A Note from Conor about Treasure Trap

My publishers like to mention in the author blurb that I once worked at Treasure Trap. I can understand why this is a fact worth commenting on, because suggests I might have a kind of insiders view of fantasy games. And perhaps my experiences there did help with Epic. But in any case, Treasure Trap is intrinsically interesting in its own right. It was a live action roleplaying (LARP) company, based at Peckforton Castle, Cheshire. As far as I know, it was the first commercial attempt to establish a live action roleplaying game. The Treasure Trap rules - which were a kind of cross between Runequest and D&D, adapted for real physical combat - have been taken up and have evolved into various LARP games today, especially in the UK.

I was very fortunate to get involved, being only aged 19 at the time. But the people setting up the game came to Chester Wargames group and recruited a group of us to test the rules and offer suggestions. So my friends and I, including Andrew, had a great deal of fun running around dark corridors, jumping out dressed as a luminous skeleton etc. And when the opportunity arose, I gladly moved in to the castle to be there full time.

There is currently a documentary team making a film about a LARP game in Durham and as part of it, they interviewed me and some other former TTers. You can see a taster clip above, with some footage of the castle which arose from a visit by Blue Peter. Hopefully Cosmic Joke will get the funds they need to complete the documentary because it's a story that deserves to be told. From my perspective, it is a story about how although the 1980s in the UK was in general a terrible decade (and I just don't understand the phenomenon of 80s nights, unless it is to mock the clothing and the chart music), there were pockets of wild escapist fun.