What Is the Game?
The Séance is a modern, small-group horror LARP about memory, grief and the strange, ambiguous space between fiction and belief. Players arrive with no characters prepared: everything is created in the room.
The group collectively invents a deceased friend — their personality, history, relationships, and the unsettling circumstances of their death. Objects are repurposed as mementos, and the shared fiction quickly gains emotional weight.
The evening culminates in a guided table séance, drawing heavily on real sitter-group methods documented in parapsychology.
Features
- Modern psychological horror
- One-evening structure
- Character creation in play
- Authentic séance methodology
- Parapsychology-inspired design
How It Works
1. Character Creation
Players build a web of shared memories around the deceased friend, grounding the fiction in emotional realism rather than supernatural cliché.
2. Workshops
Short exercises establish tone, connection and trust. The group practises the rhythm of table-work and calibrates expectations.
3. The Séance
The lights dim. Hands rest lightly on the table. Knocks are asked for. Questions posed. And slowly, patterns emerge — whether from unconscious movement, shared imagination, or something harder to explain.
Content & Safety
The tone is unsettling but not graphic. The focus lies on emotional resonance, uncanny atmosphere, and the psychology of belief.
Content includes:
- themes of death and grief
- mental strain and unease
- uncanny or ambiguous phenomena
- interpersonal tension
The game includes briefing and debriefing guidance to encourage emotional safety. Long term effects are unpredictable, but players should be aware of the risks from the briefing document.
Background
The PDF includes a concise introduction to Kenneth Batcheldor’s sitter-group research, ideomotor theory, the Philip Experiment, and the psychology of table phenomena. It is accurate, accessible, and directly tied to the game design. It is a player facing in character document as well as a real world guide to certain parapsychological research and game instructions
Credits
Design & writing: Christian Jensen Romer (CJ)
First Play: Continuum, Leicester in 2014
Genre: Modern Horror LARP / Experimental Séance / Parapsychology