The Hunger Games LARP (Live Action Role Play)

After Harry Potter, it was hard for me to imagine myself getting all worked up over another book series… until I read The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (read my review to find out why).

I was skimming through the special events listings of the Manila International Book Fair when something caught my eye: The Hunger Games Live Action Role Play (LARP),  set on the last day of the book fair, sponsored by Scholastic, Inc., National Book Store in partnership with New Worlds Alliance.

Now I normally don’t go to the last day of the book fair because I’m all shopped out by the time Saturday rolls around, but I made sure to be there this year, even though I’d read Catching Fire well past midnight the night before, because I just couldn’t put it down, and ended up red-eyed with all the crying and desperate to fast forward to 2010 when the third book is set for release (Aieee!!!).

Anyway, I had originally planned to actually join the LARP, but I  couldn’t find a guy partner so I decided to cover it for the article I’m writing instead. But that didn’t stop me from going there dressed as Katniss Everdeen (although I don’t have photos of that…  haha! you just had to be there!). Cosplay is something I don’t regularly do, and I don’t generally feel the urge for, except for extreme fandom moments, i.e. the Harry Birthday party.

When I got to SMX, the LARP was about to start and I realized that if I had come earlier I could have joined, too, as they only had tributes for 8 districts, it wasn’t gender specific anymore (there was a team with two girls — I could have gotten Honey or Marie or Michelle to partner with me), and I think I was the only one (apart from the hosts) who was in costume. Rats!

Below is the LARP in photos. Sorry I didn’t get the names — if you’re in any of the photos, tag yourself in the comments if you want to be identified.

Let the games begin -- and may the odds be ever in your favor!

Effie and... Haymitch?

Training station: Weapon-making

Looks like the Gamemakers are enjoying this as much as the tributes...

Tributes hard at work

A tribute models her battle gear

The Cornucopia race, which was done inside the book fair grounds. I didn’t race around with them, on account of the boots I was wearing (haha!)

In the arena: the killing begins. Basically tributes had to run around and stick tracker jackers on each other, and the teams with the most tracker jackers got eliminated.

Armed and dangerous

Gotcha!

Square off: only 8 tributes left!

battling it out

take that!

Final four!

Kiamoy (dried salted prunes) eating showdown!

And finally, the Careers win!

Each of tribute in the winning team took home a cool haul composed of: The Underland Chronicles (Books 1-5) by Suzanne Collins, A copy of Catching Fire, The Hunger Games Trilogy #2 (Hardcover) by Suzanne Collins, Catching Fire button pins, P3,000 Scholastic Gift Certificate (to be consumed during a pre-arranged Scholastic Warehouse Visit), NBS Gift Certificate worth P500, and a bag of books from National Book Store!

(Meanwhile last Friday I managed to scavenge book 3 of The Underland Chronicles at the NBS Glorietta bargain bin for P50! One down and four to go! Haha. But that’s okay. Like Katniss, I enjoy the hunt! :D)

The casualties, er, the non-winning teams did not go home empty-handed, as they took home The Hunger Games shirts, free 1-day entrance to MIBF, and free Laking National Card membership,  plus a bag of books from National Book Store.

Woot! Even while watching, I had so much fun! It was an ingenious simulation of the Hunger Games challenges, and I think this can be easily adapted to a Hunger Games theme party (man that would be cool!) or the Flips Flipping Pages upcoming book discussion of the book in February (Peter!!! I can do this for you!)

In the meantime, if they’re doing a Quarter Quell next year, I’m definitely joining! :)