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simonb.bsky.social
Not a real doctor
@simonb.bsky.social
410 followers 650 following 550 posts
Lapsed-writer, ex-DJ, wants to be an academic again (is, in fact a real doctor) , old goth, larp designer, neurodiverse like light through a prism, poet before sunrise. Poster-child for burnout (Complex, Brooding, Challenging)
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simonb.bsky.social
We sometimes hack about with them to automate some of the more repetitative parts
A fragment of googlescript that is entirely useless on its own, but as a part of the whole function can be used to create a google document containing data based on the cells of a google sheet. The code is well commentedwhilst also being a bit of a hack.
January 10, 2026 at 1:40 PM
simonb.bsky.social
The maximum word count for this article, including all references, footnotes, and the abstract is 7,000 words. This is one of those moments where I think real world Achievement badges should pop up
Zoomed in on the Page and Word Count from a MS Word document. The text reads "Page 1 of 19 7000 words"
December 28, 2025 at 8:14 AM
simonb.bsky.social
There are — quite correctly — two spaces after each full stop in the image below.

(As a part of the SoMe around the larp B Movie we're releasing odd snippets of text like this; I am rather fond of this one.)
An image of a page of a supposed movie script on faded paper with ring binder holes: Text Reads As Follows SCENE:12 Writer Where Art Thou? FADE IN EXT. A CONDO IN LOS ANGELES, WINTER - NIGHT The city sleeps. It is cold enough outside that even the frost on the ground huddles together for warmth. The camera pans up to see a cloudless sky, the stars reach out to one another, stretching their light across infinity to try to make a connection; their desperate loneliness the gravity that holds the universe together. Carlton Mahoney stands looking at the sky smoking a cigarette in a way that’d make Freud’s Mommy Blush. It is all he has and he ain’t letting go. CARLTON The thing about being a writer is you either are Or you ain’t. There is no middle ground. I don’t think you choose it either. Who would volunteer for this life; selling the words that come from your very soul. And then they ain’t yours any more. I made more money testing parachutes for the US Army. Fifty dollars every time I walked away. DOROTHY (From the shadows) Oh but you have to write, Carlton; you simply must! CARLTON Don’t you think I don’t know that? I know I got no choice. Dorothy walks into the light. She might have sounded like a simple farm-girl from Kansas, but this broad is more Queen of Mars than Yellow Brick Road, she points her DISINTEGRATOR RAY at Carlton and smiles a cruel smile - too many teeth and not an ounce of pity DOROTHY Venus demands Characters, Earth Man, so our robot army Will go undetected. Carlton takes one last desperate drag on his cigarette and, with the ray gun trained on him, goes back inside.
December 16, 2025 at 6:13 AM
simonb.bsky.social
A photo taken at Conscience. It was a difficult larp for me to play but I learned so much from it. (There's pretty much a chapter on it in my thesis.) It contained one of the best and one of the worst scenes of my 40+ year larping career.
A town that looks like the Old West (although actually a movie set in Spain) a dusty man in a black hat walks up the deserted street. His shirt sleeves are rolled up and he has six guns in holsters at his waist. In the background are mountains. There is something about his approach that suggests trouble is coming...
November 19, 2025 at 10:03 AM
simonb.bsky.social
Happy Halloween.

One day remaining for a chance to get a physical copy of the Scriptbook for the larp Gothic for only €22

www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/4...
October 31, 2025 at 6:30 AM
simonb.bsky.social
offered without context
A scone, cut in half. One side has the jam first and the clotted cream on top. The other half has the clotted cream on first like butter and the jam on top. There is half a strawberry lying off to one side. The caption reads 'An eternal question, answered.'
October 29, 2025 at 9:25 AM
simonb.bsky.social
One of the scenography twists from Gothic was replacing some of the props with others when the players were not looking. Everything here is edible, including the worms!
A fruit bowl that appears to show rotten fruit witg maggots on them
October 28, 2025 at 1:29 PM
simonb.bsky.social
We've cut the price of the the script book for Gothic to approx €22 (that is €10 off) until November 1st. In order to get a copy though you have to perform a strange ritual. This involves being signed in to DriveThruRPG AND setting the sinister sigil that shows adult content.
A black and white photograph showing a young woman in Regency-era dress trying to escape through the window of a haunted mansion. Alas, her attempt is doomed.
October 4, 2025 at 5:39 AM
simonb.bsky.social
There is only one week left to sign-up for the B Movie larp. Come and make movie magic with us next summer.

www.bmovie.org
August 24, 2025 at 8:06 AM
simonb.bsky.social
The KP Book 2026 needs you!
We’re seeking contributions for the book that will accompany this year’s Knutpunkt conference, and we need your help!

(KP is the annual Nordic larp gathering, this year it will be hosted in Sweden)
August 22, 2025 at 10:42 AM
simonb.bsky.social
Larper bookshelves, a study in storage and taxonomy
A set of overfull bookshelves with a lot of books ranging from fantasy to classics with a few texts like Lacan’s Ecrits and Joyce’s Ulysses that have been put there like the image has been curated.) On top of the books, a set of Viking Age larp weapons and what seems to be a flintlock pistol. These people are dangerous
August 6, 2025 at 2:46 PM
simonb.bsky.social
May 21, 2025 at 8:22 AM
simonb.bsky.social
Happy Star Trek Day!
The image of two people in white armed with futuristic weaponry is intended to evoke memories of Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia, but it is in fact a promo image for Buck Rodgers in the 25th century. You can see the robot 'Twiki' standing behind them. It has nothing to do with Star Trek at all. This seems appropriate as May 4th is Star Wars day. Even my cats know that.
May 4, 2025 at 4:40 AM
simonb.bsky.social
The
@avalonlarpstudio.bsky.social
crew are heading to Poland next month to meet up with our friends at
@wonderlarp.bsky.social
to start work on a new project for next year! We've actually been working on it since 2020!
April 12, 2025 at 5:01 PM
simonb.bsky.social
In parallel we are looking for locations in Scandinavia (ideally Sweden) that would work as a 360° representation of a detention centre. Somewhere with a bleak institutional vibe. I'm not sure if we can find anywhere like the Gaol in the UK though
A prison corridor with bars on the doors and windows. A security guard smirks at an inmate. Instituational lighting overhead. An air of oppressive bleakness.
April 12, 2025 at 4:54 PM
simonb.bsky.social
details of props and scenography, and this one even has poetry, and recipies for the food we served for the original runs based on Regency-era dishes.

More than anything though, I kind of want to play this game; it looked pretty awesome.
April 12, 2025 at 4:49 PM
simonb.bsky.social
One of the programme items at KP25 was a showing of the Documentary film 'Remember That Time' which was about grief but made use of the larp of the same name by @martinemonster.bsky.social - it was the first time many of the cast had seen it. I cried
March 21, 2025 at 6:34 AM
simonb.bsky.social
This is concise compared to some legacy systems from the 80s. Our roots in TRPGs were very clearly on display
March 4, 2025 at 10:08 AM
simonb.bsky.social
I have spent the weekend with the @avalonlarpstudio.bsky.social collective, doing creative things snd reconnecting with everyone. At one point we had to go out into the snow to track a strange animal. We think it is a fox footprint, but it was 10cm long at least
February 9, 2025 at 6:09 PM
simonb.bsky.social
A black flag flying against a blue sky
January 30, 2025 at 11:18 AM
simonb.bsky.social
So what if Jane Austen was the leader of a Diabolic cult. Madder, Badder, and far more dangerous to know than Byron? Dark secrets hidden beneath a mask of manners.
The Church of all Souls, Langham Place, London. A Regency era church with a steeple designed by John Nash. Inexplicably lit up in hellfire red and orange. 7:15am on a January morning. The dawn sky is ocean blue.
January 30, 2025 at 7:57 AM
simonb.bsky.social
[Knutepunkt Journal 25 “Anatomy of Larp Thoughts: a Breathing Corpus”
- Pre-ordered books and the PoD-version]
fantasiforbundet.hoopla.no/event/144468...

The journal features a variety of thought-provoking articles ...
A strange creature made from bodyparts rendered in black and white. What is it? I do not know. It is sad, and beautiful, and slightly terrifying, and yet still I want to look after it and be its friend
January 29, 2025 at 2:05 PM
simonb.bsky.social
and Avalon, ran half way up a mountain in Poland on a site that had a replica medieval village and a genuine neolithic stone circle!

(Photo by Nadina Dobrowolska)
A fire ritual inside a stone circle by some trees. It is night time and all that can be seen are shadows, smoke, stones, and a woman surrounded by an arc of flame.
January 28, 2025 at 7:05 AM
simonb.bsky.social
Gothic in a 19th Century Manor House - a little later than 1816, but the interiors needed hardly anything to make them fit the aesthetic
Exterior of a 19th century manor house, it is imposing and gothic and hides many secrets.
January 28, 2025 at 7:05 AM
simonb.bsky.social
The Last Song ran at Yxengaard, a replica viking-era village built out in the woods of Northern Denmark
Image shows a wooden fortress with shields mounted above the gate. Text reads The Last Song in a viking era font. The T of the word Last looks like a Christian Cross, the O of the word song is stylised to look like a Norse god.
January 28, 2025 at 7:05 AM