#SpaceLARPCafe

This isn't something I'm actively working on, so much as it is something that I'm convinced I will do at some point, and that I have a bunch of pieces for folded in to other things.

I won't rehash the whole thing. Find the original post from 2017 if you're interested.

I'm looking back in to it today because I'm looking for things that I can use as visual inspiration as we build out v1 of the #SpaceLARPCafe

Stylistically there's a lot going on here, but practically it is pretty vapid.

I think we're going to run #spacelarpcafe as a weekend installation for Community Day at the makerspace in the spring.

I have ten million things to do before then, and some of them are building a Spaceship.

@kat @ifixcoinops @BillySmith if you dig through the #spaceLARPCafe tag, I'm sure you'll see me talking about converting a school bus or a pullbehind trailer.

I even found a 1950s carnival spaceship trailer that I drooled over for a few weeks before my wife talked me out of it. (It would have needed 10k or more in work and parts.)

I ... do have a spaceship room already. I could just use that.

Everyone is flying busted ass homemade ships, relying on a public wiki to know which worlds are safe. The whole universe is basically uncharted.

That gives us a *lot* of room to hang a story off of.

The #SpaceLARPCafe can be "renting" ships to visitors and serving as a "dock" for members.

Visitors can pick from a pre-supplied list of fly by planets and basically just do a training mission and a simple excursion.

Members can chart uncharted systems or do supply runs to charted systems or do rescue missions or salvage missions for other ships.

That gives us room to tell lots of different kinds of stories, but also to have a good reason for many of the stories to remain disconnected or not to build on one another (while also leaving *plenty* of room for us to have ongoing stories that do build on one another.

For those who are new to these topics, #SpaceLARPCafe is an idea I had a long time ago to bolt a starship bridge simulator like Space Nerds in Space or Empty Epsilon on to the basic idea of an escape room or a haunted house, and then to stick all of that in the back room of a cafe, complete with flight simulators.

It's an interactive, multiplayer space exploration game + a real world space to tie the game world together + star tours.

I've written about the idea a lot, but the post you want if you're encountering it for the first time starts here:
https://retro.social/@ajroach42/99141421780857515

The Space Explorer's Field Guide (wiki) is a TV show we're slowly working on for New Ellijay Television #NETV and probably my favorite of the several series we have in various stages of production and preproduction. The basic premise goes:

The year is 2030. 5 years ago, someone uploaded plans for a DIY interstellar engine to hacker news, and ... It worked. It could be assembled for peanuts.

The american empire has collapsed. The world is in chaos. Interstellar flight is possible, easy, cheap, not remotely safe.

It's a vast, nearly infinite cosmos. All of it is basically uncharted.

A weird combination of hardcore nerds and long haul hikers are out there documenting it and contributing back to the wiki.

Imagine every weird little instance of the fediverse as a guild of space explorers and you'll be most of the way to what I'm envisioning here.

I'm thinking more and more about #SpaceLARPCafe within the context of the universe of the Space Explorer's Field Guide (wiki) ( #sefgw ) and how those two ideas could co-exist.

I went to a very well designed and thoughtfully curated private museum today and it has my mind all aflutter with possibilities.

Interactive storytelling and emmersive theater ( and, yes, #spaceLARPCafe, even) are only a shade removed from the best museum exhibits.

It has been brought to my attention that I haven't talked about Jupiter's Ghost recently enough for even people who know me well to know what the hell I am talking about so

It's time to talk about my pet project.

Not #newellijaytelevision

Not #expeditionsasquatch

Not the #zinestation or the #zinestation486

and not the #spacelarpcafe (although very nearly the space larp cafe)

Today, right now, and for the foreseeable future, I'm talking about #jupitersghost or #jg, what it is, what I want it to be, and how you can get involved.

Every once in a while my brain decides that it's time to think about the #SpaceLARPCafe again.

Today is that time.

Add a motion sim and some dedicated space, and you've got a #spacelarpcafe

@freakazoid @vertigo Thanks for the hat tip. Some recent projects:

- Making videos way too small: https://retro.social/@ajroach42/107595166462917351

- Jumbo hand made toys: https://retro.social/@ajroach42/107584598058013935

- Exploring newly public domain music: #PDMusicList

Lots of other small and medium sized projects in the works (#jupitersGhost, repairing and upgrading a vintage omnibot, robo sumo, building TVs and scifi props, #spacelarpcafe)

I'm thinking we turn one room of it it in to a screening room/old movie theater, stage for live concerts and small plays (and maybe it's #spacelarpcafe when it's not anything else.)

Then we wall off a tiny portion of the upstairs and make it a retail store for things made at the maker space.

That leaves the downstairs and a good portion of the upstairs of the building, which becomes The Museum of Early Pop Culture (about radio and TV shows from the 30s, 40s, and 50s).

We're looking at a commercial building up the road from the coffee shop.

It needs a lot of work.

But it would make an excellent home for the makerspace's retail endeavors, with plenty of room left over for a Museum or a #spacelarpcafe

This was such a big deal to me as a kid. Everything about the Star Tours ride captivated my imagination in a Big way.

It's the only ride I ever enjoyed standing in line for, too.

I was sad when they rebuilt it, and I'll probably never ride the new one.

I don't know that I'd ever build something so elaborate for Star Tours either, unless it was at the request of someone else, but I will totally do something like this with OC on the way to the #spacelarpcafe

@BillySmith @deejoe @VickyRampin @schratze @djsundog This is my first encounter! But it's totally my #spacelarpcafe

(which already has a room and personel dedicated to it at the Maker Space.)

So this is where I am at the moment re: #spacelarpcafe

I need to design a uniform and produce it.

I need to design some gear (side arms, communicators, etc) and make them.

I need to make fancy scifi housing for some of the laptops I have sitting around, and figure out if I'm going to run Space Nerds in Space or Empty Epsilon.

Then it's:
- Design and print quickstart guides for the various stations for new recruits
- Build some spaceship props/sets
- invite my friends to alpha

You know what I just remembered?

#spacelarpcafe

Now that's all I'll think about today.

It's #Sunday! I'm listening to #Jazz, drinking #coffee and trying to buy a #coffeeshop

(And fighting everything in me not to turn it in to a #spacelarpcafe)

Thinking about #SpaceLARPCafe again today as I plan a #SNIS party for some friends.

We're renting a room, I'm covering everything in silver foil and passing out (nerf) side arms and uniforms.

I imagine it's going to be a lot of fun.