Saturnalia Dev Diary #1

Saturnalia is, in a lot of ways, an ambitious dream project for us as a studio. When Reverie was founded in 2016, it was actually after our first time playing End of the Line. A vampire experience by White Wolf, and was written for them by Bjarke Pedersen, Juhana Pettersson, and White Wolf's lead storyteller Martin Ericsson. It was there we met Bjarke and Juhana, and really got into understanding more about Nordic larp. We were completely enamored with it and we wanted to bring larps like it to the US.

A lot of time has passed since then, but Saturnalia is really in a lot of ways us coming back to our original roots and desires as a studio. We get to work with Juhana, whom we have a ton of respect for, and write in the intellectual property that initially spawned the studio and motivated us.

Reverie tries to push itself with its projects, and Saturnalia is no exception. We’re working with BNS who’s helping us with the logistics and the cost of it, but we’re also stretching our abilities as a team by working across an entire district of a city, as opposed to just renting a static venue. I don’t know how many larp organizers are reading this, but I believe most of them can empathize with working with more than 30 venues, organizing an event, and managing costs around them.

We’re also deep into our writing process and trying a new system of casting which Juhana has brought to the table. We’re working on a bespoke software platform to help us manage both the front and the back of the house character creation/design, which is being done in tandem with the main experience.

We’re deep into the fun part of the experience as well - Writing. We’ve brought in a couple of external design partners (as we typically do for these experiences), including Rachel Wilkinson, who’s worked with us on Eskhaton and The Haunting of Gray Manor. As well as a new consultant from Larping in Color, Sereia, who is assisting with the historical and design elements, to ensure we handle things respectfully and provide an inclusive experience for everyone.

We desire to begin disseminating more information to participants as we progress forward because we’re really excited about what we’re offering. This has the potential to be an amazing experience for everyone. Reverie holds itself to an exceptionally high standard with how we try to orchestrate everything.