All the Little Boys Are Dead

All the Little Boys Are Dead is a black box larp.

Summary
All the Little Boys Are Dead is set in the trenches of the first world war, it follows 8 young men, in their struggle to survive while keeping their memories and sanity intact, while bombs are falling all around them and death comes to steal them away.

All the Little Boys Are Dead is a larp running for two hours. It is heavily scripted and relays on both transparency and expectations among the players to work. The larps run-time is determined by the soundscape designed specific for the larp. The soundscape is a mix between nature sounds, bombs exploding and a horror track for when death comes. All the sounds is used as ques for the players, so they know how to react in a certain situation.

All characters are played by two players, where one player is mute but can see and the other is blind but can talk. Between them they have three memories that keeps them alive, if they lose them the become hollow and are left in the trenches when the larp ends. The memories are inspired by everyday life and common feelings.

The playing area is parted up in two areas, the trenches and no mans land. The trenches is the players safe-zone, where bombs can't hurt them.

During the game, memories appear in the form of objects out in no mans land, these memories are inspired by the war. The players can venture out in no mans land in hope of getting the memory, but they are in danger of being hit by falling bombs.

Finally Death comes around. Death comes in the form of two creatures in gas-masks and light shining out their eyes. The stalk and prey on the young men in the trenches. When they get a memory they eat it and is then satisfied. Death is not barred from the trenches and can hunt the soldiers everywhere.

The game uses a design where the bombs and death are predefined by the soundscape, but the memories are randomly plotted in. The players know this, and by knowing it, knows that it is randomness that determines if they get caught by death or hit by a bomb.

To mimic the bombs, dirt and rubble was thrown at the players, every time a bomb exploded. Smoke was used to create the hazy feelings of gas attacks and create the sensations of dread when death comes.

Techniques

 * Pre-larp Workshop
 * Black Box
 * Soundscape
 * Monologue
 * Focus Scene
 * Phyical effect

Resources
The soundscape can be found at: https://soundcloud.com/blackbox-cph/all-the-boys-are-dead

History
All the Little Boys Are Dead was first played in 2014 at Blackbox CPH.

Trivia
All the Little Boys Are Dead inspired the poster for BlackBox CPH 2014.