Suburban Consumption of the Monstrous: An Interview with Banana Chan and Sadia Bies (Pelgrane Press)

Occasionally a publisher reaches out with a project that is so new and original that I have I am left with [good] questions. Banana Chan and Sadia Bies are creating a horror LARP anthology for Pelgrane Press and those creators, LARP, and Pelgrane made me curious.

Fortunately, Banana and Sadia agreed to answer my questions about Suburban Consumption of the Monstrous including why they’re doing a LARP, why make it an anthology, and why they’re working with Pelgrane.

[Back this Campaign]

EGG EMBRY (EGG): Thank you for taking the time to talk with me. Let’s talk about your project, Suburban Consumption of the Monstrous, what’s the pitch?

SADIA BIES (SADIA): Suburban Consumption of the Monstrous is an anthology of horror LARPs, all meant to be played at home around a dinner table. These games are meant to be easy to set up, quick to play, and still be intensely scary. They each have their own story, but there are themes of cannibalism, ghosts, cults, monsters, dysfunctional families, and secrets throughout the anthology.

BANANA CHAN (BANANA): Folks are sometimes intimidated by LARP or LARPing, but we think that a collection of freeform LARPs like this will help newer LARPers (who happen to love horror) get into it easily (though some of the games might be a little more intimate than others). We’re also hoping this opens folks up to trying other kinds of LARP.

What inspired this project? Why an anthology instead of just one massive horror RPG?

SADIA: Banana approached me with this idea! We both have a love of horror, especially horror movies, and the idea for the anthology came out of discussing that shared interest. I feel like an anthology lets us touch on a lot of themes and ideas with more specificity than one really large game would. Each game is really tailored to give you a specific type of experience, and the anthology format means we can have ghosts and sirens without the ideas getting muddy.

BANANA: Yes! I love horror movies, but horror movies that are specifically set in suburbia or around a dinner table really get me excited, e.g. The Invitation, Coherence, Get Out, and I had a feeling that Sadia would be interested in something like this, which is why I reached out to them about it.

This is a horror RPG LARP. What inspired you to make this a LARP?

BANANA: I got my start in games writing through LARP, so this is absolutely a passion project for me. I’ve always loved American freeform LARP and parlor LARPs and I want to share the stuff that I love with the world (as weird as they are).

SADIA: I really love LARP. It is by far my favorite thing to play and design, and I want to share it with more people! I really love play at home games, because I feel like people are really intimidated by the idea of LARPing. Games like these can be just as easy to prep and play as a tabletop session, so I’m hoping more people will try them out.

Based on the description, the horror content is less slasher and more personal. What inspired these games?

BANANA: Oh gosh, I named a few movies above, but a few more were We Are What We Are, Phantom Thread, and definitely the TV anthology Channel Zero.

SADIA: So. Many. Movies. That being said, I also think that we focused in on interpersonal horror fairly quickly. A lot of it is the setting, taking place in the home and also looking at what drives a good LARP scene, often these large intense interpersonal conflicts. I think all the best horror comes from fears that you experience in your day-to-day life. We focused in on grief, isolation, ugly desires, secrets, messy relationships. We take these core conflicts that are very relatable and heighten them with the supernatural, or cannibalism, to give them interest and intensity.

There are a number of games from solo to multiplayer options. Lets talk about the solo options and how they work?

SADIA: Solo games are often played with the text of the game more directly! The text will ask you questions or give you prompts as you read it, and that is what guides you through the process of play. Sometimes you’ll write something down, say something aloud, follow a recipe. It’s a combination of action and reading the text itself.

BANANA: Yes! We also have an actual play of one of the games that folks can watch to get a sense of how things play out. These solo games are a bit more meditative and though LARP in general is like you’re acting for yourself or for your group, I think the solo games hit even harder on that.

These stories are themed around food which works well for gatherings. Which are your favorites?

BANANA: “Our Child” was definitely my favorite to playtest. The game is about a couple who has made a child through magic and every night, they have to go through a nightly routine to keep the child happy. Of course, I got to be the weird magical child and it was so fun for me to get to creep folks out. I had to say my name in third person and ask for things like, “a lock of mommy’s hair”, or “a knife” before bedtime.

SADIA: One of my favorites is “Clarity Comes to Dinner.” I got to playtest it, and it’s one of our larger player count games. Old friends reunite and discover that the host of the dinner party is trying to initiate them into a cult. There were so many awkward and uncomfortable social interactions, as well as some really intense personal moments. I had so much fun and introduced two friends to LARPing for the first time!

What made Pelgrane Press the right publisher for this project?

SADIA: We knew that Pelgrane was willing to take risks on less conventional games! They published Honey and Hot Wax, a collection of erotic LARPs, and so we hoped they’d also take a chance on horror.

BANANA: Yes! We had seen Pelgrane’s work with our friends and we knew this would be a good fit.

Beyond Suburban Consumption of the Monstrous, what else are you working on?

SADIA: I’m art directing for an indie videogame, The Sky Left Us! I’m also doing freelance illustration for TTRPGs and always designing more for my self-published itch.io library.

BANANA: I have a Kickstarter up for An Exquisite Crime that’s designed by myself and Sen-Foong Lim. It’s being published by Hunters Entertainment and it’s a game about psychics trying to solve crimes, while players are using an exquisite corpse drawing mechanic to create said crimes.

Thanks for talking with me. Where can fans find out more about your project?

SADIA: Thanks for having me! They can back the Kickstarter and follow me on Twitter @sadiabies. There is also a free playkit of two games from the anthology up on [itch.io].

BANANA: Thanks for having us! You can find me on on Twitter and Instagram @bananachangames and TikTok @banana.chan.games