End of the Line

HKA_6869
In-game photo by Julius Konttinen

End of the Line is a larp produced by Odyssé for White Wolf Publishing. It’s based on Vampire: the Masquerade and is designed using ideas from Nordic Larp.

Date: 7.3.2016

Duration: One night

Participants: 70

Venue: The area of the Lapinlahti Mental Hospital in Helsinki. We used the main hospital building mostly as backstage area and  an adjacent building as the in-game venue.

The larp is going on inside. Photo by Tuomas Puikkonen
The larp is going on inside. Photo by Tuomas Puikkonen

Concept

We wanted to make a larp that goes back to the very basics of the vampire experience: Hunting for blood in a crowd of unsuspecting humans. Because of this, End of the Line was set at an illegal techno party. Most of the characters were ordinary humans, junkies and hipsters, club organizers and derelicts.

We put a lot of focus on the human characters so they reflected the themes of predator and prey in their own contexts. It was possible to play through the entire larp without encountering anything vampiric. Indeed, one of the design goals was that if you walked in from the street, you’d think you were at an actual illegal techno party.

In terms of larp design, we went with a very light bespoke system for the Vampire powers that are a part of the genre. The focus was on dancing, hunting and doing the kind of stupid things you do when you party.

Credits

Created by: Bjarke Pedersen, Juhana Pettersson & Martin Ericsson

Production: José Jácome & Mikko Pervilä

Characters: Elin Nilsen, Jørn Slemdal & Mika Loponen

Decor: Marcus Engstrand, Anders Davén & Aleksander Nikulin

Documentation: Tuomas Hakkarainen, Tuomas Puikkonen, Julius Konttinen & Joona Pettersson

Catering: Kasper Larson & Aarne Saarinen

Production assistants: Outi Mussalo, Tia Carolina Ihalainen, James Knowlden, Bob Wilson, Irrette Cziezerski, Jukka Seppänen & Ville-Eemeli Miettinen

Featuring: Suicide Club (Gabriella Holmström & Ossian Reynolds)

Produced by White Wolf Publishing and Odyssé with Solmukohta and Inside Job Agency

Reruns

New Orleans 3rd of September, 2016 as part of the Grand Masquerade larp event.

Berlin 10th and 11th of May, 2017 as part of the World of Darkness Berlin fan event.

Documentation

This is the photoset Tuomas Puikkonen published from the Helsinki run.

DJ Ossian Reynolds released his original set from the Helsinki run here.

For the New Orleans run, Johanna Koljonen wrote two posts about the safety techniques used, the See No Evil and the Tap-Out.

Media

21.3.2016 – Sarah Lynne Bowman wrote about the larp for nordiclarp.org: End of the Line: White Wolf’s First Official Nordic-Style Larp

9.3.2016 – Jussi Ahlroth wrote about the larp for Helsingin Sanomat: Verta ja lähikosketuksia laittomissa teknobileissä

Awards

In 2017, End of the Line was nominated for the Diana Jones Award.