GMs: Adam Kenney, Dragon Hagan (Perseophone), Leo Schubert-Gardiner (Hades), Lauren Skinner (shit starter)
Players: Alice, Cora, Cyn, Flynn, Lin, Scott, Devorah, Hannah, Julie, Sean (it me), Shelly, and Stephanie Ann.
System: Come Back to Me by Adam Kenney
Inspired by the myth of Orpheus, this 4-hour LARP places you in Ancient Greece at the banks of the river Acheron, where the living attempt to restore the dead through blood and sacrifice. Some players take the role of desperate Seekers who have performed forbidden rituals to summon the spirits of their beloved dead. Others play as Ghosts: diminished shades who must rediscover their own identities through the memories and confessions of those who claim to love them.
Each Seeker can offer their blood up to three times to help a Ghost remember who they were, but each gift demands an escalating price that may cost them everything they hold dear. The dead may awaken to their former selves, but will they choose to return to a world that broke them? And do the living who abandoned, betrayed, or failed them in life have any right to demand their resurrection?
This is a game about the shadows cast by love: the guilt we carry, the shame we hide, and the question of whether bringing back the dead is an act of devotion or selfishness. Players will explore the complex dynamics of relationships that were severed by death, wrestling with buried truths and unfinished business. Expect intense emotional content as characters confront the darker aspects of their connections and face choices that will bind them to their fate forever.
Structurally, this larp uses a “dance-like” format, with 12 rounds of partner selection followed by a 1:1 conversation. No actual dancing. Our cast:
Alice (she/her) – Dakis
Cora (she/they) – Mache
Cynthia (she) – Alex
Flynn (they/them) – Nikias
Lin (she/her) – Melanth
Scott (he/him) – Kyros
Devorah (she/her) – a desolate shade
Hannah (she/her) – a desolate shade
Julie (she/her) – a desolate shade
Sean (he/him) – a desolate shade
Shelly (she/her) – a desolate shade
Stephanie Ann (she/her) – a desolate shade
Casting. I was cast with this single truth of my character: I wished to be of service. Perfect. I was so down for it. The seekers has much longer stories with lots of secrets but that wasn’t my concern (at least not at the start of play).
Summoned by Hades
We (as shared) started the game with Hades telling is that for the love of his wife Persephone he brought us from the underworld with nearly all of our memoires washed away to the river Acheron, where we might meet the person seeking us, and if we were truly unfortunate, remember who we were in life. He saw it as an act of cruelty, both to shade and seeker. But the living are full of folly, and it wasn’t for him to deny them what his wife had offered.
The River Acheron
As the seekers approached the river, they asked for an audience with someone who they thought might be their lost one (for they could also not recognize us at first and we had no names we remembered). After they spoke with us, and more so after they spilled their blood on the earth and we devoured it, we began to remember who we were in life, and how we were connected.
I don’t want to give away details because the nature of this dance-like larp is to uncover secrets and find your match (for better or worse) but here are a few favorite moments for me.
- Finding a fast friend in Hannah’s character (a fellow shade). I offered hope, she offered cold truth. I’m not sure who benefitted more, but I know that I would miss her in oblivion. At once point when a seeker was trying to hide from him shameful life we glowered at him together, mirroring each other’s baleful stares.
- Trying to be of service to the mortals and shades I met. Though this game is full of secrets at the start, there’s little reason (at least as a shade) to not share what you learn. I tried to play matchmaker as best I could…even with
- Hades and Persephone. The Lord of the Underworld shared with me that he missed his wife dearly and that he would be apart from her for half and eternity, which i still…and eternity. I passed his message along to of the Seekers, who then passed it along to Persephone, and oh boy, did I earn the wrath of both gods for trying to meddle in their marital affairs. Foolish mortal.
- Realizing that my relationship with my seeker was one-sided, and one where I would never be free to become my own person, and still willing putting myself in those shackles.
- Making maneuvers so that my seeker could prove her worth…but not have to sacrifice all in the end. I was of use!
The next morning I got to sit with Hannah and Adam and kibitz about our run of the larp as well as others who had played it before that were at breakfast. It was a fun to scheme about after the game as it was to play. What a delight!
