your previous

One of the others in You have been having
character died: you
the group is getting troubles with your
are now their
on your nerves, and memory. Are you
son/daughter, taking
you feel the need to getting old and
over the book, and
express your disdain, senile, or is it just
therefore joining the
rather strongly. stress?
group.

You have decided to

You got a very
quit the writing.
prestigious literary
During the round,
award, and really
though, you will start
want to brag about [Choose your own
to doubt your
it… but without intermission event.]
decision, and will end
seeming like you
up deciding instead
really want to brag
to quit your other job
about it.
to write full time.

~ 20 ~