As Night Falls: The Auction - A Vampire Live Roleplay (LARP)

“It has been said that Vlad Tepes once donated a vial of his own blood to Wilhelmina Harker. This vial was to be kept secret; only to be used in a time of great need. However, as is the way of our kind, Mina passed the vial onto her true love Jonathan, who in turn passed it onto their child, and so on and so forth, until, through the generations, it came to me. What I offer, to the highest bidder, is the blood of Vlad Tepes himself…”

Mythic Echoes present As Night Falls: The Auction; a vampire live roleplay that combines immersive storytelling and interactive theatre in the gothic stately home of Elvaston Castle.

As Night Falls: The Auction is a rules-light live roleplay (LARP) set in the modern day. This will be a purely social-based LARP, with zero combat, allowing participants the opportunity to immerse themselves in the bloody world of vampire politics, within a gothic stately home.
LARP is akin to live theatre, except there is no audience and everyone involved is part of the cast. Each of the participants dress as their character and the outcome of the story is determined by their actions.

There is no script or predetermined narrative, but a story told by the participants through their characters’ actions.

In As Night Falls: The Auction, participants take on the role of a modern-day vampire from one of the dynasties in vampire society. These are chosen when buying a ticket and are divided as follows:

Bathory - Alluring and decadent
de Morieve - Authoritarian and autocratic
Lilith - Individualistic and rebellious
Orlock - Savage and primal
Tepes - Intellectual and cold.

If you are struggling to choose what vampire to play, we have created a fun personality quiz here to help you decide.

There are also mood boards for each of the dynasties to spark ideas for costumes.

Each participant at The Auction will have an individual personal goal to achieve, as well as the goal for the faction that they are a part of and the overarching goal of winning the auction.

Instead of the coins and notes of humans, vampires rely on gold doubloons as their currency, which can help to achieve each of the character and faction goals.

Doors for the event will open at 6.00pm, with an introduction at 6.30 for a 7.00pm start. Upon arrival, each participant will be given their character pack.

The LARP will conclude at 11.00pm, after which we will announce the winner of the costume competition and hold the raffle.

Peter Gatehouse, our event photographer for the night, will be capturing everyone in their finest garb throughout the LARP (please advise on the day if you do not wish your photograph to be taken).

There will also be a prize for the best dressed vampire and a raffle at the end of the night.

A complimentary buffet will be provided and Wyatt’s Café will be open throughout the evening serving soft drinks. The dining area will also serve as our green room, where participants can relax out of character.

Once a ticket has been purchased, participants will be invited to join our Discord server, where we will be sharing further information about the game in the lead up to the event.

For those travelling from further afield, we be offering discounted rates at a Derby hotel. A private bus service will be available – at cost – between the hotel and Elvaston Castle.

We endeavour for our events to be as inclusive as possible and have ensured that Elvaston Castle is fully accessible.

Mythic Echoes is a collaboration between events manager Eunice Morecroft-Lowe and freelance writer Peter Ray Allison, who met through a shared interest in collaborative storytelling. Eunice has provided D&D events for Wizards of the Coast, as part of the release of Honour Among Thieves, whilst Peter is an experienced roleplayer who has extensively written about gaming, including The Fall and Rise of Role-Playing Games for Deviant Leisure. Both have previously run roleplaying games for events at various venues. Their last event, Vampire Games Day, was a celebration of vampire-themed roleplaying games in the Wardwick at Derby Museum and Art Gallery.

This event is presented as part of Dracula Returns To Derby, an AHRC- funded research project led by the University of Derby in partnership with Derby Museums, Derby Theatre, Bournemouth University and Sheffield Hallam University – a series of public workshops and events that connect Derby with the world’s most famous vampire.

The social media pages for Mythic Echoes and The Auction can be found here.