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

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

Don't do that. Feel that way, I mean.

A well written LARP should have plenty of things to do for all of the player characters that if not directly addressing the main plotline at least keep you busy. One trick in writing a good LARP is to make sure that some of the characters don't become a tremendous focus. ("Elfwhere II" springs to mind: the PCs are almost all faeries attending a masked ball in Auberon's court. Everyone of course must pay fealty to the Summer King at some point but the majority of the faeries running around have their own reasons for being there and, in truth, probably wouldn't want his attention.) We've left ideas on the shelf when we couldn't break this problem.

Talk to a GM. Briefly, of course, but let him know that you're wandering aimlessly or (pre-game) that you don't see what you should be doing. The GM knows all of the plots and may be able to adjust things that are keeping you from your plot, give you an idea about what he saw as something you should do as your character, nudge you into looking at something that really hadn't been well investigated yet to give you a new sub-plot to work with or even just hint that if you wait ten more minutes something interesting will happen involving you.

You are providing important feedback for the GMs as well since the majority of them lack a dozen eyes to keep track of everything. You would make my day with such feedback.