larp larp larp
Sep. 30th, 2002 06:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
learnedaxThis weekend was very LARP heavy. Saturday morning I spent a long time with Josh and ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tpau hammering out details for our Intercon game, which had been semi-disjointed and is now much more solid. Then Josh left to go do some roleplaying elsewhere, and the two of us went to the Intercon board meeting, where we discussed important logistical issues that are, well, tedious but necessary, I guess. We also talked about the LARP 5 of the 8 of us were going to the next day.
So, Sunday a whole bunch of people I know played in Broadway's on the Rocks, with a Twist. I don't want to say much about it, but fun was had. Then afterwards I got into a lengthy discussion about the nature of roleplaying with a number of people, which left me mulling over what my expectations are from a LARP, and why I am frequently dissatisfied. I came to a few conclusions: I usually want a particular type of roleplaying that doesn't always fit with the writers' style, I am especially put out when what I get is not what was implied, and I am a generally cynical person.
Although I can only strive to get over the last of these, I think the first two come from a real problem of genre. I would put roleplaying into three general categories, based on what I consider to be the three most important elements: Character (which includes background information), Plot (as it actually impacts the alloted characters), and Goals (of the player). So the three types of roleplaying would be as follows:
a) Acting. If you have well-developed characters, and a solid plot, but the emphasis is on being deeply in character, rather than accomplishing goals, then you're really just acting in the traditional sense. A lot of people really like this style, and getting in character is certainly vital to good roleplaying, but it leaves me with a problem. If the design of the game is such that you're fate is effectively set from the beginning, you're in essence following a script. In which case, you might as well just read about what happens instead.
b) A Costume Party. When you have characters in some setting with no preconceived plan for what will happen to them, and no specific objectives for them to work toward, what you have is a costume party. This is a surprisingly large category, encompassing everything from high-concept "take a bunch of interesting characters and stir" LARPs to boffer combat games with the thinnest of explanations for killing lots of people. I'm actually quite fond of most subgenres of this, but I barely consider most of them to be roleplaying.
c) Interactive Literature. This is where you play a character who has the ability to change their own destiny, in a way meaningful in the context of the plot. This is what I find to be the most compelling form of LARPing. Your goal is to portray a character whose actions affect the plot and the world around them, and whose fate is undetermined at the beginning of the game. Whether or not you know what paths you're walking down, the ability to change what happens to your character, and even who they become, is what makes Interactive Literature truly interactive.
tpau hammering out details for our Intercon game, which had been semi-disjointed and is now much more solid. Then Josh left to go do some roleplaying elsewhere, and the two of us went to the Intercon board meeting, where we discussed important logistical issues that are, well, tedious but necessary, I guess. We also talked about the LARP 5 of the 8 of us were going to the next day.So, Sunday a whole bunch of people I know played in Broadway's on the Rocks, with a Twist. I don't want to say much about it, but fun was had. Then afterwards I got into a lengthy discussion about the nature of roleplaying with a number of people, which left me mulling over what my expectations are from a LARP, and why I am frequently dissatisfied. I came to a few conclusions: I usually want a particular type of roleplaying that doesn't always fit with the writers' style, I am especially put out when what I get is not what was implied, and I am a generally cynical person.
Although I can only strive to get over the last of these, I think the first two come from a real problem of genre. I would put roleplaying into three general categories, based on what I consider to be the three most important elements: Character (which includes background information), Plot (as it actually impacts the alloted characters), and Goals (of the player). So the three types of roleplaying would be as follows:
a) Acting. If you have well-developed characters, and a solid plot, but the emphasis is on being deeply in character, rather than accomplishing goals, then you're really just acting in the traditional sense. A lot of people really like this style, and getting in character is certainly vital to good roleplaying, but it leaves me with a problem. If the design of the game is such that you're fate is effectively set from the beginning, you're in essence following a script. In which case, you might as well just read about what happens instead.
b) A Costume Party. When you have characters in some setting with no preconceived plan for what will happen to them, and no specific objectives for them to work toward, what you have is a costume party. This is a surprisingly large category, encompassing everything from high-concept "take a bunch of interesting characters and stir" LARPs to boffer combat games with the thinnest of explanations for killing lots of people. I'm actually quite fond of most subgenres of this, but I barely consider most of them to be roleplaying.
c) Interactive Literature. This is where you play a character who has the ability to change their own destiny, in a way meaningful in the context of the plot. This is what I find to be the most compelling form of LARPing. Your goal is to portray a character whose actions affect the plot and the world around them, and whose fate is undetermined at the beginning of the game. Whether or not you know what paths you're walking down, the ability to change what happens to your character, and even who they become, is what makes Interactive Literature truly interactive.
