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Jan. 21st, 2004 09:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
learnedaxSo, 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.
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.
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Date: 2004-01-23 10:08 pm (UTC)Hmm. This indicates to me that maybe you shouldn't write characters alone. OTOH, you are quite good at the kind of evocative prose that can help the player get into their character's head. So you might be a real boon working with a game writer who is good at the mechanical stuff, but not so hot at the emotional level. (Which is actually more common in my experience.)
Plot, interaction and stuff like that are the essence of character design. But skill at prose is the heart of actually writing a good character sheet. I suspect you'd do well at the latter, if you were working with someone who is good at the former...
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Date: 2004-01-24 04:21 am (UTC)I like playing. Writing means you don't get to play. I'm happy enough helping run games that I've already played, since I don't really miss anything that way, and I'm more than willing to help rewrite (like I've offered with Celebration - I'd love to pretty up some of the sheets for that).... but outside of those situations, writing a game would feel like a chore for me and a punishment for the players.