What is this contest about?

The Golden Cobra Challenge is a friendly contest open to anyone interested in writing and playing freeform larp. See our FAQ and read more about the challenge.

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Golden Cobra Challenge 2026

DATES THIS YEAR

Browse past Golden Cobra games at the new Interactive Archive^beta.

Actually, you can peruse our Archive for all of our past submissions and winners. Wishing the best to all who may take part.

Welcome to the Golden Cobra Circle of power and good luck with your game!

What is a golden cobra?

Only the baddest-ass snake in the jungle, which is something you should always aspire to be.

A Golden Cobra game is a freeform larp that occupies that strange hybrid space between tabletop and live-action role-play. Hundreds of games have been written in this style over the years, so we encourage curiosity and perusal of previous years’ entries. We love brand-new authors trying out this form for the first time!

Given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we are encouraging games that work well for online play, as well as larps that work in-person with masks on, like the Make a Scene! festival does it.

This year, we will be handing out awards in the following categories:

Game We're Most Excited About
Game That’s Easiest to Pick Up and Play
Most Genre-Bending Game or Remix
Most Delightful Liner Notes
Most Thoughtful Playlist
...and Every Show Gets an Honorable Mention!!

What is the Contest Theme This Year?

The 2026 contest theme is Play The Tune You Want. Imagine your Golden Cobra game this year to be akin to a musical release, a single or album released for free on the Internet. It doesn't need to be actually musical at all, but can simply toy with those vibes.

If you've never submitted to Golden Cobra before, go ahead and send us one of these:

A Brand-New, Full-Length Album -- A new Golden Cobra game! Keep to the spirit of the contest and this year's submission guidelines, and you're going to work some magic!

But if you've submitted to Golden Cobra before, consider sending us one of these:

Brand-New, Full-Length Albums -- OK we still love you and your work, and wouldn't mind getting another one from you!
Remixes -- Do you have a game that leans heavily on an earlier Golden Cobra game? Submit that one and show off your work!
A Set of Liner Notes -- If you've run Golden Cobra games over the years, we'd love to hear about it. Specifically, if you've made particular modifications or hacks to a particular design to fit a particular audience, we would like to know what those are. Or: if you've got reflections, artistic commentary, or even moving play reports, we'd be interested in those.
A Playlist -- Hell yeah, multiple Golden Cobra games! We want to see which Golden Cobra games hang particularly well together, or can be modified into a series. Maybe "kids' games" produces a list of 4-5 titles of interest? Or "games that prompt existential crises?" The burden, of course, is to explain why/how, and we are very much interested in folks having actually played or run the games in sequence to back up their list.
A Show -- Are you just interested in scheduling or organizing a Golden Cobra event, be it an hour-long LAOG or a full-weekend Golden Cobra series? Let us know, send us a flyer, and we'll help with the publicity!

What Are the Competition Ingredients?

These are totally optional, but may help jog your creativity.

Records
Stores
Jukeboxes
Organs
Voices

What are the Competition Constraints?

In order to be considered for a Golden Cobra 2026 award, entries must stick to the following constraints:

The game makes its target audience clear.
The game is playable online or it can be played masked in-person. If you can do both, great!
The game is a PDF no more than four pages in length.

Any longer and we will stop reading.

The game should be playable with zero to minimal preparation.

This means no pre-casting needed.

The game offers new content (never before published or run).
- Playtests are allowed (and encouraged) during the course of the contest.
The game may be submitted in any language.
The game uses no AI generated content either in the game or during play.

This also means AI translation is strongly discouraged compared with your lovely, accented English, or your own language.

Do you have Tips for Online Larping?

Your game doesn’t have to be online this year, but if it is, we’ve got a great guide for you.

What are the Rules for Entering?

Be a new, unpublished freeform larp. It is neither a board game or a video game. See the FAQ for more discussion about freeform larp.
BUT THIS YEAR: You may also submit a non-larp along the lines of the thematic criteria above.
Present your game in a readable, playable format in a single file (pdf preferred).
Submit only one game. Your name could appear on one entry but teams were welcome. You retain all rights to your work and ancillary material related to submissions, like play aids or commentary. These will by default be published under the name it was submitted under in the yearly free Golden Cobra Anthology (if one is created) and linked from this Website for the world to enjoy.
The deadline for submission is 15 October 2026 at 11:59PM EDT. To submit: fill out the Golden Cobra Entry Submission Form and email your game to submissions@goldencobra.org.
It’s really, really important you email the game and fill out the Entry Submission form. Failure to do both is how games get lost in the shuffle or the Spam folder. Ensure that your entry is counted and follow these rules!

Can I spread the word?

Please do! Find us on Blue Sky at https://bsky.app/profile/goldencobra.bsky.social. Word of mouth is most effective at inspiring someone to submit a game. Let a friend or someone you admire know about the contest! Post it in THE Group Chat, your home Discord, whatever. Make someone feel seen; don’t let the algorithm do the work.

Who Are the Judges?

Judges for 2026 are: Jess Dieterle, Kate Hill, Carly Kocurek, Sharang Biswas, and Evan Torner.

Who else did stuff?

The Golden Cobra working committee this year is Emily Care Boss, Evan Torner, Jason Morningstar, Kat Jones, Jess Dieterle, Kate Hill, Carly Kocurek, and Sharang Biswas. The Interactive Archive was coded by Epidiah Ravachol with help from Joe Greathead.

I have more questions!

Check out the FAQ! or email cobracommander@goldencobra.org.

GOLDEN COBRA CHALLENGE