nordiclarpyearbook2015

By establishing a balance sheet we found
out that if we incurred a moderate debt,
we would be able to overcome the chief
obstacle and get realistic-looking, working
guns that we found essential for the game.
Horses are also involved. They are mainly
mounted by the NPCs and their presence
greatly contributes to the movie-like ambience
of the larp. The ambience is also
significantly enhanced by the use of pyrotechnics.
It makes wells blow up and covers
the town in smoke and fire after shoot-outs.
Players had to get their own costumes and it
must be said that an overwhelming majority
of them prepared their costumes with care
and improved the overall visual level of the
game.
Lazy afternoon on the porch. (Photo: Tomáš Felcman)
The first run was successfully held in the
autumn of 2013. Visual promotion turned
out crucial in a dramatic genre larp; stunning
photos were one of the reasons why
the game got plenty of the hype that enveloped
the following Czech-language
runs. When our game even started being
mentioned abroad, we decided to risk additional
time and resources and have an English-language
run. The international run
gave rise to several difficulties following
from the blending of various larping cultures
and different views of some of the
delicate topics, namely racism and the gender
question.
Poster for the international run of Hell on Wheels. (Photo: Tomáš Felcman)
We decided to make minor concessions in
depicting racism (instead of dark make-up,
the freedmen were marked symbolically)
and to expand the pre-game workshops that
allowed us to better transmit our notion of
the game‘s principles, topics and modes of
playing. The players came from 12 different
countries, mainly Italy, Denmark and Sweden.
For many of us, hearing English in the
Hell on Wheels western town was the one
last thing needed for our movie-larp dream
to come true.
By now, one international and four Czech
runs have been played, endowing us with
enough experience to assess the mechanics
and topics employed. In the following chapters
we will mention the principal ones.
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Topics of the game
The game is set in 1866 in Nebraska, USA,
and revolves around the construction of
the transcontinental railway by the Union
Pacific Railroad company. The tent camp
of the workers and those who follow them
(appropriately called the Hell on Wheels) is
slowly turning into Durantown, a new settlement.
Some of its inhabitants are getting
ready to follow the construction when it
moves further; the company is hurrying to
build the railway line up to the target point
before its competitor. Others, though, prefer
to start a new life in the town, and there
are also strangers whose intentions are unknown.
On top of that, the company leadership
abounds with intrigues, the threat of
an open war with the local Cheyenne tribe
is growing and everything is influenced by
a number of personal relationships ranging
from love, faith and friendship to revenge,
racism and madness.
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