21st to 24th of March 2024
Moszna Castle, Poland
The Experience
Fairweather Manor: The Titanic Prelude is an immersive role-play event (larp) inspired by the 1910s as seen in Downton Abbey, Upstairs, Downstairs and Titanic. Our goal is to balance the atmosphere of a historical setting with a highly immersive and playable experience.
You’ll step into the historical era around 1912 as you enter a world of hubris at the height of European aristocracy. Experience life in this moment of time, and engage in drama filled with passion, intrigue, and deception. The central conflicts in Fairweather Manor are class and gender struggles in the 1910s. The drama will revolve around social standing and family relations.
In the world of Fairweather Manor, how you look is not relevant to your standing in society. While we want to explore the struggle of gender and class in the times of 1912, we won’t play on subjects of racism.
Key Information
Dates:
21st to 24th of March 2024
Location:
Moszna Castle, Poland
Language:
The game will be played in English. You don't need to have a perfect mastery of the language though. As long as you can understand most of what is said and can make yourself understood, you will have a good time!
Costumes:
Players will have to bring their own costumes. There will be a rental service provided by Wonderlarp.
Transportation:
Group transport will be available from Berlin Brandenburg Airport (return trip) at an extra cost.
Time frame:
Players need to be on site on Thursday afternoon for the workshops. The game will start after the workshops. The game will end on Saturday evening, players leave on Sunday morning.
(Exact times to be announced).
Total participants:
There are a total of 120 characters, divided into upstairs and downstairs characters.
Age:
Players must be 18 or older.
What is provided and what is expected?
When signing up for Fairweather Manor: The Titanic Prelude, you’re applying to join a collaborating experience facilitated by volunteers. We will coordinate food, accommodation, characters, and an eventful program, but you’re a participant, not a customer.
This is a larp that is newcomer-friendly and ready to play. We’ll provide you with all the story and character information you need. You’ll need to provide your own costume though. We will make some recommendations for rental options, but the internet is your oyster when it comes to finding inspiration on how to make your own 1912 costume. We do not expect total historical accuracy – you can get away with a lot, if you find the right silhouette.
The Story
It’s March 1912, and the air is thick with the scent of blooming spring flowers and optimistic excitement. It’s a time of prosperity, of looking to the future, as the Fairweather family gathers friends from near and far for a grand celebration. Times are changing, that is true, but in their hubris, the aristocracy struggle to imagine that the changes will affect themselves in any way but for the better.
A little less than a month from now, several members of the family will embark on a journey to America - to renew old connections and make a marriage that will secure the future of the family. This bodes well for the staff of the manor as well, because select servants will get the honour of joining the Fairweathers on their trip - meaning adventure and fresh opportunities. Some servants may even see this as a potential ticket to a brand new life.
As the time of departure draws near, and the guests for the grand celebration arrive and settle in their rooms, the competition between the servants gets fierce, deals are brokered and broken, and Lord and Lady Fairweather make the final preparations for their journey - aboard the Titanic April 1912.
It is spring and hope blooms as freely and brightly as the apple flowers in the orchard, but tragedy looms just around the corner - the Titanic will sink, and certainly most, if not all of the Fairweather family members and servants on board will be lost. Knowing this, will the moments spent seeking happiness before shine more brightly? Or will a dark edge of terror give even the sweetest kisses a touch of melancholy?
Join Fairweather Manor: The Titanic Prelude for a taste of the wild excitement, the hopefulness, the great plans, and the joyous dreams of the time before the first of many great tragedies - before the sinking of the Titanic, before the Great War - a time of promises as well as of traditions.
The Themes
This larp is for you if you enjoy at least some of the following:
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Acting
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Playing on class and gender
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Personal and family drama
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Light political intrigue
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Chatting about scandalous occurrences over tea
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Romancing, being romanced, playing matchmaker
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Strolls in the park with a rival
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Picnics in the garden, croquet, reading the newspaper in the sun
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Dancing
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Dressing up, dressing others
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Serving others and eavesdropping to use their secrets against them later
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Reading letters before you deliver them
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Sending letters to your secret lover that will likely be read by absolutely everyone
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Reading poems to your betrothed
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Being served by elegant, clever, trustworthy servants
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Serving your Lord or Lady at dinner
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Subtly using the noble's secrets against them
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Flirtatious looks
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Painting watercolours in the golden hour
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Deep discussions over Whist
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Peeling potatoes with your crush
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Contemplating your lot in life
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Dreaming about a new life in the USA
Sign-up & Casting
SIGN UP IS NOW CLOSED
The sign-up for Fairweather Manor will be by presale application followed by a participation casting for our two playgroups, Downstairs and Upstairs. The presale sign-up will be open for 14 days – if the larp isn’t filled within this time, we’ll move into a vetted sales model. The presale sign-up will end on the 4 June 2023. We’ll give notice of the presale application period on the website and on Facebook via the interest group.
In the sign-up application, we’ll ask you to tell us about the character tropes you'd like to play, and those you'd like to avoid. We also ask you about you do not wish to play with as Fairweather Manor: The Titanic Prelude will use a curated casting process to ensure diversity, inclusivity and ability to portray the role. We intend to create a diverse player base and ensure that everyone has an opportunity to participate.
Once the presale period has closed, we’ll move to the participation casting. If you receive a place, we’ll send you an email with information about how to pay your participation fee and which play group you are assigned to. If you don’t get a place, we'll add you to the waiting list unless you tell us specifically that you do not want to be added.
We’ll aim to complete the participation casting process by 1 July 2023.
Our choices will be based on the application form. If you have questions about casting, please reach out to us at butler@fairweathermanor.com
The Characters
One of the core principles of this larp’s design is having overlapping groups. This means that every character is part of several social groups and not just a single group, giving the player several alibis to interact with more co-players. It also creates a safety net for you as a player, if part of your story or play is not working for you.
The two main defining groups for every character are the downstairs and upstairs groups. Other groups are country groups, servant groups, noble families, social interests, character age groups, political groups and more.
We are putting most of our design attention on enhancing the Downstairs experience. We believe that an awesome Downstairs experience will have a positive effect on the Upstairs experience as well.
Playing downstairs:
As a servant to the noble and great Fairweather family you are expected to be on your best behaviour. Of course, this does not mean you can’t get yourself into all kinds of shenanigans while the Nobles aren’t looking. Servants tend to be the most colourful characters in this game, often having intriguing, or sometimes even criminal pasts.
You will be indispensable for the family’s comfort and the cornerstone of all practical dealings happening on the estate. Work is almost always about people and relationships and should add to your play rather than take away from it. This means physical tasks are never done alone, but always in twos or threes. Nobles require lots of personal wardrobe assistance giving you a chance to talk and gossip. We are at an actual hotel, so playing a maid doesn’t mean cooking meals, but rather preparing platters of cookies or evening tea.
Playing a servant will give you the possibility to spread gossip and steer the story in a way that will benefit your character, and maybe your employer too, if you see fit. You will tend to the members of your family, performing tasks and chores that are meaningful to you and add to your play.
At Fairweather Manor: The Titanic Prelude - the Family will decide which suitable servants receive the great honour of accompanying them aboard the Titanic, to start a new life in the Americas. The larp will end shortly after this announcement has been made.
Playing upstairs:
As part of the upstairs class, you are here to enjoy yourself, drink tea in the Orangerie, take strolls in the garden, have a drink at the hunting table and discuss family issues. There will be exclusive dining, with your wine glass getting magically (it seems) refilled, and many discussions about potential marriage and alliances to be endured.
Flirtations and scandalous shenanigans are also in store for you. Write a love poem and send letters to each other, delivered by the downstairs servants (note that reading private correspondence is heavily frowned upon and yet remains a common occurrence). Bring your most fancy gowns, dresses and suits to show off your status and wealth to the other branches of your family.
Everyone in the upstairs group will also have the opportunity to organise small events for entertainment, like dancing lessons, piano sessions, fencing, games, garden picnics, etc.
And finally, the preparations for the Grande Traversée to the Americas have to be made. What business deals and alliances will ensure a bright future? Which servants have shown themselves to be worthy of accompanying those of you who will start their new lives on the other side of the world?
Our Vision
The people involved in this new iteration of Fairweather Manor hold a deep love for the original larp, its setting and characters. Our dream is to breathe life back into the world of Fairweather Manor, respectfully adding to and tweaking the content – so we may all relive the stories of the servants and their lords and ladies once again. So, it’s time for one more run, for those who missed it the last time, those who are discovering the larp now, and those who simply crave to return.
We intend to create an interesting and inspiring larp experience for each of the different character groups (servants, nobles, and artists). When approaching Fairweather Manor: The Titanic Prelude, we’re focused on making the servant experience central to the larp design. Thus, we’ve opted to return to the sentiment from the first rendition of the larp, which had equal ticket prices for all characters.
Fairweather Manor contains over a thousand pages of design documents, characters, handouts, and much more. Many of us played a big part in creating this storyworld, and we are looking forward to visiting it again.
The Team & Credits
Fairweather Manor's crew is entirely volunteer based.
We owe our thanks to those who have helped to create the original version of this game, including:
Claus Raasted, Anna Westerling, Daniel Sundström, Edin Janković Šumar, Oliver Hoffmann, Elina Gouliou, Anne Serup Grove, Freja Gyldenstrøm, Muriel, Maria Østerby Elleby,
and to Maciek Nitka and Nadina Dobrowolska for allowing us to use their photographs.
The experience from a player's perspective
David D. Levine, a Science Fiction author from the USA, played Baron Piotr Maximilian Petrov, head of the Russian branch of the Fairweather family.
He wrote an insightful LARP report about his player experience, and his character's story.
We invite you to read about Fairweather Manor: The Titanic Prelude through David's eyes below:
