(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

[siderea]

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.