Growing Up in Flames

When a phoenix dies, they go up in flames and are reborn as a fledgeling, a process known as molting. The fledgeling is adopted into phoenix society, sometimes as a young member of the same family but sometimes by completely new people.

Phoenixes remember their previous lives at first, but forget them over the course of their childhood and completely by the middle of their adolescence. This is hard for some, who want to remain attached to their past lives, as well as for the people who want to maintain a connection to their friend or loved one’s new self rather than move on.

Growing Up in Flames follows six phoenixes over the course of one lifetime. Periods of role-playing are alternated with journaling to represent the intervening years. All but one character molt over the course of the game, leading to difficult decisions as they mourn their past lives and set out on new ones.

Growing Up in Flames is a 6-player LARP about intergenerational relationships, grief, family, and the choices we might make if we were to live our lives again. It ran for the first time at Intercon V, and has since run at A LARP Festival and Summer LARPin' in 2024. It is scheduled to run at Be-Con 2024. I am planning to run it at Intercon W. I may be willing to run it in other situations.

Download PDFs: game materials (double-sided), nametags and other card-sized materials (double-sided, print on nametag paper or cut out)