Saboteurs:
will experience training and evaluations that are more physically demanding and probably more oriented to the outdoors. These activities will involve the more combative and military elements of SOE, involving extensive use of firearms, explosives, close quarter combat, escape and evasion etc. There will of course be more intellectual and cerebral tasks but those choosing this option will be expected to be able to comfortably walk five miles cross country, fire a weapon (after training), be prepared to dive for cover, and participate in some physical contact with other Players. We are not expecting you to be a fully trained soldier or an athlete, but we do expect that you are relatively gung-ho and keen for some robustness. Again – the majority of real SOE candidates were just ordinary people, so this should not be beyond most people.
Standard Agents:
represent the bulk of the candidates but there is little ‘Standard’ about them! These Agents will enjoy the broadest spectrum of training at the School. They will also have the opportunity to be trained in firearms and explosives but additionally topics such as surveillance, surviving interrogation and airstrip selection and preparation. Fitness levels are expected to be that of an average person, with again a willingness to be out and about in the countryside but not running across the moors carrying packs! Leaders for the missions and groups will come from this archetype and they will epitomise what an SOE Agent was.
Specialists:
will have a less physical experience and a more cerebral one. Their training will be focussed on communications, codes, surveillance, tradecraft and intelligence. Specialists will enjoy the most intellectually challenging elements of the training and perhaps the most intrigue! The vast majority of their training will be inside but evaluations with wider groups may optionally involve some elements of walking or activity. We have, in part, created this option to allow for those who are less physically able to participate in the LARP and so we are better able to tailor the experience to the capabilities of specific Players’ abilities.
Character Creation
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.
Players will be encouraged to play characters that are from their own nation. This will hopefully make it easier for Players, explain any accent they may have, and provide a source of connection and reference to their own national and perhaps personal history. Players will be partial participants in character creation, together with the writing team, with an ability to tone up or down aspects of their personality and history. We are open to suggestions and input from Players with specific interests or ideas.
Character relationships will be pre-written in the main, with again some possibility for Player input.
SOE Candidate characters might be:
- nervous about their performance and acceptance,
- determined to do the best they can,
- driven by a variety of personal reasons to want to risk their lives and help win the war,
- rivals to others in the group,
- in love with someone they shouldn’t be,
- hiding secrets about their past,
- pretending to be something they are not,
- excited to make a difference and prove their worth,
- driven by revenge and bloodlust,
- petrified at the thought of what awaits them in Europe.
-
What’s in a character sheet?
Every Player 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.
In addition, all Players will be provided with an alias that will be their default persona when in evaluations or interrogations.