learnedax | (no subject)

So, thinking back over the couple of dozen LARPs I've played in the past sixish years, there really aren't that many which I both enjoyed and thought were well-written. Perhaps two or three, in fact. Frequently I run into what seem like the same problems repeatedly, particularly winding up locked out of the central action of the game, even when I am fairly certainI have done as much as possible to fix my inherent lack of plot by tying myself to others. I begin to wonder whether the problem here is, just possibly, that I'm not a good LARPer. Or at the very least not well-suited to the majority of games I have found.

Now, there have been perhaps half a dozen games where I was involved in major plots, and half of those I was happy because it seemed like everyone was involved in something, and they were good games all around. The remainder seemed to suffer from the usual swath of characters locked out of anything truly interesting, I just happened to be one of the few who got lucky. This does not make a very fun experience for me either, really.

In light of this it appears my odds of getting real enjoyment out of a (serious, at any rate) game are rather low. Maybe this is because most games are badly written from my perspective, or maybe I am not good enough to do anything useful if plot isn't handed to me on a platter. In either case it's very tempting to put a moratorium on my LARP involvement.

At the same time I'm having lots of interesting ideas and revelations about writing LARPs. And I feel a certain trepidation about becoming only a generator and not a consumer in the field. So I'm stuck then, I guess.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

As a general comment - there's Sturgeon's Law: 90% of everything is crud. While perhaps not literally true, the tendency for the greater part of all things to be mediocre at best. This especially goes for first-run games, games by new writers, short games, and games created by a small writing staff.

I ought to try talking to the GMs about it, I just always feel like a prima donna doing that

I'm not a big writer of larps, but I've helped run my share of them. The GM's whole purpose is to help you have a good time. You are not being a prima donna for giving them what they need to do their job.

It is wonderful when a game can run as initially written without any GM intervention other than rules ajudication, but few games are that perfect. A good GM knows that a little "lubrication" is sometimes required, and that an occasional nudge to keep things rolling for everyone may be necessary. But their ability to guess or or see what needs nudging is limited - there are many players and only a few GMs in most games. So, a GM rather depends upon the players to let them know what's up.

Longer games certainly do have their advantages - with more time, more mixing is likely to happen. With more convoluted plots, more mixing is likely to happen. But sometimes the "secret meeting syndrome" does still develop. Part of that is a player problem, and part of it is a GM and game structure problem.