Reverie Studios

NEON VOID 1984 is a horror live-action roleplaying experience set in the neon glow of the 1980s, where analog tech meets cosmic terror, and discovery demands transformation.

You were there. You opened the door. You were changed.

Neon Void is a weekend-long horror larp set in 1984 about a secret Cold War research project that stumbles upon extra-dimensional horrors. Participants portray researchers who transform into cultists as they embrace the cosmic unknown.

Setting

It is 1984. As demagogues trade lies on the world stage under the looming threat of nuclear annihilation, a forgotten government program, Project Chalice, stands on the brink of breaching the veil into other dimensions. Led by the erratic Dr. Leighton Hooke, this last refuge of Cold War black research is about to plunge into something unknowable.

Neon Void 1984 is a live-action horror story about the researchers and staff of Project Chalice who, over a single weekend transform from scientists into cultists, and who they become by 1985 once they’ve made their choice to pursue power, knowledge, or safety at any cost.

Themes

On Its Face

Neon Void 1984 draws on the paranoia, recklessness, and experimentation of the 1980s where secret research spirals out of control and cosmic horror seeps through the cracks. The event is inspired by:

• Sci-fi horror films like From Beyond, The Thing, Re-Animator, Prince of Darkness, Videodrome
• Reckless scientists like those in Stranger Things’s Hawkins Lab
• The bureaucratic horror of Cabin in the Woods
• ’80s aesthetics, new wave and goth music, punk rebellion, and fringe art culture

At Its Heart

This is a story about losing oneself to the unknown. Scientists leave behind rationality and embrace the occult, making Faustian bargains with forces far beyond comprehension. It’s a tale of transformation, sacrifice, and monstrous rebirth: mirroring the upheavals of 1984 itself, as old systems rot and something far darker rises to replace them.

Characters

Participants will play those that work within the secretive Project Chalice at Hooke Laboratories. They belong to five different Departments:

• Administration: Management, HR, and finances, with varying access to the project’s true purpose.
• Information Technology: Mainframe computing and data analysis, unknowingly feeding the rise of synthetic cult intelligences.
• BioChem: Leading research through chemical cocktails, biological enhancement, and forced reprogramming.
• Parapsychology: A chaotic blend of occultists, psychics, charlatans and psychologists, the department is responsible for everything from wellness to forays into the unknown.
• Operations: Security and facility oversight, caught between duty and the allure of something powerful beyond the veil.

Characters also belong to cross-departmental subgroups, research projects, and interpersonal storylines such as romances, rivalries, and moral compromises. All are tied to what they’re willing to sacrifice for power granted by the alien entity known as Aletheia.

Story

Neon Void 1984 unfolds in two distinct acts across the weekend, separated by a narrative time jump.

1984: Transversal

On Friday and Saturday, players live the final days of Project Chalice as a scientific institution. Characters engage in daily research and tasks, slowly uncovering truths they were never meant to find. Dread builds as Dr. Hooke breaches another dimension and makes a pact with Aletheia. The segment ends with the characters following him and confronting the consequences.

1985: Metastasis

Sunday brings a flash-forward. One year later, Project Chalice has metastasized into a full-blown cult. The pretense of science-for-good has dissolved; now it’s power, domination, and survival. The organization's methods are unrecognizable: arcane, violent, and grotesque. The final day climaxes with Promotion Day, when the weak are culled and the newly risen cultists prepare to spread across the country, founding branch offices to convert others.

Schedule

The schedule will include multiple days of play, workshops, and ample time to become immersed in the world of the larp. There will be opportunities to experience being a scientist for a clandestine research project becoming cultists in a new cosmic horror cult and what that person was willing to trade for occult knowledge and power.

• Friday August 7th: check-in and workshops, followed by light play and starting to role-in as the character.
• Saturday August 8th: a day of play as a scientist or member of a secret research operation and the build up to the moment where the research project touches the alien unknown and becomes a cult.
• Sunday August 9th: a day of play as a cultist a year forward, giving opportunity to explore what the character becomes, what they were willing to do, and what they will do. A mass culling will occur with 'Promotion Day' followed by characters choosing their Branch Office to depart to, and then the larp will end with an afterparty!

Other Details

Reverie Studios enforces a strict Code of Conduct.

Questions? Email us at contact@reverie.studio.

Content Warnings
and Complications

This larp will contain the following:

Violence, prejudice against status, extradimensional horror, blood, bodily fluids, bright or flashing lights, loud sounds, simulated sex or nudity, extradimensional monsters, ritual or occult themes, pseudo-religious fervor, indoors environments, simulated chemistry/biology, simulated psychology, simulated occultism, simulated smoking or drug use, violence, suicide, emotional harm, etc.

Complications include:

Due to the nature of the venue and workshops, there may be light city travel over a flat walkable portion of Cambridge, MA of under or around 15-20 minutes. While this is not a highly physically demanding larp, there are some elements which may be challenging to the differently abled. The venue has reasonable accommodation for accessibility needs, and will be climate controlled. Please take this into consideration before committing to a ticket.