A sign outside the entrance to Tommy Thompson Park has some Redditors confused.
“Anyone know what a Gourdon crossing is?” a Redditor asked in the r/Toronto subreddit on Wednesday, alongside a sign of two characters crossing a path — one looks like he’s holding a fish, and the other is carrying some sort of sack.
Although the sign kind of mimics a pedestrian or wildlife crossing sign, it’s more of a clever guerrilla marketing stunt. One Redditor scanned the sign’s QR code, and it appears to tie into an augmented reality/live-action roleplay (LARP) game for a mobile-based magical combat adventure called Sigil.
As another Redditor explained, in LARPing, the players aren’t acting out a role or playing a specific character in the game. The line between fiction and reality is somewhat blurred, so you might see a sign, a website, a phone number, etc., that seems real but is actually part of a hidden narrative or puzzle in the game.
In this case, Redditors who stumbled upon the sign and scanned the QR code or called the number perhaps became game participants without ever officially signing up!
“It’s kind of like an ongoing game sitting in the background of the real world, and anyone can participate, but there’s no real formal ‘structure’ to it like with LARPing,” the Redditor said.
Other Redditors pointed out similar signs across the city, like this “WARNING! FROG” sign spotted downtown.
Others noted that a variety of these LARP signs were posted throughout 2024, removed, and then posted again — a similar Gourdon crossing sign was seen last year February outside of the University of Toronto’s St. George Campus.
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For live-action role playing games that you can actually sign-up for, check out the best Dungeons & Dragons experiences in Toronto as well as some of the best ways you can release your inner nerd in the city.