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.

Threaded | Flat

Well, there's a few other things to look at. First, if you are busy with plot, then it tends to look like everyone is busy with plot, mostly because they are never so unbusy as to be terribly convenient to your plot needs. On the other hand, if you are plot light, everyone will seem to be plot light because you can easily engage them in conversation. Naturally, however, they will be unlikely to share their plot with you, so they come across as plot light. It's a side effect of people playing their cards close to their chest. Busy people stay busy trying to find ways to get the info they need. Idle characters stay that way because they don't get any information to make them otherwise. Secondly, I found similar things happening to me at one point, and I realized it was partly my fault, in terms of how I apped. I know I'm flexible when it comes to roles, and have said so. Many of the GMs who have seen me know this too. So I end up apping myself in a way that makes it easy for them to set me aside for casting later, knowing that I'll readily take to any role they happen to have left at the end. So I've started to rethink how I app. Yes, flexibility is a good thing, but so is emphasizing experience, and capability to take roles that might need stronger players. Then I started to be more explicit in what _I_ wanted from a role, and I'm sure you know that GMs appreciate it when apps jump up and ask for something: it makes it much more likely that you'll try to give the player what they ask for.

I do tend to agree with the sentiment that the best games are ones where every player has a sensation that the game was about their plot. Otherwise, you really do have people who are in some way locked out of the game. This doesn't mean there can't be the big central plot, but it shouldn't prevent the rest of the game from happening.

I think you are pushing the LARPs to somehow magically MAKE you have fun. I've only been in, what, 6 LARPS? but I enjoyed all of them, despite having a wide variety of characters (from central to extremely peripheral); I think a large part of this is attitude and how I related to semi-strangers.

You might investigate what it is that you didn't like about *playing* the LARP, rather than about "The LARP" as some sort of seperate platonic entity. Talking about a LARP without talking about the players in it is pretty senseless. What do you want to be, and be doing, in a LARP you think you'd enjoy? Figure that out first, and then figure out how it was lacking from the LARP-instantiations (larp+players) you've been in...?

e.g. you seem to be unhappy if you don't know what your character is supposed to be working toward at any particular time. Is that true? (This was obviously very noticable with Prasad) What else?

Honestly, I think that LARPs are like any other art form, in that a large percentage are mediocre, and that no one game is going to be perfect for everyone. It took me the better part of a decade in the hobby to figure out exactly what to look for in a game, exactly what to ask the GM's for, and what to bring to the game (psychologically and expectation-wise) in order to have the best possible experience.

The problem you're describing, of not having a tie-in to the central plots, is a common one, especially with less-experienced writers and shorter games (less time to work your way into plots once they've started). There are a lot of ways to deal with it, though. You can push your way into plots, in or out of character; you can adapt to playing more character-driven, less plot-driven characters; you can address the GM's before game-start and request more intensely plotted characters; you can build your own plots sometimes.

Try out different writers, different character and plot types. Try a weekend-long game - I think the pacing might really suit your style of play and plot preferences. Or, if you really think it suits you better, there's nothing wrong with becoming more of a writer. We need people at both ends of the spectrum.... god knows I never have and never will write a game, and someone needs to balance me. :)

You were missed tonight.

It took me a while to discover that I'm more of a roleplayer and a little bit of an actor instead of a problem solver. I'd much rather slip into character (and costume) and enjoy the role playing experience. I also don't mind being set up to fail, i.e., being the villain. But it took a while and there were several games that I didn't enjoy because I was really cast in a role that didn't fit me. A good game will have many different kinds of roles to fit different types of players.

There's nothing particularly wrong with only writing, by the way.

There's nothing wrong with specializing in writing. I quickly figured out I vastly prefer GMing to playing. I think you're right to want to avoid only producing without experiencing other people's work as GMs, for the same reason I think bandleaders should learn to dance. :) Actually, that's a good analogy. I really don't feel there's any moral difference in specializing in being a musician to play for dancers (instead of specializing in dancing) and specializing in being a GM to run games for gamers (instead of specializing in playing them). I got very similar things out of both. I really enjoyed crafting experiences which are so compelling they really transport people.

Okay, I have to chime in all over this thread, I'm afraid, since I still seem to have a bad case of LARPbrain from the weekend...

The remainder seemed to suffer from the usual swath of characters locked out of anything truly interesting

Generally a sign that the game has design problems. It's a common problem -- heaven knows, Celebration suffered from it, which I didn't realize until too late -- but it's still a problem. Better games try harder to avoid Main Plot Syndrome, or at least to have enough other major plots that no one feels left out.

One of the tricks that both runs of Tabula Rasa have managed is that, while they do have a "main" plot, that ultimately isn't the *important* plot for anyone. (Or at least, not to more than a few people.) That is, the amnesia is central to the game, but is really just a detail that is in the way of the numerous real plots that most players are dealing with.

And I feel a certain trepidation about becoming only a generator and not a consumer in the field.

While I'd recommend keeping a toe in the "consumer" field, just so you keep new ideas flowing in, there's nothing wrong with focusing on the writing side. You'll note that I only play 2-3 games a year on average, and write 1, which seems to be an entirely workable ratio...