(no subject)

[learnedax]

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.

Comments

[laurion]

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.

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

mm, hadn't thought about the pre-app. I was a bit less flexible this time in my preapp, and I had fun with the character I got. I think it's not so much that it suited me especially as it helped give them something to help build the characters, as this LARP felt like it was, if not written from the apps, at least customized/tailored to the players in spots.

Kind of like as a GM I like to pride myself on being able to weave any set of characters together, but on the other hand the plot is so much better when people's characters have a life of their own that I can build the plot around.

[jducoeur]

I was a bit less flexible this time in my preapp, and I had fun with the character I got.

Yaas. Actually, one of the problems with Celebration was that, while the app asked a number of the right questions, it missed several of the basic ones, like Actor vs. Roleplayer vs. Problem-Solver. Many of the casting problems were due to missing that information.

I think it's not so much that it suited me especially as it helped give them something to help build the characters, as this LARP felt like it was, if not written from the apps, at least customized/tailored to the players in spots.

Yeah, well -- I can claim that that was a fine and intentional thing, but it was at least partly because I didn't actually write the damned character sheets until after we cast. Still, it did mean that I could do a bunch of subtle customization, which does usually make for a better player experience...