SOE: Resistance, a high-budget, international event played in English. It had its first two runs in Sept 2024 and is now returning for two more in Sept 2026. It is a fully immersive and interactive experience inspired by the brave women and men who volunteered for dangerous duties in occupied Europe in World War 2.
Players will take on the roles of candidates from all over Europe, each seeking to play their part in bringing down the Nazi machine, as they undergo their final weekend of training and assessment.
This Live Action Role-Play (LARP) event will focus both on the opportunity to take part in simulated training and the tension, mental pressure and emotional and moral challenges around ordinary men and women being selected for such deadly missions.
This unique immersive experience will have high production values, authentic costumes, equipment and vehicles, as well as lots of personal drama and a chance to experience an iconic aspect of WW2. There will be action, subterfuge, emotional plot and secrets.
SOE: Resistance will be inclusive, as was to some degree the original organisation, and will not discriminate on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, physical disability or politics.
Player Roles
Players will take on the roles of candidates from all over Europe, each seeking to play their part in bringing down the Nazi machine, as they undergo their final weekend of training and assessment.
Players will be asked to select their preference for the type of Archetype SOE character they would like to play from three choices: Saboteurs, Agents, or Specialists. These range from more to less physically active and demanding in their play. All three will be interesting and rounded but will be different in their experience.
SOE provides an interesting and unique challenge for LARP character creation! SOE Candidates were supposed to keep their real personal details secret and operate under codenames and aliases. In this LARP we will bend the intense secrecy somewhat but we will still expect Players to have a real and secret(ish) identity, an alias that they use and are expected to know inside and out under interrogation, and a codename for use in lessons and evaluations.
Every Player will have a tailor written character that shares their nationality. These characters will have a backstory as to why they are working with SOE, some motivation and personality traits, some role playing suggestions and prompts and a series of relationships or contacts that they have made before arriving at SOE Finishing School.
Unmissible Immersive Experience
This is an immersive experience, recreating the emotions, tensions and physical experiences of ordinary men and women who had volunteered for extraordinary activity in wartime Europe. Specifically, we are looking to portray the last elements of training and evaluation for SOE candidates, leading to a decision on whether they are accepted as Agents and allocated to missions
Participants, known in our event as Players, will take on the roles of candidates from all over Europe, each seeking to play their part in bringing down the Nazi machine, as they undergo their final weekend of training and assessment. Participants will have pre-written character roles, which they will interpret much as an actor does in a film, and play that role immersively for 3 days and nights.
This event will focus both on the opportunity to take part in simulated training and the mental pressure and emotional, and moral, challenges facing ordinary men and women being selected for such deadly missions.
Just like the actual candidates who volunteered for SOE, you don’t need any experience to take part in our event. And just like them, you have the ability to attempt something new and challenging!
