The 4th of July LARP group has been organizing LARPs for years now and is constantly looking for interesting and important topics. "Many great blockbuster LARPs are in fantasy or sci-fi settings - this time we wanted to make a game in a contemporary environment with an illusion of actually being there. While scouting for locations, we found an inexpensive holiday resort full of mobile homes - a site you won’t often see in Poland. It reminded us of an American trailer park and we decided to make that the core theme of our game."
Even though they are Polish, they all grew up surrounded by American pop culture and are familiar with the idea of the "American Dream". "We’ve used the visual language and widely known archetypes to create a setting of a trailer park in the USA. From the very beginning, we aimed to be respectful toward people living in low-income neighborhoods and approach the topic with sensitivity and respect."
The organizers stressed that this project is not in any way a comedy or a pastiche, but a slice-of-life drama type of LARP. "We stayed away from comedy (like Trailer Park Boys) or supernatural elements (like Stranger Things), taking inspiration from documentaries, books, and movies touching on this subject in a slightly different way (f.e. Hillbilly Elegy, Nomadland, etc.)."
"Our LARP explores the mythos of the American Dream - or more so the Broken American Dream. Players experience human stories, portraying characters with unique backgrounds. They face their daily life and the issues that come with it. Some are universal or similar to the ones in Poland (such as struggling to provide for your family or combating addiction), and some are specific to the U.S. (such as reliance on private health care or the prevalence of firearms). We wanted to create an immersive experience about facing those hardships both as an individual and as a community, about making impossible choices, about finding your place in your small homeland."
