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Not a real doctor

@simonb.bsky.social
431 followers 663 following 668 posts

Lapsed-writer, ex-DJ, erstwhile larper, wants to be an academic again (is, in fact a real doctor) , old goth, larp designer, neurodiverse like light through a prism, poet before sunrise. Poster-child for burnout (Complex, Brooding, Challenging)

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Not a real doctor @simonb.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I miss the days when we'd get emails warning of unexpected visitors in the office. Even better is that these tiny horses were guests on a radio programme, so folks only got to hear them.
four images of tiny horses indoors in a radio studio. They are really small, waist height on a human at most. Both brown. Wearing bridles. One rolls on ther red carpet, another looks at the camera. They are cute - if you like horses - which I do.  We see a few edges of humans in the background, but they are not fully in shot or in focus.  Can I revist once again just how cute and small these horses are?
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Not a real doctor @simonb.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
"How do you get from the bottom of Act II to the Happily Ever After? Asking for a friend."
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Not a real doctor @simonb.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
There are a few tickets available for the second run of B Movie - June next year...
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Not a real doctor @simonb.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
There is actually a full 90 minute cut of the movie which seems incredible to me because the scenes we wrote for it do not fit together to make a coherent whole! I'm waiting for the premier on the 12th to watch it; I am fascinated to see if and how they pulled it off.
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Not a real doctor @simonb.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
A little sad task this afternoon, starting to take down the ornamental cherry tree at the front of the house; a victim of the drought. As I cut further back hoping to see some signs of life in the wood. Nothing so far. However the branches that overhang the pavement are safely removed.
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Not a real doctor @simonb.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Hope should not be a currency, nor a dwindling resource, Increasingly I fear it has become a tool of capitalism; getting through your shit week by buying a lottery ticket isn't really what hope was supposed to be about. It has become prophylactic rather than poetic. 2 happy days for the price of 1
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Not a real doctor @simonb.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
I've been really interested to see the reaction to the 4th July larp coming out of the recent Washington Post article. Folks on SoMe seem less angry this time around, but maybe that is a bluesky versus the musky place societal thing?
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Not a real doctor @simonb.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
I took a brain break to walk along some cliff paths and then lie on a beach watching the sun set with my friend, Emma. 17km and a vegan Thai feast.
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Not a real doctor @simonb.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
It took a month to transcode and almost two weeks to upload the footage, but yesterday we released the 'rushes' from Invasion of the Atomic Space Witches to the players of the larp B Movie. A bittersweet lovestory to making a sci-fi flick in 1954 Hollywood, and a critique of modern society too.
A screen grab from Google Drive showing a sequence of black and white stills from a movie. Some of them have clapper boards in shot.  Each photo represents a link to a video clip from the movie, Invasion of the Atomic Space Witches.
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Not a real doctor @simonb.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
I have not seen Nolan's The Odyssey; I am waiting for the book to come out.
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Not a real doctor @simonb.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
I spent most of the weekend inside InDesign, I am still muttering eldritch phrases about the function that AI tags all of the images automatically. I do it manually and then check for anything that is missing; nothing is missing because it is overflowing with slop. My work is harder now.
A screen capture showing thumbnails of three two page spreads from a book being laid out in indesign. The first spread is four columns of text. They are too small to read.  The second spread is two and a half columns of text and a stylised image of a woman sitting beneath a tree.  The tree fills the whole side of the page as if it is growing out of the book.  The third spread has four green playing cards, three dark, one light, and some text and icons next to each one.  The text is not readable.
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Not a real doctor @simonb.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Tickets for the re-run of B Movie are on sale ...
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Not a real doctor @simonb.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
One of my favorite parts of the design of this larp was creating the Fixer team …
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Not a real doctor @simonb.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Half of the tickets for the re-run of the larp B-Movie have already gone in only a couple of weeks! If you want to join us next summer you might want to grab your place soon .... www.bmovie.org
A still from a b&w movie that appears to have been made in the 1950s.  A woman screams in terror, either at some looming space monster or at the idea that the tickets for a larp about B Movies have half sold out!
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Not a real doctor @simonb.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Happy 10 years to NotOnlyLarp - responsible for the incredible Conscience as well as other important games. Thank you for letting me play, write for you, and have a hand in some of the designs.
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Not a real doctor @simonb.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
It is a summer of revisions for me, with two chapters and one co-written article needing some minor tweaks. First on the list is "Ludonarrative Hegemony: Story Shapes and the Myth of Emergence in Larp" which needs some work on signposting and transitions.
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Not a real doctor @simonb.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Oslo: Avalon Larp Studio from Erasmus+ EDGE is running a dissemination event July 11th, 2026. Learn about the EDGE project, how to design analogue role-playing games for transformation, and see how to use this in your work whether you are a game designer, a teacher, a psychologist or something else.
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Not a real doctor @simonb.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
B Movie is a bittersweet love letter to 1950s Hollywood, to the stars who faded from public memory, and to the stories that never made it. Come and spend some time with us in this sci-fi dream of tinsel town and make a low budget film for real!
1950s a man operating a movie camera on the set of a film.  The background appears to be some UFO control room1950s a woman screaming in a black and white photo.  It is a movie still and she is an actor.Movie still 1954 a decorated soldier leans on a desk with a US flag behind him.  Serious men with hats lean in to give him a briefing.  They are worried.A blonde woman with a 1950s hairstyle operating a movie camera.  The image is black and white.  She is lost in the image that she is capturing just as the photographer is lost in the image that they are capturing of her.  It is recursive.
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Not a real doctor @simonb.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
www.bmovie.org Tickets are now on sale for the rerun of BMovie. A bittersweet love letter to 1950s Hollywood
bmovie.org
Home - B Movie
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Not a real doctor @simonb.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
|First in an occasional series of photos from the larp B Movie. This one showing a still from the film that the players actually shot.
A black and white image that shows three atomic space witches and their evil genuis scientist Dr Zarkon at the controls of their flying saucer.  It is a supposed movie still from a low budget sci-fi movie.  One of the space witches is pressing buttons on the console infront of her while the others look on with concern.
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Not a real doctor @simonb.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
The arrival of the first batch of photos for a larp is always exciting. (Even though the ones of me are terrible: "I look like The Queen, and she's dead!")
An outdoor movie screen with a sunset behind it, the picture showing on the screen is the title for 'Invasion of the Atomic Space Witches'.
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Not a real doctor @simonb.bsky.social · 21/06/2026
in the workshops for B Movie one of the things we should have done was teach the players how to use a manual typewriter. This never occured to me as being non-standard knowledge because I come from GenX
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Not a real doctor @simonb.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
20 years ago I played an 80s DJ set to a crowd of 300 wasted Goths and Punks in a terrible bar on the Whitby seafront. Part way through the night I broke my hand/discloated a finger. So I 'pushed it back in and strapped it up with duct tape.' Today, in the morning rain, my hand hurts. #memories
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Not a real doctor @simonb.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
A few behind the scenes introductions from the larp, B Movie. (Although I missed the instruction to wave at the camera)
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Not a real doctor @simonb.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
This textbook explores implementation practices for running transformative analog role-playing games. I was one of the editors and writers. It is POD or a free PDF books.uu.se/uup/catalog/...
books.uu.se
Implementing Transformative Role-playing Games | Uppsala Scholarly Books
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Not a real doctor @simonb.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
The primary antagonist from the animated TV show Dungeons and Dragons mounted on a black horse which is carrying a single-decker bus between its legs.  Venger (the force of evil) has massive wings that have lifted both the horse and the bus into the doomed cloudy sky.
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Not a real doctor @simonb.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
"Today I shall go and play with some make-up and see if I can hide the lack of sleep with foundation. I shall also play with a corset and see if I can hide the surfeit of pies with foundation garments."
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Not a real doctor @simonb.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
"Thursday," noun, being a day of the week that requires a second cup of coffee just to get to the end of saying it out loud
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Not a real doctor @simonb.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
It is crunch writing time as we finish off the character relations for B Movie (www.bmovie.org). I have just written one that is either very beautiful — like a dance — or deeply creepy; it could also be both. The way that it works out is likely to be deeply subjective. I may have to cut it.
bmovie.org
Home - B Movie
THE MOVIE MUST BE MADE In B Movie, you'll step into the shoes of an actor and/or filmmaker, contributing to […]
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Not a real doctor @simonb.bsky.social · 19/04/2026
Free books, knowledge dissemination, words of wisdom, spurious Lacan quotes, and a whole load of other brilliance
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Not a real doctor @simonb.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
Targeted Call for chapters : Pedagogy, Institutional Contexts, and Wider Applicability of Larp We invite expressions of interest for 1–2 additional chapters to be included in the collection Immersion, Liveness, and the Qualities of Experience: Having a Larp. evolutionofstory.info/call-for-cha...
evolutionofstory.info
Call for Chapters: Larp, Pedagogy, and Institutional Practice (Routledge Edited Volume)
Targeted call for chapters for a Routledge volume on larp, pedagogy, and institutional practice. Seeking near-complete work. Deadline 24 April.
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Reposted by Not a real doctor
Jonaya Kemper @violetriotgames.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
Are you going to Neotropolis? Do you wish there was more... futurism? Do you have a semi private space that can fit at least 4 people and want to help me run my Afrofuturist non-affiliated larp and be a part of my new line of research? Well, it's your lucky day. forms.gle/Arq9HKCPgB6J....
forms.gle
There Are Other Worlds- Space Interest Form)
Hello! My name is Jonaya Kemper, and I'm an internationally recognized scholar and award winning game designer. I create kickass roleplaying games, and have run larps around the world with player coun...
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Not a real doctor @simonb.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
I have come to Athens (the proper one) to meet and talk about larp and transformative game design. Currently sitting in a marble kitchen with a coffee that I fear is slightly homeopathic. I have done morning yoga on a tiled floor with no mat because I am that hardcore.
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Reposted by Not a real doctor
Roter Bär @roterbaer.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
/nerdpost youtu.be/ZI36iGh05xw Vor ca. 15 Jahren auf LARP: Waldläufer beugt sich sabbernd über die "tote" Banditin. "Wir müssen sie nach Hinweisen durchsuchen, wer sie geschickt hat." "Fass die Spielerin an & du kriegst auf's Maul." SL, sichtlich überrascht & überfordert, sagt er findet nix. 1/2
youtu.be
LARP-Talk: Sicherheits-Tools / Wie viel Konflikt braucht LARP wirklich? Von der LARP-Con 2026
YouTube video by Orkenspalter TV
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Not a real doctor @simonb.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
Yesterday was reconnecting with the worldbuilding for Adventurer's Academy which is a larp project I did some writing for in 2024 and with another run later this year: adventurersacademy.net/setting/
adventurersacademy.net
Setting
All Roads To Destiny Converge At The Academy
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Not a real doctor @simonb.bsky.social · 21/02/2026
In June we are running a larp about making a movie. Specifically this movie:
A blonde woman in a white low cut dress shoots a ray gun in front of a city in shadows that is being attacked by a flying saucer. In the bottom corner a man, carrying an unconscious person cowers in fear.

The text reads "Can you face the terror that is Invasion of the Atomic Space Witches." it is written in a white, sinister, 50s B Movie font.  The strap line for the movie is "Beautiful ... Bewitching ... And bent on destruction."  The logo in the bottom reads "Fairfax Pictures, Established 1916, California."
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Not a real doctor @simonb.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
Yesterday, at the end of what would have otherwise been a working day, I went for a sauna overlooking the sea on the South coast of England. I was there for an hour other than the time when I was standing underneath a bucket of cold water or (checks notes) in an ice bath.
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Not a real doctor @simonb.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
Who on my feed shall I see at Knutpunkt in Gothenburg? If I do not know you already, do you want to say hello?
A superimposed image of Paul Simonon from The Clash smashing his guitar at the Palladium in New York City in 1979, and a couple of walnuts
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Not a real doctor @simonb.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
Yesterday we released the teasers for our pre-written characters for the larp B Movie, which is the story of a low budget film being made in Hollywood in 1954. We went through a design phase - identifying character archetypes and concetps - and then wrote a brief (300 word) Blurb about each one.
Five pages from a magazine rendered in a 1950s style that appears to have something to do with movies and move making.  The font is too small to read, but one page has the headline FAIRFAX PICTURES and an icon of a movie camera.  The Magazine title is B Movie and the logos for Wonderlarp and Avalon larp studio are visible.
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Not a real doctor @simonb.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
Researchgate keeps checking if I am human. The imposter syndrome is real.
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Not a real doctor @simonb.bsky.social · 01/02/2026
What is new and dangerous in Nordic Larp Theory? I have a programme item at Knutpunkt where I need a couple of extra people to come and share their ideas with an audience playing the role of potentially malevolent supernatural entities; The session is planned to take place at night, by candlelight.
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Not a real doctor @simonb.bsky.social · 31/01/2026
My typing speed this morning has reduced. I can’t work out why. Perhaps I am just tired?
A computer keyboard - black, Alienware, UK layout - with the back legs of a domestic cat - semi-feral, tabby, short hair - covering the keys in the bottom left hand corner.
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Not a real doctor @simonb.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
In January 2009, in the days before Emjois had entered the mainstream (outside of Japan, obvs) , I invented the Real World Mood Icon. Here is a rare photo from that time.
A crudely drawn sad face on a piece of A4 paper that has been atached to a piece of wood in the corner of a desk in a corporate office space.  The image is low resolution as though taken on an early Blackberry
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Not a real doctor @simonb.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
[27th January 2004] I went to an osteopath, I can't remember the cause of the injury but it was probably something to do with falling off a horse.
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Not a real doctor @simonb.bsky.social · 25/01/2026
A day talking about larp and TRPG design with my friends and comrades, an evening of good conversation, and a full night of sleep. This morning I got up early to do some writing. Outside there is snow in the spruces; inside there are words and coffee. And post-it notes. We are very analogue.
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Not a real doctor @simonb.bsky.social · 24/01/2026
I am in a remote cabin with members of Avalon larp studio. The security camera feed picked up a wolf outside! There is a wall covered in post-it notes og things to talk about. Halfdan made pancakes for breakfast. Coffee. Today needs more coffee
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Not a real doctor @simonb.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
I have been using Gmail as my aggregator for 13 years; all of my emails coming in from across several different accounts in one place. Today they have announced that they are deprecating the ability to do this. So I need a new, cloud based, email client. This change will happen 'in January'
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Not a real doctor @simonb.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
The museum (and the exhibition) are great - super interesting. AND you can play the original button-only coin-op Defender
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Not a real doctor @simonb.bsky.social · 18/01/2026
The wonderful people at NotOnlyLarp in Spain are re-running L'Inconscience. Thematically Westworld meets Musketeers, but mainly a piece that interrogates humanity and free will.
An advert for the larrp :'inconscience showing a nobleman with a fine hat sitting infront of a neon ring.  There are 48 hours left to sign up. It closes on 20th January.

The larp itself is 9-12 Jan 2027
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Not a real doctor @simonb.bsky.social · 28/12/2025
The maximum word count for this article, including all references, footnotes, and the abstract is 7,000 words. This is one of those moments where I think real world Achievement badges should pop up
Zoomed in on the Page and Word Count from a MS Word document. The text reads "Page 1 of 19 7000 words"
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