CONTINUUM 2025 FREEFORM SCHEDULE
This is the current provisional schedule, as of late March. More games may yet be added, and although the timetable corresponds to the gaming slots schedule, some games may start slightly later or end slightly earlier. Further details will be added to some games shortly. And as you can see, we do have one or two slots that could take a game – so if you think you could run one then it’s not too late to get in touch.
How do I play in one of these excellent games?
The first round of sign-ups will open at 12 noon on Saturday 12 April, to allow for additional games, more people registering, and everyone to get their act together! Send an email to [email protected] with the Subject FREEFORM ROUND 1, giving your name and email address (and also the name/handle you registered under, if that’s different, so we can confirm you have registered and paid), the gender you play, and your first, second and third choices.
We will get back to you as soon as we can letting you know which game(s) you are in. At the very least, we hope to be able to place everyone in their first choice. Then it will be up to the GMs of each game to get in touch to arrange casting, etc. In the first instance, we would hope to give everyone two games, if possible.
Be aware that by submitting a sign-up request, you are agreeing to my passing your name and the rest to the GMs. We will delete all my records of this after the con.
Please…
- We will be paying attention to when people send in their emails, but it is not a pure first come/first served allocation, in that in the unlikely case that people don’t get a first choice, for example, we will give them priority for their second. However, don’t submit sign-ups before 12 noon on the 12th. If you do, we will automatically put you at the back of the queue.
- Don’t get too worried! We have lots of games and places, and there will be further rounds of sign-ups.
- Know that we do not plan to schedule any freeforms against the Continuum 21st Birthday Costume Party. Here’s your chance to really glam up for the occasion!
- Any questions, contact [email protected].
Provisional Schedule
| Friday | Saturday | Sunday | |||
| Morning | It’s Everybody’s War | The Artificer’s Aviary | Venice | That Difficult Second Album | |
| Afternoon | Love Letter: The Crusade | Campfire and Queen* | Fight for Survival | Lumberjills* | |
| Evening | Continuum 21st Birthday Costume Party | Horrospital | Warsaw ’43 | Death Wears White | |
*Game now full… (but the game waitlist is open).
Friday Evening
CONTINUUM’S 21ST BIRTHDAY COSTUME PARTY
No freeforms on Friday evening, but get costumed & glammed up as your favourite character to celebrate 21 years of Continuum!
Saturday Morning – 1
It’s Everybody’s War
We in this quiet corner of England have suffered the loss of friends very dear to us. The homes of many of us have been destroyed, and the lives of young and old have been taken. There’s scarcely a household that hasn’t been struck to the heart. And why? Surely you must have asked yourselves this question? Why in all conscience should these be the ones to suffer?
I shall tell you why. Because this is not only a war of soldiers in uniform. It is the war of the people, of all the people. And it must be fought not only on the battlefield but in the cities and in the villages, in the factories and on the farms, in the home and in the heart of every man, woman and child who loves freedom. This is the People’s War. It is our war. We are the fighters. Fight it then. Fight it with all that is in us. And may God defend the right. [Quote from Mrs Miniver, a British film made in 1942.]
September 1940, the village hall in Cropstone, Leicestershire. In the midst of the Blitz, England endures. The Ministry of Information Film Unit have sent a cast and crew to the heart of the countryside to make a wartime propaganda movie to keep up people’s spirits on the home front. Even in this quiet corner of England, we are all very much aware that no one is untouched by the current crisis, because It’s Everybody’s War.
Lead GMs: Sue Lee, Kevin Jacklin
Players: 16 (7 female, 7 male, 2 neutral (children))
[Places remaining: 3F/5M/2N]
Saturday Morning – 2
The Artificer’s Aviary
1887, in a fantastical world with some superficial similarities to Victorian England. The once-famous artificer houses who created intelligent Automata for the stage and travelling sideshows have fallen into disrepute following a terrible scandal. Meanwhile, a network of their discarded creations, known only as the Aviary, attack their creators from the shadows, and threaten to spill their secrets. Now, the government have announced their intention to ban the creation of intelligent Automata entirely. For the first time since its creation, the Aviary must meet in person. But there are more people at the meeting than are in the network… and fewer Automata than there should be.
The Artificer’s Aviary is a steampunk game of interpersonal conflict, secrets and magic. The setting is aesthetically similar to Victorian England, but with significant differences in history, and an entirely different magic/theological system, reminiscent of Terry Pratchett’s Small Gods. This is a typical UK freeforms-style game, with pre-cast characters and no workshopping. There is a fair amount of reading pre-game (about 10 sides of A4 background, 10 sides of A4 character sheet).
Themes of necromancy (including human and animal sacrifice) are largely unavoidable in this game, so if this would bother you, this is not the game for you. This game also has no romance plots, so be aware if romance is an important part of your game.
Content Warnings
Content warnings: necromancy, human sacrifice, animal sacrifice, murder, abandonment (by creators, think Frankenstein). These are likely to be unavoidable, and any players not comfortable with at least some discussion of these topics should avoid the game.
Lead GM: Megan Jones
Players: 11
[Places remaining: 8]
Saturday Afternoon – 1
Love Letter: The Crusade
It is the summer in the year-of-our-lord 1190. The County of Watling sits quietly in the south of England in the heart of medieval Europe. The Baron and Baroness of Watling preside over a happy, pleasant court, filled with beautiful ladies and charming courtiers. Monthly feasts, holiday festivals, and tournaments help break up the monotony of daily life. The Baron and Baroness are generous, fair, and a shining example of a medieval marriage.
Love Letter: The Crusade is game about relationships, how they change, endure and survive (or not) in the tumultuous times of war. When the characters meet again will their relationships still be intact or will the ravages of war have changed those who went or those who stayed behind? What has time apart now made clear to each couple? Every character will navigate the intricacies of several potential romantic entanglements, with varying levels of angst, assisted in many cases by close friends and family for guidance and support.
The Practical: All the details can be found here: https://elyssiamccormick.wixsite.com/lovelettercrusade
The LARP strays from the traditional “freeform” format in two significant forms. 1) The LARP is entirely about Romance, as well as friendship, and the connections of interpersonal play. There are secrets but no traditional “plots”. 2) The play occurs over three acts; in between these there are two “breaks” during which the players write and receive letters to the other players, and also fill in (very) brief feedback forms which the GMs use to feed the following sessions. Costuming is early medieval (we aren’t fussy, we just ask players to make some effort and stray away from anything distracting like blue jeans and a band tshirt). Casting forms are Mandatory. The game session will last 4 hours.
Lead GM: Elyssia McCormick
Players: 10 (5 Female Characters; 5 Male Characters)
[Places remaining: 4F/2M]
Saturday Afternoon – 2
Campfire and Queen
All of you have a reason for running away from court and the Queen. Some of you are on the run from an arranged marriage, some of you hate your old life and wanted to start a fresh, some of you just have a wanderlust. You are gathered around a campfire to tell stories to help pass the evening away but what will those stories reveal about you and the question that everyone will eventually face… would you protect the Queen?
Campfire and Queen is a storytelling freeform inspired by the card game For the Queen. You are from a high magic fantasy Kingdom with a matriarchal monarchy. All of you have lived at court with the Queen but have now run away and are in disguise, traveling with a merchant caravan to your next destination. This is the first big caravan of the season as the mountain pass has been closed for three months and this is the first time you have been able to leave the court. You look around the campfire and several people here seem familiar, but you don’t know where from. Maybe it is your imagination playing tricks on you. The Merchant invites you to tell a couple of stories to help pass the time.
The game will run over two nights and a day. During the first night everyone who wants to will tell a story. These can be based on story seeds that are on your character sheet. There will then be the day period where characters can discuss the stories, maybe answer a question from their character sheet and try to work out where they know the other characters from.
There will then be another night where storys can be told and secrets uncovered. The game will end with you finding out that the kingdom and the Queen are under attack and you will have a choice. Will you go back to save the Queen?
Character sheets are short and will contain information about your past life and why you are running and where you are going to. They will also contain a few questions that you may want to answer during the game and use as interaction prompts. They will also contain story seeds that you may want to use during the game to tell your campfire stories. I will also provide a mythology for the world that you could use to inform your story telling if you wish.
This Freeform is lovingly based on the card game For The Queen by Alex Roberts and produced by Evil Hat Games
Content Warnings
Romantic Strife, Family problems, War, Assassinations, Arguments around status in society, Religious discussions based on mythology not connected with real world.
Lead GM: Ray Hodson
Players: 9
[GAME FULL… waitlist open]
Saturday Evening – 1
Horrospital
“Patrons, employees and patients at St Lucifer’s Hospital have come together to celebrate the wedding of two beloved staff members. But dark and strange events are afoot, a serial killer stalks the corridors, a secret cult perform human sacrifices and St Lucifer’s is soon to find itself sucked into a Hell Dimension. Are you a retired vampire, a renegade warlock from another Earth, a heroic surgeon, an apparent ingenue with a secret mission to save Humankind? Are you brave enough to enter the Horrospital?
From the depraved mind of one of the UK’s foremost Larpsmiths comes the ultimate Larp of terror and mental fearmongering. Horrospital is partially inspired by the bowel-clenching epics of genuis, maverick horror fabulist Garth Marengi and lets you – yes You! – participate in a Larp so twisted and deparaved that you will probably never be the same again.
Trigger warning: If you lack nerves of steel then don’t sign up to this game, and indeed READ NO FURTHER! You have been warned…
Garth Marengi’s many, many epic works of gibbous literature are the key touchstones for this Larp. However, his output is phenomenal (he is one of the few writers ever to have written more books than he has read) and so I, your esteemed Larpwright, have taken pity on you and confined the horror to a hospital setting, albeit one that was built upon a Gateway To Hell…
Thus, for research (if you care to undertake research, which is always optional) I recommend first and most obviously Channel 4’s work of seminal terror “Garth Marengi’s Darkplace”, available on All 4 or 4 or whatever it’s called nowadays. And, whilst I think about it, I co-wrote a Larp called 4 long before All 4 became 4. Note to self: Consult lawyers re suing 4 re 4.
And beyond the great Marengi, Horrospital‘s secondary inspiration is the ground-breaking Antipodean hospital drama “Let the Blood Run Free”, episodes of which can be found on You Tube.
Whose persona will you adopt in this, one of the greatest horror Larps ever to be experienced in Bedfordshire during July of 2025? Will you be the plucky new Doctor with a dark secret? The gifted surgeon whose true love is doomed? The prolific horror fictioneer discovering their worst imaginings have all come to life? A human-sacrificing cultist determined to rip open the portal to another dimension? The calm and rational hospital administrator with a cigar in one hand, and a shotgun in the closet?”
Lead GM: Tony Mitton
Players: 22-25
[Places remaining: 13]
Saturday Evening – 2
Warsaw ’43
Lead GM: Sandy Fabiszewska
Players: 7-8
[Places remaining: 4]
Sunday Morning – 1
Venice
Venice is ruled by five powerful families, alike in dignity: the Capones, the Capulets, the Corleones, the Montagues and the Sopranos. Lady Theresa Capulet, the Doge, the ultimate authority in Venice, has been murdered and the five ruling families of Venice are meeting to decide who is to replace her…
Venice is a freeform larp set in mythic sixteenth-century Venice. It is a factions game, where players are all members of one of the families and are vying for power.
Lead GM: Steve Hatherley
Players: 14 players, all ungendered. (There are a few in-game romances, which will be addressed in casting.)
[Places remaining: 5]
Sunday Morning – 2
That Difficult Second Album
August 1971. Up-and-coming folk-rock band The Appleyards have been ensconced at Hurstmere Grange in the wilds of Sussex to record the follow-up album to their well-received debut. Tonight, they will reveal to the world the new album’s title, some of the new songs, and announce where their next tour will be.
But has anyone seen the drummer?
Lead GM: Kevin Jacklin
Players: 8-10 (4 female; 4 male; 2 either)
[Places remaining: 2F/2M/2N]
Sunday Afternoon – 1
Fight for Survival
Short Blurb
Zombies have taken over the world and you feel like the last survivors. You all come from different walks of life and one of those people that you collected has started sneezing. Is that a symptom?
And then there’s the radio, is it giving you information or is the broadcast more sinister? Who can help you and will they even try? Are you trapped or safe?
Long Blurb
Fight for Survival is a larp set in the aftermath of a zombie outbreak.
It’s is a workshop larp where you will design your characters before we play, but there will also be secrets given to all players by the GMs to inspire gameplay and drive the story.
The larp is also driven by the players receiving radio broad casts throughout the game, which gives them extra information about the outbreak and will introduce questions and decisions that should be made.
Described in 3 words
Trust/paranoia/relationships
Content warnings
There will be secret information contained within the game.
GMs: Ray Hodson & Jo Gould
Players: 6-14
[Places remaining: 6]
Sunday Afternoon – 2
Lumberjills
In the highlands of Scotland in WW2, British women come together in brutal physical labour: felling trees and processing timber in service of the war effort. In the woods, they find newfound confidence and physical capacity – and in dance socials with neighbouring lumberjack and training camps discover romance, and new options for their lives.
This scene-based game follows the characters through a variety of scenes as they first meet, go to dances and have a chance for romance, and bid farewell to each other at the end of the war, when they must decide what sort of lives they will return to.
All players will be playing a female lumberjill as well as briefly playing multiple side characters, both male and female. Players may be of any gender identity, but should expect to play both female and male characters. All players will play side characters that are potential romantic interests for each other player.
Content Warnings
- Some light touch of hands and shoulders is required for certain scenes. Kissing will be represented by holding hands.
- Themes of sexuality/romance.
- Game takes place against the background of WW II. There will be no Nazis.
- Players will need to stand for three sets of dances, as well as three periods of simulated physical exertion.
Age Restrictions: 18+
Lead GM: Sue Lee
Players: 4
[GAME FULL… waitlist open]
Sunday Evening – 1
Death Wears White
You are among the staff and visitors at the Brighton Hospital, Detroit in 1999. A brilliant doctor has been murdered and there’s a hostage situation in progress. Is the killer still among you?
This is a classic vintage murder mystery from 2001, which allegedly inspired the Chinese Jubensha industry.
Pre-written freeform-style characters with secrets and plot. Required reading – 4 page characters, 4 page player handbook.
Costumes optional but appreciated. Should be pretty easy – doctors, nurses, civilians circa 1999.
Content warnings
Suitable for age 16+. Scenario inlcudes: illness and death of loved one, pregnancy, threat of guns, violence and arguments, hostage situation, operations and optional gore. Most characters have nefarious behaviour in their backgrounds. Contact the GM if you need more specific info to avoid general spoilers.
Lead GM: Jenny Dunn
Players: 8 (3 female; 3 male; 2 either)
[Places remaining: -F/2M/1N]
Sunday Evening – 2
TBC