Kafka’s trap

By: Anna Mayfat & Jan Vávra

Kafkaesque – Oppression – Disempowerment
Scenario format: Larp
Duration: 3 hours
Number of players: 5

In the world we live in The Party controls everything, making life very difficult and scary for everyone. People are given random jobs and have to follow a lot of confusing and strict rules. The Party has also changed history, so no one is sure what’s really true anymore. This has made everyone afraid to say what they think.

You are part of a group of five people who show up to work one day, only to find out your position no longer exists. You find a note saying, “You have been terminated,” which makes you feel very hopeless. Without a job your life has little purpose. What will the others say? But just when you think there’s no way out of this tough situation, you find a ray of hope in a newspaper ad. It’s for a job interview, but the ad is mysterious. It simply says, “Come for a job interview.” So, that’s where you are headed now.

Download – Instructions

Download – Printouts instructions

About the author
Anna Mayfat is a project manager, educational board game designer, facilitator, and an experiential learning enthusiast. Her first experience with lapr was organising short-term folklore based games in summer camps for teenagers in her early twenties. After a significant pause she redicsovered larping as an educational method within the Erasmus+ network in 2021. She works now with other educators to bring larping to wider audiences such a school teachers and youth workers.

Jan Vávra in his late teens took part in several big fantasy larps of the “wooden swords in a forest” variety. He is one of the writers of a Czech pen&paper RPG, “Dračí Doupě 2” and a developer of indie point and click adventure games (hvavra.itch.io). Recently he helped develop three chamber edularps aiming to promote Czech history and culture.