It has been fifteen years now, since a group of exceptionally talented students at an elite English university discovered a way to lure the Muses of antiquity into their presence, and to compel them to manifest themselves. The students separated the divine siblings one from the other, and ritually bound them into servitude. Each Muse was made to serve one or more of the students; to be the well-spring of the Inspiration that set them on their paths to glory.
The students have now become the Inspired – the most celebrated artists, scientists, and leaders in the world. The Muses to whom they owe their success remain bound to them, and have by turns accepted their lot, vainly attempted to rebel against their captors, gradually developed Stockholm syndrome, befriended their captors or even fallen in love with them. There is precious little Inspiration left for others, since it is all hoarded by the Inspired, for their use alone.
Once a year, all of the Inspired and their Muses come together at Helicon Manor, to renew the ritual that binds them.
All of the Muses are siblings; they both crave one another’s company and need it. As for the Inspired, they get to spend time with the only other people in the world with whom they share their secret, who also know how it feels to be host to an ancient supernatural force, who understand each other in ways that no other mortals ever could
Helicon is a larp about inspiration, power, complicated relationships, freedom, and dependency.
Characters will use and abuse power, and try to find a way to co-exist. They need to decide what they are willing to do to other people and creatures in order to achieve their goals, and what they are willing to sacrifice in order to get what they want.
The larp aims for high emotion, and includes a lot of social play and tension, as well as some ritualistic content.
There will be no strict plotline for the overall larp. There will be plenty of character relationship options and possible storylines for the individual, and there will be plenty of time to play this out, in order to experience the bond between human and Muse. All players are invited to create stories ingame, and to create play for each other.
These US runs of Helicon are produced by Journeys & Tales, and will have both Maria Pettersson and Katrine Wind coming over to run the game for the most authentic experience.
The parties have earlier collaborated on bringing Katrine Wind's larp "Daemon" over for two runs in Austin, TX in 2023 and are looking forward to bringing another highly regarded European larp over to a US audience.
This larp is for people who enjoy play centered around a Type 2 drama dealing with loss, desire, and intense relationships. Participants will engage with a personal and intimate story set in a vintage era setting.
All characters will have significant positive and negative relationships that can be explored in a safe and impactful manner, via mechanics introduced through extensive workshopping and practice before Helicon begins. A lot of your connections will have intense play full of conflict and unhealthy relationships. Romantic play is central theme within the game.
Participants should be enthusiastic about joint storytelling, and believe that a goal for a larp is to tell a wonderful and impactful story together.
Players should be comfortable experiencing a larp with impactful and emotional scenes, with close play with other participants within a safety and calibration system that is based on an opt-out approach, and has been extensively workshopped. You should be willing to play with an ingame calibration system of opt-out, slow escalation and tap-out mechanics centered around personal responsibility and enthusiastic consent. We encourage you to read more about this in our safety and calibration mechanics section.
As a participant you should be comfortable with the following actions as a general part of the larp: shouting, pushing, general altercations, psychological manipulation, yelling and arguing, crying, hugging, general touching, and romantic play. The exceptions to this are that we expect everyone not to grab people from behind and also not grab the “beach body,” i.e., the area covered by a bikini. Sexual violence is an ingredient in the game, and part of some characters' stories.