A Larp inside a Gothic Murder Mystery novel
You lean over the rail of the Esteban and look at the New York harbour. You’ve been on this ship for almost 100 days now. It was supposed to take just under 2 months to get to New York from Alexandria. Annoyingly, it seems that news travels faster than this accursed ship does. When you arrived at port flying the Egyptian flag, you were signaled to stay put. A small rowboat with some scared looking sailors rowed up to you and had you haul up a crate. Inside was a quarantine flag and some supplies.
Forty damn days in quarantine, on pain of death.
38 days you have waited to dock, with the harbour right there in sight. You pace along the deck restlessly, you’re on edge, just like everyone else. You should get some rest. After tonight it’s only two more days to go.
You start awake from the sound of a ringing bell, shouting, crying, hysteria. At first you think it’s a fire, but when you get above deck a group of sailors and passengers are standing around something. You worm your way through and see him. He’s leaning against the mast with his face and hands covered in blood, eyes sunken, and lungs wheezing. Hauntingly he looks up at the group surrounding him. “You’ve killed me” he manages to wheeze to the onlookers, his eyes bloody and unfocused, before a wracking cough ushers in his last breath.
You cross yourself as some of the passengers cry out, and another mutters; “God preserve us all, the Pest has come.” More sobs go through the crowd as they realize the gravity of the situation.
Another passenger cleans their glasses as they say; “I think not, my good man. More like than not, this is murder most foul.”
“You some kind of detective?” a sailor asks. “That’s Dupin” a woman says, “They’re famous for solving quite a number of murders and mysteries.”
This is going to be a problem, you tell yourself.
What is Death and Denial?
Death and Denial is a larp in Gothic style: melancholic, intimate, and introspective. Although it unfolds within the scaffolding of a murder mystery, it is not the focus or intention of the event to solve the mystery. Instead, the narrative lingers on slow-burn personal drama, emotional unravelling, and the silent dread of quarantine. The ship is not just a setting but a character: enclosed, echoing with secrets and bursting with tension.
The player experience centres around immersion, emotional vulnerability, and interpersonal conflict. Play is mechanics-light. Players negotiate in-character how to resolve conflicts and and calibrate out-of-chararcter how to resolve any in-character physical altercation.
Players will portray the passengers and crew of the quarantined Esteban. A few organisers will embody key NPC roles such as the Investigator.
The creative team draws inspiration from the murder mystery genre through books such as Edgar Allan Poe’s The Murders in the Rue Morgue and Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile as well as Gothic works of fiction such as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and John William Pollidori’s The Vampyre.
Themes explored in the larp include confinement, fear, confession, plague, superstition, strained relationships, regrets and connection.
This is not a competitive event. It is not a whodunnit, not a puzzle to solve, and not a story about winning. There are no combat mechanics. It is an event of truths held in shadow and fragile hearts.
This event involves play on superstition and the occult. The characters will all be superstitious to some degree. The occult happenings during the event may or may not have natural explanations. Unless your character is specifically a realist, or has good reason to doubt a supernatural explanation, your character should try to believe in the supernatural explanation.
Practical information
Date:
The event will take place from 19-21 June 2026
Location:
The event will take place on the sailing ship ‘de Hester’.
Departure will be from the Ijsselkade 55 in Kampen, the Netherlands.
Language:
The larp will be played in English.
Price:
per participant
Standard Ticket: €490,-
Reduced-Price Ticket: €350,-
Payable in one installment of €75,- and one installment of €415,- / €275,-
For more information, see the Practical and Timeline page.
This event is for you if:
- You enjoy interpersonal drama.
- You enjoy playing in a gothic setting of mystery, superstition and suspense.
- You enjoy playing characters that make terrible decisions and have regrets.
- You enjoy playing on a ship and do not get (too) seasick.
- You enjoy playing with themes like the occult, enclosure, revelation, suspense and tense relationships.
- You will be older than 18 years of age at the start of the event.
This event is not for you if:
- You want to win a murder mystery event.
- You do not want to play on a ship or in a space with no way to get away from intense situations.
- You want a light-hearted, comedic or funny event.
- You get very seasick.
- You don’t want to interface with the themes listed on the Safety page.