Ghost Express

Ghost Express was an occult themed city larp campaign run by Kaisa Kangas and Dare Talvitie in Turku, Finland, during 2001–2002. It was loosely based on the Swedish tabletop role-playing game Kult. It was originally designed to be a five-part campaign, but due to organiser fatigue, it ended after the three first parts, Goodwill Among Men (2001), Murder Ballads (2002), and Mark of the Beast (2003). In addition to these, players organised a small interlude between the second and third parts.

The two first larps were played in different locations (apartments, bars, cafes, etc.) in the city of Turku, with the idea of the whole city as play area. The second larp featured e.g. an in-game police station, and there were plans for an in-game taxi and an in-game hotel for the latter larps that were never organised. The idea was to have many of the same characters in the different parts of the campaign, and that the actions of characters during (and possibly also in-between) the larps would affect what would happen in the next larp.

For this larp series, Dare Talvitie wrote Kaupunkipelaajan opas (Eng. A Guide to City Larping) with general guidelines and tips on how to play in the city environment (including taking bystanders into account). The guide has been used in many other Finnish city larps as well, and some updated versions are still in use in Finland.

Ghost Express was included on the wish list of larps for the Nordic Larp book, but no article pitch was submitted because of lack of good photographs.