Treasure Trap (video Game)
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Treasure Trap was a
live action role-playing game A live action role-playing game (LARP) is a form of role-playing game where the participants physically portray their character (arts), characters.(Tychsen et al. 2006:255) "LARPs can be viewed as forming a distinct category of RPG because of ...
established at
Peckforton Castle Peckforton Castle is a Victorian country house built in the style of a medieval castle. It stands in woodland at the north end of Peckforton Hills northwest of the village of Peckforton, Cheshire, England. It is recorded in the National Her ...
in
Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...
in April 1982. Various splinter groups broke from the original system, some retaining the Treasure Trap name, and helped to shape the later British LARP scene.


Peckforton Castle

The original Peckforton Castle game was a
fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...
game run by business partners Peter Carey and Rob Donaldson. The group ran events mainly over weekends, but also some week-long adventures moving across the country and ending at the castle. The venue gained fame when it appeared on the popular BBC television programme ''
Blue Peter ''Blue Peter'' is a British children's television entertainment programme created by John Hunter Blair. It is the longest-running children's TV show in the world, having been broadcast since October 1958. It was broadcast primarily from BBC ...
'', with two of the show's presenters,
Simon Groom Simon Groom (born 12 August 1950) is a British producer and director. He was a presenter of '' Blue Peter'' from 1978 to 1986. Early life Groom was born in Chesterfield in Derbyshire, and was brought up on a farm in Dethick, which he later ...
and Peter Duncan, playing the game. Shields with the show's ship logo on them were made for the occasion. When working as a local news reporter,
Ben Elton Benjamin Charles Elton is a British comedian, actor, author, playwright, lyricist and director. One of the major figures in the alternative comedy movement of the 1980s, his early stand-up style was Left-wing politics, left-wing political satire ...
once also presented a programme from the castle and took part in an adventure. As in most role-playing games, players would assume a new identity (or character) during the game, each character having certain skills and abilities which were recorded on cards. Characters might join a guild, which was essentially a
character class In tabletop games and video games, a character class is an occupation, profession, or role assigned to a game character to highlight and differentiate their capabilities and specializations. In role-playing games (RPGs), character classes ag ...
, giving them access to a particular set of skills. Players could progress through the guild hierarchy as their skills developed. Players would play the game in costume, ranging from basic hessian
tabard A tabard is a type of short coat that was commonly worn by men during the late Middle Ages and early modern period in Europe. Generally worn outdoors, the coat was either sleeveless or had short sleeves or shoulder pieces. In its more developed ...
s for novice players to armour such as
chain mail Mail (sometimes spelled maille and, since the 18th century, colloquially referred to as chain mail, chainmail or chain-mail) is a type of armour consisting of small metal rings linked together in a pattern to form a mesh. It was in common milita ...
for experienced players whose characters had gained game wealth (measured in Stells) in previous games to be able to afford its purchase. Conventional weaponry was restricted to padded or rubber weapons and wooden shields, although more unconventional weaponry was also allowed, such as tennis balls or dye-filled
eggshell An eggshell is the outer covering of a hard-shelled egg (biology), egg and of some forms of eggs with soft outer coats. Worm eggs Nematode eggs present a two layered structure: an external vitellin layer made of chitin that confers mechanical ...
s used to represent the spells thrown by a wizard character. The game scenarios were initiated by a "brief" who was in role and would explain the games' objectives, which might be such things as rescuing someone from a group of hostile monsters. Players would attempt to complete the objectives in small groups (parties). They would be followed by Referees (see below) who would call 'time out' at the end of the battle and adjudicate on the effects. Game play would continue until all the adventurers were killed or the objectives were achieved. Irish author
Conor Kostick Conor Kostick (born 26 June 1964) is a historian and writer living in Dublin. He is the author of many works of history and fiction. A former chairperson of the Irish Writers Union and member of the board of the National Library of Ireland, he ...
, then a teenager, was one of the system's designers. Health was measured in Life Points, both total and per each body location (head, chest, abdomen, legs and arms). Weapon damage affected both of these and armour reduced this damage. This system was heavily influenced by the ''
RuneQuest ''RuneQuest'' (commonly abbreviated as RQ) is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game originally designed by Steve Perrin, Ray Turney, Steve Henderson (game designer), Steve Henderson, and Warren James, and set in Greg Stafford (game designer), Gre ...
'' table-top role-playing game. When describing a battle, the degree of a hit was often explained using the local jargon of dob (mild), twat (stronger) and smeg (strongest): "I twatted her but she smegged me back." Peckforton Castle itself was built in Victorian times, which made it perfect for its new purpose because it looked like a newish castle. It had great halls, towers (one of which was burned out accidentally during a game), and tunnels, and was big enough so that several different adventures could be going on simultaneously, and players could play several adventures without getting to know the layout too well. The facilities were not great, however. Mice roamed freely, many of the dormitories had no beds in the early days, there was almost no water supply for washing and the toilets were famously dire.


Monstering

Monsters were drawn from the body of players at the castle at the time, usually requiring sign up in advance. Monstering often involved putting on basic costumes and makeup. Because the monster or monsters would be positioned in advance, if the party was slow-moving the monster might have to wait several hours for a party to show up. Monsters were instructed in how to attack adventurers "in character", including falling down "dead" if they were inflicted with a fatal injury. Hit count was the normal method of working out if the monster should be dead or not. After being killed, a monster would then be "reset" further along the adventure, sometimes needing to pass through the adventuring party during a "time out" i.e. when the game had been stopped, for example to measure monster damage. Monster damage went by colour starting with red and going up via blue and green to black damage. In time groups of players who regularly monstered together started to form clans such as II Orc, Three Skulls & Four Skins (which were Orc clans) and 1st Ogre. People would also specialise in doing Basics - the initial adventure that everybody took as their first adventure. Because monstering was free, people with low incomes could spend years doing nothing other than monstering.


Reffing

A single adventure would often have several refs. The referees organised the entire adventure, from monster sign up and placement to following the adventuring players at a discreet distance, carrying paper "Battle Boards" on which they would record combat scores between adventurers and monsters. Referees would count points based upon coloured markings left upon the adventurers' costumes, left by the monsters' weapons, which were coated in dye (actually poster paint) for this purpose, with different colours signifying different amounts of damage, or the presence of acid, poison, etc.


Descendant clubs

Although the original club closed in 1985 (as a result of financial problems as well as losing access to the Castle) many of its attendees formed their own games, clubs and societies around the UK, frequently adopting similar rules and settings, and sometimes bearing the same name of Treasure Trap.
Durham University Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university in Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament (UK), Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by r ...
Treasure Trap was founded in February 1983 with the aim of helping members travel to Peckforton Castle. When the original Treasure Trap folded, members began running day-long adventures in the woods around Durham using the original Treasure Trap system. The society remains active today, and celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2023. It holds over sixty events a year and stakes claim to being the longest continuous running LARP and LARP world, with the world's history defined by over 40 years of role-play. Locations used by the society include
Maiden Castle Maiden Castle or the Maiden's Castle may refer to: Historical fortifications in England ''Maiden'' derives from the Celtic ''Mai Dun'' which means 'great hill'. *Maiden Castle, Cheshire, an Iron Age hill fort * Maiden Castle, Cumbria, a Roman for ...
. The rules system has undergone many profound changes since the society was formed, although it is still recognisable as a descendant of the original Treasure Trap. The society runs weekly 'Interactives' set in a medieval themed bar, in which plot is generally dispensed and characters interact in a largely combat free environment, these are followed by weekly 'Adventures' which are used to progress or conclude plot, but are generally more combat heavy than the Interactives. DUTT also runs large one off events such as the Third year goodbye (3ygb) in the summer and the Pre-banquet bash in February time, the 3ygb lasts for 3 days and includes many former regulars of the DUTT, who get a chance to influence the world and plot for the years to come. In 2010 DUTT launched Nerd East a LARP/Gaming convention set within the
Durham Students' Union Durham Students' Union, operating as Durham SU, is the students' union of Durham University in Durham, England. It is an organisation, originally set up as the Durham Colleges Students’ Representative Council in 1899 and renamed in 1969, wi ...
, which attracted approximately 150 people in 2010 and close to 200 in 2011, the aim is to make a regular kit fare within the North East, due to its large LARP/Gaming population.
Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...
Treasure Trap was founded in 2002 by Jennifer Curtis and Toni Badnall, ex-members of Durham University Treasure Trap who had moved to
Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...
and wished to continue the hobby in the local area. After ten years it had diverged from DUTT in both rules and setting although remained recognisably the same game. CUTT ended in 2014, with the society renaming itself to Cambridge Larp Society.
Birmingham University The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...
Treasure Trap was also originally formed to help students attend Treasure Trap at Peckforton Castle. When the original Treasure Trap closed, Birmingham Trap members continued to run their own games in the local area, adopting the same rules and some of the setting. Lacking the luxury of a castle, Birmingham Treasure Trap would typically run single-day events consisting of two adventures, often twice a weekend. Popular sites included the
Lickey Hills The Lickey Hills (known locally as simply ''The Lickeys'') are a range of hills in Worcestershire, England, to the south-west of the centre of Birmingham near the villages of Lickey, Cofton Hackett and Barnt Green. The hills are a popular coun ...
,
Kinver Edge Kinver Edge is a high heath and woodland escarpment just west of Kinver, about four miles west of Stourbridge, and four miles north of Kidderminster, and is on the border between Worcestershire and Staffordshire, England. It is now owned by th ...
, and the University campus. Due to declining membership, Birmingham Treasure Trap stopped running events in 2002, and the society was formally closed in 2005, although former members still occasionally get together to run events using the game system. At the
University of Sussex The University of Sussex is a public university, public research university, research university located in Falmer, East Sussex, England. It lies mostly within the city boundaries of Brighton and Hove. Its large campus site is surrounded by the ...
, SWATT was founded in 2012 by Stephen Begley, an ex-member of Cambridge University Treasure Trap. Other spin-off organisations which existed to run live-action role-playing games included Spirit of Adventure, Labyrinthe and others.


Reception

Ian Livingstone Sir Ian Livingstone (born 29 December 1949) is an English fantasy author and entrepreneur. Along with Steve Jackson, he is the co-founder of the '' Fighting Fantasy'' series of role-playing gamebooks, and the author of many books within that ...
reviewed ''Treasure Trap'' for ''
White Dwarf A white dwarf is a Compact star, stellar core remnant composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter. A white dwarf is very density, dense: in an Earth sized volume, it packs a mass that is comparable to the Sun. No nuclear fusion takes place i ...
'' #31, and stated that "I must admit that I thoroughly enjoyed myself on my three hour adventure which I managed to survive. I'm sure others will too, and I hope Messrs Carey and Donaldson manage to realise the full potential of ''Treasure Trap''."


Reviews

*'' Jeux & Stratégie'' #21 *'' Breakout'' #16


References

{{Reflist


External links


Durham University Treasure Trap
(spun off in 1983)
Cambridge LARP Society
(formerly Cambridge University Treasure Trap, spun off from Durham in 2002)
Sussex Live-Action Roleplaying SocietyArchived
2016-07-19 (spun off from Cambridge in 2012)
Labyrinthe
(spun off from Treasure Trap 1984)
Forever's Destiny
(formerly Flights of Fantasy/Nothing Ventured, spun off from Treasure Trap in 1986)
Film of the original Treasure Trap game on YouTubeYouTube clip of Ben Elton's Treasure Trap experience
Live-action role-playing games Role-playing games introduced in 1982