LARPs OF THE NEAR FUTURE - PART 1SINergy Take Nightclubbing to the Next Level
WORDS BY BRUNO BAYLEY
PHOTOS BY ALEX STURROCK
Everybody knows that Live Action Role Playing is the funnest way to turn your pointless existence into a thrill ride of unbounded possibilities and constant adventure, right?
But imagine if you took LARP out of the forests and Quasar centres and transported it into the most exciting environment there could possibly ever be: a nightclub in Leicester!
THEN, imagine what it would be like if the bar was fully licensed and there were DJs, dancing and futuristic bounty hunters drinking pints of Caffreys and fighting human/cat hybrids from space all night long?
Wouldn’t that be like surgically implanting a galactic space engine to the part of your brain that makes you produce the fun chromosome, which then would launch your brain out of the front of your head spraying everybody around you with blood, skin and splintered bone fragments?
The answer is: “Affirmative, Corporal Zeeks! And what’s more, radiation took out the riggercom relays and three AVs went down in the hot zone. Headshot 12!” *
Welcome, ladies and gents, to SINergy!
*This is SINergy speak for “Yes, I absolutely agree with that statement.”
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These are the guys that make up SINergy and they had come from as far away as Brighton, Leeds and London to Leicester’s Rack & Roll club to pretend that they were living in a place called “New Rome City”.
Set, fairly unambitiously, a mere 33 years in the future, New Rome City is built on top of a concrete plate set on top of the old Rome. In their minds, tribes of cannibals roam around the rim of the plate, huge corporations battle with anarchists and cyborgs suffering from “cyber-psychosis” shoot innocents. The big news in December 2040 was that a cloud of radioactive smoke had puffed out of the Vatican’s chimney spelling disaster for all who live nearby, so that was the kind of shit we were dealing with. Fucking heavy. |
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| This is the DJ. The big tunes of 2040 seemed to be anything by Static-X. He dropped “Protect Ya Neck” too, but that was a one-off. One guy spent most of the night rolling across the dancefloor dressed as a cat. His feline grace was undermined by the banging of his huge goth boots which was audible above the music. |
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| The game started out calmly. These guys were engrossed in a high stakes poker match. The chap dressed like Chun-Li was only 16. He said his parents thought he was on drugs and out getting high, but actually he was a swordsmith from the future out gambling. We are not sure but it seems that Lucozade is a valued commodity in 2040. |
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| This was a tense moment. The guy with the huge gun was a cyborg, he was suffering from “cyber psychosis” and was violently shaking and mumbling. The other guy was slowly inching toward his sidearm while trying to pacify the cyborg with a hearty smile. Eventually an off-duty bodyguard stun-gunned the troublemaker from behind. |
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| This is a very important parcel. It was delivered by one of the refs and had to be signed for. It was a huge Tupperware full of loose wires with a BlackBerry Blu-Tacked to the top of it. The recipient even had a SINergy identity card to prove it was for him. |
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| This situation turned very ugly, very fast. Mandell, in the leather jacket, is a CSWAT (Cyborg Special Weapons and Tactics) officer employed to keep trouble out of the bar, but it seemed this line of work had earned him enemies. This ponytailed hulk came out of nowhere and started pumping rounds into him. |
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| Thankfully there was this S&M Indiana Jones character nearby who we hid behind. He was a bodyguard and was pretty handy with his 9mm. In spite of what seemed like a huge disparity in firepower, he had the attacker wounded on the floor in seconds. |
TO BE CONTINUED
LARPs OF THE NEAR FUTURE | 1 | 2 |
Anonymous, on Jan 14, 2009 wrote:
i remember rreading this in an actual copy of the mag. I hunted it down because its the best thing ive ever seen. | | Anonymous, on Oct 13, 2008 wrote:
In 2040 everyone is an English virgin. | | |
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