Upper School Intersession 2025

Live Action Role Playing (LARP), players pretend to be someone else, living in a different time or place, and acting out events that might happen in that world. Many of these games involve battles, and so LARPers use safe, padded props that look like weapons to act out the combat. Unlike in a play where everyone has certain lines to say and the story is set, in LARP, the players each act out a certain person and make their own decisions for that person as the game evolves. Live Action Role Playing is a tremendous teaching tool and capable of dynamic, physically driven learning that transcends the usual boundaries of standard education. Due to the interactive, dramatic, hands on methods used in LARP, teaching is often effortless and fun. This class begins with basic battle training and rules of combat, followed by character creation and entry into the game world of Roekron, a game world continuously run for over two decades in the Bay Area and which currently has leagues all across the region with weekly and monthly meetups. Students will have a character at the end of this class that can be taken and used in any of the other Roekron League events they choose and may continue their story at future events if they wish.

Topics Covered:
- First Five Battle Rules
- Equipment Sets and Weapons
- Armor System of AV
- Basic Spell and Skill Types
- Overview of the Classes
- Character Species
- Character Backstory
- Alignments
- Flow of Events
- Playing a Monster or NPC
- Quests and Role Playing
- Magical Items and Money Cards
- Completing a Mission
- Transfer of Characters to other leagues

Check out these videos to get a sense of what we'll be doing!
Intro (2min)
The Regulars LARPing (SF Chronicle)- 
https://youtu.be/YdnqN-TcBq4

Core Rules-(13min)
The First Five Rules- 
https://youtu.be/K7PVm6rw2H8
Armor Zones- (3min)
https://youtu.be/N67hPOenaHU
Color Tags- (5min)
https://youtu.be/XIbgvo-5nnA

-Bonus Material-
TEDx Talk on LARPing with Kids and Teens- (10min)
https://youtu.be/L6xl-qYRHco

Sebastopol Times Article 2024
(10min read)

Students will learn the techniques of screen printing including screen preparation, using a manual printing press, printing a single color. Students will take their completed T-shirts home as well as their screens. Students will need to have an image ready in advance of class; image specifications to be provided.

Students will learn the fundamentals of stained glass to create a small stained glass suncatcher. In this all-day intensive, students will learn how to:
- use glass cutting tools and glass grinders
- cut specific shapes out of art glass
- choose from a dozen design templates
- choose from a large assortment of colorful art glass
- cut each shape to the pattern
- copper foil each piece
- solder pieces together to complete pattern

Please note, students will be cutting glass and creating lots of shards. Also, they will be using hot soldering irons. Safety protocols will be addressed at the start of class. Safety goggles, bandaids and gloves will be provided. Please note: we will be using leaded solder (tin 60%, lead 40%) and chemicals such are flux and patina.

Students will take home their project at end of seminar.

MIG (metal inert gas) Welding: Get a hands-on crash course in what welding is, how and when to use it, and what you can do with it. Students will learn to cut, prepare, and weld metal autonomously, and will work together to create shop infrastructure to improve the space.