Borrowed Selves: My Jam (A Freeform Larp with Dancing!)

Borrowed Selves is a monthly series of immersive events at Goblin Market in Chicago.

Each month features a different game or format. We might feature a parlor LARP one month, then Jubensha, followed by a freeform live-action theater event. These will mostly be games not written by the Goblin Market team and guest GM'd by members of our community.

Events are low commitment and open to new players. Some games use pre-written characters that you'll receive in advance, while others offer simple ways to choose or create a character at the event. No complicated rulesets or prior experience are required.

Most events are designed for 8 to 20 participants and run between 2 and 4 hours.

Each session stands alone, offering a new self to borrow.

Our selection for September is My Jam.

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You play students attending the biggest dance of the year at Robert Johnson Memorial High School. This dance is important not just because it is an opportunity to show off your superior musical taste, but also because you might be elected Dance Monarch and funnel all the emotional and magical energy into a world-changing ritual.

Before the game, players are familiarized with rules and principles to ensure their safety and comfort within the context of a simulated high school environment.

Players then create characters in stages. First choosing one of the game‘s covens, which reflect the characters’ relationships with music (i.e., melancholy, hype, chill, fanatical, or aggro). Each player then answers questions about their character‘s biographical information and chooses a song that represents the character’s attitude and source of power (their Jams). The game’s facilitator compiles these songs into a playlist while the players determine their relationships to their covenmates.

Finally, every character introduces themselves to the group, and establishes relationships with other characters via a highly scientific preferential sorting method. After all this, every player has a character with a defined personality and set of relationships to play with.

Then the music starts, and characters dance, mingle, chat, or whatever, until someone‘s Jam comes on, they don the ceremonial laurel wreath of power, and start using and/or abusing their power. Maybe they just want everyone to follow them in a dance, or tell someone their secrets, or maybe they just want a few minutes alone with their crush.

This process continues until all the Jams have been played, at which point the characters vote on who should be the Dance Monarch who enacts a powerful, lasting ritual (and, perhaps more importantly, gets to pick the last song).

Also check out other Arts events in Chicago, Theatre events in Chicago.