Eclipse is a three-day sci-fi larp set in 2059. Earth has been wracked by environmental disasters, leading to widespread civil war. Humanity’s hopes lie in the Eclipse space programme, established to find a new home using wormhole technology.
When the larp begins, all 150 players are in a base on Gliese 628A, one of seven candidate planets for colonisation. The three days take place in real time as the base initiates first contact with aliens. Like Arrival and Interstellar, twin inspirations for Italian creators Chaos League, it’s less about space battles and more about the self-destructiveness of humans and the nature of existence. These themes aren’t unusual in Nordic larp, which I’ve covered recently, but Chaos League follows the New Italian larp tradition, which favours top-down storytelling over player-driven plot, like Odysseus, a recent Battlestar Galactica-inspired larp.
Photo by Chiara Cappiello
Both Eclipse and Odysseus are blockbuster or “international” larps, so big and ambitious they draw players from multiple countries. They also have spectacular settings, hiring entire castles for medieval or fantasy stories. Now that player are willing to spend more and production costs have dropped, it’s become possible to create convincing science fiction environments, too. In Eclipse, everyone gets their own 8” tablet loaded with fully customised software; everyone wears a jumpsuit that looks appropriately sci-fi; and 3D printed props and impeccably-designed banners and instruction manuals make you feel right at home in 2059. Something barely feasible just ten years ago can now be organised by volunteers.
Even better, Eclipse takes place at Alvernia Planet, a massive network of concrete and glass domes spanning 13,000m2. It looks like it’s ripped straight from the cover of Amazing Stories. Originally a film studio, it now hosts exhibitions and events, located just outside Krakow in Poland. Castles are plentiful, but Alvernia Planet is rare indeed.
Maybe this shouldn’t matter. Some long-time larpers are dismayed by the growth of expensive blockbusters, arguing they’re exclusionary distractions from the things that make larps distinctive: role play, relationships, dialogue, and gameplay, none of which require castles or domes.
Photo by Chiara Cappiello
In blockbusters’ defence, visual and physical verisimilitude can be a scaffold for our imagination, easing our way into immersion. At the very least, it can be aesthetically pleasing, and it does wonders for marketing. I met someone brand new to larp who signed up for Eclipse just because they saw a photo of Chaos League’s Sahara Expedition, which really does take place in the Sahara. But the best argument for blockbusters is that they can be a gateway toward more affordable chamber and blackbox larps, not least because even blockbusters need to use their lo-fi techniques for more abstract and emotional gameplay.
My journey has been in the opposite direction. The longest larps I’d played were a few hours at most, at The Smoke and Immersion festivals, in conference rooms and blackbox theatres. I enjoyed them a lot, but I was told you can get much more into character with longer larps. Eclipse would be my first multi-day “proper” larp, a test of how far the art form could go.
This is a detailed account of my time at Eclipse in May, on its first run in English and second overall.
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